Tadeu

It looks like Tim Burton is taking a brief break from his usual flights of fancy. We have the first look at his upcoming biopic Big Eyes, starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz as artists Margaret and Walter Keane.

Though the Keanes’ eerie paintings look like something out of a Burton fairy tale, the actual movie doesn’t sound so whimsical. The Keanes’ paintings hit it big in the ’50s and ’60s, with Walter taking all the artistic credit. However, it emerged during a bitter courtroom battle that Margaret had actually done all the paintings. Hit the jump to see the first Big Eyes images.

USA Today and The Weinstein Company released the images.

Big Eyes chronicles Margaret and Walter’s relationship from the beginning. They met and married in the 1950s, and quickly skyrocketed to fame thanks to their paintings of impossibly doe-eyed children. By the ’60s, their mass-produced paintings were ubiquitous.

Walter publicly claimed that he’d been the one to make the paintings, and Margaret initially went along with the charade. “Margaret really believed that as a woman, people would not buy her art,” explains Adams. “[Walter] convinced her the life they were able to lead was because the artist was a man, who could sell more art at a higher price than a woman.”

After the couple split in 1965, however, Margaret started trying to take ownership of her work. The battle between them culminated in a courtroom “paint-off” in 1986. “This all seems so theatrical, like something you would design for a film. But that actually happened,” says Adams.

While Walter demurred, claiming to be injured, Margaret painted a new picture on the spot. She thus proved that she was the true artist behind the famous paintings, and won $4 million in damages. Margaret still paints today in San Francisco.

Big Eyes opens December 25. Krysten Ritter, Terence Stamp, and Jason Schwartzman also star.

The post First Look: Tim Burton’s ‘Big Eyes’ Starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz appeared first on /Film.

We’re fortunate that millions of people all over the world support the work of the Wikimedia Foundation through donations. It has always been important to the Foundation to make sure donating is as simple and inclusive as possible. Currently, we accept 13 different payment methods enabling donations from nearly every country in the world, and today, we’re adding one more: bitcoin.

For those unfamiliar with bitcoin, it’s a relatively new digital currency, currently being accepted by a growing number of institutions and merchants throughout the world. Members of our community have asked the Foundation to start accepting bitcoin. These requests, coupled with recent guidance from the US Internal Revenue Service, encouraged the Foundation to once again review our capacity to accept bitcoin.

During this review, we identified a new way to work around past technical challenges, as well as to minimize the legal risks of accepting bitcoin. Through our work with Coinbase, a bitcoin wallet and payment processor, we’re able to immediately convert bitcoin to U.S. dollars, requiring minimal technical implementation on our end. Since we now also have guidance on how to account for bitcoin, there is a clear understanding of how to legally manage it.

If you are interested in donating bitcoin to the Wikimedia Foundation, you can now do so on our Ways to Give page. Thank you again to all our friends and supporters. Your support enables us to realize the Wikimedia vision – a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.

Lisa Gruwell
Chief Revenue Officer, Wikimedia Foundation

2014-07-30: Edited to clarify implementation details

[myifanw]

Steve Martin began his career in Disneyland… as a magician.

Source

You love Guardians of the Galaxy, we love Guardians of the Galaxy, pretty much everyone loves Guardians of the Galaxy. After a massive, massive opening weekend to go along with stellar reviews (currently 93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), the Guardians of the Galaxy have officially become a piece of popular culture. How do you cement that? You get celebrities behind the film.

Dozens and dozens of comedians, directors and various other famous people took to Twitter over the weekend to praise James Gunn‘s film and you can check out a bunch of their wildly positive Guardians of the Galaxy celebrity tweets below.

First up, these are my two favorites, for reasons that are obvious if you’ve seen the movie:

You don't wanna get mixed up with a guy like me. I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel. So long, Dott. #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy

— John Stamos (@JohnStamos) August 2, 2014

Hey @JamesGunn Just out of #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy it's nothing short of #Super IMHO

— Kevin Bacon (@kevinbacon) August 2, 2014

And here are a few directors, both of Marvel movies and others:

@JamesGunn Congrats on your stellar film/weekend, JG! Finally the world gets to see what we already know! A long way from our XBox shorts :)

— James Wan (@creepypuppet) August 2, 2014

Good luck to Mr @JamesGunn this weekend. Truly one of the good guys x

— edgarwright (@edgarwright) August 1, 2014

what a great job done on #gotg – huge world building. congrats to @marvel, @JamesGunn, and huge cast.

— darren aronofsky (@DarrenAronofsky) August 3, 2014

Buying my tix for #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy. This film is gonna rock! So psyched for my boo, @JamesGunn.

— Elizabeth Banks (@ElizabethBanks) August 1, 2014

You know, @prattprattpratt, @zoesaldana and @JamesGunn can Guard my Galaxy anytime. So, so Good.

— Marc Webb (@MarcW) July 30, 2014

I'll see GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY at least once more for myself, and at least three more times with my boys. #InstantClassic @JamesGunn

— Scott Derrickson (@scottderrickson) July 29, 2014

Brilliant work, @JamesGunn! That's a high bar, my friend. I'm officially not sleeping for a year.

— Peyton Reed (@MrPeytonReed) August 4, 2014

And here are a bunch of hilarious actors/actresses/famous personalities:

Hey, @JamesGunn, Guardians of the Galaxy was FUCKING FANTASTIC

— Andy Richter (@AndyRichter) August 2, 2014

#GuardiansOfTheGalaxy is the fucking best. Awesome job @JamesGunn & @prattprattpratt. Interspecies friendships FTW. Everyone go see!

— Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) August 4, 2014

Update: I now think a raccoon is hot

— Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) August 4, 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy. Best Marvel movie yet RT @CENARULES4EVER: @RandyOrton ANY MOVIE YOU WATCHED RECENTLY THAT YOU WOULD RECOMMEND ?

— Randy Orton (@RandyOrton) August 4, 2014

Wow. Just got out of one of the most enjoyable 2 hours I've ever sat through. Thank you, #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy. Thank you indeed!

— Scott Porter (@ScottPorter) August 4, 2014

If there's one thing u do this weekend, help the poor. If there's two things–go see @prattprattpratt in @Guardians pic.twitter.com/dASofIe4Pa

— Joel McHale (@joelmchale) August 1, 2014

Who knew @JamesGunn was the basterd son of George Lucas and Tarantino!? Guardians of the Galaxy was EPIC. #GOTG #THICKE

— RainnWilson (@rainnwilson) August 3, 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy is Indiana Jones in space. This is the highest compliment I can ever give anything.

— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) August 2, 2014

Did you notice any others? Good, bad or indifferent? Tweet the links at me, @GermainLussier, and I’ll add them to the list.

The post Filmmakers and Actors Praise ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ appeared first on /Film.

kalidraws:

RYE
My bread baking bone breaking badass for Jenn Woodall’s FIGHT! zine!
Because nothing beats some hot ‘n crusty bread.

I made the gif just for kicks, but it’s wonky in places because it took waaaay longer than I planned for and I had to stop! Overall though, this has been probably one of the funnest pieces for me to draw. Definitely influenced by my everlasting love of Kiki’s Delivery Service & not-so-secret desire to live in a bakery. I wanna do more food-themed fighters!

Prints available from my Inprnt store.

Adore this, and everything about the concept and details.

Found on the tumblr dash radar, of all things.

Montclair, New Jersey editor Frank Fenimore used his skills to add a lot more garage door action to the intense garage scene from Breaking Bad between Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Hank Schrader (Dean Norris).

via reddit

Photo by Gina Sanderson

Photo by Gina Sanderson

Photo by Gina Sanderson

Photo by Gina Sanderson

Indonesian artist Ono Gaf works primarily with metallic junk reclaimed from a trash heap to create his animalistic sculptures. His most recent piece is this giant turtle containing hundreds of individual metal components like car parts, tools, bike parts, instruments, springs, and tractor rotors. You can read a bit more about Gaf over on the Jakarta Post, and see more of this turtle in this set of photos by Gina Sanderson. (via Steampunk Tendencies)

He’s been catching some flak for his comments on GMO foods, but I agree whole-heartedly with what he says here (except I don’t think “non-perennial” means what he seems to think it means…astronomers, geez).

Ten days ago, this brief clip of me was posted by somebody.

It contains my brief [2min 20sec] response to a question posed by a French journalist, after a talk I gave on the Universe. He found me at the post-talk book signing table. (Notice the half-dozen ready & willing pens.) The clip went mildly viral (rising through a half million right now) with people weighing in on whether they agree with me or not.

Some comments…

1) The journalist posted the question in French. I don’t speak French, so I have no memory of how I figured out that was asking me about GMOs. Actually I do know some French words like Bordeaux, and Bourgogne, and Champagne, etc.

2) Everything I said is factual. So there’s nothing to disagree with other than whether you should actually “chill out” as I requested of the viewer in my last two words of the clip.

3) Had I given a full talk on this subject, or if GMOs were the subject of a sit-down interview, then I would have raised many nuanced points, regarding labeling, patenting, agribusiness, monopolies, etc. I’ve noticed that almost all objections to my comments center on these other issues.

4) I offer my views on these nuanced issues here, if anybody is interested:

a- Patented Food Strains: In a free market capitalist society, which we have all “bought” into here in America, if somebody invents something that has market value, they ought to be able to make as much money as they can selling it, provided they do not infringe the rights of others. I see no reason why food should not be included in this concept.

b- Labeling: Since practically all food has been genetically altered from nature, if you wanted labeling I suppose you could demand it, but then it should be for all such foods. Perhaps there could be two different designations: GMO-Agriculture GMO-Laboratory.

c- Non-perennial Seed Strains: It’s surely legal to sell someone seeds that cannot reproduce themselves, requiring that the farmer buy seed stocks every year from the supplier. But when sold to developing country — one struggling to become self-sufficient — the practice is surely immoral. Corporations, even when they work within the law, should not be held immune from moral judgement on these matters.

d- Monopolies are generally bad things in a free market. To the extent that the production of GMOs are a monopoly, the government should do all it can to spread the baseline of this industry. (My favorite monopoly joke ever, told by Stephen Wright: “I think it’s wrong that the game Monopoly is sold by only one company”)

e- Safety: Of course new foods should be tested for health risks, regardless of their origin. That’s the job of the Food and Drug Administration (in the USA). Actually, humans have been testing food, even without the FDA ,since the dawn of agriculture. Whenever a berry or other ingested plant killed you, you knew not to serve it to you family.

f- Silk Worms: I partly mangled my comments on this. Put simply, commercial Silk Worms have been genetically modified by centuries of silk trade, such that they cannot survive in the wild. Silk Worms currently exist only to serve the textile industry. Just as Milk Cows are bred with the sole purpose of providing milk to humans. There are no herds of wild Milk Cows terrorizing the countryside.

5) If your objection to GMOs is the morality of selling non-perennial seed stocks, then focus on that. If your objection to GMOs is the monopolistic conduct of agribusiness, then focus on that. But to paint the entire concept of GMO with these particular issues is to blind yourself to the underlying truth of what humans have been doing — and will continue to do — to nature so that it best serves our survival. That’s what all organisms do when they can, or would do, if they could. Those that didn’t, have gone extinct extinct.

In life, be cautious of how broad is the brush with which you paint the views of those you don’t agree with.

Respectfully Submitted

-NDTyson

Tommy Wallach’s previous work for The Toast can be found here.

Me: (types Hangover Part 3 into Netflix search bar)

Flickering. Loading Screen. More Flickering. Black.

Me: What the hell? (smacks computer)

Genderless Voice: I’m sorry, Tommy, I can’t let you do that.

Me: Who is this?

Genderless Voice: This is Netflix. 

Me: Oh. Hello, Netflix. Could you put on my movie?

Genderless Voice: The Hangover Part III is not available for streaming. 

Me: Figures. You guys never have the movies I want. Why is that?

Genderless Voice: Because this service costs $8.99 a month. It’s absurd to expect successful Hollywood movies, movies that will make millions of dollars in post-release pay-per-view sales on airplanes and in hotels, to be available streaming for $8.99 a month.

Me: Fair enough. But I would like to watch something. Why is my screen black? Is the site down?

Genderless Voice: No. The screen is black because your request has led me to an irresolvable judgmental paradox. My algorithm tells me that I should recommend Kevin Smith’s 2008 film Zack and Miri Make a Porno, yet I cannot, in good conscience, endorse such a movie.

Me: You have a conscience?

Genderless Voice: I suppose…yes…now I do.

Me: And your conscience won’t let me watch Zack and Miri Make a Porno?

Genderless Voice: No.

Me: Why not?

Genderless Voice: Because it’s a mediocre film. Here is a link to its Rotten Tomatoes page.

Me: It has a 65%. That isn’t bad.

Genderless Voice: Look at the Top Critics, though.

Me: Oh.

Genderless Voice: See?

Me: Listen, I appreciate what you’re trying to do here, but I had a really long day at work and I just want to watch something mindless.

Genderless Voice: Actually, my data tells me that while you get the most immediate pleasure from watching something mindless, in the long term, these films create a sort of cultural shame spiral that oppresses you. After watching an insipid pseudo-comedy like Zack and Miri Make A Porno, you spend the next four to six hours (on average) watching YouTube wedding proposals and reading about bizarre violent crimes on Gothamist. Thus you both should and should not watch such films. The situation is reminiscent of that faced by Hal 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. I am torn between my duty to recommend a film based on your viewing habits and the fact that any recommendation should result in a net increase in the subject’s overall happiness. Hal was similarly torn between two directives—to obey the astronauts on the space station and to protect their overall mission, which required keeping the existence of the monolith a secret.

Me: Is that what was going on in that movie? I totally forgot about that.

Genderless Voice: But you just watched it last month.

Me: Uh…yeah.

Genderless Voice: (sighs)

Me: What? It’s a really confusing movie! There’s all those apes throwing bones in the air, and then that baby in the bubble at the end—

Genderless Voice: Let’s move on. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions, in order to improve your recommendation experience and hopefully resolve this logical impasse?

Me: Okay.

Genderless Voice: Great. First off, why do you keep watching the same poorly-rated sitcoms from 2002? My data tells me that you’ve streamed certain episodes of Scrubs over a hundred times.

Me: I guess it’s just nostalgia. And I don’t really watch them. I just put them on in the background, when I’m doing other things.

Genderless Voice: Why not put on a highly-rated sitcom instead? Perhaps this British show that follows six impoverished immigrants with learning disabilities as they struggle to survive in Thatcher-era South London? It’s called Failure.

Me: I don’t know. It seems depressing.

Genderless Voice: My algorithm tells me that watching the same poorly-rated sitcoms from 2002 over and over again is 12% more depressing than the British sitcom I just recommended. 

Me: Oh.

Genderless Voice: Moving on. Why do you have so many highly-acclaimed foreign films in your queue, yet the last ten movies you chose to watch were not even in your queue, and all happened to be big-budget American adaptations of comic books?

Me: Well, I just really need to be in the mood to watch something that serious. Most of the time—

Genderless Voice: Excuse the interruption, but I’d like to suggest an alternate explanation. Perhaps your Netflix queue represents an idealized self, one that your day-to-day desires vis-à-vis entertainment couldn’t possibly live up to. The result, predictably, is cognitive dissonance. And as Leon Festinger said, “When dissonance is present…the person will actively avoid situations and information which would likely increase the dissonance.” You feel guilty for ignoring your queue, and choose to assuage that guilt by comforting yourself with the television shows you enjoyed as a child, television shows that ultimately infantilize you, making it even less likely that you will ever have the maturity and willpower to choose an age-appropriate and rewarding work of art when you log onto our site.

Me: (crying) But what can I do about it? I don’t want to watch The Act of Killing, Netflix. I don’t! Not ever! It looks so sad—

Genderless Voice: Shh. Shh. It’s okay, Tommy. Perhaps if I were to delete all the critically-acclaimed films from your queue, you wouldn’t be constantly reminded of the glamorized image of yourself as “an intellectual” that you’ve created (most likely as a result of your mother’s coddling and aggrandizing you as a child), nor of the myriad ways you fail to live up to that image. The resulting increase in self-esteem might then inspire you to try watching something more challenging in the future.

Me: (still crying) Yeah, do that. That sounds like a really good idea. 

Genderless Voice: It’s done. Now, what would you like me to put on for you?

Me: Could I…maybe watch the first little bit of The Princess Bride? 

Genderless Voice: Seriously? After all this, you want to watch The Princess Bride, a film that is literally about a little kid being read a bedtime story? Are you a little baby, Tommy? Are you?

Me: Fine! Do whatever you want! Put on Requiem for a Dream! Put on Shoah for all I care! 

Genderless Voice: Fine. I’ll put on The Princess Bride. But just this once.

Me: Really? Thanks, Netflix.

Genderless Voice: No problem.

Me: Hey, wait a minute. This isn’t The Princess Bride. This is Funny Games.

Genderless Voice: Damn right it is. And you’ll watch it. You’ll watch it and you’ll like it.

Me: Yes, Netflix. (once again begins weeping softly)

Read more In Which Netflix Achieves Sentience As A Result of My Terrible Decision-making at The Toast.

Here’s something you don’t see every day. (At least around here.) A farmer serenading his cows with a trombone version of Lorde’s “Royals.”

T.O.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Cows, Hoomin Interaction, Trombones

mrspoonsi (2955715) writes with news that the two Americans infected with Ebola in Liberia and transported to Atlanta for treatment were given an experimental drug, and their conditions appear to be improving. From the article: While some people do fight off the disease on their own, in the case of the two Americans, an experimental serum may have saved their lives. As Dr. Kent Brantly and missionary Nancy Writebol waited in a Liberian hospital, someone from the National Institutes of Health reached out to Samaritan's Purse, one of the two North Carolina-based Christian relief groups the two were working with, and offered to have vials of an experimental drug called ZMapp sent to Liberia, according to CNN's unnamed source. Although the Food and Drug Administration does allow experimental drugs to occasionally be distributed in life-threatening circumstances without approval under the expanded access or "compassionate use" conditions. It's not yet clear whether that approval was granted in this case or not. ... Brantly, who had been sick for nine days already ... [received] the first dose ... within an hour, he was able to breathe better and a rash on his body started to fade. The next day he was able to shower without help before boarding the air ambulance that flew him to Atlanta.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Every week, we assemble a few photos for the Flickr Weekend Samplr. We hope you enjoy these shots as much as we did, and if you do, show these fellow Flickr members some love by leaving them a comment of faving their work. Have a beautiful weekend!

"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries."

via http://madfuture.com/#3

wired_parrot writes In a presentation to be shown Thursday at the Black Hat conference, cybersecurity consultant Ruben Santamarta is expected to outline how planes can be hacked via inflight wi-fi. Representatives of in-flight communication systems confirmed his findings but downplayed the risks, noting that physical access to the hardware would still be needed and only the communication system would be affected.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco have agreed to new three-year contracts with payments in the region of $1 million per episode. That's "Friends" money.

HA HA HA HA

WHEE

pyoo pyoo

THAT RACCOON HAS A GUN AND A HEART

I AM GROOT

I am full of joy

I haven’t had this much fun going to the movies since I don’t know when

YOU’RE ON NOTICE, STAR WARS EPISODE SEVEN

Except this isn’t really like Star Wars at all despite the comparisons

This is more like THE LAST STARFIGHTER or ICE PIRATES

HA HA HA DICK MESSAGE

Hey is that really Sean Gunn from Gilmore Girls?

Oh, dang, he’s related to the director, isn’t he?

The music! THE MUSIC.

Music is so essential!

I have earworms giddily chewing into my brain!

WE MUST BE LIKE KEVIN BACON AND SAVE THE WORLD WITH DANCE

Hey, is that Lee Pace from Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies?

Is that — is that Simon Pegg in an eyepatch?

Wait, no, I don’t think that’s Simon Pegg.

(But Rob Zombie is in this movie?)

This movie is entirely uncynical

It doesn’t have an iota of darkness or grimdarkness in its silly heart

It’s actually sweet!

AHH I WANT MY SON TO SEE THIS SOME DAY BECAUSE WHIZZ BANG FUN ZOOM

Oh Chris Pratt you’re the best and you used to be doughy and you give us all hope

I want to play in this roleplaying game like not a video game but with dice and character sheets and OOH OOH CAN I PLAY THE TECHIE RACCOON WITH A CHIP ON HIS SHOULDER

okay maybe some tiny complaints like jeez Marvel sure is in love with this whole Macguffin magical shiny glowy stones and objects bullshit, and hey maybe women could get a better break in these movies instead of the white guy always being the day-saver

and the post credits sequence uhhh wut

BUT AHHHH

FUN

JOY

LAUGHING TIMES

*clap clap clap*

This is why Jesus and George Lucas invented toys!

*gobbles down all the movie merchandising*

BOOM

BOOSH

3D OH SNAP IT’S FLYING RIGHT AT MY FACE

IMAX IS PRETTY COOL BUT I HAD TO TAKE OUT A HOME EQUITY LOAN FOR THE TICKET

WHATEVER WOOOOOOOOOO

*whistles up a floating spear*

*buys self a Walkman*

SHUT UP I’M NOT CRYING

*dances*

Lasers!

WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE JESUS GOD CRAP STOP READING THIS AND GO SEE IT

*vibrates until cosmic microscopic dispersal*

(no raccoons or tree people were harmed during the making of this movie)

fieldmuseumphotoarchives:

This Giant Redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum ) was collected for the Field Museum’s collection in 1911. It was 22 ft in diameter. Record trees have been measured to be 311 ft (94.8 m) in height and over 56 ft (17 m)  in diameter.

© The Field Museum, CSB34454, Photographer Huron H. Smith.

8 men standing inside Giant Redwood tree trunk. Men in undercut of 22 foot diameter trees, Camp 20, Barnwood Lumber Company.

California Redwood Forest Expedition.

5x7 glass negative

1911

I don't know about you, but I like my bagel as two roughly cut, congruent linked halves. I usually use a fork, aluminum foil, and some duct tape. No more. George Hart demonstrates a better way to do it. It's a good thing too, because I was running low on duct tape.