Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

The museum of Natural History located in the National Mall complex is one of the most visited museums within the complex, apart from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. National Mall is a government held open space in Washington D.C. that houses several Smithsonian Museums, governmental buildings, and monuments of historical relevance for the United States. Museum of Natural History is part of the Smithsonian Research Complex. With the Smithsonian’s reputation of being the world's largest museum and research complex (consists of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park and nine research facilities) and the Museum of Natural Histories being 100 years old, I approached the place with an expectation of being awed and impressed.

It did awe me. The Hall of Dinosaurs had several foot tall dinosaur skeletons and ancient birds, including a life-size model of the Quetzalcoatlus northropi, which lived 70 million years ago, having a wingspan of 40-foot, and reputed to be the largest flying animal ever. Also residing above this hall is the jaw of an ancient shark, which lived in the oceans 5 million years ago. The very human-like faces in the Hall of Human Origins were eye-captivating. The faces had watery, real-like eyes on display cases dating back to thousands of years and were from across the globe.  Among these impressive displays was the Hope Diamond, the 23.1-carat ruby, one of the largest and finest rubies in the world in the Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals. Looking at all this amazing stuff, I thought I had missed the museum and had somehow mistakenly wandered into the sets of Jurassic Park or Ice Age.

What had happened to the museum? Where is the stuff, the Smithsonian boasts of? Where has their research on Human Evolution led them to? I closely read the reading material kept along the displays to find some sort of explanation to the dinosaur skeleton or the real-like human faces that were dated back to several thousand years and found none. The information available along with the displays were more focused on the description on the specimen, the sort that can be found in Wikipedia and less on how such a specimen was found or discussions that lead into serious topics. Later on while talking to others who had been to the museum, I found out that there was only a small bone in the rib-cage of one of the dinosaurs which was real and the rest of its body was constructed on assumptions. The same was the story for human-like faces. It is understandable to have reconstructions, but certainly not to way-led on-lookers. If most of what is displayed is reconstruction, it should be stated somewhere for people who might be interested in knowing about it. Their commitment to provide a wholesome entertainment doesn’t stop within their halls, but extends outside their building. Several display signs were erected around the Natural Museum and one of the recurring pictures was the following one:

Every single display sign that advertised for the Hall of Human Origins displayed the above picture, showing a man of Asian origin and an women of African origin with his/her ‘ancestor’. As of 2008 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States#Asian_Americans) only 4.4% of the U.S. population consists of Asian American and 12.4% of the whole population include Black Americans, while White Americans make-up the majority of the population at 80%.  Depicting a black American is quite understandable as they make up the second largest group, that is, if people of America are to be divided according to their racial make-up, but why people of Asian origin?

 According, to the museums official website, “the Museum’s temporary and permanent exhibitions serve to educate, enlighten and entertain millions of visitors each year”. Well, it certainly provides good entertainment to the visitors. However, it confounds the visitors more than enlighten them.

Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko with its compelling storyline gives raise to different interpretations, every time I watch it. The movie is tagged as “drama, mystery, and science-fiction” by IMDB. How well does the movie fulfill these genres?

The first time I watched the movie, I only appreciated the science-fiction side of the movie. I saw it as a movie exploring the theme of parallel universes and time travel. The movie was portraying the events that occurred in two different universes. There are multiple universes where the same incidents are happening at different times, that is, if these incidents from different universes are to be mapped on a single time scale. The creation of a worm hole connecting two universes, sends across Frank and an engine from a plane that crashes from one universe to the other, effecting changes in the other universe. This creation of worm hole repeats itself endlessly and the character Frank in the form of bunny rabbit, who travels to another universe through a worm hole, affects the incidents in the other universe by manipulating Donnie Darko to be inside his room. The official interpretation of the how the concept of time travel is dealt in the movie is different and is based on extra material outside of the movie and is beyond the scope of this review.  Later on, when I watched the movie for a second time, I felt that the concept of time travel was just a theme used to explore the philosophical concept of the existences of multiple realities.

There are multiple realities existing in the universe. The existences of these realities are a result of exercising our freewill. We have a choice to act in a certain way and powered by this choice we can change the course of things that happen in this world. Donnie has the choice to walk out of his room before the plane crashes and stay alive to kill Frank, see his first girlfriend die, burn the house of John Cunningham (the police finds paedo-pornography in his house when the house burns and they arrest John) or die. His death before these incidents take place would would mean that he would not kill Frank, his girlfriend may not die (she dies because she accompanies him to Roberta Sparrow’s house), and John Cunningham will not be arrested. Frank is nothing but an instrument in helping Donnie to exercise his freewill.  Does the movie have only philosophical underpinnings? If so, then it could have explored the concept much more deeply. For instance, it only looks at the freewill exercised by Donnie. Though Frank is instrumental in convincing Donnie to choose, Frank never chooses. It looks more like he is ‘destined’ to do it. As I watched the movie again, I felt the movie was not looking at the abstract philosophical concept of reality and the power to change reality through freewill, but at much more concrete issues.

The movie was dealing with the anxieties of a teenager who is feeling very lonely and afraid of accepting it. He is misunderstood by his family and some of his teachers. His ideas are radical and finds himself very removed from the society. He is further disturbed when Roberta Sparrow, a senile woman, whispers in his ears that every creature on this earth dies alone. The fact that one must die alone haunts him more than the fact that he feels alone in the world. In the end of the movie, he overcomes his fear to be alone and bravely meets death. His feeling of loneliness is bought out very beautifully in the song “Mad World”. I interpret the song the following way. Although there are familiar faces (family) around him, he can only see them racing through their lives and in the process making themselves miserable. He goes to his school with expectations of meeting new friends and learning new things in life and is let down badly. After going through the trauma of trying to be not alone he attains the maturity to be contended with death. For the lines from the song are ‘and I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad. These dreams in which I'm dying, are the best I’ve ever had’.

The movie at its face value appears to be a science fiction as it explicitly talks about the concept of time travel. Looking at the movie closely could make one think that it explores the abstract concept of reality and the manipulation of reality by using freewill. If so, then it had done it very simply. If it is viewed as a movie dealing with the anxieties of a teenager, then it had done well in exploring that topic. Therefore, I would say that the movie fits well into the categories of 'drama' and 'science fiction'. If we take the abstract philosophical concept of reality to fit the category of ‘mystery’, then it has not justifiably explored it.

Temple Run 2

Temple Run 2 reached a 50 million downloads within the first two weeks of its release in all three platforms, namely, iOS, Google Play, and Amazon Kindle. It has been in the app store since mid-January and continues to be popular among arcade game enthusiasts. Its predecessor, ‘Temple Run’ which had already been downloaded 170 million times before the release of Temple Run 2 had set an expectation that Temple Run 2 had to meet.

The game rules are simple and is same across both Temple Run and Temple Run 2. One has to keep running and stay out of reach of chaser(s) and at the same time avoid falling down bridges, cliffs, hitting on walls, and other obstacles. The game ends once we fail to avoid these obstacles.

The controls in Temple Run and Temple Run 2 are simple to master. We tilt our device to collect coins and avoid gaps in the paths and swipe left or right to turn corners. With several similarities between the two games, Imangi Studios sets Temple Run 2 apart with its graphically more elaborate environment. The boring straight paths of Temple Run gave a feeling of playing an MS DOS game, while the twisted and scenic mountain paths of Temple Run 2 make the environment more realistic. Sliding down ropes, crossing streams, navigating uneven surfaces, and wheeling on a cart under a mine shaft adds to the realistic feel the game gives to the user. One could safely say that Temple Run 2 has certainly met the expectations of the market for a free app.

Since, the app is free, it lures people into downloading the game and if one would like to finish the game faster, then one should purchase in-game coins and life savers by paying money. These in-game coins could also be collected while playing the game, but it takes longer to finish the objectives by solely depending on the coins collected while playing the game. Using the in-game coins, we could buy head starts and characters available from within the game. The four characters available in Temple Run 2 caught my attention.

The Character ‘Guy Dangerous’ is the starting character and comes for free. He is a ‘light skin’ toned ‘guy’. The next character is ‘Scarlett Fox’. She is a ‘light skin’ toned ‘female’ and can be unlocked for 5000 coins. The third character is ‘Barry Bones’. ‘He’ has a ‘dark skin’ tone and can be purchased for 15,000 coins. The fourth character is ‘Karma Lee’. ‘She’ has ‘slanting eyes’ and can be purchased for 25,000 coins. Along with three other characters all these four characters can also be found in the first version of the game. The racial and the gender differentiation is not very apparent in the earlier version as Scarlet Fox and Barry bones cost the same (the light skin toned female and the dark skin toned male), and the price for Karma Lee and the three additional characters were the same. Can pricing a female over male and non white skinned characters over the other two in Temple Run 2 be a mere coincidence?

If you are looking for a game that demands less thinking and at the same time entertaining then Temple Run 2 is worth your notice. The game also goes a step further to ‘quell’ any gender and racial accusations one might have against it.