05 July 2015

TODAY (29 NOV 14) THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY PAGE 10 - BUTTERFLIES' PATH HAS NEW OBSTACLES

Liza Gross reported that Ms Dara Satterfield, a doctoral student at the University of Georgia, witnessed scores of Monarch butterflies from the south, like most other Monarchs from breeding grounds in northern United States and Southern Cananda, made a stop in Texas to feast on frostweed to build up their reserves to make their last flight to central Mexico for five months of overwintering.
"Less than 20 years ago, a billion butterflies from east of the Rocky Mountains reached the oyamel firs, and more than a million western monarchs migrated to the Californian coast to winter among its firs and eucalypts."
In 2013, the numbers reached rock bottom in the Midwest and Mexico with about 80-90% drop in numbers. Although the numbers in the fall of 2014 appeared to be encouraging, both Ms Satterfield and Ms Sonia Altizer, an ecologist at Georgia and Ms Satterfiled's adviser, were cautious not to be too hopeful that the good numbers represented a recovering migration. In fact, they were concerned that the well-meaning efforts of butterfly lovers may be accountable for the monarch's current plight.

In a typical year, the first generation Monarch butterflies fly from Mexico to the Southeast when spring approaches and the native milkweeds start to grow. By fall, when the milkweeds die back, up to two more generations of sexually immature Monarchs develop. That is when they make the flight back to Mexico to avoid the approaching winter before the cycle repeats.

The Monarch butterfly's life cycle is intricately synchronized with the native milkweed species such that their migratory patterns are split amongst several generations. The exotic tropical milkweed is now widely used, over the native species, by amateur conservationists to replenish declining populations of milkweed in an attempt to raise the butterfly populations, which may bring about unseasonal breeding, increase the butterfly's exposure to diseases and lead to reproductive failure.

It is reported in the 2012 journal Insect Conservation and Diversity that 60% of native milkweeds disappeared over a span of 10 years between 1999 and 2009. This was documented to be the result of increased applications of Roundup, a broad spectrum Glyphosate systemic herbicide, used to control weeds amongst commercial crops such as corn and soybean, which are genetically engineered to tolerate the weedkiller. Whilst the native milkweeds die, they are replaced by the tropical milkweeds where the migrating Monarchs lay their eggs and spread the spores of an obligate protozoan parasite Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE), which was discovered in Florida in the 1960s, that infects the Monarch and Queen butterflies by killing foraging caterpillars or affecting the adults' ability to fly or reproduce normally, thereby reducing their survival rates and fitness.

However, some optimists are positive that the tropical milkweeds make up only a small fraction of all the milkweeds available in the landscape and are hopeful that the Monarchs have sufficient native milkweeds in the abundant landscape of Eastern U.S. to feed when they return in spring.

Meanwhile, Ms Satterfield is continuing her research work on tracing the migratory breeding of Monarchs at tropical milkweed sites to determine if they have abandoned their migratory patterns and hopes to be able to do her part to protect the great North American journey of the Monarchs while there is still hope.

TERMINATOR: GENISYS

Hollywood is fond of remakes and , and they are also fond of inviting actors from former movies to appear in current ones to evoke past memories or to provide a sense of humour. The first 4 Terminator movies were screened in 1984, 1991, 2003 and 2009 respectively.

This latest movie set in 2029 wasn't so much about John Connor, leader of the resistance against the machines, but focused more on the relationship between his parents Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor. Saved by John Connor as a child, Kyle was raised to join the resistance in the fight against the Skynet and its machines. The resistance failed to destroy Skynet and Kyle volunteered to be sent back in a time machine to 1984 to protect a young Sarah Connor from harm. Thereafter, the characters were originally planned to be sent to 1997 to change the events but instead moved forward to 2017 to stop the launch of a new global operating system known as the Genisys, which was supposedly Skynet.

Well, this movie was action-packed but it was a tad too confusing for me as they seemed to shuttle between different timelines which altered past and future events. Jason Clarke who played John was second fiddle to Emilia Clarke's Sarah and Jai Courtney's Kyle. Arnold Schwarzenegger reprised his roles as the terminator machines T-800 and T-800 (model 101) and he went from young to old through the times. There were two scenes of Kyle going all naked for the time travel and there was the famous Arnie naked scene as well and his deadpan looks and corny "I'll be back" phrase. Lee Byung-hun seemed to be Hollywood's favourite Asian or Korean actor to play similar roles as the villain (e.g. in the G.I. Joe movies) or killer machine in this as T-1000.

At the end of the movie, there was an easter egg segment, which hinted at a possible sequel.
Arnie as T-800 (model 101) in a rare Kodak moment

Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese
John Connor who was infected by Skynet in the future

T-1000 the killer machine
Kyle and John

01 July 2015

JURASSIC WORLD

the pairing of Chris and Bryce was fresh
The first 'Jurassic Park' movie came out in 1994 and I absolutely loved it. Two movies later, it ended its run in 'Jurassic Park III' in 2001.

14 years later, I was so looking forward to watch this 2015 movie, especially when it starred the smothering hot Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. This movie could be considered as a sequel to the original movies because the settings and scenes were all from the original Isla Nublar and I am very heartened and thrilled that the makers of this movie Universal Pictures took all the trouble to draw links between the old and new movies. This is really a movie with a heart.

Chris was Owen Grady, a specialized trainer of velociraptors and Bryce was Claire Dearing, the Operations Manager of the revamped Jurassic World. Irrfan Khan, actor from "The Life of Pi" and B.D. Wong, the only cast from the first movie who played the same role, are the other key actors.

So I must say I utterly enjoyed this movie very much and the success formula from the original movies was refreshing in this day and age of CGIs and the good script with genetically hybrids of dinosaurs, which remind one of the perils of playing god, was definitely one of the key ingredients of this box office hit. However, I feel the casting of Bryce was not one of the better choices because she seemed to be forgettable.

I certainly hope there is another sequel.
I think Chris has a lot of presence and charisma

Owen beside one of his velociraptors

the famous trainer's pose adopted by many animal trainers after the movie

Zach and Gray, the two boys are nephews of Claire
the main villain of the movie - the genetic dinosaur hybrid Indominus


one of the scenes reminiscent of the original movie

the biggest dinosaur of the movie - Mosasaurus devouring a great white shark

another scene from the original movie