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			    <title>Fantasy | hotblur</title> 
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			<title>Scientists respond to planet hunter&#039;s plight with pointers – and poetry</title>
			<link>http://hotblur.com/!/News/scientists-respond-to-planet-hunters-plight-with-pointers-and-poetry</link>
			<description><![CDATA[	NASAAn artist&#039;s conception shows NASA&#039;s Kepler space telescope observing a planetary transit.By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC NewsNASA is getting plenty of advice — and sympathy — as it assesses whether its Kepler planet-hunting telescope can be revived after the failure of its reaction-control system. The reactions from scientists and engineers range from repair tips to an Audenesque elegy. Here&#039;s a sampling:
How to fix KeplerThe reason why the $600 million Kepler spacecraft can no longer search for planetary transits is that two of its four gyroscopic reaction wheels can no longer spin. Mission managers say Kepler needs at least three of those wheels in working order to hold its position still enough to stare at alien stars.The most recent part to fail is known as reaction wheel 4. The mission&#039;s deputy project manager, Charlie Sobeck, told reporters that the Kepler team could try putting some reverse torque on that wheel in hopes of freeing it up.Two other possibilities were raised by Scott Hubbard, who headed NASA&#039;s Ames Research Center during the development of the Kepler mission and is now a consulting professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University.One option would be to try turning on reaction wheel 2, which failed last July. &quot;It was putting metal on metal, and the friction was interfering with its operation, so you could see if the lubricant that is in there, having sat quietly, has redistributed itself, and maybe it will work,&quot; Hubbard said in a Stanford Q&amp;A.&quot;The other scheme, and this has never been tried, involves using thrusters and the solar pressure exerted on the solar panels to try and act as a third reaction wheel and provide additional pointing stability,&quot; he said. The mission&#039;s principal investigator, Ames&#039; Bill Borucki, said on Wednesday the thrusters couldn&#039;t hold the spacecraft stable enough for planet-hunting. Nevertheless, it might be one of the options under consideration.For the time being, Kepler has been put into a holding pattern that should minimize its thruster fuel consumption and give the Kepler team several months to weigh all the options, the costs and the potential scientific benefits.The problems facing the Kepler planet-hunting probe are reviewed in NASA&#039;s weekly video roundup.Watch on YouTubeGoing beyond KeplerEven if the Kepler spacecraft can&#039;t be revived, Borucki says that only half of the data collected so far have been fully analyzed. He estimates it&#039;ll take another two years or so to complete the analysis.Meanwhile, NASA has just given the go-ahead its next planet-hunting satellite: the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS. That $200 million project would put a telescope array in space in 2017 to perform an all-sky survey, looking for exoplanets in orbit around the nearest and brightest stars. That strategy is markedly different from the one used by Kepler, which stared at a relatively small patch of sky straddling the constellations Cygnus and Vega.This October, the European Space Agency plans to launch a space probe called Gaia to conduct a census of more than a billion stars in the Milky Way. Gaia could detect thousands of distant planetary systems, and measure their orbits and masses using a technique known as astrometry.ESA is working on another planet hunter called the Characterizing Exoplanets Satellite, or CHEOPS, which is due for launch in 2017. CHEOPS would conduct high-resolution transit observations of stars that have already been found to host planets. The $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which NASA bills as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, could conceivably analyze the atmospheres of alien planets. It&#039;s currently due for launch in 2018.Paying tribute to KeplerNASA&#039;s associate administrator for science, John Grunsfeld, said it&#039;s too early to consider Kepler &quot;down and out.&quot; But many astronomers fear that Kepler&#039;s planet-hunting days are finished.&quot;I think &#039;The mission is not over&#039; means &#039;the mission is over,&#039;&quot; Caltech&#039;s Mike Brown said in a Twitter update on Wednesday. &quot;Might be other things it can do. But, kids, I think the mission is over.&quot;Alan Boss, an astrophysicist at the Carnegie Institution for Science who&#039;s part of the Kepler team, was similarly downbeat. In an email sent to AAAS MemberCentral, he called this week&#039;s setback a &quot;disaster&quot;:

&quot;I am afraid that the loss of this second reaction wheel effectively means the partial loss of Kepler&#039;s main science goal: determining the frequency of Earth-sized planets orbiting their stars at distances such that liquid water could occur on the planets&#039; surfaces. Kepler has taken an outstandingly impressive four years of data, but we still need another three or so years of outstandingly impressive data to be certain of the frequency of Earth-size planets. Right now we have enough data to make an intelligent extrapolation about what that number is, but that is not the same as actually determining that number. Kepler was planned to do that for us. There is no other mission in sight that can reproduce for us what Kepler was in the process of doing. The upcoming (2017) NASA TESS Mission will help to push the exoplanet field forward, but it is not designed to find Earthlike planets around sunlike stars, like Kepler was.&quot;
&quot;This is one of the saddest days in my life. A crippled Kepler may be able to do other things, but it cannot do the one thing it was designed to do.&quot;
Another Kepler team member, Geoff Marcy of the University of California at Berkeley, told KQED that he felt dizzy and teary-eyed over the spacecraft&#039;s situation. &quot;It’s a loss for our species,&quot; he said. &quot;That sounds dramatic, but we pride ourselves as a species of exploration, seeking answers beyond the horizon, answers about our place in the universe. And Kepler was answering those questions.&quot;Marcy went so far as to tweak W.H. Auden&#039;s poem &quot;Funeral Blues&quot; to pay tribute to Kepler. Here&#039;s the astronomer&#039;s elegy to a spacecraft:

Stop all the clocks, cut off the Internet,Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,Silence the pianos and with muffled drumBring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let jet airplanes circle at night overheadSky-writing over Cygnus: Kepler is dead.Put crepe bows round the white necks of doves,Let the traffic officers wear black cotton gloves.
Kepler was my North, my South, my East and West,My working week, no weekend rest,My noon, my midnight, my talks, my song;I thought Kepler would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are still wanted now; let&#039;s honor every one,Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;For nothing will ever be this good.
With thanks to W.H.Auden.

For a video rendition of &quot;Funeral Blues,&quot; check out this clip from &quot;Four Weddings and a Funeral.&quot;Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com&#039;s science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by &quot;liking&quot; the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com&#039;s stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech &amp; Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out &quot;The Case for Pluto,&quot; my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Sat, 18 May 2013 00:02:08 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Scientists respond to planet hunter&#039;s problems with pointers – and poetry</title>
			<link>http://hotblur.com/!/News/scientists-respond-to-planet-hunters-problems-with-pointers-and-poetry</link>
			<description><![CDATA[	NASAAn artist&#039;s conception shows NASA&#039;s Kepler space telescope observing a planetary transit.By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC NewsNASA is getting plenty of advice — and sympathy — as it assesses whether its Kepler planet-hunting telescope can be revived after the failure of its reaction-control system. The reactions from scientists and engineers range from repair tips to an Audenesque elegy. Here&#039;s a sampling:
How to fix KeplerThe reason why the $600 million Kepler spacecraft can no longer search for planetary transits is that two of its four gyroscopic reaction wheels can no longer spin. Mission managers say Kepler needs at least three of those wheels in working order to hold its position still enough to stare at alien stars.The most recent part to fail is known as reaction wheel 4. The mission&#039;s deputy project manager, Charlie Sobeck, told reporters that the Kepler team could try putting some reverse torque on that wheel in hopes of freeing it up.Two other possibilities were raised by Scott Hubbard, who headed NASA&#039;s Ames Research Center during the development of the Kepler mission and is now a consulting professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University.One option would be to try turning on reaction wheel 2, which failed last July. &quot;It was putting metal on metal, and the friction was interfering with its operation, so you could see if the lubricant that is in there, having sat quietly, has redistributed itself, and maybe it will work,&quot; Hubbard said in a Stanford Q&amp;A.&quot;The other scheme, and this has never been tried, involves using thrusters and the solar pressure exerted on the solar panels to try and act as a third reaction wheel and provide additional pointing stability,&quot; he said. The mission&#039;s principal investigator, Ames&#039; Bill Borucki, said on Wednesday the thrusters couldn&#039;t hold the spacecraft stable enough for planet-hunting. Nevertheless, it might be one of the options under consideration.For the time being, Kepler has been put into a holding pattern that should minimize its thruster fuel consumption and give the Kepler team several months to weigh all the options, the costs and the potential scientific benefits.The problems facing the Kepler planet-hunting probe are reviewed in NASA&#039;s video week in review.Watch on YouTubeGoing beyond KeplerEven if the Kepler spacecraft can&#039;t be revived, Borucki says that only half of the data collected so far have been fully analyzed. He estimates it&#039;ll take another two years or so to complete the analysis.Meanwhile, NASA has just given the go-ahead its next planet-hunting satellite: the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS. That $200 million project would put a telescope array in space in 2017 to perform an all-sky survey, looking for exoplanets in orbit around the nearest and brightest stars. That strategy is markedly different from the one used by Kepler, which stared at a relatively small patch of sky straddling the constellations Cygnus and Vega.This October, the European Space Agency plans to launch a space probe called Gaia to conduct a census of more than a billion stars in the Milky Way. Gaia could detect thousands of distant planetary systems, and measure their orbits and masses using a technique known as astrometry.ESA is working on another planet hunter called the Characterizing Exoplanets Satellite, or CHEOPS, which is due for launch in 2017. CHEOPS would conduct high-resolution transit observations of stars that have already been found to host planets. The $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which NASA bills as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, could conceivably analyze the atmospheres of alien planets. It&#039;s currently due for launch in 2018.Paying tribute to KeplerNASA&#039;s associate administrator for science, John Grunsfeld, said it&#039;s too early to consider Kepler &quot;down and out.&quot; But many astronomers fear that Kepler&#039;s planet-hunting days are finished.&quot;I think &#039;The mission is not over&#039; means &#039;the mission is over,&#039;&quot; Caltech&#039;s Mike Brown said in a Twitter update on Wednesday. &quot;Might be other things it can do. But, kids, I think the mission is over.&quot;Alan Boss, an astrophysicist at the Carnegie Institution for Science who&#039;s part of the Kepler team, was similarly downbeat. In an email sent to AAAS MemberCentral, he called this week&#039;s setback a &quot;disaster&quot;:

&quot;I am afraid that the loss of this second reaction wheel effectively means the partial loss of Kepler&#039;s main science goal: determining the frequency of Earth-sized planets orbiting their stars at distances such that liquid water could occur on the planets&#039; surfaces. Kepler has taken an outstandingly impressive four years of data, but we still need another three or so years of outstandingly impressive data to be certain of the frequency of Earth-size planets. Right now we have enough data to make an intelligent extrapolation about what that number is, but that is not the same as actually determining that number. Kepler was planned to do that for us. There is no other mission in sight that can reproduce for us what Kepler was in the process of doing. The upcoming (2017) NASA TESS Mission will help to push the exoplanet field forward, but it is not designed to find Earthlike planets around sunlike stars, like Kepler was.&quot;
&quot;This is one of the saddest days in my life. A crippled Kepler may be able to do other things, but it cannot do the one thing it was designed to do.&quot;
Another Kepler team member, Geoff Marcy of the University of California at Berkeley, told KQED that he felt dizzy and teary-eyed over the spacecraft&#039;s situation. &quot;It’s a loss for our species,&quot; he said. &quot;That sounds dramatic, but we pride ourselves as a species of exploration, seeking answers beyond the horizon, answers about our place in the universe. And Kepler was answering those questions.&quot;Marcy went so far as to tweak W.H. Auden&#039;s poem &quot;Funeral Blues&quot; to pay tribute to Kepler. Here&#039;s the astronomer&#039;s elegy to a spacecraft:

Stop all the clocks, cut off the Internet,Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,Silence the pianos and with muffled drumBring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let jet airplanes circle at night overheadSky-writing over Cygnus: Kepler is dead.Put crepe bows round the white necks of doves,Let the traffic officers wear black cotton gloves.
Kepler was my North, my South, my East and West,My working week, no weekend rest,My noon, my midnight, my talks, my song;I thought Kepler would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are still wanted now; let&#039;s honor every one,Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;For nothing will ever be this good.
With thanks to W.H.Auden.

For a video rendition of &quot;Funeral Blues,&quot; check out this clip from &quot;Four Weddings and a Funeral.&quot;Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com&#039;s science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by &quot;liking&quot; the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com&#039;s stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech &amp; Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out &quot;The Case for Pluto,&quot; my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 23:30:02 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>The big screen adaptation of ASSASSIN&#039;S CREED has been given a release date!!!</title>
			<link>http://hotblur.com/!/News/the-big-screen-adaptation-of-assassins-creed-has-been-given-a-release-date</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Hey Yo! Draven here.
Coming Soon is reporting that the ASSASSIN’S CREED film adaptation will be hitting theaters May 22, 2015, so just two short years away. (Man, what a summer 2015 will be if all of these films stick around.) This is Memorial Day weekend, which many people assumed would be the release date for STAR WARS: EPISODE VII. If that happens expect this to move.
All we know so far is that Michael Fassbender will be playing the lead role, Michael Lesslie will be writing the script, and 20th Century Fox/New Regency will be financing and distributing the movie. No director or other cast has been announced yet but that should be coming soon.
I don’t have a lot of attachment to the source material, having only played the first game. It was a pretty good game and this seems like it has a chance to be our first really good video game adaptation. From what I hear, the ASSASSIN’S CREED sequels are even better and more cinematic. Plus, I love Michael Fassbender and will watch anything he is a part of so I am really excited for this. I just hope they get a director that excites me and not somebody like Fox&#039;s go to hack, John Moore. 
Those of you who have more knowledge of this source material, are the games going to be easy to adapt to the big screen? Does Michael Fassbender seem like a good fit for this project? Who is your dream director for this project? Is this going to get lost in between AVENGERS 2 and EPISODE VII?
Follow me on Twitter here!
 
]]></description>
			<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 22:30:03 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>IRON MAN 3 - Cool Mansion Attack Animatic</title>
			<link>http://hotblur.com/!/News/iron-man-3-cool-mansion-attack-animatic</link>
			<description><![CDATA[
I enjoy seeing pre-production work and concept art for films. This kind of stuff plays a huge part in developing a film, yet it&#039;s stuff a lot of people don&#039;t really think about. Artist Federico D&#039;Alessandro created this amazing animatic for Iron Man 3 that envisioned how the epic mansion attack would play out. What&#039;s cool about this is the animatic is almost exactly what we ended up seeing in the movie, and it was done way before they started shooting. Here&#039;s a statement from the artist in which he talks about his experience making it.

I worked on IRON MAN 3 as the Lead Storyboard Artist and Animatics Supervisor, and during that time I created a lot of fun animatics. This was my favorite one, and was translated to the final film pretty closely! 
I met with Shane Black very early during pre-production to discuss this scene. Even in the early stages, the sequence seemed gargantuan. So much needed to happen in a relatively short amount of time, and I knew that this would be my most challenging animatic yet. The beauty of the way Shane works is that he’s not only a brilliant storyteller but he’s very open to other ideas, and during my time on the show he trusted me as a creative collaborator. I wanted to reward the freedom he gave me and that led to some of my best work I’ve done for Marvel yet. After a few story meetings with Shane where we hashed out a lot of beats together, he gave me control of the scene and I went to work figuring out how to turn this sequence into a visual spectacle.
Creating this animatic was a technically challenging process as I was trying a lot of new techniques not normally found in animatics. The storytelling had to be tight, the energy frenetic, and the action clear. One of the things I focused on was a “good news, bad news” stacking of the beats…Tony gets out of a bind, only to be faced with another challenge which he overcomes but then he is immediately dealt a fresh problem. As much as anything else, Tony needed to outthink his attackers.
Thankfully Shane and Marvel were ecstatic with the end result. By the time the animatic was approved by all the powers-that-be, were still many months away from shooting, but I think having this kind of scene locked down so early allowed Marvel to carefully strategize all the necessary elements to make this very complex scene come to life. In the end, they ended up following my animatic almost shot-to-shot, so seeing that on screen was an amazingly gratifying experience.

Now check out the animatic! 
Source: /Film (http://www.slashfilm.com/see-how-the-iron-man-3-mansion-attack-was-created-long-before-filming-began/)]]></description>
			<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 20:01:30 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Buggy hordes of cicadas sighted in Virginia ... but New York? Not yet</title>
			<link>http://hotblur.com/!/News/buggy-hordes-of-cicadas-sighted-in-virginia-but-new-york-not-yet</link>
			<description><![CDATA[	The first of the Brood II cicadas, which only mature every 17 years, are being spotted in some southern states including Virginia. NBC&#039;s Brian Williams reports. By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

  

Follow @b0yle
There&#039;s been a groundswell of 17-year cicadas in Virginia and other southern states, as revealed by a fresh wave of photos and eyewitness reports. In some areas, the outbreak has been accompanied by the insects&#039; loud chorus call. And that&#039;s music to the ears of University of Connecticut entomologist John Cooley.&quot;That&#039;s where I&#039;m heading,&quot; Cooley told NBC News. The weather is still too cool in New England and the New York City area for a full-blown Brood II emergence, so Cooley is planning a field trip to watch the insects rise up in Virginia.
This is the big year for Brood II cicadas, which are expected to emerge from the ground in the billions over an area of the East Coast ranging from North Carolina up to Connecticut. The bugs are hard-wired to spend 17 years underground, feeding on the fluid from plant roots, and then pop up during the appointed spring when the soil temperature reaches 64 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius).For weeks, bug-watchers have been posting their sightings (and soil temperature readings) to websites such as Cooley&#039;s Magicicada.org and RadioLab&#039;s Cicada Tracker. Another website maintained by the Sutron weather information network tracks the soil temperature in Washington, D.C. When the winged cicadas throng, they can cover trees and buildings — and raise a din as loud as a lawnmower or jet engine (90 decibels). Over the course of four to six weeks in May and June, the bugs mate, lay their eggs and die, setting the 17-year life cycle in motion once again. (Scientists theorize that there are evolutionary advantages to the long, odd-numbered cycle.)Although the cicadas have been patiently waiting for 17 years, some cicada-watchers up north are getting impatient with the pace of the emergence. Cooley said the relatively slow pace may be due to this spring&#039;s cool temperatures. In order to bring the soil up to 64 degrees F, air temperatures have to get significantly higher than that on a consistent basis.&quot;I want 80s and 90s,&quot; he said, &quot;and so do the cicadas.&quot;Dave Ellis / The Free Lance-Star via APBrood II cicadas emerge in the Leavells Crossing neighborhood in Spotsylvania, Va., on May 16.Carol via Twitter.com/oikwtm_Cicadas throng near a house in Fredericksburg, Va.Carol via Twitter.com/oikwtm_A cat looks through a screen door as cicadas swarm outside a house in Fredericksburg, Va.Slideshow: Return of the cicadaTake a closer look at the curious 17-year life of the flying bug as the East Coast prepares for an invasion.Launch slideshow
  

Follow @CosmicLog
  More about the cicada outbreak:

Cicadas crawling out of the ground in droves
&#039;Swarmageddon&#039; comes to North Carolina
Bug-watchers see cicadas on the rise
Cicada emergence sparks early buzz

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com&#039;s science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by &quot;liking&quot; the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com&#039;s stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech &amp; Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out &quot;The Case for Pluto,&quot; my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 19:30:03 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Want to find Trekkie love? Now you can!</title>
			<link>http://hotblur.com/!/News/want-to-find-trekkie-love-now-you-can</link>
			<description><![CDATA[
Love Star Trek? Want to find your Captain Kirk? Your Borg Queen? Need a date to watch Star Trek Into Darkness… again (cuz we all know you’ve seen it already)? Need a date to Khan-vention? Now you can!
There are four Star Trek dating sites to choose from (or you can join all) – Trekkiedating.com, StarTrekDating.com, StarTrekDating.co.uk (UK residents only) and TrekPassions.com – that offers a chance for you to date a fellow Star Trek fan (Trekkie/Trekker). All the websites are free to join.
TrekkieDating welcomes users, “Welcome to a dating community that is light years ahead of others. Find like-minded friends, romance, &amp; convention dates with other Trekkies TODAY!”
StarTrekDating offers users a chance to meet their Captain Kirk or Borg Queen. They allow you to join clans as well.
StarTrekDatingUK was created in June 2012 for UK residents only. They receive about two million views a day. StarTrekDating.com was originally for UK residents but then opened up to other countries resulting in this website to be created.
TrekPassions is open to all sci-fi fans – including Star Wars fans. There are different groups you can join on the site. One group is called Pon Farr (an affliction where Vulcans have to mate with someone or else they die every seven years). Oooh.
Be aware, there is spam on all of these sites and potential adult spam profiles and ads. So make sure you look carefully at their profile before communicating with anyone. If you want to be sure you are communicating with a Trekkie, you can write to them in Klingon. Thanks to Bing translator. you can.
These websites have no affiliation with the Star Trek franchise/Paramount Pictures and CBS Products.
You could potentially find your other half of your Imzadi.





The post Want to find Trekkie love? Now you can! appeared first on Nerd Reactor.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 19:30:03 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Nintendo to make money off of YouTube videos using its content</title>
			<link>http://hotblur.com/!/News/nintendo-to-make-money-off-of-youtube-videos-using-its-content</link>
			<description><![CDATA[
RoosterTeeth’s Let’s Play videos and other YouTube videos have been targeted by Nintendo for copyright infringement. The money that the Let’s Play channel gets from any video containing a Nintendo game will now go to Nintendo. According to YouTuber’s Zack Scott, Nintendo is using the “content ID match” to find out which videos are using Nintendo game footage.
Since Zack Scott makes money out of these videos, he wasn’t too pleased with Nintendo’s actions. Here’s what he had to say from his Facebook post:
I just want to express my feelings on the matter of Nintendo claiming not just my YouTube videos, but from several LPers as well.
I’m a Nintendo fan. I waited in the cold overnight to get a Wii. I’m a 3DS ambassador. I got a Wii U at midnight when I already had one in the mail. I’ve been a Nintendo fan since the NES, and I’ve owned all of their systems.
With that said, I think filing claims against LPers is backwards. Video games aren’t like movies or TV. Each play-through is a unique audiovisual experience. When I see a film that someone else is also watching, I don’t need to see it again. When I see a game that someone else is playing, I want to play that game for myself! Sure, there may be some people who watch games rather than play them, but are those people even gamers?
My viewers watch my gameplay videos for three main reasons:
1. To hear my commentary/review.
2. To learn about the game and how to play certain parts.
3. To see how I handle and react to certain parts of the game.
Since I started my gaming channel, I’ve played a lot of games. I love Nintendo, so I’ve included their games in my line-up. But until their claims are straightened out, I won’t be playing their games. I won’t because it jeopardizes my channel’s copyright standing and the livelihood of all LPers.
Nintendo sends a statement to address the issue.
As part of our on-going push to ensure Nintendo content is shared across social media channels in an appropriate and safe way, we became a YouTube partner and as such in February 2013 we registered our copyright content in the YouTube database. For most fan videos this will not result in any changes, however, for those videos featuring Nintendo-owned content, such as images or audio of a certain length, adverts will now appear at the beginning, next to or at the end of the clips. We continually want our fans to enjoy sharing Nintendo content on YouTube, and that is why, unlike other entertainment companies, we have chosen not to block people using our intellectual property.
Nintendo says that they want fans to share their content, yet Zack Scott has said that he’ll stop promoting Nintendo games because he won’t get money out of it.
Just because Nintendo won’t allow YouTubers to make money off of their content, it doesn’t mean other developers are joining suit.
“Capybara Games Inc (also known as Capy) hereby grants permission for the use of in-game audio &amp; video for ‘Let’s Play,’ ‘Preview,’ ‘Review’ and/or ‘Commentary’-style videos on Youtube, including ad-supported channels/videos,” the post reads. “The creator of the video may use in-game audio &amp; video for as many videos as desired.”
The creator of the indie game, Thomas Was Alone, also shares his thoughts on the matter. He says that without YouTubers using his content, he wouldn’t have become a full-time developer.
“Thomas Was Alone would not have been a hit without YouTube,” reads his post. “Without the frequent infringement of my copyright, the astonishingly aggressive use of my intellectual property and oftentimes presumptuous use of work comprising years of my life, I wouldn’t be sat right now, at home, taking a break from my work as a full time indie developer.”
Source: GameFront via Penny Arcade
The post Nintendo to make money off of YouTube videos using its content appeared first on Nerd Reactor.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 19:30:03 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>DC&#039;s VILLAIN Month: Who Might Show Up in September?</title>
			<link>http://hotblur.com/!/News/dcs-villain-month-who-might-show-up-in-september</link>
			<description><![CDATA[We do some research and hypothesize what bad guys might populate DC&#039;s reported/&#039;reputed&#039; September &quot;Villain Month&quot; event.]]></description>
			<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 18:30:03 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Capone chats with BLACK ROCK director-actor Katie Aselton</title>
			<link>http://hotblur.com/!/News/capone-chats-with-black-rock-directoractor-katie-aselton</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.  When you see the violent action thriller BLACK ROCK, some of you may have a tough time believing it was made by a woman, let alone the woman who directed the emotionally charged, improvised marriage drama THE FREEBIE. But Katie Aselton is no ordinary woman. She&#039;s a working actress who has joined an elite but growing club of women who have gotten tired of sitting around waiting for casting directors to come to them or only see them in a limited capacity, and has taken things in her own hands by writing and/or directing in films that they also star in.  But BLACK ROCK is something entirely different. It&#039;s a tense, action-tinged tale of three female friends (Aselton, Lake Bell, and Kate Bosworth) who get together to bond on a small island off the coast of Maine. They think they&#039;re alone on the island until they stumble upon there military vets recently returned from the Middle East and having trouble readjusting to life back home. And that&#039;s as specific as I want to get about the horrible things that happen to these women. For a scene in which two of the women fall into near-freezing water and have to strip completely naked to take advantage of body heat, Aselton is put through the unenviable task of being huddled nude with Bell.  The film reminds me of the rape-revenge works of the late 1970s and early 1980s that would often make the grindhouse circuit or play drive-ins. Even more surprising is that the film was written by Aselton&#039;s husband, filmmaker and actor Mark Duplass. The two are probably best know for starring together (although not as a couple) on FX&#039;s &quot;The League,&quot; whose next season kicks off on the new FXX channel in the fall.  In the mean time, check out Aselton&#039;s extraordinary, blood-soaking BLACK ROCK, and please enjoy my chat with her (which includes quite a few spoilers, so be warned), which took place as she was running errands in Los Angeles; it was kind of hilarious, actually…  Katie Aselton: Hey, Steve. How are you?  Capone: Hey, good. It’s good to talk to you again.  KA: It’s good to talk to you. How’s it going?  Capone: Good. We actually played your film at our Chicago Critics Film Festival last month.  KA: Oh, that’s right. I knew that. I wanted to be there.  Capone: That would have been great. You retweeted my thoughts on the film being great and disturbing. So thank you for that. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever thanked anyone for doing that.  KA: Well I think this is actually the first time I’ve gotten to thank someone, a total stranger, for saying something really nice, which I needed and appreciated. [laughs]  Capone: The first thing that really kind of threw me about the film was I could never have guess that you would direct a film like this or that Mark would have written a film like this.  KA: Why is that?  Capone: Because it’s so completely different than anything I’ve seen you do before. Was that the goal, to do something that was out of your comfort zone as both a filmmaker and an actor?  KA: It was certainly the goal as an actor, because it’s frustrating when you keep getting seen in the same light, and you want to break out of that and do something different. As far as a filmmaker, I’m still learning my voice and figuring out what stories I want to tell, and this is a kind of movie that I really love, very naturalistic, simple stories that are tense and suspenseful and thrilling. Those were really interesting to me. So why not tell that story?  Capone: It does have a very specific tone and it’s one that I haven’t really seen done much lately. Its’ sort of right out of a certain kind of film that used to get made in the late &#039;70s and early &#039;80s. Except for the cellphones not working, it’s kind of a timeless story and could take place at any time in the last 40 years.  KA: Totally, which is so frustrating, because cell phones I think have really ruined a lot of movies. You have to acknowledge them. It’s so frustrating and there are only so many ways to deal with that issue.  Capone: It’s funny when filmmakers don’t address it. It almost sticks out now, and you’re right, it not only dates the film, but…  KA: It stinks. You don’t want to have to address it. I get why people don’t do it. As an audience member, it’s frustrating when they don’t do it, but I understand why they don’t do it. It’s like a sick Catch-22 and it bums me out.  Capone: Were there particular films that you and/or Mark were using as your touchstones for this film?  KA: Oh, absolutely. I would say, quite obviously, DELIVERANCE is a massive influence on this movie. Really I feel, like you said, they don’t make character-driven thrillers anymore. There are all kinds of devices that people use, and I get why audiences like that. In the way that THE FREEBIE was a simple story, I wanted this to be a simple thriller. Does that make sense?  Capone: Absolutely. I felt like I should have been watching it in a drive in; that’s what it felt like.  KA: That’s awesome. If we could ever make that happen, I would do that in a heartbeat.  Capone: I do know people that own drive ins outside of Chicago, but I will have to bring that up.  KA: We need to make this happen.  Capone: I also love, and I’m not going to give anything away here, that when the story is done the movie is done; you just stop it.  KA: Yeah, totally. What else would you need to know?  Capone: Exactly, but anybody else would have tacked on like 10 minutes of winddown, but you just end the movie.  KA: We shot it. We certainly shot ten minutes of winddown, but then when you see it, it all just seems unnecessary.  Capone: The ending is so jarring, but it’s completely effective, and we just sit in our seats for a few seconds and just go “Whoa, that was the story. That was all we needed there.”  KA: And that’s exactly what we found in the edit room, like “Okay, we can go on and say more, but do you have to? There’s nothing more to say.” You see in that image that, one, they&#039;re okay and off the island, and two, they&#039;re never going to be the same again for better or for worse. I think mostly for the better. I think with this experience, as traumatic and horrendous as it is, has strengthened them, and they have found their inner strength and that’s kind of neat, if you’re going to look for a positive.  Capone: I think it’s kind of fascinating that you have these two female characters that hate each other when it starts out, but they&#039;re the ones who have to overcome that. I feel like if the story were about two men in a similar circumstance, that they might not have gotten past that. They might have found a way to keep hating each other.  KA: That’s the thing too, because these two characters I think hated each other so much because they loved each other so much. Do you know what I mean? So when the shit really hits the fan, all the stupid trite dramatics fall away, because nothing matters. “That doesn’t matter. It’s ridiculous. It’s in the past. It’s done.” All they have is each other at that point, and I don’t know, maybe men just don’t do that. Maybe women are just so evolved [laughs].  Capone: You’re probably right.  KA: I don’t know. I think that’s what people always want me to say in these interviews.  [Both Laugh]  Capone: Compared to THE FREEBIE, this feels very traditionally scripted. Can you compare the experiences in shooting?  KA: Well honestly it was scripted. FREEBIE came from a six-page outline, which served the story in a lot of ways. I think it was nice to see this couple say things that surprised each other, and it felt very raw and very real and it really served the characters and the story. There’s a lot more going on here. A lot of things needed to be fully structured in there, especially when you’re dealing with stunts and safety and racing around an island. There’s logistics, there’s plot issues; you’re all over the place, so it was fully scripted.  That being said, we definitely opened scenes up and explored and cut loose and played around, which was great. As a filmmaker it makes it easier for me to find these really nice naturalistic moments; as an actor, improvisation is always a collaboration. It’s always getting to take on more responsibility and dig in and put more of yourself into a scene. I think that’s really fun too, so I like to work that way. I’ve done all of it, fully scripted, word for word, fully improvised with no script at all. I like it all. I think in developing my style, I like working with a script and then loosening the script from there.  Capone: I&#039;d imagine a more scripted scenario is easier to edit.  KA: Yes, very much so. Yeah, we knew exactly where the story was going and what we were doing. With THE FREEBIE it was like… do you remember those “Pick your own ending books” when we were kids?  Capone: Sure. I think they still have them.  KA: That’s what THE FREEBIE was. I mean first off, awesome books and I still can’t figure out how the hell they write them, but super fun for a 10-year-old kid to be reading a book like that; it’s like you’ve got 10 books in one book. That’s what THE FREEBIE was; we kept on having a disjointed structure and going back and forth in time, we really could have done whatever we wanted to. It was wild.  With BLACK ROCK, we knew exactly where it was going, exactly what was happening, the plot was very laid out and the structure was much more strict in a lot of ways. But that was great. I loved it. I’m a Libra, so I have a hard time making decisions. I still look at FREEBIE and I’m like “I just wish maybe we had done this.” With this it was like, “No, that’s what the scene had to be.” It could have been anything. It was fun and almost too much freedom. It was overwhelming at times.  Capone: What it was like for you just working with the blood and guts of this movie and using all of those practical effects?  KA: The first two days it was awesome. By the end, I was like, “If I taste one more drop of fake blood, I am going to vomit.”  Capone: You’re pretty much covered in it by the end.  KA: Oh, I was completely covered. At the end, at one point I like lean on Lake, and all of her hair sticks to all of my fake blood on my face. It is disgusting. My clothes were caked and dried with it, and it would rip out any tiny little peach-fuzzy hair you had. It was just yucky. That’s my technical term for it.  Capone: It didn’t look really comfortable in that last shot either.  KA: Everyone is like, “Oh your face, the expression on your eyes,” and I’m like “I think my skin just solidified in that expression. I don’t think I could have made another expression if I had tried.”  Capone: Did you know Kate and Lake before this film, either professionally or socially?  KA: Well, Lake was on &quot;The League,&quot; but I did not work with her on &quot;The League.&quot; I don’t think I was in that episode. I definitely wasn’t in the scene, if I was in the episode. But I knew her socially. We were friends and shared mutual friends, but I certainly did not know her as well as I know her now. Now we are bonded to like Level 10 friends. And I did not know Kate, but she knew Lake in the same way I did. She knew her from parties and work stuff, but they had never worked together, they liked each other, they always wanted to do something. They&#039;re always very social, and Lake was like “You should talk to Kate about this,” and I was like, “She would never do this.” But she read the script and she loved it. The second I sat down with her… Have you ever met her?  Capone: I’ve just interviewed her on Skype once. That’s it.  KA: She is like the nicest. She’s got this crazy, sweet energy and is all laughter. Clearly, I have discovered the type of woman that I love and it’s the women--well I don’t only love pretty women--who is stunningly beautiful, but a total goober on the inside. Then it just balances out all of that pretty. Someone who is pretty and a jerk, I’m like, “There’s no win there. It’s all too much for me, and I don’t need it.” But when they&#039;re as beautiful as Kate and Lake are, they need to be balanced out with serious dork factor, and both girls have that. They are goofy and funny, and we just had a silly good time together.  Capone: I know this has come up probably in every single interview, but the body-warming scene is pretty memorable. But it reminded me of the old rule I&#039;ve always heard about making horror films that if you include nudity and lots of blood, someone will pick it up for distribution.  KA: [laughs] I don’t know if that’s the reason why people put in nudity, but I definitely think that’s part of the genre, and in us doing it, it was definitely a very conscious nod of like, “Okay, I’ll put some boobs in there. I’m going to do it the way I want to do it, and it’s going to be totally non-sexual and like a survival tactic, but sure, I’ll follow your rules.”  Capone: It’s really moving the way you do it, and considering the history of these two characters, it was a really desperate moment, and it looked really, painfully cold.  KA: You know why? It was super cold.  Capone: I bet.  KA: I love that scene. It’s my favorite scene. At first, you’re like, &quot;Oh, cool. These chicks are going to take their clothes off, and then before you know it you totally forget that they are naked, which is so cool.  Capone: Did you and Lake have to talk about how that scene was going to progress, and how far you would take it.  KA: Yes, legally, I had to talk to Lake about it and have her sign off on how naked we were going to get, and it’s weird, because I was expecting her to be like “I’ll do boobs, but I wont go whole hog.” So I was like, “It’s written that we are naked naked, like fully naked. How cool are you with this?” She was like “Well, you’re right next to me, so if we are doing this, we’re doing this, and I’m ready.” I was like “Oh, okay. Great.” It was one of those “Shit, I’m getting naked.” I’ve never even done partial nudity; I’m going straight from nothing to everything, “Okay!”  Then I had the realization like three days before we shot it, I saw Lake walk across the room and I was like “Oh shit, I have to get naked next to Lake Bell! What woman in her right mind casts Lake Bell as the girl she has to get naked to? I’m going to look like a 12-year-old boy.” So that happened. But yeah, there was a conversation.  It’s not like I’m dying to take my clothes off in a movie, but for the right reasons, in the right context I loved the way these girls had to be naked. I loved that this was a turning point where they get totally animalistic and primal, and this is where they start to really fight to live, and I loved that. They really strip away, metaphorically, all of their shit and get down to the bare bones and basics of survival. I like that; I like that a lot. So I guess if you’re going to get naked, that’s how you should do it. And Lake felt the same way, like “I’m not going to do it in a gratuitous stupid way, but this is really the right way to do it.”  Capone: You mentioned earlier that part of the reason you did this was that you aren’t getting offered parts like this…  KA: Yes, surprisingly enough, I wasn’t getting offers to take my clothes off! [laughs]  Capone: Oh, well, that’s not what I was going to ask, but that’s an interesting offshoot of this. I’ve talked to enough female directors and writers like Brit Marling and Julie Delpy--there’s a whole list of them now--that for similar reasons they have written or directed their own movies. This seems like a growing trend. Is this something you’re seeing a lot more of?  KA: Absolutely and I think it&#039;s easier to do them. I think technology has made filmmaking very accessible and cost effective. You don’t have to spend $500,000, which used to be a low-budget movie, because you’re shooting on film and what not. Now you have a camera that costs nothing. You can get a camera for like $2,000 and shoot a beautiful-looking movie, and you can do it without a focus puller, with a bare- bones crew, and as long as you’re telling a simple enough story that that works for, like Brit and like Julie, Amy Seimetz too, you have got a movie. So as long as you’ve got a story to tell, that’s really what it boils down to.  Capone: And Lake just directed a movie too, right?  KA: Yeah, she did. She directed a great movie [called IN A WORLD…]. So it’s not quite as simple as “Well, if you’re not getting the roles, then just go out and make your own.” You still have to have a really good story, but certainly if you have the ability to come up with a story and tell a story, then there are no reasons why… The way Brit does it, where you start collaborating with really talented people and get it done.  Capone: As a huge fan of &quot;The League&quot;--I’ve seen every episode; it’s the greatest, funniest show…  KA: Oh boy.  Capone: It’s coming back on this new network, right? This new old network?  KA: Yeah, it’s a new FX network, FXX? FX Squared? F Double X? Double X F? Yes, FXX, and I’m kind of excited about it. I think it’s kind of a cool thing; we’re anchoring a new network.  Capone: Have you started shooting those?  KA: We start in a month or two.  Capone: And it’s still supposed to start up in September like it usually does?  KA: Yes. Everything is going to be exactly the same, just that we&#039;re going to be on FXX.  Capone: Do you have any clue about anything that&#039;s going to happen? Or is it the same foolishness?  KA: I’m assuming it’s the same foolishness on a different day. They don’t tell me anything, because they know I keep no secrets.  Capone: I wish you guys would actually come to Chicago. It’s so frustrating to see those establishing shots of the skyline, but know that you aren&#039;t shooting here.  KA: We did, one time. We did a live show at the House of Blues. It was awesome.  Capone: But not for actual shooting, but you came here to perform.  KA: Not for shooting. Yeah, we did like a live comedy show. It was so fun.  Capone: How the hell did I miss that? I can’t believe I didn’t see that.  KA: I know, I’m mad at you, still.  Capone: I can’t believe it. I know you guys did something at SXSW a couple of years ago.  KA: Yeah, it was similar to that. They’ve really refined their live show, and it incorporates their stand up, and then they do some show-related stuff. It’s a very fun night. If we ever come back to Chicago again, you should absolutely check it out.  Capone: I will. So last question I’ll ask you, are there any other genres you’re looking at turning on its head in terms of directing?  KA: I’ll do a sci-fi period piece next.  Capone: Really?  [Both Laugh]  Capone: After seeing Mark in SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED, I can believe you could tackle sci-fi from a totally peripheral, askew angle.  KA: Well, Mark kind of did it with SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED, didn’t he?  Capone: Yes, but there are so many non-traditional ways to do something like that, it wouldn’t surprise me if you weren’t kidding.  KA: Well, we’ll see.  Capone: That would be good. So nothing on the burners now?  KA: Lots of things percolating. Lots of stuff that was on my computer that my one-year-old spilled coffee all over today [laughs]. We’ll see what I can recover.  Capone: Oh no. So making BLACK ROCK, did it have the desired impact that you wanted it to have, n terms of opening people’s eyes up to your abilities and your range?  KA: It will be interesting to see. I think people will wait and see how it does in theaters. I think people are very careful now, but it does certainly. The only reactions I’ve gotten so far are like “Jesus, Katie, I didn’t know you had that in you.” “Yeah, I do.”  Capone: I meant to ask you about the reactions, because they are kind of all over the place. Some people are saying this is a great feminist statement. Some people were saying it’s closer to exploitation; others were talking about the portrayal of veterans in the film. Were you anticipating that kind of reaction?  KA: You know what? People are taking about it, and that’s awesome. People are talking about it, and I will take it. I am very comfortable with the movie that we made. I’m very comfortable in the way that we made it. Before people see it, it is sort of a jarring idea, but my Second AD was a disabled vet who we worked very closely with him in developing those characters and that storyline, and he totally signed off on it as being a very respectable way of doing it, so that’s great.  “Is it exploitation?” I don’t know. I was in it and I don’t feel exploited. Lake was in it, and she doesn’t feel exploited. So if we are not screaming “exploitation,” I don’t think anyone else really can. If people want to come at me, please do. It’s great, just do it loudly and keep talking about it.  Capone: Katie, thank you so much for taking all of this time to talk.  KA: Thank you for running errands with me; I appreciate it.  Capone: Anytime. It was good to talk to you again. Any time a movie shakes me up like that, I’m all for it.  KA: I&#039;m so glad. Bye.  -- Steve Prokopy &quot;Capone&quot; capone@aintitcool.com Follow Me On Twitter]]></description>
			<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 18:30:03 CDT</pubDate>
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			<title>Did you guys like RED 2? Oh it&#039;s not out yet, well who cares?? Get ready for RED 3 anyways!!!</title>
			<link>http://hotblur.com/!/News/did-you-guys-like-red-2-oh-its-not-out-yet-well-who-cares-get-ready-for-red-3-anyways</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Hey Yo! Draven here.
With RED 2 not even out until July 19th, this is a little unexpected. THR is exclusively reporting that Summit has already begun development on RED 3, by hiring Jon and Erich Hoeber to write the screenplay.
The Hoeber brothers wrote both RED films (and last summer’s BATTLESHIP), so it’s nice to see continuity. I wasn’t the biggest fan of RED. It is probably something I won’t ever get the itch to re-watch but I found it enjoyable for what it was. It did gross almost $200 million worldwide and didn’t have a huge budget so we can see why Summit is trying to turn this into a successful franchise.
We have been hearing the buzz on RED 2 is really good and THR confirms that in their report by saying, “It also helps that sources say Summit has been supremely encouraged by Red 2&#039;s high test scores.” Summit obviously is excited for something if they are this sure RED 2 will be successful this summer.
No cast has been signed yet but Summit wants to begin production on RED 3 as early as the beginning of 2014. I doubt Bruce Willis will say no to this, as RED 2 is one of four sequels he is in this year, and he has shown no signs of slowing down. The other original surviving cast members might not be a sure thing with such a quick turnaround but that is just speculation. I still expect this thing to begin production when Summit wants it to.
We should be hearing some more announcements soon, so stay tuned. In the meantime let me know what you guys think of this news. Were you fans of the original RED? Are you excited for RED 2? Any thoughts on the Hoeber brothers as writers, specifically?
Follow me on Twitter here!



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			<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 18:30:03 CDT</pubDate>
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