Raeden Zen's Blog, page 410
July 27, 2013
astronemma:
Starburst to Star Bust
New observations from the...
New observations from the ALMA telescope in Chile have given astronomers the best view yet of how vigorous star formation can blast gas out of a galaxy and starve future generations of stars of the fuel they need to form and grow. The dramatic images show enormous outflows of molecular gas ejected by star-forming regions in the nearby Sculptor Galaxy. These new results help to explain the strange paucity of very massive galaxies in the Universe. The study is published in the journal Nature on 25 July 2013.
Continue reading via ESO.org
Image credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/Erik Rosolowsky
Movie Review: The Wolverine
A Vast Improvement over “Origins”
Even as it has been nearly 20 years since I read the “X-Men" and “Wolverine" comics, the hatchet job done in “Origins" was epic: from the vomit-inducing romance to the mangled Weapon X program to fan favorite Gambit, the familiar rajun Cajun hopping around on his night stick as if he were a circus performer in an overly (and poorly) choreographed Matrix-like fight scene. Seriously? Gambit doing cartwheels. No, Ms. Donner, SERIOUSLY?
Now…on to “The Wolverine."
“The Wolverine” beings intriguingly on a beach near Nagasaki where Logan (aka Wolverine) is a prisoner-of-war. How he was taken prisoner, one has to wonder, but the scene lays the foundation for how the story unfolds. Back then, Wolverine saves a young Japanese man (who becomes Lord Yashida) from the nuclear strike on nearby Nagasaki. Many decades later, Lord Yashida, leader of Japan’s most powerful company, is dying of cancer and sends his granddaughter’s friend to retrieve Logan, who has taken up residence in familiar Canada. She predictably convinces him to visit the lord and the story takes off from there. Wolverine’s character is explored more deeply in this movie than ever before: the paradoxes of being immortal but not truly living and of being the perpetual good guy who has killed so many. Why would someone want to live forever when everyone he or she loves will die? Will he grant Lord Yashida’s wish for a transference of his power?
On the downside: the foreshadowing was shallow, the hallucinations with Jean Grey unnecessary, and the femme fatale predictable. (Did we need her venomous (and cliched) explanation of what she did to Wolverine? Did the writers think the viewers are that dumb?) Luckily, Hugh Jackman’s performance stole the show (again) and his commitment to the character and the eye-popping action sequences overcame the negatives.
I presume Mr. Jackman and co-Producer Lauren Shuler Donner (who has produced every X-film to date except “First Class") wish “The Wolverine” would have been the segue into the Wolverine mythology. The effort should go a long way to reassuring fans (new and old) that Ms. Donner is committed to putting out a quality product and that “The Days of Future Past,” perhaps the most memorable series in the X-universe, will live up to lofty expectations next summer.
"It seems to be a truism of important shifts in thinking that many minds begin to ask the same..."
- "The Field" by Lynne McTaggart - The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe
