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The young director Makoto Shinkai is making quite a name for himself in Japanese film. His 2016 hit, Kimi no Na wa, is a visual masterpiece. Hand-drawn animation with the photo-realism we have only seen in recent CGI movies from Pixar. Kimi no Na wa is a real brain-twister with jumps in time...

The former Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey was demolished today. It has been an unoccupied eyesore since 2014. This is a metaphor for Donald Trump himself, in his disgraceful fall from power. You can see videos of the implosion on YouTube by searching for "Trump...

The Dan David Prize was established 20 years ago. Each year the Foundation of the same name awards three prizes of $1 million dollars for outstanding achievement. Fields are chosen for Past, Present and Future. This year Dr. Fauci won the prize in Public Health of his work in defending...

House managers are doing a great job laying out the case against the former President, tying together not just the speech of Jan. 6th, but all the speeches, tweets and call-ins over a 6-month period starting well before the election and culminating in the statements Trump made on the night after...

I highly recommend the 2019 film Klaus, available on Netflix. It is an alternate origin story for Santa Claus legends with a very original story line.

View: Coffee Run A young woman runs through the bittersweet memories of her past relationship. It is thought-provoking, and a bit troubling. The film shows three passes through the same memories, but there are subtle differences that invite analysis. For example, in the restaurant scene, her...

This short video, which won first prize at four film festivals, is actually a thesis project for Alyce Tzue at Academy of Art University, San Francisco. She had some really great help with music by Jack Gravina and many others. In the story, Mara is discouraged by her failure to make her model...

Today is the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. The gospel reading for today is Luke 2:16-21: The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All...

I have a math puzzler for fans of the transcendental number, e: (1+9^(-4^(6*7)))^(3^(2^85)) = e (almost) is accurate to over 18,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 decimal places. What is notable about this formula is that it uses all the digits, 1-9 exactly once. It does not produce e exactly...

This is a 2-minute animation that is actually a promotional video for a Canadian movie chain, but it is very good as heart-warming entertainment in its own right. As for what I really like about the short film, 1. It is short - gets its point across in under 2 minutes. 2. It is fast paced -...

The fantastically detailed graphics in this short film was made with the free open-source animation software, Blender. The story is very simple, but it does raise the question of whether the same little girl ushers in every spring, or is it a different little girl, sort of like Father Time...

The lawsuit brought to the Supreme Court by Texas and supported by 126 Republican members of Congress, 19 Attorneys General, and one Donald Trump, contains a ridiculously-flawed mathematical analysis by economist Charles Ciccetti. The flaws are brilliantly explained by British math guy, Matt...

In the Gospel of John, we see various groups coming out to John the Baptist and asking him if he is the Christ, or Elijah, or the Prophet. Who do they mean by "the Prophet"? Do they mean Isaiah? Moses? Someone else?

This is old, made in 2010, for Sussex England. It was made on a very low budget in just a few days. But it is unlike any PSA for seatbelts I have ever seen. The entire message is conveyed in symbolism and facial expressions. I especially like the change in expression of the little girl as...

The name of the film, ("Strings" in Spanish) refers to the cord that Maria uses when playing with Nicolas who has a severe disability. The real significance of the title is not apparent until the last 5 seconds of the film, so watch for it.

That's right. Four kids in Argentina found a formula that generates all the prime numbers, in order. But there is a catch, which is beautifully explained by James Grime here: