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Orson Welles” final recordings to form basis of a new children”s film

March 30, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, March 30 (ANI): The last professional recordings of Orson Welles will now be turned into a children’s film 25 years after the filmmaker’s death.

The show reels, which contain footage of Welles narrating a children”s Christmas novel, were believed to have been lost.

Now Welles voice will be interspersed throughout the film Christmas Tails.

Christmas Tails’ author Richard Leeds had requested his friend Welles to narrate the story for him in 1985 making five reels of recordings.

Welles passed away after a few months later while the reels lay unknown in a cupboard in Leeds” home in Las Vegas.

Harvey Lowry, President of Drac Studios, which produced The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, contacted Leeds in 2009 after hearing a rumour about the tapes.

“This is a substantial find, something a filmmaker dreams of,” the Telegraph quoted Lowry, as telling The Independent.

The tapes were placed in a chemical bath and digitally remastered because they were quite old.

According to Lowry, several Hollywood actors want to star in the film, to be helmed by Todd Tucker.

The movie will have 3D live-action and computer graphics.

The plot follows Father Christmas’ panic after his reindeer fell ill nearly forcing him to cancel his annual deliveries before his dog comes to his rescue. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Author Richard, Christmas Tails, computer graphics, cupboard, curious case of benjamin button, deliveries, Drac Studios, father christmas, Film London, filmmaker, Hollywood actors, london march, lowry, Orson Welles, Professional Recordings, reindeer, Richard Leeds, rumour, Telegraph, Todd Tucker

English cave dig may yield clues as to why Neanderthals became extinct

September 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, September 14 (ANI): Archaeologists have discovered teeth and bones from late Ice Age animals, including hyenas, deer and woolly rhinos at a cave in Devon, UK, which may yield clues as to why Neanderthals became extinct.

According to a report by BBC News, the dig, organised by the University of Durham and the University of Sheffield, is part of a study into Neanderthals.

The team at the helm of the privately-funded dig is trying to discover exactly when and why Neanderthals became extinct.

It is also hoping to discover when our own species first came to the UK and if it is connected to the death of Neanderthal Man, as well as finding out more about the nature of later Ice Age life in the cave.

Some items found during the dig are sent away, after cleaning, for radiocarbon dating to accurately check their age.

It is believed that the teeth and bones from the hyena could date back more than 25,000 years. eeth and bones from late Ice Age animals have been found in the cave.

“Our excavation is still in its early days but has already unearthed excellently-preserved fossils and a spearpoint of antler from the Ice Age,” said Dr Paul Pettitt, senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Sheffield.

“Our research will dramatically improve our understanding of life between 10,000 and 50,000 years ago,” he added.

The dig at Kents Cavern, Torquay, also unearthed a 15,000-year-old spearpoint, known as a “sagaie”, which is made from reindeer antler from the same era.

The spearpoint is thought to be the first complete one found in the UK. (ANI)

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Hominids’ last supper establishes the times they lived at archaeological sites

July 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 15 (ANI): An international team of scientists has analyzed the last food that the hominids consumed, in order to establish the length of their occupations at archaeological sites.

As part of the research, the scientists analyzed the dental wear of the fossils of herbivorous animals found in the French cave of Arago, which were hunted by Homo heidelbergensis.

It is the first time that an analytical method has allowed the establishment of the length of human occupations at archaeological sites.

The key is the last food that these hominids consumed.

For many years, the mobility of the groups of hominids and how long they spent in caves or outdoors has been a subject of discussion among scientists.

Now, an international team headed by researchers from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) in Tarragona has based its studies on the dental fossils of animals hunted by hominids in order to determine the vegetation in the environment and the way of life of Homo heidelbergensis.

“For the first time, a method has been put forward which allows us to establish the relative length of the human occupations at archaeological sites as, up until now, it was difficult to ascertain the difference between, for example, a single long-term occupation and a succession of shorter seasonal occupations in the same place”, said Florent Rivals, a researcher from ICREA.

In the study, the researchers analyze the dental wear of the ungulates (herbivorous mammals) caused by microscopic particles of opaline silica in plants.

These marks appear when eating takes place and erase the previous ones. This is why they are so useful.

Thanks to the “last supper phenomenon”, the scientists have been able to analyze the last food consumed by animals such as the Eurasian wild horse, the mouflon and the reindeer. “This method allows us to confirm the seasonal nature of the occupation”, Rivals added.

According to the team, the microwear of the teeth is sensitive to seasonal changes in the diet.

The application has allowed the researchers to estimate the length of the occupation of the site from the Lower Paleolithic Age in the cave of Arago (France) by the number of marks on the fossils and, therefore, the variation in the diet of several species of herbivores, as “each season presented food resources which were limited and different in the environment”, the paleontologist clarified.

“With this method, we were able to prove that at the site, which belonged to Homo heidelbergensis, there is evidence of differing mobility, as there were highly mobile groups and others with little mobility”, said Rivals. (ANI)

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Will Ferrell ate reindeer eyeball during ‘Man vs. Wild’ stint

May 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 30 (ANI): Comedian Will Ferrell has revealed that he ate raw reindeer eyeball during his stint in Man vs. Wild.

The 41-year-old star will be appearing on the series along with former military man and survivor expert Bear Grylls, for the promotion of his new film ‘Land Of The Lost’.

The Anchorman star spent two days with Grylls in the frozen Swedish wilderness and learned how to make snowshoes from twigs and light a signal fire.

He also drank his own urine and ate reindeer eyeball, while learning how to stay alive against the odds.

“I did eat the cornea of a reindeer. Bear cut out this little gelatinous disc from the eyeball and was like, ‘Here, try this!’” Contactmusic quoted him as telling Entertainment Weekly.

Ferrell admits the taste and texture was disgusting. (ANI)

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37,000-year-old baby mammoth discovered

May 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, May 3 (ANI): The secrets of now extinct ice age beasts have been revealed after the discovery of a body of a 37,000-year-old baby mammoth.

The perfectly preserved frozen body was found in the artic tundra.

For 37,000 years, the baby mammoth has been kept locked in the rock hard permafrost of the Arctic tundra. It was discovered at the side of a river by reindeer herders on the Yamal Peninsula in northwest Siberia.

Clumps of brown hair still cling to the three-foot tall body, hinting at the coarse coat that would have once covered the infant, reports The Telegraph.

The bone month old female is helping scientists to unravel how the extinct ice age giants once lived.

Her stomach’s contents have provided scientists with valuable clues about what she and her fellow mammoths ate. The baby’s layers of fat and minerals in her teeth have provided an unprecedented insight into her health and the health of her herd.

Palaeontologists now believe the information they have gleaned from the remains can help them understand what led to the woolly mammoths’ ultimate extinction around 10,000 years ago.

It is thought that mammoths died out as they were unable to adapt to the changing world around them as temperatures soared at the end of the last ice age, although some experts believe they may have been hunted to extinction by humans.

“Mammoths were the largest and most widespread of the many animals that went extinct near the end of the last ice age,” said Dr Dan Fisher, a palaeontologist at the University of Michigan’s Museum of Palaeontology who helped to study the baby mammoth.

“This is the first time we have been able to do a detailed comparison of a mammoth’s tusk and tooth data with soft tissues from the rest of its body.

“Though she is not large, no other specimen preserves this much of the original anatomy. That makes her a remarkable scientific resource,” the expert added. (ANI)

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Will Ferrell drinks his own urine to survive Man vs. Wild adventure!

April 24, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 24 (ANI): American actor/comedian Will Farrell was forced to drink his own urine to survive his expedition on the Discovery Channel’s Man vs. Wild.

The show’s host Bear Grylls went on a two-day joint expedition with the comedian in the Swedish hinterland.

Armed with only the most basic survival equipment, Grylls took Ferrell through the paces of real life survival in the ice-bound mountain and glacier ranges in the far north of Sweden.

Farrell, who participated in the show to promote his adventure comedy, Land of the Lost – what it takes to find food in the forests, had to drink his own urine and munch on reindeer eyes to survive the tough journey.

“To be able to participate in an episode of Man vs. Wild was a thrill of a lifetime, even though I did get urine-drunk which is sad,” Usmagazine quoted Ferrell as saying in a statement.

“Will did an amazing job in sub-zero, very unforgiving conditions,” said Grylls.

“He trusted me when it mattered and we survived. And he has definitely had an adventure! He should be very proud of how he performed,” he added. (ANI)

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Neanderthals may have acted in much the same way as early modern humans

April 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 7 (ANI): A new study has suggested that Neanderthals may have acted in much the same way as early modern humans, and were much savvier than previously thought.
According to a report in the Scientific American, to compare the behavior of Neanderthals and early moderns, paleoanthropologist Bruce Hardy of Kenyon College studied artifacts from a site in southwestern Germany called Hohle Fels.

The site contains several levels of archaeological remains.

One of these levels dates to between 36,000 and 40,000 years ago and contains tools manufactured in the Mousterian cultural tradition associated with Neanderthals.

Another comprises items that are 33,000 to 36,000 years old and are made in the Aurignacian style associated with early modern humans.

What makes Hohle Fels ideal for comparing Neandertal and modern human behavior is that both groups lived under comparable climate and environmental conditions at this locale (cold temperatures and open habitat).

They also had the same prey animals available to them, such as reindeer and horse.

Hardy examined the Mousterian and Aurignacian implements under a microscope, looking at their wear patterns and searching for residues from the substances with which the tools came into contact.

He found that although the modern humans created a larger variety of tools than did the Neanderthals, the groups engaged in mostly the same activities.

These activities include using tree resin to bind stone points to wooden handles, employing stone points as thrusting or projectile weapons, crafting implements from bone and wood, butchering animals and scraping hides.

According to the researchers, perhaps Neanderthals did not bother inventing additional tool types because they were able to get the job done just fine without them.

“Neanderthals stuck around for 150,000 years. That’s not a species that doesn’t know what it’s doing,” said Hardy.

As to how did the Neanderthals ultimately disappear, Hardy is of the opinion that it could just be that modern humans had a slight reproductive advantage that, over thousands of years, allowed their population to swamp the Neanderthal one. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: artifacts, aurignacian, climate, cold temperatures, environmental conditions, human behavior, implements, kenyon college, microscope, moderns, mousterian, Neanderthals, open habitat, prey animals, projectile weapons, reindeer, scientific american, southwestern germany, tool types, tree resin