The planet is on track for catastrophic warming, but world leaders already have many options to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and protect people, according to a major new climate change report from the United Nations. NPR: The report was drafted by top climate scientists and reviewed by delegates from nearly 200 countries. The authors hope it will provide crucial guidance to politicians around the world ahead of negotiations later this year aimed at reining in climate change. The planet faces an increasingly dire situation, according to the report. Climate change is already disrupting daily life around the world. Extreme weather, including heat waves, droughts, floods, wildfires and hurricanes, is killing and displacing people worldwide, and causing massive economic damage. And the amount of carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere is still rising.
"Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health," the report states. "There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all." But there are many choices readily available to policymakers who want to address climate change, the report makes clear. Those choices include straightforward, immediate solutions such as quickly adopting renewable sources of electricity and clamping down on new oil and gas extraction. They are also more aspirational ones, such as investing in research that could one day allow technology to suck carbon dioxide out of the air. The authors of the report are not prescriptive. No solution is held up as the "right" one. [...] The report lays out sobering facts about the state of the Earth's climate. The planet is nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it was in the late 1800s, and is on track to exceed 5 degrees Fahrenheit of warming by the end of the century, it warns.
Long-time Slashdot reader BonThomme shared this article from Axios:
In a story in the Financial Times out Thursday, current and former Silicon Valley Bank employees cited the bank's commitment to remote work as one reason for its failure....
The banking industry has led the return to office charge for a while, and SVB was an outlier in its commitment to something different. The company's career site touted its flexible culture. "If our time working remotely has taught us anything, it's that we can trust our employees to be productive from wherever they work," the site says. The executive team at SVB was spread out around the country, with CEO Greg Becker at times working from Hawaii, according to the FT.
Yet, SVB included remote work as a risk to its business in its 2022 annual report — in part because of the IT issues posed when employees are dispersed around the country, but also for productivity reasons.
The FDIC, which now runs the bank, told staff they could continue working remotely — except essential workers and branch employees, per Reuters.
Axios ultimately blames SVB's run 11 days ago on its panic-inciting public communications about needing to raise capital, combined with its oddly high concentration of tech clients and a portfolio of long-term U.S. treasuries as interest rates rose. "It's certainly possible that if more executives were working in closer proximity those missteps would've been avoided. But it's hard to really know." Yet they warn workplace policies could change simply because the Financial Times ran a piece blaming remote work.
"Companies looking for a reason to bring workers back to the office may find it in this piece."
Since 1980, the weekly sketch show "Saturday Night Live" has produced eleven feature films based on its characters. "The Blues Brothers" was released in 1980 and remains one of our favorite "SNL" movies (though it's debatable how much of an "SNL" movie it is with no Lorne Michaels attached). It was another 12 years before another "SNL" movie came out, and it was worth the wait. The 1990s were the heyday for a proliferation "SNL" movies, beginning in 1992 with the beloved "Wayne's World."
The rest of the decade was hit or miss for "SNL" movies in terms of quality. We saw the return of Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtain in the heartwarming "Coneheads." Will Ferrell got his first leading role with "A Night at the Roxbury." There was an awful "Blues Brothers" sequel for some reason. And does anyone even remember they made an entire movie with Julia Sweeney's androgynous character, "It's Pat"?
"SNL" executive producer Lorne Michaels was seemingly out of the movie business at the end of the decade after the Tim Meadows film "The Ladies Man." But a 2009 Pepsi/"SNL" collaboration on a Super Bowl commercial led to the 2010 box office bomb "MacGruber."
Even after eleven movies, we're left with one "what could have been?" One of the show's most popular sketches from the 1990s would have seen Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, and David Spade starring in a feature length movie based on the so-called Gap Girls.
The Sketch Was Rooted In Reality
Whenever my wife jokes with me about eating too much, I growl in my best Chris Farley impersonation, "Lay off me, I'm starving!" The popular Gap Girls sketch featuring Farley, David Spade, and Adam Sandler is memorable enough to be quotable 30 years later. And it almost became "Saturday Night Live's" twelfth movie.
The sketch ran from 1993 to 1995 and had the trio of comedians dressed as women, portraying vapid Gap employees offering terrible fashion advice to customers. Their social lives and gossip took precedence over their jobs, leading to some hilarious moments.
David Spade created the sketch and shared where the inspiration came from while reminiscing with Sandler on his talk show "Lights Out With David Spade" in 2019. The comedian said:
"I wrote that mostly because I went to the Gap in Arizona on Christmas break and I was just standing there and [the employees] were like, 'You weren't in the folding meeting, we're all supposed to be in every folding meeting.' I'm like, there's a folding meeting? ... So I was basically gathering everything they really said and made us do it."
According to Spade, after he and Chris Farley made "Tommy Boy" and "Black Sheep," Lorne Michaels suggested that the popular sketch be made into a feature-length movie.
Unfortunately for all of us, it never happened. In an era where "SNL" was cranking out movies based on a lot less, the question is, why not Gap Girls?
Spade Barely Had Enough Material For The Sketches
Even though David Spade created the Gap Girls sketch, he also takes the blame for why it was never made into a movie. On a 2022 episode of his "Fly On The Wall" podcast, Spade revealed that material for the sketches was hard to come by, let alone enough for a full movie:
"Things [Gap Girls] had against it were me writing it, which was probably the first thing, and then I was running out of sketch ideas that were four minutes long. I remember we did one about 'Jeopardy' because 'Gapardy' just sounded like a funny name for a sketch, but there was no sketch [material]. So I go, 'If me, [Chris] Farley, and Adam [Sandler] are the contestants, it will be funny.'"
With that, sadly, the idea for a Gap Girls movie was permanently shelved. It's hard to know how the beloved sketch would have translated to the big screen. But you have to think that with the chemistry of Spade, Farley, and Sandler in the mid-1990s, it would have found a way to succeed. Taking the Gap Girls outside of the store, like a movie surely would have, often led to the most memorable sketches, including the Gap Girls at the food court.
Spade called Farley's "Lay off me, I'm starving!" moment when the other girls give Cindy a hard time about losing weight "one of my proudest moments of a line I've written, because he did it so great."
With Farley no longer with us and Spade and Sandler well past their "SNL" comedy days, all we're left with are the three seasons of sketches of the Gap Girls. And that leaves us, like, totally sad and stuff you guys, ugh!
We don’t often cover documentaries here, but once in a while a film will cross our paths that it makes sense to discuss. Directors’ Steve J. Adams & Sean Horlor’s new film definitely fits that bill. An exploration of the ‘80s Satanic Panic in the US and Canada with the jumping off point of the wildly influential memoir, Michelle Remembers, Satan Wants You is both a chilling reminder of the era in which these stories were mainstream news and a warning that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Michelle Remembers was co-written by Michelle Smith and Dr. Lawrence Pazder. It relays in gruesome detail Smith’s alleged ritual abuse at the hands of a Satanic coven in the early ‘60s. Smith recounts gory...
The 1994 romantic comedy "Sleep With Me" has largely been forgotten over time, but there's one moment thrown in there that people still remember pretty well. It's that scene where Quentin Tarantino's character gets to go on a drunken monologue about how the film "Top Gun" is actually a story about "a man struggling with his own homosexuality." It might sound ridiculous, but the character lays it out pretty convincingly: The other pilots represent "the gay man" and Maverick is someone who's always getting into trouble for not wanting to "play by the rules." The gay side wins out in the end, which is best shown in that final celebratory scene where Iceman says to Maverick, "You can ride my tail," and Maverick responds, "You can ride mine."
"Well me and my buddy Roger Avery kind of — Roger did come up with it first, but back when we were at Video Archives we worked on it, we turned it into a routine that we did at parties. We did it at parties, we did it at gatherings, it was just this routine the two of us did together."
So, Tarantino had an informal stand-up routine at his disposal, one that came in handy on the set of "Sleep With Me" when he was told to improvise something for his scene at the party. "Well, I had that routine ready to go!" he said. "So I just did it and that became a thing." It resulted in a moment Tarantino describes as being "in the same vein" as his "Like a Virgin" monologue in "Reservoir Dogs," although it's safe to say that his "Top Gun" theory is a lot more compelling.
What Inspired The Theory?
Quentin Tarantino's scene in "Sleep With Me" has little to do with the rest of the film, but it sticks with people because, well, "Top Gun" is a surprisingly homoerotic movie. With the not-strictly-necessary shirtless volleyball scene and the "don't tease me"-type throwaway lines, it's not a surprise that a lot of gay men love it. In the 2016 essay, "Top Gun and the End of the Homoerotic Action Movie," film critic Nico Lang described the movie as having "emerged at a fleeting cultural moment in which the action movie could be both very straight — in that all of the characters ostensibly have sex with women — and incredibly gay." The article marvels at how, "Just six years prior to ['Pulp Fiction']'s release, a studio tentpole like 'Top Gun' could be both subtextually queer and yet completely oblivious of its explicit implications."
Even today in 2023, it's rare to see a big blockbuster movie be so comfortable with itself in this manner. For instance, 2015's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" gave us a wholesome friendship between Finn and Poe. The film's creatives seemed to realize that a portion of the fanbase was interpreting their relationship through a queer lens, so they spent the next two sequels either keeping the pair separated or shoehorning in female love interests for each of them.
Meanwhile, the "Top Gun" creatives have shown a complete lack of defensiveness over potential queer interpretations of the film's characters. Producer Jerry Brookheimer has referred to Tarantino's interpretation as a perfectly valid interpretation, and the popularity of the rant seems to have had zero effect on how the sequel was written. The "Top Gun" movies might not be particularly progressive by most measurements, but the lack of overly-defensive "no homo" vibes is still refreshing to see.
Garrett Morris was a man amongst brats during the first five seasons of "Saturday Night Live." The Juilliard-trained actor was 10 years older than his Baby Boomer costars, and came from the theater instead of comedy. Though he'd written plays, he had virtually no experience penning sketches, which placed him at an immediate disadvantage; ergo, as the series' inaugural season got underway, he struggled to find screen time.
One of the biggest issues was cultural. Morris was the only Black member of the cast. He couldn't relate to his colleagues' life experiences and vice versa. But there was another significant factor: these guys could be real jerks. This was partially a toxic outgrowth of the hyper-competitive atmosphere encouraged by producer Lorne Michaels. The superstar trio of John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Murray were known behind the scenes as "the Bully Boys." They could generate their own material, and were so explosively funny that the writers, also desperate to get their work on the air, wanted to write for them.
Morris couldn't find his footing, and when he did hit on an idea that suited him, it often got nixed before rehearsal. On one occasion, however, when he felt he'd conjured a winning sketch, he watched in horror as another writer straight-up stole it.
The Theft Of White Guilt Relief Fund
During an appearance on Dana Carvey and David Spade's podcast "Fly on the Wall," Garrett Morris revealed that a staff writer, whom he would not name, took credit for a bit he'd written called "White Guilt Relief Fund." The sketch was a riff on commercials that try to shame people into making charitable donations. In this instance, the money would go toward assuaging the guilt of white people for their participation in the United States' racist system.
Morris took the idea to Tom Schiller, whose filmed "Schiller's Reel" segments had become a popular part of the show. This proved to be a mistake. As Morris told Carvey and Spade:
"Schiller goes over to the studio and tells it to another guy, whose name I will not call. That guy then writes it down as his idea. When I come over, it's written down and he's not even giving me credit for even contributing!"
Morris was incensed. He was about to confront the writer, who'd become a favorite of Lorne Michaels, when he was offered another role. "Look, I'm a Buddhist," said Morris. "So I don't believe in this or any person or God, but somebody really was in the works who stopped that because I was going to make a serious, serious mistake."
Morris Refused To Name The Culprit, But Dropped An Obvious Hint
Garrett Morris never named the writer, but he tipped his hand considerably when he called him a "Harvard wrestling star." Dana Carvey and David Spade knew right away that he was talking about Al Franken. "Franken has some ground game," said Spade.
Morris stuck with "SNL" until the original cast departed at the end of the fifth season, and scored a breakthrough recurring character with Chico Escuela, a retired New York Mets ballplayer with the catchphrase "Baseball been berry, berry good to me." Esquela became the sports anchor for the "Weekend Update," which probably saved Morris from Lorne Michaels' chopping block.
Tom Schiller and Franken have yet to discuss their role in allegedly stealing Morris' sketch. As for the myriad of indignities Morris suffered on "SNL," they're documented in heartbreaking detail in Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad's "Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live." Morris is a talented performer who deserved better than to get steamrolled by the Bully Boys.
"American Born Chinese" is a great blend of a Disney Channel teen comedy and Marvel action, but with better visuals and more heart than most of the MCU's recent output.
Based on the acclaimed graphic novel of the same name by Gene Luen Yang, the show follows Jin Wang (Ben Wang), a Chinese American teen navigating a world of whiteness. Sure, he fits in fine with his soccer bros, but he also quietly stands aside as they mock the other kids of color, praying he isn't next, just as he brushes off any sign of discomfort as the school becomes obsessed with a TikTok trend mocking a sitcom with a racist Asian character.
Wang does a phenomenal job as Jin, following in the footsteps of the like of Hudson Yang or Frankie Muniz in giving a performance that looks perpetually stressed out and anxious, which only makes for some hilarious comedy. Unsurprisingly, Yin's entire world turns upside down when a teacher assigns him to spend time with the new student, Wei-Chen (Jim Liu), a dorky Taiwanese kid who openly wears robot shirts, brings manga to school and talks about anime and video games in public.
Thankfully, the script avoids the lazy trope of the dorky loser foreigner. This is not "Perfect Strangers," and Wei-Chen is more than just a kid who reminds Yin of his roots. Instead, Jim Liu is the indisputable breakout star of the first two episodes that were shown at SXSW. Wei-Chen is full of confidence, he is funny and cool, and he can kick all sorts of ass, since he also happens to be the son of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King from "Journey to the West" — a hugely popular novel that has been adapted countless of times, and inspired the landmark anime "Dragon Ball."
A Badass Superhero Origin
"American Born Chinese" is not just a good coming-of-age story, but a rather good Wuxia-inspired epic tale of gods and mortals. The first episode opens with a scene of the Monkey King chasing his son, who has stolen his magical staff and run away. Director Destin Daniel Cretton takes the skills he gained from handling a big Marvel project like "Shang-Chi," but free from the constraints of a big-budget studio movie with ever-changing VFX and other issues, he delivers his most impressive action work to date.
This show looks as good as the best of the recent Marvel shows and films, if not better. The choreography is fluid, easy to follow, and just stunning, while the backgrounds and cinematography are awe-inspiring. As the second episode properly introduces the story going forward, there's a sense of this being something of a superhero origin story, and so far, it works.
It works not only because the fights are cool, but because — like the best Marvel comics used to be — the human drama is compelling. The narrative masterfully weaves together Wei-Chen's mythical adventure with Jin's earthly concerns. It is easy to be engaged by Jin's story, thanks to the careful attention to detail the show gives to creating authenticity.
There is a specificity to the way Jin talks to his parents, the decoration in their family home, the choice of posters and books in Jin's bedroom, and the way he talks to his friends, all of which shows how much this kind of series has changed since the heyday of The Disney Channel. The microaggressions, bullies, and casual racism aren't relegated to a one-off "special episode," but are woven throughout the entire fabric of the show itself.
A Relatable And Funny Coming-Of-Age Story
Of course, what is a good Disney Channel-like teen show without some laughs? Showrunner Kelvin Yu (who wrote some of the all-time best "Bob's Burgers" episodes like "The Kids Rob a Train" and "Glued, Where's My Bob?") infuses the story with a fantastic sense of humor. "American Born Chinese" is very funny, and it is self-deprecating without being mean, broad without being dumb, and specific without being alienating.
When Disney+ was first announced, it rode on the promise that audiences would get their favorite franchises under one roof, that they'd get new streaming-exclusive "Star Wars" and Marvel shows and maybe movies. "American Born Chinese" is proof that the service can and should be much more. This is the kind of teen coming-of-age tale that couldn't have worked at any other point in history than today, and it could only be done justice in streaming.
"American Born Chinese" premieres on Disney+ on May 24, 2023.
"John Wick: Chapter 4" is set to debut in theaters next week, and in his review, /Film's Jacob Hall has already praised the film for adding to the franchise in a major way, with "more world-building, bigger action, and a deeper embrace of what its leading man does well." While the latest film reportedly tops the rest of the Keanu Reeves-led franchise in terms of creative and mind-boggling action sequences, it's also a project that has now become heartbreaking in the wake of today's news about the passing of franchise actor Lance Reddick. This afternoon, Reeves and director Chad Stahelski released a statement in which they confirmed that the new movie will be dedicated to Reddick's memory.
While it's surreal to think about in light of the sad news, /Film's Vanessa Armstrong actually spoke with Reddick recently about his turn in the new film, where he reprised his role as Continental hotel manager Charon. During the interview, Armstrong spoke with Reddick about how he perfected Charon's Kenyan accent, a story that traces back to early in the actor's career.
The Actor Had A Collection Of Accent Tapes
"It said 'African accent' in the script," Reddick recalled, in reference to 2014's "John Wick." He continued: "It didn't specify which one. And also remember, I didn't have a lot of time to prepare. I think I had less than a week between the time that I got the offer and the time that I shot my stuff in the first film." While he didn't know it at the time, in 2021 Reddick told Vulture that he "found out later that the role was kind of written for [him]." He was intrigued about the part, not because of the film's butt-kicking premise, but because he was excited by "the opportunity to play this quintessential gentleman with an African accent," as he told the outlet.
The actor had a tight turnaround from prep to shooting, but luckily, he kept what he called "accent tapes," recordings of voices he's done for past performances. "So I went through my accent tapes, and I tried a South African accent, and it didn't seem to fit," he told /Film. "Then I tried a Kenyan accent, and that seemed to really fit. The funny thing about that is that when I taped that Kenyan accent, that was for a film that I did [about] 25 years ago called 'I Dreamed of Africa.'" The movie in question was released in 2000 to little fanfare and was only the fourth movie on Reddick's resume. "I Dreamed Of Africa" told the true story of Italian writer and conservationist Kuki Gallmann, who moved to a Kenyan ranch in the 1970s.
'It Served Me In This'
Not only did Reddick keep records of his past accent work, but he apparently even included recordings of voice work he didn't end up using. As he told /Film, "I got the role [in 'I Dreamed of Africa'] before I got the script, and then once I got the script for that film, I realized that all my stuff was going to be in Swahili." The Kenyan accent then, as he pointed out, "wasn't really going to help" him. But it came in handy years later when he became the discreet and powerful purveyor of the assassin hotel where John Wick (Reeves) and his associates often find themselves.
The full circle moment wasn't lost on Reddick. "It's just really cool that I was able to use that from 20 years earlier, that accent, and it served me in this," he said. With news of his passing fresh on everyone's mind here at /Film, it's hard not to imagine all the voice tapes the actor should've been able to make — and to get upset thinking about how Reddick's career showed no signs of stopping. Regardless, we're thankful to Lance Reddick for taking the time to share the story with us, and for sharing so many great performances with the world over the past three decades.
There is no talk show guest experience like going on Adult Swim's "The Eric Andre Show." Andre, a surrealist prankster comedian whose antics regularly offend, does his best to terrify and torture his guests on the talk show from Hell. There have been some memorable interviewees who managed to get on the same weird, Dadaist level as Andre, like rapper Tyler, the Creator and skateboarder Tony Hawk, but no one expected "The Wire" star Lance Reddick to sit down in the stuffy warehouse and put up with the show's bizarre gauntlet. His appearance on the 2013 episode of the late-night series was pretty unexpected in and of itself, but his actions in the episode are even more surprising. Reddick not only punches Andre's desk and storms off, he then comes back dressed in rags with chains, a visor, and a Starfleet communicator badge on his bare chest. The actor always commits completely to a role, but it's truly wild to see him commit to a truly ridiculous comedy bit with the same passion.
Reddick has died at the age of 60, and fans everywhere are posting the video of his appearance on "The Eric Andre Show" to honor his ability to absolutely nail every task he set himself to. In an interview with Jim Norton and Sam Roberts of the "Jim and Sam Show" on SiriusXM, Reddick explained how the whole bit came to be, and it makes the whole thing even more incredible.
Giving The Host A Little Scare
Reddick explained that he got the offer to do the show and had never heard of it, so he went online to check it out and was understandably confused. For those who have not seen Andre's bonkers bits, it's sort of one-part "The Tom Green Show" and one part "Jackass," and most of the jokes are born out of pure absurdity. It's not the kind of thing actors of Reddick's stature tend to tackle, but he was intrigued. After talking to some friends and being convinced, he and Andre got on the phone to discuss bits. That's a pretty big deal for Andre, who likes to shock his guests, but apparently, Reddick was given a lot of control:
"I get there that day and all that stuff goes out the window. So then he decides, 'Oh, let's try this.' So that's literally in the dressing room, like I don't know, 15, 20 minutes before I'm supposed to go out there he pitches me this LeVar Burton thing. And he hands me some stuff, he said, 'Kinda say this stuff, but you can ad-lib too. So, and the moment — I mean, there was some crazy stuff that didn't even get on. Like, for example, at one point he had an exercise video on a television screen playing and he wanted me to be sitting in the chair kinda trying to do the exercises with the video. And the getting angry thing, he said, 'On the next take just get pissed off and walk away.' And then — I mean, to slam the desk, that was just spontaneous."
There are only a few times where Andre has seemed genuinely startled or frightened by his guest's reactions, but Reddick slamming the desk is definitely one of them.
Next-Level Ad-Libs
After Reddick storms off, he comes back in a LeVar Burton-inspired get-up and goes on a wild riff, yelling about how he wants his own slave role. It's, uh, a lot, but Reddick viewed it as just another role to take on:
"I mean, I am a bit of a clown, so I love that kind of stuff. I mean, my background is traditional theater, not sketch comedy. So I'm always a little nervous about being asked spontaneously to improvise. But generally if I just kind of say — can you say swear words here? Okay great. So if I just, part of me says f*** it and just kind of jump off, I'm fine."
The initial idea and costuming were Andre's, but everything else was all Reddick. The swearing, the wild ad-libs (including "you need a new table" right after slamming it), and the pure intensity were the performer leaning into the wildness of the setting. Even "don't rainbow read me" was ad-libbed, and that's some seriously funny s***. Lance Reddick could do anything, and he will be deeply missed.
Sometimes you read a headline that feels so impossibly off-balance with the world, you can't help but wonder if you're living in a simulation or the world's worst season of "The Truman Show." Today was one of those days, as we tragically lost Lance Reddick, one of the most remarkable figures in film and television. Reddick was best known for playing Cedric Daniels on the hit HBO series "The Wire," which led to a fruitful career playing other authority figures because no one on the planet can pull off a uniform quite like he could.
But Lance Reddick was so much more than a cool bald guy in a freshly-pressed suit with optional wire-rim glasses. The man was also a formidable presence in genre projects, both big and small. He was one of those performers who could elevate any story simply by being on screen, exuding an immeasurable amount of charisma that turned any character into an instant favorite. Whether it was a micro-budget horror movie that no one actually saw outside of a festival run or bringing to life characters in video games like "Horizon: Forbidden West," Reddick's fanbase spanned multiple generations and demographics.
He was that damn cool.
A Staple Of Genre-Bending Indie Films
2014 was a huge year for Lance Reddick. He appeared in a small but mighty role in Riley Stearns' feature film debut, "Faults," before absolutely blowing everyone away as Major Richard Carver in Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett's cult hit, "The Guest." I caught the film in theaters, having had to drive nearly an hour away to do so, and immediately fell in love with the genre-bending thriller. But a moment that is forever etched in my brain was when Reddick shows up at the Peterson family home for the first time with an armed team, and there's a firefight. One of my fellow audience members, some random dude from Nowheresville, Ohio, erupted in his seat, screaming, "What a f***ing badass!"
God, was he ever right. Lance Reddick maintained a strong reputation as a force in independent genre films, later appearing in the grisly, weirdly underseen "Monster Party" as the leader of a group of recovering serial killers. He would often play roles of dominance, like Officer Carter in Nia DaCosta's debut feature, "Little Woods," or his hilarious turn as Pastor Mike in the comedy flick, "Faith Based." That was the magic of a guy like Lance Reddick. He could be given a character description of a dangerous military leader trying to subdue his own illegally failed experiment and turn him into a hero, or provide an empathetic approach to healing to people often viewed by society as nothing more than monsters, and have us rooting for his survival and success. No matter what the role called for, Reddick would have the audience enraptured.
A Terrific TV Presence
After his fantastic turn on "The Wire," Reddick appeared on the sci-fi series "Fringe" as Homeland Security Special Agent and head of the Fringe division, Phillip Broyles. While the role allowed Reddick to continue playing to his strengths as an authority figure, the world of "Fringe" dealt with parallel universes, alternate versions of characters, and unexplainable phenomena. The series always ran the risk of going off the rails given its otherworldly storylines, but Reddick expertly kept the show grounded and human.
You'd be forgiven if you didn't recognize Reddick in the hit series "American Horror Story," as he completely transformed himself into Papa Legba, the Gatekeeper of the Spirit World. Based on the very real figure from the Haitian Vodou religion, the character appeared in the "Coven" and "Apocalypse" seasons, and Reddick was absolutely mesmerizing. These were seasons dealing with serial killers, witchcraft, a Frankensteined Evan Peters, and a Kathy Bates Terminator, but Papa Legba was the one giving fans nightmares. Grim Reaper, eat your heart out.
Most recently, Reddick took on a certifiable horror heavy hitter by tackling the role of Albert Wesker in the Netflix "Resident Evil" series. The show was tragically cut short after one season, but Reddick's handling of the character was universally praised. Wesker runs the risk of feeling like a stock, almost robotic '80s action villain, but Reddick completely transformed him into a deep, layered, and complicated figure. The show would not have worked without his inspired casting. And because Lance Reddick could do literally anything, he was also an absolute force on "The Legend of Vox Machina," the animated adaptation of the first campaign of "Critical Role." Reddick voiced the mad red dragon Thordak, striking fear into the hearts of anyone who crossed him.
A Blockbuster Badass
Lance Reddick delivered consistently great performances in films and TV shows across a multitude of budgets, and by all accounts, was an absolute delight to be around on set. It's this stellar reputation across the board that helped him gain roles in big-budget blockbusters (like the "White House Down" and "Angel Has Fallen"), but if they had a genre spin to them, he might as well have been a secret weapon. 2014 wasn't just the year of "Faults" and "The Guest," it was also the year of the first "John Wick." At the time, the Keanu Reeves action flick was supposed to be a cool, one-off picture, but has since blossomed into one of the most consistently kick-ass film franchises in history. Reddick has played Charon in all four "John Wick" films, and is also slated to posthumously appear in the spin-off, "Ballerina."
Reddick reunited with "The Guest" director Adam Wingard when he was cast as Guillermin in "Godzilla vs. Kong," with his cameo appearance ultimately the result of necessary edits. But, considering Reddick is as captivating as always, I actively cheered when he showed up on the screen, as did plenty of others watching from the back of their truck flatbeds at the drive-in. There was no one like Lance Reddick and the world of genre entertainment is better because of his inclusion. There was no such thing as a mediocre Lance Reddick performance, even if the film or series had much to be desired. Sometime next year, things will be bittersweet when he appears in the Disney+ series "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" as the all-powerful God, Zeus. Reddick has consistently stolen scenes throughout his career, and a role like Zeus was a character finally big enough to match the worth of his gifts.Things just won't be the same without him.
The world is mourning today as news has broken that actor Lance Reddick, star of a wide range of acclaimed projects including "Fringe" and the "John Wick" series, has died at the age of 60. With three decades' worth of iconic roles to be remembered by, Reddick's memory will surely live on a little bit differently for all of us, but there's one role more than any other that's become an integral part not just of his filmography, but of television history: that of Baltimore Police Lieutenant Cedric Daniels on "The Wire."
Reddick played Daniels for five seasons on David Simon's HBO show, which is often regarded as one of the best TV shows of all time. The show about Baltimore's street life and police department had a massive, sprawling cast of characters, yet Reddick's Daniels stood out from the crowd. Easier to root for than the protagonist McNulty (Dominic West), Daniels was often the assured moral backbone of a show about noble criminals and dirty cops. It's a role he was beloved for, and it was also one that he never stopped going on the record to share his love for, even going on fifteen years after it ended.
'It's An Iconic Piece Of History'
Speaking to GQ in 2019, Reddick assured his interviewer that he wasn't sick of talking about "The Wire" yet: "You know, it's an iconic piece of history and I feel very fortunate and proud of the work we did with that." He also talked about the unusual way the show gained viewers, becoming a phenomenon in other countries before it was big in America and adding to its audience over time as its seasons were released on home video.
"It's one of the only shows that I know of that got bigger and reached its widest audience not because of promotion or awards or just sheer popular appeal while they're on," Reddick mused. "'The Wire' didn't have any of those things, but it was so freaking good that it was able to succeed anyways." Despite now being regarded by many as 'the great American novel on TV,' "The Wire" was in many ways ignored upon initial release. The dense, mosaic-like drama only earned two Emmy nominations over the course of its run, and didn't win either of them. But it ultimately reached audiences that were passionate about it.
"It came out right when DVDs and binging television shows started to become the rage," Reddick told GQ. "It really became a worldwide phenomenon through people sharing the DVDs all over the world." The actor noted that the show, which he points out was almost cancelled twice, was "huge in Sweden and the United Kingdom before it was big here," and says that everyone didn't really begin to talk about it until its final season.
'I Was Hoping I Wasn't Dreaming'
Despite his jam-packed schedule -- the actor did voice work on several ongoing series and will appear in major upcoming releases like the remake of "White Men Can't Jump," the Disney+ adaptation of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," and the John Wick spin-off "Ballerina" -- Reddick often took the time to speak about "The Wire" in interviews. "To this day, it's the only pilot I've ever read that I thought, 'I have to be on this show,'" Reddick told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019. Remembering the moment he found out he got the part, the actor said, "it was the first time where something happened in my life where I was hoping I wasn't dreaming."
Fans of "The Wire" can find Reddick's testimony about his love for the show all over the internet, from the "That Scene With Dan Patrick" podcast, in which he talks about David Simon telling him about Daniels' 60-episode arc back in season one, to Entertainment Weekly's YouTube page, where he broke down the best episodes of "The Wire" via Zoom in 2020. He even confessed to Vulture that he figured he got his part in "John Wick" thanks to his turn in "The Wire" (it was actually "Fringe").
Over the years, Reddick continued to talk about "The Wire" with depth and obvious appreciation for the show that gave him one of his deepest and most appreciated roles. No matter how many other characters he took on, for a certain group of fervent TV fans, the actor was always and will always be Lieutenant-turned-Commissioner Daniels, the stalwart, no-BS guiding force behind "The Wire."
"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" fans are pretty die-hard, and love even the most unlovable episodes, but one that tends to come up again and again when debating the worst episode is "Frank's Brother," from season 7.
The episode is almost entirely told via flashbacks and voiceover from Frank (Danny DeVito) and his brother Gino (Jon Polito), and their view of the past is pretty prejudiced and based in stereotypes, but one character they encounter is a real standout. Serious dramatic actor Lance Reddick, who starred in everything ranging from "The Wire" to the "John Wick" films, appears as Reggie, the owner of a Black jazz club in the 1960s that hires both Frank and Gino. Lance Reddick is one of those actors who shows up and immediately improves whatever he's been cast in, and in the case of "Frank's Brother," he turns the whole thing from a slightly cringey pastiche of 1960s and '70s crime cinema into a genuinely funny riff on certain kinds of Black characters from the period.
I absolutely love "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and there are parts of "Frank's Brother" that kind of work, but Reddick as the menacing, mustachioed Reggie held it all together. Reddick gets to play Reggie as an angry Blaxploitation-style club owner who calls his women his b****es, a Civil Rights radical, and a member of the Nation of Islam, going from one stereotype to another but playing them both with typical Reddick fierceness. "Frank's Brother" might be kind of a mess, but Reddick (and Reggie) are fantastic.
Exposing His Funny Bone
In "Frank's Brother," Frank and Gino end up warring over a singer named Shadynasty (Naturi Naughton) because they both fall in love with her. The thing is that Reggie is also in love with Shadynasty (pronounced shah-die-nusty, if you're curious), but he keeps getting arrested as a result of all of the shenanigans happening in their club. Gino and Frank, meanwhile, are free men because they're white and aren't targeted by the police. They make a joke about "hey, it's the '60s" but, as the end of the episode shows, that kind of discrimination is still alive today. Reggie, for his part, is a strong and powerful man with a bad temper who ends up finding something to keep him going with the Black Power movement, even though he ends up separated from Shadynasty once more.
Reddick's portrayal of the character is pitch-perfect, because the entire story is being told through Frank and Gino's eyes. The gang on "It's Always Sunny" tend to view the world through pop culture-tinted glasses, and their memories of the 1960s and '70s being so stereotypical and movie-like is pretty on-brand for them. Reddick leans into it, giving a performance that's both intense and absolutely hilarious. He manages to encompass numerous stereotypes and tropes in a single character, but plays it with such sincerity that the comedy of it actually works.
Playing Silly Completely Straight
One of the best things about "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is seeing normal people interact with the gang. Even when they're the memories of normal folks, they're still going to be shocked by the antics of the Paddy's Pub crew. Because the gang are so darn ridiculous, there are only a few other characters in their orbit that can be as ridiculous or the comedy won't work; every good jokester needs a straight man to play off of. Reddick's Reggie is one of the best to ever endure the nonsense of the gang -- or at least of its patriarch, Frank. Seeing the traditionally dramatic actor let loose and get weird with it is truly a shot of sheer joy in an otherwise muddled episode, and it's a shame we didn't get to see Reddick show off his comedy skills more often.
Sadly, the actor has died at the age of 60, taking all of his incredible talents and presence with him. Reddick may be remembered for many of his more serious roles, but there will always be a special place in my heart for Reggie. "Frank's Brother" may be one of the worst "It's Always Sunny" episodes, but Reggie is one of the greats.
Sam Neill, star of movies such as "Jurassic Park" and "The Hunt for Red October," as well as all around multinational treasure, has revealed that he has been dealing with cancer. According to The Guardian, the 75-year-old actor disclosed this information in his upcoming memoir, "Did I Ever Tell You This?" The good news is that Neill is currently cancer free and is in remission.
Per the outlet, Neill underwent treatment for stage-three blood cancer after noticing that he had swollen glands while promoting "Jurassic World Dominion" last year. He received a diagnosis of angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma and was treated with chemotherapy. That didn't totally do the trick and Neill is now taking a chemotherapy drug that he will receive monthly in perpetuity. But, most importantly, he is, at present, cancer free. The memoir, ultimately, started as a way for Neill to keep himself busy during a troubling time, although he didn't set out to write one. He explained:
"I never had any intention to write a book. But as I went on and kept writing, I realized it was actually sort of giving me a reason to live and I would go to bed thinking, 'I'll write about that tomorrow ... that will entertain me.' And so it was a lifesaver really, because I couldn't have gone through that with nothing to do, you know."
Just Pleased To Be Alive
With a career that dates back to the early '70s, Sam Neill has had a major presence on screen in both movies and TV for the better part of 50 years. Audiences around the world know him as Alan Grant from the "Jurassic Park" films, but that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his incredible career. Some of his pre-Alan Grant credits include "Dead Calm" and "Possession." He also starred in John Carpenter's cult classic "In the Mouth of Madness," the sci-fi favorite "Event Horizon," and the hit series "Peaky Blinders."
And that really is just scratching the surface, as Neill has more than 150 acting credits to his name. Well into his 70s, he has no desire to slow down, it seems -- cancer be damned. Speaking further, Neill explained that there were rough moments over the last year, but it all helped to lend some perspective:
"I can't pretend that the last year hasn't had its dark moments. But those dark moments throw the light into sharp relief, you know, and have made me grateful for every day and immensely grateful for all my friends. Just pleased to be alive."
"Did I Ever Tell You This?" is set to hit shelves on March 21, 2023.
Lance Reddick, the iconic actor playing in HBO's The Wire, John Wick and voicing Horizon's Sylens and Destiny's Zavala, has reportedly passed away at 60.
This sad news comes via The Daily Mail and TMZ with the latter reporting that law enforcement has told the outlet that the body of the American actor was found at his Studio City home earlier this morning. Although the cause of death is unclear, TMZ reports that it appears to be a natural cause. The Daily Mail writes that the actor posted a picture of himself with his dog on Instagram only yesterday.
Aside from playing in HBO's popular The Wire series, Reddick was known for portraying Phillip Broyles in J. J. Abrams' popular science-fiction TV series, Fringe. Fans will remember the iconic actor as Charon - the concierge at the Continental Hotel's New York City establishment - in the John Wick series. The actor was currently doing a press tour for John Wick: Chapter 4 ahead of the movie's debut next week.
As said, gamers will know Reddick was his role as Sylens in both Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West. Back in September of last year, the actor took to Twitter to seemingly tease a motion capture session for Forbidden West DLC - the Burning Shores expansion for Forbidden West was officially announced in December of last year.
Lance Reddick as Commander Zavala
Destiny players will remember Reddick from voicing Commander Zavala - the Awoken Guardian and current Titan Vanguard of The Tower.
In addition to the above roles, Reddick also did the motion capture and voice performance for Martin Hatch in Remedy's Quantum Break.
We'll update you as soon as more information about this tragic news comes in.
With heartfelt horror master Mike Flanagan in charge, fans might finally get the adaptation of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" novels that they've been wanting for decades now. In December, news broke that Flanagan now has the rights to the books -- and King's blessing -- along with plans to make a TV show version of the long-running literary property. While the project still seems to be on the distant horizon, Flanagan has since revealed to the Script Apart podcast (via Empire) that he's considering weaving in characters from another King book: "Doctor Sleep."
Flanagan directed an adaptation of King's sequel to "The Shining" in 2019, introducing viewers to a psychic cult called the True Knot and its leader, Rose The Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), along with a traumatized, grown-up Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor). As King superfan Flanagan pointed out on Script Apart, there's plenty of precedent for overlap between "The Dark Tower" stories and other King properties. "The thing about the King universe is, it's all connected," Flanagan explained. "And the nexus point of those connections is 'The Dark Tower.'" He cited "Doctor Sleep" as an example of a story that might "seamlessly dovetail" into the upcoming adaptation.
'There Might Be Room For Danny Torrance'
Mike Flanagan noted that other Kingverse characters canonically appear in "The Dark Tower," including some with connections to the True Knot. "There's a character in The Dark Tower named Dandelo, who I think is a cousin of the True Knot, who's this emotional vampire but who feeds on laughter instead of fear," Flanagan pointed out. "But there's room in that world for the True Knot themselves, there's room for Rose The Hat. There might be room for Danny Torrance." The "Gerald's Game" director also mentioned Abra Stone, the shine-possessing girl played by Kyliegh Curran, as a character who would be "really interesting" as a Breaker: one of a group of psychics who appears in "The Dark Tower."
Lest fellow Stephen King aficionados worry that Flanagan is going off book here, he's right that "The Dark Tower" has connections to many, many other works by the horror maestro. Essentially a multiverse-spanning series, King himself has cited connections between the main villain of "The Dark Tower" and "The Stand" and his other most infamous villain, Pennywise. As Flanagan observed, "'Doctor Sleep' was written after 'The Dark Tower' was finished," which may well be the only reason the two don't have more crossovers.
We're Long Overdue For An In-Depth King Multiverse Adaptation
As is, though, Stephen King clearly had some overlap in mind when writing "Doctor Sleep." The book pulls a line directly from "The Dark Tower," when Danny Torrance says, "There are other worlds than these." As Mike Flanagan pointed out, his adaptation made the connection explicit, with Dick Halloran's ghost (Carl Lumbly) invoking a metaphysical concept from the other series when he says, "Ka is a wheel."
Hopefully, Flanagan's spin on the King multiverse will last longer than the previous attempt to fuse together several King-inspired stories: Hulu's great but short-lived series "Castle Rock." It doesn't even exist yet, but it's also safe to say the series will be better than 2017's unimaginative "The Dark Tower" movie, which Flanagan admitted "kind of salted the Earth for anyone else who wanted to plant something under the 'Dark Tower' banner for who knows how long."
Hollywood may not be chomping at the bit for another version of "The Dark Tower," but King fans certainly are, and Flanagan seems to be the perfect man for the job. "There's all kinds of stuff that could be amazing, if we're able to get that property on its feet," he told Script Apart. We can't wait to see it.
The following post contains spoilers for "The Mandalorian."
In the latest episode of "The Mandalorian," Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) has redeemed himself in the eyes of his sect's spiritual leader, the Armorer (Emily Swallow). Din, of course, became an apostate after removing his helmet, something the Mandalorians of his sect are forbidden to do once they don it in a ceremony we witnessed this season. To remedy his state, the Armorer told him he must bathe in the living waters in the Mines of Mandalore. Of course, she didn't think Din could do it, as the planet is supposedly still ruined after the events of the Night of a Thousand Tears.
Though it is destroyed, the air is now breathable, and Din, Grogu, and Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) travel to the mines. Their mission accomplished, they've returned to the Armorer's covert to have his status lifted. She graciously lifts Bo-Katan's as well, as she, too, bathed in the waters and has not removed her helmet since. Though Bo-Katan doesn't follow this sect's rules, the acceptance has clearly affected her, going by the way the scene was shot.
Since we first learned about the restriction on removing one's helmet (even in front of family), it's seemed harsh. It's only this sect that has the rule, and the Armorer isn't making exceptions for Din, no matter what he's been through. However, the Armorer has never seemed to be anything but fair, holding the line for her faith but not cruel to those who don't follow it in the same way.
In addition to creating beskar armor and working on weaponry, the Armorer is the moral authority for the covert she runs. As we know, Mandalore was destroyed, and the people were scattered around the galaxy. We even got a touching scene where Mando teaches Grogu that, to be a Mandalorian, you must know navigation, so you're never alone. With their people spread out and away from their homeworlds, having someone who can keep the tradition alive becomes even more important. Swallow said:
"I'd like to think she is somebody who upholds what is sacred and what is true. She's the one who's sort of been the heart and the soul of the Mandalorian people and reminding them what has held them together. The creed is something that many of them have felt not worth holding to, but through everything that's happened, it is the thing that has held most of them together, and it is the thing that has seemed most true to them."
This doesn't make her dogmatic, though. She's still open to hearing and learning, as she's shown several times. She accepts Grogu into Din's clan of two and assigns him to be Grogu's father when she learns of his feelings and his quest. She doesn't believe that Mandalore is accessible, so she tells Din that he cannot relieve his apostatic state but is willing to listen when he tells her about the traveler who reached the surface. When he returns, she shows no issue or resentment about being proved wrong. Not only that, but despite the things she'd said about Bo-Katan's beliefs and how they conflict with hers, she offers redemption to her without hesitation or even a request for it.
She Is Open To Listening
Swallow said as much, stating the importance of listening to opposing views:
" ... she is also somebody who I think wants what is best for her people and is open to listening. We talked a lot about that while we were shooting this season, about the importance of being willing to listen to conflicting ideas. If nothing else, I think the Armorer is willing to listen. That doesn't always mean she agrees, but she's not afraid to listen to opposing viewpoints. I think she knows that's an important part of dialogue and an important part of growth. She's not afraid of conflict."
Swallow says she's been approached about her treatment of Din at conventions when she says he's "a Mandalorian no more." People asked her how she could kick him out of the group. She explained:
"I said, 'I didn't do anything to him.' That was a creed, that was an oath that he had willingly taken. Then he willingly made the choice to remove his helmet. When you make a choice, there are consequences. That doesn't mean that's a bad thing. We learn so much from going against decisions that we've made ... he maybe didn't fully weigh the pros and cons of that decision in the moment, but he knew there would be consequences."
Though the Armorer appears tough, she's merely telling him the consequences of his own choices. She doesn't condemn or ask others to do it for her. She's telling Din what he already knows; he broke the rules, and there's a price. She's not judging Bo for her choices either and says she can leave any time. She's a fascinating character, and I can't wait to see how she develops.
In the modern corporate IT environment, which relies on cloud connectivity, global connections and large volumes of data, the browser is now the most important work interface. The browser connects employees to managed resources, devices to the web, and the on-prem environment to the cloud one.
Yet, and probably unsurprisingly, this browser prominence has significantly increased the number of
Welcome to the latest edition of The RPS Time Capsule, where members of the RPS Treehouse each pick one game from a given year to save from extinction while all other games fizzle and die on the big digital griddle in the sky before blinking out of existence. This time, we're turning our preservation mitts on the year 2012, a year absolutely stacked with some pretty stellar releases. But which ones will make the cut and be safely ensconced inside our cosy capsule for future generations? Come on down to find out.
Oh Daddy Boy! Ricky, Julian and Bubbles celebrate St. Patty's day with green beer, green fuckin' flashy things, and a toast to snakes! Watch now at https://bit.ly/pad4-43 and the SwearNet app.
"Citizen Sleuth" is a darkly funny, engaging, and thrilling documentary about a true crime podcast that has all the fascinating twists and turns of true crime, while flipping the script and focusing on the voice behind the podcast. The documentary chronicles not a tragic death, but the rise and fall of a podcast dedicated to it, and the complicated ways its host became trapped in her own narrative.
The film deals with the tragic death of 20-year-old Jaleayah Davis in West Virginia back in 2011, a death that was ruled accidental but had some bizarre circumstances that gave rise to rumors about police corruption and lies from Davis' friends the night of her death. It is in these rumors that the true crime podcast, "Mile Marker 181" (after the final resting place of Davis' car) was born.
"Citizen Sleuth" follows the creator of "Mile Marker 181," Emily Nestor, as she tries to get to the bottom of the mystery, sees her podcast skyrocket in popularity, and eventually sees her world come crashing down.
Director Chris Kasick employs the same visual language of true crime for "Citizen Sleuth," with a moody, Philip Glass-inspired score and long, drawn-out establishing drone shots to create tension. This helps highlight the drama of the subject matter and all the twists and turns the story takes.
Rather than just focusing on the death of Jaleayah Davis and the investigation, the documentary focuses squarely on Nestor investigating it, and also promoting her rising podcast at conventions and panels around town. The result is a fascinating look at the way podcasters who start on the sidelines of these big stories end up becoming intricately linked to their narratives.
A Thrilling Story
While the tragedy that birthed the podcast is horrible, the movie also has a darkly funny sense of humor. A lot of it comes from the subject, Emily Nestor herself, who acts like a mockumentary protagonist more than the Clarice Sterling detective she pictures herself as. Nestor is engrossing and hilarious, but she is also somehow both self-aware and oblivious to what she is doing. She asks herself important questions like whether it's fine to advertise on a podcast about a tragedy, and then struggles to come up with answers. Likewise, she doesn't seem to see a problem with her absolute lack of journalistic experience.
This is the crux of "Citizen Sleuth," as it explores how these tragedies affect the people who make true crime, and in turn how they impact the subjects of their documentaries. At its best, the film interrogates the ripple effects Nestor's work has on herself, on the victim's family, and on the suspects.
To the credit of the documentary, it doesn't set out to just mock Nestor's efforts or her podcast, nor does it follow it as completely true and valid. Instead, it shows why people would find Emily entertaining and the story thrilling (like the genre at large) before warning of the perils of the format. Like many podcasts and shows, Emily sees hers as a social crusade and a chance to get justice, but the film shows why that is a foolish and dangerous endeavor that quickly spirals out of control.
"Citizen Sleuth" is a rare documentary that actually has a full character arc, particularly one that happens organically throughout the course of the film. We see the rise and fall of Emily Nestor, and her growth through the process of investigating a death. It is as fascinating to watch as the true crime shows that inspired Nestor.
Google's security research unit is sounding the alarm on a set of vulnerabilities it found in certain Samsung chips included in dozens of Android models, wearables and vehicles, fearing the flaws could be soon discovered and exploited. From a report: Google's Project Zero head Tim Willis said the in-house security researchers found and reported 18 zero-day vulnerabilities in Exynos modems produced by Samsung over the past few months, including four top-severity flaws that could compromise affected devices "silently and remotely" over the cellular network.
"Tests conducted by Project Zero confirm that those four vulnerabilities allow an attacker to remotely compromise a phone at the baseband level with no user interaction, and require only that the attacker know the victim's phone number," Willis said. By gaining the ability to remotely run code at a device's baseband level -- essentially the Exynos modems that convert cell signals to digital data -- an attacker would be able to gain near-unfettered access to the data flowing in and out of an affected device, including cellular calls, text messages, and cell data, without alerting the victim. The list of affected devices includes (but is not limited to): Samsung mobile devices, including the S22, M and A series handsets; Vivo mobile devices, including those in the S16, S15, S6, X70, X60 and X30 series; Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 series; and connected vehicles that use the Exynos Auto T5123 chipset.
The classic Neverwinter Nights module Siege of Shadowdale is now available for Neverwinter Nights: EE:
Siege of Shadowdale Enhanced Edition added to the curated community content
An Enhanced Edition of a classic Neverwinter Nights module Siege of Shadowdale by Luke Scull is now in the game launcherNWN:EE just received new curated community content! An Enhanced Edition of a classic Neverwinter Nights module Siege of Shadowdale by Luke Scull is now available in the game launcher!
[....
The retired founder of TSMC said on Thursday that even as he supported U.S. efforts to slow China's advances in the semiconductor industry, the "bifurcation" of the global supply chain and the reversal of globalisation would increase prices and reduce the ubiquity of chips that power the modern world. From a report: "There's no question in my mind that, in the chip sector, globalisation is dead. Free trade is not quite that dead, but it's in danger," Morris Chang said, speaking at an event hosted by Taiwan's CommonWealth Magazine. "When the costs go up, the pervasiveness of chips will either stop or slow down considerably," said Chang, who at 91 remains an influential voice in Taiwan's chip industry. "We are going to be in a different game." In Taiwan, TSMC, Asia's most valuable listed company and a major Apple supplier, is widely regarded as the "sacred mountain protecting the country," because of its economic importance. [...] U.S. "onshoring" and "friendshoring" efforts to boost chip manufacturing stateside or in allied countries present a predicament for Taiwan. "Friendshore does not include Taiwan. In fact, the commerce secretary has said repeatedly that Taiwan is a very dangerous place, we cannot - America cannot - rely on Taiwan for chips," Chang said. "Now that, of course, is I think Taiwan's dilemma."
I've been reading a bit lately on social media about how cyber security is "hard" and it's "expensive", and about how threat actors becoming "increasingly sophisticated".
The thing is, going back more than 20 yrs, in fact going back to 1997, when I left military active duty and transitioned to the private sector, I've seen something entirely different.
On 7 Feb 2022, Microsoft announced their plans to change how the Windows platform (OS and applications) handled macros in Office files downloaded from the Internet; they were planning to block them, by default. Okay, so why is that? Well, it turns out that weaponized Office docs (Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, etc.) were popular methods for gaining access to systems.
As it turns out, even after all of the discussion and activity around this one, single topic, weaponized documents are still in use today. In fact, March 2023 saw the return of Emotet, delivered via an older-style MS Word .doc file that was in excess of 500MB in size. This demonstrates that even with documented incidents and available protections, these attacks will still continue to work, because the necessary steps to help protect organizations are never taken. In addition to using macros in old-style MS Word documents, the actors behind the new Emotet campaigns are also including instructions to the recipient for...essentially...bypassing those protection mechanisms.
Following the Feb 2022 announcement from Microsoft, we saw some threat actors shift to using disk image files to deploy their malware, due in large part to the apparent dearth of security measures (at the time) to protect organizations from such attacks. For example, a BumbleBee campaign was observed using IMG files to help spread malware.
MS later updated Windows to ensure "mark-of-the-web" (MotW) propagation to files embedded within disk image files downloaded from the Internet, so that protection mechanisms were available for some file types, and that at least warnings would be generated for others.
We then saw a shift to the use of macros in MS OneNote files, as apparently these file weren't considered "MS Office files" (wait...what??).
So, in the face of this constant shifting in and evolution of tactics, what are organizations to do to address these issues and protect themselves?
Well, the solution for the issue of weaponized Office documents existed well prior to the Microsoft announcement in Feb 2022; in fact, MS was simply implementing it where orgs weren't doing so. And the thing is, the solution was absolutely free. Yep. Free, as in "beer". A GPO, or a simple Registry modification. That's it.
The issue with the use of disk image files is that when received and a user double-clicks them, they're automatically mounted and the contents accessible to the user. The fix for this...disabling automatically mounting the image files when the user double-clicks them...is similarly free. With two simple Registry modifications, users are prevented from automatically mounting 4 file types - ISO, IMG, VHD, and VHDX. However, this does not prevent users from programmatically accessing these files, such as via a legitimate business process; all it does is prevent the files from being automatically mounted via double-clicking.
My point is that we very often say, "...security is too expensive..." and "...threat actors are increasing in sophistication...", but even with changes in tactics, is either statement really true? As an incident responder, over the years, I've seen the boots-on-the-ground details of attacks, and a great many of them could have been prevented or at the very least significantly hampered had a few simple, free modifications been made to the infrastructure.
The Huntress team posted an article recently that includes Powershell code that you can copy-paste and use immediately, and will address all three of the situations/conditions discussed in this blog post.
Surreal, there's almost no other word for it — Studio Retroware has announced that it is producing a side-scrolling beat-'em-up based on short-lived '90s cartoon Toxic Crusaders. The Tromatastic release is expected to ooze on PC and consoles in late-2023, and is already price-tagged at $24.99.
Still one of the most baffling children's adaptations of all time, Toxic Crusaders is an animated spin-off of the extremely violent and thoroughly bad-taste Toxic Avenger movies — a series launched by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz' notorious New York studio, Troma Productions. "Toxie" is a superhero born after bullied nerd Melvin Junko falls into a barrel of toxic waste, emerging as a physically deformed, eye-gouging, arm-ripping vigilante. The films are notable for their avalanche of sex and violence, featuring scripts that are packed with outrageously offensive characters and jokes.
And thus, in 1991, TMNT producer Fred Wolf picked up the license for a children's TV show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-tOCfDFxhw
The Toxic Crusaders video game will see one-to-four players select from a meaty 'n' mutated roster of seven characters — including Toxie, girlfriend Yvonne, humanoid dog Junkyard, and surfing scientist Headbanger — before heading into the streets of Tromaville to clean out its pollution-lovin' villains. Toxic Crusaders will feature classic arcade brawler action, a newly recorded score, full voice acting, motion-comic cutscenes, and cameos from other denizens of the Troma universe, including Poultrygeist and Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.
While I'm still kind of reeling from this bizarre news, I have to admit that if the aftermath of TMNT:Shredder's Revenge means we're to be inundated with beat-'em-up love letters to '90s shows, then I'm here for it.
Toxic Crusaders launches late-2023 on PlayStation, PC, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch platforms.
The cryptojacking group known as TeamTNT is suspected to be behind a previously undiscovered strain of malware used to mine Monero cryptocurrency on compromised systems.
That's according to Cado Security, which found the sample after Sysdig detailed a sophisticated attack known as SCARLETEEL aimed at containerized environments to ultimately steal proprietary data and software.
Specifically, the
This post contains spoilers through "Star Trek: Picard" season 3, episode 5.
This season of "Star Trek: Picard" has been more than well-received by critics and fans. The show gives us "The Next Generation" movie we never got, and also introduced us to the irascible Captain Shaw, the captain of the U.S.S. Titan, who is far less enamored with Picard and Riker than others in Starfleet. Shaw is played by Todd Stashwick ("12 Monkeys"), who — as a Trek fan himself — is enjoying taking on the role.
"There's a shot in [the latest episode] that will just live in my little nerdy heart for the rest of my life," Stashwick told me in an interview a few days before the season's fifth episode dropped. "It is Shaw in the captain's seat with Picard on his right and Riker on his left, and just this great framed shot of the three of us. I'm flying my ship with my crew, and it just was peak Shaw."
Stashwick isn't the only one who appreciates peak Shaw moments. I talked to him about some fun behind-the-scenes moments from this week's episode, what he thinks about a potential Shaw spin-off, and that blue meat he was eating in his first scene on the show. Read on for our full discussion.
Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
'We Would Have To Get Ronny Cox Back At Some Point Where He Comes On To Get All Jellico'
The folks at /Film have been making the joke that this is the worst week ever for Captain Shaw in terms of everything he's been through so far. And in this season's fifth episode, Shaw takes the helm as the Titan flees the Changeling-controlled Starfleet. What was that like to film that moment?
That was so fun because, well, first of all, he's not going against Starfleet. He's obviously protecting Starfleet and once again, doing his job. He's protecting Starfleet against, like you said, bad actors. What was really fun about that scene is that might be one of the first times we see him doing full tilt captaining on the bridge and all of the evasive maneuvers — we were code red, red alert, all of that. Then I have the closest thing that I get to a catchphrase. I say, "Let's get out of here," which I like to think that's what he says every time, instead of "Engage" or "Make it so" or "Hit it" or "Let's fly." He just says, "Let's get out of here," which is a beleaguered, blue collar way of giving his command.
That scene was really fun because there's a shot in there that will just live in my little nerdy heart for the rest of my life. It is Shaw in the captain's seat with Picard on his right and Riker on his left, and just this great framed shot of the three of us. I'm flying my ship with my crew, and it just was peak Shaw.
It was so cool because you get a glimpse of what was a common scene [before Riker and Picard showed up] — to see him step up, him take charge, him running his ship, not handing it over to other people, not waiting for anything, it's like, "Okay, I've made the decision, here we go." It was really fun.
I know there are a lot of fans who are advocating for a Shaw spin-off show, probably on the Titan, which I'm sure you wouldn't mind, either. I wondered for you, hypothetically, if there was such a show, who would you want to see on the crew with you? It can be anyone from "Trek," it doesn't have to be just "Picard" folks.
Oh, wow. Well, I love all of my bridge. I love them. They're wonderful humans and I think they're really compelling characters that we could learn a lot more from and see a lot more from. What I think would be really fun, because of the era that we're in, is to see episodes with characters from "Deep Space Nine" and episodes with characters from "Voyager."
We would have to get Ronny Cox back at some point where he comes on to get all Jellico; he's probably an admiral at this point. And then the evolved version of Shaw would have to connect with him. That would be a lot of fun.
My next question actually relates to Jellico. What captains in the Trek lore do you think Shaw would get along with the most? Except for Jellico, as that's the obvious one.
Well, I think obviously Sisko, he shares a lot of history with — they may or may not have known each other but they share a common wound, I should say. [Editor's Note: Both Sisko and Shaw had traumatic experiences with the Borg.] He obviously would connect with Sisko on that level. I also think Janeway. She's not a space cowboy, not in the Kirk way. I also think his specific beefs with Picard, I don't know if he would have the same opinion of Picard that he has if it wasn't for "The Best of Both Worlds" [the "Next Generation" episode where Picard as the Borg attacked Starfleet, killing many, including Shaw's crew mates]. I think Picard, in many ways, was more similar to Shaw prior to that event.
'What Does It Feel Like To Be The Center Of A Patrick Stewart-Frakes Sandwich?'
It's interesting you say that, because another scene from this latest episode of "Picard" is when the whole crew is getting ready to reconnect with Starfleet, Shaw questions the notion that Picard and Riker are legends. I think you literally say it's like a chicken or egg thing.
Well, they caused their own problems that they solve. They're the ones who have put the galaxy in danger, but then had to bail themselves out, which I think is fun.
Was it fun filming that scene?
It was really playful. It's a little meta, obviously, but it's a man who's done his research, and maybe didn't even need to, because these are notoriously infamous moments in Starfleet history. Yet it all keeps coming back to those two. One funny thing that happened on that turbo lift is at one point, Patrick Stewart snaked his arm behind me and grabbed Jonathan [Frakes, who plays Riker], and squeezed me in between them. And then he goes [in voice like Stewart's]: "What does it feel like to be the center of a Patrick Stewart-Frakes sandwich?"
No, he didn't. Oh, man.
Yeah, I was like, "There's a line at a con that would pay for this moment."
Yeah, there is.
He was just so silly. And I think the line, "Those were the days," [that Picard says after Shaw dresses him and Riker down], that came up in the room on the day. That was a pitch, and then, "Those were the days" was the one that we landed on. We were all like, "That's perfect."
And Patrick's delivery of that is so nice. It's humorous, but also nostalgic.
Yeah, it's really how we're all feeling.
I do have to ask about your first scene on the show: What did that blue streak taste like?
It was space meat.
Space meat, but you were actually eating it, right?
Yeah, I ate the space meat.
What did it taste like?
It tasted like space.
It was very blue.
Super blue. It's from space.
Did it dye your teeth or anything like that?
Why would it? It's blue. It's not dye. It's space. That's my story, I'm sticking to it.
'We Watch Him Slowly Evolve As These Situations Present Themselves'
All right, sounds good. Hopefully we can all have space meat someday. So I know we're at the midpoint of the season, and without getting into spoilers, is there anything you can tease about Shaw's journey through the course of the season that's left?
It's funny, like any character -- and I've had the good fortune of performing in Terry Matalas joints before [like "12 Monkeys"] -- what I love about Terry is the way he uses what I do to get people to hate me at first, and then slowly wrestle them into going, "Oh, he has a point. He's a little funny sometimes." I love the journey that Shaw goes on, the evolution and the new places that he comes to when faced with these dire situations.
It's not that he hasn't faced his share of space adventure before. He's been in Starfleet, boldly going through the final frontier for at least five years on the Titan itself. He's a growing individual who, when we first meet him, has a lot to learn. And we watch him slowly evolve as these situations present themselves.
New episodes of "Star Trek: Picard"premiere on Thursdays on Paramount+.
We don’t often cover documentaries here, but once in a while a film will cross our paths that it makes sense to discuss. Directors’ Steve J. Adams & Sean Horlor’s new film definitely fits that bill. An exploration of the ‘80s Satanic Panic in the US and Canada with the jumping off point of the wildly influential memoir, Michelle Remembers, Satan Wants You is both a chilling reminder of the era in which these stories were mainstream news and a warning that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Michelle Remembers was co-written by Michelle Smith and Dr. Lawrence Pazder. It relays in gruesome detail Smith’s alleged ritual abuse at the hands of a Satanic coven in the early ‘60s. Smith recounts gory...
