All At Sea

Conditions: Damp.

Sunk

If you’ve spent any time channel surfing past the Animal Planet, you may have seen parts of the show where a bunch of idiot pirates who believe that whales are more important than humans use their flotilla of ships to engage and intimidate Japanese whalers. It’s an extraordinary sight, watching people prepared to get themselves and others killed in order to stop a few whales from getting killed. Anyway, after years of stupid posturing and near-misses, all of it has been rendered null and pointless, thanks to actions taken in the court of law. In Australia of all places.

The 16-judge panel of the International Court of Justice, the judicial arm of the U.N., ruled 12 to 4 that Japan’s killing of Antarctic whales -- whose meat ends up sold in shops and restaurants -- was unjustified.

“The court concludes that the special permits granted by Japan for the killing, taking, and treating of whales ... are not ‘for purposes of scientific research,’” the court’s Presiding Judge, Peter Tomka of Slovakia, said Monday, according to the Associated Press.

The decision marked a major victory for Australian environmentalists, who filed a lawsuit with the U.N.’s highest court against Japan in 2010 for the country’s whaling practices.

- ibtimes.com

I’d like to think that this sends a message to all the extremists out there, that there are ways to do things that are important that don’t involve head on confrontation. But unfortunately part of the job description of being an exteremist is not listening to messages.



Film Review: Noah

Really the only reason I went to see this is because I like Russell Crowe the actor. He is always able to elevate whatever he’s doing to a much stronger level. And here he is again - as Noah, the ultimate survivalist. Convinced that God’s wrath is about to wipe everyone out, Noah decides to build an ark with the help of his sons, and a bunch of fallen angels who have become stone giants. The ark is built, and loaded with two of every kind of animal. Noah becomes overwhelmed with sadness once the dying starts, and comes to the conclusion that all humans must die. Not just the evil ones who drowned, but his own family too. This doesn’t mean he’s about to go on a rampage, oh no. It just means that his sons aren’t going to have any kids. There’s just a couple of tiny flaws in the plan. The first is that the eldest has gone and knocked up his girlfriend, the girl who was taken in by the family but totally couldn’t get pregnant. This is a problem. But Noah has the solution, and it involves a knife and lots of screaming. Will he kill these little babies or will he defy God’s will?

The other problem is Tubal-Cain (Ray Winstone), a king who has brought his people to the construction site in order to take over the ark for himself. In contrast to Noah, he doesn’t care what God wants, and is fully committed to the evils of man. He will try to storm aboard the ark during the great deluge, knock off Noah, take over the ark and have himself one hell of a barbeque.

It’s basically the old bible story, but with some extra fantasy elements, and some extra character dynamics thrown in to mix things up a little. I have to say, it’s odd to have a movie where you spend most of the last half hoping for someone, anyone to stab the lead protagonist in the head. And yet despite all the fundamentalism on display, in the end Russell Crowe truly shows what effect the strain of being chosen to save and then remove humanity would have on a man. He’s done another great job here, assisted by the other actors, and a good job overall by director Darren Aronofsky too. The effects are very well done, and very earthy and gritty. And it has a good ending too. Three and a half dinosaurs out of five.



- Peace out