Why Does a Killer Whales (Orcas) Dorsal Fin Collapse?

Let me first say that I find the Orca to be one of the most beautiful and misrepresented creatures on the planet. We call them 'Killer Whales' which is far from the truth, the Orca is extremely social and has a strong sense of family. Like humans, they are Apex Predators, which means they are prey to none in their natural environment. Their intricate methods of hunting and species vocalizations are passed from generation to generation, often times being specific to a particular group. They are magnificent

Its always bothered me that we as a species feel the need to spend millions of dollars on research to answer a question that can be pieced together with common sense. Its true that a definitive answer can further the health and well being of Orcas, but what about when even with all the research we still just don't know the answer for sure. The reason for the collapse of the Orcas dorsal fin is one of those questions, researched, studied, and hypothesized, and the only real answer 'The Experts' can give is 'its not caused by being unhealthy', and then give a few most likely reasons.... in other words guesses. I wonder how much those 'educated' guesses cost. Since the experts can't answer this question without beakers and test tubes, lets see if common sense can succeed where science has failed.

In the wild, as seen in the photo above, the Orcas dorsal fin is straight up and sturdy. Though some wild Orca do have a very small or slight bend in the tip of there dorsal fin, it is extremely rare if not impossible to encounter a wild Orca with a completely collapsed dorsal fin, unless that particular Orca was once in captivity.

I should point out that the dorsal fin is not bone or cartridge, its a hard collagen not unlike whats in your lips, just much harder or perhaps packed in tighter. Imagine 2 stuffed teddy bears, both stuffed with cotton balls. One bear you stuff til its just full enough to take form, the other bear you pack and pack and pack full of cotton balls til you can't easily add any more. Both bears look roughly the same, yet on closer examination, the 1st teddy bear is loose and floppy, and the 2nd teddy bear is stiff and rigid. Now replace teddy bears with an Orca dorsal fin and cotton balls with collagen.

Now lets look at the dorsal fin of an Orca in captivity. AS seen in the photo below, the dorsal fin is completely collapsed.

Now science has been unable to answer this question, only citing maybes and possible reasons. Well I can do that to, using common sense rather than millions of dollars in research grants. Here are 2 common sense reasons why the dorsal fin collapses on Orcas in captivity

1) Have you ever seen a surf board, you know that 'fin' on the bottom. What is that for? Well I don't surf and a surfer could answer the question as to what it does better than I can, but the basic use of that fin is directional stability. On an Orca, the dorsal fin serves the same purpose, it stabilizes the Orca from rolling over in the powerful currents and allows sharp turns in those currents. An Orca can swim at a top speed of approx 30 mph, an incredible feat when you consider that they are fighting strong ocean currents.

There's an old saying, 'use it or loose it'. Perhaps this is what happens with the Orcas dorsal fin. When an Orca is in captivity, it is in perpetually calm shallow water. It no longer has the ability to swim against raging ocean currents, diving for food, jumping and swimming at top speed for miles at a time. Instead it is place in a 'fishbowl' and the dorsal fin is never really used. When astronauts are in space, they are required to exercise because in a weightless environment they don't use much of they're muscles and would suffer from sever muscle atrophy if they didn't. Though dorsal fins are not muscles, perhaps this is the same situation. With lack of use, the Orcas body tells itself that the dorsal fin no longer needs its normal nutrients, causing the collagen to weaken til eventually the dorsal fin completely collapses.

2) Has anyone ever considered that the diet of an Orca has something to do with it. In captivity an Orca eats about 240 lbs of fish each day. I have to ask myself, are these frozen fish? Does a fishing trawler go out every morning and bring back a varied heaping pile of live fish for there captive Orca? Of course not. Now maybe, just MAYBE, they will feed their captive Orca fresh fish... but LIVE fresh fish daily. I doubt it. So you're asking yourself, so what if its live, fresh or frozen, does it matter? That is a big YES on 2 counts. First, Orca are not HUMAN... there nutritional intake is far more complex than just 'fish'. When an Orca goes hunting for food, perhaps they have a particular fish in mind. But that doesn't mean they always get it, Orca have been known to eat sharks, dolphins, seals, shrimps, tuna, crabs... the list goes on. Their diet is vastly varied, which means the daily nutrients they receive are vastly varied.  Now replace that daily 'buffet' with a daily can of 'pork and beans', do you think that can of 'pork and beans' is going to be sufficient?

Or maybe its as simple as them eating a particular fish type that is high in some nutrient that helps the production of or maintenance of collagen? Something that their trainers aren't feeding them? I'm not saying they are being starved, only that MAYBE they aren't eating what they would eat if they were in the wild.

So this is my final thought on the whole thing: I want to be clear, I'm not an activist, when I was young I loved the Shamu show at Sea World. But we didn't know much about Orca then, we didn't know that by bringing them into captivity we'd be changing them, even unintentionally and unknowingly hurting them. I don't believe we should harp on the past and reopen old wounds. But rather learn from the past and prevent from causing new wounds. Perhaps we shouldn't have Orcas in captivity. Perhaps we should just leave these animals alone to do what they do, live, have families and keep the oceans food chain in balance.

Should Celebrities Charge for their Autograph?

I have a friend who is into collecting celebrity autographs? She gets a crazy-eyed thrill out of receiving a signed photo or memorabilia item. For years she's tried to get me into the hobby, but to me it just seems pointless. But she was persistent and after years of poking and prodding (yes literally poking me while saying, "Hey you should try to get an autograph"), I finally agreed to give it a try. So I wrote a simple little request letter to a celebrity who I wouldn't mind having in my scrapbook, and about 3 months later I got 2 photos back autographed. Now I wasn't nearly as excited as my friend, who was so eager that she grabbed the envelope from my hand and tore it open like it was the last Hersey bar on the planet. But I suppose it was cool to get something back from a celebrity after all the money I've spent on rising theater & DVD prices.

She and I made our way to Comic Con this year and she was so excited to get an autograph from her favorite Sci Fi celebrity... ugh, sometimes she can be embarrassing at these, one year we dressed up as Jedi knights and she kept trying to do a Jedi Choke Hold on every DC superhero we'd run into. Yet this time it was me who was embarrassing her, as I kept complaining about the long line we were waiting in for this guys autograph, only to find out that she had to pay for it. So when we reached him, I asked this celebrity why he was charging for his autograph, shouldn't it be free? I half expected him to tell me to Bugger Off, but in true Canadian fashion, he was polite and took a moment to explain his reasoning. Which frankly wasn't unreasonable & I found myself agreeing with him.

So what did he say about his charging for his autograph.. well that's between him, me, and the crowd of people standing around us giving me dirty looks. But after chatting with him, I have a definite opinion on the age ole question... should celebrities charge for there autograph? And its an astounding.... depends on the situation. Ha ha, you didn't think it would be easy did you?

This is how I see it, you can get autographs 4 different ways. And this is what I think about whether each one should be charged for.

1) You can literally buy them from Ebay or a Memorabilia shop... and of course they're NOT free, expect to pay through he nose.

2) You run into a celebrity on the street or other public place and ask for an autograph or photo with them. You definitely should not be charged for an autograph in this situation. It would be tacky for a celebrity to ask for money from you in this situation. They either want to give you an autograph or they don't, they are free to say no, for any number of legitimate reasons and SHOULD NOT affect your view of them as an entertainer. Remember, they have lives outside of Hollywood and should be allowed to walk down the street without being bombarded by autograph requests every few feet.. they have places to go and things to do just like you and me.

3) Conventions and public signings. Not all celebrities charge for there autographs, but the one place they all should is at public gatherings such as Comic Cons and signing events. Before you all go ape-shit and leave negative comments, look at it this way. At these type of events, they are there specifically for YOU... the fan. So that YOU can interact with them, even if for only a few moments. In many cases these celebrities are supplying the photo to be signed, willing to write a specific sentiment, happy to speak with you for a few moments or even pose with you in a photo, so you can go bragging to all your Facebook friends that you met this amazing celebrity. To me that's worth $10, $20, $40, even $50 dollars, to get a chance to shake hands with someone who inspires or just really entertains you. Lets face it, politicians have been doing it for decades.. what do you think political fundraisers are. For politicians we'll give them thousands of dollars to sit in the same dining room, shake there hand or have a photo taken with them, yet we whine like unruly children if a celebrity dare charges $30 dollars for there time to sign our photo or DVD cover... and make no mistake, it is there time we're paying for in those situations. Just because you, me and Master Chief like to dress up like our favorite TV/Movie character and trudge around a crowded convention hall on our day off from work, doesn't mean that our favorite celebrity shares that particular interest. To them its part of there job, whether its interacting with fans, being on a panel, or autographs.. so why shouldn't they get a little something for their time. The ONLY EXCEPTION  would be if the convention committee that is running the event or the entertainers agent or production company is paying the celebrity a handsome wage for their appearance. Then perhaps the autographs should be free

4) Sending a fan mail autograph request. If you just send a fan mail letter with a request and a couple photos for the celebrity to autograph, then you shouldn't be charged. You also shouldn't expect to EVER see those photos again. In this situation, there are no guarantees, if they have the time they'll do.. or not. I look at it this way, if a celebrity chooses to read your fan mail, then decides to autograph and return your photos, then that's a gift to you. That's the celebrity saying, "Hey thank you for the nice letter, thank you for being a fan, here's my autograph that you requested." Its their choice to read, autograph and reply to you, so money should NEVER be requested in that situation. Also you shouldn't expect them to pay postage... despite what we all believe, celebrities don't wipe there butts with $20 bills. So if you want a photo autographed, you provide the photo and a stamped envelope to return it in.

Exception to #4) Some celebrities will have a special request section on their websites. It'll say something like send your photo, memorabilia item, or what ever to them and they'll autograph it for $10 or some other amount. In this case, if your sending it to a specific address like that, too me its the same as if they were at a convention. They are guaranteeing you a moment of their time to give you an autograph. If you don't want to pay for it, that's your choice...

Well those are my thoughts on the autographs thing.. I'm still not really into this as a hobby, but I have sent out a couple more autograph requests... again at the literal poking of my friend. If I get an autograph back, she'll probably open those too.. LOL!

35mm Film Cells Review - Collectible or Crap

Ok lets start with what is a film cell? Well you remember those old projectors in school that  your teacher would put the big film reel on and you'd watch some old safety movie. Well that reel of film is made up of thousands of frames of film, sorta like a flip book. Each frame of film is called a 'Film Cell',... several consecutive cells are called a 'Film Strip'.

Its always been a hobby to get a few favorite clips of a film and mount them like a slide or onto a photo frame with a photo from the movie. It started with 8mm then 16mm now with the invention of digital 35mm has joined the fun because so many people, and theaters are selling off the old films they can no longer use. Full length 35mm films can be very expensive, especially if the movie was a hit at the box office. So you may wonder why people are cutting up these pieces of movie history and selling them at a $2 - $20 a piece. Well the truth is, most of them aren't. Unless its damaged in some way, most film collectors would never hack up these prized items. Even a slightly damaged hit movie could go for a nice chunk of cash. So what are being sold on Ebay and Movie Memorabilia sites??

35mm Movie Trailers are just what you see on the big screen, a 1 or 2 minute preview of an upcoming movie. Because they are only a couple minutes long they are rather inexpensive to buy. And because they are previews, they have several action packed scenes in them. 35mm movie trailers are perfect for cutting into pieces and selling to the collector who doesn't have access to hundreds or thousands of dollars for a full film. 90 percent of the time, these are what you will find being sold on Ebay & Memorabilia sites. And in my opinion thats NOT a bad thing.

Keep this in mind, its STILL a piece of authentic 35mm film cell of the movie., who cares if its cut from the trailer or the full length film... they're the same scenes. Also trailers are sometimes made before the final cut of a movie. So you might actually get a rare piece of scene that was never released in or cut out of the full length film. This is of course rare, but it can happen. Film Cells cut from trailers are also usually in pretty good condition, they weren't run through the projector as much a Full length film.

Now there are 2 kinds of 35mm film cells to be aware of... Scope (Cinescope) & Flat. Now some sellers will tell you there is no difference, thats is ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE. If you plan on buying a film cell or strip and putting it into card and shoving it into a drawer never to be seen again, well then it doesn't matter what kind of film cell you buy. However if you plan on occasionally looking at it, you may have a preference. So let me quickly explain the difference between the two types, which are played in two different types of projector (or more specifically the focal lens of the projector)

Flat - A film cell from a FLAT, is the best choice if you want to see the image as it was seen on the screen. The film strips in the photo above are FLAT. Hold the strip up to the light and thats is the exact image you saw at the movies. These strips and individual cells are great for displays and mounting. The problem I've found with these is that they often have a smaller image on the actual strip... you'll notice the black wide screen appearance of the film strips above.

Scope(Cinescope) -  A film cell from SCOPE  differs because it is elongated. Often times the image will fill the entire cell, but the image will look taller and somewhat distorted. This is because a scope film is played through a Cinescope lens which corrects the image when projected to the screen.

In the end its up to you which kind of film cell or strip you prefer. As far as being collectible, sure they are. They are pieces of film history that is disappearing due to digital technology. Are they valuable? Well thats up to you, I paid $15 dollars for a film cell of Princess Leia from my favorite scene of Star Wars. I would never pay that much for a post 1989 film cell, but $2 - $8 for a film cell or better yet a strip of cells isn't a horrible price, if its from a movie you really are a fan of. I wouldn't buy these as an investment, but for a cool movie memorabilia collectible... can't beat the price or semi rarity.