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Estigma MGM
A MGM Portugal pode - e bem - continuar a organizar tudo e mais alguma coisa para ganhar algum glamour e popularidade entre os cinéfilos deste país. Para mim, será sempre o canal de televisão por cabo com legendas esquisitas, qualidade de imagem terrível - mesmo em filmes relativamente recentes - e um logo de tamanho monstruoso no canto superior esquerdo, altamente incomodativo. E, enquanto não resolverem estes três grandes problemas, não há sessões especiais neste planeta que conquistem o meu respeito pelo canal. A não ser, claro, que arranjem alguém - leia-se, alguma - para dar umas massagens tailandesas durante hora e meia de película.
Então e o reboot de Rocketeer?
"We've got Iron Man for that", diziam os cépticos.
Ora, Robert Downey Jr não vai vestir a armadura para sempre. Quando sair de cena, deviam aproveitar a pequena pausa entra a Jamesbondização do personagem para lançarem este grande herói esquecido.
Justin Timberlake Wants to Play the Riddler From 'Batman'
Breaking Bad: 5×11 – Confessions (AMC)
[SPOILERS] “Breaking Bad” é como se fosse um amor para a vida. Sabemos o que esperar dele (dia após dia, semana após semana, ano após ano), partilhamos a nossa vida com ele, sabemos o que nos move como dupla e, no entanto, quando tudo isto nos é lembrado mais uma vez, voltamos atrás no tempo e apaixonamo-nos de novo pela primeira vez.
Uma história que queria muito que acontecesse nesta última temporada era a de Jesse (Aaron Paul), finalmente, conhecer o verdadeiro Walt (Bryan Cranston) e ver que foi quase sempre uma marionete nas suas mãos. Este momento chegou e gerou uma sucessão de acontecimentos que electrificou completamente o final do episódio. Estes foram uns minutos bem intensos e que certamente irão ter consequência nos próximos capítulos. Não me querendo alongar muito com a questão da ricina (até porque o zb já o explicou muito bem neste post), posso dizer que sou daqueles que acha esta história muito bem bolada. Tendo em conta que a nossa percepção temporal é bem diferente da deles e tudo o que o rapaz está a passar (são nestes momentos de reflexão que nos chegam as melhores deduções), o momento “eureka” é para mim lógico e o corolário de uma história que na cabeça dele esteve sempre a moer. Mas mais importante do que discutir a sua plausibilidade é focarmo-nos no que esta descoberta implica.
Jesse começou a série como o rufia e o mau da fita. Com o tempo ele foi-se humanizando cada vez mais no que dizia respeito às suas acções. Deixou de ser aquele que tudo fazia para salvar a sua pele (e que não se importava com as consequências) para aquele que reflectia sobre o que fazia, ciente de que muita coisa estava mal e que se calhar seria tempo de parar. De todas as vezes que ele seguia o caminho da salvação, Walt lá o vinha buscar de volta à realidade mais escura. E neste vai e vem há dois grandes momentos: a morte de Jane e o susto com Brock. Ambos são usados por Jesse para reflectir sobre a sua vida e querer deixar tudo para trás e, curiosamente, ambos são causados por Walt. A descoberta de Jesse nada mais faz do que mostrar-lhe que as suas premissas estavam todas falsas e, como tal, a conclusão (de que Walt sempre quis o seu bem) estava errada. Naquele momento Jesse percebe que foi manipulado e que tudo o que fez durante este tempo foi em prol de Walt. A dupla está quebrada!
Walt continua a surpreender-me. Aquela confissão é qualquer coisa de diabólica e de extraordinária. Não estava à espera de tal momento e ela é de tal maneira verdadeira e sincera que vendo-o colocar todos os pedaços de informação juntos deixou-me na dúvida se ele não estaria a dizer a verdade. Claro que sabemos que é tudo uma mentira mas foi tudo tão bem articulado da parte dele que nenhum tribunal lhe tiraria a razão. A cara de Hank (Dean Norris) e Marie (Betsy Brandt) a verem aquilo foi bem reveladora de tudo o que estava em jogo. Foi uma jogada de mestre mas também de completo desprezo pela família. Se no episódio passado tinha a certeza que ele nunca chegaria ao ponto de tentar matar Hank, agora já não tenho tanta certeza. Walt está em modo de sobrevivência e tudo fará para se manter assim.
Coisas que vale a pena destacar:
- O encontro dos dois casais no restaurante mexicano é mais um daqueles momentos para mais tarde recordar. O ambiente do restaurante (alegre, informal) não podia contrastar mais com o ambiente daquela mesa (sério, tenso). O empregado a interromper as conversas nos momentos certos deu o toque final.
- Marie não é (nunca foi) uma personagem poderosa em termos de história. A sua presença é sempre pontuada por alguma trivialidade e talvez por isso aquela maneira dela dizer a Walt para se ir matar (literalmente!) chocou pela sua crueldade mas essencialmente pela sinceridade.
- Pensei que o confronto de Jesse com Walt no deserto (mais um grande momentos entre estes dois) fosse o momento em que aquele percebesse o plano deste. Não o foi, mas não deixa de ser irónico que desta vez Walt até tinha razão. Óbvio que o facto de Jesse ir-se embora resolve-lhe um problema, mas no estado em que ele está que melhor futuro lhe espera? Uma nova vida, longe dali, seria o melhor que ele poderia desejar.
- Walt é um manipulador de alto gabarito (já o sabíamos). Não só usou o reaparecimento do cancro como forma de prender o filho em casa como ainda se abraça a Jesse de maneira a sossegá-lo. Palavras ou acções, tudo é válido quando o que interessa é a fuga para a frente.
- Há uma cena neste episódio que me deixou com a quase certeza de que será Skyler a ditar o fim de Walt. Quando este a visita no escritório, a pose dela e a iluminação de toda a cena deu-me essa impressão. Ele na penumbra, ela a reflectir duplamente (na mente e na luz que irradiava).
Termino como comecei. Dizem que não há amor como o primeiro. Balelas! Para mim não há amor como o último. E por agora este é “Breaking Bad”.
Find Out Who’s Using The Pirate Bay… and Why
Two years ago The Pirate Bay renamed itself to The Research Bay to promote its collaboration with the Cybernorms research group at Lund University.
The notorious BitTorrent site encouraged visitors to take part in a survey into people’s file-sharing habits and their views on copyright enforcement. In total 75,000 people from all over the world eventually participated in the study, making it the largest of its kind.
Since the study took place the researchers have already shared many of their findings. For example, we know that girls are just as much into porn as guys, and that the majority of Pirate Bay users planned to use VPNs or other measures to become more anonymous.
Today the Cybernorms research group has opened up all the findings to the public, sharing a wealth of information. On The Survey Bay people can check a wide variety of statistics, and compile their own graphs.
The graph below, for example, shows how many North American Pirate Bay users, who share daily, had a VPN or wanted to use one in the future.
VPN use among daily sharing North Americans
In addition to answering the fixed questions, roughly 25,000 people provided a comment to explain why they use The Pirate Bay. Recurring themes that we have identified are an inability to pay, either because respondents have no money or because there are no decent legal options available. In addition, many respondents feel that they have a right to share.
The justifications come in all shapes and sizes, and we have made a selection of a few notable ones from a diverse range of demographics.
—
A 66+ year old woman from United States writes:
“I don’t know these things. Even though I’ve been in computers (pause) since 1965. The corporations are out to make us slaves and to rule through fear. And I am certain, life will find a way. I will support communication. People need it for freedom and decisions. (just to recall, the corporations have made copy-write law a tool of money and not of encouraging innovation. Remember Microsoft’s words echoing 1984, (have to paraphrase) Innovation through standardization. Information wants to be free. (Because you are Swedish Ill remind you that those are words of the Internet pioneers. We built this for the people.)”
A 25-29 year old man from United States writes:
“As an artist myself, along with being an avid Sci-Fi buff, I believe that if we focused more on sharing ideas and less on making ourselves filthy rich that we would currently be at a point of technological advancement far beyond our imaginations. Law is necessary to prevent anarchy but not at the oppression of ideas or the people who imagine them. Most laws in the USA go against our founding fathers original ideals. Most laws in the USA are tailor made to suit corporations who, above all else, desire money and power. File-sharing will never die, regardless if laws are passed to prevent it, as long as people in the world are willing to fight for the right to share information.”
A 18-24 year old woman from Western Europe writes:
“The authorities just don’t understand the zeitgeist and continue to unintentionally encourage illegal filesharing all over the place. In Germany you can’t access most YouTube videos with commercial music because of a GEMA lawsuit: if you just wanted to check out this one song by an artist for free to see whether you liked it (as you would do on the radio which nobody listens to anymore) you are encouraged to download their album (after seeing it on YouTube some may have bought it instead). More generally: you may not buy the music but pay for concert tickets. Well not anymore because ticket prices are skyrocketing because the music industry is out of money.”
A 66+ year old man from Europe writes:
“I am so old and find it rather expensive to buy anything these days, being a pensioner it does not leave a great deal of money to spend on goods once you have paid all the usual bills, gas, electric and like wise. but keep up the good work and thank you.”
A 37-45 year old woman from South East Asia writes:
“If it wasn’t for file sharing, I wouldn’t be able to watch movies. In the country I live in, I cannot go to the cinema/movies to see an American film or other films in the English language. I’m pretty thankful for these sites.”
A 30-36 year old man from East Asia writes:
“I only file share because I live on US military bases and the MPAA and other stupid laws don’t exempt us from the blocks they put in place to watch things legally. So…why I do it? I do it just to give them the proverbial finger. If it was on TV out here, I would watch it. If it was available overseas to me, I would watch it. The problem is, there is NO LEGAL means to watch it from.”
A 53-65 year old woman from Australia writes:
“Hi, as an Australian academic researcher and a file-sharer am very interested in your survey as I had intended to run a similar project via an ISP, and many of my questions were similar to yours! As you will probably know Big Content has recently lost (twice, once on appeal) its case against major Aussie ISP iinet that the ISP was helping copyright infringements. This case is likely to be heard one last time, before the highest court. In the meantime iiNet has developed a model proposing an independent authority mediate between content owners and alleged file-sharers. Despite our relatively slow net speeds and high chargers, Australians download much content — in part because TV is woeful here and popular UK and US seasons take often 1-2 years to reach the airwaves. I predict more people will use TOR and VPN as the government is likely to implement anti-file-sharing regulations following the final episode of the iiNet court saga..whatever the outcome.”
A -17 year old man from New Zealand writes:
“I believe the biggest problem facing file-sharing is the idea of forcing ISPs to monitor traffic to make sure people aren’t illegally sharing file. This is a blatant breach of privacy and unless major corporations take a step back and stop interfering in the processes involved in catching cyber-criminals, they face widespread backlash from the file-sharers and activists of the world.”
A 30-36 year old woman from Southern Africa writes:
“In my opinion developing countries cannot cater to the huge demand for current commercial tv series. TV series are sometimes years behind the country of origin. The demand is out there, people get hooked on their favorite shows but their countries conditions may cause them to satisfy the demand by means of file-sharing. Many people would not mind paying eg $1.99 per show download as is available on amazon, but the facility is not available outside the US. So, in my opinion, file-sharing will probably soon force networks to expand their services to include the international online demand.”
A 18-24 year old man from Central Africa writes:
“In Africa most online services are unavailable, file sharing is the at times the only way to have some material coming from developed countries so most Africans use file sharing more as a means of staying at the same level as the rest of the world than trying to somehow forge or steal copyrighted products. It is their right for people to share things they came to own, so it is as well their right for people to take what is shared! The assets of sites like google, youtube or ebay tend to neglect the third world where a real market is present. Hopefully changes will be made in a near future we cross our fingers.”
A 18-24 year old woman from South America writes:
“In my country its common to see street vendors with pirate copies of films. Some of them are linked to organized crime (the kind that also deals with drugs and politics). I remember one particular national film made it to the streets way before it was out either in Theaters or at download sites (it actually helped with the marketing, but the point is whoever was responsible was well positioned in the film industry, had some interesting friends and didn’t do it for the sharing). I wish file sharing was legalized and the time and public resources spent on it were focused on dismantling *those* networks. And that artists\crew\creators (and local communities, when applicable) had a larger cut of the earnings.”
A 37-45 year old man from Paraguay writes:
“Hello! I live in Paraguay, i consume incredible amounts of music (Rock-Metal) and Video Games, I only use file sharing to like trial stuff, for example, I download some mp3s, and if I like the music, I buy the original CD online, in Amazon or The End Records etc. For me, is wrong to download software, or videogames, but in the case of music, helps me to discover new bands, styles etc. In the software or video games, i do the same thing, but as we all know, a downloaded software or game never works well, so I tested it, then if I like It, I deleted the download and buy the original stuff..!! Thanks!”
—
The above is of course just a small and rather random selection of the responses. There are plenty more gems available on The Survey Bay website.
To all Pirate Bay users that haven’t filled out the survey, but want to have their say, feel free to do so in the comments below. Links to other notable comments are welcome too.
Source: Find Out Who’s Using The Pirate Bay… and Why
Benfica TV compra direitos de ataque americano à Síria
Under the Dome: 1×10 – Let the Games Begin (CBS)
[SPOILERS] São tantos os enredos que confusão foi a palavra dominante neste episódio.
Isto continua uma embrulhada. Inventam-se enredos sem jeito nenhum, há cenas de bradar aos céus e os desenvolvimentos acontecem sem a fluência desejada. Sinceramente, já estou farto de ouvir falar das estrelas cor-de-rosa. Já se percebeu que as estrelas cor-de-rosa a cair são importantes para qualquer coisa, mas andem lá com isso! Os finais de episódio estão a tornar-se repetitivos, é sempre algo relacionado com a redoma, mas parece que ficamos sempre na mesma. Quanto ao que se passa em Chester’s Mill, revelou-se quase tudo neste episódio, mas parece que não vão passar de revelações.
A bela e perigosa Maxime (Natalie Zea) chegou, viu e quer vencer. Mais nada, tanto tempo desaparecida e quando aparece é para ser a rainha do pedaço, alimentando vícios e proporcionando entretenimento. Revivendo Fight Club, tivemos direito a um espaço onde há apostas em lutas para ter direito a vícios (álcool, drogas) e o requisito de entrada são alimentos. Pergunto, para que serviu isto? Para ver Barbie (Mike Vogel) a fazer birra, a perder de propósito? Fez aquilo tudo mas depois revelou não se importar que Max exponha o seu segredo. E por falar em segredo, Julia (Rachelle Lefevre) finalmente descobriu que Barbie lhe matou o marido, isto porque Peter queria mesmo morrer, ao que parece. Ao ver a cara de Julia pensei que fosse mandar Barbie passear, mas não, matas-me o marido, mentes-me na cara sobre isso, mas desde que não me escondas mais segredos, podemos continuar juntos. Também fechados na redoma, mesmo que se afastassem, mais dia, menos dia, iriam arranjar maneira de os juntar novamente, assim despacharam logo a coisa. Se o facto de ter morto o marido não afastou Julia de Barbie, se nos próximos episódios este casal se separar por uma cena ridícula, como ciúmes de Max ou algo parecido, a pouca credibilidade da série baixa ao nível negativo.
Mas Max não terá só problemas com Barbie. Big Jim (Dean Norris) não é senhor para se vergar e após um palpite acertado no mapa de Chester’s Mill, descobre Agatha (Mare Winningham), mãe de Maxime, a viver numa pequena ilha, num belo casarão. Ora daqui há a ressalvar dois aspectos. Primeiro, Big Jim fica a saber que Barbie matou o marido de Julia (até este episódio praticamente ninguém sabia, estou a ver que no próximo vai dar na rádio, tal não tem sido a projecção). Não sei se esta informação lhe será muito útil, a não ser para utilizar visando denegrir a imagem de Dale. Outro aspecto passa pela queda à água de Agatha. A sério? A senhora tem tanto espaço para se sentar e vai-se descuidar daquela maneira? Por momentos pensei que fosse uma cena de comédia. Big Jim deixa-a a morrer, vá-se lá saber porquê. Não teria mais lógica usar a mãe de Max para chantagear a nova manda-chuva de Chester’s Mill? Ou Big Jim quer mostrar que ninguém se pode meter com ele?
Prosseguindo, Linda (Natalie Martinez) descobre a confissão feita pelo Xerife Howard ‘Duke’ Perkins (Jeff Fahey), antes da sua morte, relativamente às drogas que começaram a circular na cidade. Percebeu-se o envolvimento do agora falecido Duke e as razões para compactuar com Max, dinheiro para Chester’s em troca de propano líquido para fabricar a droga Rapture. É descoberto que o grande responsável pela parceria com Max é Big Jim e Linda parece disposta a fazê-lo pagar pelo sucedido. Aqui há várias questões a ter em conta. Justiça quase que deixou de existir em Chester’s Mill. Big Jim não me parece pessoa de se deixar prender. Linda ainda não conseguiu demonstrar a resiliência e a dureza necessária que uma Xerife necessita. Big Jim deve pedir ajuda a Max para se safar, afinal de contas estão os dois envolvidos.
A crítica vai longa, mas isto passou-se tanta coisa que tem de ser. Falta, então, a quarta mão. Sim, é a de Junior (Alexander Koch), tal como referi na crítica anterior. Foi preciso Angie (Britt Robertson) ir ao hospital para perceber que era Junior? O quadro não foi suficiente? Ok, deve ter sido para manter a expectativa. Certo é que a equipa está reunida. Angie, Junior, Joe (Colin Ford) e Norrie (Mackenzie Lintz). Os quatro tocaram na mini redoma e de repente parecia que estávamos no planetário a ver as estrelas. A questão final do episódio diz tudo: O que significa? Sim, meus amigos, mas afinal o que significa? 10 episódios e parece que não saímos do lugar. Pensava eu que a mini redoma ia abrir ou o ovo estalar, mas não, apenas decidiram alimentar mais as dúvidas.
Pronto, pelo tamanho da crítica facilmente se percebe a confusão que aqui andou. Parece que decidiram misturar tudo agora e dar destaque a coisas que poderiam já estar resolvidas há bastante tempo. É isto que “Under the Dome” tem para nós. Para mim tem sido escasso, muito pouco para o que esperava. Mesmo que os três últimos episódios sejam magníficos será complicado manter o público fiel a esta série para a temporada seguinte.
Major TV Torrent Site TheBox.bz Calls it Quits
BitTorrent is perfect for distributing all kinds of content, from movies to music and from software to backups. However, there is one particular type of content that users rarely seem to tire of.
TV show downloading is a very popular pastime among file-sharers. The ability to grab almost any show from the present or even distant past and watch it at a time and place of a user’s choosing is a powerful lure.
As a result, specialist TV torrent sites such as EZTV continue to flourish, even at a time when broadcasters are starting to offer improved catchup and replay services. These products are helping to bridge the gap somewhat but are still miles away from the kind of service required to render specialist torrent sites obsolete.
One such site is TheBox.bz, a private torrent tracker specializing in UK TV show and radio content. From its roots way back in 2007 to last count in May this year, the site had amassed more than 90,000 members. That thriving community (the site also has busy forums) uploaded more than 110,000 torrents and at times the tracker coordinated more than a million peers overall.
But this coming Saturday it will all come to an end.
“Sadly, I can confirm that TheBox.bz is shutting down the site’s torrent section on September 1st,” one of the site’s operators told TorrentFreak.
“The decision to retire the site was not in response to any specific threat, but it is in reaction to the rapidly changing and increasingly hostile political climate we find ourselves in. We feel that being proactive and closing the doors is the most prudent move.”
There can be little doubt that the hostile climate referenced by TheBox can be traced back to actions being planned by City of London Police, the Federation Against Copyright Theft, the UK Premier League, plus other local groups such as Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Television. Right now a dark cloud is hanging over many sites and nobody has much of any idea what will happen next.
There is already talk of a new site in place to take over from TheBox but nothing has been confirmed by official sources. In the meantime though, TheBox will stay open for just a little while longer.
“As TheBox has always been as much about community as about sharing, forums and private messages will remain functional for a while longer. Afterward, we will securely wipe all account details before retiring the server for good,” the site’s operators conclude.
So another site bites the dust but there’s still no authorized service to bridge the gap. Perhaps there should be a future rule of thumb for rights holders, one that might actually motivate them to do better and please their customers more? A suggestion might be:
Don’t pressure sites to shut down until you are offering a better service than they do
When people can walk directly into a better service when a ‘pirate’ service shuts down, why would they have any motivation to seek out another? Now that’s a sustainable anti-piracy tactic right there.
Source: Major TV Torrent Site TheBox.bz Calls it Quits
O caçador de pérolas
Épico, meus amigos! Épico. Isto pode acontecer a qualquer um de nós. Uma troca de mãos, uma desatenção, um nome de ficheiro trocado, e o desastre (ou a gargalhada) acontece.
Presumo que tenha sido o que sucedeu com a capa do Jornal do Pinhal Novo durante esta madrugada, na interacção com o serviço Banca de Jornais do Sapo. Em vez da capa do Jornal do Pinhal Novo, eis que surge em toda a sua glória e esplendor, a factura da EDP da Editora do jornal (presumo eu, mas não devo andar muito longe da verdade).
Como diz Henrique Macedo, o leitor que viu esta manhã iluminar-se o seu sorriso e que nos permitiu a partilha da imagem, poderemos estar perante a pérola das pérolas da História mundial das mesmas. Ao Jornal do Pinhal Novo agradecemos este momento de boa disposição e um pedido: O último a sair que desligue a luz que a conta não é meiga. Aos nossos leitores, aqueles que querem aprofundar mais o assunto, recomendamos a capa de hoje do Jornal do Pinhal Novo.
Arrested Development: Where Is the Powers TV Show?
When it debuted in the year 2000, Brian Michael Bendis' Powers seemed perfectly positioned as the crossover title for the masses. The book's combination of superheroes, police procedural and noir captured fans imaginations and it's hero detectives Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim captured our hearts.
Breaking Bad: A questão da ricina
Spoilers para quem não viu o mais recente episódio de “Breaking Bad”, intitulado “Confessions”.
Um dos plots mais contraídos, e por isso mesmo mais polarizador entre os fãs, de “Breaking Bad” gira em torno do envenenamento do Brock. Ainda não se sabe como é que o Walt conseguiu envenenar o miúdo (a melhor forma que o Vince Gilligan conseguiu arranjar para explicar a coisa ocorreu este ano durante a Comic-Con e não soa a algo muito convincente: “I think probably what [Walt] did was crush some of the [Lilly of the Valley berries] up and put it in a juice box or something, and being a teacher, he probably knew his way around a school and he probably got into Brock’s nursery school. That’s our inter-story for how it would have happened. It would have been tricky.”) e talvez até nunca se venha a saber.
Mas a questão de fundo de toda esta história não é propriamente atar esta ponta solta (pelo menos não para mim, não é algo que necessite de ver resolvido para ficar satisfeito com o que restar da série), mas sim as repercussões caso o Jesse alguma vez viesse a descobrir que tinha sido manipulado pelo Walt durante todo este tempo (ok, a bem da verdade, o Walt tem-lo manipulado a torto e a direito praticamente desde o início, mas o caso do Brock, e da Jane, são os mais sérios uma vez que lhe são os mais pessoais).
Esse momento chegou finalmente neste episódio. Mas a questão tornou-se algo complexa por causa de um frasco de ricina que tem perdurado na série há algum tempo e, tendo em conta o que vimos no primeiro episódio desta segunda parte da quinta temporada, ainda vai ter um papel importante nos momentos finais da mesma. A chave aqui é, e é isso que eleva qualquer obra de ficção a um patamar superior, não se tornar refém do literal e conseguir interpretar (e ler nas entrelinhas) aquilo que nos é apresentado. Há quem ache que o momento “lâmpada” do Jesse é um esticão demasiado grande para ser plausível (e essa até pode ser uma interpretação válida, mas também pode não o ser, o que não faltam são exemplos no nosso dia-a-dia em que, às vezes até do nada, acontece algo deste género), há quem pense que esta história da ricina tornou-se demasiado convulsiva e, consequentemente, uma trapalhada. Eu conto-me entre os outros que encontram nela sentido e todo um brilhantismo (ao contrário daquilo que acho sobre o assalto ao comboio) que não está ao alcance de todos.
Vamos tentar recapitular da melhor forma os factos (se estiver enganado relativamente a algum, agradeço que me corrijam).
- A ricina foi sintetizada pelo Walt para envenenar o Gus.
- O Walt convenceu o Jesse a envenenar o Gus e deu-lhe a ricina dentro de um frasco que ele escondeu no interior de um cigarro que, por sua vez, manteve dentro do maço.
- O Huell trocou o maço que continha o cigarro com o frasco da ricina por um maço normal.
- Quando o Brock foi hospitalizado, o Jesse suspeitou que tivesse sido pela ricina após descobrir que o cigarro onde estava o frasco tinha desaparecido e o que o Huell tinha trocado os maços. Confrontou o Walt, de arma em punho e a pensar que tinha sido ele a envenenar o miúdo, mas este conseguiu convencê-lo que devia ter sido algum dos homens do Gus que lhe roubara o veneno e o tinha usado no miúdo.
- Quando se soube que o miúdo não tinha sido envenenado pela ricina, e sim por outra planta (Lilly of the Valley), o Jesse convenceu-se que o Walt estaria mesmo inocente.
- Mas isso significava que a ricina ter-se-ia perdido e, com receio de que alguém a encontrasse, o Jesse pede ao Walt para o ajudar a procurar o frasco do veneno.
- O Walt, tendo em sua posse a ricina devolvida pelo Saul, cria um engodo, um frasco com sal, colocando-o num outro cigarro e, posteriormente, dentro do aspirador na casa do Jesse, de forma a que este, quando o encontrasse, desse esta história por concluída.
- O que aconteceu, pois o Jesse acaba por pedir desculpa ao Walt, finalmente verdadeiramente convencido da sua inocência.
- Quando o Huell volta a fazer o mesmo truque, desta feita com um saco de erva, o Jesse apercebe-se que a sua teoria inicial de que tinha sido este a roubar a ricina estava correcta, que ele não perdeu o maço, que não foi o Gus que o roubou e que toda a história do cigarro estar dentro do aspirador na sua casa tinha sido manipulação por parte do Walt.
- Numa altura em que ele sabe aquilo que o Walt é capaz (incluindo matar o Mike), esta associação de ideias leva-o à prova definitiva da forma como o Walt o tem manipulado, algo que ele suspeitava mas fora sempre demovido graças à capacidade de persuasão do Walt.
- Esse é o verdadeiro motivo por detrás da sua “explosão”. Não o facto de pensar que o puto foi envenenado por ricina, porque ele sabe que não foi, mas por o Walt o ter manipulado a acreditar que não tinha sido ele a envenená-lo. A abordagem que o Jesse faz ao Saul, querendo confirmação de que foi o Walt que roubou a ricina, é a forma dele comprovar que realmente tinha sido manipulado durante todo este tempo.
Como auxílio e forma de refrescar a memória, o HuffPost criou este excelente vídeo:
Um dos problemas resultantes de ver uma série que recorre a plots intrincados semanalmente, e com hiatos tão grandes entre temporadas, é ter fresca toda uma quantidade de informação necessária a interpretá-los devidamente. Este é um desses casos. É preciso uma recordação minuciosa da história e uma contextualização para que a integridade dos plots não seja levianamente colocada em causa. Mas interpretações são isso mesmo, logo subjectivas, e certamente haverá por aí quem discorda desta perspectiva (muitos, pelo que se consegue ler por essa Internet fora), por isso gostava de conhecer quais as vossas.
300 Days With the iPad Mini
Dan Frommer:
The major difference between the iPad mini and my original iPad, purchased in 2010: I’m still actually using this one every day, almost a year after I bought it.
Report: Bryan Cranston Cast as Lex Luthor in 'Man of Steel'
Siri has snappy retorts for 'OK, Glass'
I've always been a fan of Siri's sarcastic wit, and now that Google Glass is on the verge of encroaching on its space as an intelligent assistant, it's ready to drop some snark on you if you so much as even hint that it is Glass. The Verge showed a bunch of the silly responses to "OK, Glass" this morning, ranging from "I'm not Glass. And I'm just fine with that" to "I think that Glass is half-empty."
Contrary to The Verge's claim that iOS 7 adds more comments to the mix, exhaustive testing of Siri's wit was unable to prove that the upcoming mobile operating system adds anything.
We can only hope that the personality engineers on the Siri staff are able to add another big dose of snark before Glass goes into general release.
Siri has snappy retorts for 'OK, Glass' originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 26 Aug 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The Next iPhone may use Motion Sensor for Backside Controls
Spider-Man: Sony Cinematic Universe
Como a Sony se pronunciou sobre o futuro de Spider-Man nos cinemas e o plano de alargar para o seu próprio Universo Cinemático, teorias e sugestões têm vindo a surgir pela internet:
Venom, Black Cat e SilverSable poderão juntar-se ao grupo e eventualmente ganhar filmes a solo.
Ou os Universos paralelos poderiam reunir-se com os dois Spideys (Maguire e Garfield), juntamente com o Spider-Man 2099 (do futuro, à boa maneira do próximo X-Men) todo amanhado pela Madame Webb.
Mas as águas remexem-se e por entre os fanboys já se pede para que a Sony compre os direitos de Daredevil, para o colocar lado a lado ao aranhiço. Nos comics, eles são uma dupla recorrente, partilhando um inimigo comum, Kingpin.
Aceito. Concordo. Já que a Marvel Studios não tem intenções de explorar o herói nos próximos tempos, que o usem para um Universo mais coerente (o da Marvel já está saturado, na verdade).
Mas digo mais:
Não só juntem Daredevil, como também o Punisher!
É outro elemento que vai dando toques regulares nas páginas de Spider-Man, com o seu estilo/moral a bater de frente com a de Peter Parker...
Megaupload Shutdown Hurt Smaller Films, Helped Blockbusters
It is no secret that the MPAA was one of the instigators of the Megaupload investigation, which ultimately led to the shutdown of the company January last year.
According to the Hollywood studios the file-hosting site kept people away from the box office, resulting in hundreds of millions in losses. However, new data shows that this claim may not hold ground, at least not for all movies.
This week researchers from Munich School of Management and Copenhagen Business School published new data that reveals how the effects of the shutdown vary based on the size of the movie, defined by the number of cinema screens it shows on.
The researchers extended a previous paper and the new analysis is based on 10,272 movies showing in 50 countries. Based on this data they found that only very large movies benefited from the shutdown, while revenue for most smaller and medium-sized movies decreased.
“We find that box office revenues of a majority of movies did not increase. While for a mid-range of movies the effect of the shutdown is even negative, only large blockbusters could benefit from the absence of Megaupload,” the researchers write.
We contacted Christian Peukert, one of the authors, who confirms the counter-intuitive finding.
“The results of our analysis suggest that the shutdown of Megaupload did not – as one might expect – generally increase box office revenues of movies,” Peukert tells TorrentFreak.
Looking at the overall picture the data suggests that average post-shutdown revenues are roughly 12% lower. This is also visible in the figure below which clearly shows a drop in revenue after January 2012.
Box office revenues before and after the shutdown
What’s striking about the findings is that the shutdown effects are not the same for all movies. According to the researchers the negative impact on smaller movies can be explained by a drop in word-of-mouth promotion from pirates, which affects smaller movies more.
“Smaller movies usually have smaller marketing campaigns, making word-of-mouth therefore a more important success driver. If some of this word-of-mouth effect is then taken away with the shutdown of illegal content, performance of smaller movies is likely to be hit harder,” the paper notes.
The increase in blockbuster revenues, on the other hand, is the classic replacement effect the MPAA had expected. That is, people pay for a box office ticket instead of downloading the movie for free. Word-of-mouth promotion may also occur for blockbusters, but the data shows that it’s outweighed by the replacement effect
“It could be that for most movies both effects balance, but for some movies the promotional effect outweighs the replacement effect and vice versa. If the promotional effect was especially important for smaller movies with lower traditional marketing budgets, this would explain our findings,” Peukert tells TorrentFreak.
The researchers ruled out several alternative explanations and also looked into the impact of Megaupload’s demise on the availability of pirated titles. Using The Pirate Bay as a comparison, they find that the shutdown had no significant effect on the availability of pirated movies on the Internet.
“The one striking implication of this study is that it is difficult to reduce negative effects of online piracy by shutting down the supply of illegal downloads,” Peukert says.
As any study of this kind, however, the statistical findings have to be used with caution.
“It is important to keep in mind that any statistical analysis can only provide estimates. The precision of an estimation always depends on a number of factors, such as method and type of data. We therefore prefer the most conservative, qualitative interpretation of our findings,” Peukert notes.
It will be interesting to see how Hollywood interprets the findings. When the researchers published an early working paper last year based on a limited set of movies, the MPAA said the results were “not clear or compelling” and that it would reserve comment until the full paper is published.
For Kim Dotcom and his team the research is not likely to change much. They continue their legal battles in the United States and New Zealand, which may take a few more years.
Source: Megaupload Shutdown Hurt Smaller Films, Helped Blockbusters
Better Batmen Than Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck é o próximo Batman
Atualização: É mesmo oficial.
Segundo a Variety, o Ben Affleck é o próximo Batman... repito, o Ben Affleck é o próximo Batman... não sei se me perceberam... o BEN AFFLECK! BATMAN!
Resta-me rezar para que a Variety esteja sediada numa ilha remota do Pacífico e que para esses lados seja Dia das Mentiras.
Claude Debussy's 151st Birthday
Date: Aug. 22, 2013
Today, August 22nd, is a very special day. ...my birthday! OK. Well, more than that, it's Claude Debussy's 151st birthday!
We sought out to create an animated doodle to commemorate Debussy as one of the most influential composers of all time. At the outstart, the task of creating and coding visual imagery that does justice to the spirit of his music seemed incredibly daunting. But, as it turned out, all I needed to do was to resurrect my trusty CD player and hit play, and the inspiration would start flooding in. I felt flickering lights, a quiet city and pouring rain set against the magical melody of Clair de Lune.
We started off with a rough prototype that was built with simple shapes synchronized to a MIDI file generated from sheet music. The prototype was well-received despite looking and sounding like something from the 80's:
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| Early HTML canvas prototype synchronized to a MIDI file. |
Next, we needed a recording of Clair de Lune. I enlisted my sister to perform different variations of the piece on a keyboard that was hooked up to a computer. This gave me the data I needed to drive the animations and the final music that would be used to accompany the doodle.
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| Data from performance used to drive the animations. |
Visually, I drew inspiration from cities of the late 1800's. Stylistically, I aimed for a pseudo-flat and graphic look, as influenced by an illustrator from Debussy's time, Andre Halle. And compositionally, my goal was to make a doodle that would look nice as a French wine label.
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Thanks to Kris Hom and Mark Ivey for engineering support. Thanks to my sister, Sabrina Hong, for letting me record her performance for the doodle.
— Posted by Leon Hong, Doodler
Location: Global
Tags: Rowboat, City, Paddle, Moon, Animation, Music, Stars, Boats, Piano, Balloons, Buildings, Umbrella, Classic Music, French, Cityscape, Clouds, Romantic, Windows, Night, Comet, Interactive, Shooting Star, Composer, Cars, Boat
Censoring The Pirate Bay Is Futile, Research Shows
The Pirate Bay is arguably the most censored website on the Internet. Courts all around the world have ordered Internet providers to block subscriber access to the torrent site, and more are expected to follow.
The idea behind these blockades is that they will help to decrease online piracy. However, research increasingly suggests that this aim is not being fulfilled. In fact, the blocking attempts may actually be having the opposite effect.
Today, University of Amsterdam researchers, together with Tilburg University’s CentERdata, released a new report which evaluates how the Dutch Pirate Bay blockade affected local piracy habits.
Titled “Baywatch,” the paper uses survey results as well as data from BitTorrent trackers to assess the effectiveness of the blocking measures.
The report finds that of all respondents who admit that they’ve downloaded files from illegal sources over the past half-year, between 20 and 25 percent say they stopped or downloaded less after the Pirate Bay blockade came into effect.
While this could be interpreted as a clear success for the blockade, the researchers don’t see any evidence for this in the rest of the data.
“This would suggest a small negative effect of the intervention on the percentage of the population who download copyright protected content from illegal sources. However, no such effect is found.”
In fact, the percentage of UPC, KPN, Tele2 and T-Mobile subscribers who admit to downloading or streaming from illegal sources over the past six months went up from 15.7% before the blockade, to 18.4% after. For two other ISPs, Ziggo and XS4ALL, the percentage increased over time as well, settling at 25.2%.
Downloading & streaming from illegal sources per blocking situation
The researchers believe that the increased piracy rates can in part be explained by people who picked up the downloading or streaming habit after the blockades went into effect.
“[Although] a small share of downloaders report a decrease in their downloading activities after the blocking, this effect is not reflected in the overall numbers, possibly because there are other consumers who have started downloading from illegal sources,” the researchers write.
In addition, they note that affected Pirate Bay users may have simply started using other means to get unauthorized content. In any case, there appears to be no negative long-term effect of the court ordered-blockade on the overall piracy rate.
“Blocking access to TPB has had no lasting net impact on the overall number of downloaders from illegal sources, as people learn to use alternatives to TPB.”
In addition to the survey data the researchers also monitored several popular BitTorrent swarms. Here they also found no clear impact of the blockade. Initially the market share of blocked ISPs appeared to decline, but this picked up later.
The researchers believe that this can be explained by the fact that subscribers find ways to circumvent the blockades.
The above, paired with the survey responses, leads the researchers to conclude that after an initial decrease in piracy the “market” quickly returned to the old situation. In other words, censoring The Pirate Bay proves to be ineffective in the long run.
This is not the first research to come to this conclusion. Previously the ineffectiveness of the blockades was highlighted by several Dutch and UK Internet providers, who claimed that BitTorrent traffic didn’t decline after the blockades were implemented.
Whether this will stop copyright holders’ efforts to demand additional and wider blockades is doubtful though – thus far it certainly hasn’t.
Source: Censoring The Pirate Bay Is Futile, Research Shows
MPAA: Tighten the Law to Force Voluntary Anti-Piracy Cooperation
Back in June the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel announced the release of the government’s second Strategic Plan for IP Enforcement.
Together with that announcement came a request from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for interested parties to comment on so-called Voluntary Best Practices to reduce instances of online piracy. A deadline of July 22 was later extended to August 21.
With Espinel out of the frame (she stepped down last week after four years in the job), organizations including the MPAA and Google are now left to argue over how best to implement the outgoing czar’s momentum on voluntary initiatives. Yesterday they were clashing opinions at the USPTO.
The MPAA held up existing examples of cooperation, such as the six-strikes collaboration between the studios and leading ISPs, as somewhat effective but only part of the solution. Search engines, the movie group explained, aren’t doing enough to scale back piracy and their voluntary efforts to demote pirate sites in search results just aren’t working.
“Voluntary initiatives are not a panacea, and they are not appropriate to address all forms of piracy,” said the MPAA. “Some voluntary initiatives work well; some have more modest success; and some are simply not effective.”
And this is where the MPAA hits a problem. Whenever voluntary agreements live up to their name there is always room for participating parties to back away or water down their approach to the terms of the arrangement. The boundaries of what can be achieved, the MPAA suggests, will always be governed by legislation.
“A party’s willingness to commit to a particular practice will depend to a significant degree on what it perceives to be the legal consequence (or lack thereof) of continuing its current course of action, and not committing to any voluntary agreement.”
The underlying message here is that the MPAA feels restricted by Google and friends’ current anti-piracy response and would prefer it if the government stepped in and formally set the rules for any “voluntary” agreements. Those rules, of course, represent a change in the law.
However, the MPAA tried this before with SOPA and PIPA and soon discovered they were no match for the combined forces of the Internet.
Indeed, back in February MPAA chief Chris Dodd admitted there was no enthusiasm for a “brawl in Congress” over new legislation.
So what’s the alternative? The MPAA’s potential allies – Google, Facebook, Yahoo and other tech giants including Reddit who formed their own lobbying organization called The Internet Association – feel that things should be approached somewhat differently.
“The Internet Association recommends the [Patent Office] set aside its inquiry of industry’s voluntary initiatives to reduce online infringement for a broader review that looks beyond data and metrics of enforcement mechanisms,” they told USPTO, The Wrap reports.
“Taking a holistic approach will reveal that today’s copyright landscape involves important industry practices, marketplace realities, and consumer behavioral dynamics that all play a role in both the source of and potential solutions to online infringement.”
While there has been some cooperation it seems that the approaches of Hollywood and the tech sector are still some distance apart. Given the option the MPAA would relish new legislation to ‘encourage’ the likes of Google to ‘cooperate’ more readily. But with the SOPA backlash still ringing in their ears they may have to settle for what’s currently on offer, until memories begin to fade at least.
Source: MPAA: Tighten the Law to Force Voluntary Anti-Piracy Cooperation
Discovery, Lionsgate Re-Making ‘North And South’ Miniseries
Miniseries, limited series – whatever you want to call them – are so hot right now the industry is starting to dust off some of the old ones. Discovery Channel, for example, which just announced it has ordered a remake of North And South from
Lionsgate.
North and South is the name of an 
1980’s trilogy of novels by John Jakes. ABC made North And South into a miniseries that aired in 1985 and which remains one of the highest rated miniseries in TV history. It starred Patrick Swayze as a soldier from South Carolina, and James Read as a solder from Pennsylvania, who became BFF’s while attending West Point, only to find themselves on opposite sides in the Civil War. The star-studded cast also included Elizabeth Taylor, Kirstie Alley, Hal Holbrook as Abraham Lincoln – even Gene Kelly and Robert Mitchum got in on the act.
The miniseries in development with Discovery and Lionsgate will re-dramatize this storyline: George Hazard and Orry Main meet as young men at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, families become close, “shows the vastly different ways of life for the Main and Hazard families which threaten to drive them apart, fracture marriages and poison sibling relationships… put to the ultimate test as fathers, sons, brothers and friends fight each other on the battlefields of the deadliest war America has ever seen.”
Discovery and Lionsgate are hoping they can re-create ratings history too: ABC’s North And South was such a hit with viewers, ABC turned the miniseries into a miniseries SERIES. The second at-bat, North And South: Book II debuted in 1986 – another hit. Nearly a decade later, in 1994, ABC tried to dust off its North And South miniseries franchise with Heaven And Hell: North And South Book III. It was not considered a success — which is to say, its opening night averaged “only” 14.4 million viewers., and over its three nights (two hours per night) it averaged 13.7 mil. Based on those numbers, that appeared to be the end for North and South — until now. And yes, we think this makes Discovery’s Lionsgate project a dust off of a dust off of a wildly popular miniseries based on a hit novel series.
Author John Jakes, represented by Joel Gotler of IPG and Frank Curtis of Rembar & Curtis, will be an exec producer on the new miniseries. Discovery’s been making a big push into the scripted miniseries world. In July, the network announced it had ordered its second, about Scotland’s fight for independence from English rule in the 13th century, from Scott Free Productions, which also produced Discovery’s first original scripted mini, Klondike.
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The God of ‘SNL’ Will See You Now
    
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