Peter Frost, aresearcher at Laval University contends that after the Ice Age there were more women than men available and that colouring made blonde and blue-eyed females stand out more than others, leading to their early popularity as mates. So it turns out that "The Clan of the Cave Bear" was accurate! More here >>

Funny how you learn about the person behind the books only when they've suddenly left us. Octavia Butler died on the weekend after falling on the sidewalk in front of her home in Seattle, never recovering from the head injury she sustained. Butler was unique, a black woman author who wrote primarily in science fiction. In 1984 she won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. A bibliography here >>

I was helping a friend move today (funny how moving across the street was somehow more stressful than me moving across the city) and as I was parking my car I noticed this guy on the sidewalk SCREAMING WITH RAGE at a car parked in front of me. After I locked my car I approached, wondering if maybe I needed to help whoever was in the car being screamed at by a man who was livid with anger. But actually he was screaming at his own reflection in the car window. "YOU DUMB FUCK! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS! YOU FUCKED UP! YOU FUCKED UP!" Man, our government needs to put more money into mental health services for street people.

An extremely lovely timelapse still image is the first thing you see when you visit Martin Krzywinski's "High Dynamic Time Range" website in which he discusses the method for making a still image containing the output of an entire range of time. He is very much interested in replicating the method for taking these photos but I am totally in love with the headlining image of the Burrard St. Bridge taken over the course of one day.

The Guardian poses an interesting question in this article about how the spread of the English language means that Britain no longer has a specific advantage because ... they know English. According to the British Council, Indian and Chinese students speak English as a second language more fluently than any other people in the world. Armed with at least two languages, they now have an advantage over only-English speakers. And now that the Chinese and Indians have read the article ...?

Last night I sat through a quiet quirky film set in the beauty of the Cowichan valley in B.C. and two seats to the right of me was this woman who was crinkling through her cheesy poofs for the ENTIRE FUCKING MOVIE. Me? I would go through one of these bags BEFORE THE PREVIEWS HAVE ENDED but she spent the entire movie slowly exploring the inner caverns of the crinkly bag, searching out that one SPECIAL NUGGET OF SATURATED FAT GOODNESS and then she would slowly withdraw her hand and stuff it into her MAW. But was that the only sound? Nooooo.. When she CHEWED whatever it was it sounded like a BONFIRE. But this is the evening after I read that story about the Texas shitbird who called the cops ("Woman arrested for asking for quiet in cinema") so I didn't want to reach over and hit her. Instead, my girlfriend's mother leaned over both my girlfriend and I and mouthed: "you are annoying me" and the woman got the message ... for five minutes. And then she started again. How anyone could take 90 minutes to eat one bag I do not know.

World Press Photo has announced and presented 2005's most intriguing and evocative press photos. A Canadian for Reuters has won for his photo of a mother and her tiny child at a feeding center in Niger. You can see the gallery here >>

The nuclear laboratory located in the heart of Alameda County will now be protected against terrorist strikes (or attacks by Cobra assumedly) by electrically-powered gatling guns. Overkill? Apparently the concern is that terrorists in big rigs might attempt to either blow up or take over the lab. The Dillon Aero M134D minigun (that is the one pictured) can throw 66 rounds per second (or 3,000 per minute), turning people into vapour and vehicles into recycling. None of the news indicates whether the weapons will be crew-served, remote-controlled or computer controlled. Surrounding residents are surprisingly unconcerned about the Terminator weapons in their midst. One letter carrier points out that even if he is caught in the cross-fire, he won't feel a thing.

It's always interesting to see what Hollywood insiders consider their gems of the year so of course I had to pay attention to the 2005 Academy nomations. You can read them here and now read my comments.

Overall, a strong showing from indie and small films this year. While I don't feel very strongly over any one of these films, it's nice to know that the quality of stories and performances can sometimes win the hearts of cynical Academy members over big budget costume glitz - the regular Oscar teases or larger than life biopics.

"Brokeback Mountain" is definitely worth seeing. Its strength is in a core of very heartfelt scenes that are tied together in a very laconic fashion. That and two excellent performances by Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams (really, everyone in that movie is good). I think it has received so much acclaim this year because it is a touchstone film. Similarly, "In the Heat of the Night" was a touchstone film for race relations.

"I watched "Crash" last night and was underwhelmed. A handful of good performances knitted together in a series of superficial preachy stories. Happenstance I can handle, even an urban fairytale. I hesitate to besmirch a Canadian screenwriting success story in producer-director-writer Paul Haggis but I felt that he could have made a stronger film with fewer storylines instead of skipping around to seemingly cover every single racial division in L.A. I may be in the minority because I also wasn't taken by last year's eventual Oscar winner: "Million Dollar Baby" which Haggis wrote.

I'm sad that "Syriana" was left off but I can figure it was because it was a movie about how the major characters are actually minor characters and the conflict is almost unknowable. Also, the voters probably thought they had seen the same thing before and it was called "Traffic".

I have a sense that if Ang Lee wins for Best Director it will be because the Academy feels guilty for giving the Oscar to Steven Soderbergh the year Lee should have won for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". This is not to say that his direction in "Brokeback" isn't good, it is, just not the overt stylish direction that begs for recognition. For that, I expected David Cronenberg to receive a nod for "History of Violence". His ommision on a list that still includes the obligatory Steven Spielberg nomination is the most glaring (at least there was a "History" nod for Adapted Screenplay). I was glad to see Bennet Miller get his first nod for "Capote". He really had a difficult job with "Capote".

The nomination for best actor is between Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ledger. Hoffman is filling a bigger than life character while Ledger is more down to earth. If I was a cynical Academy watcher I would say that Hoffman would get it because he is playing such a strange character and has worked so hard to fill the real Capote's shoes. An Academy voter might also conclude that Ledger has a great future ahead of him and will end up being nominated agai while Hoffman - who has been a supporting actor mostly - may never get another opportunity to be Best Actor. But myself, I know no performance from film that shook me more than the scene where Ledger's Ennis is so destroyed by saying goodbye to his lover at the end of the summer that he collapses in an alley and only can beat the wall in frustration and self-hatred and loss. I regret I haven't seen "Good Night and Good Luck" so I can't rate David Strathairn for best actor.

I unfortunately only saw one performance in the Best Actress category. All I can say is that Kiera Knightely belongs among the nominations. "Pride and Prejudice" with better marketing and in any other year woud have been up there. It was a beautiful, lively film.

I'm happy that William Hurt received recognition for his supporting role in "History of Violence". He was so quirky and awesome. Amy Adams was really wonderful in "Junebug". Actually I would recommend everyone rent that this weekend. A really funny, weird movie. Did anyone know she was an English actor? Catharine Keener was the only heart in "Capote" - and she was good - but I didn't feel her character had a major part to play in that film. She had a better role in "The 30 Year Old Virgin" which would end up on my best of list this year.

The only category for which I've seen all the nominated films was for Adapted Screenplay. Although I assume one criteria for being nominated in that is in the strength of screenplay, I think when it comes down to it, the vote goes to the best screenplay period. Of the five "Munich" is the most driven but not entirely effective (see January for my review). All four others had very interesting and challenging issues. "The Constant Gardner" (Jeffrey Caine) swam back and forth between flashbacks. "Capote" struggled to find conflict within the byplay between a killer and a predatory writer. "Brokeback Mountain" was sparse and used space as a sop for the audience's emotional filling-in. These aren't criticisms but points of interest to me. That leaves, to me, Josh Olsen's "A History of Violence". I've read that a lot of it was Cronenberg's adaptation but it doesn't matter. On the screen, "A History of Violence" challenged me with its change of tone, its building but then sudden shifts in tone and in its edge on look at the two sides of human nature.

Of the original screenplay category I've only seen "Syriana" and "Crash", neither of which I think is that memorable.

The noms for cinematography I can't comment on having seen only "The New World" and "Brokeback Mountain". Of those two, "The New World"'s lenser Emmanuel Lubezki had the most work to do. I'm a bit surprised not to see "Munich"'s Janusz Kaminski not recognized for his 70s gritty thriller style. But then he has been to the podium before.

"Paradise Now" in the best foreign picture category is a very special movie and will rate higher than most movies on my best of 2005 list. It is a much better movie than "Munich" which skirts the same subject matter. Why is "2046" not anywhere on the noms? The answer is simple. It was released very poorly and the Wong Kar Wei did himself no service by coming to festivals with an unfinished product. That said, I wish it was at least recognized somewhere.