Elevenbears Weblog

“10 000 B.C.” : mammoths and dinosaurs ?

elevenbears — Sun, 11 May 2008 09:44:42 +0000

Long after “Quest for Fire “ by Jean-Jacques Annaud (1981) (in French, “La Guerre du Feu”), another film which takes place during Prehistory has been released. Its title ? “10 000 B.C.”. It is the story of a young man, who begins a quest in order to save his clan and, of course, the woman he loves. But I won’t say much more about the scenario. This film is in fact an action film. Indeed, the director, Roland Emmerich, has directed “The day after tomorrow” and “Independence Day” too. So you can imagine what sort of film it is. But in fact, when I saw it, I was not so disappointed as I would have expected ! And yes, we aren’t bored, the special effect are not so bad (even quite realistic) … in a word, it is a film that can be watched.

What I would like to talk about is the feeling of anachronism I had by watching the film.

Which is why I made little researches in order to know if the different scenes of “10 000” could have happened in the meantime in the reality.

And apart from a few big exaggerations, I was quite surprised to learn that all the scenes were, of course not very contemporary, but at least not so distant from each others (maximum 7000 years, which is not so huge for an American film !).

First, the film figures the end of mammoths : according to archaeologists, it took place about 12 000-10 000 years ago. But you can also see a sort of dinosaur in a scene of the film, and yet dinosaurs lived between 225 and 65 millions years ago. So it is impossible that a dinosaur and a mammoth can live in the meantime ! To my mind, the introduction of a dinosaur was a big mistake to the credibility of the film.

Then, whereas people of one clan are still doing hunting and gathering, others are farmers. The apparition of framing has been dated between 10 000 and 8000 BC. As all the populations didn’t discover agriculture in the same time, it is possible that both clans have coexisted.

Moreover, the naughty warriors are very good riders. The horse was domesticated about 6 000 years ago. So here is a mistake !

And to finish with, at the end of the film, the hero discovers a civilization that builds pyramids. The first pyramid was build about 2 700 years ago, for the pharaoh Djeser. This is the last anachronism I found in the movie.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4QaBdQtiWk]

Heroic Fantasy in the cinema

elevenbears — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:47:22 +0000

Today, heroic fantasy is everywhere on the great screen : see Harry Potter, The Legend of Beowulf, The world of Narnia, The Chronicles of Spiderwik …. But do you know the story of this sub-genre, how it succeeds in imposing in the cinema ?

So, here is a small summary of heroic fantasy in the cinema.

First, you have to know that heroic fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy, and that it has to follow some rules and codes such as a medieval, imaginary and magical world, an independent and heroic hero. Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950), Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936) and J.R.R Tolkien (1892-1973) created and improved this sub-genre.

The beginnings of heroic fantasy in the cinema were not that easy. The main reason it that it was expensive to recreate the imaginary world. Moreover, the Americans are the biggest producers (in quantity, not necessarily in quality) but they didn’t have known a medieval age. And a last reason is that until the 1970′s, cinema addressed the adults. Then the frequenting evolves toward a younger public : producers have to focus on a literary genre that interested the teenagers : heroic fantasy.

It has only been since 1977 and George Lucas’ Star Wars that heroic fantasy knew a real craze. But films were still too expensive to produce, so directors made cartoons.

The first films or cartoons were a failure : Krull (1983) by Peter Yates , Dragon of the Fire Lake (1982) by Matthew Robbins, Legend (1985) by Ridley Scot with Tom Cruise (see an extract just below) and much more.

Fortunately, the resurrection of the genre came in 1996 with Dragon’s Heart by Rob Cohen. And then heroic fantasy explodes at the box office : Princess Mononoké (1997), Chihiro’s voyage (2001), The Lord of the Ring by Peter Jackson (2001, 2002, 2003), all the Harry Potter, Eragon (2006) and even Shrek .

But we have to ask us a question : is the craze for heroic fantasy not only a fashion effect, is it a lasting success or not ? These last years have seen too much heroic fantasy films, in the wake of the commercial success of Harry Potter and Cie. But by wanting to surf on these success and so making a lot of money without always respecting the audience’s intelligence, won’t people get tired of these wave of too common heroic fantasy film ? What is your opinion about this point ?

Virtual police in China

elevenbears — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 19:54:20 +0000

Their names are Jingjing and Chacha. In fact, jing cha means police in Chinese. These two cartoons figures are going to patrol on all the web pages in Beijing. Their goal : to discover illegal web sites, according to the Chinese measures : pornography, prompting to withdrawal, promotion of superstition, gambling …Jingjing and Chacha appear every 30 minutes, at the bottom of the screen, in order to remind everybody that the police keeps a watch on the Web. A zealous internet user can even click on the two characters to report to the police some illegal contents. Yes, because you can talk and communicate with Jingjing and Chacha ! Both police officers have the following functions: resource, blog, photo album and interactive section. In their internet space, netizens can systematically learn about all laws and legal regulations related to Internet, instantly learn about the latest policies about the Internet, and learn about typical online crime cases. At the same time, the images of Shenzhen Internet Police can also answer questions from netizens. If netizens have questions relating to internet security, you can submit your questions in the space of Shenzhen internet Police, and the police will patiently answer your questions. Netizens can also use QQ (instant messaging service) to communicate with the two Cartoon police interactively. How wondeful, isn’t it ? For some people who love being aware of new laws, who are fond of juridic waking …

“The Internet police has existed for a long time. This time we publish the image of Internet Police in the form of a cartoon, the purpose is to let all internet users know that the Internet is not a place beyond of law, the Internet Police will maintain order in all online behaviors,” said Director Chen of the Information Center, Internet Security and Surveillance division, of Shenzhen Public Security Bureau.

But their main function is intimidation. What do you think about this mean of controlling the Web ? Is it a good idea to protect kids against pedophilia, violence … or is it just one more control of the chinese communist government ?

The mystery of disappearing bees

elevenbears — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 15:06:36 +0000

Bees are of great agricultural importance in the US and woldwide, particularly because of their role as pollinators. That’s why the news of bees disappearing in the US threatens the beekeepers and the almond farmers. Beekeepers across the US reported last year that worker bees were inexplicably abandoning their hives to die. In September, a team of researchers reported that collapsed hives were due to a virus called IAPV, and that this virus could come from Australia (because many hives have been imported from Australia in the last few years). But some other scientists found that this virus already existed before the american beekeepers started to import bees from Australia. One possibility is that IAPV from Australia might be more virulent than homegrown varieties.

More about :

Fear about bee vanishing in the US

A tropical plant trading food for sex

elevenbears — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 14:21:51 +0000

US biologists report that the Australian cycad, a primitive tropical plant with large seed cones, uses a novel “pull-push” method to manipulate the tiny flying insects that it relies on for pollination : it can release toxic odors and even rise the temperature to ensure pollinisation.The insects tend to congregate in the male cones where they feed and make their homes — but at a certain time of day, the plant will heat up and emit a toxic order, repelling the insects.The pollen-laden insects then fly to the neighbouring or surrounding female cones which are emitting a more attractive odor, where they pollinate the female plant’s eggs.

This is a remarkable example of collaboration between a plant and an animal. “Pollen is the only thing these thrips eat, so they totally rely on the plants. And the thrips are the only animals that pollinate the plants.” said Robert Roemer, a co-author of the paper in the journal Science.

A video of the trips on a cycad’s seed cone :

More about cycads :

elevenbears — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 18:28:39 +0000

spermophilus_beccheyi_000.jpg Why, by night, in front of a rattlesnake, the California ground squirrel (Spermophilus beecheyi) straightens up his tail and waves it like a feather duster ? By filming the scene in infrared, Aaron Rundus, (University of California), noticed that the tail’s temperature increased probably because of an impulse of blood. The snake, sensitive to these infrared, thinks that the squirrel is much more bigger and so he beats a retreat. This stratagem could be very useful for the Spermophilus beecheyi female to protect her young . On the contrary, in front of a viperine snake, unable to detect his prays with heat, the squirrel waves his tail to, in order to impress the snake. But he doesn’t go to a lot of trouble to heat it.

In front of a viperine snake, the tail remains “cold” (blue on the video)

In front of a rattlesnake, the tail becomes “warm” (red on the video)