Bill Moyers Rewind: Isaac Asimov (1988)

via www.pbs.org

In 1988, Bill Moyers interviewed author Isaac Asimov for WORLD OF IDEAS. Incredibly prolific in various genres beyond the science fiction for which he was best known, Asimov wrote well over 400 books on topics ranging from sci-fi to the Bible before his death in 1992. In one thread of his wide-ranging interview, Asimov shared his thoughts on overpopulation:

"Right now most of the world is living under appalling conditions. We can't possibly improve the conditions of everyone. We can't raise the entire world to the average standard of living in the United States because we don't have the resources and the ability to distribute well enough for that. So right now as it is, we have condemned most of the world to a miserable, starvation level of existence. And it will just get worse as the population continues to go up... Democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people onto the world, the value of life not only declines, it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies. The more people there are, the less one individual matters."

Katsuhiro Otomo's AKIRA released in Japan

Otomo Katsuhiro's AKIRA was released today in Japan. It has been the most expensive Japanese movie ever made. Talented animators such as Koji Morimoto, Takashi Nakamura and Hiroyuki Kitakubo have work in it.

Tonari no Totoro (となりのトトロ)

Hayao Miyazaki's latest animated film was released today in Japan and with it a collection of books that highlight different facets of this movie.

●THE ART OF TOTORO
●となりのトトロ  ロマンアルバム

●となりのトトロ 絵コンテ

●CINEMA COMIC となりのトトロ

Michael Jordan photograph by Walter Looss

Photograph by Walter Iooss Jr. / Sports Illustrated / Feb 6, 1988

Story behind the photo: 

The problem with shooting the NBA slam-dunk contest was that you never knew how the players were going to dunk, especially Jordan. In 1997 he had twirled and dunked with his back to me. But by this time I knew him a little better. As he sat in the stands three hours before the contest, I said, “Michael, can you tell me which way you’re going to go, so I can move and get your face in the picture?” He looked at me as if I were crazy but then said, “Sure. Before I go out to dunk I’ll put my index finger on my knee and point which way I’m going.” I said, “You’re going to remember that?” And he said, “Sure.” So later, when they announced his name, I looked over to him on the bench and there was his finger pointing left. I got up and moved to the right side of the basket so I could see his face. He went left every time he dunked. On his last two dunks he ran the length of the court, took off from the foul line and slammed the ball through. On the next-to-last one he landed in my lap. On the last one I set up in the same spot. He looked at me as if to say, “Go left a little, give me some room this time.” And that was it, the picture was made: 1000th of a second frozen in time.

via: Petapixel