Showing posts with label blood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blood. Show all posts

07 July 2014

EDGE OF TOMORROW

Based on a Japanese novel, this science fiction movie starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt is about an alien invasion and how Major William Cage played by Tom Cruise repeatedly died more than a hundred times before he and Sergeant Rita Rose played by Emily Blunt managed to defeat the alien race.

The movie has quite an interesting storyline where a public relations Major William was knocked out and sent to the battlefield with a squad to fight the invading aliens known as Mimics when he opposed the General's orders. Unknown to them, the aliens behaved like the central nervous system when they were controlled by a central intelligence known as the Omega. William killed an attacking Alpha with a mine before he died, but not before the Alpha's blood spilled onto him, granting him the ability to temporarily take over the Omega's unique ability to reset time back repeatedly to a specific time frame. From a clumsy Major who never ventured to the battlefield to one who managed to gradually anticipate each and every move made by the aliens and avoided their attack until he was killed over and over again, he was able to reset the time loop every single time he died. He met the Angel of Verdun Sergeant Rita Rose in the process and learnt that she possessed the same ability until she lost it through a blood transfusion after getting injured in battle.

With their combined wits, they eventually realized that the Omega set a trap for them instead to reclaim its ability and sacrificed their lives to exterminate the Omega in one final attempt after William too lost his unique ability after he received a blood transfusion. Fortunately, the Omega exploded and spilled all its contents, including its blood, in the water and infused William once again before he died. The time line was reset once again to an earlier time frame when William and Rita were alive but this time with the aliens exterminated permanently. 



16 October 2010

PLAIN TIGER & ASCLEPIAS CURASSAVICA

This Plain Tiger butterfly (scientific name: Danaus chrysippus) was on this solitary yellow flower Asclepias curassavica (common name: Blood Flower) from the milkweed or Asclepiadaceae Family. The cultivar name was given as 'Silky Gold' or 'Apollo Yellow' by some.

Again, I got too near and it flew off but settled back to this plant.

20 December 2009

ASCELPIAS FRUTICOSA

I came across the Asclepias curassavica (Blood Flower) only when I was planting up HortPark. It is a very gorgeous plant that is also a butterfly host plant to the Plain Tiger and now we have the red and yellow flower varieties at HortPark.

I first saw the white flower variety at Hua Hng in 2008 but due to some miscommunication, I did not buy it. Subsequently it was no longer available.

Then my staff and I came across the interesting fruit capsules as cut flower stalks at Far East Flora. Frankly, I didn't know the capsules were from A. fruticosa until my staff told me. We ended up buying some of the stalks of the fruit capsules and he tried propagating it via plant cuttings.


Most did not grow and eventually only one stalk managed to grow. Finally from it, he managed to propagate a few plants. The flowers are as shown above whilst the fruit capsules are shown below. Both photos were taken on 18 Dec 09.