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Geek Girl Authority
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
TV Review: NAUTILUS Episode 6, ‘The Big Blue'
We're halfway through the season, and the team behind Nautilus still knows how to keep viewers guessing. After the high that was Episode 5, we settle in for more intrigue, professional machinations of the East India Mercantile Company, and sadly, some tragedy. 'The Big Blue' is a reminder to viewers that adventures are great, and some perils may be easily overcome, but real danger is always around the corner for the crew of the Nautilus. Nautilus, Season 1 Episode 6, 'The Big Blue' 'The Big Blue' is quintessential seafaring stuff. I'm glad Nautilus took this long to lean into classic ocean clichés, such as searching for lost cities and badly-rendered sharks. The crew, back to being themselves after a mysterious island infection laid them low, has their curiosity piqued. Is there a lost city under the seas? RELATED: Read our Nautilus reviews Gustave Benoit (Thierry Frémont), creator of the Nautilus, scientist, and explorer, is champing at the bit to investigate. He and Humility Lucas (Georgia Flood) can't wait to get out there, but Nemo (Shazad Latif) takes a lot of convincing. It's never not going to irk me that the Nautilus version of Nemo doesn't jump at the chance to find a lost city. This is the first episode of Nautilus that feels like a direct homage to Jules Verne's book. Their visiting a lost city should give you an idea why. But Captain Nemo in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas is far more interested in exploration than Nemo in the show is. I get it, his mission is revenge, but, seriously? He doesn't even get a glint in his eyes at the idea of a lost city? RELATED: Cecilia Lee on the Wild Ride That Is Fear Street: Prom Queen Nemo isn't one-dimensional in the show, but by removing any of his scientific curiosity, which is a vital part of the book character, we lose the layers that would make the screen character just as mesmerizing. While the crew readies themselves for this new mission, Jagadish Ghosh (Chum Ehelepola) receives an impossible choice from Captain Billy Millais (Luke Arnold). I have to admit, I may have read Millais wrong. The Nautilus team is keeping us viewers on tenterhooks, trying to figure out what this man's real intentions are. Death and Betrayal Nautilus is an adventure show resplendent with spectacles and a general air of fun. But death, betrayal, and injustice have been key themes of the show starting with the premiere. Nemo's history is filled with the horrors of Imperialism and the loss borne from it. Humility struggles against the patriarchy, and was (still is?) destined for a life trapped as a wife to a man she doesn't know. RELATED: Read our Interview with the Vampire recaps The rest of the Nautilus crew face their own personal demons. We get snippets of dialogue in Episode 6 from some of the supporting characters that tell us more about what they've lost. The whole episode is tinged with a sense of melancholy. This is a clever move by the creative team, especially director Ben C. Lucas. 'The Big Blue' doesn't have a sudden tonal shift, but eases us into the realization that, at the end of the day, the Nautilus is manned by a crew of escapees still on the run from the villainous Company. And that the seas are not always your friend. RELATED: 28 Years Later Spoiler Review We're never far from some much-needed levity on Nautilus , but viewers will be left worried about the crew. The Company, and everyone in it, are untrustworthy. They may be cartoonishly evil, but their deeds are still just as deadly, as we see in 'The Big Blue.' Nautilus airs every Sunday on AMC and AMC+. On Location: The World of JOHN WICK's New York Continental Hotel Monita has been championing diversity, inclusivity, and representation in entertainment media through her work for over a decade. She is a Tomatometer-Approved Critic. She writes for Bam Smack Pow and Geek Girl Authority. Her bylines have appeared on 3-time Eisner Award-winning publication Women Write About Comics, HuffPost, (formerly Soundsphere/Screensphere, FanSided's Show Snob, and Vocal. She was also a TV/Movies features writer at Alongside her twin, Monita co-hosts the pop culture podcast Stereo Geeks.
Times
18-07-2025
- General
- Times
After freezing dead Somali pirates running ports company will be plain sailing
Clearing a food freezer for the bodies of dead pirates isn't a typical day at work for most people. For Captain Susan Cloggie-Holden, it was a grim necessity while sailing off Somalia, and just one of many 'salty sea tales' from a career that has taken her around the world. A passion for messing about in small boats on the River Clyde as a teenager morphed into supporting peacekeeping operations in hostile seas, as well as being chased by elephant seals on a remote island in the South Atlantic. Thankfully the 42-year-old did not inherit the seasickness that made her father feel queasy, even when using the Renfrew ferry. Cloggie-Holden has just become the first woman to be group harbour master at Peel Ports Group after a decorated career in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA). In the RFA she was also the first female to become a commanding officer when in 2021 she took charge of Tiderace, a replenishment tanker for Royal Navy warships. Raised in the Drumchapel area of Glasgow, Cloggie-Holden found her calling when she joined the Sea Cadets in Clydebank. 'Pretty much every summer I used to spend on boats somewhere,' she said. 'I think I gave my parents an easy ride because they didn't see me all summer, I'd come home, get my washing done, pack my bag and go off again.' A two-week stint on the tall ship Stavros S Niarchos as it sailed from Greenock to Aberdeen cemented her ocean ambitions. By her fifth year at Bearsden Academy she had decided against university and was set on going to Glasgow College of Nautical Studies to prepare for a life on the waves. The choice between Royal Navy and merchant navy came down to practicalities. 'I'll be honest I don't like sharing toilets and showers, I quite like my own space,' Cloggie-Holden said. 'I spent about three days on HMS Somerset and absolutely hated every minute of it because there was 27 people sharing the same space and I had a locker the size of a kitchen drawer. 'So I thought maybe I don't really want to live like this.' While the RFA is staffed by civilians it provides support to the navy and its vessels have defensive weapons. Cloggie-Holden was on ships that supported operations against the Taliban in 2001-02, worked with the Iraqi navy in 2006-07, engaged in counter-piracy off Somalia in 2008-09 and supplied Royal Navy vessels off the coast of Libya in 2011. In the Gulf of Aden, between Yemen and Somalia, she was tasked with communicating with vessels that were being approached by pirates. 'They used to attack at sunrise and sunset and we found that having a female voice on the other side of the [radio] was actually quite calming for the crew of the merchant vessels,' she said. 'I used to chat to them, tell them what to do, how to evade the pirates. 'One of the warships that was out there, they boarded a vessel and the pirates basically pointed guns at them. The Royal Marines, as you can imagine, don't like having guns pointed at them. 'We ended up taking the pirates on board, we had two dead ones and nine living ones on the ship and took them into Kenya. 'I was telling someone the other day, we just had to clear the freezer and put two pirates in it and then we had to do a burial at sea.' Cloggie-Holden acknowledges life at sea can be dangerous, but says one trip, from Plymouth to Florida, in December 2011 was her worst. She said: 'We got absolutely battered. We had a storm from pretty much every direction as we crossed the Atlantic. 'We were taking damage, a wave came over our poop deck and ripped loads of guardrails off, we lost some mooring lines, it flooded a few cabins, we lost our port-side navigation lights one night. 'Nothing got done on that ship on the way across, we just had to protect our people and get across there as quickly as possible. 'It's probably the only time at sea that I thought 'this is a little bit hairy, this is not very comfortable'.' Travelling the world, Cloggie-Holden often came up-close-and-personal with wild animals in their natural habitat. While sailing around the island of South Georgia, she and her crew saw penguins and were chased by elephant seals. 'I think when you're at sea you see things that you take for granted,' she said. 'More stars than you will ever see when there's any sort of light pollution. Just sitting on a flight deck at midnight you see that sort of stuff — like dolphins, whales, flying fish, plankton blooms.' The maritime industry is still very male dominated — one report by the International Maritime Organisation suggests women account for just 1 per cent of seafarers. But Cloggie-Holden is working to change that. In 2021 she received the Merchant Navy Medal for her efforts to improve the gender balance in the industry. Cloggie-Holden says she had to work harder to prove herself in her early days. One incident, when a senior colleague made a lewd comment in a bar suggesting her most recent promotion was because she was a woman, stands out. 'I said 'you can do one',' she recalls and there was an apology to her about the incident the following morning. But the onlookers in the bar who didn't know her might have taken the words as true and 'that's the comment that females at sea don't need'. Having achieved the dream of becoming a captain of a vessel her more recent RFA work included being captain of port operations. That meant auditing ports around the world where the Ministry of Defence has an interest and the switch opened up the possibility of more time spent on dry land. There was also a 'huge' change going on in her personal life at that time, as her husband Peter Holden, a retired RFA captain who previously commanded the helicopter training vessel Argus, became seriously ill with cancer. He died in February and Cloggie-Holden said: 'He knew I was coming here [to Peel Ports]. 'He said it's the best decision you've ever made, and actually I had a new adventure ahead of me.' The Peel Ports role, where she will oversee the operations at Clydeport on the River Clyde, the Port of Liverpool and London Medway, is exactly that, an adventure. As the person in charge of all maritime operations such as vessel traffic, navigation, safety, security, harbour services and pilotage it is not going to be a 'cushy nine to five job'. 'I've got enough working life left in me that this is a second career. I've had my career at sea, this is now my career in ports,' she says. Outside work she has taken up curling and is soon to try padel. She added: 'I've decided in life since I started with Peel, since I lost Peter that I'm just not going to say no to anything new. 'So when someone says 'Do you want to go and do that?' Yeah, let's do it.'
Sustainability Times
18-05-2025
- Science
- Sustainability Times
'History Is Wrong': Newly Discovered Ancient Tools Shatter Accepted Timeline of Civilization and Rewrite Humanity's Deep Past
IN A NUTSHELL 🌊 Archaeologists discovered stone tools in Southeast Asia, indicating the region's ancient seafaring prowess. discovered stone tools in Southeast Asia, indicating the region's ancient seafaring prowess. 🛠️ The tools reveal advanced boatbuilding and open-sea fishing technologies dating back 40,000 years. and open-sea fishing technologies dating back 40,000 years. 🔍 The findings challenge the belief that Paleolithic technological progress was centered in Europe and Africa. 🌍 Southeast Asia is positioned as a historical hub of innovation and maritime expertise. In recent archaeological discoveries, Southeast Asia has emerged as a significant player in the ancient world, particularly in terms of maritime technology. Researchers have uncovered stone tools and other artifacts that suggest the region was a technological leader in seafaring practices as far back as 40,000 years ago. These findings challenge the long-held belief that Europe and Africa were the primary centers of technological advancement during the Paleolithic era. Instead, the evidence indicates that the ancient inhabitants of the Philippines and surrounding islands were pioneers in boatbuilding and open-sea fishing, offering a fresh perspective on human history. The Importance of Stone Tools in Archaeological Research The recent discoveries in Southeast Asia revolve primarily around stone tools excavated from sites in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Timor-Leste. These tools provide crucial evidence of the technological capabilities of ancient seafarers. Unlike organic materials, which rarely survive the ravages of time, stone tools endure and offer a window into past civilizations. Researchers from Ateneo de Manila University have published findings in the Journal of Archaeological Science that challenge the prevailing notion that technological prowess during the Paleolithic era was concentrated in Africa and Europe. The study highlights how these stone tools were used not just for basic survival but also for complex tasks like plant processing. This processing involved the extraction of fibers, which were necessary for making ropes, nets, and other essential components for boatbuilding and open-sea fishing. Such sophisticated use of natural resources underscores the advanced skills possessed by the region's ancient inhabitants. 1,000-year-old relic unearthed – This stunning find rewrites the true origin story of Snow White forever Revealing a Culture of Advanced Seafaring The archaeological evidence paints a vivid picture of a robust seafaring culture in ancient Southeast Asia. The discovery of fishing hooks, gorges, net weights, and the remains of deep-ocean fish such as tuna and sharks further supports this view. These findings indicate that the ancient Southeast Asians were not only adept at constructing boats but also had a deep understanding of the ocean, including the seasonality and migration routes of various fish species. Such capabilities required well-crafted tools and materials, including strong ropes and fishing lines. The remains of large predatory pelagic fish indicate an advanced knowledge of deep-sea fishing techniques. The combination of technological innovation and maritime knowledge likely made Southeast Asia a center for technological advancements during this period, setting the stage for the rich maritime traditions that continue in the region today. 'I Held Her Skull in That Ceremony': Oxford's Shocking Use of Enslaved Woman's Remains Sparks Global Outrage Challenging Prevailing Theories of Migration The study also takes aim at the widely accepted theory that early human migrations across Southeast Asia were passive, involving drift on bamboo rafts. Instead, the researchers argue that these movements were deliberate and orchestrated by skilled navigators equipped with the necessary technology and knowledge to traverse challenging open waters. The evidence suggests that these early seafarers constructed boats using organic materials, held together by plant-based ropes, and adapted this technology for their fishing endeavors. The recognition of such advanced maritime technology in prehistoric ISEA highlights the ingenuity of early Philippine peoples and their neighbors. This discovery not only reshapes our understanding of human migration but also positions Southeast Asia as a historical hub of technological innovation and maritime expertise. « This 3-year-old just rewrote history »: her accidental discovery of a 3,500-year-old scarab amulet in Israel stuns archaeologists worldwide Implications for the History of Human Innovation The findings from Southeast Asia have significant implications for our understanding of human history. They suggest that the region was a center for technological innovation much earlier than previously believed. The advanced boatbuilding and seafaring skills of these ancient peoples demonstrate a level of sophistication that rivals, and in some cases surpasses, that of contemporaneous civilizations in Europe and Africa. This revelation invites a reevaluation of the global timeline of technological progress and highlights the importance of Southeast Asia in the narrative of human development. The ingenuity of these early seafarers laid the groundwork for the rich maritime traditions that continue to thrive in the region today. As we uncover more about these ancient innovators, we are left to ponder: What other hidden chapters of human history await discovery? Did you like it? 4.3/5 (21)
