The CEOs of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and Paramount Global discussed a potential merger on Tuesday, according to a report from Axios citing "multiple" anonymous sources. No formal talks are underway yet, according to The Wall Street Journal. But the discussions look like the start of consolidation discussions for the media industry during a tumultuous time of forced evolution.
On Wednesday, Axios reported that WBD head David Zaslav and Paramount head Bob Bakish met in Paramount's New York City headquarters for "several hours."
Zaslav and Shari Redstone, owner of Paramount's parent company National Amusements Inc (NAI), have also spoken, Axios claimed.
Google Play Movies & TV is getting a shutdown date, again. Google previously sent out an email to users saying "Google Play Movies & TV is going away on 05 October 2023," but 9to5Google spotted a new support page that says January 17, 2024, is the new shutdown date. It's not entirely clear why there are two shutdown dates, but the October 5 shutdown definitely happened in the US; perhaps this message is for international users.
Google's page says that in January, "Google Play Movies & TV will no longer be available on Android TV devices or the Google Play website." This should be the last of the Google Play Movies brand. Phones and tablets have already switched to a "Google TV" app (not to be confused with the Google TV OS), and the Play Store abandoned media sales in 2022.
With the one-stop-shop Play Store dead, Google says your purchased content will now be in different apps, depending on what Google platform you're on. The support page says: "On TVs and streaming devices powered by Android TV," purchased content is in the "Shop" tab but on "cable boxes or set-top boxes powered by Android TV" the content will be in the YouTube app. On the web, purchased content is on YouTube.com.
Since antiquity, humans have envisioned various means of time travel into the future or the past. The concept has since become a staple of modern science fiction. In particular, the number of films that make use of time travel has increased significantly over the decades, while the real-world science has evolved right alongside them, moving from simple Newtonian mechanics and general relativity to quantum mechanics and the notion of a multiverse or more exotic alternatives like string theory.
But not all time-travel movies are created equal. Some make for fantastic entertainment but the time travel makes no scientific or logical sense, while others might err in the opposite direction, sacrificing good storytelling in the interests of technical accuracy. What we really need is a handy guide to help us navigate this increasingly crowded field to ensure we get the best of both worlds, so to speak. The Ars Guide to Time Travel in the Movies is here to help us all make better, more informed decisions when it comes to choosing our time travel movie fare.
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list; rather, we selected films that represented many diverse approaches to time travel across multiple subgenres and decades. We then evaluated each one—grading on a curve—with regard to its overall entertainment value and scientific logic, with the final combined score determining a film's spot on the overall ranking. For the “science” part of our scoring system, we specifically took three factors into account. First and foremost, does the time travel make logical sense? Second, is the physical mechanism of time travel somewhat realistic? And third, does the film use time travel in narratively interesting ways? So a movie like Looper, which makes absolutely no sense if you think about it too hard, gets points for weaving time paradoxes thoroughly into the fabric of the story.
After three years, a new expansion, and $120 million of additional investment, the video game Cyberpunk 2077 is enjoying renewed attention and appreciation right now—and it turns out that will lead to a live-action adaptation, according to a press release on developer CD Projekt Red's website.
The creative team behind the game will partner with Anonymous Content—a media company known for the TV series Mr. Robot and True Detective and the film The Revenant, among many other productions—to bring the franchise to live action. The announcement didn't specify whether the live-action production would be a TV series or a movie, nor did it specify when it would come out or on which platforms.
It does, however, state that it will be a "brand-new story set in the world of Cyberpunk 2077," and that it is "at an early development stage"—so early, in fact, that the team is looking for a screenwriter. The fact that it will be a new story makes it seem unlikely that we'll see Keanu Reeves reprise his role as Johnny Silverhand.
When we invited Estefannie Explains It All to present at Coolest Projects International, she decided to make something cool with a Raspberry Pi to bring along. But being Estefannie, she didn’t just make something a little bit cool. She went ahead and made Raspberry Pi Zero-powered Jurassic Park goggles, or, as she calls them, the world’s first globally triggered, mass broadcasting, photon-emitting and -collecting head unit.
Make your own Jurassic Park goggles using a Raspberry Pi // MAKE SOMETHING
Is it heavy? Yes. But these goggles are not expensive. Follow along as I make the classic Jurassic Park Goggles from scratch!! The 3D Models: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3732889 My code: https://github.com/estefanniegg/estefannieExplainsItAll/blob/master/makes/JurassicGoggles/jurassic_park.py Thank you Coolest Projects for bringing me over to speak in Ireland!! https://coolestprojects.org/ Thank you Polymaker for sending me the Polysher and the PolySmooth filament!!!!
Estefannie’s starting point was the set of excellent 3D models of the iconic goggles that Jurassicpaul has kindly made available on Thingiverse. There followed several 3D printing attempts and lots of sanding, sanding, sanding, spray painting, and sanding, then some more printing with special Polymaker filament that can be ethanol polished.
Estefannie soldered rings of addressable LEDs and created custom models for 3D-printable pieces to fit both them and the goggles. She added a Raspberry Pi Zero, some more LEDs and buttons, an adjustable headgear part from a welding mask, and – importantly – four circles of green acetate. After quite a lot of gluing, soldering, and wiring, she ended up with an entirely magnificent set of goggles.
Here, they’re modelled magnificently by Raspberry Pi videographer Brian. I think you’ll agree he cuts quite a dash.
Estefannie wrote a Python script to interact with Twitter, take photos, and provide information about the goggles’ current status via the LED rings. When Estefannie powers up the Raspberry Pi, it runs a script on startup and connects to her phone’s wireless hotspot. A red LED on the front of the goggles indicates that the script is up and running.
Once it’s running, pressing a button at the back of the head unit makes the Raspberry Pi search Twitter for mentions of @JurassicPi. The LEDs light up green while it searches, just like you remember from the film. If Estefannie’s script finds a mention, the LEDs flash white and the Raspberry Pi camera module takes a photo. Then they light up blue while the script tweets the photo.
All the code is available on Estefannie’s GitHub. I love this project – I love the super clear, simple user experience provided by the LED rings, and there’s something I really appealing about the asynchronous Twitter interaction, where you mention @JurassicPi and then get an image later, the next time googles are next turned on.
If you read the beginning of this post and thought, “wait, what’s Coolest Projects?” then be sure to watch to the end of Estefannie’s video to catch her excellentCoolest Projects mini vlog. And then sign up for updates about Coolest Projects events near you, so you can join in next year, or help a team of young people to join in.
The post Estefannie’s Jurassic Park goggles appeared first on Raspberry Pi.