Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Science Saved My Soul


by philhellenes
(Thanks Charles)

12 comments:

  1. Utterly brilliant!!!

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  2. <span>amazing  :o)</span>

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  3. just the pick-me-up i needed today

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  4. This is what "science channels" like Discovery channel and NatGeo ought to be showing, rather than programming about psychics and pseudo science that they do at times.

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  5. What was damn near flawless... BUT...I think tripped itself up at the tail end in two ways.
    1). An otherwise brilliant speech was ended with "30 Billion years? Are you fuckin' kidding me!?"
    I that was very out of place and really cheapened the drama and impact of the speech to end on a goofy note like that. And I would want to edit out that one dumb line just so I could otherwise feel 100% proud to show this to any and all children (who SHOULD ALL SEE THIS).
    Luckily it looks like it would be easy to edit that dumb line out.

    2). I thought the song was pretty rockin' and cool at the end (does anyone know what it was?), BUT it also seemed a little out of place inserted after an otherwise long speech. As did the assortment of images which didn't fit the speech really. A clip of that dude from the movie Network freaking out? Some bald dude standing in a puddle probably from some BBC documentary. Ok Carl Sagan was great, but what does it sa to just throw his picture up if most people don't know who he is and you're not telling 'em?

    The speech was about the awe inspiring nature of the universe and then to a lesser extent about how religions hinder this. That's great, but then END THE CLIP THERE. The rest seemed almost childish and I'm guessing was done by a totally different person than who wrote that speech.

    Oh... and WHO was the narrator/author of the damn speech?? Same person even? I don't know?? THEY don't get credited?? That just seemed wrong. I want to see/hear from whoever it was and they deserve credit.

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  6. Song at the end is Wake Up by Arcade Fire

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  7. The author is Phil Hellenes, and he doesn't credit himself because it's his YouTube channel where he blogs. The same way that Richard over at the Friendly Atheist blog doesn't give himself credit for every single post, because it's his blog. He assumes you know. (And, if you don't, the username is right there).

    You can see the rest of Phil's vlog here: http://www.youtube.com/user/philhellenes

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  8. last line made it.!

    its the cold hard slap most people need.

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  9. Um Philhellenes both wrote it and was the narroator, instead of asking questions maybe you should be slightly technological inclined and click on his youtube profile link and watch some of his other videos.  Aka click on the link which says:

    By philhellenes (its blue)

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  10. <p><span>"... And I would want to edit out that one dumb line just so I could otherwise feel 100% proud to show this to any and all children."  You MUST be joking.  I don't want my kid or any child seeing some censored, scrubbed-up version of anything!  Oh and, "</span><span>what does it say to just throw his picture up if most people don't know who he is and you're not telling 'em?"  Really?  A great deal of Phil's work on YouTube is about CURIOSITY, and stimulating that curiosity.  If someone doesn't know who any of those people pictured in the clips are, or what song was featured; if they really wanted to know, they would TRY to find out... and certainly succeed if overpowered with curiosity.   If you are thinking of children... a word of caution: do not dummy down information.  Children deserve respect and anyway, they're too smart for that.  They'll soon equate your good intentions with being spoon-fed bland pablum, and simply ignore you and anything you have to say.  I'm curious "a"; did you actually watch this film?  Just before what you view as the "childish" part, the screen shot said there were many to thank... and the following people and events pictured, were influential in getting Phil to a place in life he needed to be, in order to come to his personal conclusions, which he has so beautifully and charmingly displayed in his film.  HIS film.  I don't want to seem "out of place or cheapen the drama and impact by ending on a goofy note" though I would love to stick my head out the window and scream about it.  Instead, I'll insert a quote from a movie here:  "Displace one note and there would be diminishment.  Displace one phrase and the structure would fall."     Rock on  - kjc</span>
    </p>

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