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Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, Django Unchained, has in its short time of release, already been gathering a fair degree of criticism.  Set during the time of slavery, it involves some material that many don’t think appropriate, including a rather prodigious use of the so-called “N-word”.  Despite most people enjoying the film (including many who would have cause to be upset if it was blatantly racist), still people persist in voicing their disapproval.  And now the whole affair is getting even more attention and protest following the release of some Django Unchained movie-themed collectable action figures.

First and foremost, the movie has more than its fair share of racial slurs, but it is in context.  I think what some people fail to realize is that if the movie were historically accurate, it would be even worse, so what’s the issue here?  If it’s natural to the story, the demonstration of racism is not necessarily racism simply by association.  Learn to make the distinction folks.

Secondly, the action figures are not for kids.  I repeat - not for kids.  These “toys” are the types of items that people generally buy and never even take out of the package.  If your kids are screaming for you to buy them a Django Unchained collectable figure, then that probably means you let them see the film.  If they’re eight years old, then that probably means you should reassess your parenting skills rather than complaining about the aftermath.  It blows my mind that people honestly believe that kids are going to buy these things and then spend their play time reenacting scenes of slavery.  But even Al Sharpton has stepped up and made the claim that the figures were made to appeal to children.  Of course, I’ve never known Sharpton to be too sharp when it comes to common sense issues.

To sum up, people need to chill out.  Sit back, take a breath and ask yourself a simple question - am I thinking rationally?  If the answer is no, then you should probably take a few days to think the issue through instead of just yelling loudly in a reactionary fashion.  Just because an issue is sensitive doesn’t mean it can’t be approached in an entertaining manner and leave us all a bit better for having had it placed squarely in our field of vision.

Peter Jackson has made of himself a worldwide name bringing to the masses the trilogy adaptation that was The Lord of the Rings.  Now, as he moves on to The Hobbit, his fans are looking forward to see what he brings to the table this time.  But as it turns out, one of the people who should matter the most, none other than the son of scribe J.R.R. Tolkien, isn’t such a big fan of Jackson’s work.  In fact, Christopher Tolkien has had some pretty nasty things to say about the way his father’s books were changed by the Hollywood paradigm.

The underlying belief has always been that the Tolkien estate wasn’t too excited with the movies.  Using the legacy of Tolkien to rake in piles of cash is just the way Hollywood works, regardless of the perceived sacredness of the project.  But in Christopher Tolkien’s own words, he says that “They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25…”  Wow, pretty harsh, but is it an altogether false statement?  He went on further to talk about how the philosophical content of his father’s original work was stripped bare and the serious nature of the books completely ignored.

Personally, I’ve only ever given the trilogy a single read (there’s very few books I’ll pick up a second time), and though I enjoyed the films, I wouldn’t consider them to be the best movies in the world when it comes to presenting a serious storyline.  It’s epic fantasy on the screen and the subtlety of Tolkien’s work definitely suffers due to the transition.  But there’s another side to this, one that concerns the massively elevated sales of Tolkien’s books following the release of the first in the LotR trilogy.

According to the stats, books sales went up by a ridiculous 1000 percent in the UK alone!  If the movie is causing people to go out and purchase and read the books, isn’t this a good thing?  Is Christopher Tolkien failing to see the big picture?

Tolkien was an amazing writer and many will walk away from reading his books with new insights.  But in an age where books are becoming less and less the national pastime, replaced by exploding movies and exploding video games, any way to entice readers to go back and explore the origins of Lord of the Rings is a good thing in my opinion.

Each incarnation is simply another story, not quite the same as the original but possessing its own merits.  I don’t feel that Lord of the Rings is any different, regardless of its amazing popularity.  And though the films may not end up being the classics that the books are, they will be watched and loved.  J.R.R. Tolkien’s original stories will now and forever remain at the heart of matters and those who take the time to go back and read them will understand why, even if it was a movie that motivated them to do so.

Over the years, canines have been used in a wide variety of scientific endeavors.  Animal and plant conservationists have long been using these furry critters in their own work due to the dog’s superior sense of smell being able to root out rare or desired species.  Now, one ambitious dog trainer from Australia is looking to train them to a new purpose, one that involves digging up old history.  Or old bones, to be exact.

The first in this new line of sniffers goes by the name of Migaloo and so far her training has been a resounding success.  She’s able to find bones hundreds of years old, despite there being no distinct scent to them that we know of.  Migaloo was focused to be able to pick up the scent of bones by tempting her with her ball, which is, apparently, her most favorite thing in the world. 

After the initial months of training, her skills were put to the test using old Aboriginal bones taken from a museum and buried.  Though it may seem a bit odd to be snatching bones from a museum, the end result is well worth the initial investment.  So far, if Migaloo comes within 10 feet of a bone, she can sniff it out.  She’s managed to pinpoint the location of a 600-year-old burial ground among other things.

The next step, says the trainer, is to see if they can get her to be able to sniff out other archaeological remains, such as pottery or fossils.  Considering that pottery makes up the vast majority of archaeological finds, this could be a priceless boon to history hunters worldwide.  More dogs will be trained to do the same thing and eventually they may end up as common elements in the search for remains of the past.

If this program proves to be as successful as it first promises to be, it could greatly reduce the workload of archaeologists, removing the need for a lot of blind digging.  This could consequently create a rapid rise in the number of burial sites discovered and, if they can be trained to seek out other things, a rise in the number of known sites in general.  I personally find it amazing that we can use something as simple as a dog and get as many results as we do from our advanced technology.  I guess the old tried-and-true methods of detection still hold weight even in today’s world.

In a bit of encouraging news coming out of China (for once), an important newspaper in the country made an attempt to protest the government putting its fingers into the publication and censoring its content.  China isn’t known for being accommodating when it comes to letting their media sources say exactly what they want and this particular case involved the newspaper attempting to run an editorial during their New Year’s addition.  The government censors apparently didn’t like what they had to say and so rewrote the editorial to give praise to the glories of the Chinese Communist Party.

The newspaper, in response, voiced their outrage and protested the interference in their operation.  Better yet, what started as a general protest expanded into a call for reforms across the entirety of the country.  Tons of support reached the paper via microblogs and academics writing in letters.  Angry people began to gather outside the paper to make their disapproval of government censors known.

Unfortunately, the end result was much less than hoped for.  The newspaper compromised with the censors and did at least manage to get the government to put a halt on their power to actively edit stories.  They do, however, retain the power to punish offenders if stories do not agree with their view of what should or shouldn’t be published.  They also attempted to combat the unease that the paper started by setting out on a propaganda campaign that put the blame for the protest on foreign influence.

While it may seem like a small and to some an inconsequential victory, it shows that the Chinese people are getting sick of the government interfering in their information flow.  The more people who are willing to step up and complain about the censorship, the more the government will be forced to realize that their attempts to keep people ignorant, and thus compliant, are having the opposite effect.  While the paper’s protests may be little more than symbolic at this point, they will hopefully be the first of many and the combined effort of many may end in the reforms that the Chinese people truly want.  Or at least I choose to be optimistic on the subject.