US Open 2011: Novak Djokovic beats Roger Federer in five sets
(source: bbc.co.uk)
Djokovic beat Federer over five sets in last year's US Open semis
World number one Novak
Djokovic saved two match points against Roger Federer for the second
year running to win a thrilling US Open semi-final.
Federer's attacking style held sway early on but Djokovic roared back to win 6-7 (7-9) 4-6 6-3 6-2 7-5.
The Serbian now stands one win from a fourth Grand Slam title, and his third of an incredible 2011 season.
Reigning champion Rafael Nadal plays Britain's Andy Murray in the second semi-final later on Saturday.
'Spartacus: Gods of the Arena' premiere: Sex, blood, and (alas) no Spartacus
(source: popwatch.ew.com)
Image Credit: Matt Klitscher/StarzSpartacus: Gods of the Arena shouldn’t work. The six-episode miniseries was designed as a stopgap solution when Spartacus star Andy Whitfield had to bow out of filming a
second season to receive cancer treatment. (Unfortunately, Whitfield
ultimately had to resign from the series, and the lead role has since been recast.) Making a Spartacus
series that doesn’t actually feature Spartacus sounds like an exercise
in futility, like writing a Hardy Boys mystery about the Hardys’ best
buddy Chet, or making a Jason Bourne movie without Jason Bourne. To make things worse, the miniseries is a prequel, a narrative format that mainly lends itself to relentless wheel-spinning. So it was a pleasure to find out that the Gods of the Arena premiere was such a surprisingly enjoyable hour of television.
Whitfield is sorely missed, and without him at the center, I’m not
sure this miniseries can ever really be more than a well-produced mess.
But it’s a gorgeous mess. Without the gravitas of Spartacus’ slave-revolt storyline, the makers of Spartacus
seem willing to indulge their basest B-movie instincts. So the first
hour was wall-to-wall with cartoonishly over-the-top fight sequences,
jauntily unrestrained nudity from both sexes, and enough comically
elaborate swearing to fill a fifth-grade playground. The plot follows a
much younger Batiatus (John Hannah) and Lucretia (Lucy Lawless)
as they try to take their stable of gladiators into the highest ranks.
The simultaneous focus on the gladiators’ physical exertions and
Batiatus’ back-room dealmaking make Spartacus feel more than ever like the bloodiest sports TV show ever. (It’s basically Any Given Sunday, except more realistic.)
Along with returning Spartacus stars Peter Mensah and Manu Bennett, Gods of the Arena
features some delicious new characters. I’m not sure who I like more:
Dustin Clare’s Gannicus, a gladiator champion with excessive tastes
(threesome alert!) who narrowly survived a blindfolded street brawl; or
Jaime Murray’s Gaia, a social climber who spent the first hour seducing
Lucretia (lesbian sex alert!) and teaching her all about the joys of
opium. I’m also intrigued to see more of Marisa Ramirez’ Melitta, who
plays Oenomaus’ heretofore-unseen wife. (Presumably, something terrible
will happen to her.)
Since Gods of the Arena is only going to last for six hours,
and since we already know a few of the characters won’t make it out
alive, this could make for fast-paced entertainment. Spartacus fans, did you enjoy Gods of the Arena? Did you like the new characters? Or is this miniseries just a distraction until the story really continues in season 2?
Make Your Own Ambient Lighting System for Your Computer or Home Theater
(source: lifehacker.com)
Ambient light is a product that straps a few LEDs to the back of your
monitor or TV, replicating the colors on your screen on the wall behind
it for a more immersive experience. Here's how to make your own ambient
light system on the cheap.
Ambient lighting products like the popular amBX system
are a pretty sweet addition to any movie or gaming buff's tech, but
they're really expensive. After a bit of searching, we found this DIY
method from blogger Rajarshi Roy, and it's actually pretty easy to put
together. All you need is an Arduino, an LED strip, and a few
miscellaneous pieces to put it together. You might want a tad bit of
electronics experience, since the guide isn't a full step-by-step, but
if you've used an Arduino before it should be a snap. Watch the video above to see
it in action. Reed more
Michael J. Fox unveils Nike's Marty McFly shoes, first pair sells for $37,500
(source: zap2it.com)
That was fast.
Within a day of announcing
the auction of 1500 pairs of Nike Air Mags, sneakers inspired by Marty
McFly's self-lacing kicks from "Back to the Future II," TMZ reports the first pair has sold for $37,500 at a live auction hosted by "Community" star Joel McHale.
Proceeds from the auction, and the online component for the remaining pairs, will benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.
Fox, appearing in an interview with David Letterman on Thursday (Sept. 8) night, brought out a pair to talk about the fundraiser.
"This
brings together three populations of major Joneses," says Fox, "the
sneaker-heads, the 'Back to the Future' people, who, believe me, are out
of their minds -- in a good way, thank God for them -- and the people
in the Parkinson's community who have an interest in research."
Watch Marty whip out the shoes in the video below:
Forty-five years ago, the first episode of Star Trek
aired on NBC. It was five years after the Soviet Union launched the
first human into space, and the franchise explored a fictional 23rd
century “United Federation of Planets” through a crew based on the
starship Enterprise.
Six television series and 11 movies later, some aspects of Star Trek
no longer seem futuristic (people still don’t live in space, but they
are working on vacationing there).
To celebrate Star Trek’s anniversary and lasting impact, we enlisted
help from the “Commander” of international Star Trek fan association Starfleet, Dave Blaser.
He and a handful of other Trekkies helped us point out these eight
Star Trek technologies that have shifted from future fantasy to present
reality.
1. The Flip Phone
While on away missions, the Star Trek crew often speaks through handheld “communicators” that look like walkie talkies with a flip top — in other words, much like a clamshell mobile phone.
The likeness inspired Motorola in 1996 to name the first flip phone “StarTAC.”
It also caused some strife for Trekie Ted Anthony, who wrote in a
2006 article for the AP: “Once, when I was 6, the teenage son of one of
my father’s colleagues fashioned me a handmade communicator out of a
wood block, paint and chickenwire. A few months later, I left it in an
airplane bathroom as we flew to Asia and caused something of a bomb
scare.”
2. The iPad
Throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation, touch-based control
panels called PADDs (personal access display devices) were frequently
used by crew members. They resemble the tablet-like computers of today.
According to Ars Technica,
PADDs were partly a reflection of a constricted budget. The flat
surface of the devices meant that no knobs or dials needed to be
constructed, and the idea of that its software could be reconfigured to
complete any task made it a flexible prop.
No actual code was written for the devices in Star Trek, but CBS Interactive created an iPad app that mimicks its interface.
3. Bluetooth Headsets
Photo source: Wikipedia
Uhura, for a time the Enterprise’s Communications officer, wears a
giant silver earpiece while sitting at the communications station. This
reminds Blaser and others of the bluetooth headpieces of today.
“Look at anyone walking down the street looking like they’ve gone
insane and are talking to themselves and you’re likely to see a blue
light flashing next to their ear and, looking closer, you’ll see the
Bluetooth earpiece.”
4. Tricorders
In Star Trek, “tricorders” are handheld devices used for sensor scanning, data analysis and recording data.
A company called Vital Technologies intentionally replicated it in the mid-90s with a device that it called the TR-107 Mark 1.
Like its fictional counterpart, the device included several scientific
functions such as an electromagnetic field meter, thermometer, barometer
and light meter.
According to Blaser, the company sold about 10,000 of these units before it went out of business.
More recent efforts at replicating the device include a Tricoder Android app that was taken down earlier this month after CBS cried infringement and a $10 million contest by the X-Prize foundation for a Tricorder-like medical diagnostic device.
5. The Floppy Disk and USB Drives
Star Trek foresaw the convenience of portable digital storage.
“On Star Trek, they were the small square coloured pieces of plastic
that they inserted into various computer consoles, but in the ’80s and
’90s we had the 3.5-inch floppy disk that was remarkably close to the
same size as those pieces of plastic that they had on Star Trek,” Blaser
says.
“Later, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, they had
isolinear chips that could hold gigabytes upon gigabytes of data. These
days, you don’t see floppy disks being used but USB flash drives which
are, incidentally, pretty close to the same size that Star Trek TNG
showed the isolinear chips were.”
6. Voice Activation
When Scotty meets an at-the-time-of-filming modern computer, he’s
confused when it doesn’t respond to his voice as the Enterprise
computers do. Today, he might have had more luck. Many computer
softwares, smartphones, cars and other electronics now have voice
activation options.
7. GPS
While the transporter above is from the 2009 Star Trek movie, well after GPS was invented, its predecessors
were also able to locate crew members with precision before beaming
them up. The U.S. government declared GPS functional in 1995 after
launching 27 Earth-orbiting satellites — about 30 years after the concept appeared in Star Trek for the first time.
8. Diagnostic Bed
Dr. McCoy’s medical diagnostic bed inspired a team of scientists at the University of Leicester to create a sickbay
that observes patients for early signs of diseases using monitoring
equipment such as thermal imaging technology and analysis of the
patient’s breath.
A scientist who worked on the project called a “first step” to achieving the sci-fi technology.
Obviously, some of the gadgets in Star Trek were based on science
fiction staples established long before 1966. But Star Trek is somewhat of a gold mine of once-futuristic technology and inspiration.
“The list can go on and on and on about various things that have been
inspired by Star Trek,” Blaser says. “Even people have been inspired by
Star Trek and have gone on to do great things. Canadian Astronaut Chris
Hadfield and American Astronaut Mae Jamieson were both Star Trek fans.”
John Mayberry, Jr. Using Agent To Help Him Mate With Mermaid
(source: philly.barstoolsports.com)
nbc – According
to the New York Post the agents for Phillies rookie outfielder John
Mayberry Jr. have been trying to get him a date with Antoinette
Nikprelaj, an actress and model who played a mermaid in “Pirates of the
Caribbean.” Here’s the e-mail that Mayberry’s representatives at CAA
apparently sent out to Nikprelaj’s agent on his behalf: I imagine you’re
familiar with CAA and some of our clients, as we work with Ryan Howard,
Roy Halladay, Buster Posey and Andre Ethier among others. I hate to
even be sending you this e-mail, and I’m quite embarrassed to say the
least, but we have a young client on the Philadelphia Phillies who asked
us if we knew any agents at Innovative Artists and could connect him to
Antoinette Nikprelaj. I know you’re not a dating or set-up service, but
John Mayberry Jr. would love to meet Antoinette or invite her to a
baseball game sometime. Would this be possible? Here’s a bio of John to
give you some more info on him (he’s a great guy, down-to-earth, humble,
Stanford-educated, etc.) Thanks for considering this as you know how
this business is and servicing clients. Aaaaand it turns out she’s married
and has a three year-old daughter, but thanks for playing John. Can’t
say anything bad about your taste, though…this chick is ludicrously
sexy. How did he even notice her? I’m not an expert on Pirates of the Caribbean
or anything (I’ve seen 1-2 of them maybe?), but to randomly pick out a
bit part Mermaid and say that’s the girl you’re trying to round the
bases with is remarkable. Especially when she looks like this. John is
obviously great with the female stock market process of buying low and
selling high. I bet he’s the right dude to have in your entourage on a
long bar night, too. Just picking out diamonds in the darkness left and
right, successfully dodging bitches that only look good in certain
lighting and pulling the top talent into the circle. Hell, I think I
wanna date the guy now. Get at me, Mayberry. Let’s light this town on
fire.
Billie Joe Armstrong, Green Day front man, booted from Southwest Airlines flight for SAGGING PANTS
(source: nydailynews.com)
Southwest Airlines didn't exactly offer Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong a welcome to paradise, instead booting him off the plane because of his sagging pants, the singer claims.
The rockstar for the Bay Area band immediately took to Twitter to vent over being kicked off Oakland-Burbank flight.
"Just got kicked off a southwest flight because my pants sagged too low! What the f--- No joke!" he wrote Thursday.
Cindy Qiu, an ABC7 news producer who happened to be on the same flight told the TV station that a flight attendant approached the 39-year-old singer just as the flight was going to take off.
She insisted his pants were too low and asked him to hike them up.
Qiu said Armstrong lashed out, asking the flight attendant, "Don't you have better things to do then worry about that?"
She then threatened to remove Armstrong from the flight, to which he said, "I'm just trying to get to my f--king seat."
The "Basket Case" singer and his traveling companion were then taken off the plane.
Brad Hawkins, a spokesman for the airline, said Armstrong was allowed on the next plane to Burbank.
"As soon as we became aware of what had happened, we reached out to apologize for this Customer's experience.," Hawkins said in a statement.
"He
elected to take the next flight. We followed up with this Customer and
involved Employees to get more details and, in our latest conversations,
understand from the Customer the situation was resolved to his
satisfaction."
It isn't the first time a passenger has been booted of a flight for low-slung trousers.
In June, University of New Mexico football player Deshmon Marman was taken into custody at San Francisco International Airport when he allegedly refused a U.S. Airways staffer's request to pull up his pants.
Djokovic beat Federer over five sets in last year's US Open semis
That was fast.
