The Buzz Log What’s hot on Yahoo! Buzz™ (and why)...

Doomsday thrills may be gripping moviegoers, but the stealth hit may come from the animated limited release "Fantastic Mr. Fox," a "rascally" caper about a fox who settles down but can't reform his thieving ways.

"Fox" is catching praise and Web attention for its throwback stop-motion artistry and its pedigree. The voice cast features George Clooney and Meryl Streep, and director Wes Anderson ("The Royal Tenenbaums") based his first animated film on a book by the late children's author Roald Dahl.

The match-up of Anderson's surreal quirk and Dahl's dark-flavored impishness has restored the director's cred. Unlike the disappointment felt by many fans of "Where the Wild Things Are," book lovers are pleased with adaptation's "existential heft."  Critics are talking Oscar about the sly "Fox" doing well in a "record" year for animation: Colorful competition includes Pixar's "Up" and "Disney's A Christmas Carol."

But the online love's all for Dahl: Web fans have pushed his searches on Yahoo! up 89%. And the man, who died in 1990, deserves the attention.

Bullied Child, Adventurous Adult
Among the many books Dahl wrote, one was an autobiography that told of his troubled childhood and adventurous youth. His father died when Dahl was three, leaving his mother to raise six kids. Beatings and bullying were common at his school. Maybe eager to leave home far behind, Doahl worked for Shell Oil in an African jungle before becoming a fighter pilot during World War II. He almost died after being mistakenly directed into a no-man's land.

Big Screen Books
No surprise that kind of living lent a dark undertone to his writings, whether for kids or adults. The new movie's triggering sentimental queries for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (+26%) and "Matilda," both adapted into cinematic favorites (even if Dahl distanced himself from the film "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"). Other works that got the celluloid treatment: "James and the Giant Peach, "James and the Giant Peach, "Danny the Champion of the World," "The Witches," and the adult short-story, "The Smoker" (snagged by Quentin Tarantino for the ill-received "Four Rooms").

The Bond Connection
If children's books, housewife-crime tales and freaky ghost stories weren't enough, Dahl didn't do badly with screenplay adaptions either, including "You Only Live Twice" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."

Still Giving
His fearless nature didn't end during the war: He helped create the Dahl-Wade-Till valve, which drained fluid from the brain and let people, like his son Theo, live without being hooked up to a machine. The altruism came from personal tragedies, including his own blood disorder, his first wife's triple strokes while pregnant, and his son's brain-damage from an accident.

In addition to a museum, playful websites, and awards, his name also lives on in a nonprofit foundation that offers assistance to "young people with brain and blood problems." Classic Dahl.

Talk about your confluence of doomsday scenarios.

Today isn't merely Friday the 13th, bad enough for those who suffer paraskavedekatriaphobia. (That's fear of the day, versus triskaidekaphobia, which is a general fearful aversion of the number 13). It's also "2012"—as in opening day for the disaster movie.

A film from Roland Emmerich is enough to get anyone diving under folding velvet seats. The marketing campaign though has been feeding a Search frenzy for months into the so-called Mayan doomsday prediction, which supposedly puts 'cataclysmic event' on the calendar for 12/12/12. Lookups are agog over "12/12/2012," "will the world end in 2012," "what will happen in 2012," "mayan 2012 prediction," and—because this pessimist always has to get his nose into everything—"nostradamus 2012 prediction."

Those who know—from astronomy doctoral students to Mayan elders (and the Buzz Log for that matter)—have explained that the whole thing is a hoax. Let's review:

End of a Cycle, Not the World
Dec. 12, 2012 is basically the solstice, and time for Mayans to buy a new calendar. Remember 2000? (Or 1999, depending on how you define the end of a millennium). Dec. 31, 2000 marked the end of the millennia, per the Gregorian calendar. The world did not end. Instead, people bought 2001 calendars, and tried for the next 9 years to figure out what to call the decade.

Listen to your Mayan Elders
Many a Mayan elder has rolled his eyes up at the hysteria caused by a Western movie—and one that can't even get cultural details straight. An elder from Guatemala declared himself "fed up with this stuff." A medicine man from Pittsburgh, who's probably joining film critics in calling the thriller "hogwash," says people trying to profit off paranoia has been brandishing the Aztec calendar, instead of a Mayan one. Oops.

True, some have been going on talks about how Mother Earth has been mistreated, and how the "survivors of the year zero are children of the sun and fire." Those talks are mostly about changing up behavior to be more environmentally sensitive, and to make a new era better.

Running Out of Myths
But why the persistence? How about Monument Six, that ancient stone tablet talking up the Mayan god Bolon Yokte, who deals with war and creation? The stone's so badly eroded, it's tough to read all the inscription, but translations about him descending from the sky helped launch the frenzy. But other Mayan inscriptions look forward to dates in 4772. By then, people will probably have other things to worry about.

Also, some experts theorize that Westerners have run out of myths, and so are projecting their 21st century fears (climate change, swine flu, recession, you name it) by borrowing from others. The elders would really like people to return their mythology, just the way you found them.

Doomsday Capitalism
Then again, the facts shouldn't get in the way of making a quick buck. Bad science means a burgeoning industry on both sides, with skeptics and fearmongers writing books, selling T-shirts, and protective gear to prepare for the end of days. And with another two years to go, there's still time to cash in. Now that's scary.

Oh, as for Friday the 13th? Eh, you never know. Take the day off. 

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Move over, Victoria Beckham bob and just-plain-weird Kate Gosselin 'do (or don't, depending on your view). Web searches and salons all point to a new must-have celebu-haircut: the long-locked look of Blake Lively.

According to the investigative reporting of the New York Times, it's a look without a name. (Unlike the original star hairstyle: the "Rachel" cut from '90s show "Friends," which put Jennifer Aniston's head on the map.)

And if you've seen pictures of the "Gossip Girl" star, you'll understand why her hair is so popular. Blake Lively wears her hair long, blond, and tousled. So while Blake wannabes may not ask for the star's specific look, when they say they want "long and layered" or blonde and wavy, what they really mean is that they want the Lively. (And while they're at it, they'll take the lifestyle, too.) Already, Yahoo! searches on "blake lively hair" have skyrocketed an astounding 3,800% in the last week alone.

But be careful before running out and redoing your hairdo. As the Times delicately points out, the Lively look works best on "tall, slim women." Who are also blonde. And blessed with terrific hair. Aside from that, have at it.

Here, Yahoo! searches on "hair styles" in the last seven days.

Top "Hairstyle" Searches

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