The discovery of Troy City Myths That Previously Considered



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The discovery of Troy City Myths That Previously Considered



Troy was an ancient city in the book of the Iliad, the famous epic written by ancient Greek poet Homer. Cities and civilization was once considered a myth and mirage, exactly the same stories about the civilization of Atlantis and Lemuria.
But that view eventually collapsed, began after a British scholar, Charles McClaren, in 1822 argued that Homer's Troy is likely to be in Turkey.

He pointed to a large mound called Hisarlik near Dardanelles, a narrow sea area that connects the Black Sea and the Aegean.



After that a German archaeologist, Heinrich Schiliemann, began to conduct excavations on the mound at Hisarlik in 1871. Only in 1873, Schliemann had found the remains of a very ancient city which he believes as the ruins of the civilization of Troy.



In addition, he and his crew also found a trove of gold and silver which he called Priam treasure, according to the legend of King Priam of Troy is mentioned in the epic written by Homer, Iliad. But unfortunately, these treasures trove contraband instead he came out of Turkey to take him to Europe.


Nine Layers Troy City that has been ravaged In 1876, Schliemann returned to the excavation in the area of Mycenae, Greece. He found what he thought was the tomb of Agamemnon, a king of an enemy nation's epic Troy in the Iliad.

It was not until the 1890s, Wilhelm Dorpfield shows that the mound at Hisarlik region composed of nine layers of remains of the city. From this discovery we can know that the very old civilization of Troy's life, may be one era to the civilization of Atlantis.



He further said the possibility of civilization ended with perfect because this city was destroyed by the earthquake and devastating flood that occurred during nine times.

Every person who survived returned to build on the ruins of the city. Schliemann thought that Troy was said by Homer may be the Troy II (2), the ruins of the city layer to the second from the bottom. Meanwhile, according Dorpfield believes it is Troy to-VI.


Troy Period 5 according to the researchers may have come from the Bronze Age (about 3000 BC-1900 BC), whereas until now there has been no explanation regarding the intended Civilization keberapakah Troy Homer in his Iliad.


Civilizations, which certainly may be true comes from the era of the 2nd / 3rd namely when in the ice age 11,000 to 10,000 years ago.



Now, the puzzle of a civilization which was once considered merely a myth has been successfully solved and found the truth, just waiting for the development of searching the ruins of the civilization of Atlantis and Lemuria.

New Findings: Komodo Originating in the African Continent

Here's Proof That the Komodo Indonesia Derived From Africa ... !!? - Researchers from the University of Alberta, Canada, trying to find the mysterious relationship between the bones of ancient lizard found in Africa with the largest lizard found in Indonesia today, the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis).

Biologist Alison Murray and Rob Holmes expressed a unique form of vertebrate fossils 33 million years old Africa is associated with dragons are believed to have existed since about 700,000 years ago.



"The fossil was found in the deserts of Africa. This fossil is certainly a lizard with the genus Varanus. There are more than 50 species of the genus Varanus are living today, including the Komodo dragon and other large lizards, "said Holmes.

Holmes said vertebrate fossils found in Africa is a lizard about a half meter long that can swim. These ancient Varanus are found in the area and was previously a small lake or river bottom. This fossil may be a key clue progenitor migration to the other side of the world.

"Are these animals live in water or surrounding land, we do not know. But, we know that some modern species of Varanus comfortable with a swim in clean water, "said Holmes.

"Of the approximately 100 million years ago until 12 million years ago, Africa is isolated, surrounded by the ocean. But, the animals made it out of Africa during this period, "said Murray. However, the researchers agreed not to swim will take lizards of Africa to Indonesia.

Murray said one of an unproven theory about how Varanus out of Africa is that over millions of years there are small or micro-plates mainland inhabited by a variety of fauna, moving from one place to another.

With this small land movements, the possibility of animals living in Africa have migrated to various parts of the world, including Indonesia.

In Indonesia, Komodo can be found on the island of Komodo, Rinca, Flores and Gili Motang. Komodo is one of the protected animals. International Union for Conservation of Nature categorize Komodo as an endangered species.

There are an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 Komodo dragons living in the wild. However, it is estimated there are 350 dragons only fertile females.

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Inhaling Volcanic Ash Hazards to Your Health


Volcanic ash by the eruption of Mount Merapi continues to fly to different areas around the volcano. Communities should be aware of this because ash can damage the health of respiratory, eye, and skin.

Once erupted on Tuesday (26/10) and then, the eruption of Mount Merapi aftershocks continue to occur. Saturday (30/10) evening, again the most active volcano in the world issued a cloud of heat. Followed by the next eruption on Monday (1 / 11). Not only the victims of property and lives, the eruption of Mount Merapi, also have negative impacts on health.

Volcanic ash from Mount Merapi on the wind in any direction up to a lot of dangerous people around, especially on health. Volcanic ash is often called the fall volcanic sand or piroklastic. Piroklastic fall is falling volcanic materials are ejected into the air during the eruption.

It is said by experts from the lung health Omni Hospital Alam Sutera Tangerang, Dr. Iskandar Thahri SPP, in principle, when the eruption occurred, various kinds of rocks removed. "The content contained in volcanic ash is very varied," said the doctor graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, UB this.

Thahri say, if divided, then the content of the volcanic ash is composed of sand and rocks, the eruption products such as sulfur, are also a lot of hot clouds called wedhus trash. "Everything is very influential on health, particularly the lungs," he said.

Still described Thahri, while attacking the respiratory, effects that occur can vary. For example, when attacking the people who were previously healthy, it depends how much dust was attacking someone. "The position also determines how much ash into our breathing," he said.

Well, if the position of someone close to the volcanic ash which is then entered into the respiratory quite a lot, then it could make the airways swell because of the effects of heat. What happened, could have shortness of breath, even life-threatening.

If the cloud rises into the sky which then form a cloud of hot, then it could be caused acid rain which also endangers the health or the environment. The content of toxins in the hot clouds had to reduce soil fertility and death to animals. "However, if someone is in a position that far, automatic impact on health would be reduced or milder symptoms," he said.

Unlike the case with someone who has been troubled in the lungs, such as in patients with asthma for example. Generally, a person who has a history of asthma, the asthma will recurrence. "Volcanic Ash is one of the triggers of asthma attacks," he explained.

We all know that asthma is a disease that occurs constantly in nature that usually occurs when there are originators. In this case, volcanic ash into one powerful asthma trigger, so that usually occurs in people with asthma is asthma that can arise at any time during exposure of volcanic ash.


In addition to asthma, the volcanic ash also very dangerous for someone who already suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or disease caused a toxic gas or smoke and dangerous.

In Indonesia, known as gas or smoke the most dangerous is secondhand smoke, even the disease is referred to as a disease of cigarette smoke because of the dominance that is too large by cigarette smoke that cause the disease appear. More and more exposed to smoke, the higher the risk.

"Normal people just if exposed to strong enough so affected in his health. Especially people with a history of previous respiratory disease, "said Thahir.

Especially for children who are exposed to volcanic ash, they will be more sensitive than adults because of breathing in children are in growth. For example, if a child is spending too sweet, they will be faster cough being too sensitive on the food it consumes. For people who already have lung disease earlier, so no complaints, call the experts lung immediately.

It is said by a lung specialist from Friendship Hospital, Dr Agus Dwi Susanto SPP, volcanic ash is very disturbing to human health associated with various things, especially the lungs, eyes and skin.
http://static.inilah.com/data/berita/foto/951662.jpg
"In general, the effects of volcanic ash in the lung will cause irritation because it is acidic," said faculty of the Division of Pulmonary and Environment Department of Pulmonology and Respiratory Medicine Faculty of medicine / RSCM.

Described by him, what happens is irritation of the respiratory tract top to bottom, such as coughing or sneezing. However, if further phase, it can cause sore throat, phlegm accumulation, shortness of breath, too recurrence in lung disease if a person has previously had a history of respiratory disease. "The disease can occur, if it happens constantly and for years," he said.

Still described Agus, due to the continuation of airway irritation that occurs is the increased risk of acute respiratory infections (ARI). As for the long-term effects, there could be accumulation of silica dust in the lung or the risk of silicosis.

Health impacts that occur outside the respiratory or lung health, including irritation of the eyes, such as watery eyes to blindness. The skin becomes affected part of the danger of volcanic, including irritation of itching, could create erosion, even the skin can be burned by volcanic ash. "Avoid exposure to volcanic ash and go far from the source of volcanic ash," the message.

Agus gave the message that people around who are exposed to volcanic ash to continue to protect themselves from hazards, such as using a mask that is safe. Select respirator masks that can filter out small particles so that dust can not enter from the side. "Masks are used to thin so it can not protect 100 percent. However, the masks still recommended as a means of personal protection, "said the doctor is a graduate of FK UI.

January 24, 2011, in Sleman Yogyakarta Indonesia, residents were surprised by the crop circle formed in According to experts, this act of alien crop circles. but no further research. Some residents say when the incident occurred at 22.00 hours there is a roar like the sound of helicopters which lasted for 30 minutes. Is this the work of extraterrestrials? And what will be conveyed?

Sunrise Two Days Faster than usually in Greenland

The sun on top of Greenland, the island country that lies between the Arctic Sea and the Atlantic and eastern Canada, came two days ahead of schedule normally. According to scientists, the sun which usually rises at the beginning of this year is a sign of the end of a long night for one and a half months there.

But for the first time in the history of the sun visible in the horizon line at 1300 local time on 11 January. In fact, according to the schedule, the sun should shine on 13 January.

Rare occurrence is suspected because the top layer of surface ice in Greenland melts so that sunlight can penetrate early. This theory is based on a study of changes in the weather which proved that the level of the top layer of ice in Greenland began to decline.

Report of the World Meteorological Organization said that temperatures in Greenland rose about 3 degrees Celsius from the average temperature last year.

In addition, last December the air temperature is also warmer than usual and more rain fell than snow. Some have argued that the emergence of the sun the faster the two days it probably had something to do with outer space phenomena.

But, Wolfgang Lenhardt, director of the geophysics department of the Central Institute of Meteorology in Vienna, reject the theory. "The constellation stars never change. If that happens, there would be chaos on earth, "he said.

WASP-33b, Hottest Planet's More Heat From Multiple Stars

Astronomers involved in the project Super Wide Angle Search for Planets (SuperWASP) have discovered the hottest planet called WASP-33b. The temperature of the planet is hotter than the temperature of some stars.

The existence of the planet has been suspected since 2006, but was only confirmed in 2010 yesterday. Known, the planet is classified in this type of gas planets with masses less than 4.5 times the mass of Jupiter.

Based on observations with the William Herschel Telescope, WASP-33b temperatures reaching 3200 degrees Celsius. The temperature was hotter than a red dwarf star with a temperature 700 degrees Celsius and WASP-12b where the temperature in 2300 degrees Celsius.

One cause of the heat of the planet's temperature is the temperature of the parent star is too hot. Astronomers said the temperature of the planet's parent star is 7160 degrees Celsius, higher than the temperature of the sun is only 5600 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, another reason is the proximity distance of WASP-33b orbits the parent star. With a distance of only 7 percent of the distance Mercury-Sun, the planet seemed to be "contaminated" hot parent star.

The study of the planet led by Alexis Smith of the University of Keele in Stafordshire, England. Through this study, the astronomers also know that the planet's revolution time is very short, only 29.5 hours.

Drake Demming of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland who was not involved in the study, said, "WASP-33b could help astronomers examine the hot planetary the characteristic still a mystery."

Lesson to be learned for example the orbit planet close to its star that has a layer of the atmosphere is cooler outside than inside layer. This is surprising because the planet is "heated" from the outside.

Deming said that fact could be related to the presence of carbon-based compounds that change the way the atmosphere respond to radiation. Certain chemical compounds can be formed by ultraviolet light from the star.

"It certainly would be a planet you want to see. This is a very rare opportunity to study the planet orbiting the star is super hot," said Deming in his interview with New Scientist.

Phosphorus bombs, explosion Very Beautiful But Deadly Impact
Phosphorus bombs or cool names often called WP (White Phosphorus) or more cool again called Willy Pete. The main purpose of this is the use of WP as a signal to the troops at night and for the purpose of firing or bomb.

Its use is allowed in the war but became illegal when used in the area of population or area that many civilians.Phosphorus bombs
The use of WP has been made since World War I. WP are widely used in the military is a pyrophoric material that is spontaneously combustible, and very active easily react with oxygen.

When the open air in contact with the WP will light and oxidizes into phosphorus pentoxide. The heat generated due to this reaction burst into yellow flame and produces a thick white smoke.

Phosphorus is an element that comes from ancient Greek that is "phosphoros". Found in 1669, exists in allotropic form of white (or yellow), red, and black (or violet). Usually the phosphorus found in the form of a solid white wax, in its original form of phosphorus is colorless and transparent.

Phosphorus bombs

Phosphorus is never found free in nature. Phosphorus is usually contained by a combination of minerals. The source of this WP is the stone of phosphorus which are found in Russia, Morocco, Florida, Utah, Idaho, Tennessee.

Consequences thereof
WP if the human cause burns deep and painful burns that could produce up to penetrate the bone.

The characteristics of the resulting burns seen at the necrotic with yellowish color and smell like garlic. Many believe that this WP burns due to take a long time to heal.
Its on fire because of contact with the open air, making the burning of the skin to be long because as long as WP is still in contact with the air he will continue to burn until the material completely burned out.


Some Facts about the bomb Phosphorus / WP:
Phosphorus bombs

* White phosphorus smoke can cause chemical that can burn the skin to the bone.
* These chemicals react quickly when exposed to oxygen by splashing in the old orange flame.
* In war, these materials are often used as a puff of smoke views, but can also be used as an incendiary which resulted in fatal injuries.
* Phosphorus burns are always on stage two or three because the particles are still burning and the fire did not stop even after contact with skin, until completely discharged. It is sometimes not realized until the injury has reached the bone.

Chilling Facts About Journey Into Space

You aspire to become an astronaut? Or dreamed want to take a walk into space? Do not merely think of beautiful things beautiful. As quoted from the Discovery, there are several facts that "interesting" about the trip out of Earth's.


Living Wreck
Research and space exploration have sacrificed a life of living beings, especially animals. If you think the expense of monkeys and dogs in the laboratory testing the name of science on Earth, is bad enough, imagine this.

A number of early space missions involving the procedure of re-entry into Earth. Unfortunately, not all succeed the space shuttle. It is estimated that, now more carcasses of dogs and simian, monkey species similar to humans, which has become a mummy continue to orbit the Earth until now.

Air Leakage
Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the first walk in space in 1965 then. Unfortunately he was experiencing air leakage and experiencing stiff fabric that is not anticipated.

Material rigidity costume he attempted to force back into the capsule with difficulty. He was forced to reduce pressure inside the costume with a material risk that squash her into the costume.

Not finished there, Voskhod, which he rode the plane missed the point and landed near the Ural mountains. He was forced to remain inside the space capsule was inside until help arrives. Outside, the hungry wolf is waiting.

Toilet
On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard prefers to pee in my pants on the plane Freedom 7 that he was traveling. Andrew Chaikin, author describing the special outer space, travel in orbits so horrible.

He wrote that the toilet in space is shaped like a hat with a layer of packing tape on the edges. Astronauts need to apply or provide anti-bacterial coating after he was shitting.

Advice for the astronauts who had to meet the call of nature is: naked, prepare about one hour, and bring lots of Kleenex. Do it as soon as possible before the urine froze.

Sudden decompression
Three of the astronauts Soyuz 11 died when the plane took off when air pressure will go back into the atmosphere. In 1965, a technician from the Johnson Space Center, Houston, USA managed to live and tell the similar experience.

When he was in a vacuum chamber, an accident happens and by accident, space costumes that he used to lose pressure. Before he lost consciousness, which he felt was the sensation he feels moist on the tongue feels like a boil.

Not all experts agree about the symptoms of sudden decompression. However, few chances are swollen flesh, blood evaporate, burst eyeballs, and the outbreak of the lung.

You are still interested to go into space in the near future?

New Year's Eve Will Quadrantids Meteor rain

If not even the rain clouds, sky New Year's Eve 2011 will be the screen performance for the four meteor showers at once. Quadrantids meteor shower will take place from 1 to 5 January. Three other meteor showers in action until January 20.



Astronomers from Bosscha Observatory, Lembang, West Java, Akbar said Evan Irawan, Quadrantids meteor shower will be visible in the northeast sky. From the horizon line, its height about 30 degrees. "The whole world including Indonesia could see it," said Evan.

The best time watching a meteor shower Quadrantids between at 01.00 till dawn. At 1-3, and 5 January, the expected shot 15 meteors per hour. Meanwhile, in the evening peak of 4 January, there are 40 visible meteors per hour. "But the summit was short, only 3 hours from one o'clock in the morning," he said.

Quadrantids meteor shower this time does not a lot other meteor showers. The reason, says Evan, the path of the earth is a bit far from the blob asteroid or comet particles that spread it and is seen as a meteor shower on earth. "Like the car, the earth does not pass in the middle but on the roadside," he said.

Along with Quadrantids meteor shower, meteor shower the other three down at random. Waypoint three meteor showers come to an unknown name it, he said, could come from anywhere. Frequency is relatively small, about 10 meteors per hour.

Her experience last year, the whole beauty of the sky light rain early in the year it can be seen from Bandung Institute of Technology campus with the naked eye. Bosscha Observatory itself will not monitor and record it because of technical problems. "In addition to hindered the trees, Bosscha binoculars designed for observing the southern sky," he said.

Zathura (film)

Zathura: A Space Adventure (or just simply called Zathura) is a 2005 fantasy science fiction film directed by Jon Favreau, based on the illustrated book Zathura by Chris Van Allsburg, author of Jumanji. It starred Jonah Bobo as Danny and Josh Hutcherson as Walter. Tim Robbins also had a small role as the divorced father of Walter and Danny. In the film two boys discover a space–themed mechanical clockwork board game of race game type in the house's basement; it represents space travel, and in the game Zathura is the name of the place that the players must try to reach. When the game is running, everything inside it becomes real when they play. The film was released on November 11, 2005 by Columbia Pictures. It was shot in Los Angeles and Culver City, California. The film features a sister named Lisa; introduced a lost astronaut to the plot; and a large number of Zorgons and Zorgon ships.^[1] Unlike the Zathura book, it contains no Jumanji material and does not mention any Jumanji events.

Plot

Walter and Danny are two boys who cannot get along with each other or with their older sister Lisa. One day, when their father sets off for work, they quarrel yet again while Lisa is in her bedroom upstairs. Walter has a pair of small walkie-talkies. Danny damages one of them; Walter accuses him again of wrecking everything.

Danny gets banished into the house's basement, but discovers a clockwork-driven space-themed board game called Zathura. It is a race game, and the objective is to reach a space location called Zathura. At each turn, one of its two markers moves along or back on its track, and the game issues a card (all of which read primarily by Walter, due to Danny's inability to read). The boys start playing the game. On looking out, one of them sees that it has become night outside, and that the house is no longer on earth but on a small rock floating in space. Some sort of power source is keeping the house supplied with water and gas and electricity, and is holding an envelope of air around it. They soon find that when the game says that something is happening, it happens in reality in or around the house. Also, according to the instructions, the house will not return to Earth until the game is finished. During the course of the story, the boys must overcome their personal ill will toward one another in order to survive.

One of these cards says "Shipmate enters cryonic sleep chamber for 5 turns."; the boys investigating find the house's bathroom frozen to far below freezing point and in it Lisa frozen rigid hard. Another card announces a meteor shower, and the house is destructively bombarded by many small fast-flying objects. Another card drawn says "reprogram"; they see no immediate use for it.

Another card says "Your robot is defective.": a robot appears, first as a small wind-up metal toy, but it quickly becomes real and life-size. It is supposed to defend the players, but as it is malfunctioning it misidentifies Walter as an alien life form and begins rampaging through the house to catch him (its line of directive being, "Emergency. Alien life form. Must destroy.") Finally it runs into a wall where its arms are trapped. Another card says "Shooting star, make a wish as it passes.": a large bright object rushes past. Walter struggles mentally with himself about what to wish, but finally wishes for an oval football with a famous player's signature on it: it appears, but is of no immediate use.

Another card says "Rescue stranded astronaut"; an astronaut appears at the house's door, and manages to enter. He was flying loose in space with a rocket pack and a life-support backpack. He says that he and his brother had been playing the game, and he had got trapped as a character in the game's world as a result of using a wishing card during a quarrel to wish that his brother had never been born; that caused his brother to disappear, leaving him unable to escape the game as it was no longer his turn and the game could not advance without another player. He stops Walter from making the same mistake. While trapped in the game he had grown from boy to man and came through a time hole to be with them. He needs a means of two-way communication at a distance with the boys; Walter shows him the walkie-talkies and complains that they are no use because Danny clumsily broke one of them; but the astronaut quickly and easily mends it.

Sometime midway through the game, Walter notices Danny has illegally moved his piece forward, and forcibly moves it back while berating Danny. The game interprets only Walter's action as cheating and the game punishes him by getting him sucked out into space, but the astronaut flies after him with his spacesuit's propulsor and rescues him. Accompanying Danny, Walter, and the astronaut is Lisa, who, while not a player, is as vulnerable to the dangers present in the game. After she comes out of stasis, she develops a crush on the astronaut.

The main villains in the film are the Zorgons: cyborg lizard-men who are fond of heat and are attracted to a heat source much like bees are attracted to nectar, because they are cold-blooded. The Zorgons, having burned their own planet to get more heat, are nomads who travel through space seeking more to burn. They keep a flock of four-eyed goats on their ship, presumably as food. Advised by the astronaut, Walter and Danny switch off all power-using devices in the house, losing its heat signature. The astronaut sets a sofa on fire and throws it out into space; the Zorgon ships follow it away.

By now Lisa has come out of her cryonic stasis. The boys and the astronaut do not see her switching the gas on to heat water for a bath, and the resulting heat and light draws Zorgon ships back. The Zorgons shoot at the house, damaging it more, and anchor to it with grapples, and suck the game into their ship along with much miscellaneous house debris, which they shovel into their ship's engine in order to use them as fuel. The astronaut tries to rescue the game but cannot. Danny gets past the Zorgons to the basement unseen by a dumb waiter, which only he is small enough to fit into, and riskily through a boarding passage into the Zorgon ship. He rescues the game at the last moment before it would have been shoveled into a furnace, and gets back into the house with it.

The robot comes back and tries to attack the boys. Walter uses the "Reprogram" card (which he had drawn earlier) on the robot, which then instead attacks the Zorgons. Of two Zorgon spaceships, one flees, and another explodes. One Zorgon survives the robot's kamikaze attack and sneaks up behind Walter and Danny as they are wondering where Lisa is. Before the Zorgon can kill them, Lisa crushes and kills it by shoving Danny's piano down on it.

Walter, drawing another "Shooting star, make a wish as it passes" card due to getting to repeat his last turn, wishes that the astronaut had his brother back. A copy of Danny appears. The astronaut apologizes to Danny, who is his brother. It is revealed that the astronaut and his brother are Walter and Danny from an alternate time line which started when Walter at the first wish card wished otherwise: "I wish my brother had never been born", which was stopped this time due to the astronaut's intervention. The astronaut's brother disintegrates into sparks which enter Danny when the two touch. The astronaut thanks Walter and tells him to take care of Danny, then touches him and turns into a copy of Walter, which smiles at him and disintegrates into sparks which enter Walter. Thus the two time lines merge, and the future caused by Walter wishing Danny away is erased. Lisa is alarmed to find that she had fallen for an older version of her brother Walter.

In the last throw of the game, Zorgons return with a large fleet, and start blasting the house. Danny scores a move which brings his marker to Zathura, and the Zorgons stop firing. The house goes to a black hole, which sucks up the Zorgons and the house and Lisa and Walter. Moments later, the humans are on Earth in the house, whose structure and furnishings are as they were before the game began and in perfect condition; Danny and Walter realize the whole adventure never happened due to time reversing. The Zathura game is in the house, switched off at the second before Danny started playing. The brothers are thereafter much more cooperative with one another with Walter teaching Danny how to play catch. The boys, and Lisa, keep their memories of the game's events, but all agree never to speak of Zathura again, although Walter makes fun of Lisa for her crush on his other self.

As the two boys get in the car with Lisa and drive away, one of their bicycles, which drifted off into space and can be seen in certain parts of the film, falls back onto the house's lawn.

Cast

• Jonah Bobo as Danny
• Josh Hutcherson as Walter
• Dax Shepard as Astronaut/Future Walter
• Kristen Stewart as Lisa
• Tim Robbins as Dad
• Frank Oz as Robot (voice)
• Derek Mears as Lead Zorgon
• Douglas Tait as Head Zorgon
• Jeff Wolfe as Master Zorgon
• Adam Wills as Captain Zorgo

Production

Favreau preferred to use practical effects instead of CGI in the film. "...it's so fun to actually shoot real spaceships or have a real robot running around on the set, or real Zorgons built by Stan Winston. It gives the actors, especially young actors, so much to work off of," he said.^[2] Dax Shepard, who plays the astronaut in the film, said that he would not have been interested in doing the film if the effects had been "CGI based".^[3] Actress Kristen Stewart enjoyed the on-set effects, saying that, "When we harpooned walls and ripped them out, we were really doing it. When there was a fire on set, there was really fire," and that, "The only green screen I was ever involved with was for getting sucked out into the black hole."^[4] Miniature models were used to create the spaceships, and Favreau enjoyed going back to techniques used in many earlier films such as the original Star Wars trilogy.^[5] However, in some shots the Zorgon ships were computer-generated, and digital effects were used in many other shots, such as to create meteors and planets, to add computer-generated legs and arms to the robot suit built by Stan Winston Studios, to digitally augment the Zorgon suits (which were constructed so that the head came out of the front of the suit where the actor's chest was and the actor wore a blue screen hood over his own head), and to create an entirely computer-generated Zorgon for one shot.^[6] According to Pete Travers, Visual Effects Supervisor on the film for Sony Pictures Imageworks, retaining the stylized "1950s sci-fi look" from Van Allsburg's book "was a very important aspect of the effects".^[7]

Jon Favreau discouraged the notion that the film is a sequel to the earlier film Jumanji, having not particularly liked that film. Both he and Chris Van Allsburg (who also wrote the book of the same name upon which Jumanji is based) stated that Zathura is very different from Jumanji.^[8]

The soundtrack to the film is an original score by John Debney and is available on CD.^[9]

Release

The studio hyped the release of Zathura in an attempt to generate word of mouth, with tie-ins including an episode of The Apprentice showcasing its family appeal. The film received mostly positive reviews from critics. It currently garners a 76% "Certified Fresh" approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes,^[10] but was considered a flop because of its $13,427,872 opening weekend gross, ranking only #2 for the weekend, far behind Disney's Chicken Little. Even worse, it lost 62% of its audience the next weekend, due to the significant opening of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It ended up grossing just $29,258,869, less than half of its $65 million budget. The international box office total was $35,062,632, for a total of $64,321,501 worldwide, still not enough to recover the film's budget. The plot's similarities with Jumanji proved to be its undoing, with one observer referring to it as "Jumanji in space without Robin Williams".^[11]