The Occult Takes New York - Movie Reviews of Dr. Strange and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Two movies have recently debuted about the occult taking over / protecting New York City: a Marvel film about a sorcerer supreme starring the much revered Benedict Cumberbatch (a need to posting about the Climate Change agreement preempted a post about it, though I enjoyed the movie immensely. So little time in these days of homeschooling and teaching three classes at homeschooling co-ops that I have to choose my battles for time to blog.) and last night I watched the new movie about the wizarding world with only a few big names scattered among the villeins, Colin Farrell and Johny Depp. But the main actor Eddie Redmayne, playing Newt Scamander, was wonderful.

(For some unknown reason beyond my control this site has decided to print this portion in white instead of black like the rest of it. Hmm.)

Climate Change

At the Global Warming Alert Conference in Harrisburg, there were messages of hope, accompanied by speakers typically talking about climate change dangers predicted to take place in the future. That future is not only getting closer, but according to Donald Brown of Widener University, we only have about 5 years to drastically change our behavior to stop a ecological switch from flipping that would trigger runaway global warming.

He also spoke about a campaign of disinformation and named perpetrators. Disinformation gets my dander up, especially about such an important topic and for so self serving an end. This inspired me to poll readers about their understanding and feelings about climate change. Please take the poll on the side bar to the left.

Animal #1 - Horse - Science

The first talking animal I'm going to be writing is a horse. Since I am currently working on a horse scene.

Animal – Horse

Classifaction Scientific name – Equus caballus

Genus – Equus (One toed hoofed animals - Horses, zebras, asses)

Family – Equidae (Odd toed hoofed animals - Horses, tapirs, Rhinos)

Order – Perissodactyla (hoofed animals)

Starting a New Series from research for Talking Animals

 I'm writing my first post about animals. I'm planning to have some talking faery animals in my series. I know talking animals sounds childish, to some people, but they are a frequent part of faery tales and folklore about faery. Also, I really like animals. Since I'm a biology teacher I want my talking animals to feel like they are real animals given the ability to talk. That requires a deep understanding of the animals and a bit of research, which is where my blog comes into the picture since this is supposes to be research overflow.

Guest Essayist - A Nine Year Old on Dragons

This is my last blog in my dragon/ serpent people series. This is an essay written a few years ago by my nine year old. He did research and drew diagrams, but since the source was mostly Wikipedia and the diagrams weren't terribly clear I won't include them. I am including this essay here to demonstrate how deeply rooted dragons are embedded into the imagination of humans. He was so excited to try to "prove" that dragons could be real, it was the easiest writing assignment to get him to complete up to that point. [Hint to teachers : kids have am easier time writing if they are excited about their subject matter.]

New Disney's Jungle Book Movie Review

I finally found time to go see the new live action Disney Jungle Book movie.

 It was brilliant. I loved how they brought the whole jungle to life. It had a slightly Bambi-esque feel to it at times. Even the bugs were there. The CGI animals had a wonderful look to them. Even though they were clearly CGI and not real animals to someone familiar with animals, it was possible to suspend your disbelief for long periods of time and see them as real.

The actor, Neel Sethi, was amazing. So much talent for such a young person (age 12). The voice acting was well done too. I'm glad they went with big name top quality voice actors (Bill Murray and Ben Kingsley, etc). It made the suspension of disbelief all the easier.

Earth Day and Arbor Day

Earth Day is April 22^nd. That's this Friday. I've always liked Earth Day. People get all concerned about the condition of the planet and want to clean up trash and stuff. I would be nice to have more of that, but I'll settle for what we can get.

International Day of Forests - March 21st

March 21^st, [Monday this year] is International Day of Forests. Despite this being one of my busiest times of the year, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to write about forests and trees. [You'll just have to wait with baited breathe for me to finish up my posts about dragons next month.]

Mythic Humanoids – Serpent People and Dragons – Part 3 (Survey of Dragons and dragon literature)

Here's Part 3 (Survey of Dragons and dragon literature) of my blog on serpent people and dragons. For Part 1 (Research Deluge) and Part 2 (Symbolism)

There are many ways to organize the numerous varieties of dragons.

Categorizing dragons by :

1. Color [like shoes in a closet or crayons in a box, not based on mythological research.]
2. Sea serpent v flier
3. Old v New
4. North v South
5. East vs West [Does respect for dragons affect the interpretation of their myths?]