Roumen.ganeff

The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl and DC's Legends of Tomorrow casts coming together and getting to interact was arguably the best part of The CW's latest DC crossover event, "Invasion!" Our Legends of Tomorrow review calls Invasion a "very epic and satisfying finish" to the arc. But unsurprisingly, some of the fun character moments had to hit the cutting room floor.

At a recent "Invasion!" screening event, executive producers Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim talked about the moments from the crossover that almost made it in, but ultimately needed to be cut. "It’s amazing how many of them we actually got to keep," said Kreisberg. "This episode came in wildly over, not surprising. And you’ve got to keep the plot going, and you had to have room, especially in these episodes, which probably had even grander visual effects sequences than we’re used to in an average episode, so it tended to be those little jokey moments that fell by the wayside. ... It was making sure that we were preserving as many of those little exchanges as we could."

Continue reading…

The Arrowverse "Invasion!" crossover has come to a close, but the door remains open for more crossovers in the future.

The Flash, Arrow and DC's Legends of Tomorrow all exist in the same universe, while Supergirl resides in a different part of the multiverse on Earth-38. But the conclusion of the "Invasion!" crossover added a new wrinkle that makes bringing Supergirl into the fold a lot easier in the future.

Full spoilers for the "Invasion!" crossover continue below. Check out our reviews of The Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow crossover episodes, plus the moments that were left on the cutting room floor.

Continue reading…

What's that you say? You can actually fight back against bogus copyright takedowns and win? That's exactly what happened in this case and the guy was even awarded damages. Topdawg Entertainment Inc., Interscope Records and Universal Music Group must pay damages after issuing false DMCA notices which damaged an artist's reputation. Montreal hip hop artist Jonathan Emile teamed up with Kendrick Lamar on a track, but the labels wrongfully took it down from YouTube, iTunes and Soundcloud. Comments

There is a review of the Seagate Skyhawk 10TB hard drive posted today at Overclockers Club. I like how this review points out all the things you could use the extra storage space for...without mentioning porn. You'll now probably be asking... what's all this cost me? Amazingly, this 10 TB monster of a drive will set you back just barely over four cents per GB stored! That's right, for essentially $400, you can have 10 TB of reasonably fast and reliable storage for your DVR, surveillance system, NAS, or gaming rig. Even compared to its immediate predecessors, that's a step up in storage capacity per dollar. Comments

Deal could mean curtains for the indie smartwatch maker

Firm's fellowship with HMD fires up as firm starts flogging feature phones

During what is normally a routine resupply run to the International Space Station on Thursday, Russian ground control lost contact with its delivery vehicle, the Progress MS-04, which has now been confirmed as destroyed.

> Four years ago, Alberto's career prospects were bleak. The 23-year-old Venezuelan had just graduated from college with a degree in computer science, but his nation's economy was already shredded by 13 years of socialism. > "There were job opportunities, but they paid like $20 a month, and we were used to traveling and buying things from abroad so we couldn't settle for that," his friend Luis recalls. Alberto and Luis—whose names have been changed for their own safety—teamed up to start a clothing business, but the venture floundered. > Then Alberto discovered bitcoin mining. > He read about it on an Argentinian gaming forum. An item posted to the site described a process of getting paid in a new internet-based currency denominated in strings of numbers and letters, in exchange for running computations on a home computer. His parents said that the whole thing sounded like a Ponzi scheme. Alberto, however, sensed that his life was about to change. > Four years later, his country is embroiled in a humanitarian crisis. The supermarket shelves are bare. Children are fainting from hunger in their classrooms. A mob recently broke into the Caracas zoo to eat a horse. Many Venezuelans subsist on a monthly government stipend equivalent to about $9. > Alberto, meanwhile, based on his own account, is earning more than $1,200 a day mining bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. > He's part of Venezuela's rapidly growing digital currency mining community. Faced with growing threats of violent crime and government extortion, its members interface through secret online groups and take extreme precautions to hide their activities. > In a country where cash has lost much of its value, and food and other necessities are dangerously scarce, bitcoins are providing many Venezuelans with a lifeline. The same socialist economics that caused the country's meltdown has made the energy-intensive process of bitcoin mining wildly profitable—but also dangerous. Rest here: http://reason.com/archives/2016/11/28/the-secret-dangerous-world-of ---------- This story encapsulates, in a gripping way, the benefits that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency are bringing to the world. Venezuela's politico-economic system is so dysfunctional, it's become a monster. The Venezuelan economy is in such a mess, it's deranged. There are lots of stories about ordinary Venezuelans caught in the throes of a poverty so penurious that it seems unbelievable. For one, ordinary folks have to scramble desperately to get their hands on some toilet paper. As the excerpt above mentioned, the 23-year-old Venezuelan faced a job market where the available jobs paid the equivalent of $20 per *month*. But thanks to Bitcoin, he's clearing about $1,200 per *day*. Instead of joining the ranks of the penurious, he's becoming rich. His fellow miners are becoming either rich or affluent themselves. If they had just been hoarding or sitting on what they got, it would have been an interesting item but only a "Howzabout that; clever guy" story. The important part - and the part that shows cryptocurrency's promise - hinges of the fact that he and his cohorts are *not* hoarding. They're *spending* some of what they've mined. And not just through Gyft, et. al, although some goes there. They've also set up a "secret economy" where they buy and sell goods through a secret Facebook group that acts like a Craigslist for Bitcoin. In this way, they're spreading Bitcoin around in exchange for goods and services. Including domestic goods and services, which will help their fellow Venezuelans. In other words, Bitcoin is acting as an underground currency that, in a limited way as of now, is doing something to straighten out Venezuela's deranged economy. In earlier times, this function was performed by the U.S. Dollar; such was the case during the Zimbabwe hyperinflation. But the Venezuelan secret economy demonstrates - shows! - that a government-free, debt-free, completely disintermediated currency - one that does not require any legal-tender laws to function as a currency - can do the same thing. At least arguably, Bitcoin can do the same thing better. So we see that Bitcoin is now performing a real service to real people trying to get by in a really messed-up economy. *Bitcoin is helping people out*. It might even have saved a life or two. If I were a Bitcoin maximalist, I'd be walking on air right now: this story is so powerful. http://i.imgur.com/ubWKMO3.jpg?1 (Image from [here](http://www.politik-forum.eu/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=43219&start=40).) You should read the whole article, [found here](http://reason.com/archives/2016/11/28/the-secret-dangerous-world-of).

Ron Glass, the television star who played Shepherd Derrial Book in Firefly, has died. He was 71.

Variety received confirmation of Glass' death by the actor's rep, but no additional details with regard to the cause or location of his death were disclosed.

Ron Glass as Shepherd Derrial Book in Firefly

In addition to his role in Firefly, Glass starred as Ron Harris in the American sitcom Barney Miller. He also reprised his role as Shepherd Derrial Book in 2005's Firefly followup film, Serenity.

Continue reading…

Full spoilers for Westworld's latest episode, "The Well-Tempered Clavier," continue below.

And a second warning, just in case. This is a big episode, so be careful not to continue reading if you haven't seen the episode and are concerned about being spoiled to big reveals.

So there it was, folks: the Westworld episode to answer -- or at least almost-but-not-quite confirm -- most of the biggest fan theories about the series so far. With all that heavy lifting out of the way, you should be even more excited for whatever comes next in the finale.

This is a bit of a long review, so come down the rabbit hole with me...

In an interview with IGN's Eric Goldman a couple weeks ago tied to the first big Bernard reveal (that he's actually a Host), Jeffrey Wright described Season 1 as "really a prequel to the beginning of the show," and in "The Well-Tempered Clavier" we see that idea play out fully. The bulk of the heavy lifting of the nature of Westworld, the Hosts and their creators is out of the way, and now the real fun can begin.

Continue reading…

Premiering on November 30th, Syfy’s new series Incorporated, from notable executive producers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, imagines a futuristic world – the year is 2074 -- where corporations have completely taken control over a severely fractured and damaged planet. Here, the more well off live in the “Green Zone” (in a life of relative, business-oriented, comfort), while the “Red Zone” is a testament environment that has been separated off, as sources of food rapidly deplete.

The series focuses on Ben Larson (Sean Teale), a young employee at Spiga Biotech, who is hiding some big, dangerous secrets from his employers – including his intimidating mother-in-law, Elizabeth (Julia Ormond), his boss at Spiga.

Continue reading…

You still can't get a 3D-printed liver transplant made from your own cells, but an Australian hospital is trying to push the tech into the mainstream. The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane is building a dedicated "biofabrication"...

Google's AI is not just better at grasping languages like Mandarin, but can now translate between two languages it hasn't even trained on. In a research paper, Google reveals how it uses its own "interlingua" to internally represent phrases, regardle...

According to this article, one of the event organizers for the upcoming winter edition of Dreamhack has been arrested as part of a raid that took down one of the largest private torrent trackers in Sweden. Earlier this month Swedish police took down Rarat.org, one of the largest private torrent trackers in the country. With help from PayPal the authorities were able to identity and arrest the prime target, who also happens to be an organizer of the upcoming winter edition of Dreamhack. Comments

According to The Pulse Of Radio, A PERFECT CIRCLE guitarist Billy Howerdel revealed at a live interview with singer Maynard James Keenan on Monday night (November 21) in Los Angeles that A PERFECT CIRCLE will tour next year and has been working on new songs. Keenan concurred, adding that the band will also perform at the Hollywood Bowl on May 7, 2017. Howerdel was moderating the discussion with Keenan, who is doing a book tour in support of his new memoir, "A Perfect Union Of Contrary Things". A PERFECT CIRCLE has been largely inactive on the recording front for more than a decade, with only a new song titled "By And Down" surfacing on a hits collection in 2013. The band did some touring from 2010 through 2013, but has not played live since. In a 2013 interview, Howerdel said about the possibility of a new studio album: "I've got 75 percent of the foundation of [the next] A PERFECT CIRCLE record ready to go. I think that all will change once Maynard gets involved and he has more time to focus on it." Howerdel launched a band called ASHES DIVIDE after A PERFECT CIRCLE went on hiatus, while Keenan got his PUSCIFER project up and running and has devoted the most time to that over the past few years. TOOL has also been working on music for a new album but that effort is not likely to surface anytime soon, if ever.

Lara Croft is looking for something more important than a lost kingdom or treasure in the Tomb Raider movie reboot. She's apparently searching for her father.

Speaking with HeyUGuys, Tomb Raider producer Graham King talked about the film's narrative, mentioning that it will be a "back to the roots story."

"This is a young Lara Croft in search to see if her father is dead or alive. So it has a very emotional part to it, and I think that’s what Alicia

found so interesting about it," King said.

Earlier this year, Warner Bros. and MGM announced that Oscar winner Vikander would portray Croft. And she has addressed how this Tomb Raider will stand out from previous film entries.

Continue reading…

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has come forward to discuss the overall tone and direction of the studio's upcoming Han Solo movie, likening the film to Westerns and heist movies.

"This moves closer to a heist or Western type feel," Kennedy told Variety. She also said they're looking at the paintings of Frederic Remington—an artist who specialized in depicting the Old West—noting the colors used by the artist will serve as the "defining the look and feel of the film."

Chris Miller and Phil Lord are directing the Han Solo standalone movie, which stars Alden Ehrenreich as young Han Solo and Donald Glover as young Lando Calrissian. Just last week, it was revealed that Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke will also appear in the film, though her role has yet to be revealed.

Continue reading…

Marvel's The Inhumans will take us to the moon.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, there will be action sequences in the show on the Earth's satellite, which has often served as the home for the Inhumans in the comics. These scenes will be shot with IMAX cameras, even after the two-episode premiere movie.

It's an important distinction because previously it was thought the whole Inhumans series would be shot in IMAX. That doesn't appear to be the case.

In addition, ABC will add content to the broadcast premiere for The Inhumans. The Marvel series is set to launch in September 2017 in IMAX, as the theater company got the idea after enjoying a $2 million success story with Game of Thrones.

Continue reading…

Voldemort isn't the only notorious dark wizard in J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World. Before He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, there was Gellert Grindelwald, and the new Harry Potter series Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is going to explore his story even more.

Full spoilers for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them continue below.

Johnny Depp's take on the character made his debut in the first Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film. The movie opened with a look at some of the dark wizard's recent offenses in Europe, and closed with the reveal that he'd been hiding out in New York under the guise of auror Percival Graves (Colin Farrell). While the movie didn't get deep into his motivations, it did introduce him as a primary antagonist and someone whose main goal is to have the wizarding community come out into the open and be dominant over the non-magic community.

Continue reading…

RIP, What.CD. The legendary private music torrent tracker, which supposedly had just about every album ever, has been terminated after a raid that saw its servers confiscated by French authorities. The site's staff cited "recent events" as the reason for the shutdown, but didn't confirm that some of its servers were seized by French police, as was reported. Today the French Society of Authors, Composers, and Publishers of Music (SACEM) officially confirmed the raid. The music group informs TorrentFreak that 12 servers were targeted by the police. "This is a follow up to the investigative work carried out by SACEM for more than two years, as part of its anti-piracy activities. It puts an ends to an estimated damage of €41 million to music creators," a spokesperson said. Comments

Emilia Clarke, who is best known as Daenerys Targaryen in HBO's Game of Thrones, has joined the cast of the Star Wars Han Solo stand-alone film. There's no word yet on who the actress will play, so let the speculation game begin. According to Lucasfilm, "Clarke's role will round out a dynamic cast of characters that Han and Chewie will encounter on their adventures." Alden Ehrenreich stars as Han Solo while Donald Glover will play fellow rogue Lando Calrissian in the film, which will take place in the young Corellian smuggler's life prior to his adventures in the original Star Wars. The untitled Han Solo movie will be directed Phil Lord and Christopher Miller for a 2018 release.

Talk to Senior Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottCollura.

Continue reading…

   В заглавието няма грешка. Както ви съобщихме, METALLICA планират да направят официален видеоклип към всяка от песните в новия си ...

Google Translate is ten years old, now supporting 103 languages. Yet with the new feature that Google is announcing today, Translate is apparently improving more in a single leap than in the last ten years combined. It's called Neural Machine Translation (NMT), and initially it will be working for eight languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Turkish. These are the native languages of about a third of the human population, and they cover more than 35% of Google Translate queries. Every time you translate something from one of these...

Westworld will be back for a second season, but the show may not return for more than a year.

HBO has ordered a second season of the hit sci-fi series, which may not premiere until 2018, according to EW.

"My suspicion is

sometime in 2018 because of how big the world is and what goes into shooting it," HBO’s programming president Casey Bloys said to EW.

"So I don’t have a date exactly — they’re going to have to map it out and write the scripts — but my guess is sometime in '18."

Westworld isn't the only new series that HBO is bringing back in the future. The network also renewed Divorce and Insecure. All three shows will get 10-episode seasons.

Continue reading…

One of the homilies one hears all the time from economists is "Never reason from a price change."  What does this mean?  Prices emerge in the market at the intersection of the supply and demand curve.  Often, when (say) a price of a commodity like oil decreases, pundits might reason that the demand for oil has suddenly dropped.  But they don't necessarily know that, not without information other than just the price change.  The price could have dropped because of a shift in the supply curve or the demand curve, or perhaps some combination of both.  We can't know just from the price change.

Which gets me thinking about the last election.  Trump won the election in part because several states like PA and WI, which had been safe Democratic wins in the last several elections, shifted to voting Republican.  Reasoning from this shift, pundits have poured forth today with torrents of bloviation about revolutionary changes in how groups like midwestern white males are voting.  But all these pundits were way wrong yesterday, so why would we expect them to suddenly be right today?  In my mind they are making the same mistake as reasoning from a price change, because the shift in relative party fortunes in a number of states could be because Trump is somehow doing better than Romney and McCain, or it could be because Clinton is doing worse than Obama.  Without other information, it is just as likely the story of the election is about a Clinton loss, not a Trump win.

Republican pundits want to think that they are riding some sort of revolutionary wave in the country.  Democratic pundits don't want to admit their candidate was really weak and like how they can spin white supremacist story lines out of the narrative that Trump won on the backs of angry white men.

The only way we can know the true story is to get more data than just the fact of the shift.  Let's go to Ramesh Ponnuru (and Kevin Drum from the other side of the political aisle makes many of the same points here and here).

The exit polls are remarkable. Would you believe that Mitt Romney won a greater percentage of the white vote than Donald Trump? Mitt took 59 percent while Trump won 58 percent. Would you believe that Trump improved the GOP’s position with black and Hispanic voters? Obama won 93 percent of the black vote. Hillary won 88 percent. Obama won 71 percent of the Latino vote. Hillary won 65 percent.

Critically, millions of minority voters apparently stayed home. Trump’s total vote is likely to land somewhere between John McCain’s and Romney’s (and well short of George W. Bush’s 2004 total), while the Democrats have lost almost 10 million voters since 2008. And all this happened even as Democrats doubled-down on their own identity politics. Black Lives Matter went from a fringe movement to the Democratic mainstream in the blink of an eye. Radical sexual politics were mainstreamed even faster. White voters responded mainly by voting in the same or lesser numbers as the last three presidential elections. That’s not a “whitelash,” it’s consistency.

As I know all too well, a portion of Trump’s online support is viciously racist. Conservative and liberal Americans can and must exercise extreme vigilance to insure that not one alt-right “thinker” has a place in the Trump administration, but it’s simply wrong to attribute Trump’s win to some form of great white wave. Trump won because minority voters let him win. The numbers don’t lie. The “coalition of the ascendant” stayed home.

Trump had roughly the same vote totals as Romney and McCain, and did relatively better with non-whites and Hispanics.   The difference in the election was not any particular enthusiasm for Trump, and certainly not any unique white enthusiasm, but a total lack of enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton.   Look at the numbers in Drum's post -- Hillary did worse with every group.  For god sakes, she did 5 points worse than Obama with unmarried women, the Lena Dunham crowd that theoretically should have been her core constituency.  She did 8 points worse than Obama with Latino women!

This is not a story of a Trump revolution.  This is a story of a loss by a really weak Clinton.  Obama would have dusted the floor with Trump.

Trump's Big Data Mind Explains How He Knew Trump Could Win Izzie Lapowsky, Wired While it could take some time to uncover the finer points of why the polls were so far off in the 2016 presidential election, the head of President-elect Donald Trum...

Japanese comics, called manga, are hugely popular. Although you probably knew that, you probably don't know the extent of it. In 2015, Japan's bestselling manga series, One Piece, sold more than 14 million copies. It helps that the format runs a huge...

Spoilers follow for Doctor Strange.

Doctor Strange is a hit, and certainly part of the reason for the film’s success is its exploration of a new side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- the world of magic and the mystical that until now has existed at the periphery of the franchise at best.

Obviously one of the major challenges of the film was in the creation of those magical and other-dimensional beings, acts, and realms, and that’s where visual effects supervisor Stephane Ceretti came in. I spoke to Ceretti recently about this task, as well as the design of Doctor Strange’s surprise villain, Dormammu. Marvel had kept the CG character’s presence secret up to the film’s release, but the inclusion of the dread one hits an important part of the Strange mythology while also serving as a great third-act face-off between the hero and villain.

Continue reading…