Finding Dory - Splash of Fun !

 

The long awaited sequel to the 2003 animation hit Finding Nemo finally came out this week. And strangely enough, it made me feel young and old at the same time. Seeing the old fish gang back in action in the sea brought back fond memories. But man, I still can’t believe it has been 13 years since the Nemo came out. I feel old.

This is a fun, fun movie. Fast, emotional, funny and clever, it has all the ingredients which made Nemo a smash hit. But I did feel there were too many charachters and the story was a bit too complex, specially the (spoiler) truck chase towards the end was a little far fetched. For an ocean movie, a big part of this story is set outside of the ocean, at a sea-world kind of oceanarium. There are more humans than before and the fish gang seem just at home taking over the human world. Theres also a giant squid !! Some old charachters are back too, like Crush dude and Mr Ray ! Water is obviously a big deal in a fish story. But the water in Finding Nemo was just implied, something of an animation magic trick with the fish “floating in this virtual air,” But animation technology has improved in the last 13 years, allowing filmmakers to include all the complicated properties of water — from surface movement to the rendering of light rippling through the depths. It’s a stunning improvement.

But the stars of the show are the two Dorys, and Hank. There is an oh-so-cute little-Dory in the flashback scenes to show her childhood. And Hank, the octopus (or septepus, I don’t know) is Dorys capable partner in crime how helps her in the complex human world. As always , there are a lot of those visual gags and deadpan humor. While Dory played a not so helpful supporting charachter last time sometimes putting Marlin in trouble, this time she is on her own for a longer time. Her disability keeps getting in they way when she tries to find her parents first, and then trying to save her friends again. But thankfully, there are far lesser predators in this movie than last time, and every fish she runs into is friendly and willing to help.

Already there are reviews out which celebrate the movie focussing on the positive message around disability in the movie, and others are criticizing a part of the story which makes fun of  some other charachters which seem a little…underdeveloped. But I think one should take the movie for what it is, pure fun, aimed at kids. And to turn us grown-ups nostalgic. A whole new generation of kids are going to rediscover the strange amazing wonderful life in the sea through this movie.

Happy Jurassic June !

 

Today, June 11, marks the 23rd anniversary of Jurassic Park’s theatrical release. This week also marks one year since Jurassic World was released.

 

Jurassic Park fans are celebrating the anniversaries once again with Jurassic June, a month long celebration of all things Jurassic!

Join Jurassic Park artist Shannon Shea in drawing a dinosaur every day this month with his30 Days of Dinosaurs challenge on Twitter.

 

JurassicJune.com, with Tiny Dev Studio, has launched an incredibly addicting and insanely challenging new mobile game app this month called Jurassic Jump for Android and iOS.

And, since the beginning of this month, the original three Jurassic Park movies are available on Netflix 

Living in India is getting more expensive

 

Well, prices of things are always going up, but now the Indian citizen is getting crushed under a new set of taxes. After introducing the 0.5% Swachh Bharat Cess in November, the Union Finance Minister announced in this year’s Budget that the government would levy a Krishi Kalyan Cess to finance activities related to agriculture and build a fund for the welfare of the farmers. Indirect taxes and charges such as these are an important part of the government’s income from taxation. Of the Rs14.4 lakh crore ($213 billion) of taxes collected by the Indian government in the last financial year, 44.4% came from indirect taxes.

Meanwhile, prices of petrol and diesel were hiked on June 1. Petrol will become costly by Rs2.58 per litre and diesel by Rs2.26 a litre. This means transport costs will rise, affecting the prices of vegetables, fruits, milk and other food products, among others. To add to household woes, the cost of an LPG cylinder—used for cooking across the country—was also increased by Rs21.

Travelling in airconditioned buses will be costlier from today with the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) increasing its fare by 6%, thanks to union finance minister Arun Jaitley, who has imposed service tax on state-carriage AC buses. Not just tickets, daily and monthly passes will also cost more. Monthly passes of AC buses which operate within the city are likely to cost `135 more, and passes of AC buses to and from Kempegowda International Airport will cost `201.

What a fantastic time to be living in India. And the reality of all this is that after all these taxes and charges, nothing  is going to change in the country.

History of the Internet

 

Yes. We have finally reached there. The internet is now that old, that it’s history now has to be documented. Generation Z today take the internet and all its services for granted, that they have no idea how it began and how far it has come since the dial-up days.

The good folks at Internet History Podcast have put up podcasts detailing the birth and evolution of the internet to it’s current state. Its all there, everything from the creation of Netscape (remember Netscape ?) and AOL to the first search engines (Yahoo.) to all its numeous media sites. I specially found the episode on Yahoo interesting, given their current state of turmoil.

Its turning me nostalgic again. You will have to spend hours through this site to get the full picture. Happy browsing.

പൂട്ടിയ ബാറുകള്‍ തുറക്കില്ലെന്ന് എക്‌സൈസ് മന്ത്രി

 

Excise Minister T.P. Ramakrishnan on Thursday said the LDF Government's liquor policy would focus on abstinence to bring down the consumption of liquor gradually even while reiterating that the closed bars would not be opened.  Mr Ramakrishnan told DC that the government would soon launch a people's campaign to create awareness.

"We are for abstinence. Our efforts would be directed at reducing liquor consumption in society in a phased manner. As far as shut bars are concerned, there are many which are functioning as beer and wine parlours. So we have to look into all these aspects before taking a decision on our policy. People will be taken on board for state-wide campaign,'' he added.

The LDF leadership believes that not even a single bar had been closed in the state. Most have been converted into beer and wine parlours where beer and wine with high alcohol content was being sold. According to Left leadership, spurious liquor was being supplied through various outlets.

Moreover, a number of studies had pointed out that the use of drugs, psychotropic substances were growing alarmingly in the state. Houses, vehicles have turned into bars rendering the previous government's liquor police totally ineffective.

“CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury had also made it clear the Left Government's  policy would be to further reduce the impact of liquor consumption in Kerala society which has already demonstrated new social problems. The efforts would be aimed at further reducing liquor consumption," he added.

Making the first announcement after assuming the office and putting the concerns about the excise policy of the new government to rest, the government has declared that it has no intention to reopen the closed bar hotels.

Talking to reporters, excise and labour minister T P Ramakrishnan said here on Thursday that the government will not reopen the closed bar hotels. He said that the governments policy was to reduce the consumption of liquor. For this, the government will launch mass campaign. He said that the LDF had declared its stance in the manifesto, from which the governments policy is clear.

Though there are promises in the manifesto on alcohol and curbing the drug menace, the promises are too shallow without any concrete framework, even the excise department officials feel. According to excise officials, the consumption of drugs has easily increased for two reasons- less availability for alcohol and ready and cheap availability of drugs like ganja. Officials say that a detailed survey will have to be undertaken to find out the intensive users of drugs, who will have to be subjected to medical treatment.

The officials in the cutting edge level in the filed have found that the users of drug themselves are later becoming the sellers. So the officials say that unless the distribution chain is cracked down at the root, the awareness or a peoples movement for awareness will become futile exercise.

Meanwhile, there are also sources who believe that the government might adopt a new liquor policy from the next financial year, that would give more stress on awareness campaign and not prohibition, that may lead to relaxation of current policy of not granting licenses to any hotels below five-star category.