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“Software is Already Policy”
Wired’s Threat Level blog has a report on a panel at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in CT last week which explored how computers are setting social policy. Despite the crude heuristics available in current software, there’s an unsettling trend in the government toward letting computers make decisions that used to be handled by…
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It’s Like Y2K, But with Volcanoes
Filmmaker Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Godzilla, The Patriot) is taking on the Mayan prediction about the end of the world with his new movie 2012, due out in June 2009. The Mayan “long count” calendar ends in 2012, and some nutballs New Age theorists believe that this signals a global cataclysm. The movie apparently begins…
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RIP Robert Aspirin
On May 22, 2008, Bob passed away quietly in his home in New Orleans, LA. He had been in good spirits and working on several new projects, and was set to be the Guest of Honor at a major science fiction convention that very weekend. He is survived by his mother, his sister, his daughter…
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Dollhouse Sneak Peek
Fox has posted a couple of previews for Joss Whedon’s new series Dollhouse, which we’ve mentioned previously. (hat tip to Big Dumb Object) Writer/producer Tim Minear (Angel, Wonderfalls, Firefly, Drive) and writer Steven S. DeKnight (Smallville, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel) have also agreed to be involved with the series, so this should have quite…
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I’d Sooner Kiss a Wookiee….
UK couple Bramwell Brightey and Tamsyn Lofts have each seen Star Wars upwards of 500 times, so it was only natural that they should have intensive therapy a Star Wars-themed wedding. He dressed as Han Solo, she wore Leia’s princess dress (rather than the gold bikini, which would have been even more awesome), and all…
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BidiBidiBidi….
Proving once and for all that Hollywood has completely given up on new ideas, another remake of Buck Rogers has just been announced. Nu Image/Millenium, the group behind the revival of Rambo (and, it’s rumored, Conan the Barbarian) is producing. In his original 1928 incarnation, Buck was a U.S. military pilot who fell into a…
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I Doubt Vint Cerf Predicted This
Japanese stone-processing company Ishinokoe has begun offering tombstones featuring QR Codes, bar codes that can be read by cell phones and linked to Web addresses. Scanning the code will allow visitors to view images of the deceased, watch video greetings from the chief mourner at the funeral, and browse the guest book. They can also…
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Bugs, Mr. Rico!
Starship Troopers may not be so far away. Utah-based Sarcos, Inc., under contract to the U.S. Army, has developed the first practical robotic exoskeleton. Rex Jameson bikes and swims regularly, and plays tennis and skis when time allows. But the 5-foot-11, 180-pound software engineer is lucky if he presses 200 pounds — that is, until…
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Eddie Murphy to Remake Incredible Shrinking Man
(Subtitle, Oh FFS) As Slice of SciFi points out, the original 1957 version of the movie was a drama which probed serious questions about the nature of humans and their place in an ever-expanding universe. It goes without saying that Murphy is turning this into a comedy. The remake features Murphy as a Las Vegas…
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Scalzi on The Hobbit
Salon.com’s Andrew O’Hehir wrote an article blasting the decision to have Guillermo del Toro direct the upcoming The Hobbit. John Scalzi, who has begun blogging for SciFi Scanner, blasts back. Most geeks are spittle-flinging happy that Pan’s Labyrinth director, Guillermo del Toro, has signed on to helm The Hobbit (and its ill-defined and almost certainly…