These Avengers and Villains-Style Gowns Are Badass and Gorgeous onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com These Avengers and Villains-Style Gowns Are Badass and Gorgeous

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I'll take one in every color and two of that sick Loki dress. (Tom Hiddleston comes with, correct?)

You gotta go see them all over at unidentifiedspoon and then let's each say which ones we'd wear and to what occasion. Since these gowns don't actually exist, you can make up the occasion, as well. For instance, I'd wear the Loki one to storm the Fannie Mae offices and pay off my entire loan in sexy glances and high-fives (it would work in that gown) and then afterwards, I'd make out with Hiddleston (IN FULL LOKI GARB) at the Olive Garden in Times Square. Yes, we'd share the same breadstick a la a dirtier Lady and the Tramp.

Your turn!

[h/t The Mary Sue]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com These Avengers and Villains-Style Gowns Are Badass and Gorgeous

Doom for Sysadmins onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Doom for Sysadmins

Vor vierzehn Jahren entwickelte Dennis Chao einen Doom-Remix für Sysadmins, in dem Monster Systemprozesse visualisieren und die man so im Ego-Shooter abschießen kann. Awesome!

I am proposing a new mapping for managing system loads. As mentioned above, people frequently talk about “blowing processes away”, and the Unix command to destroy a process is “kill”. This suggests a metaphor for process management. Each process can be a monster, and the machines can be represented by a series of rooms.

Id Software has generously released the source for Doom, which has been ported to Linux. I downloaded one of the many versions and added a few lines of code that would spawn a new soldier for each process, renice the process when it is wounded, and kill the process when it dies.

Doom as a tool for system administration (via Hacker News)

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Doom for Sysadmins

​Almost Human is barely tolerable onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com ​Almost Human is barely tolerable

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Our two favorite murder-cops are back the beat, this time dealing with The Wacky Witness They Must Protect and The Evil Genius Manipulating Things from a Cell. And somehow, the show is getting stupider.

Let me first admit that I am still furious at the show for last week's debacle where our hero — and to be clear, Almost Human thinks he's a hero — gunned down an unarmed man and neither Kennex nor the show gave any indication what just transpired was morally questionable in the slightest. That said, even if I'd liked last week's episode, I'm pretty sure I would have found "Blood Brothers" idiotic.

Captain Maldonado is testifying at the murder trial of one Ethan Avery, which she's super-passionate about for no apparent reason (as in she can't even control herself when she's testifying, because she hates the man so much). The man is, of course, transparently evil, even moreso when one of the two witnesses — attending via hologram — is gunned down "in front of" the courts and he smiles smugly (directly at Maldonaldo, because he's just as meaninglessly obsessed with her as she is with him).

The other witness is named Maya, and she manages to escape. She is wacky in the sense that she believes she talks to ghosts when she touches thing. This is a gift apparently received after she took part in an experiment called Cerebellex (or something), which is supposed to allow people to use more of their brain. Did you catch that? Almost Human thinks brain surgery is the key to talking to the dead, and that sound you're hearing is the last pretense the show cares about the "science" part of "science fiction" exploding and dying.

Anyways, Maya didn't see who shot the other witness, but the ghost of the now-deceased witness tells Maya it was Avery. Wha?! But he's in jail! How is this even possible? Well, Avery did kill a reproductive doctor, so Mika Kelly suggests cloning, but Maldonado says it can't possibly be cloning because they didn't find any evidence of it, and the police definitely would have (after less than five minutes of light investigating, the police will suddenly find out that that Avery was totally involved in cloning). Also, Rudy bursts in with a vocal recording that matches Avery's, too. No one really notices that the girl who talks to dead people was correct.

Speaking of, the wacky witness needs to be wackier, so she leaves the police station to take a walk despite being in mortal danger. Kennex and Dorian chase after her. They manage to get her in a car just before Avery's clones show up and empty several million rounds into it; Kennex manages to shoot one before they get away (to be fair, at least this guy shot first) and it's... drumroll... Avery. This is the point where Maldonado yells "He's winning!" as if Avery is going to get away with these murders, despite the fact that 1) cloning is illegal, 2) his clones just tried to murder a bunch of cops, and 3) they have plenty of evidence of both, so even if he does somehow get out of the murder charge, there's plenty of shit he's obviously guilty of. Sigh.

Minka Kelly goes to Avery's mothers place, finds evidence of his clonery and his motive for killing the doctor (he was going to expose Avery's clones in a research paper) and manages to stay far away from her robot partner so her capture by the other Averys completely inevitable. The Avery Bunch demands a trade, Avery Prime for Minka Kelly, although they tell the cops they can only bring one car to the exchange, not one person, like every other fictional hostage-taker ever. Here, Almost Human does something clever (because they have a car of people to work with, you see). Maldonado walks Avery down the prison hall, ostensibly for his release, but Rudy projects it outside pf the car, so that she appears to be marching him towards the clones.

Of course, this immediately gets fucked when a bird flies through the hologram, but luckily Minka Kelly manages to free herself and Kennex shoots everybody so the day is murdered saved. Oh, except for one clone, who manages to drive away until Dorian speed-runs after the van, punches it, flips it over, and then it explodes because ALL CRIMINALS NEED TO DIE ALL THE TIME. Hell, it's amazing Avery managed to survive his arrest in the first place.

This recap doesn't account for all the terribleness in "Blood Brothers" — I've detailed some more things below — but seriously, Almost Human is a science fiction show that is now shitting on its science. And once you take out the scifi in Almost Human, all you're left with is one incredibly shitty cop show.

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Assorted Musings/Other Horrible Scenes in This Episode:

• Why the hell do the cops-droid have giant action figure leg joints? Was that Ken doll joke really worth that ridiculous detail which will now be a fact of all the robo-cops? No, it wasn't.


• Also, why the hell do the cop-droids wear clothes at all? Why don't they build them with armor instead of giving them fake skin and making them put on police uniforms? Ergh.


• That scene where Avery belittles Maldonaldo for like five minutes and she slinks away without saying a word in defense, thus proving Avery completely right. I was waiting for a defiant response, a snappy line, or even a brusque dismissal so the supposedly not pathetic chief of police would appear to at least have some pride, but nope! She just walks away, sad that men don't notice her.


• This scene is made infinitely more wretched by the scene at the end, where a man tells Maldonaldo she looks pretty today and she beams like a flower seeing the sun.


• In the future, the police's safe houses will be lightly guarded with absolutely no outer defenses or surveillance. Good to know.


• At Avery's mom's house, there was a letter clearly explaining Avery's motive for killing the doctor, as well as scads of evidence about Avery's illegal clones. Meaning in all the time leading up to the murder trial, no one ever bothered to investigate the house or its contents. Jesus, this show is terrible.


• I found the Dorian's penis scene to be horrible. This might be because of my distaste from last week carrying over, or it might be because the show clearly feels that racial stereotypes are fine as long as they're complimentary. Of course the black robot has a big dick! Why wouldn't he? I look forward to learning the Jewish robots are good with money and the Asian robots are good at math.


• Holy shit. There's no way Almost Human isn't going to give us an Asian robot that's really good at math, is there?


• Oh, one more thing: Early in the show, Maya the psychic tells Kennex she has a vision of him watching people running while drinking bourbon. At the end of the episode, Kennex is watching soccer when Minka Kelly sits down with him, bringing a bottle of bourbon with her. Kennex is floored that Maya's vision came true, conveniently forgetting that THE LADY ALREADY CORRECTLY IDENTIFIED A KILLER WITH THE HELP OF A FUCKING GHOST.


• What the fuck did Avery need the clones for? The show literally never said. Was it even for some evil goal? Did he just need more people to play a decent game of Clue?

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com ​Almost Human is barely tolerable

Now you can feel like Stephen Fry is in your kitchen, doing science onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Now you can feel like Stephen Fry is in your kitchen, doing science On a recent episode of QI, Stephen Fry made a very special "ice tower" device. You can make it as well. Here's how.

It looks pretty impressive, but this trick is nothing more than "hot ice." It's been making the rounds in kitchen science for a while. It's perfectly safe, but takes some preparation and a willingness to air out your kitchen. The substance is sodium acetate, and it's what's leftover when you combine baking soda and vinegar.

The difference between this experiment and your basic homemade baking soda and vinegar "volcano" is heat and patience. As soon as you mix baking soda and vinegar, it combines and forms sodium acetate, some water, and some carbon dioxide. It's the rapid production of carbon dioxide that fluffs up the concoction, making it bubble over the walls of its container. In this experiment, you're going to put some vinegar on the stove, heat it up, and mix in the baking soda little by little. You'll only need about four tablespoons of baking soda for each liter of vinegar. Once the baking soda is in the vinegar, boil (or just heat) the substance until you see a crystal "skin" form on top of the surface. This can take around an hour, so open the windows and sit back. Skim the skin off, and save it for later, then pour the liquid into a container to let it cool. Be sure that there are no extra crystals floating around in the liquid. If there are, add just a bit of vinegar or water to help them dissolve.

Once the liquid is cool, take those saved crystals, put them in a dish, and imitate Uncle Stephen. The resulting "hot ice," which forms as the supersaturated solution crystallizes, can be melted down again and reused. I would not suggest using it in the way Fry suggests. If you do, and if it goes wrong - go sit in a hot tub or something.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Now you can feel like Stephen Fry is in your kitchen, doing science

A Cybernetic Implant That Repairs Brain Damage onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com A Cybernetic Implant That Repairs Brain Damage

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There may be an answer for people suffering from traumatic brain injuries. It's a device called a brain-machine-brain interface — and it has the potential to revolutionize the way brain damage is treated in humans.

As it stands, there is no effective way to treat damage and improve function after someone experiences a traumatic brain injury (TBI). This is a problem for the 1.5 million Americans who suffer from TBI and the 800,000 stroke victims who suffer weakness or paralysis in the U.S. annually.

Closing the Gap

But now, a team of neuroscientists from Case Western Reserve University and the University of Kansas Medical Center have devised a solution that appears to work in rats. It's an implantable prosthesis called a brain-machine-brain interface that serves as a closed-loop microelectronic system. The device works by recording signals from one part of the brain, processing them in real time, and then linking the injury by stimulating a second part of the brain that has lost connectivity. Essentially, the prosthetic works by bridging the gaps caused by brain injuries, which in turn facilitates repair.

Related: Memory implantation is now officially real — as are brain-to-brain interfaces.

For the experiment, the researchers mimicked TBI in rats by literally cutting the communications link between the motor and sensory areas required for limb movements. After performing this procedure, the rats were unable to use their forelimbs and grasp for food.

To fix this mess, the brain-machine-brain interface — a microchip on a circuit board smaller than a quarter — was connected to microelectrodes implanted in two regions, the anterior and posterior parts of the rats' brain. The neural action potentials were amplified and processed by an algorithm, which were recorded as brain spike activity. As each spike was detected, the microchip sent a pulse of electric current to stimulate neurons in the brain, thus artificially re-connecting the two brain regions.

Function Restored

The researchers left this running continuously for two weeks, after which time the rats recovered nearly all function lost due to injury. In subsequent tests, rats were able to retrieve a food pellet nearly 70% of the time, which was just as good as uninjured rats. Rats that received random brain stimuli from the device achieved 50% success (which is interesting unto itself), while those that received no treatment retrieved about 25% of the pellets.

The next question the researchers hope to answer is whether or not the implant needs to be left in place for life. It's hoped that, for future human applications, the device can be removed after sufficient brain connections have been restored.

Related: A wireless brain implant that could make telekinesis a reality | Human head transplants?

Read the entire study at PNAS: "Restoration of Function After Brain Damage Using a Neural Prosthesis".

Image: Mopic/Shutterstock.

Follow me on Twitter: @dvorsky

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com A Cybernetic Implant That Repairs Brain Damage

How snowflakes get their shape onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com How snowflakes get their shape

As winter settles in, many of us are getting an up-close look at more snowflakes than we might care to. Let's take a moment to look at just what forces are shaping (literally) our winter weather.

Top image: Alexey Kljatov

Earlier we took a very, very close look at a series of snowflake close-up shots taken by photographer Alexey Kljatov's. Commenter raiju filled us in on why some consistent geometric patterns were emerging:

Essentially, water molecules have a positive and negative poles, which causes them to naturally line up in a hexagon shape when they crystallize (it's also the cause of a lot of water's cool properties, like surface tension). The center of a snowflake is almost always a hexagon (although not always a perfect hexagon, as you can see from the superman-logo like shaped one). Once it reaches a certain size, the branches can start to appear because it becomes too large to keep its shape. These arms always follow a rough 6-way symmetry, since they are attached at the equidistant poles "sticking out" from the central hexagon.

Of course, that still leaves the differences between individual snowflakes to explain. And for that, we turn to commenter Hypnosifl:

The basic explanation is that the formation of the branches is affected by subtle variations in things like temperature and humidity in the atmosphere as the snowflake makes its trip down, and each branch on a single snowflake experiences the same history of variations as it falls, but different flakes don't.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com How snowflakes get their shape

What if Tim Burton created Doctor Who? onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com What if Tim Burton created Doctor Who?

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This 15-year-old artist has now given us a fever, and the only cure is a stop-motion Tim Burton-inspired Doctor Who episode.

Australian artist Michael Kenny, has created a world where well-dressed, skinny Time Lords have been transformed into spooky, jagged-jawed Burton creations. And it works magnificently! Check out his collection of Doctor Who art.

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Thank you, Michael Kenny! To check out more of his work, head over to the artist's DeviantArt page.

[Via Neatorama]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com What if Tim Burton created Doctor Who?

Ikeas motherfucking Wolf becomes chinese Symbol of Protest onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Ikeas motherfucking Wolf becomes chinese Symbol of Protest

Nachdem am Wochenende ein Gegner des chinesischen Regimes einen Plüschwolf von Ikea auf Hongkongs Chefadministrator Leung Chun-ying geschmissen hatte, war das Stoffviech innerhalb kürzester Zeit ausverkauft und wurde zu einem Symbol für den Protest gegen die Regierung. Der Wolf heisst auf Kantonesisch „Lo Mo Sai“, was soviel bedeutet wie „Mutters Fotze“ bedeutet und „Throw Lo Mo Sai“ klingt wie „Ich fick’ Deine Mudder!“ hence the motherfucking Protest-Wolf. Falls sich jemand das chinesischen Protest-Symbol nach Hause holen will, das Teil gibt’s für ‘nen 10er bei Ikea.

At a town hall meeting on Sunday, a protester threw a Lufsig toy — whose name in Cantonese, Lo Mo Sai, sounds like the offensive phrase “mom’s c***” — at Hong Kong’s chief executive, Leung Chun-ying. “Throw Lo Mo Sai” in Cantonese sounds like “f*** your mother.”

The toy became an overnight sensation, dominating social media, discussion forums and even the mainstream media. Lufsig now has a dedicated Facebook page with more than 30,000 “likes.”

It was while looking at coverage of the protest that I came across the stuffed wolf. At first, I could scarcely believe the creature’s name and had to check for myself. When I clicked on the IKEA website for mainland China and saw the words Lo Mo Sai, it was a “punch the air” moment. I was amazed by the serendipity of it all. It seemed like Lufsig was meant to be used as a tool of protest against Leung, who is widely referred to as “The Wolf” or “Wolf Chun-ying,” a wordplay on his surname, which resembles the Chinese word for wolf.

HuffPo: IKEA Toy Wolf Becomes Unlikely Anti-Government Symbol In Hong Kong

Vorher auf Nerdcore:

Chinese Memes and Censorship

English Words in chinese Micro-Protest-Memes

Free Tibet, Gangnam-Style!

Ai Wei Wei does Gangnam Style

Chinese Censorship vs Giant Yellow Memes

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Ikeas motherfucking Wolf becomes chinese Symbol of Protest

Scientists claim they've discovered the coldest place on Earth onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Scientists claim they've discovered the coldest place on Earth

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Analyses of global surface temperature maps have allowed researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) to pinpoint the absolute coldest place on Earth – and you won't believe how freakishly frigid it gets.

What is the coldest place on Earth? Scientists say it's a place so cold that ordinary mercury or alcohol thermometers won't work there. If you were there, every breath would be painful, your clothing would crackle every time you moved, and if you threw hot water into the air, it would fall to the ground as tiny shards of ice. At this place, the new record of minus 136 F (minus 93.2 C) was set on Aug. 10, 2010. Researchers analyzed data from several satellite instruments and found the coldest place on Earth in the past 32 years is … a high ridge in Antarctica between Dome Argus and Dome Fuji, two summits on the ice sheet known as the East Antarctic Plateau. Temperatures in several hollows were found to dip to the new record.

"We had a suspicion this Antarctic ridge was likely to be extremely cold," said Ted Scambos, from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. "With the launch of Landsat 8, we finally had a sensor capable of really investigating this area in more detail."

This beats out the previous low of minus 128.6 F (minus 89.2 C), set in 1983 at the Russian Vostok Research Station in East Antarctica. The coldest permanently inhabited place on Earth is northeastern Siberia, where temperatures in the towns of Verkhoyansk and Oimekon dropped to a bone-chilling 90 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 67.8 C) in 1892 and 1933, respectively.

Scambos and his team made the discovery while analyzing the most detailed global surface temperature maps to date, developed with data from remote sensing satellites. The new findings were reported at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

The pursuit to find the coldest place on Earth started when the researchers were studying large snow dunes, sculpted and polished by the wind, on the East Antarctic Plateau. When the scientists looked closer, they noticed cracks in the snow surface between the dunes, possibly created when wintertime temperatures got so low the top snow layer shrunk. This led scientists to wonder what the temperature range was, and prompted them to hunt for the coldest places using data from two types of satellite sensors.

They used data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites and the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on several National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites. These sensitive instruments can pick up thermal radiation emitted from Earth's surface, even in areas lacking much heat.

"There's a strong sense that really humans don't have any place there," says Ted Scambos, of the NSDC, in this video from the folks at Goddard Multimedia. "We're talking about temperatures that are 50 degrees colder than anything that has ever been seen in Alaska, or in Siberia, or... in North Dakota or Montana."

Using these sensors to scan the East Antarctic Plateau, Scambos detected extremely cold temperatures on a 620-mile stretch of the ridge at high elevations between Argus and Fuji, and even colder temperatures lower elevations in pockets off the ridge. Then, with the higher resolution of the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) aboard Landsat 8, the research team pinpointed the record-setting pockets.

The team compared the sites to topographic maps to explore how it gets so cold. Already cold temperatures fall rapidly when the sky clears. If clear skies persist for a few days, the ground chills as it radiates its remaining heat into space. This creates a layer of super-chilled air above the surface of the snow and ice. This layer of air is denser than the relatively warmer air above it, which causes it to slide down the shallow slope of domes on the Antarctic plateau. As it flows into the pockets, it can be trapped, and the cooling continues.

"By causing the air to be stationary for extended periods, while continuing to radiate more heat away into space, you get the absolute lowest temperatures we're able to find," Scambos said. "We suspected that we would be looking for one magical site that got extremely cold, but what we found was a large strip of Antarctica at high altitude that regularly reached these record low temperatures."

The process by which the coldest place on earth develops its extreme low temperatures.

This post by Nancy Atkinson originally appeared on Universe Today. It has been republished with permission.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Scientists claim they've discovered the coldest place on Earth

Murdoch is evil in his Puzzle onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Murdoch is evil in his Puzzle

„[In] Australia’s largest-selling newspaper, […] the puzzlemaster was clearly having a laugh at the paymaster’s expense. Third line down, first on the left reads: ‘LIVESIHCODRUM,’ or, in reverse, ‘MURDOCHISEVIL.’“

MORE: Newspaper, Puzzle · Dez 10, 2013 @ 16:38 · Comments loading…

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onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Murdoch is evil in his Puzzle

What is your favorite book to give as a gift? onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com What is your favorite book to give as a gift?

Sometimes the enjoyment of a book is in the chance to escape all alone into an entirely different world, and then, sometimes, half the fun is sharing it with all the other readers in your life. Today, we want to know what is your favorite book to gift to others.

Maybe it's a childhood favorite that you plan to pass on to your own kids. Maybe it's a book that you've distributed to your group of friends. It could be a book that you send out all gift-wrapped up with a bow, or it could be a book that you keep buying in paperback over and over, because somehow the copies you loan never do quite make it back to you.

Tell us in the comments about the favorite book that you just can't manage to keep to yourself.

Image: Quinnaya.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com What is your favorite book to give as a gift?

These new legs will help Robonaut climb outside the space station onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com These new legs will help Robonaut climb outside the space station

Robonaut 2 — the robot voted most likely to be NASA's first astromech droid — has just been fitted with its first pair of prototype legs. Once perfected, the appendages will provide it with the mobility needed to help with tasks both inside and outside the space station.

A legless version of R2 has been undergoing experimental trials on the ISS since February 2011, but the bot is attached to a support post, so its mobility is strictly limited.

The new legs, funded by NASA's Human Exploration and Operations and Space Technology mission directorates, will give R2 the mobility required to perform regular and repetitive tasks both inside and outside the ISS, freeing up the crew for more critical work, like scientific research.

NASA writes,

"NASA has explored with robots for more than a decade, from the stalwart rovers on Mars to R2 on the station," said Michael Gazarik, NASA's associate administrator for space technology in Washington. "Our investment in robotic technology development is helping us to bolster productivity by applying robotics technology and devices to fortify and enhance individual human capabilities, performance and safety in space."

Once the legs are attached to the R2 torso, the robot will have a fully extended leg span of 9 feet, giving it great flexibility for movement around the space station. Each leg has seven joints and a device on what would be the feet called an end effector, which allow the robot to take advantage of handrails and sockets inside and outside the station. A vision system for the end effectors also will be used to verify and eventually automate each limb's approach and grasp.

NASA engineers have built the legs and R2 will be receiving them early next year. The new legs are designed for work both inside and outside the station, but upgrades to R2's upper body will be necessary before it can begin work outside the space station.

More here and here.

Image via NASA.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com These new legs will help Robonaut climb outside the space station

The Voices in Ryan Reynolds' head command him to kill onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The Voices in Ryan Reynolds' head command him to kill

Ryan Reynolds has been in a bit of a slump lately, but color us greatly intrigued by his newest film, The Voices. Directed by Marjane Satrapi, the author of the acclaimed graphic novel Persepolis, The Voices stars Reynolds as a man who falls in love with his co-worker... and then accidentally kills her. At which point his pets start talking to him.

Of course, his dog Bosco is kind and benevolent, while his cat Mr. Whiskers is completely evil. It sounds like the recipe for a family-friendly kids movie with CG animals, except that business about the murder and the fact that Satrapi's directing it — we just can't imagine her wasting her time with anything fluffy or inconsequential. The Voices will premiere at the 2014 Sundance festival, so we'll know more then.

[Via Coming Soon]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The Voices in Ryan Reynolds' head command him to kill

Will Khal Drogo join Batman Vs. Superman? Plus a New Godzilla Mystery! onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Will Khal Drogo join Batman Vs. Superman? Plus a New Godzilla Mystery!

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Check out new images from Edge of Tomorrow and Godzilla. Jeffrey Bell says upcoming episodes of Agents of SHIELD will be more "Marvel." Steven Moffat talks Doctor Who's regeneration limit. Plus, is Henry Cavill's favorite Superman villain coming to Man of Steel 2? Spoilers now!

Man of Steel

We already know that Doomsday's one of the rumored villains for the sequel, and now we know that Henry Cavill's a fan of that character. He said:

Doomsday, because of the spectacular storyline that follows. That was one of the first books I read and it just really, really caught me and I just loved how Doomsday was Superman's match.

[Digital Spy]

So who's going to play the villain(s) of this movie? One strong candidate appears to be Jason Momoa, who played Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones and Conan in the recent Conan the Barbarian reboot. Momoa is "in negotiations" to appear in the film, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Which adds:

It's unclear whom Momoa will play due to the Kryptonite lock on the project's details. There's been speculation that the movie's villain could be Doomsday, a Kryptonian scientifically engineered into an intergalactic killing machine. Doomsday famously "killed" Superman in the comics, which became a media event in 1992. The character's existence is even hinted in the extras of the Man of Steel Blu-ray.

However, a source speculated that if Warners is populating the movie with members of the Justice League, Momoa could also play the Martian Manhunter, a super-powered alien trapped on Earth. Momoa, with his muscular physique, could be a fit for either character.

[The Hollywood Reporter]

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Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The film, which is coming out in early April of 2014, is going to be shooting some additional footage: Two days this year, right before the holidays, and another two weeks in January. For other films, this might be a bad sign, but both Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 went back to film new scenes. At this point, it might just be standard Marvel practice. [Coming Soon]

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Edge of Tomorrow

The Twitter account, @EmbeddedUDF, has been engaging in some viral marketing for the Tom Cruise-starring film. The film features Cruise's Lt. Col. Bill Cage caught in a time loop during an alien assault on Earth. The account has been tweeting "from" the battlefield of the film, with tweets like these:

The city is filled with barricades, tanks and artillery. UDF Command confident enemy will hit Verdun tomorrow

Rumors about the enemy's lethal abilities are terrifying. Everyone worried whether 10k troops are enough

In addition to the "messages from the battlefield," the account has also tweeted some images, which are below. [Coming Soon]

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Transformers 4: Age of Extinction

More details of the plot have been pieced together from cast and crew interviews. As is traditional in Hollywood, Mark Wahlberg Cade Yeager will be protective of his daughter, Tess (Nicola Peltz), because of the loss of his wife. Despite a protective father with a "no dating rule," Jack Reynor's playing Shane, Tess' Irish race car driver boyfriend. The entire third act will take place in Hong Kong, which may include Li Binbing as the owner of a "special" factory in China and a robot of Cybertonian origin who will speak entirely in Mandarin. [Transformer World]

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Godzilla

Godzilla's engaging in some viral marketing, too. Its official Twitter account tweeted a link to a website for some group called M.U.T.O., asking, "Who are M.U.T.O.?" The site itself lets visitors access "encrypted" files, including the videos below. [First Showing]

Meanwhile, director Gareth Edwards tells USA Today: "To me, he's like a force of nature, like the wrath of God or vengeance for the way we've behaved. If this really happened, it would be like Sept. 11. I want it to be epic. I want to get the hairs on the back of your neck up." And Edwards says the "Monsterland" conceit of the 1968 movie Destroy All Monsters also plays a role in his film. And he debuts three brand new images, ahead of today's trailer release. [USA Today]

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The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Here's a new TV spot. [Coming Soon]

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Doctor Who

You can keep calling Matt Smith's Doctor the Eleventh Doctor — but he's actually the Thirteenth, Steven Moffat reiterated once again. He told the Radio Times:

We'll find out [in the Christmas special] that Matt Smith is actually the 13th Doctor. Although everyone knows that the Doctor can only regenerate 12 times.

That 12 times limit is a central part of Doctor Who mythology - and science fiction is all about rules, right? So if the Doctor can never change again, what's Peter Capaldi doing in the Christmas Special?

[Digital Spy]

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Agents of SHIELD

Executive producer Jeffery Bell previewed tonight's return of J. August Richards' character:

J. did such a good job on our pilot, and fan reaction was terrific. We always had an idea of different ways to bring him back. It's a show where we say, "Not all heroes are super," but when we go up against people with punchy jumpy powers like some of the Centipede characters have, it made sense for us to enlist someone who might have a similar skillset so that we just don't get clobbered. Bringing him in, seeing him cleaned up, doing well, is fun. And J. really did a great job of bringing that energy to it. He also feels like this is a guy who has a second shot. The first time he met this team, they could have put a real bullet in his head, and instead they knocked him out. He's grateful for that second chance, and anxious to prove it was worth their doing. I think fans will dig that.

Yeah, it looks like he's in a full-fledged S.H.I.E.L.D. jumpsuit in the promotional pictures.

He's got a pretty bitchin' [tactical] outfit, which is cool. We're not a show with full-fledged superheroes and costumes and whatnot, but I think the Marvel-esque costumes — whether it's Agent May's cool flight suit or Mike's new tac suit — are pretty cool.

He also previewed the direction of the rest of the season, including it being more Marvel-y:

I would say, in general, I think fans will experience the episodes as being a bit more "Marvel." I mean that on several levels. I think we're always looking to find characters either from the Marvel movie universe or the comic universe that fans would recognize. I think bringing the tension and suspense of the movies is something that we're looking to do as our characters become more confident.

The other thing that seems to be happening, just based on the fact that what felt like standalone were in fact for us setting up a lot of different pieces of the puzzle, I think you're going to feel more momentum from the stories, episode to episode. Occasional cliffhangers, which I feel are more like a Marvel Comic ending than, "it's all neatly tied up in a bow." So I think on a few levels, fans will feel it's moving a bit more in the Marvel direction.

And there will be more hints towards the Coulson mystery coming up, as well?

Yeah. We'll be turning over cards for that in the next few.

[Comic Book Resources]

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Supernatural

When the show returns, Dean's got a "hard task" in dealing with Kevin's death and tracking down Gadreel. The second half of the season will also have Garth's return, and an explanation of where's he's been. [Entertainment Weekly]

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Almost Human

According to Michael Ealy, we're going to see Dorian's range of emotion change and evolve:

We're gonna find out. Right now, the chemistry is so good now that we're starting to grow on each other. And he sees my value and I see his humanity which wasn't there in the pilot. I'm starting to see his humanity now. For Dorian, his range of emotions - depending on what they show — it can go from very, very emotional to pretty stoic. And that's been kinda fun to play, especially in the action sequences when he's just unstoppable.

And Ealy and co-star Karl Urban say that the key between their two characters is the car scenes:

Ealy: Probably the car scenes. The car scenes — it's kinda like the barber shop for us. We get in the car and that's when he can't get away. The funny thing is there are times when [Kennex]'s getting the silent treatment. "What's wrong?" If Dorian's not talking, he knows something's wrong. I think those scenes are where we found most of the connection — we find a lot of connective tissues in those car scenes that I think is nice. Quite nice to discover.

Urban: I really enjoy the beats where I get to play with Michael where his character oscillates between being one of the most highly intelligent beings you're ever going to encounter to suddenly flipping to like a six-year old child. And you are stuck in a confined space with him. And he's at you. And you're trying not to blow your cool.

. . . Ealy: It is. At the end of the day, the car scenes will help define the relationship because we talk about life and each other. A lot of walk and talks too. A lot of walk and talks where that kind of information — character-defining, relationship- defining information — comes out as well.

More at the link. [Buddy TV]

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American Horror Story

Lily Rabe spoke about Stevie Nicks' appearance and her contributions to Rabe's character:

She brought me this amazing black velvet jacket and lace skirt from her early Fleetwood Mac days. It's great sort of witch-appropriate gear.

. . . There's singing and there's dancing and there's musical things that happen. I might be doing some shawl spinning.

[E! Online]

Speaking of Stevie Nicks, here's the synopsis for episode ten, "The Magical Delights of Stevie Nicks":

Fiona attempts to out the new Supreme with a visit from Stevie Nicks. Cordelia learns the truth about Hank and the Witch Hunters. Madison tries to eliminate her competition for the Supremacy. Written by James Wong; directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

[SpoilerTV]

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Teen Wolf

The season opener will feature Stiles and will be "heart-stopping." [Entertainment Weekly]

Here's a slew of cast interviews, which spill that Aidan will be working to redeem himself, Lydia and Peter's relationship will be explored more, and a main character will die.

More videos at the link. [TV Equals]

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Once Upon a Time

Here's the synopsis for the midseason finale, "Going Home.":

"Going Home" – In the Winter Finale episode, the race is on to stop Pan from enacting another curse on the residents of Storybrooke, which could kill every living soul in town, on "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

[SpoilerTV]

And here's the promo for it. [K Site TV]

And, finally, go here for a complete set of photos from "Going Home." [SpoilerTV]

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The Vampire Diaries

Here's the synopsis and sneak peek for episode 5.10, "Fifty Shades of Grayson"

Damon (Ian Somerhalder) realizes Elena (Nina Dobrev) is in danger and enlists Stefan's (Paul Wesley) help to find her. The brothers pay a visit to Aaron (guest star Shaun Sipos), and Damon shocks Stefan by revealing his first-hand knowledge of Aaron's family. In an attempt to stop Damon, Dr. Wes (guest star Rick Cosnett) unleashes his secret weapon, forcing Damon to deal with a part of his past he thought was gone forever, as well as the consequences of his decades-long plan for revenge. Meanwhile, Elena is horrified by Dr. Wes' confessions about the dark history of Whitmore College and his own ultimate goal. Finally, a frantic Katherine (Nina Dobrev) turns to Matt (Zach Roerig) for help, until she realizes that Nadia (guest star Olga Fonda) may be the one who can solve her problem.

[Buddy TV]

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Atlantis

Go here for a complete set of promo photos from episode thirteen. [SpoilerTV]

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Additional reporting by Charlie Jane Anders and Emily Stamm

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Will Khal Drogo join Batman Vs. Superman? Plus a New Godzilla Mystery!

Pussy Riot to be freed under Amnesty onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Pussy Riot to be freed under Amnesty

Vor ein paar Stunden war’s noch ein Gerücht, jetzt kommen gleich mehrere Meldungen rein: Putin hat Pussy Riot (Maria Alyokhina und Nadezhda Tolokonnikova) und den Greenpeace-Aktivisten Amnestie gewährt und die Damen kommen schon bald frei. Ist natürlich PR-Arbeit vor den Winterspielen, während denen Pussy Riot endlich wieder jede Menge Krach machen werden. [update] @Quästor merkt richtig an: „Die Haft endet regulär im März […]. Nebelkerze.“

The members of the Pussy Riot punk band, Greenpeace activists and protesters jailed after the May 2012 Bolotnaya demonstration will be freed in an amnesty dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution, Russian media report.

A Total of 25,000 people Will be freed Under the Amnesty Initiated by President Putin, Interfax cited Vladimir Vasilyev, Deputy speaker of Parliament, as saying. “Around 1,300 people will be released from prison, and 17,500 people will be relieved of non-custodial sentences. In addition, Criminal proceedings Against Nearly 6,000 can be terminated, ” Vasilyev Said.

Several Russian Media Outlets Including Izvestia and Vedomosti Newspapers have Obtained A Copy of the draft Amnesty, Which WAS Submitted to the Parliament by President Vladimir Putin on Monday. According to the papers, the participants in such high-profile cases as the Pussy Riot Cathedral protest, Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise boarding of an oil rig and the Bolotnaya Square riots will all be granted amnesty.

Russian Times: Leaked: Pussy Riot, Greenpeace activists will be freed under amnesty

IBT: Pussy Riot Members, Greenpeace Campaigners To Be Freed Under Putin’s Amnesty: Russian Media

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Pussy Riot to be freed under Amnesty

Nelson Mandela Memorial Service onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Nelson Mandela Memorial Service

In knapp zwei Stunden beginnt die Trauerfeier für Nelson Mandela im FNB Stadion in Johannesburg, sprechen werden dort neben der Familie auch Obama, Li Yuanchao (Chinas Vize) und Raúl Castro, Bruder von Fidel, das komplette Programm gibt’s hier.

Liveblogs beim Guardian und Al Jazeera, auf Twitter unter #MandelaMemorial, Livestreams der Trauerfeier im Netz unter anderem bei der BBC inklusive Liveblog, auf Youtube vom der South African Broadcasting Corporation (war bei mir zunächst gesperrt, Proxtube hat das aber gefixt), hier bei der Washington Post, ab 10 Uhr in der ARD (Livestream). Falls wer andere Streams hat, gerne in die Kommentare damit.

Vom Guardian Liveblog:

Solomon Mukwevho, 35, a driver, has been up since 3am. “That guy was a great guy,” he said. “He fought for everyone in the world. This day is more than anything or anyone in my life.” Recalling when he heard the news of Mandela’s death, Mukwevho added: “My heart broke. I don’t know how to put it. At work it was hard to cope.”

Ryan de Miranda, 25, an accountant from the wealthy suburb of Sandton, rose at 3.30am. “Mandela is such a great man and you look at this as a once in a lifetime opportunity. It will be watched by most of the world’s population and I can be one of the 90,000 people here. I remember Princess Diana’s funeral but I think this is i bigger. It’s the end of an era.”

The country had been expecting Mandela’s death for some time, he added. “There was still an initial shock. But instead of mourning the man we’re celebrating his life’s work. That’s what’s unbelievable. We’re not here to mourn him, we’re here to celebrate him.

“I started primary school in 1995 so I’m one of the first to go to school not under apartheid.”

[update] This just totally broke my heart:

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Nelson Mandela Memorial Service

Community Season 5 – Trailer onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Community Season 5 – Trailer

Kolumbianisches Breaking Bad-Spinoff – The Journey Of Walter Blanco

Metástasis heißt die kolumbianische Version von Breaking Bad und wer sich ein bisschen mit der Drogenkultur vor Ort auskennt, der fragt sich: Könnte das nicht auch eine heitere Serie für die ganze Familie sein? Tatsächlich […]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Community Season 5 – Trailer

Algorithmic Mashup of the Bible and Lovecraft onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Algorithmic Mashup of the Bible and Lovecraft

Nachdem Charles Stross (Accelerando, Rapture of the Nerds) das Bibel/Coding-Mashup von Michael Walker gesehen hatte, hat er sich ein Dings aus der Bibel und Lovecraft gebastelt. Ein alogorithmischer Coding/Lovecraft-Generator wäre interessant gewesen (so ähnlich wie dieser hier), das hier ist dann doch eher nur nett, weil die Bibel und Lovecraft ja ziemlich ähnlich sind: olle Fantasy-Bücher über Große Alte und seltsame Viecher unter der Erde.

Aber okay, man nimmt, was man kriegt. Charles Stross hat also ein kleines Mashup aus der Bibel und Lovecraft gecodet, das Teil ist wohl eher grob zusammengehackt und arg optimierungsbedürftig, wenn sich jemand mit Perl auskennt: Stross hat den Code dazu gepackt. Hier meine Favorites:

- His eyes were pits of a hundred and fifty shekels, 30:24 And he laughed mockingly at the village summoning.

- It could tell, it thunders. The thing came out of Egypt. Who knoweth.

- 8:15 As it fastened his body to the dead youth who would “go the king lifted up his Son of Professor George Saintsbury” […]

I wonder: if I run it for long enough, will it emit a fully-formed draft of the Necronomicon?

Lovebible.pl (via Leo)

Vorher auf Nerdcore:

What if… H.P. Lovecraft wrote a C-Programming-Manual?

Algorithmic Mashup of the Bible and classic Coding Book

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Algorithmic Mashup of the Bible and Lovecraft

Is the Wachowskis' Jupiter Ascending the Space Opera of our Dreams? onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Is the Wachowskis' Jupiter Ascending the Space Opera of our Dreams?

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Mila Kunis plays two badass women, in the first trailer for the Wachowskis' insane new space adventure, Jupiter Ascending. Featuring some insane eye candy, and Channing Tatum as a master assassin with pointy ears.

First impression? This looks like an amazing ride, if the story actually lives up to the killer visuals. Jupiter Ascending comes out July 25, 2014.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Is the Wachowskis' Jupiter Ascending the Space Opera of our Dreams?

The live-action Kiki's Delivery Service trailer fails to deliver onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The live-action Kiki's Delivery Service trailer fails to deliver

Ugh. I know Kiki's Delivery Service is based on a Japanese children's book series, and I know Hayao Miyazaki took a lot of liberties when he made his classic anime movie of it. So maybe this live-action Kiki is going to be more authentic, but there's just no way it'll be as good.

You can watch this first official trailer for evidence. It's about 90% people standing around, and 10% Kiki flying on her broom (which looks oddly crappy, despite it being the prevalent special effect in the movie. Seriously, if you can't make the broom-flying look good, just don't even bother). It's doesn't have a tenth of the charm of the animated movie.

Look, sorry, guy who wrote the Kiki novels, but no other Kiki movie is ever going to compare to Miyazaki's. It's just not. I don't care how much closer it is to your original, and no one else does either. Sorry you had the misfortune of an amazing director at the top of his game adapting your little book into a movie.

[Via Anime News Network]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The live-action Kiki's Delivery Service trailer fails to deliver