Tag: Jurassic World

Jurassic World: Evolution, a reality that many didn’t see coming is here.

It’s always fun when a new Jurassic World movie comes out which a fifth one does this upcoming Friday because it puts front and center the latest science of DNA manipulation and the field of paleontology.  I am convinced that the whole era of the dinosaurs is something we have only lightly touched on with our known sciences and it will likely stay that way.  I was stunned to find a Tyrannosaurus Rex thigh bone in various stages of excavation at a lab at the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis recently where they actually let people touch it as they worked on it.  Twenty years ago, such a thing would be off-limits to any exhibit until all the scientific work had been done because of the rarity of such a find.  But these days what we have found from the past isn’t nearly as important as our future of just remaking it.  There is enough DNA and genetic mapping to bring back to life creatures from the past.  There is a serious effort right now to bring back to life a Wooly Mammoth, and once that happens there will be real life Jurassic Parks hosting all sorts of extinct creatures, and I think that’s very exciting.  The week of every new Jurassic World release has interviews with Jack Horner, who is a real paleontologist on the front of the science and he always says some very interesting things about the latest and greatest in the study of dinosaurs.

What was different this time however was a video game that was released to accompany the new movie called Jurassic World: Evolution.  It’s a park builder game where players on PlayStation 4 and other console platforms, can build your own version of a Jurassic Park and all the problems that are associated with that task.  That for me is very exciting as I love every one of the movies because of their adventurous approach to the sciences which contain within them all the reservations of gene manipulation mixed with the excitement of infinite possibilities.   I often say that one of my favorite places on earth is Epcot Center at Disney World, for many of the same reasons that Jurassic Park seemed like such an interesting place to visit.  But I am particularly in love and have been for a long time the Jurassic Park land at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in Orlando.  Even though the ride has become a bit cheesy in recent years due to its age, I love the feeling of the place and would love to visit a place for real.  I am very excited to see what Universal Studios is going to do with their renovation of that part of their park.  Apparently, they are closing down the land this fall to reopen a Jurassic World next summer. I will likely be one of the first in line to visit it.

But the new Jurassic World: Evolutions game allows you to build multiple Jurassic Parks and run them as a park simulator controlling the cashflow of even soft drinks and getting right down on the ground level of your theme parks and interacting with the guests.  In many ways its better than visiting a real theme park because you control the crowds and everything.  You don’t have to deal with the heat of a real theme park or the sticky pavement, or smelly bathrooms.  You can just build and visit such places in your living room and honestly, I had the same kind of emotions that I’ve had when visiting the real Universal Studios.  Granted, the real thing will always be the best way to visit, real experiences will always trump virtual ones, but its pretty damn close. 

What did stun me about this latest Jurassic game is the level of gene manipulation research that it allows players to embark on, even down to changing the color of the dinosaurs by arranging their DNA in a way to give them exciting skin flourishes that visitors to the theme park would enjoy, and help you make more money.  It became quite obvious to me that this wasn’t just a game anymore, but was a vehicle to carry the mind of mankind to that next level of genetic research, the ability to essentially build anything we want—to clone ourselves if need be, and to really dig at the roots of what makes life—life. 

I found the game to be a wonderfully intellectual experience coupled with just the raw thrill of building theme parks. I love games like that because I am a manager at heart, I love to be in charge of everything I do and theme park games like this give you complete control over everything in the game.  I especially like that when you tell a ranger crew to go work on a fence or to heal some sick dinosaurs they aren’t playing on their phones off the side of the road somewhere, they are always very attentive to your commands and they do exactly what you want and need 100% of the time.  That is better than in real life where managing such people takes an extra gear that most people don’t have, because people are always trying to get away with something and you have to constantly work with people at many different levels to get them to do basic things.  It practically takes a psychology degree to deal with people, especially if you have more than 50 employees, but in games like Jurassic World: Evolution, everyone does exactly what you say every time you say it meaning you get to manage a big amusement park at the level of an owner, and you don’t have to deal with the downfalls of human failures to concentrate.

One thing is very clear as this new Jurassic World movie is about to be released compared to the one that released in 2014, science has come a long way.  We are knocking on the door to a very new age where mankind is giving itself control over these very abstract concepts.  When a video game can give you the power to not only resurrect a dinosaur, but to make it blue, green or red depending on your preference, we are stepping into very new territory.  I can remember when some of the first cloning was being done to animals way back in the 90s and how much controversy there was over stem cell research.  These days, that controversy is nearly gone, the science of these concepts is nearly routine talk and without question the next generation will have many options to build genetic life into any form they desire.  If we want to see a Woolly Mammoth again in our zoos, we can just make one off the abundant genetic material that is coming out of northern Russia these days. If we want to see a Tyrannosaurs Rex, just make one.  And if we want to build new bodies for ourselves once our bodies have become old, or we might desire to make those old bodies new again with just the tweak of our genetic coding, then we’ll be able to.  And oddly enough, that is what all these Jurassic Park movies, theme parks and video games seem to be preparing us for.

Rich Hoffman

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The Wonderful Capitalism of ‘Jurassic World’: Ahhhh, just let it just wash over you………..

I’ve covered a bit about what makes Jurassic World such a good movie.  If you read my article yesterday, CLICK TO REVIEW, you already know I love museums and that the Discovery Center at Universal’s Islands of Adventure is one of my favorite places on earth—because it’s a dinosaur museum.  I love the Field Museum in Chicago, I love the Smithsonian, I love the Indianapolis Natural History Museum—I love the exploratory nature of them—so obviously within the context of an amusement park where a fantasy level museum is the feature—it beholds my interest. I’ve instilled this love in my kids who are now grown up and consider among their greatest achievements trips to the British Museum in London—separately.   They both made trips there and out of all the things they could have done in London as young twenty something’s, they went to the British Museum and spent a lot of time. We all went to see Jurassic World and loved the movie for all the obvious reasons.  But I loved it for more than even those.  I loved it for its open embrace of capitalism—an unfettered love of corporate sponsorship merged with scientific debate, philosophic proposals, and contemporary quandaries.  To get a sense of what I’m talking about have a look at the video below featuring Frank Marshall who is one of the producers of the film.  It was good to see some major Hollywood heavyweights embracing fully the commercial aspects of their movie and then shipping that enthusiasm around the world in the form of a story.  Then read the story at the following link of a guy who watched Jurassic World and immediately left to purchase a new Mercedes putting himself 90K in the hole with money he obviously didn’t have because his mom still pays for his phone bill.  When you combine science and capitalism into a motion picture, you get blistering success—and I hope sincerely that Hollywood learns something by studying Jurassic World.

http://www.funnyordie.com/articles/3c4832008f/i-bought-a-mercedes-benz-after-watching-jurassic-world-and-i-regret-it?_cc=S_d___&_ccid=gwiv0v.nqwoc3

 

imageJurassic World is partly great because it’s like that feeling you get when you arrive at Downtown Disney, or Universal’s City Walk for the first time and are bombarded by all the innovations of capitalism attached directly to human mythologies.  Jurassic World obviously understands that phenomena and embraces it fully—which was a common practice in the 1980s, but has been pushed underground to a large degree by progressive filmmakers who want to pretend they dislike money to appeal to their base, while needing a lot of money to make and release their motion pictures to the world.  Jurassic World doesn’t even pretend not to like it—it embraces capitalism fully with overflowing pride, and that is probably what I like most about it.  Even the billionaire in the film was a good human being, and interesting guy who even though he had all the money in the world was still teaching himself to fly a helicopter for personal growth.

imageSome of the most obvious product placements were of course Coke, Starbucks, Brookstone and Oakley sunglasses, Hilton, Samsung, Verizon Wireless, Jimmy buffet’s Margaretville—among many others.  There is quite a long list.  After the movie my family even went to Dairy Queen where they had a really cool promotion going on with their Jurassic World Blizzard.  It was simply marvelous.  We had spent the day at an amusement park after recently seeing the movie and dined at Dairy Queen exclusively because of its tie-in to the film, and had a really great experience, which is shown in some of the pictures displayed here.  Also shown there is a completely fictional promo video for a new Hilton at the Isla Nubar Resort.  Obviously Isla Nubar is a complete fantasy.  There is no island like that off the Pacific side of Costa Rica.  But the movie did a wonderful job of building a fictional reality to serve as a backstop for all this product placement.  The main area of Jurassic World from the view of the Hilton Hotel reminded me a lot of Cancun complete with all the capitalist investment you can find there in a tropical paradise.  I find myself wanting to visit this specific Hilton and can’t help but hope that Universal Studios in Florida will build all these places for real so I can visit.  I think they’d be crazy not to at this point.  After the Fourth of July weekend of 2015, Jurassic World will be third on the all time money-making list behind Avatar and Titanic—and the film doesn’t open in Japan for another month.  If Hilton actually builds that hotel, I will be the very first person to stay in their T-Rex room. You can bet on that!

imageWhile at the Newport Aquarium again shortly after seeing the movie we strolled into the AMC theaters for a bite to eat and guess what we saw there?  A Jurassic Park Jeep from the original film, also shown in the accompanying pictures.  It brought no small measure of pleasure to me to see it there.  I had only ever saw one within the actual theme park at Universal Studios and at the AMC Theater at Newport on the Levee was one in really good condition.  It was further evidence to me that behind the veil of cynicism that often resides behind virtually every news story is hope that is unleashed behind Jurassic Park and this most recent Jurassic World movie.  I wasn’t the only person excited about the franchise and the products produced by it.  Many others shared that love with me which crosses all political and demographic barriers reaching directly to the heart of a deep human hope for such things to be made into reality.  These movies are not just about dinosaurs, they embody the hope that we find in every museum, or hope to find when we step in for the first time.

imageWhen I stand in the lobby of the Cincinnati Museum Center I love the marriage of science and capitalism.  Just two days of this writing I gladly spent $22 for a couple hamburgers and fries knowing that I was supporting the museum in small little ways with the overpriced lunch.  The food was actually good, but still overpriced, and that’s OK.  Museums need dollars to operate and bring all the great aspects of science to the forefront of thought.  Without money, there is no science—and there would be nothing I’d like to see more than education institutions accepting that their ticket to further funding for projects of interest is through capitalism, not socialism.  There are far more opportunities for environmental research through a company like Exxon as opposed to the socialist resistance of Green Peace.  Sea World is to my mind the closest thing to an actual Jurassic World that there currently is, and people should go and support those wonderful parks.  There was a lot in Jurassic World that reminded me specifically of Sea World.  One of my best memories as a kid was in visiting the Sea World in Aurora, Ohio when there was one located there way back in the 80s, then the one in San Diego.  The money generated through Sea World does more for conservation than a whole city block of protestors in San Francisco.  Science is a forward thinking process whereas just shutting down all capitalist endeavors in hopes of preserving nature goes against the very nature of being a human being.  There is no better format for exploring these issues than the Jurassic Park movies—and Jurassic World embraces better than all the previous three put together the joys of capitalism as it propels science forward with hope, and wonder sprinkled with dire warnings of greed and excess.  It’s not capitalism that kills everyone in Jurassic World, its deception and greed not by the billionaire, but by his employees who scheme behind his back for desires known only to them.  It is within that concept that we see a truth that we recognize as a true paradox in a time where we will have to make similar decisions about our own lives very soon.

imageJurassic World is not just a movie—it is the philosophy of our time, it is Plato’s Republic on a modern stage presenting questions to a hungry movie going public.  But more than just that the movie is a celebration of capitalism and an argument in favor of it as the best option to propel mankind into the future.  I love Dave and Buster’s so much so that we spent my 47 birthday this year at the one near my home.  I love the bright lights, the wonderful food and the imagination of all the interesting games on display there.  I love to play those games, eat that wonderful food while watching 14 different sports events on the multitude of televisions exhibited virtually everywhere you look.  And guess what, there was a Dave and Buster’s in Jurassic World, and I really want to visit it.  It’s time to start embracing our capitalism within our art so that we can have an honest conversation about what we want as human beings.  People have voted with their movie tickets in favor of Jurassic World. It’s time now that the science communities stop pandering to government stiffs for grants and start befriending capitalism to fund their further endeavors.  That is the future of science and the lesson of Jurassic World.  Progressive reviewers and news reporters may cringe at all the product placement within Jurassic World but in so doing they ignore what is truly at the heart of all human beings.  Steven Spielberg has understood that heart for many years, and nobody reaches it better than he does when he wishes.  But its time that others follow the lessons learned from Jurassic World and stop fighting against capitalism when it is the lifeblood of true progress.  Jurassic World is about the hope that progress can bring.  It captures all the reasons we like attending amusement parks and museums—it’s not just for the knowledge of history—but in the potential of making it.

Now, who wants to join me in bringing a T-Rex Café to West Chester Ohio?  You’ve seen the movie, you have seen the popularity.  West Chester has over 100,000 affluent people living within a ten-mile radius and in the middle of all that is some of the best entertainment options outside of a city like New York and Chicago. Those affluent people have lots of kids and grand kids. And it needs a T-Rex Café.  It would make a fortune!  CLICK HERE FOR A REVIEW.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

The Real Jurassic Park Discovery Center: Universal Studios, bring on the Samsung Innovation Center

80% of my articles are about something negative and overcoming that negativity with critical thinking and assessment. It is always my hope that somebody will listen and improve a situation after my diagnosis. Most of the time that diagnosis is ignored leaving me to shake my head at how stupid people are for not listening—but I get over it and return to the task at hand in figuring out how to solve problems and live productively at life. The remaining 20% of my articles are usually about something I am passionate about—which is actually quite a lot. I feel a lot of very raw—boyish enthusiasm for a great many things. I have an extremely busy life as a result and a lot of people to maintain within it. But I am exactly the kind of man who I always wanted to grow up to be as a kid—which is essentially just a developed version of myself from 7 to 10 years old. That said I am oozing with enthusiasm over the new Jurassic World movie from Universal Studios because it shares with me a similar approach at living—a little terror, optimism, adventure, technical proficiency, and a lot of warning as our human species moves into the needed direction of playing in God’s laboratory.

I saw Jurassic World twice over the weekend within twenty-four hours of each other, and I could go see it another nine times back to back without getting tired of it. It’s my kind of movie to say the least. I literally finished my radio show on Saturday with the Clarkcast in Ann Arbor, Michigan and headed back to the theater to see Jurassic World yet again. It is one of the most satisfying movie experiences that I’ve had going back to The Dark Night Rises a few years ago. It is simply a marriage between filmmaking and science brought together in an orgy of delightful possibility. I couldn’t help but think of the real world Jurassic Park Discovery Center in Orlando, Florida while watching Jurassic World and thinking about how great it will be when Universal Studios builds an updated version of the Samsung Temple of Science from the latest film.DSC01151

I love amusement parks which often make up those 20% articles here at Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom. The king to me is the Epcot Center within the Disney World complex. It is by far the best theme park in the world in my opinion. But that’s not to say that the rest are bad, just that Epcot does for me what I think Disney always envisioned. It’s loaded with science and culture and it changes with the times so it’s always relevant. It’s quite an astonishing place. But, I love the Universal Parks nearly equally but for different reasons. The only knock on them from my perspective is that they are a little too hip for me—too contemporary. But within the Universal Park, Islands of Adventure they have an entire section dedicated to Jurassic Park which is to me like the Holy of Holies within King Soloman’s temple in Jerusalem as far as science. When people ask me what it would take to get me to support school levies and public schools I say to them—make all of them like the Discovery Center at Jurassic Park within the Island’s of Adventure theme park, and I would be the biggest education guy in the world. But because they fall dreadfully short, they deserve to have the wrath of critical opinion cast at them for being too lazy to pluck off the vine of knowledge the low hanging fruit that is there for us all—only we refuse to do so. And that is what the Discovery Center at Jurassic Park is all about.DSC01158

The pictures shown here are from a trip my wife and I took to it together not that long ago. We had a three-day pass to the two parks and spent nearly a day just at the Discovery Center out of all the attractions. It was an amazing building and I found myself writing several novels in my head just while sitting on the lakeside entrance staring at the Marvel Universe across the waterway from the Discovery Center contemplating many things all at the same time. It was a profoundly relaxing experience to my excessively active mind. I can only describe it as heaven on earth for a person with the kind of mind that I have. My wife was just as enthused which is why we have been married for so long together. We ate at the Discovery Center, participated in every exhibit that we could, spent a lot of time looking through everything in their gift shop, and just looking at the decorations. It is an amazing place and I just love it.DSC01165

I get a similar kind of joy out of the Dinosaur Alive exhibit at my hometown park of Kings Island operated by Cedar Fair Amusements. I love going to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee because of all the miniature golf courses featuring dinosaurs and monsters of all types. But I love that Island’s of Adventure Discovery Center most of all. So I couldn’t help but contemplate that with Universal Studios taking in $200 million domestically, nearly a half a billion globally just in one weekend with Jurassic World, that they might finally expand their Islands of Adventure park to include the Temple of Science complete with holographic projections just like in the movie. The technology is there now for that kind of thing and is quite possible. I want to take my grandchildren there! It may even be worth the investment to do what they have done with Harry Potter and make two worlds connected by a monorail of some kind, something that goes from the old Jurassic Park area to an actual recreation of the Jurassic World main street shown in the movie. I really want to physically go to that place shown in the movie and spend hours upon hours in the Samsung Innovation Center located in the temple at the end of main street.DSC01155

People often ask me how I juggle so many different things at the same time, which shocks me a little bit, because we all do it as kids. But when we grow up we just stop playing with life and lose that ability—at least most people do. I never did. I have so many hobbies it would take me fourteen lifetimes to get everything I want out of all of them. But places like the Jurassic Park area of Universal’s Islands of Adventure help a lot, because they are playful places full of wonder and discovery. A young lady once who grew up with a bad social outlook yet was quite attractive said to me that she wasn’t going to ever see that stupid Jurassic Park movie with all those stupid dinosaurs running around. She thought when she said it that I would play along and feed off her pessimism; because she was used to men treating her like that. They’d say anything to get her cloths off—even if it meant ridiculing Jurassic Park as a work of art. My response to her was that I never spoke to her again—which shocked her. That was well over twenty years ago and she has bumped into me around town here and there. She became exactly what I thought she would, a used up mess who has lost her attractiveness and is now a lonely bitter person and it all started with her refusal to enjoy something playful and fun when she was younger. Little things lead to big things—believe me. The same holds true to what you allow into your brain.DSC01166

Dinosaurs are part of our prehistoric past. They lived a long time on earth and died rather suddenly. We should study them to figure out what we might do differently. And it is there that the gates of science open into the world of philosophy which is my favorite place to be. And to most adequately utilize those gates, I find places like the Discovery Center in Orlando, Florida to be one of my favorite places—anywhere—outside of the Epcot Center of course. Now with the success of a new Jurassic Park movie, it is my sincere hope that Universal will build for me a recreation of their Samsung Innovation Center. Because I want to visit it badly! Such places make living life such a delightful experience. And I hope that they will use the power of capitalism to share that joy with the world on a much more epic scale than a darkened theater!

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Jack Horner’s Science: The future being born from Jurassic World

The best things that come out of the Jurassic Park movies are the lasting impact their theoretical sciences impart into the future. When the first one came out in 1993 it changed the way zoos and theme parks operated. There is a little bit of Jurassic Park in just about every amusement park to this day. A quick trip to the Cincinnati Zoo will show even more evidence. The films and science that come from them are a nearly perfect marriage of imagination and reality. So it is quite exciting to see another film emerging called Jurassic World. Each time there is a new Jurassic Park film, of which Jurassic World will be the fourth, the outside world suddenly becomes interested in the very important work that the paleontologist Jack Horner is conducting that will change the future of the sciences in unimaginable ways very soon.

Not being able to complete the foreign language courses and therefore not obtaining his bachelor’s degree the budding scientist fought through great opposition to discover incredible dinosaur fossils and flesh out new theories as to their origins. It was Jack Horner who pushed the science community out of the box from thinking that dinosaurs spawned reptiles. The emerging answers was that dinosaurs are the parent DNA of birds which attracted Michael Crichton to write his novel, Jurassic Park by incorporating the new theory into a compelling story which brought to life dinosaurs through DNA resurrection into a modern theme park for children to enjoy. Steven Spielberg then made a film from Crichton’s book and history was made. The world learned about DNA and how it could be used to bring back creatures from the past—but ultimately cure humans in the present. Jurassic Park had a positive effect on the emerging science in a very positive fashion. Because of his voluminous work within paleontology Horner was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science in 1986 by the University of Montana where he works to this day in Bozeman.

In his 2009 book How to Build a Dinosaur: Extinction Doesn’t Have to Be Forever Horner unveiled his latest theory about genetically nudging the DNA of a chicken through reverse engineering into a dinosaur. It was a concept that he came up with during the filming of the first Jurassic Park movie over two decades ago—and now science has caught up to his vision. It won’t be but a few short years before Horner finds a way to pull off the attempt. He is now funded by people like George Lucas, so he doesn’t have to dig for dinosaurs and money at the same time—which is the largest impediment to science. Because of that Horner’s operation in Bozeman is one of the hottest spots in science and is revolutionizing the world with ambition and options.

Once mankind can build a dinosaur obviously there will be implications to the human race. Everything that we are, and our fates are locked in our DNA sequencing. Once we learn to work with that DNA like we would put a car in the shop for a proper diagnosis of something amiss, humans could be fixed at the genetic level to cure whatever issue we wish. Once Jack Horner builds his dinosaur and future entrepreneurs build actual Jurassic Parks the impact on humans will be much more significant. A new era will give us many options that we hadn’t considered and a whole host of new philosophies and intellectual options will be presented to us. That is the impact of a new Jurassic Park film. Without one, Jack Horner would be just another obscure eccentric digging in the badlands of the northern United States scorned by the scientific community and their accolades.

Even though it is old and dated now, one of the best parts of any amusement park I have been to is the Jurassic Park portion of Universal’s Islands of Adventure. It is there that reality meets fiction and I was able to actually walk through the closest replication of the fictional Jurassic Park on earth. For me personally, who has loved dinosaurs since I was a very little kid the discovery center at the real Jurassic Park was like entering the gates of heaven. I raised my children on the Jurassic Park movies, and on the music of John Williams, so there was something very special about the place to me. The movies and subsequent theme park attractions have all the optimism of early adventure films like the Jules Verne inspired Journey to the Top of the World, and Around the World in 80 Days—but then has the action and horror of something like Jaws. Then mixed in with all of that is quite large does of Indiana Jones—the nothing is impossible human spirit that Dr. Grant came to symbolize in two of the three Jurassic Park movies. These elements have been combined no place else and are central to the optimistic essence of the upcoming Jurassic World.

Once Jurassic World hits theater screens, museums all across the country will open up exhibits trying to recapture the movie experience and millions upon millions of children will learn something important as a result. Book sales of Jack Horner’s material will skyrocket and adults will learn much about what’s coming in science. These are things that are available every day, but are typically ignored until something like Jurassic World puts the focus on those options.   I’m looking forward to seeing the new movie just because of the conceptual design of actually implementing the original thoughts of the John Hammond character who was an unabashed capitalist that made everything possible. The Jurassic Park movies are extremely interesting in how they rock back and forth between capitalism and conservationism. Without the money and financing nobody would have anything—but left unchecked and disrespected, things spiral out of control quickly. So there is a core to the films that philosophically is at the heart of just about everything facing our world today economically and politically.

The premise of Jurassic World is fantastic and is what is facing real amusement parks like Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Sea World—how do you balance out a nice respect for science while still driving up park numbers to the levels it takes to make them financially profitable?   It costs a lot of money to care for large animals and once people get used to seeing them, interest curves off—even when it comes to genetically recreated dinosaurs. So because they can, scientists play a bit of Frankenstein with the DNA of dinosaurs to make a new creature—which is something that we are all facing in the very near future. If we can remake a dinosaur like Jack Horner plans to, why can’t we then make what we want in any form that we want it? Then, why can’t we apply the same to our own bodies as well. If we want to be 6’ 6” basketball players we could make ourselves into one. We could also build the perfect Victoria Secret models. Or we could turn off old age in our own bodies and live for several thousand years instead of just a measly 100. But to do that what happens to our religions and philosophy of sacrifice when so much is being built that is not dependent on invisible gods from realms unseen? Those are the themes that Jurassic World explores but against a canvas of optimism and wonder. It is an extremely unusual enterprise for a film that is about more than just thrills.

At the heart of Jurassic World is Jack Horner. Without him, there wouldn’t be a movie or the books that were the source material. The science of Jack Horner is changing the world from Bozeman, Montana and shaking the foundations of the establishment. The profits from Jurassic World will directly help Jack Horner build his real life dinosaur and that is the best aspect of the new movie. The hard questions about the morality of such a task are dealt with in the films, and then in reality they will be formed into new options that just weren’t there before. Or maybe they were. Perhaps this is how Noah lived so long and in the times before the Deluge giants ruled the world and genetics were manipulated in such a way to give people extremely long lives. Perhaps we are truly resurrecting a past that was imposed on us long ago that we are just now rediscovering? We will find out and leading the way is Jack Horner.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Jurassic World: A new step in science and philosophy

I’m not kidding, I am ecstatic about the opening of the new Jurassic Park franchise film Jurassic World. I may actually be more excited than that—but needless to say, I can’t wait. I love those movies deeply because they embody questions very relevant to our times regarding philosophy, science, morality, and economy that are not explored more effectively than in any other venue. It was Jurassic Park that really introduced over twenty years ago the concept of DNA replication to bring to life extinct species. A lot of science has been unraveled since then really demanding this latest edition—where scientists needing a ratings boost in park attendance make a hybrid dinosaur that gets loose and destroys the fully realized Jurassic World—the dreamy creation of the former John Hammond whose dream of a fully realized dinosaur park is finally made into a reality.

I loved the Michael Crichton books when they first came out, Jurassic Park and then The Lost World. When the movie hit in 1993 I made a big deal about it and took my little girls at the time to see it on opening night. They still remember that movie as their first theater experience. For this last Christmas my youngest daughter gave me a Jurassic Park t-shirt as a present because it is something that is specifically our thing. To this day she loves biology, botany, and paleontology because of her childhood spawned from the first Jurassic Park movie. A few years later when The Lost World came out I drug my wife’s side of the family, something like 25 people who had been gathering at a lake house on Nolan Lake to Elizabethtown, Kentucky to see the opening night in the only theater within fifty miles of the remote residence. The family often gathered at that lake for Memorial Day. In that group of people are a lot of science lovers, particularly my father-in-law who held multiple degrees in geology and was a school teacher—so they all wanted to see it. We packed up in several cars and made a pilgrimage into town to watch The Lost World. My kids were older at the time and had an absolute blast with their cousins.   I don’t think they ever forgot the experience.

When Dr. Grant returned to Jurassic Park III my kids were in high school and I let them take a day off to go see the movie on opening day. Dr. Grant was always my favorite character so I was excited and my kids were excited because I was. It was a marvelous experience. The movies declined in quality a bit from the first one, especially as Steven Spielberg moved away from direct involvement with the franchise as the director, but they are still good regardless. Each movie is like the approach to a theme park at the beginning of the day when the sun is out, the air is cool, and eagerness fills the mind. There is nothing quite like the morning approach to a Orlando park whether it be Universal Studios, Disney, Sea World, a day at the local zoo, a thrill park, there is magic in the air that is unique to the human experience emerging from such a creation. Each Jurassic Park film embodies that same type of optimism where act one is filled with that type of energy. Act two in the movies becomes something of a Hitchcock type mystery where problems of clashing philosophies set up act three. In that third act all the optimism from act one gets tossed out the window and the films become a haunted house experience where a new thrill is around every turn that is wrapped up nicely at the end with heroics and fanfare. They are fun in the least, but at their best they ask deep questions very relevant to modern science—and they drive advancements in technology.

In my family we all loved playing Jurassic Park Builder on XBox and later on our cell phones. My kids play those types of simulators often and that love started with seeing the movies and dreaming of what it would really be like to see a fully realized Jurassic Park. So it will be wonderful to see what a Jurassic World will look like in the movie, where the whole island originally conceived in the very first film has finally been built into a fully functioning amusement park. I overlook the obvious attacks on capitalism which always spawn in the second act as a simple plot device to ask “what if.” If not for capitalism there wouldn’t be anything relevant about Jurassic Park so without it, there wouldn’t be any dinosaurs or topic to contemplate. Rather the theme of the movies is what happens when undisciplined use of capitalism leads people astray, which is what happens in Jurassic World.

As cool as all the dinosaurs are, the cost of running such a large theme park is excessive so they need increased attendance just to cover their costs. So they invent a new dinosaur which is wrong in so many different ways. But what is to stop human kind from doing such a thing. Very soon genetic research which was in its infancy in the first Jurassic Park movie, will allow people to alter themselves into whatever they want to be. All you have to do is manipulate your DNA code and we can all be taller, faster, and prettier—whatever we wish. The same topic of conversation is emerging in the discussions of giving birth once again to extinct species of animals. What is to stop zoos from making a wholly mammoth when they can change it into something that has never before existed. What are the limits in playing God?   Religions will say that nobody should play God, but science dictates that we should—so where is the happy medium? Those types of questions are what the Jurassic Park movies explore and leave movie goers talking about those very topics on the way home after the movie. That is why these movies are important, because they put hard science into the spotlight of what we should and should not do as a species with very advanced tools in our possession.

Needless to say, I am excited and will continue to be the closer the movie gets to a release date. There are a lot of great movies lined up for the summer, but none of them are as exciting to me as Jurassic World. Will it be as good as the first one? Probably not. Likely it will be somewhere between the second and third film—it probably won’t make as much money at the box office as Universal hopes it will, but it will still be enjoyable, and relevant. I hope it does well enough to justify another movie in the franchise, because I could watch them forever. It is always fun no matter how many times we go, to pull up to Disney World for a fresh adventure. There is always optimism in the morning before attending an amusement park. And those are the same type of emotions experienced before seeing a Jurassic Park movie. It is one of the few films of its kind that really captures that optimism fully. That is the reason I simply can’t wait for the movie to open. When it does, I will be one of the first in line!

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

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