As a crowd-pleasing family film, Dolphin Tale takes few risks but will still most likely be enjoyed by its target audience.

It tells the “based on true events” story of Winter, a dolphin that lost its tail after getting caught in a crab trap off of the Florida Gulf Coast. After rescue and recovery, Winter learns to swim anew, in part thanks to a first-of-its-kind prosthetic dolphin tail.

To craft a movie around this core story, a fatherless, alienated young boy is employed as the film’s protagonist. He makes initial contact with Winter and develops a bond with her as well as the animal rescuers who facilitate her rescue and care. As we expect in this kind of film, the experience transforms the boy from a quiet, anti-social, wounded loner who is disengaged in school into a happier, gregarious, conservation nerd who rallies his community.

To its benefit and eventual detriment, Dolphin Tale only develops the supporting characters as necessary. We rarely stray from the foreground and the movie is more efficient in its storytelling because of it. That being said, I can’t help but feel that this is a case where an additional five minutes of character development for one or several characters would have elevated the film considerably.

As the chief marine biologist and director of the marine conservation center / aquarium where the majority of the movie takes place, Harry Connick Jr. is vastly underutilized in a role that could have been meatier and memorable. Likewise, Kris Kristofferson and Ashley Judd get little time to exercise their acting chops even though they deliver sincere energy to their limited roles. Even Morgan Freeman, who gets one brief scene to shine a tad more than the basic plot demanded, feels like he is there to simply lend the film’s credits some extra starpower.

So while competently made and engaging, the makers of the movie ultimately chose to take few risks. Of the film’s subplots (of which there were 4 by my count), one was at least partially successful in lifting the movie beyond its cliches and emotional manipulations. Without going into too much detail, the film shows how one character who sustains a major physical disability through war finds inspiration through the shared challenge faced by Winter, the injured dolphin. In the film’s closing credits, we see footage of the real-life rescue of Winter and also see how several people with disabilities interacted with Winter, creating templates for scenes that made it into the film.

An additional flaw to the movie is its lack of ambition toward providing any sort of ocean conservation messages. Even though the source of the movie’s plot is the direct result of a crab trap and fish nets, we never hear these matters given even a moment of discussion. Given that the movie portrays the enchanting appeal, magic, and sense of place for a conservation center / aquarium as well as any film I can remember, its an odd choice not to even give a token mention along the lines of “hey, our oceans are in pretty bad shape. We should protect them.”

In a post-Cove world, this is surprising for a set of filmmakers that obviously care enormously for their subject matter and bask it in a positive glow that will make many kids want to work with animals. The stakes are high for our oceans, and yet the film loses an opportunity to actually connect the dots for both children and adults. Sure, the movie isn’t intending to break new ground, but I felt happy that my 3 year old daughter was watching the film with me, and yet also felt like the kid-gloves were a little too soft for even her eyes.

As something of an aside, Ashley Judd has become an outspoken environmentalist in recent years. Most recently she has worked to end destructive mountaintop removal coal mining. I wonder if she is also disappointed that the movie opted to take a pass on providing some conservation messages beyond its intrinsic appreciation of dolphins and the natural world.

All of these criticisms standing, most people who go to see Dolphin Tale are going to be happy with what they get. It’s a film that doesn’t set its sights too high, but also energetically and competently tells a story that many people will  enjoy.

A couple days ago we hopped into our car and pulled out of the driveway. Moments later, I saw an interesting looking insect clinging to our windshield. I thought it looked like a praying mantis, and sure enough Alicia thought it was too.

After a few moments of high stakes 30 mph driving, we pulled over and Alicia plucked our new friend off of the windshield. Alicia’s mom once kept a pet praying mantis in her home in Peru, and as a result, within moments of getting home Alicia had created a makeshift terrarium for the praying mantis. She’s been obsessed over the past few days with getting this tiny fellow a meal, and so we’ve tried a number of insects from our yard, as well as some flightless fruit flies we keep for our carnivorous plant terrarium (yes, that’s another “pet” that merits discussion at a separate time).

At only about 0.25 inches long, it does seem like the praying mantis is a nymph. We have yet to observe it eating one of the insects we have tried to bring in for its dining pleasure. So far, we’ve mostly been using large leaves from some zucchini we are growing to create habitat and ideally give the nymph a few smaller insects to munch upon that were lounging on the zucchini (see photo above). We are getting concerned, however, that the praying mantis won’t make it much longer if it doesn’t eat.

Any suggestions? Has anyone ever kept a wild praying mantis as a pet before?

Photo © Levi T. Novey

So when I saw news today that Milton Levine had died, “the co-creator of ant farms,”  I felt sad.

Even though I had never pondered who had invented ant farms prior to this moment in my life, it takes a certain amount of imagination to think that ants could make cool pets– if only given the right confines to live in the rooms of children.

That imagination proved to be well appreciated: according to The Los Angeles Times, Milton’s company sold over 20 million ant farms in his lifetime.

Milton once said that “Humanity can learn a lot from the ant… [and] I found out their most amazing feat yet. They put three kids through college.”

So farewell Milton Levine! Genius of educational toys! Rest in peace.

P.S. I once wrote about how some people think ants can help predict earthquakes. It’s a cool story– and it includes proof of my quest for a glow-in-the-dark ant farm. Read it.

These photos are from one of my family’s recent visits to the National Zoo. During the winter, the Zoo’s Amazonia building is a warm, humid, and enchanting refuge from the cold outside.

A good summary from the National Zoo’s website:

Amazonia, the largest and most complex exhibit ever built at the National Zoo, opened to the public in 1992. The 15,000-square-foot rainforest habitat of the exhibit includes a cascading tropical river and a 55,000-gallon aquarium for the display of Amazon River fish.

Within Amazonia’s dome, visitors find a living tropical forest with more than 350 species of plants, including 50-foot-tall trees, tropical vines, and epiphytes. This habitat is also home to dozens of species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects typical of the Amazon Basin, all moving throughout the exhibit. Smooth-sided toads and silver-beaked tanagers breed freely, titi monkeys jump from branch to branch, a two-toed sloth hides behind large leaves, white-bellied hummingbirds zip about.

It really is as good as the description makes it out to be. But without further ado, more photographs.

The inspiration for a certain variety of toy?

This is a model of a beetle that lives in Chile. The actual size of the beetle is shown below the big model. But the materials that compose the model are what make it so cool.

The materials that make the beetle model.

It was a joyful moment to witness three bears playfully wrestling.

Red pandas are actually closer in relationship to raccoons than to panda bears. Still very cute in either case.

If you like what you have seen, you can view the complete set of photos on my Facebook page.

All photos © Levi T. Novey

The Aequorea Victoria species of jellyfish has already helped provide one major scientific breakthrough. Will it lead to another?

A Wisconsin based biotechnology company claims that one of their clinical studies has shown that a protein extracted from a unique species of bioluminescent jellyfish helps improve the memories of Alzheimers patients.

Using a randomized controlled trial, Quincy Bioscience reports interim results indicating that participants who took an experimental drug with the jellyfish protein tested 14% higher on cognitive tests than those who received a placebo.

Continue reading on Greenopolis (link)

Cabalito (Little horse)

Cabalito is the first one I found, and I think it is a really beautiful example of childrens’ artwork. I really like how the 3 animals on the left are balanced with the tall plant and duck on the right. It’s really clear that David has the potential to be a professional artist, because his animals are so charming and distinct.

I should note that the titles might not be his, but simply what my wife or I originally titled the digital files that I now have on my computer. Not sure.

3 Pecesitos

3 Pecestios (3 Little fish) is interesting because these fish look unique. They actually have swords bursting forth from their faces if I am correct. I like how one of the swordfish seems to be trying to spear a star in the sky.

Guasanito

Guasanito (Little caterpillar) is an interesting take on metamorphosis. It seems to be a happy-going process.

Flamenco

I am curious in Flamenco (Flamingo), what exactly it is that the flamingo is about to eat on the dock. Is it food? Or a piece of trash that didn’t reach the can? Looks kind of like a muffin.

My nephew David.

David is much older now, and hopefully not too embarrassed by my employment of his artwork. I would love to see some of his more recent efforts. In any case, thanks for bringing a smile to my face this morning David!

Much love, Uncle Levi (Te amo mucho, David)

Before I provide more commentary about my map and a precise list of the most biodiverse states, I first should explain that “biodiversity” is a term that has no 100% agreed upon scientific definition.

Click here to continue reading on Ecopolitology and view the map.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of visiting the Georgia Aquarium with my family. I managed to snag some very nice photos (like the saw shark above) that showcase amazing marine environments.

A lionfish. They are beautiful as can be, but exotic to the Georgia coast and tearing it up. They have no predators so we need to start eating them. One of the aquarium's better small exhibits in my honest opinion.

The coral reef section's big finish.

A gorgeous weedy scorpion fish. Great camouflage for surprising and stinging its prey.

My daughter attempts to bag a pacific nettle jellyfish. I'm glad their affections couldn't be exchanged.

A whale shark (the largest fish in the world) in what I think is the biggest aquarium tank in the world. It's really spectacular. If ever there was a claim that captivity paid off in its educational and emotional value--this is it. But you also can't help being incredibly sad for all of the souls inside.

If you would like to see more photos from our trip to the Aquarium, I invite you to see more on my Facebook fan page by clicking here.

All photos © Levi Novey

It seemed like a place where their eggs might get stolen, but they did not seem to care, and neither did my wife– who saw it as a well-timed symbol of our 4 year wedding anniversary. Alicia said that the pair of Carolina wrens were starting their family, just as we did not long ago. I made a few jokes about how soon the birds would have a broken family (after squirrels raided their nest), but Alicia just brushed them off.

This morning I decided to show Alicia that I wasn’t 100% brute, so I took 30 minutes and had fun photographing the birds as they collected materials for their nest.

If you would like to see the whole batch of photos, you can enjoy them by clicking here.

All images © Levi Novey

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