This Week: Avatar Overtakes Titanic, Ferraro VIP Grand Opening, Possible Terror Attack Within 12 Months, Belize, The Grandfather Maximon, Searching for ETs on Earth, Mel Gibson’s Edge of Darkness, and more…
I Called It! “Avatar” Overtakes “Titanic.” I posted my “Avatar” review on Dec. 12, 2009 on Rottentomatoes.com with this headline, “An astonishing, breathtaking masterpiece. Cameron did it! Worth every penny spent, it will easily surpass Titanic’s box office. I think Cameron created a few new colors.”
Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood (www.deadline.com/hollywood) on January 27, 2010:
“The official numbers are in. So Twentieth Century Fox reports that Avatar has earned $1.859 billion in worldwide revenue in just 39 days. It took place on Monday when James Cameron’s big budget 3D technopic passed the long-standing worldwide revenue record held by his other epic film Titanic of $1.843 billion set in 1998.
“No one thought that record could be broken, but Avatar’s higher 3D ticket prices not adjusted for inflation did it. And News Corp insiders think Avatar’s worldwide revenue will reach $2 billion—especially with after next week’s Oscar nominations and the March 7 Academy Awards—and add $400 million to News Corp’s bottom line. The North American figure for Avatar now stands at $555 million and should surpass Titanic’s record $600.8 million either through next weekend or next midweek, according to Hollywood.com.”
Ferraro’s Media VIP Grand Opening. 
The grand opening event of the newest Ferraro’s was on Wednesday, Jan. 27 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Gino Ferraro and the family were the hosts.
Well over 500 people RSVP’d! The food was fantastic and the champagne never stopped coming out!
From the Ferraro kitchens comes authentic family recipes: homemade breads, superb pasta dishes, exquisitely fresh seafood, authentic Italian desserts, and their renowned Osso Buco, a 5-Star Diamond Award entrée.
The Ferraros are proud of their well-appointed and celebrated wine cellars. They won the prestigious Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, the Wine Enthusiast Awards, and a rave review in the Zagat Survey. The Ferraros believe that each dish is a masterpiece unto itself.
Ferraro’s Italian Restaurant and Wine Bar is located at 4480 Paradise Road, across from the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. www.ferraroslasvegas.com
Possible Terror Attack Coming Within 12 Months. Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day airline bombing attempt in Detroit by Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, in a new audio message. He vowed further attacks on the U.S.
After Sept. 11, bin Laden was criticized by Muslim clerics for launching such a serious attack without sufficient warning. That has now been given. Bin Laden has even obtained a fatwa, or Islamic decree, justifying a nuclear attack against the United States on religious grounds.
Bin Laden addressed President Obama saying the attack was a message similar to that of Sept. 11 and more attacks against the U.S. would be forthcoming.
“The message delivered to you through the plan of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes of the Sept. 11,” he said.
On Christmas Day, Nigerian national Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up the Northwest Airlines flight he was on as it approached Detroit Metro Airport. But the bomb he was hiding in his underwear failed to explode.
Osama bin Laden’s word choice in the latest audio message is seen as a “possible indicator” of an upcoming attack by his Al-Qaeda network, a U.S. monitoring group warned Sunday.
IntelCenter, a U.S. group that monitors Islamist websites, said in a statement, “The Osama bin Laden audio message released to Al-Jazeera on 24 January 2010 contains specific language used by bin Laden in his statements in advance of attacks. This phrase, ‘Peace be upon those who follow guidance,’ appears at the beginning and end of messages released in advance of attacks that are designed to provide warning to Al-Qaeda’s enemies that they need to change their ways or they will be attacked,” the group said.
The group said it considered the language “a possible indicator of an upcoming attack” in the next 12 months.
I know one country where airport security is so vigorous, you can feel very safe: Belize. We went through airport security, then every piece of hand luggage was opened, and then a body pat-down!
The security lady argued with me demanding I take off all my jewelry (10 pieces on each wrist). I refused, saying they were on permanently and could not come off!
Belize. Located on the east coast of the Yucatan 
peninsula, our last stop on our tour of Central America was Belize. I was told by our terrific tour leader, José Ramierz, that there was nothing to buy in Belize. In the whole country? How can this be, I asked? José, the most wonderful and compassionate tour leader we have ever had, was absolutely right.
Belize might have awesome scuba diving and the world’s second-longest barrier reef, but all I saw of Belize City reminded me of what Hackensack, New Jersey might have looked like in 1968. In my opinion, Belize has three other things besides scuba diving going for it: (1) It’s two hours away from Miami, (2) a majority of Belizans speak English, and (3) the currency is the US dollar.
What Belize doesn’t have is a traditional dress female tourists could buy. There is no unique industry of souvenirs. Why not make replicas of the High Temple? Why isn’t anyone selling Mayan postcards at the sites? In any other country there would be native people working for tips helping people up the temples. The loose rope, shown in my photo, is only a guide and not meant as an aid for climbing up or going down the High Temple.
(I brought many, many traditional outfits in Guatemala! Wait until you see my traditional “halo” headdress! Pictured: a woman in her traditional “halo” headdress.)
I have read that Belize has the 1000-foot-diameter Blue Hole that is so big and so blue that it can be seen from outer space.
If you are not scuba diving, Belize does have the Lamanai ruins. Lamanai boasts the second-largest Pre-Classic structure in the Maya world—its magnificent High Temple (photo). Sadly, most of the Mayan Temples in Belize have not been uncovered and, due to the costs and upkeep, will likely never be revealed.
The Grandfather Maximon (a.k.a. San Simon of Guatemala). I always ask tour leaders about tribal spiritual practices—“Where are the traditional healers?” José Ramierz, once he heard from others about the interest in shamans, arranged for us to visit a local shrine in Antigua for the “man in black.”
Maximon is a local deity and actually a pre-Columbian Mayan god of the underworld formerly known as Maam (“grandfather”); his modern name is a conflation of Maam and Simon. Contemporary images do not depict the deity himself, but rather a life-sized carved wooden statue of the god dressed in 20th century clothing.
Maximon symbolizes chthonic male sexual power. As an “opener of the way,” his feast day falls at the onset of the fertile rainy season, but except for that day, his darker aspect leads his devotees to carefully guard his visage from public view, for fear that his sexuality may run rampant. Primarily a bringer of rain and fertility, he is sometimes also called “the saint of gamblers and drunkards.” He brings wealth and worldly success to those who venerate him.
To guarantee our wealth and worldly success, we left money as our veneration!
Despite the hostility of the Catholic Church, which has tried to identify him with Judas Iscariot, in many Guatemalan villages Maximon is still worshipped with offerings of tobacco, alcohol, Coca Cola, and a tropical plant with orange-red berries. Incense and perfume dedicated to him.
On his feast day, he is carried through the streets on the shoulders of his human “horse,” and his statue is given cigarettes or cigars to smoke. In some villages he may be hung from the sacred Mayan world-tree-cross at the end of his ceremony.
Thanks to remarkable José (pictured in “guatever” T-shirt), we were privileged to meet the caretaker of the Antigua shrine, Nicolas Sanchez. His job as the caretaker of the Maximon shrine lasts for one year. Then another man is appointed. Nicolas Sanchez was kind enough to perform a ceremony especially for us.
Searching for ETs. The search for aliens should start on Earth not outer space, says Professor Paul Davies, a physicist at Arizona University will tell a meeting at the Royal Society in the UK. The best way of proving that extra-terrestrial life exists elsewhere in the universe is to use evidence from earth. The meeting at the Royal Society, which will include representatives from NASA, the European Space Agency and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs marks the 5th anniversary of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program.
Professor Davies said, “We need to give up the notion that ET is sending us some sort of customized message and take a new approach.”
Professor Davies suggested that the search could focus on deserts, volcanic vents, salt-saturated lakes and the dry valleys of Antarctica—places where ordinary life struggles to survive—to find “weird” microbes that belong to a “shadow biosphere.”
Felissa Wolfe-Simon, from the US Geological Survey, is currently looking at the possibility that arsenic, found in contaminated places such as the Mono Lake in California, might support forms of life in the same way as other life forms use phosphorous.
The conference will also discuss how humans might respond to the discovery of extra-terrestrial intelligence.
My good friend and a champion of my 1994 research project, “The Alexander UFO Religious Crisis Survey,”* Albert Harrison, from University of California, said, “It is easy to imagine scenarios resulting in widespread psychological disintegration and social chaos, but historical prototypes, reactions to false alarms and survey results suggest that the predominant response to the discovery of a microwave transmission from light years away is likely to be equanimity, perhaps even delight.”
I hope Al was referencing my survey in his published comment!
(Photo taken at a 2003 NIDS dinner. Albert Harrison is wearing a red sweater. I’m talking to friends Jessica Utts, Ph.D., Professor, Dept. of Statistics, University of California at Irvine and Marty Pilch, Ph.D., retired scientist from Los Alamos National Laboratory)
*“The Alexander UFO Religious Crisis Survey” (1994) was a survey of 1,000 theologians on the impact of UFO’s on religion for The Bigelow Foundation, the precursor to Robert Bigelow’s influential National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS).
Movie This Week. Edge of Darkness. Mel Gibson expresses a grief that is heartbreaking.
In EDGE OF DARKNESS Mel Gibson allows the camera to dwell on his harshly wrinkled face. He’s playing a realistic character, a homicide detective, who has never even thought of using sun block or a moisturizer.
Can Mel Gibson win over movie audiences playing a grieving father in a taunt thriller? Of course! Gibson may be a (reformed) stupid drunk and an adulterer, but if he delivers a terrific movie, that is what we want from him. And with EDGE OF DARKNESS, he doesn’t insult us. To read my full review, please go to: reelrave.com/review/359.
