All posts by Intellicurious
New Wildlife Videos: “The Drill – Among Rarest Primates In The World”
Travel & Culture Video: “Portrait Of A Place – Paradiso”, Italy (Nowness)
Filmed and Directed by: Jan Vrhovnik
Written by: Ana Kerin
Music by: Nico Casal
Meet Giovanni Mancusou, a small-town Italian man who lives on Italy’s Mediterranean coast. The wisened Calabrian invites the viewer into his sun-washed world of bright orange sun umbrellas, cool blue seas, freshly baked pastries and fresh vegetables.
Directed by Jan Vrhovnik, written by Ana Kerin and music score by Oscar-winning Nico Casal, Paradiso is less story and more a poetic thought piece. Dipping into a snapshot of life for an aging man from Italy, whimsical moments like the swatting of a fly are interspersed with provocative thoughts on life that can only come with the wisdom of an older man who has seen it all.
Giovanni Mancusou was a chance meeting for the team who traveled to Calabria to seek out the very essence of nostalgia. They stumbled upon him in a corner shop and were taken by the poetic way in which he used language to convey a longing for simplicity. Completely improvised, his philosophical musings—weighing heavy with nostalgia and unexpected wisdom—are what punctuate the themes of this memory-inducing short.
A film of contrasts, Paradiso serves to distill the truth in Giovanni’s words. Though momentary, humble and mundane, flashes of true happiness must be savored. Paradiso outlines that to be rich in life, one need only look to nature, a table full of friends and good food: the very essence of a Mediterranean summer.
Future Of Ocean Travel: “Energy Observer” – The First Seawater Hydrogen-Powered Ship (Video)
To begin with, Energy Observer is the name of the first hydrogen-powered, zero-emission vessel to be self-sufficient in energy, advocating and serving as a laboratory for ecological transition. Now an organisation that combines expeditions and innovations, Energy Observer is exploring and developing solutions that prove that another future for energy is possible, an optimistic future, which is more respectful of the planet and those who live here.
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Morning News Podcast: Reopening Schools And Joe Biden’s Foreign Policy
Some of the country’s largest school districts have already made the decision to go online-only for this coming school year. Many are talking about hybrid models that combine distance and in-person learning, but whether they’re online or in the classroom, teachers will bear the brunt of making their classes work.
- Plus, why Joe Biden’s campaign is dreading foreign policy.
- And a little joy for your Friday, a pandemic parody
Guests: Axios’ Kim Hart and Hans Nichols, Austin school teacher Rachel Seney, and National Education Association president Lily Eskelsen García.
Artist Profile Video: The “Existential Sculptures” Of Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti is one of the most admired and sought-after sculptors of the 20th century. In this video, discover how his post-war work came to embody the ideas of Existentialism and how the influence of ancient sculpture led to the attenuated human form so emblematic of his oeuvre. Conceived in 1956-57, at the height of Giacometti’s international acclaim, ‘Femme Debout’ comes from an outstanding family collection of works from the European avant-garde.
New Short Films: “The Language Of The Trees” By BRADLEY TANGONAN (2020)
“The Language Of The Trees” is a Cinematic Poem Documentary Short Film Directed by Bradley Tangonan.
Directed by: Bradley Tangonan
Creative Director DEBORAH ROYER
Exectuive Producer STINE CHRONE MOISEN
Director of Photography JAMES L BROWN
Original Score by JORDAIN WALLACE
Sound Design & Mix TORIN GELLER & HAYLEY LIVINGSTON / ONE THOUSAND BIRDS
Featuring EDWARD MILLER & RILEY SHAW
Set in the imposing landscape of the Kimberley in Western Australia, this short documentary follows the story of an aboriginal farmer named Edward.
Raised among elders who taught him how to thrive “out bush,” Edward navigates between the rhythmic routine of a small sandalwood farm and the vast and abundant wilderness just beyond its border.
This journey of silence and presence in nature awakens the senses, teaches us how to connect with trees and the land, and invites us to listen to the natural world around us.
TOP TRAVEL VIDEOS: “AERIAL AMERICA – OKLAHOMA” (SMITHSONIAN CHANNEL)
This flight over the Sooner State whisks you over the home of famous “Okies” Will Rogers, Brad Pitt, and Geronimo.
Oklahoma is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by the state of Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New Mexico on the west, and Colorado on the northwest. It is the 20th-most extensive and the 28th-most populous of the 50 United States. Its residents are known as Oklahomans (or colloquially, “Okies”), and its capital and largest city is Oklahoma City.
The state’s name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning “red people”. It is also known informally by its nickname, “The Sooner State”, in reference to the non-Native settlers who staked their claims on land before the official opening date of lands in the western Oklahoma Territory or before the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889, which increased European-American settlement in the eastern Indian Territory. Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory were merged into the State of Oklahoma when it became the 46th state to enter the union on November 16, 1907.
TOP JOURNALS: RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS FROM SCIENCE MAGAZINE (JULY 17, 2020)
Top New Science Podcasts: Reopening Schools Amid Covid-19, Oil Processing
Contributing Correspondent Gretchen Vogel talks about what can be learned from schools around the world that have reopened during the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, few systematic studies have been done, but observations of outbreaks in schools in places such as France or Israel do offer a few lessons for countries looking to send children back to school soon.
The United Kingdom and Germany have started studies of how the virus spreads in children and at school, but results are months away. In the meantime, Gretchen’s reporting suggests small class sizes, masks, and social distancing among adults at schools are particularly important measures.
Also this week, Sarah talks with Kiristie Thompson, a Ph.D. student in the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, about increasing the efficiency of petroleum processing. If all—or even some—petroleum processing goes heat free, it would mean big energy savings. Around the world, about 1% of all energy use goes to heating up petroleum in order to get useful things such as gas for cars or polymers for plastics. These days, this separation is done through distillation, heating, and separating by boiling point. Kirstie describes a heat-free way of getting this separation—by using a special membrane instead. Read a related Insight.
