I guess I find sloppiness to be an indicator of sloppiness. If you can script the sun and moon to do something they've never done, who's to say what other photogenic impossibilities have slipped into your story? Clearly, if the laws of physics do not constrain your storytelling why should the facts of history, prehistory, or archaeology give you any pause? So wikipedia notes:
The Washington Post reported that the famous Bonampak murals were digitally altered to show a warrior holding a dripping human heart, which is not present in the original.[49] The solar eclipse -- which catches all those savages by surprise -- was probably predictable by the Maya, at least according to http://www.astrosociety.org/pubs/mercury/33_01/maya.html The Dresden Codex, one of four surviving Maya manuscripts—probably authored in the 13th century—contains calculations of the synodic periods of the terrestrial worlds Mercury, Venus, and Mars. It also provides a correction table for long-term observations of Venus and another table used for eclipse predictions. I already mentioned that the Europeans in Apocalypto were anachronistic by a few centuries, but I can't find the discussion of the evidence that the culture depicted was earlier than the 16th century. Having written tables for eclipse predictions in the 13th century argues for having been able to roughly predict them for centuries previous while collecting the observations necessary to refine the predictions. So the Mayan ability to predict solar eclipses may be as much as a millennium ahead of Mel Gibson's, -- rec -- On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 3:19 PM, Jochen Fromm <[email protected]> wrote: > Maybe they got it wrong, but does it matter if the moon is half or full if > you can see realistic actors speaking Yucatec Maya in an authentic > environment? The Maya Hierogylphs are phonetic signs which encode this > language. If you watch documentations like "Cracking the Maya Code" ( see > http://bit.ly/9l4fop ), you wonder how they might have lived, and what > they may have thought. Mel Gibson's film shows it. > > -J. > > ----- Original Message ----- From: Roger Critchlow > > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 10:57 PM > > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Palenque, Chichen Itza and more > > Exactly. I sat there looking at the full moon and imagined Mel Gibson > whipping the solar system through 14 days of celestial mechanics in the 12 > hours elapsed in the script. In my mind it made this horrible grinding > noise. > > -- rec -- > > > On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 12:07 PM, sarbajit roy <[email protected]> wrote: > > Quote: > "One thing they got wrong astronomically is a diddling point, but > "Apocalypto" depicts a Solar Eclipse one day then that night a Full Moon. > Nope, impossible! As any stargazer worth her telescope can tell you, Solar > Eclipsi are only possible when the moon is in the new phase, which is the > opposite of a Full Moon. Now I know Gibson wanted the artistic look of the > moonlight through the leaves in the forest, but this was glaringly > inaccurate. Especially if you're an amateur astronomer." > > http://www.blackwebportal.com/wire/DA.cfm?ArticleID=2830 > > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
