Since we’ve both watched and loved Armando Iannucci’s In the Loop, seeing this was inevitable and we already know what we’re in for. It’s a little strange to see all those British actors with their accents playing supposedly Russian characters while Steve Buscemi plays Nikita Khrushchev but it’s easy enough to grasp who’s who especially with the convenient title cards when each character is introduced.
Once again, biology dominates the cool science news this past month.
We start with a report on an attempt to replicate the marshmallow test, a frequently cited study about how a child’s ability to delay gratification is correlated with academic achievement. The new experiment however found that the correlations were smaller than previously reported and were further reduced after controlling for factors like family background and home environment. Their conclusion is that associations between delay time and measures of behavioral outcome by the age 15 are statistically insignificant.
Probably the most anatomically distinctive feature of humans is our disproportionately large brains. A couple of studies have zeroed in on the cause of this as being a gene known as NOTCH2NL. The presence of this gene leads the brain to develop more neurons and hence a larger brain and the researchers were able to estimate that it became active roughly three to four million years ago which was when the brains of our ancestors started expanding.
The Flynn Effect is the well known phenomenon of human IQ scores steadily improving throughout the 20th century. This article talks about the effect seems to have ended and perhaps even gone into reverse in more recent years. Looking at results from three decades of Norwegian conscripted into the military, they found IQ scores falling over time, even between members of the same family tree. While there are plenty of offered suggestions as what could be causing this, all of this is speculation for now.
Next is a sad story of how many baobab trees seem to be either dead or are dying. These are some of the oldest trees in the world, aged between 1,100 and 2,500 and are known to be able to live to some 3,000 years, all in southern Africa. It is not known why they are dying but the cause is suspected to be related to climate change.
Finally just for the pleasure of reading, here’s an in-depth overview of the underwater tunnels that connect the various Faroe Islands halfway between Iceland and Denmark. It seems strange given the isolation of the islands and their very low population but the tunnels have been a success, both from an engineering perspective and economically as well. This article talks about the history of these tunnels, how they made it all work and ends with the current proposal to construct a huge underwater tunnel to connect the southernmost island to the mainland.
After watching The Shape of Water, I thought it might be amusing to follow it up with another fantasy film, this one from South Korea. As far as I can tell this is director Um Tae-hwa’s first real feature film and the young actress who plays the female lead is a newcomer as well. This is a piece of mass market entertainment and not an art film, so with my expectations calibrated accordingly, I found it to be perfectly cromulent fantasy film.
Given the Oscars it won and the fact that it was directed by Guillermo del Toro, I feel obliged to watch this though I wasn’t enthusiastic after reading some very disparaging comments about it on Broken Forum. Unfortunately, those reports turned out to be very much correct. This is a beautiful film in terms of production values but an abject failure on every other level.
I’ve still been practising using Blender ever since I finished that course earlier this year both through making stuff on my own and picking up lessons on YouTube. My own stuff is generally still pretty crappy, being mostly useless except as a learning exercise. I’ve had to scale down my ambitions quite a bit as making familiar, real world objects seem to more practical. Still, I’m pretty happy with the pace of my progress and it’s been lots of fun.
This is another Chinese film that came as a recommendation from our cinephile friend and as it appears to be the debut feature of its director Zhang Dalei, is probably far too obscure for me to come across it in the ordinary course of things. It won a bunch of awards and except for a short sequence at the end, is entirely in black and white.
I added this to the list because it has so much mindshare and cultural influence even though I thought I probably wouldn’t like it. There was supposed to be a television series based on this film earlier this year but it seems to have been delayed indefinitely due to the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. After watching this, it’s pretty obvious why its subject matter doesn’t feel like anything to joke about these days.
