Disney Gets Cryptic

"Are You 23?"

That is the creepy message Disney is asking you at a strange teaser site that has been set up here.

The site says we won't get more details until March 10, 09 (which is the day of the Annual Disney Shareholders meeting) so whatever is coming, it is sure to be a big surprise. I have a pretty good feeling this is gonna be a movie because I found the link to it in my Disney Movie Rewards Newsletter and because apparently a movie style poster was spotted at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank.

Interesting Online Thought & Theories...

• The Walt Disney Company was founded in 1923.
• Pixar is 23 years old this year.
• There is a loose consortium of hackers that call themselves “Twentythree”.
• People born in 1986 would be 23.
  
• March 10, 1986 Halley’s Comet was returning from it’s trip around the sun. Maybe it left some space dust on the Earth and now the government is looking for all the children born during that time (are you 23 years old?) because they are exhibiting super powers!!!!
• Disney is coming out with 23 new family style adventure vacation itineraries in 2009
• VMK (Virtual Magic Kingdom game) opened March 23 closed May 23. Bringing it back?
• a Disney fan berated Iger over the fact that the company only caters to the casual Disney park fans and has abandoned the more dedicated intense long-term Disney fans. If the rumors hold true, people will apparently be asked to pay about $100 a year to become part of a new club which will offer a bunch of new exclusive merchandise opportunities as well as setting up 1 or 2 fan events at the parks each year, with the first to take place in Anaheim. As for the origin of the number 23 it was pointed out that WED officially became Walt Disney Imagineering in 1986 and the shareholders changed name of Walt Disney Productions to The Walt Disney Company in 1986 as well, making each name 23 years old. As for the March 10th date, some wonder if the details about the new club may be revealed along with the rerelease of Pinocchio on Blu-Ray on March 10th.
• 2 + 3= 5?? Aren’t there 4 Walt Disney Themeparks now. Maybe that 5th park rumor might be answered.
• Song of the south was last released to home video in 1986, 23 years ago (A title that Disney Executives say will probably never be released due to the racism in the picture)
• 2010- the 23rd anniversary of Star Tours' opening, this may be the official announcement of the NEW Star Wars ride
• Dave Smith, chief archivist of all things Disney, said the Archive staff had something to do with it - but he wasn't telling
• 23 vaulted classics may be released on blu-ray (I think this is the most likely to occur since Disney has already announced they have HUGE plans for bluray and already announced a string of titles to be released)

I seriously want to know. What is it?????

Could We Lose LOST?

So I've been reading some REALLY disappointing news recently regarding the future of ABC's LOST. The show, which is scheduled to reach it's finale in 2010 may not make it that far if ratings continue in their slump. Despite the fact that this season has so far by far been the best season yet, ratings have continued to drag downward. To put it in perspective Season 1's finale ranked in with 20.7 million viewers, Season 4 premiered with 16 million viewers but by the finale had dropped to 11 million. Season 5 premiered with those same 11 million viewers and by now at the 5th episode there are about 9 million viewers. This doesn't sit well with ABC. Everyone knows that LOST is one of the best shows on TV, it is one of the most legally and illegally downloaded shows of all time. The show could lose some of their huge budget, which could damage the quality of the show. Worse yet, the show could be canceled.
So what can you do to keep the show going til the end? For one, if you have a Nielsen Ratings box on your TV (and there aren't really that many out there) make sure you at least leave your TV on ABC during LOSTs timeslot. Now, for the rest of us, if you are gonna watch it on TV, record it on your DVR... Nielsen gets ratings from DVR's. Want to watch it online? Watch it on ABC.com, and don't do other stuff during the commercials, when a commercial ends make sure you quickly click continue so that advertisers feel like the show is actively providing them with worthwhile ad exposure. It's free and convenient, plus commercials are still shorter than TV. Finally, the most effective thing to do is buy LOST episodes on iTunes, iTunes is one of the best ways to rate the success of shows. Basically, if they don't know you are watching, they assume you aren't. So, whether you're a diehard or casual fan of the show it is important we all find out what happens in the end. And if you haven't been watching the season you should probably hit up ABC.com and catch up because it truly is the best season yet. Alright, thats my rant, watch the show. Do IT!

is this the G2?

So Ive been holding out on getting the G1 because of the rumors of a G2 coming out as soon as March. Last month a bunch of pictures of HTC hardware hit the web including this picture of the "G2" and now there is this picture of the phone codenamed the "Sapphire" on engadget. It seems EXACTLY like the G1 but sleeker as they have removed the best part; the keyboard. And it is kinda looks like a bar of soap. All other specs are basically the same, same quality camera is disappointing. If this is the G2 I'll be bummed. I don't want an iPhone knockoff, I want a sweet google phone with the ultimate in new features. And a sweet keyboard. One thing that did look really sweet in the leaked photos was this phone codenamed "Hero" There isnt much detail regarding this phone other than it, like the G1, will run Android OS. No keyboard here either but i like the color and structure. Kinda sweet. All these upcoming phones are missing the numero uno feature I am waiting for and that's the forward facing camera. HTC already has some prototypes but nothing out yet. I can't wait to be able to send video messages and have video calls with my loved ones. Guess that's gonna take another couple years :(
So, anyways, here's to a sweet G2 sometime in the future, but I guess if it doesn't ever happen I can always get the upcoming Sidekick LX 2009. ;D

Dolph Lundgren Appreciation Day

Here I am watching 1986's "The Punisher", starring Dolph Lundgren. I'm completely oogling this 6'6" Swedish man-god and thinking to myself, ok he's notoriously Ivan Drago in "Rocky IV", but what else has he been in? Everyone knows him as the Russian badass who infamously wanted to "break" Sylvester Stallone and I'm watching some serious acting chops in "The Punisher" (not to mention, perfect genetics), so how come Lundgren hasn't left his mark like other 80's action hunks like Schwarzenegger or Van Damme? IMDB tells me he was He-Man in the "Masters of the Universe" movie, regardless of how boring I find that version to be, how cool would it be to say you played He-Man? There are other shimmers of light in that resume, but lately a lot of direct to video fodder. If you've ever taken a moment to think about him, I'm sure you too have thought "Dolph Lundgren, that guy really didn't do anything"... or, you know, something along those lines. So, I take my curiosity to "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolph_Lundgren", Check this shit out, turns out there is a lot more to Ivan Drago then a couple of acting gigs. His accomplishments are actually really impressive. He can speak 5 languages and turned down a scholarship to M.I.T. to play actor. He's involved in the Olympics and has a 3rd degree blackbelt in some wacky form of karate. Just take a look and you're sure to be amazed by the accomplishments of Dolph Lundgren. It just showed me not to ever underestimate people. Seriously, dude is impressive. On top of this, I just read that he is gonna be in the new Stallone movie "The Expendables" with Jason Statham and Jet Li. This could be the step up script he's needed all these years. So, I officially want to propose Dolph Lundgren appreciation day. I don't want to simply promote his accomplishments, but moreover remind others that we should all strive to be well rounded. If motherfucking Dolph Lundgren can be a badass at everything, we should all hope to be at least moderately good at a few things. Let's do this.

Genesis: Apes

Chud.com is reporting that there is a script making the rounds that is a reboot of "Conquest of the Apes". That would be AMAZING. Here's the article:

"Tim Burton killed Planet of the Apes. His film, while technically profitable, left moviegoers with such a bad taste in their mouths that Fox never bothered revisiting it in a sequel. The franchise, which had seemed poised for rebirth, lay dead for years.

But right now, in the halls of Fox, there is another new version of Planet of the Apes that has been kicking around for the last year. It's not a sequel to the Burton film, and it's not another remake of the original. To the general audience it's a prequel to Planet of the Apes, but for the initiated it's something totally different.

It's a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.

Yup. It's the story of Caesar, the ape who said no, the first ape with speech who started the events that led to a world where monkeys were on top and humans were dumb beasts.

Things are different in this script, written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, which is called Genesis: Apes. Fans will know that Caesar in Conquest is the result of a massive temporal paradox - his parents escaped to 1973 from a far future Earth. Further, Conquest takes place in a dystopian 'future' - 1991 - while Genesis: Apes is set in the modern day.

In this version Caesar is the result of a genetic scientist fooling around with the nature of things. When the baby monkey exhibits intelligence and the ability to talk, he takes the cuddly thing home to his wife, who is unable to bear children. Things go surprisingly well for a number of years until Caesar grows up and sees mommy getting attacked. The dutiful son steps in and accidentally kills the attacker.

Here's where it takes off. In a scene paralleling Charlton Heston in the cage in the original Planet of the Apes, Caesar ends up in custody at an Ape Conservatory where he and the other apes are abused mercilessly. Caesar finds himself a primate without a world - he's as smart as humans but will never be one of them (and is in fact tortured by them) and he's initially rejected by his monkey brethren.

You're on Caesar's side, understanding where this poor outcast is coming from. But then the script gets really ballsy and, just like in Conquest, Caesar begins a campaign to unite the apes and overthrow human society. And his plan isn't a Martin Luther King Jr series of marches, speeches and sit ins - Caesar and his apes take to the streets violently.

Again, it's like Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, which brilliantly modeled its ape riot scenes on the Watts Riots that had happened just a few years before. But Conquest was set in a future where America was ruled by a fascist society. Genesis: Apes is set today, in this world. The regime that Caesar overthew in Conquest was made up of bad guys. The Caesar of Genesis: Apes is coming after you.

Maybe this is why the script has been languishing all this time. You just can't have your hero working to tear down our modern society. It's too radical! Plus, Fox remains notoriously unfriendly to good genre ideas.

Still, imagine if the film had come out this year. It's the 40th anniversary of Planet of the Apes and The Dark Knight proved that mainstream audiences are ready for something edgy and challenging. The country is polarized politically in a way that would almost guarantee this film major media coverage and controversy, which would sell tickets. You could probably have liberals and conservatives, whites and minorities completely outraged by this movie.

And it's the perfect way to get the franchise back up and running. Everybody knows that the Planet of the Apes used to be Earth. Everybody knows that the mute humans are our distant descendants. Everybody knows the Statue of Liberty is buried in the sand. So just skip all that - get to something new. That was one of the major problems with the Burton version, that it tried to recapture the shock of the original, the most spoiled movie of all time. But Genesis: Apes lets us get back into this world of apes and do what the four sequels to the original did - craft great science fiction parables that had gut puncher endings. Only Planet of the Apes had a 'twist' ending; all of the others just had 'Holy shit!' finales.

It's likely that Genesis: Apes will sit on a shelf forever and ever, but here's hoping that somebody at Fox is paying attention and realizes that even Mark Wahlberg can't keep this franchise down forever."

Twitter. The Devil's Tool.

Copy+Paste

Twitter as a Terrorist's Tool?

POSTED: 11:18 AM ET, 10/29/2008 by Derek Kravitz

TAGS: intelligence, military, social media, terrorism

The social networking Web site Twitter could be used by terrorists to communicate as they execute a potentially catastrophic attack, according to a military intelligence report obtained by the Federation of American Scientists.

The draft reported, published Oct. 16 by the Army's 304 Military Intelligence Battalion Open Source Intelligence Team, provides three hypothetical scenarios of terrorists co-opting the Twitter social networking tool, citing the use of Twitter by activists during the Republican National Convention to update each other on police movements and arrests and Hezbollah-organized "tweet" feeds.

"For example, terrorists could theoretically use Twitter social networking in the US as an operation tool," the report said. "However, it is unclear whether the same theoretical use would be available to terrorists in other countries and to what extent."

The three Twitter scenarios described in the report:

Scenario 1: Using cell phones and a Google maps/Twitter mash-up to plot where they are, terrorists use Twitter to communicate near-real time to update each other about troop movements and plan an ambush.

Scenario 2: The first terrorist has two mobile phones -- one for using Twitter and another which is connected to an explosive device or a "suicide vest." The second terrorist also has two mobile phones -- one for Twitter and the other to detonate the bomb. They communicate using Twitter to coordinate the "precise" time for the attack.

Scenario 3: A cyber-terrorist finds the Twitter account of a member of the armed forces. The terrorist gets information out of the target and uses it for identity theft, hacking or physical attacks.

PC World's Ian Paul examined the feasibility of these scenarios and deemed them "far-fetched."

Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, told InformationWeek that the report was more like "a student exercise, not as a serious threat assessment."

"Terrorists can use credit cards and can openers, so they can probably use Twitter too," he said. "But that doesn't make it a national security concern."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, did we just give them 3 great ideas or what??