It\’s 2015 and the most ambitious drilling project in history has reached deeper beneath the Earth's crust than man has ever gone before – but now the ground itself is fighting back. In the latest episode of the time-travelling drama, the Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive in a tiny mining village and find themselves plunged into a battle against a deadly danger from a bygone age.
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Spoilers for Vampires of Venice
There\’s a massive feature in the Telegraph that gives away tons of details for \”The Vampires Of Venice.\” I didn\’t realize the show filmed both Venice circa 1580 and 19th century France in the Croatian town of Trogir — which was under Venetian control from 1420 to 1797 and looks, in parts, more like 16th. century Venice than Venice does nowadays. Also, there\’s no love triangle with the Doctor, Amy and Rory — she just felt like kissing him at the end of \”Flesh And Stone.\”
The Doctor\’s attempting to play Cupid by taking Amy and Rory to Venice, but he falls afoul of Rosanna Cavilieri, who appears to be the prim headmistress of a school for girls, but then she bares her enormous fangs and you start to think she might be a vampire. But it turns out these aren\’t vampires — they\’re \”these strange things that turn into fish,\” says Karen Gillan. And Rosanna morphs into a really great CG baddie, sort of like a praying mantis, which attacks Rory and Amy in an alley. [Telegraph]
Sarah Jane Adventures Season 4
I have let The Sarah Jane Adventures Season 4 fall to the wayside this season, with all the Doctor Who excitement, so here is a catchup;
The trio are in their first year of A Levels, and the storylines will reflect this, Luke Smith departs in the first story, and a new regular character is joining the gang.
Androvax is returning, as are the Raxacoricofallapatorians, the Slitheen and the Blathereen. The Shansheeth, a race of vulture undertakers, will appear half way through the series and episode one has the Nightmare Man, which will be involve a big emotional journey for Luke.
We already know Jo Grant (Katy Manning) is to appear, as is the Doctor (Matt Smith).
In 4.03 & 4.04 a yellow and black monster was seen on set, along with men in black suits and shades emerging from a 1960s Hummer, identified as the same men from Dreamland!
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Schneier on Security: Why Aren\’t There More Terrorist Attacks?
Why Aren\’t There More Terrorist Attacks?
As the details of the Times Square car bomb attempt emerge in the wake of Faisal Shahzad\’s arrest Monday night, one thing has already been made clear: Terrorism is fairly easy. All you need is a gun or a bomb, and a crowded target. Guns are easy to buy. Bombs are easy to make. Crowded targets — not only in New York, but all over the country — are easy to come by. If you\’re willing to die in the aftermath of your attack, you could launch a pretty effective terrorist attack with a few days of planning, maybe less. But if it\’s so easy, why aren\’t there more terrorist attacks like the failed car bomb in New York\’s Times Square? Or the terrorist shootings in Mumbai? Or the Moscow subway bombings? After the enormous horror and tragedy of 9/11, why have the past eight years been so safe in the U.S.?\”
(View the rest of the article at Schneier on Security: Why Aren\’t There More Terrorist Attacks?)
Killing Floor and Red Orchestra coming to the Mac
Valve\’s announcement last week that the Mac port of Steam would be released on May 12 is already generating much excitement but until today there\’s been no word on what other third party games will be available for Mac Steam users. Today Big Download has confirmed with Tripwire Interactive that its two first person shooter retail games; Red Orchestra Ostfront 41-45 and Killing Floor, will be released for the Mac via Steam.
The first clue came from the official message boards for Tripwire Interactive\’s zombie shooter as a desktop screenshot posted by a Tripwire team member (shown above) seemed to show the game running natively on a Mac OS. There are also hints from other Tripwire team members in the forums that a Mac port was in development.
However Tripwire\’s president John Gibson officially confirmed to Big Download today that both Red Orchestra and Killing Floor would indeed be released for the Mac. In addition to the regular games, the Mac ports will have access to all of the downloadable content available for both titles. They will also have Steam achievements and cross-platform multiplayer with their PC counterparts. An exact release date for the Mac ports has not been revealed but Gibson told us it should happen around the time the Mac Steam client is officially available or soon afterward.
Sounds excellent!!! This is what we needed to see and here…
For those not familiar with the games…
Killing Floor, sounds similar in concept to the Resident Evil games…
- The game takes place in London, England. Horzine Biotech, a biotechnology company, is contracted to conduct experiments of a military nature involving mass cloning and genetic manipulation. Something goes horribly wrong during the process of the experimentations, and human subjects begin to exhibit grotesque mutations and disfigurement. They become increasingly hostile, and eventually overrun the internal security forces of the corporation. Hours later, the first waves of the specimens break out onto the surface, disrupting a peace protest outside the well-known military contractor. Despite the best efforts of local police, the civilians are quickly overwhelmed and consumed by the seemingly endless supply of clones now streaming from the gaping maw of Horzine Biotech\’s headquarter. Having escaped their sterile prison, the creatures began to fan out to neighboring areas, devouring the helpless citizens of London while the Metropolitan Police bravely but fruitlessly attempt to stem the tide of mutated flesh now spreading across their city.Desperate to contain the outbreak, the British government begins to organize ragtag teams of surviving British Army soldiers and Special Branch police officers to fight back against the hordes of mutated \”specimens\” now running amok throughout the capital and its outskirts. The player takes the role of an anonymous member of one of these teams as they partake in a variety of missions in and around the city of London.
Red Orchestra : OstFront 41 – 45
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Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is a tactical first-person shooter computer game based on its predecessorRed Orchestra Mod. After winning the Make Something Unreal contest, the team behind the original Red Orchestra started the game studio Tripwire Interactive. Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 was the first game developed by Tripwire Interactive.
- Set on the Eastern Front during World War II between 1941 and 1945, Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45depicts the struggle between Soviet and German forces.[1] Red Orchestra concentrates mostly on the multiplayer aspect of the game, although there is a singleplayer \”Practice\” mode available. Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 features an advanced ballistics system for both small arms and tank rounds – incorporating bullet drop, flight time, and tanks with more realistic armor properties than most games (featuring: penetration and deflection, in relation to range and projectile trajectory angle). The player\’s movements are realistically modeled, giving them the ability to lie and move prone, sprint (while standing or crouching) and to deploy machine guns on objects.
(View the rest of the article at Exclusive: Killing Floor and Red Orchestra coming to the Mac)
Weeping Angels NEW fact file
I wonder if this is true? Star Trek IV
This was found in a SlashDot article, so take it with a large brick of Salt, but I wonder if it\’s true???
It\’s taken on a kind of Urban Legend patina, so take it with a grain of salt, but here goes:
Seems that the Art Department and Properties guys — the crew responsible for dressing the set — for Star Trek IV were all HUGE Amiga fans. No real surprise there, given where Amiga was at the time the movie was shot. So… in the famous scene where Scotty, the ultimate fictional Uber Engineer, has traveled back in time and assumes all computers are voice-activated (as they are in his century), talks into a mouse, the Art guys wanted their Amiga to be the one featured in the scene. So they sent some reps just up the road apiece from where they were filming in San Francisco to meet with the Amiga honchos and get some hardware for the scene. As the story goes, the Amiga guys were initially annoyed, cuz it was all so unannounced and sudden, and then they agreed only if the crew paid for the gear. \’No loaners.\’
\’Um, but, it\’s the new Star Trek movie, and it\’s Chief Engineer Scott, and he\’s back in our century, and he could be using YOUR computer, and we all really love Amigas on the set, and…\’
\’Sorry. Sign this Purchase Order or get out.\’
So the crew called Apple, who \’got it\’ in a heartbeat, sent in a Marketing SWAT team with free Macs for the scene, free Macs for everyone on the crew, and technical advisers to stand by during the filming to make sure everything went smoothly.
Amiga, the astute among you have by now noticed, is no longer with us. Apple, on the other hand…\”
Top 10 things Hollywood thinks computers can do
The site is slashdoted at the moment…. So once the fire department is done putting out the flaming wreck of a server, feel free to take a look…
A couple of weeks ago we covered the Top 10 biggest tech flaws in films, this week we\’ve got a kind of sequel (in the best Hollywood tradition), and we\’re looking at the Top 10 myths has about how computers work in the real world. Now we understand the need to \’sex up\’ computers, as they\’d otherwise be incredibly boring, but must these stereotypes persist?
10. When systems go wrong, stuff starts to explode
When a computer crashes in real life it\’s often quite annoying, but spectacularly dull to watch. In films, when a computer goes wrong, it\’s very exciting and stuff starts to explode.
View the rest of the article at Top 10 things Hollywood thinks computers can do