Thursday, November 27, 2008

Video Games with Penguins: Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing is a role-playing series. It started with a Gamecube version and then got a portable Nintendo DS version. Last Sunday the Wii version came out called Animal Crossing: City Folk. I purchased it since I enjoy the Animal Crossing games. In the game you are a human, but all the other characters that live in your town are animals. One of the types of animals is a penguin. I sadly do not have any penguins in my town called Penguia, but I visit the City part daily and finally ran into a penguin as seen in the screenshot below.




Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Video Games with Penguins: Dora Saves the Snow Princess for Nintendo DS

Dora Saves the Snow Princess for Nintendo DS has some minimal penguin appearances. The main penguin appearance is in the mini game in which you search for animals. One of the scenes that you search in has you circle the penguins.




Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Video Games with Penguins: Madagascar Escape 2 Africa

I reviewed the Madagascar Escape 2 Africa movie here. I liked the movie and rented the game for the Wii and the DS. Both versions are good games. The Wii one does not seem to have much of a penguin presence at least in the beginning. The DS one has a penguin presence pretty quickly including a real fun penguin mission that is puzzle like because you have to get all four to the end using each penguin's special abilities.

Wii Screenshots



DS Screenshots




Monday, November 24, 2008

Video Games with Penguins: Wii Fit Penguin Slide

I got Wii Fit a few weeks ago. One of the balance games is called Penguin Slide. In it your Mii character is dressed in a penguin costume. In the game you lean left and right to tilt the iceberg you are standing on to help the penguin catch fish.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Japanese Cleaning Up Its Act in Antarctica?

I noticed an interesting headline in my Google Antartic news alert today. The article is titles "Japanese Cleaning Up its Act in Antarctica." At first it would seem that it would be about them lowering their quotas for whaling this year, but it is not at all related to the Whale Wars. Instead it is about cleaning up the trash that has accumulated over the years at their Syowa Station. Read the whole article here.

Whale Wars Episode 3 Wrap Up

Episode 3 of Whale Wars is about them working to get their two hostages back from the Japanese whalers through work with the Australian government. It is also about an attack they make on the Japanese whaler as it left where it dropped off the hostages on a neutral ship. Part of this attack involves drama about the zodiac not responding and possibly being lost as it got dark. Overall this is the most interesting episode so far.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Encounters At the End of the World Now on DVD

Encounters at the End of the World is a movie that played in various theaters, although I know some areas had limited time releases if any at all. I almost missed it in my area last September, but I did catch a showing of it and posted my mini review here. This DVD release sounds interesting, as it is supposed to have over 100 minutes of bonus materials. They also released it on Blu-Ray.

Dark Matter in Antarctica?

Here is an interesting National Geographic article about dark matter over Antarctica. I would summarize it good, but basically the whole dark matter thing makes little sense to me, who has little science knowledge. Basically it sounds like they captured high energy electrons over Antartica and this may be physical evidence of dark matter or proof that a mysterious astrophysical object is nearby bombarding Earth with cosmic rays.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Whale Wars 2008 Approaching

While the new television show about Whale Wars 2007 begins airing, final preparations for Whale Wars 2008 has been showing up in my Antartic news alert e-mails. One of the news items is about Actress Daryl Hannah joining the Sea Shepherd for the beginning of their voyage this year. Another news item is about the opponents of the Japanese whaling efforts working as seen by the fact that the Japanese quota was lowered from 850 last year to 700 this year. Also, the Japanese admit that one of the reasons for the lower quota is a declining whale meat market and that last year they only got 551 whales due to the environmentalists actions. Lastly the news that the Japanese have left to begin the whaling season.

Octopuses Descend from Antarctic Ancestor

Here is an interesting article about many octopuses have a common ancestor that lived near Antarctica 30 million years ago. It also talks a little about a modern octopus that still lives in the Antarctic as being the closest relative of the ancestor. It is believed that octopuses started around Antarctica and then dispersed around the world and evolved to what they are today when Antarctica started to become the ice continent it is today.

Whale Wars Episode 2 Wrap Up

I actually watched the second episode live on Friday, which seems to be a pretty rare thing for me. Of course, I then forgot to post about it until today. The second episode was about what I guess could be called the first battle between the environmentalists and the Japanese. The main focus was on the two environmentalists that boarded the ship and then were held as hostages. It was a more interesting episode than the first, although it is kind of repetitive and the would have been better as a half hour episode.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Movies with Penguins: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

Yesterday I went and saw Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa in theaters. I do not often go see movies in the theater and it is even rarer that it is my idea that initiates going, but this is one of the few movies I really wanted to see. In part it is because of the penguin characters.

The movie is basically about four zoo animals who ended up in Madagascar in the first movie. Now in the sequel they escape from Madagascar via an airplane fixed up by the penguins. They originally are trying to get back to New York, but the plane fails fast and they just end up crash landing on a nature reserve in Africa. Hence the name Escape 2 Africa and not just Madagascar 2.

Anyways the movie is a pretty good animated movie. The plot was quite vague and I was not sure it was going to be good based on the previews, but it turned out to be really interesting. The penguin parts are still pretty slim, but the penguins do have some good scenes, especially when they attack the humans on safari.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Whale Wars Episode 1 Wrap Up

I did watch the first episode premiere of the Whale Wars series over the weekend, but I was busy with a craft show and almost forgot to get around to posting about the series. The show's first episode is about them leaving port and early troubles they face and continues until they confirm finding the Japanese whalers. Overall the show is pretty interesting, but so far it really does not talk much about why they are against the whaling other than very vague and broad statements. It would be nice if they were actual well rounded arguments, but what do you expect from such extremists. I do support what they did, but it just is not presented in a way that makes them seem anything except pretty crazy and not having a reasonable reason for their actions.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Whale Wars on Animal Planet

I just saw a commercial for this new show called Whale Wars. The show is about the so called eco terrorists trying to stop the Japanese from whaling in the Antarctic, which was a big news thing last Antarctic summer season and I am sure it will be again this year. The series of 7 episodes follows the story of their efforts last year. The first episode premieres on Animal Planet at 9pm Eastern and Pacific Time. The other episodes follow in the same time slot every Friday at least until episode 3. The website does not currently list episodes 3 through 7 with their air times, but they probably will be the same time slot. I set them up to be recorded and plan to do episode wrap ups on this blog as soon as I can after the episodes air.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Aid Finally Reaches Injured Australian

Here is an article about them finally being able to get the extra medical staff to the injured Australian in Antarctica. He has been in stable, but serious condition and the extra staff will help relieve the around the clock work done by the lone doctor since October 20th and prepare him for transport to get the further care he needs.