Mongolia's Dinosaur Fairyland

Jurassic Park might not quite be a reality yet (though mammoths might be on the way); but if you fancy encountering some wild dinosaurs, it looks like Erlian, near the Chinese border with Mongolia, is the place to go. Something of a dinosaur hotspot, the little town has tried to encourage tourism by building a dinosaur museum, and doting the place the dinosaur statues, the most impressive being a pair of sauropods which reach out to each other over a road:

The same pair are pictured in a huge sign carved into a nearby valley wall, which identifies the attraction as Dinosaur Fairyland:

On the other side of the valley are similar massive drawings of dinosaur skeletons, which can be seen from space, if you zoom in enough on Google maps:

Dotted about the town and along the roads are many smaller dinosaur sculptures, here are a few of my favourites from the photos I've found:

 

 

 

 

 

According to Atlas Obscura, you pretty much have the place to yourself if you visit too:

The park features dozens of full scale dinosaur models as well as bones, both real and fake. There are also lots of photo opportunities with dinosaurs smashing down walls and hatching from eggs. However, Dinosaur Fairyland is never crowded, probably due to its remote location, about 20km outside the town of Erlian in Outer Mongolia. However, this means you will have the park all to yourself, except for the occasional men in military uniform that use the park as a thoroughfare to the bus station.

More pictures after the jump:

Mondo's second Jurassic Park poster

On the subject of Jurassic Park, did you see Mondo's second Jurassic Park poster, released a couple of months ago? It was a thing of beauty:

Congratulations to those lucky 375 who got the standard version, and the other 125 who nabbed the edition without text. I was seconds away from being one of them frustratingly!

Jurassic Park Dangerous Games #5 preview

This week see's the release of the fifth and final issue of IDW's latest Jurassic Park comic series, Dangerous Games. Here's how IDW describe the finale:

Agent Espinoza has done the unthinkable and survived 24 hours on an island full of predators who want to kill him- both human and dinosaur. Now the end is near, and drug kingpin Cazares is the only thing standing in the way of Espinoza's freedom. Cazares, and an entire island of angry, rampaging dinosaurs thst is! It's a crazy, chaotic, climactic finish to Dangerous Games!

Continue after the jump for a seven-page preview:

Behind the scenes on The Hobbit: #5

The latest behind the scenes video from The Hobbit has been released, and this time they are looking at location shooting. Enjoy:

First Hobbit movie trailer and poster

The first trailer for the first part of the movie version of The Hobbit has been released, and looks just as amazing as one would expect:



There's also a teaser poster (via apple):

Misfits renewed

Misfits (a ruder, grittier, and decidedly more British, Heroes-like series, if you don't know it) has been renewed for a fourth season, according to Broadcast.

The third series finishes tonight. Despite launching with the loss of arguably the lead character, the series has continued to deliver its humour and distinctiveness; with stories featuring Nazi alternate timeline, comic book drawing mind control, sex change, and zombies.

Latest Doctor Who christmas trailer

The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe, coming this christmas.

Wonderful Attenborough

David Attenborough narrating What A Wonderful World to BBC natural history footage. Wonderful:



A friend of mine pointed out this is somewhat in the style of William Shatner's "music". But Attenborough does it with so much more class.

Stargate novels switch to ebooks

Fandemonium Books, publisher of Stargate novels, have announced (in their last email newsletter) a change in their publishing, with a shift to ebook releases taking priority over print editions:

Some of you might have noticed that times are changing in the publishing world, and after much deliberation we at Fandemonium Books have decided that now is the right time to make the move to ebooks as our prime publishing media.

All our new books will be available for download from Amazon and all major ebook distributors, and in the coming months we’ll be releasing our entire back catalogue in ebook format.

I'm not an ebook convert yet, but this does at least been some of the stupendously expensive out-of-print books will become much easier to get hold of in some form. And there is an option to get print-on-demand copies of new releases too:

But, for those lovers of all things paper, we’re not abandoning you. We will offer all of our new titles as print-on-demand books, so you can still get hold of a paperback copy of our books including the newly released STARGATE SG-1: Transitions.

The two most recent Stargate novels have launched this model. The third book in the post-finale Atlantis series, Legacy: Allegiance:

Reeling from the shocking discovery of Rodney McKay's fate, Colonel Sheppard and his team retreat to Atlantis to regroup. With Rodney not only in the hands of the Wraith, but apparently working for them, Atlantis faces a new danger - their own man, turned against them.

While Zelenka and Colonel Carter work frantically to crack the security protocols McKay embedded in Atlantis's computer system, Ronan revisits his past and finds much is changing on Sateda. Meanwhile, Queen Death prepares to make use of her most valuable prisoner; with Rodney still unaware of his true identity, the fate of Atlantis hangs in the balance…

Set after the TV series' exciting finale, STARGATE ATLANTIS: Allegiance is book three of the gripping new Legacy series.

           Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it.

And the new crossover novel, Transitions:

After her mother’s death, Cassie Fraiser is moving on. So she thinks. But there are dangerous forces at work and she soon finds herself caught up in a situation far beyond her control. It’s a good thing Colonel Carter was keeping an eye on her.

But while Carter rallies SG-1 to Cassie’s aid, events on Atlantis are going from bad to worse. Facing a deadly plague and a computer virus that’s shutting down the city, it looks like Colonel Sheppard’s team will provide rich pickings for the incoming Wraith hive ship.

But sometimes events galaxies apart are connected in unexpected ways— and help comes from the most surprising of places. In this action-packed story, Sabine C. Bauer brings together the heroes of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis in the fight of their lives…

           Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it.

Men in Black III trailer

Out next summer, the time travel third sequel/prequel to Men in Black: