Dinosaurs Reborn

Most people know anout the classic Jurassic Park movies. And most people have probably thought, how cool would it be if dinosaurs still existed. Well it's not a subject that could remain science "fiction" for long.

Scientist have been working quite closely in this field. An example is there are plans of placing preserved Wolly Mammoth DNA in an elephant so the elephant gives birth to a "new" species. Think about that, pretty cool. But in a world where polar bears are becoming extinct I'm not so sure a wolly mammoth is the greatest idea.

But if one was to combine that kind of technology with another species we could get some interesting results, or some monstrous results. Because I'm not sure what would give birth to a T-rex. A gorilla? A feret? A lizard? So maybe its less possible than originally thought. Because an elephant and a wolly mammoth are very similar species so one birthing another is possible. With most other dinos a different strategy would have to be in place, if any.

Still, if we did have dinosaurs it wouldn't be like an apocalypse. Obviously we would have some sort of control over them like in jurassic park. Although they had a way of controlling them and it still went wrong. So maybe we stick with the nice dinos, non-human eating ones yes? Sounds good to me.

Attack of the Clones

The second movie in the Star Wars prequels is also very, very unpopular among some fans. The only thing I find repulsive about the movie is the painfully forced romance scenes. If you take those scenes away the movie holds up alright, but is there anything else wrong with it?

It begins with bounty hunters going after Padmè. Obi-wan leaves to search for the assassin and this is where my first question lies. Obi-wan stumbles apon a planet that is manufacturing a clone army for the republic. But nobody knew about this except for Count Dooku who began construction. How did nobody know about this. I assume i cost the Republic a large sum of money so why were no questions asked. And if Count Dooku made the plans for an army why didn't he go and stop construction on the clones once he switched sides, I mean, it would've made his life A LOT easier.

The movies arena battle is one of the coolest parts of Star Wars. It is filled with action, even if it is the most inefficient way of killing a jedi. Its questionable how all those jedi got into the stadium to help, and why they didn't help a lot sooner, but it makes for a cool battle.

All in all the movies action itself holds up well enough and the movie is a step up from Phantom Menace. But it could just be me blinded by nostalgia.

Phantom Menace

The "first" Star Wars movie is often considered the worst of the Star Wars trilogies. It has a few great scenes but mostly it is a lot of  unnecessary background junk, and of course way to much JarJar. But is there more than just the obvious story flaws to this movie?

It begins fine aside from the painful JarJar commentary. When you see the underwater city for the first time you think "cool, its like living in bubbles". But a few scenes later and there are huge monster-fish eating other monster-fish and immediately you think, "why don't those fish go to the underwater city and completely wreck it"? I mean, those creatures are like 5 minutes away, It makes no sense...

Fastforward to tatooine and we meet a creature named Watto. Watto is a chunky thing so let me ask, how do those small, thin, dragonfly-like wings keep him in the air? Ah, because he is mostly gas and very lightweight, so my problem isn't there. My problem is what he says, "Jedi mind tricks don't work on me", yeah no. So stormtroopers, perfectly cloned soldiers are weak minded, but a fat, stingy bug creature is invulnerable because he is greedy? At least try to make sense!

Lastly, towards the end of the movie we see child anakin begin to pilot one of the naboo fighters. He somehow turns it on and begins to fly right into a space battle. In this battle he manages to fly into the droid command ship and blow it up. How does a small child who has never flown before, accomplish such a task. And if it was that easy to get into the ship and blow it up, why was nobody doing it?

These are just a few complaints I have about the movie. Don't get me wrong, it had great parts, like the fight with darth maul, or the podraces. But some things in this movie just make you stop and think, what? Why? And take away from the movie.

Self-Aware Cars

First question is, what is a self aware car? Well, think of Jonny Cab from Total Recall. Its only there for a small amount of time, but its a good example. Its a car that can drive itself through some kind of technology. Tech like this isn't far-fetched at all though.

A modern day example would be Google's self driving car. Real strides have been made in this area. It can use GPS technology to know where it, what road its on, and where its going. And at the same time uses sonar- like technology to see where other cars are, and what they are doing.

You may not like it but this may be the future. Instead of driving yourself the car drives you to your destination. With multi-tasking being as big as it is this wouldn't really be that big of a deal. Especially since self driving cars would be safer than human controlled cars. Accident rates would go down, drunk drivers wouldn't exist, leaving this reality a very plausible one indeed.