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Christopher Nolan Talks 'Superman' and 'Batman 3'

- 12 hours and 23 minutes ago

Time probably stopped for Superman and DC fans when news broke that Christopher Nolan was going to oversee Warner Bros' Superman reboot, and that David S. Goyer would be penning a new Man of Steel story. (Possibly even titled Man of Steel.) As Nolan is one of those quiet chaps, there's been little word on what he and Goyer plan to do, but he's broken his silence and given an interview with Hero Complex.

Nolan remains tight-lipped on Goyer's idea, but revealed that it came about as they hit an impasse on Batman 3. "He basically told me, 'I have this thought about how you would approach Superman.' I immediately got it, loved it and thought: That is a way of approaching the story I've never seen before that makes it incredibly exciting. I wanted to get Emma [Thomas] and I involved in shepherding the project right away and getting it to the studio and getting it going in an exciting way." He wasn't willing to discuss villains (though he said Mr. Freeze won't be in it) or what time period it'll be set in, though he denied all the Man of Steel rumors currently circulating. There's a Superman reboot, and Goyer is writing the script. That's all he'll say, the tease.

Ok, not quite. Nolan quickly quashed any idea that a new Superman movie will lead to a Justice League spinoff. Superman will exist in his own world of Metropolis, and have no conception of a world where other superheroes exists. "A lot of people have approached Superman in a lot of different ways. I only know the way that has worked for us that's what I know how to do .... Each [hero] serves to the internal logic of the story. They have nothing to do with each other."

Filed under: Action, Warner Brothers, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels

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US mineral companies to tech industry: drill, baby, drill

Engadget

- 12 hours and 26 minutes ago

Even if your favorite gadget isn't flaunting them, rare earth metals are vital to all sorts of high-tech gizmos, from your flat-panel TV and computer hard drive to the hefty batteries that power the Toyota Prius. But over 95% of the world's rare earth comes from China; and late last year, China told the world that they'd like to keep the lion's share all to themselves. What will we Westerners do? Well, we could let China continue producing mountains of e-waste on our behalf. But we could also find plenty of rare earth just by digging in our own backyard. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the United States has over 13 million metric tons of rare earth with concentrated deposits in Mountain Pass, California and Diamond Creek, Idaho. But since the private firms that control those deposits aren't willing to spend the requisite eight years and minimum $500 million to construct a chemical separation plant, Idaho-based U.S. Rare Earths is just sitting on their ore for now, while California's Molycorp Minerals is forced to send their material all the way to China (once again) for processing.

"No one wants to be first to jump into the market because of the cost of building a separation plant," former USGS rare earth specialist Jim Hedrick told LiveScience. Should China's export dwindle and the U.S. feel the pinch, that may change, but for now it's good to know that when the global game of StarCraft tells us "not enough minerals," we'll know exactly where to look.

US mineral companies to tech industry: drill, baby, drill originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Combustible carbon nanotubes give off electricity, make really tiny fires (video)

'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse' Trailer (10 Second Version)!

Cinematical

- 12 hours and 35 minutes ago

Summit Entertainment has released a 10-second preview of the upcoming Twilight Saga: Eclipse trailer, set to officially hit theaters (in its full form) before prints of Remember Me this weekend, but it will arrive online tomorrow at 6pm PST (9pm EST). Summit has gotten into the habit of releasing these short snippets from their Twilight trailers before releasing the actual full-length preview, and though it totally feels like a cheap move, I suppose it's better than another boring image of Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) embracing in a field of flowers. Vampires like flowers? Who woulda thunk it?

The clip (watch it after the jump) is clearly divided into two parts: One with Edward being all sympathetic to Bella's struggles, and Jacob (Taylor Lautner) telling Bella that he'll fight for her until her heart stops beating. Really? Bit much, no? I think I'd be a little freaked out if some dude said that to me; immediately wanting to turn around and be all like, "Wait, who said my heart is gonna stop beating? I know you're, like, a wolf and all, but that was a little morbid and stuff."

And ... the end. What, it's only 10 seconds long! How much do you expect them to cram in there, anyway? They did their job, they set up the film's central conflict -- Bella having to choose between Edward and Jacob -- and now we all have to hold onto our Robert Pattinson bobble-heads real tight in anticipation of the full-length trailer tomorrow night.

Excited? The Twilight Saga: Eclipse hits theaters on June 30th.

Filed under: Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Remakes and Sequels, Trailers and Clips

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Report: Another Prius accelerates unintentionally in New York and crashes

Autoblog

- 12 hours and 42 minutes ago

Filed under: Hybrid, Recalls, Hatchback, Toyota

Not one day after a high-profile incident involving a Prius taking off on its owner in Southern California, we're hearing reports that another one of Toyota's popular hybrids has suffered unintended acceleration in New York. This time, instead of the car eventually succumbing to the will of its braking system, it crashed into a stone wall. Fortunately the owner was reportedly just pulling out of her driveway in Harrison, NY and the car only accelerated across the street, though the collision allegedly sent "some pretty big boulders" flying, said one police chief.

The 56-year-old driver reportedly suffered non-life threatening injuries, and like the incident in Southern California a day earlier, a floor mat trapping the accelerator pedal has been ruled out as a cause. The 2005 model year Prius' driver side floor mat was reportedly tied to the seat base with plastic ties.

The 2004-2009 Prius is included in an earlier Toyota recall for floor mats that may entrap the accelerator pedal, but the Japanese automaker does not have a fix ready for the cars, which may include reshaping their pedals, replacing floor mats and altering the shape of the floor. These cars are not, however, included in Toyota's other major recall involving drive-by-wire accelerator pedal assemblies that could stick due to wear and other environmental conditions. That leaves no obvious explanation as to why these two Prius models took off on their owners. Toyota has stated it will join California and the U.S. government in investigating the first vehicle, though hasn't commented on whether it will investigate the vehicle in New York yet.

[Source: The Detroit Free Press]

Report: Another Prius accelerates unintentionally in New York and crashes originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Final Fantasy XIII ships 5 million copies

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GM quickly one-ups Ford with 2011 Duramax diesel ratings, shows off GMC Sierra Denali HD

Autoblog

- 13 hours and 41 minutes ago

Filed under: Truck, Chevrolet, Ford, GM, GMC, Diesel

2011 GMC Sierra Denali HD - Click above to enlarge
Not even a month ago, at the end of our post on the 2011 Ford Super Duty engine specs, we wrote: "General Motors, there's a big ass ball in your court." Someone at GM has apparently grabbed their big ass racket and said, "Oh, I got this...", then smacked the ball right back into play. The Ford's measurements 390 horsepower, 735 pound-feet of grunt. The General has just announced that its 6.6-liter Duramax turbo diesel has 397 horsepower and 765 lb-ft. of torque, a jump of 32 horsepower and 105 lb-ft. over the previous Duramax.

A closer look at the numbers does reveal some give-and-take, however. The Ford's maximum tow rating is 24,000 pounds, while GM's is 20,000 pounds. And while not exactly engine related, the Ford truck also has a higher max payload than the GM twins. Still, the RenCen pickups take the power crown, and the new Duramax is more efficient than the previous one - GM didn't put a specific mileage number to it, but claims 680 miles of highway going possible from the 36-gallon tank. You'll find GM's press release on the new engine after the jump.

In related news, GM has released the first image of its GMC Sierra Denali HD pickup, mechanical and sheetmetal twin of the Chevrolet Silverado HD. There's an additional press release after the jump for it as well.

So... anyone else want to take a swing at that even bigger ass ball?

[Source: General Motors via PickupTrucks.com]

Continue reading GM quickly one-ups Ford with 2011 Duramax diesel ratings, shows off GMC Sierra Denali HD

GM quickly one-ups Ford with 2011 Duramax diesel ratings, shows off GMC Sierra Denali HD originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Overwhelming Majority Of EU Parliament Votes Against ACTA

Motion-Sim 4DOF racing simulator will take your retirement fund for the ride of its life (video)

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Sorry, There's No Silver Bullet Business Model For The Music Industry

Techdirt

- 15 hours and 9 minutes ago

Forrester analyst Mark Mulligan believes that the problem for the recording industry is one of demographics. Mulligan uses the fact that the billionth application purchaser on iTunes, 13 year-old Connor Mulcahey, was much younger than the 10 billionth iTunes music purchaser, 71 year-old Louie Sulcer, to highlight the issue: older users may still pay for music tracks, but younger users are more likely to "part with their cash" for apps than for music. To Mulligan, the problem is with the current digital-music product itself. Thus, he prescribes a feature-rich app as the savior -- and the future -- of the music industry. He proposes a music application that wraps digital tracks with social networking, live on-demand footage, song lyrics, games, and forums. This sounds like an interesting idea, which could see some success (if well-executed), but if the music industry is seeking a "silver bullet" business model, this is not likely to be it.

It's pretty well understood that what has driven the recording industry for decades now is "format change," where the record companies have continually asked their customers to essentially re-buy their recordings each time a new format is adopted -- from records, to cassettes, to CDs. With each new technology, customers were compelled to buy the products not by legislature or law, but rather, by a continual desire to have their music be more accessible. First, the phonograph made music more affordable and accessible, as compared to hiring a band of musicians to come and play in your living room. In the 80s, the cassette tape made listening more portable, albeit with a loss in audio quality. Then, in the 90s, the CD combined both portability and high audio quality into one small package, leading to a huge up-swell in recording purchases. For years, the recording industry has had a fantastic, well-defined business model: Record music that people want to hear on physical media. Sell that media. Repeat. Then, the 00s brought the latest maturation of the recording format, the mp3, with its near-infinite portability and an audio quality that can only really be contested by audio snobs. Since it could be easily copied and used in many different devices, it had the opportunity to become the most widely used music format ever. But, because of its near-infinite portability, the recording industry's old tried-and-true business model of selling physical media was no longer as viable.

The evolution of recording formats shows that what has really driven the industry has been a hunger for increased accessibility and portability, not necessarily the introduction of new features. So, while Mulligan's music application idea may drive some interest in recoded music, by empowering the audience to do more with it, it is very unlikely to drive the type of purchasing behavior that, in the past, came with each new recording format -- and it certainly won't "save recorded music." The problem is that the user is no longer locked into the recording industry's physical product for the distribution of music. There is no "one thing" they can sell that the audience will have no alternative but to buy. To be successful, the recording industry is going to have to experiment and figure out how make revenue from many different sources, which requires creativity that the labels have so far been unable or unwilling to muster. While the industry is out there looking for the "silver bullet" of a business model, the reality is that the answer is more like a whole clip full of silver bullets, coupled with some garlic, and finished off with a wooden stake or two.

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Tech chiefs attack internet bill

Guardian Unlimited

- 15 hours and 17 minutes ago

ISPs, Google, Facebook, eBay and Yahoo sign letter saying clause threatens free speech and could lead to blocking of sites

Amendments made to the digital economy bill by the House of Lords threaten freedom of speech and will lead to British websites being blocked without due judicial process, the chief executives of leading technology companies said today.

The heads of the four largest UK internet service providers â€“ BT, Orange, Virgin Media and TalkTalk â€“ as well as Google, Facebook, eBay and Yahoo have all co-signed the letter, along with consumer groups, academics and the technophile television host Stephen Fry, objecting to amendment 120A to the bill, which was added to the bill last week with support from Liberal Democrat and Conservative peers.

Ministers had been seeking powers to amend copyright law and impose conditions or fees where infringements were taking place.

But the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats succeeded in removing the measures from the bill last week, replacing them with a more specific amendment handing courts the power to force internet service providers (ISPs) to block certain websites.

In a letter to the Financial Times , the online giants argue that the rules, if they become law, would fail to tackle copyright infringement as intended. The amendment has "obvious shortcomings", the 16 signatories say.

The letter says: "Endorsing a policy that would encourage the blocking of websites by UK broadband providers or other internet companies is a very serious step for the UK to take.

"There are myriad legal, technical and practical issues to reconcile before this can be considered a proportionate and necessary public policy option."

The amendment had been roundly criticised last week when it was added, as critics pointed out that it could be used to block sites such as YouTube.

But Lord Tim Clement-Jones, one of the backers of the amendment, said last week that the intention was to deal with "cyberlockers" â€“ a system that allows individuals to swap large files directly, rather than sending them by email or storing them on websites.

The House of Lords passed the amendment last week, replacing a clause that would have given broad powers to ministers to change the Copyright Act to respond to new forms of online infringement without the need for primary legislation.

But the letter's signatories called the amendment "bitterly disappointing", and explained: "Put simply, blocking access as envisaged by this clause would both widely disrupt the internet in the UK and elsewhere and threaten freedom of speech and the open internet, without reducing copyright infringement as intended. To rush through such a controversial proposal at the tail end of a parliament, without any kind of consultation with consumers or industry, is very poor law-making."

Responding to the letter, the chief executive of UK music industry body the BPI, Geoff Taylor, said that the amendment provided a "clear and sensible" way of dealing with illegal downloading.

Taylor added that the signatories to the FT's letter have acknowledged that illegal downloading has to be dealt with.

"The amendment adopted by the House of Lords provides a clear and sensible mechanism to deal with illegal websites," he said.

"Contrary to the claims in the letter, service providers would in every case be able to ensure that the decision as to whether a site should be blocked is made by the high court. The court would be required to consider the extent of legal content on a website, any impact on human rights, and whether the website removes infringing content when requested. So the suggestion that the clause would lead to widespread disruption to the internet or threaten freedom of speech is pure scaremongering.

"The signatories to the letter recognise that dealing with illegal websites is a legitimate concern, and have argued in the past that action against illegal downloading should focus on commercial operators. Removing unfair competition from clearly illegal websites will encourage investment in legal online services and improve the legal internet experience for everyone."

The digital economy bill is expected to be pushed through before parliament is dissolved for the general election, widely expected to happen on 6 May. If it reaches a second reading by early April, when an election would be called, it could go into the "wash up" â€“ the process at the end of a parliament when bills that have not been passed are hurried through. The government would need cooperation from the opposition to achieve that with the bill â€“ but it is not clear whether the Tories, who have objected to elements of the bill, as the "landline tax" of £6 a year to help pay for next-generation broadband, would support it.

Lord Clement-Jones had said the provisions, approved by 165 votes to 140, would protect the creative industries by preventing access to websites where films and music were being provided illegally.

He told peers: "I believe this is going to send a powerful message to our creative industries that we value what they do, that we want to protect what they do, that we do not believe in censoring the internet but we are responding to genuine concerns from the creative industries about providing a process whereby their material can be satisfactorily accessed legally."

Lord Clement-Jones said the "blanket nature" of the government's original intention was "objectionable". He argued the new proposals were "more proportionate, specific and appropriate".

The bill extends the role of media regulator Ofcom to include communications infrastructure and media content, and to appoint providers of local news in ITV regions.

It also includes powers to stop under-age children getting hold of violent computer games and contains measures to help the switchover to digital radio.

Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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6 Music drops Bruce Dickinson

Guardian Unlimited

- 15 hours and 41 minutes ago

Rock show with Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson goes from 6 Music while Radio 2's Radcliffe and Maconie cut to three nights

Bruce Dickinson's BBC 6 Music rock show is to be axed and Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie's Radio 2 show cut to three nights a week in the latest changes to the two stations.

Dickinson, the lead singer of Iron Maiden, has presented a rock show on the digital station since it launched in 2002. It is the first 6 Music show to be axed since the BBC announced plans to close the station at the end of next year.

Radcliffe and Maconie's award-winning weeknight show, which has been running on Radio 2 since 2007, will be cut from four to three nights a week.

Their Thursday night outing will be replaced with a new live music strand, In Concert, which previously aired on Radio 1.

The Radcliffe and Maconie Show will switch to three nights a week from 12 April. Dickinson's 6 Music show, which currently airs on a Friday evening, will finish at the end of April.

6 Music is one of two BBC digital stations, along with the Asian Network, which will be closed following BBC director general Mark Thompson's strategy review last week.

Radio 2 is also undergoing a transformation, having been instructed by the BBC Trust to put more speech content and social action programming in its daytime schedule and to reverse a drop among its older listeners.

Breakfast show host Chris Evans has been the target of listeners' ire since he replaced Sir Terry Wogan. The first official Rajar figures for Evans's new slot will not be released until May.

But the Radcliffe and Maconie Show and Dickinson's 6 Music show are made by the Manchester-based independent production company Smooth Operations, which is run by John Leonard. Part of UBC Media, it also makes Radio 2's Mike Harding Folk Show and long-running comedy Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show on BBC Radio 4.

"I'm hugely disappointed but we are looking forward to other opportunities when the BBC moves [BBC Radio 5 Live] to Salford," said Leonard.

Radcliffe was named music broadcaster of the year at last year's Sony Radio Academy Awards.

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