Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World

Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World is essentially a rehash of the original. Man messes with nature. Things go wrong. People get eaten. The major difference is in the last part which is quite sophomoric and not at all fitting of Steven Spielberg.

It is four years after the horrific disaster that happened at Jurassic Park. Again, we meet the good doctor, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), no longer at the head of his company but still pulling a few strings behind the back of his son, Peter (Arliss Howard). The original base camp of operations set up by Hammond on Isla Sorna, Site B, still exists and there are living colonies of dinosaurs there. Hammond, who has gone from capitalist to naturalist, wants to observe the creatures in their natural habitat and put to rest years of speculation about the lives of the great animals.

Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is asked to come on board the team sent to scout the island where the dinosaurs live. He refuses until he learns that his girlfriend, paleontologist Dr. Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) is already alone on the island. He then becomes part of a rescue mission including himself, photographer Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn), equipment specialist Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff), and his daughter Kelly Curtis (Vanessa Lee Chester) who stowed away in the back of the van.

Besides the animals who would like to have humans for din-din, Malcolm's team has to cope with Peter Hammond and Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite). Tembo's goal is to kill a Tyrannosaurus Rex to prove man is the greatest hunter. Peter wants to capture the animals and bring them to the mainland to create "Jurassic Park, San Diego". Bad idea.

Spielberg and company, clearly realising they had a winning formula the last time around, don't deviate very much from it. By the time the Tyrannosaurus Rex gets to San Diego, I couldn't help but thinking I had just seen Jurassic Park again.

What is missing in this movie compared to the original is the intellectual aspect. There's no talk of chaos, no background about how the animals were bred and raised, no delving into evolution about how the animals could overcome their lysine deficiency, and no "this is Unix, I know this stuff!" Viewers are simply expected to have this knowledge, and this means more time for bone crunching effects. As a result, we have a movie that is darker and gorier than the original.

The movie is entertaining and has some interesting messages about cruelty to animals and leaving nature alone to do as it will. See it for the matinee price but don't spend the big bucks on this one.

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Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000)

The first Urban Legend film ended with the death of the serial killer shrouded in mystery clearly pointing at a sequel. Urban Legends: Final Cut completely ignores that scenario (except until the very end) and comes up with a new one that is a rehash of the original film, but arguably executed slightly better.

In this film, Amy Mayfield (Jennifer Morrison) is a film student at Alpine University trying to come up with a thesis project. Given that her father is a famous director, there are heavy expectations placed on her. She finally decides on a project featuring a serial killer whose modus operandi is based on urban legends, myths where young college students are killed in hideous and gruesome ways.

Needless to say, this idea takes on a life of its own as people around Amy start dying. As in the Scream films, there are a lot of red herrings as to the identity of the real killer. In this film, the ending was one of the more surprising ones for me (though not completely a shock).

The suspense level in the film is fairly high (thanks in part of the surreal visual effects) and perhaps the cleverest aspect of the movie is that it dismisses the events in the first one as an urban legend (also the multiple choice involving guns at the end is amusing). The acting is passable. Urban Legends: Final Cut is a decent time killer and worth the matinee fare on the big screen. I don't recommend renting it though, unless you're a fan of the self-referential slash/gore horror genre.

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Pirates of the Caribbean 4 on Stranger Tides

Johnny Depp goodness. Is there really anyone out there who could make a sexier pirate that Johnny? Not bloody likely!

ON STRANGER TIDES is one of the best PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movies to date. There were some doubts going into this as two key characters from the original trilogy are missing, Will and Elizabeth Turner. While Will and Elizabeth added a lot to the first three films their absence in the fourth is hardly worth mentioning. A new cast mixed with many old favorites makes for a great story.

On this adventure Jack faces off against Blackbeard, vicious mermaids, and an old girlfriend while searching for The Fountain of Youth. It’s good to see that Jack is keeping busy.

This movie is fun and exciting, loaded with action. There’s even a nice cliff-hanger to encourage the idea of a PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 5. It seems like this franchise can truly go on forever without getting stale. Jack is such a great character that movies about him can never be boring.

The only disappointing aspect of this movie is the very minimal amount of screen time allotted to Jack the Monkey. That monkey is darn cute and kind of serves as a mascot for these films. Besides it’s a simple fact that monkeys should always have maximum screen time.

ON STRANGER TIDES is a great addition to a great franchise. This movie is not to be missed.

Watch Pirates of the Caribbean 4 On Stranger Tides Youtube Trailer :

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Mongolian press began in 1920 with close ties to the Soviet Union under the Mongolian Communist Party, with the establishment of the Unen ("Truth") newspaper similar to the Soviet Pravda.[68] Until reforms in the 1990s, the government had strict control of the media and oversaw all publishing, in which no independent media was allowed.[68] The dissolution of the Soviet Union had a significant impact on Mongolia, where the one-party state grew into a multi-party democracy, and with that, media freedoms came to the forefront. A new law on press freedom, drafted with help from international NGOs on August 28, 1998 and enacted on January 1, 1999, paved the way for media reforms.[69] The Mongolian media currently consists of around 300 print and broadcasting outlets.[70] Since 2006, the media environment has been improving with the government debating a new Freedom of Information Act, and the removal of any affiliation of media outlets with the government.[71][72] Market reforms have led to an increasing number of people working in the media year on year, along with students at journalism schools.[71] In its 2008 report, Reporters Without Borders classified the media environment as 93rd out of 173, with 1st being most free.[73] Dinosaur fossil sale controversy On May 20, 2012, a rare skeleton of a Tarbosaurus bataar, also known as Tyrannosaurus bataar, was sold to an undisclosed buyer for $1,052,500 at an auction in New York City, USA, despite efforts by Mongolian President Elbegdorj Tsakhia to stop the sale. The Mongolian government is concerned about maintaining control over fossils and cultural relics while scientists worry about such items disappearing into private collections

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The main festival is Naadam, which has been organised for centuries, consists of three Mongolian traditional sports, archery, horse-racing (over long stretches of open country, not the short racing around a track practiced in the West), and wrestling. Nowadays it is held on July 11 to July 13 in the honour of the anniversaries of the National Democratic Revolution and foundation of the Great Mongol State. Another very popular activity called Shagaa is the "flicking" of sheep ankle bones at a target several feet away, using a flicking motion of the finger to send the small bone flying at targets and trying to knock the target bones off the platform. This contest at Naadam is very popular and develops a serious audience among older Mongolians. In Mongolia, the khoomei (or throat singing), style of music is popular, particularly in parts of Western Mongolia. The ornate symbol in the leftmost bar of the national flag is a Buddhist icon called Soyombo. It represents the sun, moon, stars, and heavens per standard cosmological symbology abstracted from that seen in traditional thangka paintings.

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Mongolian horse (aduu)

The Mongol horse (Mongolian Адуу, aduu: "horse") is the native horse breed of Mongolia. The breed is purported to be largely unchanged since the time of Genghis Khan. Nomads living in the traditional Mongol fashion still hold more than 3 million animals, which outnumber the country's human population. Despite their small size, they are horses, not ponies. In Mongolia, the horses live outdoors all year (at 30°C in summer down to -40°C in winter) and search for food on their own. The mare's milk is processed into the national beverage airag, and some animals are slaughtered for meat. Other than that, they serve as riding animals, both for the daily work of the nomads and in horse racing.

 Appearance 

 Mongol horses are of a stocky build, with relatively short but strong legs and a large head. They range in size from 12 to 14 hands high and have a cannon diameter of about 8 inches. They have a certain resemblance to Przewalski's Horse. The mane and tail are very long, and the strands are often used for braiding ropes; the tail hair can be used for violin bows. The hooves are very robust, and very few animals are fitted with horseshoes. Mongolian horses have great stamina, although they have smaller body they can gallop for 10 km without break.

Behavior

 Mongol horses are frugal, arduous, somewhat wily, and tread safely in rough terrain. In Mongolia, most animals are kept roaming free, and only a small number of riding animals get caught and tethered. Once the animal has become familiarized with carrying a rider, it will be calm, friendly, and very reliable. The Mongolian saddle is very tall, with a wooden frame. It only allows marginal control of the gait. In most situations, the horse will decide the gait on its own, while the rider is occupied with other tasks such as herding cattle. Very often, a Mongol horse will choose to canter. Child racing at the Naadam festival Racing horses with a child in the saddle will run in full gallop over 35 km at a time. They are trained to keep running even after losing their riders. In such a case, they need to be stopped in the finish zone by aides waiting there especially for that purpose.

Breeding history 

 The exact origins of the breed are hard to determine. Horseback riding has been documented with the nomads of the central Asian steppes since 2000 BC. Tests have shown, that among all horse breeds, Mongol horses feature the largest genetic variety, followed by the Tuwinian horses. This indicates that it is a very archaic breed suffering little human induced selection. The data also indicate that many other breeds descend from the Mongol horses.

Horses in Mongolian culture

 Horses are greatly cherished in Mongolian culture, particularly among the nomads because horses are very useful to people's daily lives and livelihood. Horse racing is the second most popular event in Mongolia, after traditional wrestling. Mongol horses were a key factor during the 13th century conquest of the Mongol Empire. There is a traditional saying in Mongolian: "A Mongol without a horse is like a Bird without the wings". Genghis Khan himself once said: "It is easy to conquer the world from the back of a horse". A nomad with many horses is considered wealthy, and having many horses which are also in good shape is considered honorable behavior. Mongol people individually have favorite horses, each family member has his and her own horse, and some family members value their favorite horses by saving them from working under a lot of pressure.

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Mongolian Yurt (Ger)

Thank you for your interest in one of the world’s most practically and attractively designed habitations. The Mongolian yurt, or ger as it is known in Mongolia itself, has been used for thousands of years by the nomads of Central Asia and is still a common sight in many countries in the region. With its unique design, structure and practical features, the yurt is still a popular habitation. Mongolian yurts (ger) are attracting interest from people in many parts of the world as an ecologically friendly and attractive living space that can be used for a variety of purposes.

The terms yurt and ger are interchangeable and describe the traditional portable Mongolian habitation consisting of a wooden frame and felt walls. Yurts (gers) are designed to be easy to take apart, transport, and reconstruct. Despite this portability, they are warm enough to keep the coldest winter temperatures at bay and strong enough to withstand strong winds and the demands of a whole family. The yurt (ger) is a circular structure built using a wooden, accordion frame that can be easily taken down, made compact for carrying, and reassembled. On this frame are placed three to four layers of felt, traditionally made from sheep’s wool, and an outer layer of waterproof canvas. The felt and canvas are secured to the wooden frame and the resulting structure can stand securely in one place for months or even years at a time. The wooden frame of the yurt (ger) is held together by opposing stresses designed into the structure and by horse, yak and camel hair straps. A central column holds up the struts of the roof, which fan out from an opening that accommodates a stove pipe and can be opened up to the elements on a warm day or covered in the event of rain or cold temperatures. The lower sides of the outer wrapping of the yurt can also be raised to allow air to circulate freely to cool the interior on warm days. What are yurts (gers) used for? If you have been to Mongolia, you will surely already have an idea of how you wish to use a yurt. However, we would like to provide some ideas on how a yurt (ger) might contribute to your lifestyle for those who do not have this experience. Although nomads in Mongolia use yurts all year round in temperatures as low as -35 and as high as +40 degrees Celsius, we recommend using yurts (gers) in temperatures between about -10 and +30 degrees Celsius as it takes special care and expertise to keep the interior of a yurt warm during conditions colder than -10 degrees Celcius. A yurt provides not only the atmosphere of a nomadic lifestyle but has many practical and enjoyable uses for people in North America and elsewhere in the world. A Mongolian ger (yurt) makes an ideal second or holiday home in part because it can be put to many uses. One of the pleasantest ways to make use of a yurt is as a pavilion in a backyard or another spot. The ease with which air circulates through a yurt makes it cool in summer and it can also be made warm when the temperatures begin to fall. You can use a smaller yurt as a bedroom and view the stars in the night sky through the opening in the roof. A yurt can just as easily be used as a kitchen or dining room or a combination of the two; you could even try cooking Mongolian-style barbecue in your Mongolian ger. A yurt can be used as a dining pavilion, a marquee for a family event, or as a playhouse for children. We recommend our paint-decorated or carved yurts with 5 or 6 wall segments (size, prices) for these kinds of uses. Secondly, yurts can be put to use as the site of a small business or a classroom for seminars and workshops. Yurts are environmentally friendly structures and are perfect for use as temporary housing, a small shop, a festival structure, a guest house, or a holiday home. For this type of use we recommend our paint-decorated or carved yurts 6, 8 and 10 wall segments (sizes, prices). Thirdly, with its portability and wind-resistance and ease of assembly, a small yurt makes an ideal temporary dwelling place when traveling and is more comfortable and practical than any tent. We recommend our travel yurts (size, price) for this type of use. Our travel yurt is an innovative new type of yurt first created in 2006 by a Mongolian ger craftsman. The yurt can be disassembled and carried in only two bags that fit easily into the average sedan. A Mongolian yurt (ger) can also be used to provide space for a variety of activities for companies offering recreational services, and they will be a point of interest for patrons. As you may have seen in Mongolia, yurts are commonly used to provide bungalow-type accommodation at tourist camps in the countryside. Yurts are used not only as accommodation but also as restaurants, shops and museums in the land of their origin. If you are interested in using a yurt for a business such as pub and restaurant, we recommend our paint-decorated or carved yurts with 10 wall segments (sizes, prices). An original Mongolian yurt with ten wall segments will contain approximately 20 restaurant tables with five seats each. Any event focusing on nomadic culture and tradition will also be greatly enhanced with the addition of a Mongolian ger (yurt). If you are a Mongolian citizen living abroad or Mongolia-enthusiast, we would be glad to help you increase awareness and understanding of one of the oldest cultures in the world. We recommend carved yurts with 5, 6 or 8 walls (sizes, prices) for use at special events of this type. We supply traditional and original hand-crafted Mongolian yurts and furniture to the US market. We have a broad choice of Mongolian yurts for sale. All of our yurts (gers) and furniture are entirely hand-made and can be modified to suit the customer's taste. Please visit the "Yurt types" section of the website to see the wide variety of yurts for sale. Our "Photo gallery" section has some nice Mongolian yurt pictures. We hope that you will find our "History of yurts," and "Yurts and nomads" sections interesting and the "Yurt size" and "Assembling" sections informative. If you decide to buy a Mongolian yurt from us, please visit the "How to buy" section. If you are interested in traveling to Mongolia to learn about Mongolian culture and visit Mongolian nomads living in ger (yurt), please check our sister company's website for your Mongolia travel arrangement. Thank you; we hope you enjoy our website.

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The music of Mongolia is strongly influenced by nature, nomadism, shamanism, and also Tibetan Buddhism. The traditional music includes a variety of instruments, famously the morin khuur, and also the singing styles like the urtyn duu ("long song"), and throat-singing (khoomei). The "tsam" is danced to keep away evil spirits and it was seen the reminiscences of shamaning. The first rock band of Mongolia was Soyol Erdene, founded in the 1960s. Their Beatles-like manner was severely criticized by the Communist censorship. It was followed by Mungunhurhree, Ineemseglel, Urgoo, etc., carving out the path for the genre in the harsh environment of Communist ideology. Mungunhurhree and Haranga were to become the pioneers in the Mongolia's heavy rock music. Haranga approached its zenith in the late 1980s and 1990s. The leader of Haranga, famous guitarist Enh-Manlai, generously helped the growth of the following generations of rockers. Among the followers of Haranga was the band Hurd. In the early 1990s, group Har-Chono put the beginning for Mongolia's folk-rock, merging elements of the Mongolian traditional "long song" into the genre. By that time, the environment for development of artistic thought had become largely liberal thanks to the new democratic society in the country. The 1990s saw development of rap, techno, hip-hop and also boy bands and girl bands flourish at the turn of the millennium.

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Comedy - X Tuts

The traditional Mongolian dwelling is known as a ger. In the past it was known by the Russian term yurt, but this is changing as the Mongolian term becomes better known among English-speaking countries. According to Mongolian artist and art critic N. Chultem, the ger was the basis for development of traditional Mongolian architecture. In the 16th and 17th centuries, lamaseries were built throughout the country. Many of them started as ger-temples. When they needed to be enlarged to accommodate the growing number of worshippers, the Mongolian architects used structures with 6 and 12 angles[clarification needed] with pyramidal roofs to approximate to the round shape of a ger. Further enlargement led to a quadratic shape of the temples. The roofs were made in the shape of marquees.[66] The trellis walls, roof poles and layers of felt were replaced by stone, brick, beams and planks, and became permanent.[67] Chultem distinguished three styles in traditional Mongolian architecture: Mongolian, Tibetan and Chinese as well as combinations of the three. Among the first quadratic temples was Batu-Tsagaan (1654) designed by Zanabazar. An example of the ger-style architecture is the lamasery Dashi-Choiling in Ulaanbaatar. The temple Lavrin (18th century) in the Erdene Zuu lamasery was built in the Tibetan tradition. An example of a temple built in the Chinese tradition is the lamasery Choijing Lamiin Sume (1904), which is a museum today. The quadratic temple Tsogchin in lamasery Gandan in Ulan Bator is a combination of the Mongolian and Chinese tradition. The temple of Maitreya (disassembled in 1938) is an example of the Tibeto-Mongolian architecture.[66] Dashi-Choiling monastery has commenced a project to restore the temple and the 80 feet (24 m) sculpture of Maitreya.

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Mongolia supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and has sent several successive contingents of 103 to 180 troops each to Iraq. About 130 troops are currently deployed in Afghanistan. 200 Mongolian troops are serving in Sierra Leone on a UN mandate to protect the UN's special court set up there, and in July 2009, Mongolia decided to send a battalion to Chad in support of MINURCAT.[61] From 2005 to 2006, about 40 troops were deployed with the Belgian and Luxembourgish contingent in Kosovo. On November 21, 2005, George W. Bush became the first-ever sitting U.S. President to visit Mongolia.[62] In 2004, under the Bulgarian chairmanship, The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), invited Mongolia as its newest Asian Partner. In August, 2011, U.S. vice president Joe Biden made the first visit by a sitting vice president to Mongolia since Henry Wallace toured the region in 1944

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The miniature naadam "Deeltei Mongol" that is held after National Naadam festival has started at the Sukhbaatar's Square on July 13, 2012. The “Mongolia in Deel” festival, being held in its 6th consecutive year, is aimed to promote Mongolian ethnic clothing, crafts, carvings and folk art to foreign tourists and to mongolians as well, to attract more interest of tourists by producing tourism products related to the distinct Mongolian history, ancient culture and nomadic way of living that has been reserved in the era of globalization, and to have the young Mongolian generation to love and pride their history and culture.

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Mongolian TV show - S

Mongolia i/mɒŋˈɡoʊliə/ (Mongolian: Монгол улс (help·info), literally Mongol country/state) is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its westernmost point is only 38 kilometres (24 mi) from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest city, is home to about 45% of the population. Mongolia's political system is a parliamentary republic. The area of what is now Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Rouran, the Gökturks and others. The Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan in 1206. After the collapse of the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols returned to their earlier pattern of constant internal conflict and occasional raids on the Chinese borderlands. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Mongolia came under the influence of Tibetan Buddhism. At the end of the 17th century, all of Mongolia had been incorporated into the area ruled by the Qing Dynasty. During the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, Mongolia declared independence, but had to struggle until 1921 to firmly establish de facto independence from the Republic of China, and until 1945 to gain international recognition.

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