Life inspired by Fiction

Life often takes some hints from fiction. In Thailand, there have been protests against the military coup. The protesters are using the three-finger salute from The Hunger Games as a sign of opposition, a call for liberty, equality and fraternity. And are being threatened with arrest if they don't stop.

Dear #HungerGames. We've taken your sign as our own. Our struggle is non-fiction. Thanks. #ThaiCoup #Thailand pic.twitter.com/nGaYJIdj05
— Manik Sethisuwan (@ManikSethisuwan) 1 junho 2014

The symbol for the rebellion in the series was borrowed for a very real rebellion. And the irony here resides on how this is being handled. Repressed as it would by the Capitol in the Hunger Games.

Col. Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak said "We know it comes from the movie, and let's say it represents resistance against the authorities. If a single individual raises three fingers in the air, we are not going to arrest him or her. But if it is a political gathering of five people or more, then we will have to take some action."

I hope that it won't get to that point...

(via and via)

The Winter Olympics

Sochi. At this point, these Winter Olympics are the Winter Lolz of the world. An impressive budget, delays in construction, the stray dogs issue and... the homophobic laws. As the world moves forward, seeing these kind of laws and attitude towards the LGBT community is disgusting ans so last... century? Google made a statement today, celebrating the Winter Games and equality:

The Canadian Institute of Diversity released this hilarious ad:

And channel 4 rebranded its logo to show support to ALL athletes.

And today they released an advert. Please, just watch...

Equality. Respect. Rather than pretend that the issue is not there, call it out!

New still from Transformers 4!

A new still was released today from the upcoming Transformers: Age of Extinction movie, as well as a teaser video.

Whaaaa...? As a fan of Transformers since I can remember, and even liking all three last movies that Michael Bay gave the world... the hell is this? Dinobots? Huh? It's a teaser and deprived of context, of course, but even so... It's... odd? Weird? A bucket of wtf? I guess we have to wait to see more...

Maleficent

Sleeping beauty never was one of those Disney movies that I liked the most. I was more into The Lion King or Cinderella. Although, being the classic that it is, it's a joy to see. And Maleficent is one of the most terrifying villains of all Disney stories. When this movie was announced, I really liked the whole concept. Angelina Jolie cast as Maleficent is a must... The shots revealed that she was more than perfect for the role, as far as looks are concerned.

Of course the movie is packed with CGI and, if the final result is not goofy (like John Carter) we may have a great film. Jolie is devilishly mean and sarcastic as the witch she portrays and I'm really excited to see the movie! Enjoy the "Dream" trailer for Maleficent!

The Elder Scrolls Online

Ain't this looking good? I've been playing Skyrim these days and I've fallen in love with the game. With a new game arriving, this time in a MMORPG way, any news is good news. And, since I'm a sucker for cinematic videos, here's the new one:

It has been announced that the game will have a special "Imperial Edition" containing a 12-inch statue of Molag Bal, a map of Tamriel and a 224-page illustrated book. In-game items are a white Imperial horse, a Mudcrab pet and a pair of Rings of Mara. All in a Steelbook packaging. The price will be $99.99 (€99.99). The digital version comes at $79.99 (€79.99).

How can this be?

The war is on since XBox details started to surface and the doubts were shattered on this week's E3 conference. I never owned an XBox (the market here is quite small for that platform), but surely the whispers that sounded after the Playstation announcement of the PS4 seemed too bad to be true. The worst fears were indeed confirmed this week, making the XBox One the new item people love to hate.

Basically, do you have internet? Good for you! you can consider having an XBox One. You don't? Oh... sorry about that... This means many people will be left behind with this restrictive strategy. Sure, it depends on where you live, but it's plain wrong, in my opinion. 

The explanation by Microsoft: “Xbox One is designed to run in a low-powered, connected state. This means your system, games and apps are always current and ready to play—no more waiting for updates. While a persistent connection is not required, Xbox One is designed to verify if system, application or game updates are needed and to see if you have acquired new games, or resold, traded in, or given your game to a friend. Games that are designed to take advantage of the cloud may require a connection.”

“With Xbox One you can game offline for up to 24 hours on your primary console, or one hour if you are logged on to a separate console accessing your library. Offline gaming is not possible after these prescribed times until you re-establish a connection, but you can still watch live TV and enjoy Blu-ray and DVD movies."

Microsoft added "because every Xbox One owner has a broadband connection, developers can create massive, persistent worlds that evolve even when you’re not playing."

Apart from this, you can't give away a game to a friend. And gifting is restricted to some rules. You can only give your games once and only to a friend in your friends list for at least 30 days. Isn't that a little... stupid? Yes. Stupid. Call me old school, but what's the harm in borrowing games from friends? Why do I have to carry the console to a friends house if I want to play? What if my friend doesn't have internet at home? Oh, that's right... I can't do that. Borrowing games it's a no-no for now... But Microsoft is "exploring the possibilities" with their partners.

The point is, Microsoft may have shot their feet with these features and point blank ignored all the gamers opinions. We'll see how it goes from now...

Transformers 4: some makeover you got there!

Transformers 4 won't be out until the 29th June 2014, but there's something to be happy about. This movie won't be a reboot, like Michael Bay previously said, but the bots will have a slight... makeover. The story will be set 4 years from Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The cast includes Mark Wahlberg, as previously stated, plus Jack Reynor and Li Bingbing.

This is the Hound, "one of the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles from Oshkosh Defense". In the animated series, Hound used his ability to capture and project holographic imagery on a series of dinosaur fossils, which led to the creation of Dinobots named Grimlock, Slag, and Sludge. A sign? Or nothing at all?

Awww! How I've missed Bumblebee! This is his new face! Let's hope the personality stays intact.

Optimus Prime is back too, and in style!

This Chevrolet Corvette Stingray could be anyone... But the plausible options would be Sideswipe or Slingshot. For now, we know the car is in the movie. For which bot, we'll have to wait.

This awesome Buggatti (worth $2.4 million...) is another one of the mystery bots... On Buzzfeed, they speculate it could be Drift or Hot Rod.

Yes, I'm excited. And anxious to see the VFX breakdown on this one...

R.I.P. Ray Harryhausen

I'm in a process of watching the most iconic films in different genres and I was really curious to see Jason and the Argonauts for the amazing skeleton sequence. That is absolutely brilliant... The genius behind the special effects in those days is inspiring... So, it was with great sadness that yesterday's news that Ray Harryhausen has passed away. He was one of those pioneers in VFX, an inspiration for George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Tim Burton or Peter Jackson.

Jason and the Argonauts

Farewell, LucasArts...

Today, Disney announced the end of LucasArts. The legendary publisher as come to an end...

The official statement says

"After evaluating our position in the games market, we've decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company's risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games. As a result of this change, we've had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles."

It's sad to see a big publisher go away, especially when they delivered games like The Secret of Monkey Island, Manic Mansion or Grim Fandango, the genre defining games of the 90's. But the truth is that in recent years they have been focusing in Star Wars games that failed to be successful. The next game, Star Wars 1313, was presented at E3 in 2012 with a trailer and, according to Game Informer, it might still be saved despite all this.

Bat-signal - Vatican calling!

At least for now, we can agree that the new pope seems to be a simple, fun person. Basically, a good guy. But the surprise comes when the Vatican makes a tweet related to Batman. Yes. Batman.

Holy switcheroo! Batman has grown bitter, more vengeful with the years bit.ly/11nYyul
— VaticanCommunication (@PCCS_VA) March 21, 2013

The link refers to an article in which the Vatican advises parents to become aware of the modern Batman, the influence that the Dark Knight may have on young readers. Jesus, the article even refers to the, hmmm, dubious films of Joel Schumacher (bat-nipples? Bat credit card??). The concern of Adam Shaw, author of the article, focuses primarily on the growing less kid-friendly approach of the series. In this trilogy, we see Bruce Wayne scarred by the death of his parents in childhood, obsessed with revenge. All these negative feelings, as you know, are depreciated by the Church.

On one hand I understand that if you want to make a call of attention to the negative effects that these feelings can bring, which is perfectly legitimate in the education to give to a child, the fact is that it's still amazing for the Church to touch this subject using a superhero from a comic book... now that we know that not all comic books, cartoons and superheroes are for kids. Not that this affects the popularity of this character...

It's an interesting note, an cool article, perhaps an attempt by the Church to be more "modern", using elements of pop culture to get the message through.


(via here and here)

PS4: Social and Cloud Ideas

Sony presented the idea of creating a social gaming network, focused on "real people", without aliases to mask identity. The "share" button of the new controller is living proof that Sony paid attention to what was happening around them. There is no doubt that social networks have taken hold of modern life. This social concern extends beyond the console.

With this network, gamers can share video clips of 10 seconds of the game thei're playing, stream gaming sessions and "keep in touch with the evolving world of your game, regardless of your location." The system will be able to evaluate, based on what the user likes and dislikes, what content will be most suitable for each user. There is also the possibility of offering control of the game to a friend, remotely, so that he can help in a tricky part, for example.

As for the store, Dave Perry, founder of Gaikai, says it will be possible for players to experience the game before purchasing. That's right. Free of charge, we suppose? And when you download a game, you can play immediately while the download is done in the background. Pretty cool huh?

With the "PlaystationApp", for iOS and Android, smartphones and tablets become second screens of the game. One example of the use of this system is to see a map while playing an adventure game, buy games while we're away from home and download it directly to your console, remotely see players playing on their consoles.

The idea is to make a smartphone, tablet or a PS Vita a companion, taking the game beyond the living room, beyond the console. The system will be "tuned" to our preferences, making the service more personalized and focused on the content you want. Personalization.

The PS Vita will become an important part of this new concept. It's possible to play on the portable console remotely, using Gaikai game streaming technology. This functionality was demonstrated on stage with the new game Knack. Of course we can not think that this will be a novelty available in every game, but still, it's an interesting feature and can help the PS Vita to find a market.

Regarding the format of games, I was a bit confused. I did not understand, I confess, if there will be physical media for games. It seemed to me that they spoke a lot of cloud, streaming and online services.

PS4: Hardware, Peripherials and some more

The new console will have an AMD eight-core and 64 bit Jaguar processor, combined with a Radeon GPU that can deliver 1.84 TFLOPS of pure visual beauty. There's a Blu-ray drive 6x and 8x for DVDs and 8GB RAM DDR5. PS4 will support Wi-Fi 802.11n, USB 3.0, Bluetooth 2.1, optical audio inputs, HDMI and analog AV outputs. Concerning the internal storage, Sony did not disclose the options that the PS4 will bring.

The console itself was not presented for still being in the final design and specifications development. That and they need to bring something for E3...

But the new DualShock 4 was there ​​and could be seen by all. It was redesigned, it's more rounded, has a touchpad, a headphone jack, the share button and a colored LED to identify the players. However, the controller may also undergo minor changes until a final version. Alongside the new controller, was a new version of the Playstation Eye The new version will have two cameras of 1280 x 800, four microphones and a 85-degree field of view. This system promises facial recognition, player positioning and depth sensing and improved support for the Playstation Move. It's designed to recognize each player depending on the color of the LED in the controller. Sony says it will be possible to make face login and voice control as well. Basically, it will be a version of Kinect for Playstation.

With the power of this console, the new features are also a must. There will be a new "Suspend mode". If you press the power button on the console, when you return, the game will continue at the exact spot where you were.

We can say goodbye to loadings. The promise is that there will be stops in the game. There's a new update? It will be done in the background while we enjoy our game normally. Loading screens are a thing of the past, there will be no breaks in the rhythm game.

One of the biggest fears of the players was the possibility of Sony blocking the use of used games.
Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida said that used games will still play on the PlayStation 4. He clearly stated that "used can play games on the PS4."

Given that the used game market has become quite popular in recent years, is also a relief for the players to know this.

However, Gaikai's Dave Perry revealed that the PlayStation 4 will not natively support PlayStation 3 games, and that Sony's next-gen console will instead stream PS1, PS2 and PS3 games.

PS4: The Games

The news concerning games available on the console's launch phase were a lot and many were very applauded. The graphic capabilities of the new console were really put to the test and the new titles look pretty good.

Goodbye, Hotmail!

Bring the tissues! Soon, like Windows Messenger, Hotmail will bid us farewell! Microsoft decided all user must change to the new Outlook.com service until this Summer. The interface is similar to Windows 8 and Windows Phone systems, so it shouldn’t be a shock to many people. The information, folders, password and all data from the Hotmail service remains the same on Outlook.com. It can be used to receive and send emails from other services, including Gmail.

This new service is part of Microsoft’s strategy to offer online productivity tools.

In July 2011, Microsoft stated that the service was used by 350 million people, but no new data was released ever since. Guess the competition was fierce, and Gmail took the crown… Let’s see how this new revival will come out.

Can’t Wait For Tomorrow!

Sony made an announcement these days for a meeting they will make tomorrow. There are rumors that the next gen console will be presented. Could it be? A photo of a controller leaked too, which adds up to the suspicions. We sure have to wait, but I’m kinda itching for more information! To add more to this, Playstation has been releasing videos portraying the history of its gaming consoles. Calling PS3 as a part of history, may be last clue to get in this mystery.

Holy Meteorite!

 

Concerning astronomy news, today is a full day! Early this morning, a meteorite struck on Russia, causing a big scare to the folks around there. There’s a bunch of YouTube videos of the incident (thanks to all the cameras in Russian cars). Nearly 1000 people reported injuries due to the shockwave and traffic accidents.

 

 

 

 

 

But that’s not the only asteroid that hits the news! The asteroid 2012 DA14, with a length of 45 meters and 130 thousand tons, grazed the Earth’s surface, at a distance of 28 thousand kilometers to be more precise. It’s the biggest space object that was that close to the Earth’s surface since NASA as kept track. If another big ass space rock gets too close, call Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis! They’ll get the job done!

 

 

 

(news here and videos here)

Rest in Peace, he may!

Yesterday, the world bid farewell to the artist behind the beloved character Yoda. Stuart Freeborn was a British make-up artist, famous for his work in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars. He was 98 years old.

Yoda was one of his most famous creations. He based Yoda’s look on Albert Einstein… and himself!



Star Wars creator George Lucas paid tribute to Freeborn, saying he was "a makeup legend" before he began working with him.

He helped to create not only Yoda, but Chewbacca and Jabba the Hutt as well.

"He brought with him not only decades of experience, but boundless creative energy. His artistry and craftsmanship will live on forever in the characters he created. His Star Wars creatures may be reinterpreted in new forms by new generations, but at their heart, they continue to be what Stuart created for the original films."

Nick Dudman, who worked with Freeborn on The Empire Strikes Back, remembered him as "a Renaissance man capable of doing absolutely anything".

"He was a Nutty Professor," he told the BBC News website. "He wanted to push boundaries and had the most inquiring mind I'd ever encountered."
 
(saw it here. images from Buzzfeed)

Faith in Humanity

These days I have been more touched by news showing that humanity is not lost. There is so much so wrong that happens every day, that to know that there are positive things happening makes me happy. This news I found it some time ago, but now I share it because I think it's worth it. Have you ever seen the movie Fanboys?

Well, this real-life story has a similar parallelism. Daniel Craft, a 41 year-old  man with a diagnosis of terminal cancer with only weeks to live, had to be hospitalized and missed the 9-minute preview of the film Star Trek: Into Darkness accompanying selected screenings of The Hobbit. Knowing how he was an unconditional fan of Star Trek, his wife made ​​an appeal on the internet for someone to arrange a copy of the preview. The application has become viral and reached the ears of Paramount and J. J. Abrams. As such, they invited them to see the full movie. Days later, Daniel died. A friend of his reports the experience of Daniel on Reddit:

A day or so after the thread began, Paige, Dan’s wife, got a voicemail from J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof that was very nice and very straightforward: a producer for the movie would get in touch with them. The next day, one of the film’s producers showed up at the door of their apartment with a DVD containing a very rough cut of Star Trek: Into Darkness in his hands. Paige had made popcorn, Dan had spent the previous day resting so he could sit through the movie, and after signing about 200 non-disclosure agreements they watched the film and had a blast. 

Afterwards, Dan got back into bed, exhausted, and didn't get out again. Yesterday he was pretty non-responsive and Paige took him to the hospital for hospice care. Last night, at 10:15pm, with Paige and his brother in his room, Dan died. The last thing he got to do that gave him pleasure was watch the new Star Trek movie. And it’s because of you. 

At a time when he didn't have a whole lot to look forward to, Star Trek, J. J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and Bad Robot performed a simple act of kindness for a total stranger and gave Dan something to be excited about for a couple of days. The movie did exactly what movies are supposed to do, it helped him forget about his problems for a couple of hours. It doesn't sound like much, but in this case it was. 

This is a difficult story to write about without getting sappy, sacharine or insensitive, but to those of us who didn't know him, Dan now stands as a symbol of the power of film. Here’s a man who spent his days helping to cultivate one of the best film festivals in the country and when the end was near, he took solace in cinema. “Dying Man Gets to See New ‘Star Trek’ Movie” is flashy headline, but this story is a powerful reminder of why we love cinema. Movies are capable of transporting us to new worlds, of helping us forget our pain for two hours — it’s comforting to know that a real movie fan was able to embrace what he loved until the very end. 

Rest in peace, Mr. Craft.

Games Are Not Just For Kids

Video games have been pointed out several times as instigators of violence. It doesn't matter if anyone says that gratuitous violence occurs when someone is mentally unstable, either due to illness or mental problems, or life circumstances. But if there is someone who can counter this is Hilda Knott.

This lovely lady, an 86 year-old granny, uses video games to keep mentally active. And it's lovely to see her playing ... GTA IV. Yes, GTA IV. Hilda played for the past 40 years and this time does it in a 65'' TV screen ... to help with her eyesight. Might well be the elderly in a few years, enjoying their video games in the comfort of home. Game on!

(found here)

Star Wars movie news!

The next Star Wars movie is on the way and now another piece of info has come to light. Although is not yet official, it seems that J. J. Abrams will be the director of Star Wars Episode VII, due in 2015. Abrams produced Lost and was in charge of the reboot of Star Trek.

But for now, this is still unconfirmed, but Roberto Orci, producer and screenwriter that worked with Abrams on Star Trek, Star Trek: Into Darkness and Mission Impossible 3, tweeted simply "True!". Let's wait and see :)

(news here, image here)