ReportWire

Tag: culture

  • San Francisco 2033: You Will Own Nothing And Be Happy

    San Francisco 2033: You Will Own Nothing And Be Happy

    [ad_1]

    This is a science-fiction piece by Jameson Lopp, professional Cypherpunk and cofounder and CTO at Casa.

    “Good morning.” I’m gently awoken by my smart watch’s soothing female voice. It’s a bit robotic but does have a touch of personality and charm.

    “Today is Monday, October 31, 2033,” it continues. “Your weekly basic income of $3,432 has been deposited into your account. $1,049 was withheld to pay your student loan. $2,300 was withheld for your landlord, Blackstone Hathaway.”

    Shit. That’s a bit more than last week; there must have been another inflation adjustment.

    [ad_2]

    Jameson Lopp

    Source link

  • 10 of the best films to watch this November

    10 of the best films to watch this November

    [ad_1]

    10 of the best films to watch this November

    (Image credit: Warner Bros)

    Including Rian Johnson’s follow-up to Knives Out, Steven Spielberg’s autobiopic The Fabelmans, and cannibal drama Bones and All starring Timothée Chalamet – Nicholas Barber lists this month’s unmissable releases.

    (Credit: Netflix)

    1. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

    How often these days does Hollywood make a sequel to any film that isn’t a cartoon, a horror movie or a CGI-heavy action blockbuster? The answer is: not often at all. But Knives Out was so ingenious, and its central character was so delightful, that Rian Johnson has written and directed another murder mystery in the same gloriously complicated vein. Daniel Craig returns as Benoit Blanc, the brilliant detective with an extravagant vocabulary and an even more extravagant Southern drawl. As in Knives Out, he’s sniffing out a killer among a group of wealthy, entitled Americans, but this time the setting is a private Greek island and the suspects (played by Ed Norton, Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe and others) have made their millions from tech and social media. BBC Culture’s Caryn James says that “this hugely entertaining follow-up [is] filled with delicious cameos and loaded with more comic moments than the previous film”.

    Released in UK and US cinemas on 23 November, and on Netflix internationally on 23 December

    (Credit: Warner Bros)

    2. Bones and All

    Luca Guadagnino and Timothée Chalamet, the star and director of Call Me by Your Name, reunite for another tender tale of budding romance, adapted from a novel and set in the 1980s. But Bones and All is different in one key respect: its young lovers can’t resist eating human flesh. One of them, the 18-year-old Maren (Taylor Russell), thought she was the only person with this unconventional dietary requirement, but as she drives around small-town America, she finds that “eaters” are surprisingly common. Among her cannibalistic new acquaintances are the handsome Lee (Chalamet) and the horribly menacing Sully (Mark Rylance). “Guadagnino has created an effective and gruesome shocker,” says John Bleasdale at Sight & Sound. “But Bones and All is also the tale of a lost young pair, finding each other and themselves. It is wryly funny, gleefully entertaining and oddly touching. Delicious and nutritious.”

    Released internationally on 23 November

    (Credit: Alamy)

    3. The Fabelmans

    Roma, Belfast, The Hand of God… there’s a trend at the moment for films about their directors’ own formative years. The latest example is Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, a tender, autobiographical coming-of-age drama that has been widely tipped as a best picture contender at the Oscars. Its young hero has been renamed Sammy Fabelman (played by Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord, and then by Gabriel LaBelle), but his life story follows Spielberg’s own, as he falls in love with cinema, moves from New Jersey to Arizona to Northern California, and witnesses the marital problems of his father (Paul Dano), a computer engineer, and his mother (Michelle Williams), a pianist. “This is the movie we’ve been waiting 45 years for him to make,” says David Fear at Rolling Stone. “It’s one man’s thank you to the movies for saving him. And it’s a great American artist utilising his skill as a great storyteller to finally tell his own… It’s one of the most impressive, enlightening, vital things he’s ever done.”

    Released on 23 November in the US, 24 November in Portugal, 25 November in Poland and Turkey, and 27 January 2023 in the UK

    (Credit: Netflix)

    4. The Wonder

    In a remote Irish village in 1862, an 11-year-old girl (Kila Lord Cassidy) is said to have survived for months without food, so a sceptical English nurse (Florence Pugh) is sent to observe her. The local bigwigs (Ciarán Hinds, Toby Jones, Tom Burke) want answers: is she a miracle or a cheat? A mastermind or a pawn in someone else’s game? Adapted from the novel by Emma Donoghue (Room), Sebastián Lelio’s “eerie and unusual period drama is a magnetic and mysterious little marvel rich in atmosphere and allure”, says Benjamin Lee in The Guardian. But the real miracle in this “incredibly involving” film is Pugh, who is “never less than utterly, mesmerically convincing. She’s so totally in command here that it almost feels as if she’s directing the film from within”. Don’t be surprised if she picks up several best actress nominations this awards season.

    Released on 16 November on Netflix

    (Credit: Netflix)

    5. Lady Chatterley’s Lover

    Having won a Golden Globe for playing Lady Diana Spencer in The Crown, Emma Corrin stars as Lady Constance Chatterley in Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s film of DH Lawrence’s groundbreakingly torrid novel. (Is this the kind of book “you would wish your wife or servants to read,” asked the prosecutor in the British obscenity trial of 1960.) Jack O’Connell co-stars as Oliver Mellors, the rugged gamekeeper who gives the Lady the physical attention she craves after her husband, Sir Clifford (Matthew Duckett), is paralysed from the waist down in World War One. And Joely Richardson, who played Lady Chatterley alongside Sean Bean in a 1993 television series, is Sir Clifford’s nurse, Mrs Bolton. Tomris Laffly at The Wrap says that the film is “a handsome introduction to this feminine saga of sexual awakening, laced with both something old and something new, and plenty of frank, tastefully choreographed and actually steamy eroticism dearly missed in today’s increasingly sterile mainstream cinema”.

    Released in UK cinemas on 25 November, and Netflix internationally on 2 December

    (Credit: Searchlight Pictures)

    (Credit: Searchlight Pictures)

    6. The Menu

    This month’s other satirical tale of the super-rich getting their comeuppance on a private island (see also: Glass Onion), The Menu features Ralph Fiennes as a devilish celebrity chef who presides over one of the world’s most exclusive restaurants. Nicholas Hoult and Anya Taylor-Joy play two of the gourmands who have signed up for the $1250-a-head fine-dining experience. But they soon find that while the chef’s “molecular gastronomy” (including a rock covered in bits of seaweed) is not exactly lip-smacking, the way he treats his customers is even worse. “The rarefied world of haute cuisine is not exactly a hard target to satirise,” says Wendy Ide at Screen Daily, “but this deliciously savage comedy from Succession director Mark Mylod makes every bitter mouthful count. A bracingly spiteful and very funny picture.”

    Released internationally on 18 November

    (Credit: Amazon Prime)

    7. Good Night Oppy

    Nasa’s Mars exploration rover, Opportunity, landed on the Red Planet in 2004. It was expected to function for just 90 days, but the solar-powered, remote-controlled robot kept trundling around, analysing minerals, for 15 years. (Fifteen Earth years, that is, which translates as eight years on Mars.) It’s little wonder that scientists started to see it – or her – less as a machine than as a friendly relative of R2-D2 and Wall-E. Viewers of Ryan White’s documentary might have similar feelings. Alongside Nasa’s own footage, White uses computer-animated sequences to show Oppy’s Martian travels. That means that the “inspirational and wonderfully engaging… Good Night Oppy is more than just a documentary,” says Peter Debruge in Variety. “It’s an animated film as well – and a hugely entertaining one at that.”

    Released in UK cinemas on 4 November, and Amazon Prime internationally on 23 November

    (Credit: BBC Film/BFI)

    8. Aftersun

    Charlotte Wells’ debut as a writer-director is one of the most acclaimed films of the year. Essentially a two-hander, the wistful, intimate Aftersun stars Francesca Corio and Paul Mescal (Normal People) as an 11-year-old girl on a rare holiday with her 30-year-old father in the late 1990s: she still lives with her mother in Scotland while he has moved to England, with no intention of returning. They tour the discos, amusement arcades and karaoke bars of a fading Turkish resort, but it becomes clear that Calum isn’t quite the happy dad he is struggling to be. “Deftly constructed and utterly heartbreaking,” says Pat Brown at Slant Magazine, “Aftersun announces Wells as an eminent storyteller of prodigious powers.”

    Released on 18 November in the UK and Ireland

    (Credit: Walt Disney Studios)

    (Credit: Walt Disney Studios)

    9. Strange World

    Don Hall and Qui Nguyen, the director and writer of Raya and the Last Dragon, use their latest Disney cartoon to pay homage to the classic science-fiction adventure yarns of Jules Verne and HG Wells: the cartoon’s explorer heroes, voiced by Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal and Gabrielle Union, discover a land of weird and wonderful flora and fauna under the Earth’s surface. But like The Incredibles, among other Disney and Pixar films, Strange World is also about family life. “We know this is about Don [Hall] and his dad,” Nguyen told Jamie Jirak at ComicBook.com, “about his children, and what he thinks is important to the world and what he wants to give to the world as a legacy… it’s our love letter to our kids as both fathers and sons.”

    Released internationally on 23 November

    (Credit: Walt Disney Studios)

    (Credit: Walt Disney Studios)

    10. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

    Chadwick Boseman was so revered as King T’Challa of Wakanda, aka Black Panther, that when he died of cancer in August 2020, executives at Marvel Studios knew that they couldn’t recast the part. Instead, Ryan Coogler, the film’s director, made a sequel which pays tribute to Boseman. In part, the film is about T’Challa’s Wakandan friends and relatives battling the aquatic armies of Namor, the Sub-Mariner (Tenoch Huerta). But it is also about a nation grieving for its lost king. “I dreaded the start of this shoot because I could not imagine how we would proceed without Chadwick,” Lupita Nyong’o told Devan Coggan at Entertainment Weekly. “It was unfathomable to me. But Ryan managed to honour his life and his role in both the film and our lives with his moving, truthful, and clear vision.”

    Released internationally on 11 November

    Love film and TV? Join BBC Culture Film and TV Club on Facebook, a community for cinephiles all over the world.

    If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

    And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Finding Liberty In Parallel: Bitcoin And The Free Cities Movement

    Finding Liberty In Parallel: Bitcoin And The Free Cities Movement

    [ad_1]

    This is an opinion editorial by Stephan Livera, host of the “Stephan Livera Podcast” and managing director of Swan Bitcoin International.

    Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at Liberty In Our Lifetime, a conference organized by the Free Cities Foundation in Prague, Czechia. And it dawned on me that we’re now seeing the rise of an adjacent and relevant movement for Bitcoiners interested in citadels, and what they might even look like in the real world.

    The Free Cities Movement is made up of a combination of Libertarians, Bitcoiners, free private city operators and investors, seasteaders, those seeking to create intentional communities and those attempting to create parallel institutions and structures within the existing statist world of today. What lessons are there in this movement and how can more Bitcoiners get involved?

    [ad_2]

    Stephan Livera

    Source link

  • Pioneering Sega Developer Rieko Kodama Has Died

    Pioneering Sega Developer Rieko Kodama Has Died

    [ad_1]

    Image for article titled Pioneering Sega Developer Rieko Kodama Has Died

    Screenshot: Sega

    Rieko Kodama, one of the most important developers in the history of both Sega and the wider role-playing genre, has died at the age of 59.

    As IGN report, she actually passed away back in May, but her death was not announced publicly by the company at the time. Fans recently discovered a tribute to Kodama in the credits section of the Mega Drive Mini 2, however, prompting Sega producer Yosuke Oskunari to confirm the sad news.

    Her contributions to Sega’s catalogue of classic titles and series was immense. Beginning with the company in 1984, she would work on everything from design to pixel art, and spent the her early career on series like Alex Kidd and Fantasy Zone.

    She was then the principal artist on the original Phantasy Star, and would keep working on the series through its sequels, rising to the role of director by the fourth game.

    Her other notable works include Dreamcast classic Skies of Arcadia, which she again led development on, while she also contributed as an artist to games like the first two Sonic titles and Altered Beast.

    G/O Media may get a commission

    Kodama may be best remembered, though, for her pioneering work as a prominent woman in games development, for which she has been labelled “The First Lady of RPGs” (and indeed was awarded the Pioneer Award at GDC 2018), and leaves behind a legacy of characters and games that were designed for everyone, not just traditionally male audiences.

    “I usually don’t think to make games strictly for a female audience, myself, but I think my RPGs attract a larger female audience”, she once said in an interview. “Violent, war-themed titles seem to attract an overwhelmingly male audience. I think if companies want to get more girls to play their games, they should keep this in mind.

    [ad_2]

    Luke Plunkett

    Source link

  • The bizarre Dracula film that saw him meet the hippies

    The bizarre Dracula film that saw him meet the hippies

    [ad_1]

    Newman – who would later use the Johnny Alucard name for one of the main characters in his Anno Dracula series of novels putting forward an alternate history where Count Dracula marries Queen Victoria – believes the film got a harsher reception than it should have done due to it being a later Hammer horror at a time when the company was struggling. ” There wasn’t resistance to the idea of a contemporary-set vampire movie,” he says. “A few years later, Salem’s Lot was basically Dracula reset in Peyton Place. Hammer were struggling to stay in the game, and some at the time saw only gimmicks – see also Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde or The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires for odd hybrids.”

    So though it was not quite sure what it wanted to be, and while it was perhaps not wholly successful in portraying the immortal Dracula at play in hip London town, Dracula AD 1972 has developed quite a following in the decades since. After its first DVD release in 2006, in particular, it found a new, appreciative audience. As the Classic Monsters website surmised, “the movie did what it was meant to, bringing a tired franchise up to date whilst retaining enough of its heritage to remain credible”.  And as the Grindhouse Database said, it is “an example of 1970s exploitation filmmaking at its most quirky and capricious … a delightfully entertaining experience”.

    What would Bram Stoker have thought of it? We’ll never know, of course, but his great grand-nephew Dacre Stoker, who has written many books on his ancestor’s creation, thinks that, if nothing else, the film paves the way for Dracula to escape his Victorian bounds.

    “It did provide an opening for authors and screenwriters to modernise Bram Stoke’’s Victorian horror story, and unleash the Transylvanian count on a wide variety of audiences,” he tells BBC Culture, adding jokily that “I would have thought that the music soundtrack was bad enough to kill the Count, but instead he was impaled by a spoke of a wooden carriage wheel, which I did think was quite clever.”

    Without the ambition of Dracula AD 1972 and its at-the-time daring and controversial move to bring Dracula into the modern era, the seed might not have been sown for other writers and film-makers to update the vampire legend themselves. Three years later, Stephen King published the aforementioned Salem’s Lot, and the basic concept of the 1972 movie was repeated with turn-of-the-millennium Hollywood horror Dracula 2000, starring Gerard Butler as the Count, and its two sequels. Who knows, without AD 1972 we might never even have had modern-day vampire stories like Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire, published in 1976, or the Twilight series, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It may be a faintly humorous curio in the horror canon, but it’s an important one nonetheless.

    Love film and TV? Join BBC Culture Film and TV Club on Facebook, a community for cinephiles all over the world.

    If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

    And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Enheduanna: The world’s first named author

    Enheduanna: The world’s first named author

    [ad_1]

    But change was under way, and by 2400 BC, a vessel fragment shows a female deity visualised in human form. Wearing a horned crown with leafy, vegetable-like material protruding from her shoulders and holding a cluster of dates, she has the aspects of fertility and fecundity associated with Inanna, but the animal-like crown also suggests fierceness.    

    With the reign of Sargon and through Eneheduanna’s hymns, an ever-more war-like female deity begins to be depicted: Ishtar, seen portrayed in the exhibition with weapons coming out of her shoulders and her foot atop a lion whose leash she wields. In her poems, Enheduanna similarly portrays Inanna/Ishtar as a powerful goddess of combat and conquest as well as of love and abundance. And, according to Babcock, cylinder seals in the exhibition actually illustrate scenes from her poem, Inanna and Ebih. 

    The text pits an embattled, enraged Inanna against her enemy, a mountain range that refuses to bow down or cede to her. We see the goddess, armed with knife and axes, cause the mountain’s stones to cascade downward, and kill the mountain’s male god. “She sharpened both edges of her dagger. She took Ebih’s neck as if tearing up grass. She presented the blade into its heart,” and “yelled like thunder” so that “the stones making up Ebih crashed down its back.” She then celebrates her conquest by triumphantly placing her foot atop the fallen stones. “This is the first time you have illustrations for a text, ever,” Babcock comments – another first for Enheduanna’s literary legacy.  

    Which is another way to say that Enheduanna not only wrote, but she continues to endure in many realms: as a significant figure in ancient Sumer, in the history of women and feminism and not least, in literature, as well.

    She Who Wrote: Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia, ca 3400-2000 BC is at the Morgan Library, New York City, until 19 February 2023.

    If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

    And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • The Simpsons Is Going Anime For A Death Note Tribute, And It Looks…Good?

    The Simpsons Is Going Anime For A Death Note Tribute, And It Looks…Good?

    [ad_1]

    Image for article titled The Simpsons Is Going Anime For A Death Note Tribute, And It Looks...Good?

    Image: The Simpsons

    It’s very easy to look back on the last 25 years of The Simpsons and write it off as being rubbish because, well, for the most part it has been exactly that. But sometimes, like the sun shining through for an hour between passing storms, it can still get its shit together, and the upcoming tribute to Death Note looks like one of those rare occasions.

    It’s part of the show’s next Treehouse of Horror Halloween compilation, and will give The Simpsons a full anime makeover for one of the episode’s instalments. You can see it in action in this short video below, which introduces Lisa as the recipient of the Death Note (or, as it’s called here, the Death Tome):

    Some screenshots have also been released, giving us a good look at anime Homer and Marge as well:

    Image for article titled The Simpsons Is Going Anime For A Death Note Tribute, And It Looks...Good?

    Image: The Simpsons

    G/O Media may get a commission

    40% Off

    Govee Glide TGBIC LED Smart Wall Lights

    Smart light it up
    Can display up to 57 colors at one time, have an incredible range of combinations, can react to your music, be shaped as you like using the segments, and work with most voice assistants.

    Image for article titled The Simpsons Is Going Anime For A Death Note Tribute, And It Looks...Good?

    Image: The Simpsons

    Image for article titled The Simpsons Is Going Anime For A Death Note Tribute, And It Looks...Good?

    Image: The Simpsons

    If your first thought was “wow, that looks a lot better than I was expecting”, you are not alone! But there’s a very good reason this looks so authentic to the source material: this segment has been animated by Korean studio DR Movie, who have a long history of helping out behind the scenes on various American and Japanese properties, ranging from The Animatrix to Justice League to, most importantly in this case, the Death Note anime series itself.

    The episode will air on October 30, and will be the second of three segments. The other two will be a Babadook homage starring Marge and a Westworld parody. Which is weird, given The Simpsons has already done a Westworld thing, one that lasted an entire episode and is one of the series’ all-time greats, but I guess 1994 was long enough ago (and the modern HBO series so different) that they feel like they can do it all over again and newer viewers won’t even notice.

    UPDATE: Turns out there’s a VERY long and cool history to this, with its origins dating back to fanart drawn in 2008,as pointed out by Turbotastic in the comments!

    Image for article titled The Simpsons Is Going Anime For A Death Note Tribute, And It Looks...Good?

    Image: The Simpsons

    [ad_2]

    Luke Plunkett

    Source link

  • Emmitt Smith’s rushing yards mark headlines our list of unbreakable records

    Emmitt Smith’s rushing yards mark headlines our list of unbreakable records

    [ad_1]

    This week marks the 20th anniversary of Dallas Cowboys great Emmitt Smith breaking Chicago Bears legend Walter Payton’s all-time rushing record of 16,726 yards. Of course, Smith wasn’t quite finished yet; he played for 2½ more seasons, winding up with 18,355 rushing yards.

    This is a milestone that is unlikely to ever be broken. For one thing, it’s Emmitt Smith we’re talking about. The man rushed for 1,000-yard seasons like clockwork basically forever. But the NFL also has changed quite a bit since then. Offenses don’t focus on running backs like they used to, and playing as long as Smith did as a ball carrier is seemingly impossible. Adrian Peterson, who hasn’t played this season, is the closest “active” yards leader at 14,918, to give you a sense of how out of reach is Smith’s record.

    That got us thinking about other sports records that are seemingly unreachable, whether it’s because of the way the game has changed since they were set, the absurd talent of their holders as compared to the rest of the league or a mixture of both. Here’s a short list of records you’ll probably never see broken — at least not in our lifetimes.

    Jerry Rice: 22,895 receiving yards

    Active leader: Julio Jones (13,406)

    Rice had an incredible 14 seasons with 1,000 or more receiving yards, including three with more than 1,500. A big part of this was his incredible durability; he only played fewer than 16 games two out of his 21 years. Rice also had the good fortune of going from one Hall of Fame quarterback (Joe Montana) to another (Steve Young). But let’s be real: Rice was more or less uncoverable for two straight decades all on his own. It also explains why no one is ever going to catch his receiving touchdown record: He has 197, and the next-highest receiver, Randy Moss, has 41 fewer scores.

    Active leader: Sidney Crosby (896)

    The old saying about “The Great One” is that if he never scored a single goal in his career, he’d still lead the NHL in total points on assists alone. To give you a sense of just how difficult it would be for someone to do that, he would have to average 98 assists a year over a 20-year career just to approach that total. No one has actually had 98 or more assists in a single season since … Wayne Gretzky, in 1990-91. In all, it’s only been done three times by a player not named Wayne Gretzky (twice by Mario Lemieux and once by Bobby Orr).

    Cy Young: 749 complete games

    Active leader: Adam Wainwright (28)

    Unless there is a dramatic change in how teams approach pitching — something on the level of “all the pitchers are now literally robots” — there’s no way anyone gets close to Young’s complete game mark. All MLB pitchers combined had 36 complete games in 2022; Young had 36 or more complete games by himself in 11 separate seasons. While we’re at it, it seems extremely unlikely that anyone is going to get close to Young’s 511 wins or 315 losses anytime soon, either.

    Wilt Chamberlain: 50.4 PPG in a single season (1961-62)

    Active leader: James Harden (36.1 PPG in 2018-19)

    Kobe Bryant was what we could call a prolific scorer, right? He had 10 50-plus-point games in his 2006-07 campaign. In 1961-62, Wilt had 45 50-plus-point games, 15 60-plus-point games and three 70-plus-point games — oh, and one in which he scored 100 points. Unless the NBA introduces a 4-point shot, this isn’t happening. And even then …

    Active leader: Golden State Warriors (1)

    You know how hard it is to win just one title in the NBA? The Shaquille O’Neal/Kobe Bryant Los Angeles Lakers managed three straight. The Stephen Curry/Klay Thompson/Draymond Green Warriors almost did it four times in a row, save for LeBron James & Co. defeating them in 2016. James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh managed back-to-back titles. These were some incredible teams … but in the modern NBA, almost every team is tough to beat come playoff time. The Celtics had the advantage of an all-time player in Bill Russell, an all-time coach in Red Auerbach, a seemingly endless array of other players who were considered legends and an NBA that had fewer than 10 teams.

    Simone Biles: 19 world gymnastics gold medals

    Active leader: Simone Biles

    To give you a sense of how far away Biles is from her competition, the next-most-decorated gymnast in terms of world gold medals, Svetlana Khorkina, has nine. No other active women’s gymnast has even two — likely because they’ve had the great misfortune of competing at the same time as Biles.

    Cal Ripken Jr.: 2,632 consecutive games played

    Active leader: Matt Olson (296)

    This is, again, one of those records that is more about how the game is played these days than anything else. Ripken was unusually durable, for sure. But these days, it’s likely he would have been encouraged to take a few days off every now and then just to make sure he was well-rested.

    UConn Huskies women’s basketball: 111-game winning streak

    Active leader: South Carolina Gamecocks and South Dakota State Jackrabbits (6)

    The next-highest streak on this list (90) also is held by the UConn Huskies, so if we’re going to see it broken ever again, it’s probably going to happen out of Storrs, Connecticut. Although, realistically, Geno Auriemma’s squads have been so historically dominant that it’s hard to see even a new version of them going on such an absurd undefeated streak again.

    Active leader: Dee Strange-Gordon (336)

    Baseball writer Bill James once said that if you split Rickey Henderson in two, you’d have two Hall of Famers. Well, if you split him in four, you’d still have a guy with more stolen bases than the current active leader. People still do put up big stolen-base campaigns; Jose Reyes stole 78 as recently as 2007. But Henderson’s sheer consistency and longevity make this record unreachable. To put it another way, someone stealing 78 bases a year would have to keep that mark up for more than 18 seasons to break Henderson’s record.

    Michael Phelps: 28 Olympic medals

    Active leader: Arianna Fontana (11)

    Not only does Phelps have the most Olympic medals ever, he also holds the records in gold medals (23) and individual gold medals in a single Olympics (eight, at the 2008 Beijing Games). Swimming has a lot of events and therefore a lot of opportunities to win, but Phelps’ dominance remains unmatched by any other Olympian.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Our Favorite Cosplay From Dragon Con 2022

    Our Favorite Cosplay From Dragon Con 2022

    [ad_1]

    I feel like I’ve spent the entire year introducing each cosplay show post the same way. Welcome back, it’s awesome that everyone was together again after a few years away, isn’t it lovely seeing fresh cosplay again, yada yada yada. But Dragon Con, Atlanta’s big show for the year, actually went down in 2021!

    So instead of making a big deal about Welcoming Everyone Back, I’ll just be extending a regular welcome back. Welcome back! And adding that, after 2021’s extensive pandemic-related measures, the 2022 show was a lot looser on the rules, resulting in a huge boost in attendance, up from 42,000 people last year to around 65,000 in 2022.

    Below you’ll find video and a gallery with some of our favourite cosplay from the weekend, which took place last month in Atlanta, during which there wasn’t just a convention but also Dragon Con’s trademark, a cosplay street parade.

    As usual, all photos and video are by the talented Mineralblu, and you’ll find each cosplayer’s details, including their social media handles and which character they’re cosplaying, watermarked on the image.

    Also, after some complaints about loading times and sluggishness from having so many huge images on the one page, I’m testing splitting the images up into a slideshow instead. Let me know how that goes though, if the annoyance of that outweighs the load time stuff, I’ll switch back next time!

    THIS IS DRAGONCON ATLANTA COMIC CON 2022 DRAGON CON BEST COSPLAY MUSIC VIDEO BEST COSTUMES ANIME CMV

    [ad_2]

    Luke Plunkett

    Source link

  • The Disney Villains Game Is Having A Horny Racism Controversy

    The Disney Villains Game Is Having A Horny Racism Controversy

    [ad_1]

    Five high schoolers from the academy in Twisted Wonderland.

    Image: Aniplex

    Mobile game Disney Twisted Wonderland sparked controversy when it revealed a new character this weekend. The character is based on Claude Frollo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Fans have called him racist as Frollo was extremely racist in the original Disney movie. Here’s the complicated part: Twisted Wonderland characters aren’t actually the same as their original inspirations. It’s all very messy, but we’ll get through this. I promise.

    Twisted Wonderland is a gacha rhythm game where players spend gems to roll for student characters based on Disney villains such as Maleficent, Jafar, and Ursula. These students aren’t actually the villains themselves, but they take inspiration from the villains’ visual designs, movie dialogue, and narrative themes. So you get a Kingdom Hearts looking anime boy acting like a controlling jerk and yelling “OFF WITH YOUR HEAD” whenever someone displeases him. Rollo is an event character, but he’s also a dorm leader. So it’s not apparent yet whether or not players will be able to roll for him in the gacha.

    According to Twisted Wonderland lore, the villains did exist at some point in the past (Frollo is portrayed as a heroic statue on the academy grounds), though they’re known for positive qualities rather than the crimes they may have committed in the movies. So there’s some narrative distance between Rollo and Frollo.

    G/O Media may get a commission

    But there’s concern among some that Frollo prejudiced in ways that are hard for some players to ignore. While the Queen of Hearts has very milquetoast lines, Claude Frollo is known for calling a Romani character a racial slur and claiming that her people are “not capable of real love.” Yikes. All Disney villains have terrible qualities. But some of their storylines approach real-life bigotries closer than others.

    While one fan translator claimed Rollo’s personality is “nice” rather than genocidal, others didn’t think that his canonical personality mattered. They were concerned that Frollo was too bigoted to be used in a game where everyone is a beautiful anime boy. While the original Disney movie contextualizes the extent of Claude Frollo’s villainy, the characters in Twisted Wonderland are portrayed as soft, misunderstood, and sympathetic.

    While the overall reception to the character seems positive, there are also many quote retweets expressing disgust that Twisted Wonderland players are simping for Rollo. I’m going to remind everyone that The Hunchback of Notre Dame came out in 1996. Many young people have never seen that movie, which is part of the problem. Media is recycled over time. It retains some context and loses others, so people have totally different exposure levels to Notre Dame while it’s still easy to assume that everyone has had the same experience.

     

    In the meantime, some Twisted Wonderland players are just trying to head off the horny simps:

     

    [ad_2]

    Sisi Jiang

    Source link

  • White Lotus review: The show that skewers the super-rich

    White Lotus review: The show that skewers the super-rich

    [ad_1]

    The three-generational Sicilian-American family, the Di Grassos, provides the most comedy. F Murray Abraham is the patriarch, Bert, a relentless flirt at 80. His son, Dom, is a Hollywood player whose affairs have earned his absent wife’s fury. Michael Imperioli plays this remorseful, weak-willed clod with down-to-earth naturalism in what may be his best work since Christopher on The Sopranos. Dom’s son, Albie (Adam DiMarco) is an earnest Stanford University grad. The series’ hilarious moments come when the three fumble through a discussion of sex, and when they visit the tourist-trap location where the Sicilian segments of The Godfather were shot. To his father’s and grandfather’s horror, Albie goes off on an explanation of why the overrated film plays into men’s nostalgia for “the salad days of the patriarchy”. The actors’ impeccable comic timing makes you believe they are a family.

    Coolidge and White once more brilliantly define Tanya, who is sad, lonely (despite being married) and pitiable, but thoughtlessly callous toward people she considers the help. Haley Lu Richardson makes Tanya’s assistant, Portia, the most realistic character, a young woman with an edge of desperation about her future. In tears, she tells a friend on the phone, “I feel like I’ve just been stuck at home, just doom-scrolling on my phone the last three years”. White includes another nod at a world shaped by Covid and other blights when Harper says she has trouble sleeping because of “everything that’s going on in the world”. Daphne blankly asks what she means, and the appalled Harper explains, “I don’t know, just, like the end of the world”.  Well put, but White leaves it at that. Real-life disasters never intrude on this engaging show.

    While the guests seemed hermetically sealed inside the Hawaiian resort in season one, here they roam around (partly due to fewer Covid restrictions during shooting.) There are trips to an extravagant villa in Noto, another extravagant villa in Palermo, and the grand opera house, where we get a snippet of Madame Butterfly, until the series begins to feel like a tourist video. It’s just a matter of time before someone sings That’s Amore, but White savvily uses the song with a sad irony, a hint of the darker underside of The White Lotus that has yet to emerge.

    ★★★★☆

    The White Lotus season 2 premieres on HBO on 30 October.

    Love film and TV? Join BBC Culture Film and TV Club on Facebook, a community for cinephiles all over the world.

    If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

    And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Bayonetta’s Original Voice Actor Disputes Claims, Says She Only Asked For ‘A Fair, Living Wage’

    Bayonetta’s Original Voice Actor Disputes Claims, Says She Only Asked For ‘A Fair, Living Wage’

    [ad_1]

    Image for article titled Bayonetta's Original Voice Actor Disputes Claims, Says She Only Asked For 'A Fair, Living Wage'

    Image: Bayonetta 3

    Hellena Taylor, the original voice actor for PlatinumGames’ Bayonetta and one of the parties at the centre of a prolonged and messy public dispute over casting and wages, has tonight issued a new statement addressing allegations that have been made against her over the past week.

    The saga, which has seen claims of underpayment made, voice actors abused and a prominent developer temporarily disappear from Twitter, began when Taylor made a series of recent videos in which she accused PlatinumGames of offering her an insultingly-low pay offer to reprise her role as Bayonetta for the upcoming third game.

    The role was subsequently given to Jennifer Hale—who has issued her own statements—while a Bloomberg report said PlatinumGames had originally offered to pay Taylor somewhere between $3,000 and $4,000 per four-hour session for at least five recording sessions, for a total of at least $15,000. It’s then said that when Taylor instead asked for a “six-figure sum” to voice the character, negotiations broke down.

    Tonight, Taylor wrote a series of Tweets disputing some of the figures in these reports, saying:

    It has come to my attention that some people are calling me a liar and golddigger. I feel the need to defend myself and my reputation in the industry.

    As I posted on part three of my video thread. I explained that their first offer was too low. That offer was 10,000 dollars total. Remember, this is 450 million dollar franchise, (not counting merchandise.) I then wrote in Japanese to Hideki Kamiya, asking for what I was worth. I thought that as a creative, he would understand. He replied saying how much he valued my contribution to the game and how much the fans wanted me to voice the game. I was then offered an extra 5,0000! [Note: it appears this is a typo, and that Taylor means 5,000]

    So, I declined to voice the game. I then heard nothing from them for 11 months. They then offered me a flat fee to voice some lines for 4,000 dollars. Any other lies, such as 4,000 for 5 sessions are total fabrications.

    There were not “extensive negotiations.” I’ve also been informed of ridiculous fictions, such as I asked for 250,000 dollars. I am a team player. I was just asking for a fair, living wage in line with the value that I bring to this game.

    I was paid a shockingly low total of £3000 total for the first game. A little more for the second. I wanted to voice her. I have drummed up interest in this game ever since I started on Twitter in 2011.

    [ad_2]

    Luke Plunkett

    Source link

  • Finding A More Optimistic Future With Bitcoin

    Finding A More Optimistic Future With Bitcoin

    [ad_1]

    This is an opinion editorial by Leon Wankum, one of the first financial economics students to write a thesis about Bitcoin in 2015.

    Prologue

    This article is the second in a series in which I aim to explain some of the benefits of utilizing bitcoin as a “tool.” The possibilities are endless. I selected three areas where bitcoin has helped me. This article describes how bitcoin has made me more optimistic about the future because it allowed me to efficiently manage my money and build savings. I’ve developed a lower time preference, meaning I value the future more, which leads me to act more mindfully in the present. All of this has had a positive impact on my mental health.

    [ad_2]

    Leon Wankum

    Source link

  • My Policeman: Is gay sex still taboo on screen?

    My Policeman: Is gay sex still taboo on screen?

    [ad_1]

    To make a more recent comparison, My Policeman’s approach to same-sex intimacy, specifically, feels similar to Carol, Todd Haynes’ 2015 romantic period drama starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Carol was also set in the conservative 1950s and its passionate sex scenes portrayed two characters who were only able to fully express themselves behind closed doors, with their bodies entwined. “In My Policeman, we’re dealing with a period in England where gay sex was illegal,” Grandage tells BBC Culture. “I wanted to make sure that you were able to see these two men have total freedom during intimacy, because they couldn’t elsewhere.” And as a viewer in 2022, there is still a sense of liberation to be felt in seeing that intimacy candidly expressed in a starry, relatively commercial movie like My Policeman.

    Queer cinema has come a long way since 1964, when Brock Peters played one of the first openly homosexual characters in the US film Pawn Broker. Back then, same-sex intimacy and nudity on screen would have seemed unthinkable. But today, whether it’s the lusciousness of My Policeman, Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams characters’ voracious lovemaking in 2017 drama Disobedience, or the gay orgies in Andrew Ahn’s Jane Austen-inspired gay rom-com Fire Island, queer sex scenes are gradually becoming more frequent and varied. Alongside My Policeman, another mainstream LGBTQ+ film that has been making waves in recent weeks is the studio gay rom-com Bros, which has been heralded by its comedian writer-star Billy Eichner as a historic moment for gay representation in film – although its supposed radicalness has been disputed by some critics. The film casually drops in several sex scenes, from disappointing hook-ups described as “weird sex with strangers that you don’t like”, to group sex scenes which explore relationships beyond monogamy. Some of the sex offers comedic value, while other scenes are more sentimental as the protagonists fall in love.

    The ‘purpose’ of sex scenes

    If the simultaneous release of these two glossy, mainstream films with an upfront approach to gay male sexuality is heartening, debate over Styles’ comments has highlighted that gay sex on screen remains a contentious issue. Some feel that progress is being made, with more films depicting it with relative openness, but others remain frustrated that mainstream cinema still shies away from it too often. In some ways, this is an offshoot of a wider debate that has been going on more recently, about the purpose and validity of sex scenes in films full stop. For Grandage, the sex scenes in My Policeman were primarily about narrative. “I wanted the intimacy to move the story forward, and you can’t do that if you get too coy with it, or move the camera away from it,” he says. Clarisse Loughrey, film critic at The Independent, agrees that intimate scenes should ideally further the story. “Sex scenes work best when they’re rightfully serving the characters, the narrative and the tone of the film,” she says. 

    Yet Richard Lawson, chief critic at Vanity Fair, also thinks we need to be careful not to become too prescriptive about sex scenes in film, or puritanical about their reason for being. “Right now we’re in this period where sex scenes have to drive forward the narrative. But really, they can also be there because they’re sexy,” he says. “It’s nice when they serve the narrative, but it’s not always a problem if they don’t.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Progressives Misunderstand Bitcoin Because They’ve Lost Their Way

    Progressives Misunderstand Bitcoin Because They’ve Lost Their Way

    [ad_1]

    Logan Bolinger is a lawyer and the author of a free weekly newsletter about the intersection of Bitcoin, macroeconomics, geopolitics and law.

    As Bitcoin continues to infiltrate U.S. politics and policy, debates about which political party is more naturally aligned with the orange ethos have proliferated and intensified. The increasing number of self-described Progressives entering the space has catalyzed some heated discussions about how Bitcoin fits into the ideology of the political left. Is Bitcoin Progressive? Is it fundamentally not Progressive? Is it something else? To understand why these may not even be the right questions and why many (though not all) Progressives seem to struggle with Bitcoin, we should refine some of the partisan language and identifiers that tend to constrain our thinking. To the point, it’s high time we disentangle capital “P” Progressivism from lowercase “p” progressivism.

    [ad_2]

    Logan Bolinger

    Source link

  • Think Before You Sell Your Bitcoin

    Think Before You Sell Your Bitcoin

    [ad_1]

    This is an opinion editorial by Robert Hall, a content creator and small business owner.

    The last few months have not been great for the bitcoin price. Bitcoin continues to languish around the $19,000 to $24,000 range with no end in sight. Bear markets are a time when your conviction will be significantly tested. People new to bitcoin may think the economic pain is too much and want to tap out to cut their losses. Others will see the price of bitcoin hanging out in the doldrums and decide not to buy.

    [ad_2]

    Robert Hall

    Source link

  • Bitcoin Adoption Happens Fastest In Circular Economies

    Bitcoin Adoption Happens Fastest In Circular Economies

    [ad_1]

    This is an opinion editorial by Kudzai Kutukwa, a passionate financial inclusion advocate who was recognized by Fast Company magazine as one of South Africa’s top-20 young entrepreneurs under 30.

    There is a battle going on in the world today that is largely hidden from the general public’s view. This is not a battle between nation-states, ethnic groups or religious fanatics fighting over resources and territories. Two monetary systems are on a collision course, each with its own distinct ideology and values. One system is a tool for financial enslavement, and the other, for financial freedom. It’s a battle that not only requires our attention, but our active participation. It’s the battle for the future of money: bitcoin versus fiat.

    [ad_2]

    Kudzai Kutukwa

    Source link

  • Now Is The Perfect Time To Dive Into The Dragon Quest Series

    Now Is The Perfect Time To Dive Into The Dragon Quest Series

    [ad_1]

    Read more…

    [ad_2]

    Eric Schulkin

    Source link

  • Bitcoin’s Utility Is Easy To See When Traveling Around The World

    Bitcoin’s Utility Is Easy To See When Traveling Around The World

    [ad_1]

    This is a transcribed excerpt of the “Bitcoin Magazine Podcast,” hosted by P and Q. In this episode, they are joined by Joe Hall to talk about Bitcoin Amsterdam and his experience seeing bitcoin being used in Africa.

    Watch This Episode On YouTube Or Rumble

    Listen To The Episode Here:

    [ad_2]

    Bitcoin Magazine

    Source link

  • The Secret History: A murder mystery that thrills 30 years on

    The Secret History: A murder mystery that thrills 30 years on

    [ad_1]

    Bret Easton Ellis – an early reader of Tartt’s manuscript for The Secret History – introduced his friend to his literary agent, who secured a $450,000 advance for the book. On its publication in 1992 the reviews were overwhelmingly positive (Time magazine called it “viscerally compelling”, Newsday labelled it “a thinking person’s thriller” ) – though not entirely, with The Independent saying “style is confused with substance time and again”. Still, the hype machine was already in full swing – with Tartt landing an eight-page profile in Vanity Fair and accompanying photoshoot alongside her pug, Pongo. Speaking to the New York Times at the time, her publisher Sonny Mehta said: “We didn’t know what she looked like when we bought the book, but it certainly hasn’t hurt.”

    That Vanity Fair profile introduced her with the line: “Donna Tartt, who is going to be very famous very soon…” – but from the start, Tartt preferred to keep an air of mystery, brushing off questions about her personal life. The scant details that emerged were quickly mythologised: Her answer phone message was TS Eliot reading The Waste Land; she bought her clothes in Gap Kids; she could drink Bret Easton Ellis under the table.

    Throughout her career, interviews have been rare – usually only to promote a new book, of which there have been just two more in the subsequent 30 years, The Little Friend in 2002 and 2014’s The Goldfinch. The mystery has only added to her legend. “The Secret History is enduring because The Secret History is so good,” says Anolik. “But it certainly doesn’t hurt that Donna has brilliant instincts about cult obsession and understands how to manage an enigmatic reputation.”

    Still, the idea of her as a total recluse is overstated. In an interview with Italian publication Rivista last year, she talked openly about her love of fashion, her favourite contemporary music (Lana Del Rey) and her writing routine (“three hours in the morning”) – and hinted that a new book might be on the way. She also declared, to no one’s surprise, that she’s never used social media.

    Viral prose

    It’s ironic then, that social media is the reason The Secret History is riding a whole new wave of popularity, thanks to “Dark Academia” , a subculture on TikTok and Instagram that romanticises learning and celebrates an aesthetic that is “traditional academic with a gothic edge.” The book is seen as Dark Academia’s essential text, and videos with the hashtag #thesecrethistory have more than 150 million views on TikTok – featuring everything from young people cosplaying the book’s characters to fans reciting favourite passages or showing off their annotated copies. “It has been a joy to see a new generation discover Donna Tartt’s masterpiece,” says Isabel Wall, editorial director of Tartt’s UK publisher, Viking – which is publishing a special clothbound edition of the book to mark the 30th anniversary.

    To Petrou, it makes total sense that the book continues to connect with young readers – even if the world depicted in it feels more distant than ever from today’s digital age. “It’s youth, right,” says Petrou. “Those same things that struck a chord for me as a young person, strike a chord for young people over and over again.” Anolik agrees that the book is timeless. “I think young people are natural snobs. And The Secret History is the great young-snob American novel, as Brideshead Revisited is the great young-snob English novel.”

    Thirty years and millions of readers later, discovering The Secret History still somehow feels like joining an exclusive club. “To experience that book for the first time is see someone at the best in their craft,” says Petrou. “I envy those that haven’t read it yet.”

    Love books? Join BBC Culture Book Club on Facebook, a community for literature fanatics all over the world.

    If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

    And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

    [ad_2]

    Source link