Showing posts with label Nasa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nasa. Show all posts

Monday, August 25, 2008

Fly Me To The Moon 3D - Kid Review

This weekend, we went to see Fly Me To The Moon 3D. It was really cool. I was a little worried about my kids seeing it, since every kids movie seems to have name calling, scatological references, and violence. I can barely trust the "G" rating. But this movie was fantastic. The 3D effects were surprisingly realistic. My 1 1/2 year old son kept reaching out to touch the bugs who seemed to truly hover over the audience.

As for the science, it was quite realistic. It was clear that they wanted to truthfully depict the events of the moon launch.  The lander was very real, the maneuvers the crew did to complete the journey to the moon were as they were.  The dialog, etc... weren't fantastic for an adult, but if you could put yourself in the position of a 5 year old kid, it was wildly entertaining.


One thing I do have to say was I found the depiction of the agents of the old Soviet Union to be a bit offensive.  I understand that the writers of the movie were trying to capture the environment of the late '60s, and that most of the cartoons, etc... were like that, Russian goons, etc... but the truth of it was that the Russian operatives were at least as smart and capable as our own, if not better.  I think that even for a kids movie, they could have been depicted as a little more savvy and less savage.  That required a little bit of explaining on my part to my children.

All in all, I would heartily recommend watching this movie with your kids.  I wouldn't recommend, if you watch it on DVD, just plopping them down in front of it.  Although I am not sure if the Dolby glasses will be available with the DVD, I hope they are, with my projector, I could probably reproduce most, if not all of the experience.

I had been wondering what Dolby had been doing for the past few years, and I'm glad to see them taking a more active role in advancing video as they had done for audio.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

So Maybe when we screw up Earth, we can go to Gliese 581c

It appears that we have found at least one planet close enough to Earth in size and temperature at least to possibly support liquid water, and if it can support liquid water, the possibility of life on that planet is much higher.

"European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile, have hit pay dirt: the most Earth-like planet ever detected beyond the solar system. The discovery immediately boosted the odds that humans are not alone in the universe. London bookies duly took note, lowering the odds on extraterrestrial life from 1,000-to-1 to 100-to-1."

We'll just have to wait to see how this planet is put together, but I'd bet the Bush administration is already busy trying to figure out how to drill for oil on it.

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