Buffy Remake Planned without Joss Whedon

Vertigo Entertainment is planning a remake of Buffy the Vampire Slayer... but will not be referencing the runaway hit TV series. This is a very strange decision, since the original film was not at all successful. Only once Joss Whedon rebooted the concept did it become a massive phenomenon.

"Buffy" creator Joss Whedon isn't involved and it's not set up at a studio, but Roy Lee and Doug Davison of Vertigo Entertainment are working with original movie director Fran Rubel Kuzui and her husband, Kaz Kuzui, on what is being labeled a remake or relaunch, but not a sequel or prequel.

Source: hollywoodreporter.com

A studio abandons the most rabid fan-base in pop-culture history at its own peril. Buffy fans support Whedon's interpretation with a fervor that borders on the religious- not only woulda remake that rejects that universe alienate thsoe fans, but it would turn them into active enemies of the remake's success.

That raucous sound you hear is that fanbase currently consulting an engineer to figure out exactly how to support all of the hell they're gonna raise. Because -- get this -- Whedon isn't involved. AT ALL.

Source: popwatch.ew.com

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Wi-Fi the Most Important Airport Amenity for Frequent Flyers

A study conducted by American Airlines and Hewlett Packard found that frequent flyers consider airport Wi-Fi to be the most important airport amenity... even more important than food.

The study surveyed 1,500 travelers who took more than 20 flights per year. Most of the findings seem pretty intuitive, but an interesting tidbit was that more than 90% of frequent flyers travel with both laptop and mobile phone. If these devices are so ubiquitous, why do airport security types seem so confused when presented with my iBook?

More than 47 percent of business travelers surveyed indicated Wi-Fi was the most important airport amenity, outscoring basic travels needs such as food by nearly 30 percentage points.

Source: finance.yahoo.com

Methodology

The survey was conducted via e-mail by American Airlines Customer Research to their loyal customer database between Feb. 19 - 26, 2009. The statistics are based on 1,582 respondents who have taken more than 20 trips domestically or internationally during the past 12 months.

Source: finance.yahoo.com

Note that the study addresses amenities, and not necessities such as toilets, escalators and airport bars.

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Original Cast Returns for Ghostbusters 3

The original Ghostbusters are ready to cross streams once again, as the cast has finally agreed to reunite for Ghostbusters 3. Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson will return to the converted firehouse to play Peter Venkman, Ray Stanz, Egon Spengler, and WInston Zeddemore, with Sigourney Weaver returning to play Dana Barrett.

Bill Murray didn't want to pick up series creator Dan Ackroyd's script, but the final script, written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, will go into  production as early as this winter. A director has not been finalized, but  original helmer Ivan Reitman (with whom my mom went to high school, and of whom she regrets making fun) will not return. Ramis  is Ackroyd's top choice.

Aykroyd said Sigourney Weaver is on board now, as are the original squad of ectoplasmic specialists -- Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson. Murray's presence was the pivot point in making a third film happen. He holds a one-fifth controlling interest in the property rights and has been seen as the most reluctant to return to the paranormal comedy. Aykroyd said that is true but that it's more nuanced than the public portrayal of the situation.

Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com

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Terminator: Salvation Opens Tomorrow, Nearly Didn't Star Bale

Terminator: Salvation opens tomorrow. If you're male, you already know that. The film you're going to see almost didnt' take shape, though, since both director and star initially passed on the project. McG (of Charlie's Angels fame) wasn't interested in directing another sequel, and Christian Bale (The Dark Knight, on-set hissy fit) also passed: Bale was originally menat to play Marcus Wright, who may or may not be a navel-gazing killbot, a role that eventually went to Sam Worthington once the script was rewritten to be more John Connor-centric.

Once Bale signed on, the project got the green-light from the studio.
 

McG wasn't the only person associated with the "T4" saga who was reluctant to sign on initially. Christian Bale, who plays John Connor, was similarly dismissive.

"The whole idea of a 'Terminator' movie was sent to me and I said no," said Bale.

With that response, McG said he had to really step up his game to persuade the "Dark Knight" star to sign on. He visited Bale on the set of the Batman movie and sold the story to him.

Source: edition.cnn.com

CTV describes the film as a loud-but-soulless popcorn flick, but I think that's surely the point.

Twenty-five years, four films and one television show (the just canceled Fox's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles") and the franchise is still going strong.

Source: post-gazette.com

 Also, The Matrix isn't the only film with a (tenuous) grasp of metaphysics:

An essay called "Bad Timing: The Metaphysics of the Terminator" even has charts explaining a vicious circle that suggests, "In order to exist, John needs to send Kyle back in time, but John already needs to exist in order to send Kyle back in time." Or, to quote the machine, "I know now why you cry."

Source: post-gazette.com

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Komodo Dragons Are Venomous (And Dirty)

For a long time, scientists believed that Komodo dragons killed their prey by wounding them, letting sepsis and infection do the dirty work. The giant lizards, which grow up to 12 feet and 300 pounds, would bide their time until their prey died of infection, and then the feeding would begin. However, new evidence shows that Komodo dragons are actually venomous. While the massive lizard doesn't have big fangs, it has a strong jaw, which chews a hole in its victim's flesh, into which the Komodo dragon can inject venom.

We can credit University of Melbourne's Brian Fry with the discovery; he has called BS on the blood-poisoning theory form the get-go. In discussing the Komodo dragon's poisoning technique, he uses the fantastically-quotable term "combined-arsenal killing apparatus".

Great. The giant lizards werent' scary enough as it was.

Strands of rotting flesh trapped in its teeth harbour thriving colonies of bacteria and when the dragon bites an animal, these microbes flood into the wound and eventually cause blood poisoning.

Source: scienceblogs.com

The venom, while not quite cobra-caliber, causes additional blood hemorrhaging, muscle spasms, and paralysis.

Let the record show, however, that Komodo dragons indeed have filthy mouths and claws. So don't let one bite or scratch you.

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Attention, Twilight Fans: ‘New Moon Poster Has Arrived

Okay, Twilight fans... you may not be lucky enough to stumble across an abandoned script to New Moon, the Twilight sequel, but at least you can check out the new poster. Even my friends without kids are talking about it... I dunno, I think the actors are working the "foreboding and trepidation" thing a bit too hard. I'd say "less is more", but legion upon legion of Robert Pattinson fan would disagree with (and possibly tar and feather) me.

Check it out via the link below... it's okay. If you're alone with your computer, nobody will hear you squeal.

Exciting stuff, right?

Source: moviesblog.mtv.com

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UK Police Drowns Itself in Surveillance Data

In a widely-predicted development, the UK police has found itself drowning in surveillance data from its 4 million CCTV cameras.

CCTV cameras are ubiquitous in British public life, and all that information has to go somewhere. The problem is that such info must ultimately be parsed and evaluated by human eyes. The British police has found itself staring at a thousand screens of white noise.

Perhaps this new clarity will bring Parliament more in line with what I found to be the popular thinking: pervasive surveillance erodes civil liberites with no palpable benefit to society.

The plate recognition system uses optical character recognition to convert digital pictures of car number plates into characters, which are then held in a list. The technology was launched in part to aid the tracking of suspects, but, according to Readhead, there is simply too much information for the police to be able to use.

The U.K. has about 4 million surveillance cameras in use.

Source: news.cnet.com

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Alpha Cougar
Butane Soup (Thanks, Culturite!)

Craigslist Willl Discontinue Erotic Services Section

It's official: ubiquitous online classified site Craigslist will discontinue its erotic services section. The ads contained in that section, localized by metropolitan area, were seen by law enforcement officials as advertisements for sexual services. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan refers to the section as an "online red-light district".

The section will be replaced with an Adult section with staff-reviewed entries.

This is the sort of thing we're talking about: Craigslist erotic services listings (New York City). This link is safe for work: a landing page only with no immediately-displayed adult content.

Exacerbating the situation was the media sensasion surrounding accused "Craigslist killer" Philip Markoff, charged with murdering one Boston woman and attempting to kill two others.

The writing was on the wall ever since the site’s name became forever inshrined[sic] in the phrase, “Craiglist killer,” , although the AGs seem more concerned with protecting morals than lives.

Source: government.zdnet.com

Craigslist has been working hard to fend off criticism that it facilitates prostitution by implementing numerous measures to help curb Erotic Services listings. In November of 2008, Craigslist came to an agreement with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the Attorneys General of more than 40 states to reduce prostitution on the site. In addition to a new phone verification system launched in March 2008,

Source: arstechnica.com

Still, this wasn't enough to satisfy... pretty much anybody in law enforcement.

Source: arstechnica.com

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Hopping on the Back of That Truck Was the Best Thing I've Ever Done

Pirate Bay Encourages DDo$ Attack on Law Firm

After losing their intellectual property trial (widely considered a fiasco), the founders of torrent aggregator The Pirate Bay are encouraging their fans to assist them in paying the SEK30 million (US$3.5 million) fine with micropayments of one Swedish kroner, or thirteen cents. They're calling it a DDo$ attack, which is a riff on the more-familiar DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack used to slam a server with communication requests until it shuts down.

The rationale is that Danowsky & Partners, the law firm receiving the money, must pay to collect the electronic transfer: after the first thosuand transfers, each one costs 2 SEK, so the firm will ultimately lose money as a result of winning the trial.

Anakata encourages all Internet users to pay extremely small sums around 1 SEK (0.13 USD) to Danowsky’s law firm, which represented the music companies at the Pirate Bay trial. The music companies will not benefit from this, instead it will cost them money to handle and process all the money.

Source: blogpirate.org

So not only will the Pirate Bay founders not have to pay the fine out of their own pockets, but also it could possibly play a role in the outcome of future pirating cases.

Source: gizmodo.com

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Atlantis Crew Prepares for Hubble Repair

The space shuttle Atlantis crew are carrying out a damage inspection before moving on to the mission objective: repairing the Hubble Telescope.

As the team works, they'll be subject to the swift, silent threat of space junk, which hurtles around the planet in orbit. Should something go wrong, a second shuttle, the Endeavor, will have to swoop in for the rescue, since the Atlantis crew won't be positioned to seek shelter aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

That's probably why astronaut Mike Massimino hasn't been tweeting lately- I bet this sort of work requires one's undivided attention.

If successful, the mission could extend Hubble's lifetime beyond 2014.

During their first full day in orbit, Atlantis' crew used a laser-tipped boom to look for damage to the orbiter during a survey that was expected to take several hours.

Initial photos taken during the launch indicated no problems, but the analysis is ongoing.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Want to watch? Okay.

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Statue of Liberty Crown to Reopen July 4

The Statue of Liberty's crown, which has been closed to the public since Sept 11, 2001, is reopening on July 4.

Admission will be by lottery, with only 30 people per hour allowed to ascend at first. According to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, that number will increase over time as they renovate the structure. In two years' time, the statue will close once again for a major overhaul.

Along with Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty National Monument is run by the National Park Service.

For those not wishing to queue, there's always the Staten Island Ferry, a delightfully old-school journey to the much-maligned fifth borough, home to a cool minor-league baseball stadium.

Salazar, acknowledging that standing in the crown this morning gave him "goose bumps," said Park Service employees are being trained on ways to usher selected visitors up and down the single narrow stairway inside the statue.

He acknowledged that this would entail "risks" but also said that everyone allowed inside would have undergone "double screening" for security purposes at a national monument whose pinnacle has been closed to the public since terrorists attacked the World Trade Center towers in New York with hijacked airliners

Source: latimes.com

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Bog Mouth (from the desk of Tina Kells)

Climate Change Can Lead to Giant Spiders

According to Danish scientists, climate change will have yet another knock-on effect... giant spiders. But wait, it gets better: giant armored spiders.

The wolf spiders of northeastern Greenland, with their two-year lifespan, are growing larger as the spring thaw occurs earlier, and their exoskeletons are also getting thicker. They're carnivorous, by the way, if you must know.

Within the bigger-is-better trend among arctic arachnids, females are also growing larger compared to their male counterparts.

Why is this happening? Spiders are not photosynthetic, so longer springtimes and more sun won't directly make them grow. One possibility is the increased duration of the hunting season. Or more molting cycles. Or, like me, they just do better in warmer weather.

The spiders can live for at least two years, and the researchers found that, in years when spring came early, the animals grew larger, on average.

For example, when spring came 30 days earlier than usual, some spiders grew exoskeletons that were 10 percent thicker than average, resulting in bigger bodies overall.

Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Oh, yeah, and the won't just be bigger, but also more plentiful. So, for now, you'll just need to shake out your shoes a bit more often. In fifty years or so, though, you may need a saddle.

The worrying yet exciting news comes courtesy of National Geographic, which has been speaking to top arachno-boffin Toke Høye of Aarhus University. Høye has spent ten years studying the flesh-eating "wolf" spider Pardosa glacialis which lives in Greenland, north of the Arctic circle.

Source: theregister.co.uk

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3D Realms Goes Bust (No Duke Nukem Forever)

3D Realms, who have been working on the Chinese Democracy-caliber Duke Nukem Forever for the past twelve years, has gone bust.

3D Realms is also known for the ubiquitous Castle Wolfenstein, which introduced many a college student to the conept of the first-person shooter.

Apogee Software, aslo associated with development of the long-delayed title, has stated that development "is continuing as planned", though recent events don't quite bear that out.

3D Realms webmaster Joe Siegler told 3D Realms forum members that rumours of the company's closure were "not a marketing thing. It's true".

Certainly, the company's website was down at the time of writing. As yet there's been no official confirmation of the closure, but other firms working on Duke Nukem-related games said they were continuing to do so despite "the situation at 3D Realms". So something's up.

Source: reghardware.co.uk

Publisher Take-Two says it will no longer fund development of the game but retains rights to the title.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

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