Genetically Modified Wheat - escaping into the wild

The use of genetically modified (GM) crops particularly wheat is a highly controversial topic and GM crops are currently strictly controlled at point of origin and GM wheat is not approved for commercial use anywhere in the world. Despite exacting controls however GM wheat does escape from test farms and has been shown to actually be capable of replacing natural grown wheat where the two come into contact. Agricultural biotech giant Monsanto has been the main operator, researcher and developer of GM crops but has been at a loss to explain GM wheat materialising in non research locations such as the farm in Oregon this year. The original GM wheat test programme was ended in 2004 and the GM material was destroyed yet this farm was found to have GM wheat 9 years later and was not even part of the actual GM test programme.

Similar experiences have been found with testing of GM crops in Australia where there is a high potential for cross contamination with natural wheat. Japan and South Korea immediately halted wheat imports from the United States until the wheat had been tested for GM traces. Australia would do well to remain cautious about the use of GM crops given the almost non-existent information on downstream impact and longer term human health. 

Film review - Oblivion - Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise in a Still from Oblivion

It's taken almost as a given that any film shot in the Science Fiction, Action or Fantasy genres should make extensive use of CGI special effects not only for effect but as a substitution for the absence of an interesting or functional plot, shallow storyline or none-existence of effective character development. With Joseph Kosinski's film Oblivion the use of CGI is not excessive and remains well within the context and sci fi environment setting of the story. The film has a tight central cast of only six characters with Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough in central roles with supporting acting roles being Melissa Leo and Nikolaj Coster-Walder. Kosinski co-wrote, produced and directed this film which was funded/distributed by Universal Pictures.and shot in various locations in Iceland and the United States.

In voiceover narrative, the story is set in the year 2077 and Tech 49 Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) is one of the last drone repair technicians stationed on Earth. The planet was nearly destroyed sixty years ago, during a war against a race of alien invaders known as Scavengers ("Scavs"). The Scavs destroyed the moon, causing massive earthquakes and tsunamis on the earth's surface, before launching their own invasion. Only through the use of nuclear weapons were the Scavs defeated, which left most of the planet irradiated and uninhabitable. The few surviving humans temporarily migrated to a large space station called the "Tet", a massive tetrahedral space station that orbits the Earth, powered using energy harvested on Earth by giant ocean-borne power stations that generate fusion power from seawater. From the "Tet "most of the survivors have  migrated to Titan, one of Saturn's moons abandoning the Earth. From Tower 49, a base standing above the remains of the northeastern United states, Jack and his work partner and lover Victoria "Vika" Olsen (Andrea Riseborough) operate as a team to maintain the autonomous heavily armed drones that defend the power stations from the remaining elements of the defeated Scav army. They receive their daily work orders via electronic communications from Sally (Melissa Leo), their mission commander, who is stationed on the Tet. 

But all is not what its seems and Jack will be confronted by a completely different reality when he actually meets the 'Scavs' and their leader (Morgan Freeman) and realises the greatest threat is the 'Tet' itself.

Oblivion performed modestly in the US box office taking on $89M in sales against a $120M cost but enjoyed much stronger ticket sales overseas bringing the film's total income to $286M. It is a visually impacting film with a specially written music score by French electronic music band M83 to complement the expansive dimensions of the film. Kosinski is best known for his other film work 'Tron: Legacy' for Disney and visual effects for the 'Halo 3' game.

Jack (Tom Cruise) watches as a repaired drone takes off - Oblivion

Art & About - Sydney's annual outdoor art festival

Sydney's annual mutli-site public art festival Art & About has returned to Sydney again for 2013 with a range of public installations, exhibitions and performances in open spaces. The festival runs from 20 September to 20 October 2013 and has a number of public installations stretching from Circular Quay in the North of the City to Surry Hills in the South - notable this year are the giant brightly coloured snails located in various points in the city. Towering three to three metres high and four and half metres in length ('Smailovation' by title), these noticeable visitors can be found in Hyde Park, Customs House Forecourt, Queens Square and so on.  As with previous festivals, banners with a particular image and message form part of the festival and this year the theme is 'walking men' as part of the international art project, walking-men.com. Banners hanging from street light poles have figures printed in human scale demonstrating how different countries choose to represent the 'common man' in a pictogram.

Another highlight of Art & About is the photography exhibition 'Sydney Life' located in Hyde Park North which captures people and moments of Life around Sydney.Public art festivals such as Art and About are as much about accessibility as civic ambiance and add much to the concrete and glass urban landscape.

Film Review - The Best Offer - Geoffrey Rush

Geoffrey Rush in The Best Offer

The Best Offer was written and directed by Italian film director, Giuseppe Tornatore, better known for his acclaimed award-winning film Cinema Paradiso. The film follows combined themes of love and deceit, is set in Europe (and filmed in various locations Trieste, Bolzano, Fidenza, Rome, Milan, Merano, Vienna, Prague) and centred on the world of high-end art auctions and antiques. The central character is Virgil Oldman (Geoffrey Rush), an elderly, esteemed, but somewhat eccentric principal of an auction house bearing his name. Oldman operates as both valuer and auctioneer for his clients but his poise, prestige and undoubted expertise is counterpointed by an ongoing bidding scam whereby his friend Billy Whistler (Donald Sutherland) operates as an undisclosed related bidder  in auctions to enable Oldman to acquire a secret private collection of master paintings - for a fraction of their actual value.

 

Virgil is contacted and then hired by a reclusive young heiress, Claire Ibbetson (Sylvia Hoeks), to value and auction off the large collection of art and antiques left to her by her deceased parents. Claire consistently refuses to be seen in person but communicates only by phone and often fails to appear even when agreed with the auctioneer. Oldman also has another associate being a young artificer and 'fixer', Robert (Jim Sturgess), who aids him by restoring objects and devices he acquires by whatever means. A particular project involves reassembling a robotic device Virgil carefully acquires piece-by-piece from Claire's property. Virgil also seeks Robert's advice on how to befriend her, and how to deal with his evolving feelings towards her.

 

The film has a number of cliches but the storyline does provide the ultimate twist when the scam or 'sting' is revealed. A few clues are given so the audience is able to deduce that all is not as it seems.  It is the performance of Geoffrey Rush however which forms the foundation and strength of the plot line and ultimately the entire film.



Climate Change Insight: How the Earth's tilt is affected

As most high school students would know (and the rest of us remember), the Earth spins, or more accurately, it wobbles on an axis which in turn causes the magnetic poles to shift slowly. The Earth's rotational axis and its rate of spin are influenced by the fact that the planet is not a perfect sphere but rather has a changing surface caused by plate tectonics, movement of mass such as oceans due to the weather and erosion of solid structures. The drift has generally been around 6 centimetres a year with the poles moving in a constant direction however in 2005 this suddenly both changed and accelerated. The drift switch was a surprise and researchers at the University of Texas using the GRACE satellites (or Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) have found the answer. 

Warming temperatures have led to an extraordinary loss of mass in glaciers in Greenland, Antarctica and large mountain ranges in the order of 600 gigatonnes a year. The redistribution of water from ice surfaces to the oceans accounts for almost the entire change in the Earth's polar tilt since 2005 and its acceleration.

Climate Change Insight: The IPCC and the Assessment Reports - Based on fact rather than fiction.

Recent media reports have been speculating that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is likely to backtrack on the level of global warming which has occured and instead state that global warming has only been around  half  of the level presented in its' previous reports. This odd media speculation has already been found to be based on various false and misleading statements without evidence nor facts. Correspondingly the IPCC is about to release the first stage of its' Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) with the other parts to be delivered progressively over 2013–2014.

When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases one of its major reports, it’s an assessment that collects and summarises current knowledge regarding climate change. This is undertaken using peer reviewed literature and unreviewed (grey) sources of science data. The reports from the IPCC are considered to be the leading review globally of climate change and are drafted and reviewed literally by a team of hundreds of scientists and specialists from a diverse range of disciplines.

The IPCC itself is organised into three Working Groups and a Taskforce.  Working Group I covers “The Physical Science Basis of Climate Change”, Working Group II addresses “Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability”, and Working Group III deals with “Mitigation of Climate Change”. The Task Force refines the methodology for the calculation and reporting of national greenhouse gas emissions and reductions. All these groups have two co-chairs, one from a developed country and one from a developing country.

To given an idea of the scale of involvement from the worldwide science communtiy, the First Order Draft of Working Group I for the forthcoming AR5 report for example received 21,400 comments from 659 experts. The AR5’s Second Order Draft for Working Group I received 31,422 comments from about 800 experts and 26 governments.

 

The timeline for the three key areas examined in the AR5 are:

• the physical science – Working Group I (September 2013)
• impacts, vulnerabilities and adaptation – Working Group II (March 2014)
• mitigation options scenarios – Working Group III (April 2014) 

A final synthesis report to be released in October 2014, will provide an overview of all of these three areas.