An intellectual is a person who primarily uses intelligence in either a professional or an individual capacity. As a substantive or adjective, it refers to the work product of such persons, to the so-called "life of the mind" generally, or to an aspect of something where learning, erudition, and informed and critical thinking are the focus, as in "the intellectual level of the discourse on the matter was not high".
The intellectual is a specific variety of the intelligent, which unlike the general property, is strictly associated with reason and thinking. Many everyday roles require the application of intelligence to skills that may have a psychomotor component, for example, in the fields of medicine, sport or the arts, but these do not necessarily involve the practitioner in the "world of ideas". The distinctive quality of the intellectual person is that the mental skills he or she demonstrates are not simply intelligent, they focus on thinking about the abstract, philosophical and esoteric aspects of human inquiry and the value of their thinking. Traditionally, the scholarly and the intellectual classes were closely identified; however, while an intellectual need not necessarily be actively involved in scholarship, he or she may have an academic background and will typically have an association with a profession.
Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA (born 8 January 1942) is a British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author. His key scientific works to date have included providing, with Roger Penrose, theorems regarding gravitational singularities in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes should emit radiation, which is today known as Hawking radiation (or sometimes as Bekenstein–Hawking radiation).
He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and in 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009. Subsequently, he became research director at the university's Centre for Theoretical Cosmology.
Hawking has a motor neurone disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a condition that has progressed over the years. He is now almost completely paralysed and communicates through a speech generating device. He has been married twice and has three children. Hawking has achieved success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; these include A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times best-sellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.
Plot
A Muslim professor sets out to discover America with a team of young American researchers. They visit more than 75 cities and more than 100 mosques on an unprecedented project interviewing countless Americans in their homes, schools, and places of worship.
Keywords: african-american, christian, islam, islamic, jewish, muslim, road-trip
Plot
This atmospheric short follows an Unknown Resident as he wanders a murky Brooklyn avenue in search of something unknown. After putting his iPod on shuffle mode, he is accosted by a mysterious off-screen presence, who goads him in the direction of a surreal party. The Resident surveys this unusual gathering through a street level window and wanders in, encountering a chaotic array of flamboyant characters, his reality now, too, shuffled. The setting is Lynchian, the mood phantasmagoric. Revelations abound in snatches of conversation. Sociopolitical commentaries are made and refuted. Pleasure is indulged. Meanwhile, the Resident wonders exactly where he is. Does he belong here? Is this a hallucination? Both? All will be clear in time, when he, and we, the audience, surrender to Shuffle Mode.
Keywords: ipod
Do you control your iPod or does your iPod control you?
Plot
They call it the INLAND EMPIRE, a point of uncharted wilderness within the Cascade Mountains. Everyone's being drawn there, but no one knows why. When a mysterious phone call, from within the INLAND EMPIRE, relays a homicide in progress, Seattle investigators set out to find one of their comrades, recently discovered missing in conjunction with the call. Thrown into a mix of hype and paranoia surrounding this dark land, they stumble across more than they bargained for. Follow their journey into the shadow of DEATH itself. What can possibly save them from certain doom?
Keywords: death, ghost, independent-film, suspense
Die Before It's Too Late
Plot
In a seedy section of Rome, Vittorio Cataldi - "Accattone" ("beggar" in Italian) to those that know him - lives off the avails of prostitution, Maddalena being his one and only girl. He is married to Ascenza with who he has one young son named Iaio, but he does not live with them - they who live with her father and brother - provide for them, or play any important part of their lives. He generally hangs out with his similarly slack life friends playing cards and drinking. His source of income is threatened when Maddalena is injured being hit by a motorcyclist, then beaten by rivals of his, which leads to her being arrested and jailed for a year. Largely because of Iaio, Accattone contemplates going straight and getting a real job. Then he meets Stella, a young innocent woman who has had a hard life, but who is not as naive to the ways of the world as she first appears. Accattone falls in love with her, but as the thought of working a steady job now becomes abhorrent, contemplates pimping for Stella. As Accattone and Stella's relationship progresses, Accattone's past may come back to haunt him.
Keywords: abandoned-by-father, acolyte, arrest, avant-garde, bar, beating, beggar, begging, bet, bicycle
Margheritona: Leave me alone, I won't go to the police station. I do as I please.
Margheritona: There's no loving in this world now.
Amore: Be like me, don't love anyone, so I'm called Amore.
Mario: Do you like Neopolitans? We're something special.
Margheritona: Now what? Nothing doing? Are you leaving me like this?::Amore's client: Anyone who mucks me about has had it.
Scucchia: Not dead yet? I heard that work kills people.::Salvatore: Its an honest death.
Scucchia: Sleep at night instead of playing cards - you look like refugees from the morgue.
Vittorio "Accattone" Cataldi: Were you there when he made the bet with German and Crazy People. Did he say he'd eat a kilo of potatoes and a whole cheese then swim and nothing would happen?
Vittorio "Accattone" Cataldi: So he didn't die of indigestion, he died of exhaustion.
Franco: Don't you know you can't swim after a meal, you die. The change from hot to cold stops your digestion.::Vittorio "Accattone" Cataldi: I've lost all my money but I've still got a ring to bet. Scared to bet?::Franco: I'll take you on, I want to kill you off.
My mom said "I believe in God."
So I told her I was an Athiest
The next day, I went to church just to
Piss off some Satanist
I only hang at the coffee shop (x2)
Please pay attention to me
Chorus
I want to believe in what you don't
It gives me something to do
I am all about proving myself
I have nothing to do
I am a Democrat except to my dad
I hate dogs but only when there's cats
I will never be able to make up my mind
A solid opinion is a tough thing to find
I can recite facts from various books (x2)
Please pay attention to me
I want to believe in what you don't
I wanted something to prove
I wanted to feel somehow better than you
I have nothing to do
Chorus