Director : Steven Spielberg
Based on : Ready Player One (novel)
Author : Ernest Cline
Music : Alan Silvestri
Editor : Michael Kahn
Country : Warner Brothers
Based Ernie Cline’s debut novel, Ready Player One is set in a dystopian world where almost everyone spends a majority of their time in a virtual reality system known as OASIS, where players can visit any conceivable world allowing the book to mash up an incredible number of ‘80s pop culture references.
The trailer opens with Wade Watts (played by The Tree of Life / X-Men: Apocalypse star Tye Sheridan) saying that he got his name because his father thought that it sounded like a superhero name. He then talks about OASIS, which allows people to do anything, and that people stay because they can become anyone.
The trailer then shows James Halliday, the founder of OASIS, who tells gamers that he’s died, but that he left behind a massive Easter egg hunt: whoever finds the three hidden keys will get control of the entire system. Wade is one such participant, who teams up with another competitor, Art3mis (played by Olivia Cooke), to find the three clues before a major corporation does.
Movie website: http://readyplayeronemovie.com
Title : Islands in Flux:
The Andaman and Nicobar Story
Author : Pankaj Sekhsaria
Pages : 304
Price : 399/-
Publisher: Harper Litmus
ISBN : 10: 9352643984
Islands in Flux: The Andaman and Nicobar Story by Pankaj Sekhsaria documents the myriad threats to indigenous tribes and forest resources in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is a compilation of Sekhsaria’s writings and illustrations on issues and developments in the Islands. The author has spent 25 years researching on the human aspect of the situation.
The book says that the occurrence of natural disasters in the Islands is always uncalled for and a more reasonable planning approach to the Islands is even more important given their volatile nature. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are located in the seismic zone, an earthquake-prone area, and the December 2004 tsunami had a devastating impact on them.
As a member of environmental action group Kalpavriksh and the ‘Andaman and Nicobar Islands Environment Team’, he conducted a six-month project to study the biodiversity and residents of the island chain. This is his second book based on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the first being The Last Wave, in which he narrated the challenges faced by the Islands today.
Website of publisher: https://harpercollins.co.in
2018 is the International Year of the Reef (IYOR), in response to the increasing threats on coral reefs and associated ecosystems, such as mangroves and sea grasses around the world. It is part of a global effort to increase awareness and understanding on the values and threats to coral reefs, and to support related conservation, research and management efforts.
It encourages to strengthen awareness globally about the value of, and threats to, coral reefs and associated ecosystems, promote partnerships between governments, the private sector, academia and civil society on the management of coral reefs, identify and implement effective management strategies for conservation and share information on best practices in relation to sustainable coral reef management.
It was at the 31st General Meeting (November 2016 in Paris, France), the International Coral Reef Initiative declared 2018 as the third International Year of the Reef . 1997 was the first International Year of the Reef. Ten years later, to further conserve and manage valuable coral reefs and associated ecosystems, 2008 was designated as the second International Year of the Reef. For more information, click on the following link.
Link: http://www.icriforum.org
Phylum : Chordata
Class : Mammalia
Infraclass : Marsupialia
Order : Dasyuromorphia
Family : Thylacinidae
Genus : Thylacinus
Species : Thylacinus cynocephalus
The Tasmanian tiger or thylacine is a wolf-size carnivorous marsupial once common across Australia.is a marsupial predator that was last seen alive in the 1930s. A baby Tasmanian tiger collected 108 years ago has provided enough high-quality genetic material for researchers to sequence the animal’s entire genome which may one day become a tool for resurrecting the extinct animal and creating a hope for many others.
The last known thylacine died in Hobart Zoo in 1936, but the species may have persisted in the wild into at least the 1940s. The species was declared extinct in 1982. At that time, the DNA sequences they had were highly degraded, making sequencing an entire genome almost impossible. But, now the researchers at the University of Melbourne got an young specimen with surprisingly well-preserved genetic material.
The researchers did make a novel discovery: Genetic diversity in the thylacine population plummeted sometime between 70,000 and 120,000 years ago. Thylacines were already declining on the mainland long before Aboriginal people arrived in Australia sometime before 65,000 years ago. Human hunting ultimately wiped out the thylacine. The study is published in the journal Nature, Ecology and Evolution.
Link to original paper: https://www.nature.com
