Less Soldiers, More Robots for the Millitary

 

The pentagon's Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's proposed budget would, according to the proposal, shrink the Army to 450k or to levels that existed just before the United States entered into ww2.

The plan is to fill the void with hi-tech devices that have proven themselves reliable but for the most part, more of these devices can be fielded with far fewer personnel.

Weapon platforms are not exempt either. The U2 and A10 are well known weapon and surveillance systems, but rising costs of manufacture and maintenance plus the need for a human in the seat throughout the mission.

Naval systems like the Littoral Combat Ship, a new modular naval vessel capable of light combat, anti submarine / mines etc, all with a modular design and an equally small crew, possibly as few as 88. Another example is the new Zumwalt destroyer. This vessel can go to sea with a crew of apx. 150 where the aging Ashleigh-Burke fields 300 with almost no automation. The Popular Science article is very good and informative. You Can Read The Whole Article Here

BMU 399 is online - Cory Doctorow - By His Thing - whall you know him

Sorry for the wait here, however in truth, I was sure that I had the notice up.  Now don't get me wrong, after I edited the audio from the radio program, the podcast went up.  But.....

Ok, well thanks to Kallimus keeping an eye on stuff, here is episode 399 of Beam Me Up

After some opening comments on thise weekend’s Beam Me Up (episode 399).  I again play Love is coming back from an anime classic, this time I again posit the question, does the artist at times sound like an early Rod Stewart at times?

First up is a op ed piece from my favorite op/ed writer Kallimus and he is in good for this week!!!!
While my opening info peice concerns a low gravity simulation lab.  Better known as the vomit rockets.  And an unusual use of these devices.

I do a review of Enders Game the movie…

And finally I do get a story in.  Part one of Cory Doctorow’s By his things, shall you know him.

Here is the podcast link    Here is the episode 399

The Earth is flat I guess.

No, I have not completely lost my mind, though I am seeing a movie titled “Idiocracy” that is apparently coming true.  

Now every few years, the National Science foundation releases its new Science and engineering indicators. Basically, they show just how ignorant some people in this country are becoming. I won’t cover the entire article here, but you can check it out for yourself. I’m basically going to just cover this one thing, and you can judge from there after reading the full article.

            26% of Americans do not know the earth orbits the sun.

            Seriously. So.., I guess that means the freaking planet is flat in their minds or something. Regardless, they are apparently under the assumption that the universe still revolves around the Earth, making us the great important center of all things.

            People; that Flat Earth Society also still seems to exist, as I went looking to see if it actually did. Apparently as of March 2012, they had 420 members. What the frack is wrong with these people?

            Anyway, this means that 26% of the people in this country are already I am guessing unable to grasp the simplest of scientific concepts, or; and this is the scary part; they simply refuse to listen to anything and prefer to live in ignorance.

            Another thing that is brought up in the article is the need for those that can bridge the so called gap between science and society, working as translators. Are you kidding me here or what? We don’t need translators for science on what are the basic principles that most of us learned before ever going to school even.

            As for the advanced aspects of science, you will never get that explained today.

            As for explaining advancements I do believe that should be done, but trying to explain the science to the normal person today is kind of like something I mentioned about alien life once. Their teenagers go out to the backwater planets and screw with the primitives, us. This would be about the same. Take those of the 26% out to an island, jump up on a rock with a lighter and a fuel soaked torch, light it and become their god.

            Yeah okay, I lost my attitude here. Damn good reason to lose an attitude if you ask me.

            It gets worse, sort of.

            In 2010, nearly two thirds of Americans said astrology was not at all scientific. In 2012, it was just over half. We are so doomed.

            There are good parts in the report, but this stuff here is just silly and completely embarrassing to anyone that thinks.

            First link is to the article I found, and the second link will take you to the report itself.

            I am now going to go outside, with my fresh clean towel, stick my thumb toward the sky and hope for a pick up.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/18/opinion/kirshenbaum-science-literacy/#cnn-disqus-area

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/content/chapter-7/c07.pdf 

See Kate Upton Do Zero G!

Well the 2014 swimsuit edition for Sports Illustrated has released, but you know, I can not remember if Kate Upton and her spectacular bikini were even mention - let alone that their shoot involved a vomit comet.  (wiki if you are not familiar with the term click for more info)

India Can Launch a Mars Mission for Less That Than the Cost of a Holliwood Blockbuster!

Saritha Rai, a reporter for the New York Times, wrote recently that India had recently launched  a spacecraft to Mars.  There are many facets that makes the  Mangalyaan satellite unique however:

• "...it is the $75 million mission’s thrifty approach to time, money and materials that is getting attention." Saritha writes

Furthur on Sarita write:

• [Recently] NASA sent off its own Mars mission, five years in the making, named Maven. Its cost: $671 million. The budget of India’s Mars mission, by contrast, was just three-quarters of the $100 million that Hollywood spent on last year’s space-based hit, Gravity.”

Complete Saritia Times article HERE

Review: Ender's Game

Directed by  Gavin Hood

Partial cast list
Asa Butterfield as Andrew "Ender" Wiggin -  Jimmy Pinchak as Peter Wiggin -
Abigail Breslin as Valentine Wiggin -  Harrison Ford as Colonel Hyrum Graff  -
Ben Kingsley as Mazer Rackham

Even if you are just lightly interested in Science Fiction it is likely that you have in passing heard the name Orson Scott Card or at the very least the movie based on the first book in his Ender series called Ender's Game.   Well the movie is out on DVD/Blu-Ray so I thought I would give it a go.

Taking on this project, the producers HAD to know that Ender's Game and the Ender Series is one of those Sci-Fi sacred cows you hear about.  But it did not seem the final product was in any way.  So we headed into the experience and ultimately felt that the effort worthwhile.

You see, Ender's Game is devilishly convoluted without seeming to be.  50 years ago an alien race called Formics (because of their resemblance to ants) attempted to set up a colony on Earth.  We managed to chase them off at great cost and they have never returned.  However the space military think it prudent to train and equip a standing fleet in the event of a recurrence .     Andrew Wiggins is the youngest of the family's children and like the others before him, he applies to battle school  and is accepted, but unlike his older siblings, he continues to advance. 

But as in a lot of movies not everything is as it seems.

So what did I think?  Well there was piles of stuff left out...Most only touched on.  This meant they took what could have easily been a three hour movie and managed to cram it into less than two.  Most of the sets are claustrophobic.  I do think that the cast was spot on for the most part....and overall I think that the film followed the book well enough, there were no glaring discrepancies which I was worried about.  They didn't do very good at setting up the second in the series and from what I hear is not a shoe in......damn.

So how would I rate it?  Well if you are into sci-fi and you know the series its a clear ehhhhhhhhhh n n n nine...?  Maybe 8.5.   However because the voice over really doesn't  do a great job of explaining anything, and if you had never heard of Orson Scott Card your going to be in the dark then and that/s an 8 and that.s a shame.

review: Riddick

 Vin Diesel as Riddick -  Matthew Nable as Boss Johns -  Jordi Mollà as Santana  -  Katee Sackhoff as Dahl -
Dave Batista as Diaz -  Bokeem Woodbine as Moss  -  Raoul Trujillo as Lockspur  -   Conrad Pla as Vargas  -  Nolan Gerard Funk as Luna
Danny Blanco Hall as Falco  -  Noah Danby as Nuñez  -  Neil Napier as Rubio
Karl Urban as Siberius Vaako  -  Alex Branson as Lex Branman  -  Andreas Apergis as Krone 

Starring in his third movie as Riddick the last of a race called Furyan.  After the best part of a decade as the Lord Marshall of the Necromongers - Riddick has become restless.  In an attempt to bow out of the position, Riddick makes a deal with his commander Vaako, who professes to know the location of Furya, that for a ship and a crew to make him home, he will abdicate.

So things being what they will, Riddick once again is stranded on a planet and almost dead.

But given enough time Riddick recuperates and finds a way to signal passing ships for a rescue.   But what he gets is Mercs and bounty hunters who get a bonus if he is brought back dead.


Now it's Riddick's  job to keep from dying  and that there are things worse than him to fear on this planet.

And so, how did I like the third installment?  Well most of the action happens at night...check...it's raining.....check, there are mindless eating machines for animals attacking from all sides.....check.  That was when the movie really took off right?  Yeah?  You know I am talking about the fist movie don't you?  Yeah a bit of a cheap shot, just hope that doesn't start a trend as might the "turbo cycles" OMG WTF I am at a loss what to say about this!  I mean the ridiculous handlebars, a "bitch" seat, I swear I heard one backfire like a Harley with its timing advanced.... and THEY SOUNDED LIKE MOTORCYCLES!!!! Really? Who is this for....who believes that a turbine sounds like and backfires like a Harley....first off...there are NO cylinders or spark plugs in a turbine! But Vin is going to "Ride it like he stole it!" (groan)  By this time my anime guy and I were throwing things at the tv...

 Look this movie has Katie Ssckhoff  doing an even better job of her   Starbuck persona.  Here she is Dahl and she is bad.  Much more so than the Bionic Woman ever came close to... Matthew Nable  Jordi Mollà  and  Dave Batista are so ON in this movie and Vin is Riddick no holds barred, so taken as a compete body of work it is great fun  and then you hear the Harleys ride in....

For a Riddick movie it is top of the heap....though it is hard to say if it is better than #2  close  but if you are looking for more than an epic macho fairytale in Riddick  - you will be a long time looking.

I would give it a 7, and before you start to scream fraud...Let me explain...They were not lazy on this film.  The photography was good, green screen excellent, CGI seamless (they had to have a puppeteer doing the green suit for the hand raised "dog" just the way Vin interacts is so good you buy right into it)

I would say if you like you SF raw and your a Vin Diesel fan, go ahead and rent it.  If you are neither...walk away, you are not missing anything.

NASA Wants Commercial Robotic Luna Landers

That's right!  NASA is looking at private industry to develop a robotic Luna lander for the purpose of delivering cargo to the Moon's surface. 

In an excerpt from their announcement NASA said that the lander

• "could support commercial activities on the moon while enabling new science and exploration missions of interest to the larger scientific and academic communities."

NASA isn't being to clear on what these companies are supposed to do once they get there, but it has rekindled the debate of who "owns" the Moon.  Back at the beginning of spaceflight, the thought was due to the exorbitant cost, only governments would ever go to the Moon.  Now that commercial is a reality, the question once again is who owns the Moon, can anyone "own" even a piece of it.  Should the be allowed to?

My caveat would be that we would have to live with the decision every time we look up.  That is stretching it a lot but I do make at least a valid point.   Think about it.

New Scientist online has a good piece on this HERE

Does Water Still Flow on Mars?

when scientists speak of running water on Mars, it is taken for granted that it flowed millions if not, billions of yours ago.   But according to a CNN post:

• Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology are looking at dark features on Martian slopes that are finger-shaped. They appear and disappear seasonally.

The research scientist said that this is the best indication that Mars has running water right now.  The group first reported that there was evidence of slow moving, syrup like salt water flows in 2011.  

And that seems to be the case here on a larger scale.  The water would still be salty and   carrying 

a significant amount of ferric sulfate which is a common chemical on Mars.

It is still a far cry from water that could be used without treatment,  but it is positive indication that there will be resources available in the future for manned missions. 

Read the complete article HERE

Old Trek, New Episodes

Star Trek Web Series

            This is something I stumbled across by accident somehow.  It’s interesting. What you have are trained professionals that are also avid Star Trek fans and have taken it upon themselves to finish the two years that were left after the originals cancellation.

            And this is where it starts getting interesting. The people that have taken over the parts of the originals. Here are a few names you will recognize.

Chris Doohan

            The son of James Doohan has taken over the role of Scotty in place of his father. Guess that pretty much covers the character of Scotty doesn’t it?

Grant Imahara

            Yeah the one from MythBusters. He has taken over the role of Sulu.

 Vic Mignogna

            Some may know this name from his voice acting in video games and anime. And that is a seriously long list. Dragonball movies and games, FullMetal, The Mightiest Disciple Kenichi, Devil May Cry, and the list goes on, and on. He is also playing a part in the TV Movie “Star Trek: Renegades.”

            And just for the simple reason of space saving, I will stop with the character listing here. 

            And some good information on this is that it had a successful launch on Kickstarter for three more episodes. Episode 2 premiered at the Dallas comic con on Feb 8^th.  The fans rallied behind this, and it even has a 7.3 from 347 users on IMdb.

Think about it. This old purist is actually recommending something where the main characters, and everyone else, are being played by different people than the beloved originals, and no one regenerated. Just accept them as who they are supposed to be, and give it a shot. I admit, it takes a bit of getting used to. But go check it out.

           The link I give here will take you to the episodes. Enjoy.

http://www.startrekcontinues.com/episodes/#.Uvm8pPRDt1Y

 Printed Pizza

            Remember that company I mentioned once before that got the grant to figure out how to do a pizza by 3D printing? Well, here’s an update video. Be nice if they used a pizza recipe that is actually loved by all pizza lovers, which of course would be New York Style. But hey, they’re trying, and let’s be honest, they’re doing a damn good job of it too. But regardless, and I hate to say this, I really doubt they ever get the perfect taste from it. They might, but I doubt it ever tastes like NY fresh. And I want to see them 3D print fully cooked and ready to eat Louisiana crawfish. Then we have the real replicator.

            Anyway, here’s the link to the video. I’d try it.

http://www.startrek.com/article/star-trek-replicator-nearing-reality

Dead Beat Olympics

            The midseason premiere of the Walking Dead beat out the Olympics in terms of viewers. 15.8 million viewers with an 8.2 rating compared to the Olympics 6.9 in the 18-49 demographic they like using.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/02/10/the-walking-dead-olympics-ratings/

This makes it the most watched midseason premiere yet, which I suppose is good, but I miss the days when we got the freaking season in one shot, and not all this waiting around forever for one season.

            I have to admit, it will be more interesting for a while at least, considering you have a group of complete and total imbeciles trying to survive in the simplest and easiest of apocalyptic scenarios. They get split up on the farm, and had no plan for a rendezvous point. They then succeed, due to the idiocy of the moron in charge, who allows the enemy to live, thereby causing the loss of their prison home to a tank and more zombies than could ever be handled. And guess what, they are now split up again, with no rendezvous point, no one knowing if anyone is alive or dead. I would take the kids from Disney’s Lab Rats or Mighty Med, (stop judging me on the silliness I watch, they are good shows), before I ever tried surviving anything with this group of morons that seem determined to follow a complete idiot into utter and total ruin and self-destruction. Hmm, guess they’d make decent lackies and cannon fodder though. Or in this case, I guess lunch would be a bit more accurate. Sometimes I think they all have bugs in the blood. So why do I keep watching it? I love horror zombie movies, and it could still be a good series, if only someone would fecking think, just a little bit. When you have a sociopath, in a post-apocalyptic world, determined to see you destroyed, and tortured if possible just for fun, and you have him dead to rights and done, you end it. You don’t let the freak walk away to come back with an army and a freaking tank.

            No, there isn’t a link to the rest of this I’m just ranting. Get more intelligence from Space Dandy than this show. And if you haven’t seen Space Dandy, it’s on at 11:30 on carton Network on Saturday nights. He's a Dandy; in Space. (Their description, not mine).Just don’t ask me what the hell it is you just watched. I’m still trying to figure it out. And I love that show. I’m a sick person.

Kindle Games

            I have two I tried here recently while being laid up. This is not going to be a very nice review.

COLONY ATTACK

            Seriously, don’t waste your time. First, lets make something clear. I love games like Empire Earth Gold Edition, Heroes of Might and Magic 5(I think it was 5, I have to buy this myself; my buddy brought it over before and we played. Well this is another of those resource building expansive type games, but it just doesn’t live up to, well not much at all. There are ion app purchases of course, which I find irritating, but not as bad as the fact that you apparently get to some of the larger modified building without becoming an elite member for 4.95 a month or something like that. It’s not worth it at all. WoW was once worth  the price to play, even at 15 a month, until they destroyed the game. Even now though, I would pay for WoW before giving this game even 1.99 for a year. It’s okay for a while, like till you hit about level 3 or 4, then it is just boring. Not to mention if you get caught by a player that has been there for a while, you’ll get your fleet totaled, and resources all taken. Not bad, and normal, but you need a longer protection period after you start. And it needs a better combat system and resource system as well.

I give it a 3.8 out of ten for initial game interest.

CASTLE CLASH

            Yep, it’s another resource building game. Again with in-app purchasing for gems, and you talk about freaking outrageous prices. This game can however be played and enjoyed without any form of in-app purchasing. But they try and make it difficult enough, especially with the long arsed times to build anything, that it will drive you nuts.

            It has a simple resource system however consisting of gold, and mana. The other thing is Honor Badges. Those you earn at a set rate per hour depending on your ranking in the arena. Just pick your strongest, pick an opponent, and set them free to reach the other end and destroy a crystal, or meet in the middle and fight first. The problem is it doesn’t show your opponents defense position so it makes it interesting. I have lost in the arena by taking a different path to the crystal and them destroying mine first, but when I went back in, and met them on the path and fought, I wiped out all 5 of his with only one of mine dying. Sometimes it doesn’t make a lot of sense it seems. But there is an explanation based on what you have done to build your one talent, which you get at random and could be of level 1-5. You can change it for 300 gems, but you never know what you will get, or what level. The other is a skill that you can raise in level by sacrificing slimes or other heroes, but the costs are just silly.

            All in all though, even with a few more minor complaints I have, it is overall a fun game in many ways. Maybe I just need the more complicated variety. But again, it isn’t a bad game, and you don’t need fast reflexes for anything and you can’t be attacked by anyone while you are online. I guess a small motor with a plastic flap attached at set a a slow speed with a stylus tip to rotate and touch the screen over and over would keep it from the automatic shutdown it does if you haven’t done anything for a while. And no, I’m not doing that. I did that with Final Fantasy 3 (I think 3), however to keep hitting the A button so I could go to bed while I went in the circle at the water over and over. Woke to level 89. I cheated, sue me. I didn’t have a turbo controller to tape the A button down on; it was winter, so I made my own turbo controller system. 

           Anyway, I give this one a 5.5 out of 10.  

           Both of these are available I know for the Kindle fire, and also for phones as well. Some type of phones anyway. And they are free at Amazon for download. 

BMU 398 Now Online

BMU 398 is here!  So  lets get started

My first offering is an unusual peice of anime music.  From all things a series that I have avoided for years.  I was looking for some cutsie anime music so I watched this episode and was floored on the ending song.  It's great!  So is the series surprisingly enough covers so many different aspects of life and it is not kiddy anime...weird

I have been reading on the James Webb and I start the science continue on the Webb space telescope.

Next is my review of Elyisium  With Matt Damon and Jodie Foster.  Next, NASA wants the ISS to get cold. Plus have you seen the new trailer for the next Captain America wow.

Oh and you can now see Felix's jump from near space.  All the camera footage has been released.

And Tratth: Return to Empire  By David Scholes

That's it in a nut shell!  Enjoy

Review: Elusium

Directed by Neill Blomkamp

Staring
Matt Damon Jodie Foster Alice Braga


150 years from now, the Earth's environment has become a nightmare of pollution  and global warming.  Te affluent have given up and have moved en-mass to a huge space station in orbit.  So huge in fact that its structure can clearly be seen from the surface. Only the super elite can go there so the majority of the world's population live in poisonous, abject poverty.

Our guide through the chaos that is now Earth society is Max Da Costa played by Matt Damon. Max is typical of the era - half starved and constantly under police scrutiny.  He does have something that most others don't - a job manufacturing robots. 

Things start to pick up when Max catches a lethal dose of radiation.  He knows that his only hope for survival is to get onto Elysium and avail himself of the med-tech there.

There are plenty of machinations to go through to get to the station and major resistance from Elysian Secretary of Defense Delacourt who's sado-political evilness is done with bone chilling effectiveness by Jodie Foster.   I shan't say more because if you have not seen the DVD/Blu-ray trying to describe them would ruin all but the special effects, green screen and cgi.

As exiting as this movie could of been, considering the cast and the sheer amount of CGI, I had trouble with Elysium.  Not that the plot is overly complected, the movie is just mishmash and plot holes leaving me split on this film. Overall any film that I find myself thinking "that doesn't make any sense" I have problem suggesting....Even though it had potential and still does have some impressive environmental scenes and action but overall that is the only thing shoring this film up.  Overall I don't rate the film any higher than 7.

James Webb Space Telescope Passes Milestone....

The James Webb Space  Telescope in one step closer to its 2018 launch and activation.   The milestone in question is the delivery of the last three mirrors that will make up its complicated infrared telescopic assembly. 

The James Webb, when it become operational in 2018. will be the flagstaff observatory for NASA.   The $8.8 billion telescope when finished will be the most powerful space telescope ever built.  James Webb is expected to have seven times the light-collecting power of its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope. 

From the Yahoo News article:

• The James Webb Space Telescope, a joint effort by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), will be able to peer through the cosmic dust at the most distant objects in the universe, including the earliest galaxies and planets around other stars.

Yahoo News article HERE

Thanks to listener Courtney

ISS Could Become the Coldest Place In the Universe?!

What happens when things get cold?  Well, we pretty much have that down as far as our macro universe goes.  But when things get extra cold at the quantum level....well weird crap starts to happen.

NASA is sending some new equipment to the ISS with the sole purpose of getting COOOOOLD.
And not just everyday cold...no sir NASA is looking to create the coldest place in the universe.  The Cold Atom Lab, due to arrive at the ISS in 2016,  it will be able to create an environment that can be kept stable at something extremely close to absolute zero. 

Why would you want to do that you might ask....remember you asked....NASA wants  to study Bose-Einstein condensates.  Kinda makes your brain hurt right?    So what are Bose-Einstein condensates?  Well in simple enough terms that my tiny brain can understand, it is a condition that happens when gasses are cooled to extremely cold temperatures.  At the quantum level each atom begins to behaves much like one giant atom, making quantum effects visible on a macroscopic scale.  Which means that even though the quantum level effects can not be resolved, atomic and sub atomic effects can be observed, so if a bunch of atoms starts acting like one atom, then by proxy, we can observe a quantum state.  Yep, at the very least, NASA and that means we, will for the first time be able to see quantum physics work in real time!

Check out the youTube video below for a much saner explanation. 





Here is the complete DVice article  HERE

Captain America 2 Trailer

Here is the newest Captain America 2 trailer. Movie due out in April!

Felix's Fall From Space

Here is the long awaited film of Felix Baumgartner's harrowing jump from 128,1000 feet above Earth's surface. And yes he trashed the sound barrier....

BMU #397 Now Online

Here we are for another week of Beam Me Up.  This Week episode 397.

After my opening comments I play another track from John Anelio's Walk the Fire album.   This Week's cut, "Stuck at the Bottom of the Mine".

I have been doing Star Trek trivia for some time, but it IS wearing a bit thin, so I have swapped in some Twilight Zone odd facts which seem to be many!

Off to the Beam Me Up blog:

First is a review of the animated feature "The Croods"

Early Solar system dynamics were pretty chaotic with the gas giants doing a dance through the inner system!

I have a link to one of the most clever short films

Plus the funniest rip on the early Batman & Robin feature film, all the incontestability and just plain WRONG material, this short actually makes the older film more enjoyable!

The Sierra Nevada corp uncovers it's Dream Chaser, a reusable lifting body, which will help deliver men and supplies to the ISS.

and our story for this week....KS Dearsley's  "The pitch"  

Enjoy!                                                                                  

review: The Croods

Directed by     Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders 

Starring     Nicolas Cage    Emma Stone
        Ryan Reynolds    Catherine Keener
        Clark Duke    Cloris Leachman

Meet the Croods.  Three generations of cave dwellers at the dawn of time.  It would seem that they are the last of their "kind" as all their neighbors came to rather untimely end, each more gruesome end.

The Croods most likely will fall victim to just the same kind of even, that was until the daughter discovers a strange boy with an even stranger pet he calls fire.  

This strange boy is running from the end of the world and to prove his point the Croods'  cave is destroyed by  a massive rock slide.

Now they must travel to find a new cave all the while avoiding all forms of wild flora & fauna that would like nothing more that to have them for lunch.

The Croods is again a step up in animation.  There are several places in the film that all you can think "oh now they are just showing off!"  It really is that sumptuous.  I had to remind myself at times that what I was watching WAS animation.  It wasn't so much the main characters or even the story line which bears little resemblance to historical or archeological records, but the little things in an environment or passing moment that comes and goes with hardly a notice.  Blades of grass wave in the breeze as does hair on their heads.  Fire moves as though alive.  All the little subtleties that convince you that an environment is real.  From huge flocks of birds  to gargantuan explosion, everything blends into an environment that is both surreal and totally real at the same time.

The Croods had something for all ages, but to be honest, it is a movie for the young but for those of you that are sitting there watching, you will find the level of detail in the animation at times breath taking.  

I would give the film a 7 mainly because there was no effort to keep the timeline accurate.  But that will have to be my only bitch, it certain IS worth a watch....if you have kids...add it to your collection even.