Comments on: Avatar: Vision or Mere Entertainment?

By: ljk

ljk — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 04:04:07 +0000

And we can add charges of racism to the mix:

http://news.discovery.com/human/avatar-racism-james-cameron.html

By: ljk

ljk — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 04:22:14 +0000

If Avatar isn’t making anti-smokers cranky (Sigourney Weaver’s character
of Grace the head scientist on Pandora smokes cigarettes), or getting the
Vatican all up in a huff about nature worshipping – though, ironically, it
could be said that all human religions began as worshipping nature – now
the film is also anti-capitalist, which is really ironic when you think about
how Avatar hasn’t even been out two months yet and it has already made
1.3 billion dollars and is expected to exceed Titanic as the all-time
cinematic money-maker.

Read here:

http://open.salon.com/blog/dragonfly/2010/01/13/avatar_anti-capitalist_not_anti-military

By: ljk

ljk — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:55:22 +0000

The Vatican is unhappy with all that nature worship going on in Avatar:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/vatican-slams-avatar-prom_n_419949.html

They’re probably not big fans of Gaia, either.

More evidence that Avatar is being taken seriously as a focal point for discussion on numerous topics by the general public.

By: Ronald

Ronald — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 10:30:17 +0000

Athena,

unfair and inappropriate, let me make myself clearer, apparently necessary here:

in my more elaborate comment above (Ronald January 6, 2010 at 12:29) I am commenting on “the occurrence of gas giants in binary star systems” (as I also stated im my later post (January 7, 2010 at 6:40).

My statement “I know and honestly I did not really care”, therefore, does not refer to ‘the science of Avatar’ and your many (probably justified) criticisms of it (points taken) but to your latest comment on the naming of Polyphemus, which seems rather irrelevant in relation to my entire post of 6 Jan.

By: Athena Andreadis

Athena Andreadis — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:45:11 +0000

Say hello to Moff's Law, Ronald.

By: Ronald

Ronald — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:40:18 +0000

Athena,

I know and honestly I did not really care.

I was only referring, in my previous post above, to the occurrence of gas giants in binary star systems, which brought me to the observation, that, although multiple gas giants in relatively close orbit are common (also near solar type stars), gas giants in binary systems do also occur less commonly, and multiple gas giants in binary systems are absent (so far).

By: Athena Andreadis

Athena Andreadis — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:43:59 +0000

Ronald, the science of Avatar doesn’t bear even the lightest scrutiny. As for the naming of the gas giant, it betrays the superficial knowledge of Greek mythology (everyone thinks they know it, very few do). They should have called it Prometheus or Epimetheus, if they wanted a real connection to Pandora’s story.

By: Ronald

Ronald — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:29:47 +0000

D.Rose December 24, 2009 at 3:32, point 8):
“As we already know, Jupiter and Saturn-sized gas giants have been ruled out for Cent A and B, so would it even be possible for an almost-Earth-sized moon to form in orbit of a Neptune or Uranus-sized gas giant?”

Even worse: according to the official Avatar Wiki (http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Avatar_Wiki), “Polyphemus is the second of three gas giants orbiting Alpha Centauri A”.

So, somehow, not just one but three gas giants have to be fitted in stable orbits between AlphCen A and B.
I suppose that is not even mechanically impossible, given the multi-planet systems with gas (sub)giants in close to medium (i.e. about Mercury to Mars like) orbit that have already been found near some twenty solar type stars, some of them even in or near the HZ, e.g. HIP 14810, HD 11506, HD 9446, HD 82943, ups And, HD 45364, HD 73526, HAT-P-13, HD 155358, HD 102272, HD 147018, HD 202206, HD 12661, HD 108874, HD 168443, HD 160691, HD 69830, 55 Cnc, and 61 Vir (subgiants/superearths).

Notably though, none of these are binary stars. In fact, the only six gas giants around binary stars that I could find were ‘single gas giant stars’: HD 142022 A, HD 41004 A, HD 41004 B, 16 Cyg B, HD 178911 B, 30 Ari B. Three of these (HD 142022 A, HD 41004 A, 16 Cyg B) are solar type.

HD 41004 is partic. Interesting here, because it is the only binary star system with two gas giants (as far as I could find), one around each of the component stars.

So, in conclusion: yes, as we all knew already, multiple gas giants in rather close orbits exist near (solar) type stars. And yes again, gas giants exist near binary stars, even solar type. But the combination, multiple gas giants (i.e. orbiting one star) in binary star systems, have not been found yet. And only one binary system with two gas giants in total (i.e. one each).

I used the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia.

BTW, personally, I loved the movie (3D) for its visual effects. Am I the only one not disliking the name Polyphemus?

By: Athena Andreadis

Athena Andreadis — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:48:50 +0000

Kinderling, this was clearly a great moment to start discussing evolution with your son, especially given the bizarre contortions he may encounter later in his education.

By: Kinderling

Kinderling — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:58:43 +0000

Avatar brought up good conversation with my 10 year old son who wondered why the Na’vi still had tails. I said they did not look very effective for counter balance so might eventually dies out by naural selection or (gender preference).
As the horses and had lungs by the sides of their neck I said the Na’vi must have come from another continent, like our marsupials evolved separately. The four legs on the front of the horses I suggested were just a joke – forelegs.
Pleasant yarn from the right side of the brain.