The Ottawa Senators stands in 7th place in the Eastern Conference after 61 games played. They are at 70 points with 31 wins, 22 loses & 8 OTs with 185 goals scored against 180 goals conceded. That defence & goalkeeping need shoring up badly. But last night was a wonderful win for the Senators, 6-0 away against the New York Islanders.
Day: February 21, 2012
Yeah The Ladies Were Too Kind
50-50
50-50 refers to the chances of the lead character’s surviving his bout with cancer in the story behind this film. You can also see the title as the reference to “it takes a pair to beat the odd” as the cancer patient & his best friend going through the challenges together. The Johnathan Levine directed movie was written by Will Reiser, loosely inspired by his own experiences with cancer and stars Joseph Gordon-LevittĀ andĀ Seth Rogen. An excellent supporting cast is rounded out by Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas-Howard, Matt Frewer & Anjelica Houston.
27 year old journalist Adam Lerner finds out that he has a rare form of cancer and must immediately start chemotherapy for it. His own research shows that he has a 50% chance of surviving the battle with the cancer. He first informs this to his girlfriend Rachel and his best friend / co-worker Kyle. It is obvious that Kyle disapproves of Rachel. Next Adam has to reveal his diagnosis to his overbearing mother Diane (played very effectively by Anjelica Houston) who already has to take care of a husband suffering fromĀ Alzheimer’s disease. But she says she wants to move in with him to help him through this time, although Adam rejects this as Rachael has promised to be the one to take care of him.
Adam also starts seeing a a therapist Katharine McKay (the very cute Anna Kendrick), who is young & inexperienced as Adam notes she doesn’t look old enough. Although their sessions starts of on a rocky basis and things are tense between them, he slowly starts to open up to her about his fears and how the disease is affecting him. The two develop a rapport both in and outside of their sessions, as the lines between doctor-patient and friends begins to blur. Adam also shaves his head in his bathroom with Kyle in tow and befriends two older fellow patients, Mitch & Alan, who he starts to hang out with during and outside of the hospital. Kyle sees Rachel kissing another man and informs this to Adam who breaks up with her, much to Kyle’s happiness.
Kyle tries to keep Adam’s spirits high and tells him that they can pick up chicks using his illness to their benefit and they do go out to a bar and pick up girls. However Adam ends up not enjoying himself, not able to adjust to the situations. He starts to sinks further into depression and when Mitch dies his composure slowly begins to unravel as the realities and seriousness of his illness become increasingly sharper. His doctor soon inform him that the chemo isn’t working and they will have to operate. After a night out with Kyle, he crashes at his friend’s place and sees that Kyle has been reading up on how to help a cancer patient. Seeing his friend’s hidden devotion to him gives him some added courage. He goes in for the operation while his parents & Kyle wait, joined in the waiting room by Kathaerine. Adam’s surgery is successful as the cancer is removed. At the end of the movie Adam has Katharine over for a date and as they start a relationship the movie ends to the brilliant Yellow Ledbetter by Pearl Jam.
Its well acted and well written. The cast was well chosen and although the movie is light-hearted for the most part, it still is a sweet & touching movie. 8 out of 10!
300 Million Year Old Forest Discovered
From Gizmodo & Science Daily:
Much like Pompeii, a 300-million-year-old tropical forest was preserved in ash when a volcano erupted in what is today northern China, under a coal mine. American and Chinese scientists are flabbergasted after discovering a giant 298-million-year-old forest buried intact under a coal mine near Wuda, in Inner Mongolia, China. It is being called the Pompeii of the Permian period because it is covered & preserved by volcanic ash, just like the Ancient Italian city. This swamp forest is so perfectly maintained that scientists know where every plant originally was, labeling it to be like a time capsule.
Standing there you will be able to find a branch with the leaves attached, and then onto the next branch and the next branch and the next branch and finally the stump of the same tree. They are in fact finding entire trees and plants exactly as they were at the time of the volcanic eruption. The researchers discovered the 10,763-square-foot (1000-square-meter) area hidden under a coal mine using heavy industrial machinery. They believe that this frozen-in-time fossilized forest was covered under gigantic amounts of ash that fell from the sky for days. During the Permian, which extends from 299 to 251 million years ago, During the Permian, which extends from 299 to 251 million years ago. This is also when the first groups of mammals, turtles, lepidosaurs and archosaurs started to roam the Earth.
Haha and the Christian fundamentalists & the bible wants you to believe that the earth is only 6000-10,000 years old! :P