firehose

On 21 August, former NASA engineer and now Halloween costume designer Mark Rober flew into London from Los Angeles.

"I could see the London Eye and I think, 'what in the world am I doing'. This wasn't part of the script," he tells Wired.co.uk.

Until June of this year, Rober was a mechanical engineer at the world's most famous space agency. He had worked at NASA for nine years, seven of which were spent working on the Curiosity Rover.

There's no way to avoid saying it: the public reaction to Ben Affleck being cast as the new Batman hasn't been pretty. Fan outrage has spread across Twitter, even leading to a slew of Change.org petitions asking Warner Bros. to change its mind — one of which has already amassed more than 44,000 signatures. But as The Hollywood Reporter points out, a number of actors and filmmakers are asking fans to wait and take a deep breath — and some are speaking from personal experience.

Val Kilmer, who donned the cape and cowl in 1995's Batman Forever, told audiences to "Give Ben a chance!" on Twitter, while the original television Batman — Adam West himself — provided some tips for dealing with the suit ("Remember Ben, with the cape and cowl comes great responsibility (and lots of heat)," he wrote. "Bring deodorant."). While there's been no public word from George Clooney as of yet, he did produce Affleck's Oscar-winning Argo, so he can certainly serve as a resource if Affleck needs one.

Of course, neither Kilmer nor West are remembered fondly by fans of Christopher Nolan's darker trilogy, so it's likely the words of Joss Whedon that will do the best job of generating goodwill. "Affleck'll crush it," Whedon wrote on Twitter. "He's got the chops, he's got the chin — just needs the material. Affleck & Cavill toe to toe — I'm in."

Al Jazeera has been working all year to launch an English language cable news network in the United States, but not all went to plan when the channel went live this past Tuesday. AT&T cut the channel from its U-verse lineup just hours before Al Jazeera America (AJA) went live, making the network inaccessible to the service provider's 5 million customers — and leaving AJA with just over 40 million homes on board. Al Jazeera's now taking AT&T to court over the matter, according to documents unsealed this past week, which claim that the service provider "cast around for an excuse to unilaterally terminate the Affiliation Agreement." The company added in a statement to The New York Times that "We had no choice but to take this action and to enforce Al Jazeera's rights under its agreement with AT&T." The company also claims that AT&T "acted in bad faith" and "simply pocket millions of dollars to which it was not entitled" by cutting the cord on AJA, reports Bloomberg.

The media empire, which is run and funded by the government of Qatar, notes that U-verse has many customers in "conservative states" and subtly suggests that AT&T removed AJA from its channel lineup due to concerns about carrying a channel infamously known to American audiences for broadcasting videos from Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. AT&T rejects that claim, saying in a statement to Bloomberg that "Al Jazeera has mischaracterized the facts" and explaining to The New York Times that it removed that channel "As a result of our inability to come to terms on a new agreement and due to certain breaches of the existing agreement."

AJA comes as the result of a $500 million purchase of Al Gore's Current TV network this past January. The company notes that it purchased the network for the explicit purpose of using its existing agreements with cable operators, which included Comcast, DirecTV, Dish, and Verizon FiOS in addition to AT&T U-verse. Time Warner Cable dropped Current TV — citing low viewership — soon after Al Jazeera announced its purchase of the network, but it's said that the two are in talks to sign a new agreement.

There's a stereotype about Whole Foods shoppers, and the grocery store appears happy to play to it: five of its Los Angeles locations are now stocking vinyl records on their shelves beside the organic legumes and GMO-free produce that you'd normally expect to find at the supermarket. Shoppers at those stores will see a "wide selection" of LPs, including records from Daft Punk, Bob Marley, and The Rolling Stones. The grocery store will also be selling headphones from LSTN, all of which feature earpieces lined with recycled wood.

Whole Foods isn't being shy about the fact that it's recognizing its shoppers' interests. "This launch isn't just about stocking our shelves with something new and different," Mike Bowen, an executive coordinator at Whole Foods, said in a statement. "It’s about listening to our shoppers and giving them access to the things they want — whether it’s their favorite cheese or their favorite way to enjoy music.” The vinyl sections launched August 13th, and Whole Foods — using an apparently irresistible pun — notes that this move is just a sign of it beginning to "scratch the surface of the music industry."