“While it is the infrequent shark attacks that make the headlines, drowning claims far more lives in Hawaii, where coastlines of sand, coral reef and lava rock create shorebreaks and currents that cause many swimmers to encounter peril entirely unexpected.” Hawaii tries to lessen its drowning rate, highest in the nation. Memo to myself: Avoid Sandy Beach.
Tag: Under the Sea
Paradise Regained?
“‘Everybody in the conservation community was surprised. This was not expected,’ said Dr. Dennis Heinemann, senior scientist for the Ocean Conservancy.” Don’t look now, but Dubya may actually have done something laudable for once: namely, he has declared the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a national monument, “securing strong and immediate ecological protections from the federal government” for the region. “‘It’s the single largest act of ocean conservation in history,’ said Conrad Lautenbacher, NOAA administrator. ‘It’s a large milestone.’“
Deep Blue Sea.
The King of the World adds another project to his very full plate: Apparently, post 880, James Cameron will take on The Dive, “the true, tragic love story of freediver Francisco “Pipin” Ferraras and his wife Audrey Mestre.“
Release the Kraken.
And, would you believe it? Boss DeLay wasn’t the only nefarious and nightmarish tentacled creature to be captured in the past twenty-four hours. For the first time ever, Japanese scientists have succeeded in photographing a giant squid in its natural habitat. (I read about this late last night and had some very disturbing dreams about it. After all, there are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.) [Last link inspired by MysVamp.]
King of the Underworld
Despite feeling kinda rotten, I did venture out to the movies on Saturday night (armed with a hefty bag of throat lozenges) for an impromptu double feature. At the top of the bill was James Cameron’s IMAX extravaganza Aliens of the Deep and, all I can say is, if Cameron wants to make Battle Angel Alita using this funky 3-D technology, hail to the King. Granted, I haven’t seen a 3-D movie since the days before Captain Eo. Nevertheless, the effect was much improved, and made what could have been a staid underwater documentary comprised of what look to be outtakes from The Abyss into a riveting, jaw-dropping wonder.
I’ll admit, I was also fond of Cameron’s central conceit here, which is that our best bet for finding life in this solar system — at Europa, say — would be of the kind inexplicably thriving around thermal vents in the darkest, deepest parts of the ocean, where the sun never shines (and thus photosynthesis never takes place.) And what strange life it is! Innumerable swarming shrimp scuttle between ice-cold and boiling-hot water with nary an antenna twitch. Strange symbiotic tube worms ensnare food for their inner bacteria, which digests for them. Ethereal jellyfish float by, improbably yet undeniably alive. And, thanks to the 3-D, it seems you can reach out and touch all of these creatures just before your eyes — in fact, you can see them better in their natural habitat than any human being possibly could. It’s really quite amazing.
Like I said, I don’t know if Aliens of the Deep would be everyone’s cup of tea — most of the film just involves young astrobiologists and underwater explorers enthusing over their wild and crazy jobs in tiny little subs. But, whenever a strange new animal popped up on the screen, and particuarly when the camera hurtles past the moons of Jupiter on its CGI-way to far-flung Europa, I thought to myself, “Now, that’s Edutainment!”
King of the (Under) World.
The trailer for James Cameron’s IMAX-3D extravaganza Aliens of the Deep is now online. I wonder if Cameron’ll get the shakes like Michael Biehn in The Abyss.