Bertrand Russell in Bollywood: The Old Philosopher’s Improbable Appearance in a Hindi Film, 1967 [SLYT] "The year was 1967. Russell was by then a very frail 95-year-old man. Besides finishing work on his three-volume autobiography, Russell was devoting much of his remaining time to the struggle for peace and nuclear disarmament. To that end, he sometimes made himself available to people he thought could help the cause. (See our March 2012 post, “How Bertrand Russell Turned the Beatles Against the Vietnam War.”) So when he was asked to appear in a movie called Aman, about a young Indian man who has just received his medical degree in London and wants to go to Japan to help victims of the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Russell said yes."
[via: openculture.com]
posted by Fizz
on Jan 17, 2013 -
14 comments
In 2005, Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks produced a 6 episode miniseries that spanned the period of expansion of the United States into the American West, from 1825 to 1890. Through fictional and historical characters, the series used two primary symbols--the wagon wheel and the Lakota medicine wheel -- to join the story of two families: one Native American, one White settlers, as they witnessed many of the 19th century's pivotal historical milestones. The award-winning
Into The West can now be
seen in its entirety on YouTube.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Sep 20, 2012 -
12 comments
"Perhaps twenty or thirty people in England may be expected to read this book." G.H. Hardy's review of Whitehead and Russell's
Principia Mathematica, published in the Times Literary Supplement 100 years ago last week. "The time has passed when a philosopher can afford to be ignorant of mathematics, and a little perseverance will be well rewarded. It will be something to learn how many of the spectres that have haunted philosophers modern mathematics has finally laid to rest."
posted by escabeche
on Sep 12, 2011 -
29 comments
Is Civilization Decaying? Will technological progress be accompanied by moral progress? Notes on a 1923 debate between J. B. S. Haldane (
Daedalus) and Bertrand Russell (
Icarus).
"As John Brunner pointed out in an article in the New Scientist in 1993, these two books ... inspired two generations of science fiction writers."
posted by painquale
on Jul 10, 2005 -
11 comments
Nipsey Russell's Funky Palace "Hands down, Nipsey Russell is simply an entertainment master. His work in Vaudville, The Match Game, $20,000 Pryamid and The Hollywood Squares all represent wonders of modern entertainment. However, they pale in comparison to his greatest work, breathing new life into the Disco inspired Tin-Man character in the '70's revival of the classic Wizard of Oz film known as The Wiz." This hyperbole-spouting little site also includes
photographs of vintage vinyl from the couplet comic himself.
posted by NedKoppel
on Oct 10, 2003 -
4 comments
22 year old schizophrenic Farrah Russell was rebuilding her life. But when the plug was pulled on the state program that allowed her to subsist, she took her life.
Her heartbreaking story is a cautionary tale of the dark consequences of state budget cuts. While politicians
argue over tax stimulus proposals that
benefit the wealthy, while
wild numbers are applied to war budgets, the States have been forced to cut social programs in order to survive. Whether it's
California teachers,
Connecticut and
New York residents dreading tax hikes,
Pennsylvania public transportation, or
Texas prescription drug coverage for the poor, the States, supposedly United, have been left out to dry. While the States have been forced to cut their programs, groping for survival, Washington remains silent in its
mission. It does
not remember history. Why do we turn a blind eye to the hidden costs? What can be done about this? And how do we make it stop?
posted by ed
on May 5, 2003 -
53 comments
