According to Altered Carbon showrunner Alison Schapker, the secret weapon of Netflixs cyberpunk sci-fi drama is the most compelling rule of its technocratic world: That souls can transfer bodies. That simple premise allows the series to bring fresh talent to its lead character each season as well as bring other characters back from the dead in myriad ways, not to mention imagining a world where women of color are powerful and in charge. Inclusivity is baked into the DNA of the show and that may be its strongest selling point.

Based on Richard K. Morgans 2002 novel, Altered Carbon imagines a future where a persons brain can be digitized into a portable stack, and then swapped into a new body (or sleeve) to achieve immortality. In only two seasons, the shows militant lead character Takeshi Kovacs has been played by three different actors. Kovacs is the last envoy, a centuries-old interstellar warrior who possesses intuitive powers. The original Kovacs is played by Will Yun Lee, whose stack was transferred into hulking all-American Joel Kinnaman for Season 1. In the second season, Anthony Mackie took up the mantel of the self-serious hero, enlivening a show that can sometimes feel derivative despite having boundless possibilities.

[Editors Note: The following portion of this article contains spoilers for Altered Carbon Season 2, including the ending.]

At the beginning of Season 2, Kovacs is haunted by visions of his long-lost love Quellcrist Falconer (unstoppable force Rene Elise Goldsberry), leader of the peoples revolution. However, he doesnt know if shes alive or simply a figment of his mind. By seasons end, they have rekindled their love and reversed roles, with Kovacs appearing as a voice inside Quells head. That means even if Altered Carbon recasts Kovacs for a potential Season 3, which it most likely will, theres a possibility that Mackie could return in some capacity.

I would always consider it, but the thing about Altered Carbon is nothing is ever shut down, so any of the Kovacs could potentially come back, Schapker said of a potential Mackie return. Even Quell leaves with him as a ghost in her mind, I love that flip. I think its painful to say goodbye to the Kovacs, anyone youve spent the season with, so the short answer is yes. At the same time, part of the challenge of the show is, Whos next? Im totally open to working with Anthony again, and if theres a reason for him to come back, I think he would be into it, too.

Rene Elise Goldsberry in Altered Carbon

Diyah Pera/Netflix

Mackie said he would gladly return to the show, but his reasoning is decidedly less motivated by narrative.

I would love to, I shot this show for five and a half months and I did not have one bad day of work, Mackie told IndieWire by phone. He does have some other concerns, however. If we could shoot it in Montreal or Toronto, I would love to be Takeshi for as long as I could. Theyre just amazing cities. (Season 2 of Altered Carbon shot in Vancouver.)

While the rotating cast allows for so much creative freedom, it also presents a challenge in keeping the audience connected to the throughline of the character. As a television fan herself, Schapker is always conscious of this tension. It is important to me as a fan and as a writer that the Kovacs who is living through the seasons is being carried forward in some way shape or form, she said. I care a lot about pleasure in watching television, so its always that tightrope that as youre challenging people to make new identifications youre also rewarding people for coming back to the show.

Thats part of why she left the ending of Season 2 how she did, with Poe (Chris Conner) making a data copy of a mysterious stack the identity of which wont be unveiled until a potential Season 3. (Netflix has yet to renew the series.)

I really left the chess pieces where I wanted them. I love that Quells out there, I love that Kovacs prime is out there, and I love that Poe made this copy, said Schapker, stopping herself before revealing the copys identity. I guess I have people I wanna bring back, and I have ideas.

Mackie has his own ideas about who the copy might be.

In Season 3, I would love to see Poe bring Takeshi back, he said. But I would love for Poe to bring Takeshi back, and for Takeshi and Kel to go on to stimulate the society that theyve been working for for over 500 years now, and thats giving the common man the power from the government.

As for the possibility of a woman Kovacs? Hundred percent open to that, Schapker said. I think its all on the table.

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Altered Carbon: How Inclusivity Is Hardwired Into the Future of the Netflix Sci-Fi Drama - IndieWire

We need a great grace against such vivid terror as that of death. We do not feel it as long as we have health and hope, but when there is nothing left, either of health or of hope, the blow is terrible. The blow is weakened, however, if we firmly believe that Jesus conquered death.

He conquered death in a twelve-year-old girl who had just died and was still in her bed (Mk. 5:35-42), and also in a young man who was being buried (Lk. 7:12-15). Finally, He conquered it in the tomb and in the heart of putrefaction, in the person of Lazarus (Jn. 11:41-44). It remained for Him to prevent corruption.

Jesus had conquered death in persons who had died a natural death. He still had to conquer it when death would come through violence.

Those whom He had brought back to life remained mortal. It remained that with death, He might even conquer mortality. It was in His person that He would show so complete a victory. After He had been put to death, Jesus arose from the dead to die no more, without even having ever experienced corruption. As the Psalmist chanted: thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption (Ps. 15:10; Acts 2:27).

This which was done by the Chief or Head will be accomplished in His members. Immortality is assured us in Jesus Christ by greater right than when it had first been given to us in Adam. Our first immortality was not to die; our last immortality will be to die no more.

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Lent with Bossuet Meditations on the Gospel (1) - FSSPX.News

The second wave of influenza in the fall of 1918 was the worst yet. By the time Father Nicola Yanney reached Wichita, Kansas, a citywide quarantine was in effect.

A 16-year-old girl had already died, creating a sense of panic. The missionary priest his territory reached from Missouri to Colorado and from Oklahoma to North Dakota couldnt even hold her funeral in the citys new Orthodox sanctuary. As he traveled back to his home church in Kearney, Nebraska, he kept anointing the sick, hearing confessions and taking Holy Communion to those stricken by the infamous Spanish flu.

After days of door-to-door ministry in the snow, Yanney collapsed and called his sons to his bedside. Struggling to breathe, he whispered: Keep your hands and your heart clean. He was one of an estimated 50 million victims worldwide.

A century later, many Orthodox Christians in America especially those of Syrian and Lebanese descent believe Yanney should be recognized as a saint. And now, as churches face fears unleashed by the coronavirus, many details of his final days of ministry are highly symbolic.

Father Nicola got the flu because he insisted on ministering to people who had the flu, said Father Andrew Stephen Damick, creator of The Equal of Martyrdom, an audio documentary about the man known as The Apostle to the Plains.

For priests, there are risks, said Damick. But you cannot turn away when people are suffering and they need the sacraments of the church. You go to your people and minister to them. This is what priests do.

Few acts in ministry are as intimate as a priest huddled with a seriously ill believer, hearing what could be his or her final confession of sins. Honoring centuries of tradition, Christians in the ancient churches of the East also take Communion from a common chalice, with each person receiving consecrated bread and wine mixed together from a golden spoon.

With coronavirus cases increasing in Europe, the leader of the Romanian Orthodox Church urged his people to be careful but to stay calm. The rules for receiving Holy Communion would remain the same.

Hasty judgments must be avoided, and we must firmly reaffirm the Orthodox belief that the Holy Eucharist is not and can never be a source of sickness and death, but a source of new life in Christ, of forgiveness of sins, for the healing of the soul and the body, wrote Patriarch Daniel. That is why, while believers receive Holy Communion, we chant: Receive the Body of Christ, taste the Fountain of Immortality.

Meanwhile, Orthodox leaders in South Korea closer to China and the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis have released stronger guidelines for priests, in reaction to warnings from national health officials. The first instruction states: During the Divine Liturgy, all believers will wear masks.

Also, worshippers in South Korean parishes will be asked to follow these instructions: Before entering the Church, they will disinfect their hands with a disinfectant present at the entrance of the church. They will not shake hands with anyone. They will not kiss the hand of the clergy. They will not kiss the Icons, but they will bow before them. ... The Agape Meal will not be served following the Sunday Liturgy.

Clergy in church traditions that use a common cup have spiritual reasons for believing what they believe. However, they also know that decades of secular research have failed to find significant risks linked to use of a common chalice. Looking at this from a materialistic point of view, said Damick, it helps to know that silver and gold chalices dont harbor germs and that the alcohol in the wine used in Holy Communion can kill germs.

In the weeks ahead, its likely that religious leaders will release more statements addressing ways for believers to lower their risks and prepare for possible quarantines.

I would not cancel services unless told to do so by my bishop. If local officials order people to close everything down, then I would call my bishop and ask him how to handle that, said Damick. What I hear our bishops saying is something like this: We are not going to stop doing the Orthodox things that we do. We are going to take some precautions.

(Terry Mattingly leads GetReligion.org and lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He is a senior fellow at the Overby Center at the University of Mississippi.)

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On religion: During times of plague, priests do what priests need to do - Hastings Tribune

Whether its simply a preoccupation for celebrity gossip mags, or something more idyllic derived from fiction, the notion of eternal youth is open to interpretation. Defined as the concept of human physical immortality free of ageing, it is, ultimately, a common theme within current popular culture. For 17-year-old Dan Hall, the expression was a neat summary with which to label his ongoing photo series; a collection of images informed concurrently by the spirit of youth and the perspective of our grandparents.

Picking up a camera at a young age -- my father enjoyed taking photographs and has several cameras, so I learnt the basics from him and eventually got into it myself, he says -- Dans early interest has remained ever since, resulting this weekend in his debut solo exhibition at Notting Hills JM Gallery.

Characterised by a curiosity for the different expressions, characters and identities of his subjects, Eternal Youth captures couples embracing, friends playing, and flashes of Dan looking in the mirror. Here, ahead of the show's opening, the young photographer shares his thoughts on intimacy, rejecting digital, and why hes using the exhibition to help Young Minds and Age UK.

How do you define eternal youth?It suggests that, whatever age a person is, they always have a sense of youthfulness. The young want to be old and the old want to be young. Even though the people in the series are at opposite ends of adulthood, they all share youthful spirits.

Intimacy is a key theme in the photos, yet difficult to manufacture or feign. How did you create that ease between you and your subjects? The people that I photographed are close to me, so it allowed me to delve deeper into their vulnerability and how their character is portrayed or concealed through the image.

Youve mentioned previously the contrasts and similarities between young and old. Can you elaborate?Both groups are at the opposite ends of adulthood: young people are about to experience everything for the first time whereas older people are doing things for the last time. I discovered, after having conversations with both groups, that they share similar feelings of loneliness but have differing attitudes to beauty. The younger group are more self-critical whereas the elderly tend to accept the ageing process and wish they had appreciated their youthfulness more.

The images are all shot on an analogue camera. As someone whos grown up in a predominantly digital age, why do you think so many young photographers today are drawn to film?For me, the more tactile experience of shooting film took me away from digital. I can slow down and focus more on the composition of an image, connect with the subject more fully. The outcome isnt instantaneous and each frame counts.

Do you have a favourite image from the series?My favourite is 'Grandmas Hands', because it shows the evidence of a long and varied life -- the lines and details in her delicate hands show her age and theres beauty in that.

What can you tell me about the book?It contains an extended selection of images from the series, with additional text written anonymously by people, describing their experiences of being young or old. Its an accompaniment, and I think the text adds another layer and hopefully more depth to the photographs.

Profits from the book and any print sales you make are going to Young Minds and Age UK. Whats your relationship to those particular charities?I chose these two charities because they support mental health in the young and elderly, which reflects the people photographed. Amongst young people nowadays there is a lot of discussion surrounding mental health, whereas older generations are often forgotten about -- they grew up [in a time] when mental health wasnt talked about so openly. These charities can help both groups of people get the right support they need, so theres a nice link between the subjects and charities.

'Eternal Youth' by Dan Hall runs Friday 6 Sunday 8 March 2020 at JM Gallery, 230 Portobello Road, London W11 1LJ.

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Photography Dan Hall

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This photographer holds the secret to eternal youth - i-D

Season 21 of Overwatch Competitive was released yesterday and with it came the first round of hero bans. For those who have not seen the bans, they are: Orisa, Hanzo, Mei and Baptiste.

Now that the Week 1 bans are public, it is time to see the winners and losers of the first round of hero bans.

These two are grouped together because of their reliance on being up close and personal with the opponent. Now that Mei and Baptiste are removed from the hero pool, other heroes may be given more of a spotlight. There will be no Baptiste to throw an Immortality Field to reduce a Dragonblades effectiveness. Mei wont be able to freeze attackers with her primary fire or by dropping a Blizzard. These changes give these unique heroes a chance to shine in a way they have not the past year.

Roadhog is still a fun hero to play, that has not changed. What these bans did was reduce its viability. This issue is mainly due to the removal of Orisa from the hero pool. The duo of Orisa and Roadhog is one of the most synergistic tank pairings in the game. Orisa can halt to pull people off the map or into line of sight so Roadhog can hook them. They both have increased survivalist whether it be from Fortify or Take a Breather. With the removal of Orisa, Roadhog becomes much less viable than it previously was and should see minimal play at higher levels.

One thing these bans seem to do is take out heroes that at lower levels require little effort to be effective. There is no Orisa for players to be a tank version of Bastion, or as McGravy calls it, playing Tower Defense. Mei will not be freezing up multiple targets, walling off teams or wiping teams with a single use of her ultimate. Hanzo will not be able to just spam his arrows into a shield and get a kill. Add to that now players cant hold left click and heal a team in what feels like seconds. These bans shift the focus onto more skill based heroes in a way that can only help make the player base better.

how the hell am i supposed to practice my orisa now ???

The one bad part about the stratification of the OWL and competitive map and ban system is that they are completely different. If OWL pros wanted to practice the pro meta in competitive, the pros are not able to do that. This complicates streaming along with content creation because of the lack of continuity between the two. While some casual players may like the separate pools when it comes to weeks like this week, it is overall harmful to the product.

One thing that can be argued about this patch is to what level it benefits dive. The removal of Mei and Baptiste certainly help the composition. There is no longer Mei Walls to split the team, nor is their immortality field to survive the massive amount of damage typically focused on the dive target. Besides dive stars Doomfist and Genji being buffed by the bans, Winston benefits as well. For similar reasons mentioned above, Winston steps up a tier in terms of viability. When in comp.go dive.

What do you think? Tell me on Twitter at @TheWiz_SPM

Featured image courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

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Overwatch Competitive Hero Pools: Week 1 Winners and Losers - The Game Haus

HuffPost India A still from Kaamyaab

In the cut-throat world of the film industry, the hierarchies of power are well-established. Unlike some other Western film industries, India is all about its stars. Then, perhaps the producer, um, no, the stars managers, the director and so on. In this social scale that determines your importance on a movie set, the role of an extra (yours truly has had the pleasure of being one in a Netflix ad) is exactly what it says it is: required but not essential. And yet for every extra, every bit role is another chance at potential stardom, a stab at cinematic glory, a shot at artistic immortality.

Hardik Mehtas Kaamyaab exists to illuminate these faces, often eclipsed by the spotlight that shines solely on the stars. Sanjay Mishra plays Sudheer, a retired side actor whos had some degree of success and what one would call, a cult following. When a TV interviewer points out that as per IMDB hes done 499 films, Sudheer excavates his dusty wig, polishes his boots, tightens his belt and embarks on a mission to turn that figure to 500.

Mishras Sudheer, much like his existence on movie sets, has a lonely life. By his own choice, he lives alone, refusing to stay with his concerned daughter and her family. He adores his granddaughter but its evident that he has a fractured relationship with her mother. Evenings are spent drinking with his old friend, reflecting on the abyss that stares in front and a past that could never honour his true potential. So when his old friend, Dinesh Gulati, who runs a casting company with the tagline, No Couch, Only Casting, gets him the role of the father in a Baahubali-type epic historical, Sudheer jumps at the chance.

But things dont go as per plan.

Recreating melodramatic scenes from 80s movies, from the doctor who declares inko dawa ki nahi, dua ki zaroorat hai or the shattered lawyer or the philosophical henchman, Mehta creates a world soaked in nostalgia and melancholy, while examining the broken dreams of someone whos observed the world from a periphery. In a heart wrenching scene, Sudheers daughter, frustrated with his fathers whims, asks, What will happen after your 500th film? Youll still remain an extra. Sudheer has no answers because shes probably right. But what she doesnt realise is that the record hes seeking isnt for the world, its for his own validation, to tell himself that he still has it in him.

Another scene that stands apart is the one where Sudheer auditions for the part. In his original takes, Sudheer is atrociously hammy, over-the-top and what millennials would call extra. Its only after Gulatis direction that he delivers a more understated, quiet performance. That scene singularly captures the generational shift, not just between artist and director but between cinema and audience, and how far weve travelled from what we used to be. Sudheer, though, is still a victim of his times, a prisoner of a past thats no longer relevant.

Because so much of Kaamyaab is about the quest for relevance, a desire to see and to be seen. While it loses its heft in certain scenes, which go against its grain, Mehta has remarkable control over his story and crafts a terrific climax. While Deepak Dobriyal is delightful as the casting director (lowkey inspired by a popular Bollywood casting director), Mehta has an assorted bunch of peculiar faces of yore populating his narrative, adding a meta touch to his drama.

From Avtar Gill, Manmauji to Guddi Maruti and Lilliput, the film honours the contribution of these actors by putting a spotlight on them, one that has forever eluded them. However, the real star of this film is Sanjay Mishra, who delivers a heartbreaking and pitch perfect performance. Whether its projecting an air of self-importance or crushing vulnerability, you get the full spectrum of Mishras astounding talent. In one terrific scene that encapsulates how the lines between fiction and reality have blurred, Mishras Sudheer takes a moment to realise when hes called by his actual name:Babulal Chandola.

Because, ultimately, Kaamyaab is a story about stories that have disappeared in the relics of the past, broken and forgotten in their quest for acknowledgement. And in what could happen only in a cinema hall, just when the film ended, and the audience was still enraptured, and when Mishra, an actor whos only now getting his due, was finally getting his big moment, in walked the films co-producer, Shah Rukh Khan.

And yet again, as he had been so many times in reel, Sudheer was once again relegated to the backdrop, eclipsed by the great superstar. Just another day in showbiz.

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'Kaamyaab' Movie Review: A Moving Tribute To The Unsung Heroes Of Cinema - HuffPost India

By Devdutt Pattanaik Across religious scriptures, we come across the concept of balance of power in the unlikeliest of spaces. We hear of charismatic kings who control people (at least warriors) that enable them to wrestle power and make themselves overlords of a kingdom. But how does one maintain balance with these kings? How do you prevent them from becoming dictators?

The balancing force always came through spiritual authorities. It was the job of a prophet or a priest, who had direct access to God. The conversation between the spiritual and the temporal has been the basis of balance of power. This must be kept in mind especially now, when we see the legislative power of the country dominated by a single political party. And simultaneously the balance of power that was supposed to be maintained by the judiciary and by the media is crumbling and a single force is becoming authoritative, making it dangerous. Lets see how a similar situation is explained in the Puranas.

In the Bhagavata Purana, there is the story of king Vena who plunders the earth causing great distress to the earth goddess. So, the rishis come together and, using a magical formula, transform blades of grass into missiles to kill him. This is clearly a story of an assassination. We are told that the body of the king is then churned by the rishis. The negative element is sent to the forest where it can live on as awild animal or as a wild person. The positive element of civilization is churned into a new king called Prithu.

Prithu then is given a bow of kingship: an indicator of balance, by the gods themselves. Thus, the rishis intervene in the misbehaviour of the kings.

The relationship of raja or Vedic king and rishi or Vedic sage is a recurring theme in mythology. In the Rig Veda, kings like Divodasa and Sudas rely on sages and their chanting to bring divine power into their lives. A king did not believe his power came from himself but that it came through the gods. We find Vishwamitra, Vashishtha talking constantly to kings like Dasharatha. In the Mahabharata, rishis like Sanat Sujata go to Dhritarashtra to stop the war; they are unfortunately unsuccessful. Such engagements maintained a balance of power. It restrained kings from crossing the line.

We find the same idea in the Bible. In the Bible, the prophets were connected with God and spoke to man. Through the prophets, kings were advised how to function. The prophets propped up kings, prophets pulled them down. King Saul is made king by Samuel, but when he disobeys the word of God, he is rejected and replaced by David. David falls in love with another mans wife called Bathsheba. Then another prophet Nathan calls him out for his misdemeanour. David was punished for adultery and not allowed to build the temple of God, which he so aspired to do. Instead his son Solomon built the temple.

The same idea is found in the Islamic world. In India, when the Delhi Sultanate came into being, the Delhi Sultans often sought the help of Sufi saints for power. For example, when the Mongols besieged Multan, the local Sufi Sheikh, Bakhtiar, gave an arrow to the ruler Kubacha with instructions to let it loose into the darkness against the army of unbelievers. In the morning, the Mongols were defeated. Thus, the kings success was seen as coming from spiritual guidance.

This idea, in its earliest form, is seen in the Zoroastrian tradition where the king is related to the divine realm through the tree of immortality. In early days, the king and priest were one and the same, but the separation came about to ensure balance of power.

Nowadays, politicians are often connected with gurus, but here the guru functions as the vote bank, providing a vast source of power to the king. He is not functioning as the balance of power calling truth to power. He is instead subservient to the king. There is a pretence of a relationship between the spiritual and the temporal. Just as secular institutions failed at maintaining balance of power, so have these self-proclaimed spiritual institutions.

Devdutt Pattanaik is author of Business Sutra.

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View: The sacred balance of power - Economic Times

Altered Carbon

Im not sure what to make of the future of Altered Carbon, the Netflix series which just debuted its second season this past weekend. Season 1 was one of my favorite seasons of sci-fi TV ever, and while I liked season 2, its hard to say it fully lives up to the first.

There are a lot of open questions about what happens with Altered Carbon next. Netflix is known for killing shows after two seasons a lot of the time unless they are total breakout hits. Does Altered Carbon qualify? Im not sure. Season 2 was not a sure thing for a long time, until it was finally greenlit, and while I am seeing Altered Carbon in Netflixs new Top 10 list of whats being watched (its #4 today), we dont know if thats enough for Netflix to renew a series thats probably more expensive than most of their others by a wide margin.

And the problem? It needs to be even more expensive.

Going into season 2 of Altered Carbon, I noticed that it was quite a bit shorter than season 1. Not only were there two fewer episodes, 8 instead of 10, but most of the episodes were sub-50 minutes, where most season 1 episodes were 50+. That struck me as a possible cost-cutting metric, but after watching the show, thats not the only thing that seemed like a budget reduction.

One of the core problems with Altered Carbon season 2 is that is just seems so muchsmaller than season 1. One of the best parts of the first season was its worldbuilding, and how it created this massive, Blade Runner-like world of immortality with minds jumping through different bodies. It felt like a blockbuster movie in TV form and spanned a wide variety of fascinating locations from the towering mansions of the rich to floating illegal sex clubs in the sky.

Altered Carbon

Altered Carbon season 2 hasfar less of that.

The most obvious cost-saving metric is to reuse the exact Edgar Allen Poe-themed hotel for a large number of scenes, despite being on a totally different planet. There is a technological explanation for this given in the show butyeah, its a little goofy.

Past that, the other environments are justkind of uninspired. They feel like small sets, like a crowded grungy corridor in town, or a lot of stuff just filmed in some random woods or caves. Even when we start to get into the fantastical, a blissful utopia where consciousnesses go free of their bodies, its just like, a local park with a weird color filter on it. The world just feels smaller and faker than what we saw in season 1, and again, this feels like a budget issue.

This may be part of the reason that this season isnt being as well-received by fans as the first. Curiously, critics are reviewing season 2 better than season 1 (82% versus 68% on Rotten Tomatoes), but fans are the polar opposite. Season 1 has a 90% fan review score while season 2 has crashed down to a 38%.

Altered Carbon

From my view, neither of these assessments are correct. Season 2 is not better than season 1 as these critic scores would have you believe, but neither should season 2 be crashing down to a failing 38% as fans are saying either, as its not that much worse. But clearly there is some sort of disconnect going on here, and I am curious what thats about. I do think part of it is the smaller, shorter, lower budget season. And I also think Joel Kinnaman was a better Takeshi Kovacs than Anthony Mackie, though thats not a problem a potential season 3 would have, as no doubt he will be recast again.

I dont know what Netflix will decide to do with Altered Carbon. Season 2 ends with a pretty obvious cliffhanger and the potential for more stories to come. There are three books in the original series by Richard K. Morgan, so it stands to reason Netflix should just let those run their course, at least. But come on, loosen those purse strings just a little bit so you can have a sci-fi show to rival Amazons The Expanse again. It needs the help, judging by how this past season went.

Follow meon Twitter,FacebookandInstagram. Pick up my new sci-fi novelHerokiller, and read my first series,The Earthborn Trilogy, which is also onaudiobook.

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'Altered Carbon' Season 3 Needs A Bigger Budget, If Netflix Renews It At All - Forbes

Marvel's Eternals movie will feature a massive Bollywood dance scene. Kumail Nanjiani revealed the information in a new interview. The actor also stated that the highly anticipated movie uses a lot of practical effects instead of relying on green screen for everything. While a lot of Hollywood projects with a budget have been going with the more practical look, there are some filmmakers, like Jon Favreau, who are stretching the imagination with new and innovative green screen technology.

In Eternals, Kumail Nanjiani plays Kingo, a character with near-immortality, super-strength, flight, energy projection, and molecular manipulation. This is the version of the character from the comics. However, it looks like the movie is changing the character up a little. Nanjiani had this to say about it.

Kingo goes undercover and becomes a huge Bollywood movie star. This sounds like there's plenty of room for Kumail Nanjiani to bring some of his comedic talents out in Eternals. While his "undercover" choice is questionable, it allowed Nanjiani to get some professional dance training in real-life for a massive Bollywood dance scene in the movie. He explains.

From the sound of things, the Bollywood dance number won't be a big part of Eternals. It will more than likely focus on how ridiculous Kingo's choice has become. Whatever the case may be, it's been benefitting Nanjiani. He had to get physically ripped for the movie, which got him a ton of attention on social media, even gaining some notoriety on Pornhub, along with a free subscription to their premium content. Now, he has some Bollywood dance moves that he'll more than likely have for the rest of his life.

As for what the rest of the Eternals movie will look like, Kumail Nanjiani says it's pretty natural. "It looks beautiful and it's all mostly practical. Like we didn't do very much green screen at all." Principal photography on Eternals just wrapped and it's now in the post-production phase, which means some of the first footage should be on its way. With the movie premiering at the end of the year, we could see a teaser in front of Black Widow in May. However, we could see a delay over the coronavirus. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. The interview with Kumail Nanjiani was originally conducted by Deadline.

Topics: The Eternals

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Eternals Gives the MCU Its First Bollywood Dance Scene Says Kumail Nanjiani - MovieWeb

Generations of Star Wars fans -- to say nothing of George Lucas -- believed for the better part of 36 years that Emperor Palpatine met his end in Return of the Jedi, when Darth Vader hurled his master into the reactor shaft of the Death Star II, which was then destroyed by those meddlesome Rebels. Expanded Universe aside, that indeed appeared to be the case, until The Rise of Skywalker revealed he not only survived those event but secretly had been playing the galaxy's puppet master. Unfortunately, however, the film skimps on the details, leaving most of the true revelations to the upcoming novelization.

Leaks from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition, by Rae Carson, have already confirmed the Palpatine in the film was a clone, explained how Rey gave Kylo Ren the lightsaber, and revealed his final words. Now add to the list what actually happened after Palpatine was betrayed by his apprentice in Return of the Jedi's final act.

RELATED: The Rise of Skywalker Novelization Basically Makes An EU Plot Point Canon

Posted on reddit, the passage details the Emperor's memories of the moment, which flood into Rey's mind:

Falling ... Falling ... Falling ... down a massive shaft, the betrayal sharp and stinging, a figure high above, black clad and helmeted and shrinking fast. His very own apprentice had turned against him, the way he himself had turned against Plagueis ... whose secret to immortality he had stolen.

Plageuis had not acted fast enough in his own moment of death. But Sidious, sensing the flickering light in his apprentice, had been ready for years. So the falling, dying Emperor called on all the dark power of the Force to thrust his consciousness far, far away, to a secret place he had been preparing. His body was dead, an empty vessel, long before it found the bottom of the shaft, and his mind jolted to a new awareness in a new body -- a painful one, a temporary one.

Although the Emperor had planned on Vader's inevitable betrayal, the moment arrived sooner than expected: "The secret place had not completed its preparations. The transfer was imperfect, and the cloned body wasn't enough. Perhaps Plagueis was having the last laugh after all. Maybe his secret remained secret. Because Palpatine was trapped in a broken, dying form."

RELATED: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker's Deleted Scenes Will Be in Comic Adaptation

That explanation is strikingly similar to the one in Star Wars: Dark Empire, the 1990s Dark Horse comics series now relegated to Legends. There it was revealed Palpatine survived his apparent death in Return of the Jedi by transferring his essence ... into the body of an old, decaying clone. He purportedly had experimented with the process for years, his spirit hopping from one body to another, cheating immortality through a combination of dark power and technology. (It was later clarified the Palpatine depicted in the films wasn't a clone.)

These new details from the novelization flesh out the clone revelation (so to speak), while bolstering the mystique of Plagueis and confirming the Sith Rule of Two makes the apprentice's betrayal of his master inevitable. It's no wonder, then, that Palpatine was likely planning to murder Vader.

At the same time, they will undoubtedly cue another chorus of groans from disappointed fans who wonder why such plot details couldn't have just been included in The Rise of Skywalker. The film, not the novelization.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition goes on sale March 17.

NEXT: Elijah Wood Throws Shade At The Rise of Skywalker's Storytelling

Star Trek Vs Coronavirus: Vulcan Salutes Replacing Handshakes Is... Logical

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Star Wars Reveals How Palpatine Survived Return of the Jedi | CBR - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Art director Gem Fletcher attended a few meetings in London called the futurists meetup, where people discuss what the future holds for humanity. Fascinated by the subject, she involved photographer David Vintiner, and they started to investigate people who decide on their own evolution.

David Vintiner, from the series Futurists

Transhumanists are a group of individuals harnessing the power of tech to transcend our human biology, photographer David Vintiner and art director Gem Fletcher introduce their project, Futurists. Their 5-year long research covers a broad range of such engineering, from people designing news senses such as an implant that allows its color-blind receiver to hear colors, to those who are on a quest to extending life expectancy.

We should not be afraid of becoming something else, says Moon Ribas, who has developed a sensor which is implanted in her elbow and vibrates whenever there is an earthquake, allowing her to feel global seismic activity in real time. Her portrait by Vintiner is extremely expressive contortioned on the floor, she seems to prolong Earths movements despite the concrete screed that separates them.

David Vintiner, from the series Futurists

What is true for this portrait applies to all of them. Vintiner isnt announcing the end of the world nor making the apology of unlimited bio-science. He simply doesnt judge. We are just trying to explore and explain the movement to other people, he confirms. It took me about a year to get an understanding of what transhumanism is. These people seem really eccentric at first but the more I learned, the less crazy and wacky they seemed. They are just purely thinking about the technology and ignore fuzzy ideas such as what is the soul.

His approach translates into a neutral aesthetics. In most cases, his portraits are shot in mundane locations - a teenagers bedroom, an empty garage, an office, a classroom or a living room featuring basic technology such as a TV or a music player. This is happening now, it's not the future; they're all real people. As much as possible, we photographed them in their homes or in all the places where they do their experiments, he explains. No cold light either.

David Vintiner, from the series Futurists

Some devices might remind of super-heroes, but Vintiner doesnt amplify that aspect. Transhumanists may seem to transcend the barriers of both senses and ethics, but in most cases, they just happen to be thinking in a very pragmatic, scientific way. I dont really feel like I have transcended the barriers of traditional sense, I just feel like I am an asshole who is missing an eye and got an eye camera, one of his subject says.

Yet, a portrait of Nick Bostrom, the Director of the Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University, raises a question, if not a warning. The co-founder of the World Transhumanist Association, Bostrom also warns about the dangers of artificial intelligence being unregulated. He further reasoned that the creation of a superintelligent being represents a possible means to the extinction of mankind. Even though transhumanism is based on science, it has that religious idea of immortality to it, of playing God with biology, Vintiner concludes. Till where?

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David Vintiner is a British photographer based in London focusing mainly on portraiture. You can support his first book's I Want To Believe kickstarter campaign here.

Laurence Cornet is a writer and curator based in Paris focusing on cultural and environmental issues. She is also the editorial director of Dysturb.

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This article is part of our feature series Photo Kernel, which aims to give space to the best contemporary practitioners in our community. The word Kernel means the core, centre, or essence of an object, but it also refers to image processing.

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The Futurists Redefining What it Means to be Human - PHmuseum

This article contains spoilers forSavage Avengers #11.

Marvel Comics has just revealed the true story of Kulan Gath, their darkest Sorcerer Supreme. Gerry Duggan'sSavage Avengers has seen a classic villain return from beyond the dawn of time. Kulan Gath hails from the Hyborean Age, the time of Conan the Barbarian, before the advent of the last Ice Age.

Kulan Gath has proved to be a formidable foe. Even the combined might of Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom was barely enough to give him a contemporary defeat, and they accomplished this feat by cheating; Doctor Doom resorted to science rather than sorcery. Doom summoned his Infamous Iron Man armor for Strange,transforming him into the so-called "Iron Mage." Strange came up with an innovative use of the armor, reforming it around Kulan Gath and restraining him. That gave the time-displaced Conan the chance to stab him, and Kulan Gath teleported away.

Related:Why Doctor Strange Worshiped Spider-Man As A God (Yes, Really)

This week'sSavage Avengers #11 finally reveals the secret of Kulan Gath's power. Doctor Strange uses blood magic to send his astral form back through the millennia, observing Kulan Gath's history. He finds himself viewing the Earth as it looked twelve millennia ago, and he watches the slave boy Kulan Gath murder and supplant his master. Vowing never to be a victim again, he sought the secrets of magic, and he approached the Sorcerer Supreme of his time, Mekri Ra. Mekri Ra sensed the evil in Kulan Gath's heart and refused to train him.

Humiliated, Gath traveled the globe, searching out lesser sources and training with them. To Doctor Strange's horror, he learned the secrets of a dark form of blood magic; he became a cannibal, consuming a sorcerer's organs in order to attain their knowledge. There is knowledge and power in blood, and Kulan Gath learned to master it. He began to draw the life energy itself from his victims, extending his own life; that is the secret of Kulan Gath's immortality.

In the end, Kulan Gath became so powerful he returned to Mekri Ra - and defeated him. He drew the Sorcerer Supreme's death out as long as possible, a way of repaying him for the humiliation of being banished all those years ago. Ironically, that may well ultimately prove to be Kulan Gath's undoing; Mekri Ra sensed the astral presence of the watching Doctor Strange and passed on a mysterious message to him before Kulan Gath slit his throat. Kulan Gath thus became Mekri Ra's successor as Sorcerer Supreme - probably the evilest one of all time.

The story may be horrific, but it loses a little of its shock value because attentive readers already knew this; something's gone wrong with Marvel's publication strategy.Last month'sSavage Avengers annual is presumably set after this issue because it features Doctor Strange warning Magik that Kulan Gath will come for her - and that he's a cannibal.

Savage Avengers #11 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.

More:Infinity War Almost Had Doctor Strange In Iron Man Armor: How It Could Have Worked

Joker's New Girlfriend Punchline vs. Harley Quinn Confirmed

Tom Bacon is one of Screen Rant's staff writers, and he's frankly amused that his childhood is back - and this time it's cool. Tom's focus tends to be on the various superhero franchises, as well as Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Star Trek; he's also an avid comic book reader. Over the years, Tom has built a strong relationship with aspects of the various fan communities, and is a Moderator on some of Facebook's largest MCU and X-Men groups. Previously, he's written entertainment news and articles for Movie Pilot.A graduate of Edge Hill University in the United Kingdom, Tom is still strongly connected with his alma mater; in fact, in his spare time he's a voluntary chaplain there. He's heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will quickly learn that he's interested in British politics as well.

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Marvel Just Revealed The DARKEST Sorcerer Supreme | Screen Rant - Screen Rant

Written by Jerry L. Barrow

In Altered Carbon, mankind has found a way to cheat death, making life 300 years in the future very different. Thanks to technology, the human consciousness can be downloaded digitally to stacks which can then be transferred to a humanoid sleeve, or body, granting perpetual life. If a sleeve is damaged or destroyed, the consciousness is simply spun-up or revived in a new sleeveif they have the means to obtain one.

Of course, there are tiers to this experience and the higher classes and government officials enjoy the spoils of this infinite existence, being spun-up repeatedly. But even in a world where death is delayed indefinitely, there is a human cost that is both physical and spiritual.

Anthony Mackie (Avengers: Endgame, Striking Vypers) stars in season two as Takeshi Kovacs, the lone surviving soldier of a group of elite interstellar warriors, continuing his centuries old quest to find his lost love Quellcrist Falconer, played by Renee Elise Goldsberry (Waves, Hamilton). After decades of planet-hopping and searching the galaxy, Kovacs finds himself recruited back to his home planet of Harlans World with the promise of finding Quell.

During his journey Takeshi is assisted by a bounty hunter named Trepp, played by Simone Missick (All Rise, Luke Cage) who is trying to secure a future for her family in a world that doesnt care about them.

While living forever seems like a dream for most, in a conversation with BET, the cast shared what they felt was the downside to potentially living forever.

Anthony Mackie:

The pros of [immortality] is if you find that person, find that thing, you find true happiness, you can indulge in it until its no more. The cons [are] you have to live with your faults forever. Every shortcoming you have and every mistake youve made is with you for your entire life.

Simone Missick:

As a person who wants to live to be 106thats my goalI look at the people who do live that long, they lose so many people around them. Its a lonely place, its a lonely thing if the people around you arent also immortal, there to share your memories and remind you of who you are and where you came from. I think that with immortality, if all things are equal and everyone lives forever, you lose the feeling, I think, of passion to achieve, to love fiercely. To cherish each moment. To not know that theyre infinite. You dont have forever. I think [that] is the way that we live our lives and we so greatly want to hold on to those close to us and believe and pray and walk with a certain purpose knowing that were here for a short amount of time. I think that if you dont have that and you have nowhere else greater or better to go, once its all said and done, you create a future where nothing is valued. Life is not precious. And I could look at you and say I like that, give it to me. And take your sleeve. And I think that is a disgusting devaluation of humanity.

Renee Elise Goldsberry:

This is one part of the journey, right? To think that our journey is about what our body is doing is really just because we are so small. Were down here, we cant get higher and see. Our soul is the span of a lifetime. And the idea that we would make this experience in one bodyor many bodiesdefine who we are, probably cheats of the greatest things we will come to know as a spirit when we let this one go.

Season 2 of Altered Carbon premiers on February 28.

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The Stars Of Altered Carbon Season 2 Discuss The Dark Side of Immortality - BET

Ken Liu does a lot of things as a writer. He creates big, doorstopper novels of his own (the Dandelion Dynasty series), and translates works from some of the best Chinese genre writers working in that language (Liu Cixin, Hao Jingfang, others). He writes books about Luke Skywalker and does travel pieces on Shanghai, wrote an essay that became a ballet, writes articles poetry. He is busy.

And when he's not doing any of that, Liu writes short stories. Lots of short stories. He has won just about every award there is to win for short speculative fiction, and the namesake story that beat as the heart of his 2016 collection, The Paper Menagerie, took home the sci-fi triple crown, winning the Hugo, the Nebula and the World Fantasy Award in 2012.

So yeah, I was excited when I got my hands on his second collection, The Hidden Girl, and cracked it open. I was expecting the same kind of deep, emotional connection. The same wild flights of imagination. The same spark of compressed magic that animates the best short fiction the ability to conceive a universe writ in miniature, to tease out only those moments of it that matter most fiercely.

But The Hidden Girl ... is not that. It isn't even really a book of discreet short stories so much as a series of tightly interlinked, self-referential chapters of a distributed novel, broken up by diversions, digressions, thought experiments and a couple pieces that read like intellectual exercises in imaginary brand PR.

There's a three-story arc about artificial intelligence and the singularity ("The Gods Will Not Be Chained," "The Gods Will Not Be Slain" and "The Gods Have Not Died In Vain") that starts as a simple exploration about a daughter mourning her father and ends with an AI war, a scorched earth and a meditation on digitally native intelligences that have never known what it is like to live in the flesh.

"Staying Behind" treads the same ground, only jumped forward in time to a point along the historical arc where a single company, Everlasting Inc., has developed the technology to upload human consciousness. It has the best opening line ("After the Singularity, most people chose to die."), the most rich and developed present, an argument/counterargument structure that Liu returns to again and again in this collection (with varying levels of success) but which, here, feels organic and rounded. The world it presents is slower, simpler, and largely de-populated of living humans, which provides an ideal setting for the friction that develops between parents and children who have radically different ideas of what of the old world is worth hanging on to and what "living" actually means when digital immortality becomes a viable option.

"Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer" goes even further, experimenting with clock cycles as time travel, the reality of forever contained within the promise of immortality, and the possibilities it presents when a mother one of the "Ancients" who actually lived for some years as a person before uploading chooses to send her consciousness into space to explore another planet, but only after spending a last 45-year-long "day" with her digitally-engineered daughter, trying to pass on to her what it felt like to once upon a time live in the real world and not a virtual one.

These linked stories are broken up by unattached tales that fall like partial non-sequiturs in Liu's larger conversation about family, memory and immortality. "Real Artists" is about algorithmic intelligence usurping the creative arts and, ironically, plays out in an incredibly predictable fashion, right down to the stinger at the end. "Byzantine Empathy" is a stilted, manipulative argument between two friends on the nature of charitable giving that reads like an extended infomercial for blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

There are beautiful moments in these stand-alone tales, to be sure. "Seven Birthdays" is like an exploded haiku, bookended by images of kites and flight, the reach of its vision and the broken hearts inside its messy utopian/dystopian future as full and real as its imagination is stunning. "Thoughts and Prayers" is an absolutely haunting vision of trolling and the gun control debate set 20 minutes in our broken future. And there is a way to read The Hidden Girl as a kind of academic exercise performed in public Liu working out his own partially-formed ideas about humanity's potential future on the page, mixing and re-mixing elements, bundling them up with his favorite emotional arcs (aliens and immigrants, family and memory and history), banging notions together just to see what sticks.

'The Hidden Girl' just doesn't hang together as a complete collection. It meanders and repeats itself. It can't commit to a single tone, but can't arrange disparate ones into a sensible flow.

In that way, the collection's titular story, "The Hidden Girl," reads almost like the first chapter of an abandoned novel about Chinese myth and multi-dimensional assassins (and one of the other pieces, "A Chase Beyond the Storms," actually is an orphan chapter of something longer a sneak preview of Liu's upcoming third Dandelion Dynasty novel). "Maxwell's Demon" becomes a (largely failed, clumsy, paradoxically cold) attempt at giving a narrative structure to mathematician James Clerk Maxwell's thought experiment about violating the second law of thermodynamics, and "Memories of My Mother" just a (largely successful) experiment in formatting, structure and the laws of relativity.

But as fun as such dissembling can be for those more interested in the way a writer's brain works than settling down with a good yarn, The Hidden Girl just doesn't hang together as a complete collection. It meanders and repeats itself. It can't commit to a single tone, but can't arrange disparate ones into a sensible flow. There are too many places where process overshadows character, or where Liu presents an argument clothed in threadbare narrative rather than a story that proceeds along the natural path of an argument. Like the rogue intelligences that skulk in its pages, The Hidden Girl is smart, sure. How could it not be?

But something about it feels not altogether human.

Jason Sheehan knows stuff about food, video games, books and Starblazers. He is currently the restaurant critic at Philadelphia magazine, but when no one is looking, he spends his time writing books about giant robots and ray guns. Tales From the Radiation Age is his latest book.

Excerpt from:

Review: 'The Hidden Girl And Other Stories,' By Ken Liu - NPR

Turn on the television and watch reports on todays newsworthy stories. Open Twitter and see how people react to them. Go to work and hear about them some more. Come home and, well, theres family. Laugh with them, rant to them, celebrate with them, comfort them, worry about them. Every day brings something new.

This cycle likely sounds familiar to many people today. It is also the orbit of Lizzie, the narrator in Jenny Offills charming new novel, Weather. Shes a university librarian whose unusual side job is to answer letters sent to an apocalypse podcast. But theres nothing unusual about Lizzies emotional life. For Lizzie is beset with worry about the ups and downs of her marriage, her struggling brother Henry, her country (circa 2016), her planet. Despite these anxieties, she tries to avoid the fretful and immobilizing trepidation to which she responds everyday. While Lizzies unease is plentiful, she never allows herself to lose hope entirely.

In a novel that emphasizes this emotional journey more than the storyline itself, Offill finds an ideal space where her unique style is most effective. The books pages are alight with Offills simple prose, short sentences, and equally concise paragraphs. Indeed, Offill organizes her novel almost entirely in vignettes, at most a couple of pages and at least a couple of lines. Some vignettes offer glimpses of the day-to-day journeys of Lizzies life and her interaction with the world around her. Lizzie discusses the increase of automation with Mr. Jimmy, a car-service driver. Shes annoyed with Mrs. Kovinski, her politically opposite neighbor. Shes disappointed by the able-bodied teenagers with earbuds who occupy the priority seats on a full bus. While these little moments may seem like fragmented references to the times, they certainly do not come off that way. Flowing one into the other, each vignette cleverly discusses an experience familiar to many and envisions another persons reaction to it.

Added to these kinds of vignettes are longer ones that deal with Lizzies less fleeting interactions with her family. At the emotional root of the novel lie Lizzies dual and sometimes conflicting commitments. On the one hand, theres her husband Ben and son Eli; on the other, her troubled brother Henry. Offill provides a powerful sense of loves magnetic pull, and of the forceful strain that ensues when the all-consuming duty of love spreads one too thin. The reader gets a sense of Lizzies worry when her intense focus on Henry seems to push her classics-loving husband, Ben, away. Youre weary of me, arent you? Lizzie asks at one point. As her marriage lies in a kind of cold stagnation, Lizzies resolute devotion to Henry is palpable in a particularly vivid passage: But how can I leave him alone? Already, Im hiding my sleeping pills in a sock under my bed.

The emotional journey of family, while beautifully rendered, is not without its shortcomings. Perhaps the lone weakness of the novel is that the reader does not get as much of an insight into Ben or Eli as they do Henry. With Henry, Offill paints a vivid image of his relationship with Lizzie. She shows the reader his struggles and concerns and vulnerabilities along with Lizzies reactions and responses to them. This is effective because what Lizzie sees in addition to what she thinks rises to the surface of the page, creating a fuller understanding of her relationship with Henry. Only occasionally does the reader feel similarly with Ben, and even more scarcely with Eli. To be sure, their relationships with Lizzie are well-conceived, but they do not reach the intensity with which one experiences Lizzies relationship with Henry.

Weather would not succeed without the countless aphorisms and other witty, sometimes satirical, statements interspersed between these vignettes. In some ways, these are some of the most delightful and original elements of the novel they evoke the sayings that one could find in tiny pocketbooks and capture Offills literary voice and expressive prose. Offill quotes from a diverse cast, from Virginia Woolf to Sri Ramakrishna, and also adds many maxims of her own. There is a period after every disaster in which people wander around trying to figure out if it is truly a disaster, Lizzie observes at one point. In a more lighthearted one, a friend caricatures Silicon Valley: These people long for immortality but cant wait ten minutes for a cup of coffee. These observations enhance Offills novel by serving as her most diverse literary tool: They add levity, drive home a point, and inject Offills voice and commentary.

What happened to the flying dreams? Lizzie asks early on. In a way, this is very much the question Offill poses and explores in her novel, too. Travelling from the mundane to the philosophical, the serious to the whimsical, Weather reflects on the times and its effect on those who live in it. Offill discusses the most basic source of joy or pain family and the most recent culture, politics, a changing world. Her sharp prose and structured storytelling shape this commentary on unease, change, and hope into a refreshing literary work.

Staff writer Alexander W. Tam can be reached at alexander.tam@thecrimson.com.

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In 'Weather,' A Journey Of Unease, Change, And Hope | Arts - Harvard Crimson

I want to like Altered Carbon, Netflixs cyberpunk epic which just premiered its second season. But I cant. Every moment watching the show is torture for me. Anthony Mackies performance as Takeshi Kovacsthe so-called last Envoy and hero of the showis good. The AI hotel Poe is a welcome change from the books. The fight scenes are well choreographed, the production values high, and the street life of Harlans World is spectacularly high tech and low-life. If you want to get lost in a cool and expensive-looking cyberpunk yarn, Altered Carbon is the best show in townonly if you haven't read the books.

Yes, I know. "The book was better than the movie/show" is something we could say about almost any adaptation, but I truly cant enjoy Altered Carbon because I read the books theyre based on and it feels like Netflix gutted the story of everything that made it interesting. The three Takeshi Kovacs novels are weird books about eldritch alien horrors and revolutionary politics in a world where no one dies. Altered Carbon took that raw material and stripped out anything complicated. The books are stories about power and revolutionary politics. The show is an action adventure love story with some light class critique.

Adaptation is hard. Television is a different medium than books and things are going to change, I understand that. Game of Thrones did a mostly great job of adapting George RR Martins books. I think the Lord of the Rings films are better than the novels. So too with The Princess Bride. Sometimes adaptations make large changes from the source material for the better. The novel Jaws is based on has an entire subplot about the local Mafia that landed on the cutting room floor for the film.

But Netflixs Altered Carbon feels like it butchered its source material. This started in the first season with Takesh Kovacs, the main character. In the show, Kovacs is the last Envoy, the lone remaining member of a revolutionary group that wants to overthrow the ruling elites and eliminate the technology that keeps everyone alive forever. In the novels, Kovacs is still an Envoy, but Envoy's are the Special Operations Forces of the U.N. Protectoratethe Earth based government that keeps order in the galaxy. He leaves the service after witnessing a genocide he blames on the U.N. He saw his fellow soldiers die horrifically and he blamed leadership, but not necessarily the power structure. Kovacs is cynical, hes not a revolutionary.

In the novels, Kovacs never met Quellcrist Falconer. Shes a historical figure he admires, akin to Mao Zedonga political theorist who led a revolutionary movement. Shes a model to be emulated, the foundation for the revolutionary politics of Kovacs world, not his love interest. In the books, hes in love with the idea of her. In the show, hes quite literally in love with her and that drives the plot of the first and second season. That change forces the show to pursue Kovacs as a personal but not political figure. Kovacs seeks her out because hes in love, not necessarily because he believes in her crusade against the entrenched power structure.

The politics of the Envoys in the show are reactionary and anti-technology. Falconer invented the cortical stacks that allow humans to live forever. She regrets her decision and wants to destroy the technology and allow people to die. She feels that shes only enabled a system that allows the rich to accumulate power as they deepen their immortality.

The problem is that that system already exists. It exists in our world and the idea that removing a technology that enables immortality would change that is naive. Immortality is a banal given in the novels, its a hard fact. It is the accumulation of wealth and power that makes the rich immortals into monsters, not the technology itself.

In the novels, the Methsrich, powerful, and long-lived humansare barely seen. Theyre as alien to normal people as the birdlike Martians. There is a sense that theyre gods, so powerful and old that they cant be fought let alone seen. In the show theyre an indulgent ruling class driving the plot forward at every turn. Theyre decadent, immortal, amoral, and boring.

The books ask the question: how do you fight these gods and build something better? Every previous revolutionary movement in human history had made the same basic mistake, Falconer says in Woken Furies, the third novel. Theyve all seen power as a static apparatus, as a structure. Its not. Its a dynamic, a flow system with two possible tendencies. Power either accumulates or it diffuses through the system...a genuine revolution has to reverse the flow. And no one ever does that, because theyre all too scared of losing their conning tower moment in the historical process.

Theres lots of these conversations in the novelmoments where a cynical soldier who once upheld the power structure struggles to understand how anything could ever be different. In the books, Falconers answers are complicated. Shes there to build something better, not just destroy everything.

In the show, Falconer is mostly good at stabbing people in the throat. It looks cool, but it feels hollow.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Originally posted here:

Netflix Gutted the Radical Politics of Altered Carbon - VICE

The saying people come into your path for a reason, a season or a lifetime is seldom truer than with family members. Occupying an intimate and inviting set, two brothers recall their childhood, sweeping the viewers along with them on their personal journeys inspired by the memory of their eccentric uncle. Through storytelling and comedy, Wooden Nickels presents to the audience a tale of friendship, self-discovery and legacy. The play, presented by Theater Emory and directed by Emory Professor of Theater Studies Tim McDonough, debuted at the Mary Gray Munroe Theater on Feb. 26. Although the play was originally written as prose by writer and Professor of English Joseph Skibell, he adapted Wooden Nickels for the stage.

Wooden Nickels takes advantage of the small theater to create a charming and warm atmosphere. Bathed in yellow-orange light, the stage remained clear, featuring only three chairs, a coat rack and a wall covered in photos and posters. This environment made it feel as though the two characters, brothers Joseph (Hugh Adams) named after the playwright himself and Ethan (Michael Strauss), appear as if they were speaking directly to the viewers. The play follows the two as they rehearse the story of Jack Tiger, their fathers cousin. Joseph claims that he and Ethan will tell stories from their childhood, in which Tiger plays a large role. Joseph begins with an explanation of the plays origins, explaining that a family friend asked if he would be willing to clean out a barn full of Tigers possessions. This launches him into a series of side-stories that reveal details about the brothers father, Tiger and their hometown. Ultimately, Joseph and Ethan end up completing their journey to the farm before detailing the last few years of Tigers life.

While initially confusing in its meta-approach, it becomes clear that Joseph and Ethan are walking the audience through Josephs play script, which he wrote about Jack Tiger. Because there are only two characters, though several others are mentioned in the story, Joseph and Ethan pretend to voice them as they are mentioned. The brothers act out what they remember about their father Irwin, Jack Tiger and their other friends. Occasionally, Joseph and Ethan break character from their reenactments to exchange jokes between themselves or the audience. To aid in the audiences understanding that this is a play about a play, Joseph frequently shifts through his papers and jots notes down as if he were editing his original script.

Despite the abnormal life of the plays central subject, Jack Tiger, Wooden Nickels is relatable. Joseph and Ethan share a good deal of light-hearted banter that conjured memories of my own. Similarly, Irwin and Tiger share a friendship rooted in love and loyalty despite striking differences in personality. Likewise, one understands Ethan and Josephs struggle for recognition and achievement in their fields (acting and writing, respectively), a characteristic that they come to realize unites them.

Wooden Nickels thematically explores self-discovery and immortality. Both brothers and Tiger are striving to find purpose and leave their legacy. Tiger aims to live his life to the fullest while Joseph and Ethan discover aspects of themselves. While Tiger is eccentric and ambitious at his best, he is shady and irresponsible at his worst. Despite his questionable morality, Tiger clearly wishes to leave this mark on the world through the production of movies and goes to great lengths in an attempt to fund this dream. Similarly, Joseph, the author of the play, wishes to find meaning through writing while Ethan hopes to do the same by acting. Joseph and Ethan see themselves in Tigers failures; all three wish to be immortalized in their arts yet have not quite made it as big as they would have hoped.

The plays small cast gave Adams and Strauss ample time in the spotlight. Both actors displayed tactful skill; in particular, Strausss ability to quickly switch between the reserved Ethan and the over-the-top Tiger without skipping a beat was impressive. Furthermore, the actors delivery of one-liners and anecdotes throughout the play contributed to an intimate atmosphere.

Wooden Nickels, wonderfully produced and delightful in mood, took the audience along on an expedition of self-discovery during its weeklong run. Even though the personality of Jack Tiger himself is not relatable for most, viewers can see themselves in his quest to fulfillment, his reliance on his family and the generational friendships between the characters. Ultimately, the audience travels with the brothers, coming to reflect on their own lives just like Joseph and Ethan.

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BTS's '7' is a Tender Exploration of Identity and Celebrity - The Emory Wheel

Ageing is optional if certain lifestyle factors can be controlled, and there is an emerging economy for people living longer, the Milken Institutes Middle East and Africa summit in Abu Dhabi heard on Tuesday.

We say we are increasing the healthspan not just the lifespan. So people have more years in life but those years are healthier and more productive and fulfilling, Nora Super, director of the Centre for the Future of Ageing at the Milken Institute, told The National.

By 2030, more people worldwide will be over the age of 60 than under 10, according to Milken, a US think tank.

Meanwhile, experiments over the last few years to test the bodys epigenetic clock, which tracks a persons biological age, have been shown to slow down or reverse when given certain medications and hormones, or when the test subjects were able to reduce stress through meditation.

The combination of shifting demographics and recent breakthroughs in our understanding of ageing and longevity represent both a massive challenge and opportunity in the 21st century.

Dr Deepak Chopra, founder of the Chopra Centre and a wellness expert, said that over the past two decades, scientists had begun to more widely accept that ageing was more like a disease that can be cured rather than an inevitability.

No gene has evolved to cause ageing. No one dies of old age, he said at the conference.

Dr Chopra said the idea of well-being and longevity could be achieved by following seven pillars: sound sleep, meditation, physical activity, emotion moderation, plant-based nutrition, time outdoors and self-awareness.

Through the Chopra Centre, he said he was working to identify biomarkers to measure the effects these practices had on a persons ageing process.

Dr Chopra is 73 years old but he claims his epigenetic clock is nearly half that after following 30 years of daily meditation and walking at least 10,000 steps.

As we move into the future, we should be able to create these new algorithms that correlate biometrics to well-being, he said.

In addition to working on measuring the effect of anti-ageing practices on the body, Dr Chopra is working on a project called Digital Deepak, an artificial intelligence based on his writings and teachings.

The AI is still a baby under development, he said, but would be rolled out later this year.

If we dont adapt to technology, we become irrelevant, he told The National.

Dave Asprey, founder of Bulletproof Coffee, who wrote a book on longevity, said mankind's "current best" was 120 years old - a number he said he hoped to beat.

Mr Asprey, a former technology company executive, said he believed if I can hack the internet, I can hack this [ageing issue] and admitted to investing at least $1 million in his efforts.

By prolonging life and increasing well-being, he said, there was a return on investment measured by time.

When we imagine ageing, we imagine being old and thats not a pretty sight: wheelchairs, you cant remember your own name, incontinence, he said. "But these are solvable, hackable problems."

Updated: February 11, 2020 09:29 PM

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Ageing is 'optional' amid emerging economy for immortality - The National

This is a Liverpool squad that has become immortalised in its own time. A town that has been painted red.

The current champions of Europe remain firmly on course to end a three-decade wait for an English league title, with a 22-point advantage at the summit leaving them just a half-dozen victories away from a sizeable slice of modern history.

Jurgen Klopp and his teak-tough band of brothers are the talk of the town, with the eternal chatter from the Red half of the city largely surrounding this current crop's place in the pantheon of all-time Liverpool greats.

Where they sit among the sides sculptured and shaped by Bob Paisley, Bill Shankly et al, will one day make for one of the healthiest of Merseyside football debates.

In the here and now, though, there are medals to be won and trophies to be lifted.

Liverpool have veered only slightly so far throughout what has been remarkable campaign; just two Premier League points dropped with the Reds still in the hunt for both the Champions League and the FA Cup.

Their impact and influence, however, stretches beyond the regular confines of football fandom. To many, Klopp and the players at his disposal have already become icons, whatever happens between now, May - and the rest of the decade.

As world and European champions, this current squad have sent the levels of pride among the fanbase soaring to levels rarely seen across the club's 128-year history.

As such, Liverpool's players and their charismatic coach remain omnipresent throughout a city that boasts just as much civic pride as it does in its sporting accomplishments.

Take a stroll through the burgeoning Baltic Triangle area of the city centre and you will be confronted by a giant mural in homage to Klopp. It has become the coolest tourist attraction around - even for locals - since its inception in December 2018.

The likability factor of the affable Klopp, coupled with his sometimes underrated acumen as one of the sharpest tactical minds in football, has helped Liverpool to the brink of domestic glory once more.

No other manager has come as close as Klopp as to ending a wait for league title No.19 and after guiding the club to a sixth European Cup last year, his place as an Anfield great is already safe and secure. The German even has a sports bar named in his honour in the city centre.

French graffiti artist Akse has painted some of the most recognisable faces on the planet onto various walls across the world. From Bob Marley and David Bowie through to Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali, the breathtaking artist's work always catches the eye.

The same applies to the likeness of Liverpool's manager, which can be found on Jamaica Street.

Commissioned by the club itself, Klopp's image was the first time Akse had painted a manager of the game, despite his ample experience of football-themed street art that include Wayne Rooney, Harry Maguire and Juan Mata.

"You really can feel the love from the fans [for Klopp]," he tells the ECHO. "Each time I go back to the wall, there are always fans from all around the world taking pictures with the mural.

"As an artist you get very attached to the pieces you paint on a personal level. Each piece has its own story: from the choice of the subject, the selection of the reference image, the preparation of the mural and the painting process."

The Klopp piece took two days to complete and was not without its weather-related technical issues, but for Akse - the artist who also produced the Trent Alexander-Arnold piece last year - his hard labour merely shines further light on the positive role models who are his subject matter.

He adds: "These murals pay tribute to the outstanding achievements of the subjects and the fans recognise that. After painting the Jurgen Klopp and Trent murals, I received a lot of requests from LFC fans to paint other players so its really a testament to how much they mean to them.

"[The Alexander-Arnold] mural is also dedicated to Fans Supporting Foodbanks so it brings fans together to fight food poverty in Liverpool. This is why I love doing street art, it can have such a positive impact in the community on so many levels."

Discreetly tucked away down a city-centre backstreet is an 'Ode to Mo' - a celebration of Liverpool's Egyptian King himself, Mohamed Salah.

As the poster-boy for football in his homeland, Salah carries the weight of expectation of his 90million compatriots and his rise at Anfield has catapulted him into the realms of global superstardom.

Magazine covers and lucrative endorsements have followed for a player who has become something of a pop culture phenomenon during his two-and-a-half years as a Liverpool employee.

Guy McKinley was the artist who sketched Salah's face on a wall midway down Basnett Street, creating a six-metre-by-three painting paying tribute to the Liverpool hero, bringing an otherwise nondescript collection of brickwork to life in the process.

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Created just before the 2018 Champions League final, thanks to the work from local company RRUNews, Guy's art was accompanied by the words of poet Musa Okwonga, hailing the "golden smile of the nile."

"Mo is more than just a good footballer, he is a role model to lots of people from varying backgrounds," Guy told the ECHO. "He brings divergent people together which is always good.

"This was important to the piece as a whole, putting the image alongside Musas words and then interacting with the locals for the accompanying film, all helped highlight how well he is received by the local community too.

"That was the concept rather than just a mural of Mo Salah, it was a chance to open debate too. I dont think he is just a hero in Egypt now, he seems huge everywhere by what I have seen.

"From the outside looking at him, he seems to be a very positive person and is such a benefit to the team and city.

"I had kids come over to me while I was painted telling me how important it was that he is seen as this positive influence and thanking me for painting it, which was very touching.

"Appealing to people in a number of ways certainly helps cement his status among the whole family of Liverpool FC fans from all over the world."

This is about more than just a good football team; the current Liverpool squad have allowed even the most gnarled supporter a chance to remind themselves why they fell in love with the sport.

Beyond their accomplishments on the pitch, their willingness to embrace the supporters who lionise them is a constant theme throughout the squad.

Perhaps few embody that more than Trent Alexander-Arnold, whose rise from Academy hopeful to Ballon d'Or nominee has been sharp. In under four years, the West Derby-born, lifelong Liverpool supporter has become one of the world's most valuable defenders.

Cherished by locals, the 21-year-old's appearance was painted, three-storeys high, on to a home at the corner of Sybil Street and Anfield Road - just an Alexander-Arnold cross from where the Reds star has stamped his mark on the game he loves since his debut in October 2016.

The mural was arranged by the Anfield Wrap, a popular fan podcast with subscribers in over 80 countries, as a way to commemorate an incredible season that ended with Alexander-Arnold lifting the Champions League trophy.

Alexander-Arnold, though, represents more than just a great player being adored by a club's fans. He is a Steven Gerrard for the Millennium, a homegrown hero living the idyllic dream of thousands of other Liverpool-born football followers.

"I was trying to think of something we could do to celebrate the players' achievements," says Craig Hannan of the Anfield Wrap. "And it was the BT Sport clip after the game of Alexander-Arnold saying: 'I'm just a normal lad from Liverpool whose dreams have just come true'.

"He is a footballer who has lived all our dreams, coming through the youth system, lifting the European Cup - everything made sense for him. That is where the idea came about. He is not just his achievements on the pitch, it is what he has done off it too.

"He is a local lad and done loads of work for foodbanks and An Hour For Others, so it all just made sense. This is a local lad who has won the Champions League but also a grounded 21-year-old who gives back and hasn't forgotten where he has come from.

Paul Gorst is the ECHO's new full-time LFC correspondent covering the Reds both home and away.

He'll be across all the biggest stories both on and off the pitch and is a must follow for fans worldwide.

Paul can be found on Twitter @ptgorst, Facebook @ptgorst and Instagram @PaulGorst.

You can email Paul at paul.gorst@reachplc.com.

"We chose him for the wall, but in actual fact, when you look through the whole team, we wanted to celebrate the fact that these are footballers that stand for a lot and believe in a lot. You can see the continuous work they do in the city for charity. For Trent, we all see a bit ourselves in him.

"In a city like Liverpool, it is great that we can feel that connection with the players. There hasn't always been an obvious relationship with the players and the fans over the years, but with the likes of Andy Robertson and Trent and the rest, their values seem to be in line with us as fans.

"It is not just about them playing 90 minutes and then we don't see them, it is about them helping out in the local community. Even the kind of content the club put out, we get a great understanding of what they are like as people."

The Alexander-Arnold mural was unveiled days before the current Premier League season kicked off in August to help raise awareness for Fans Supporting Foodbanks - a cause the Anfield Wrap have championed for some time.

Craig adds: "They are giving us the best experiences of our lives right now and are also doing their bit off the pitch too.

"We are really proud of what we have been able to do [with the mural]. It was great that Trent came down to see it but the biggest thing is it is helping a cause we want to give as much coverage as possible to. But to see him on the wall and people flocking to see it is the biggest thing for us.

"For example, if one person a game sees it and looks into Fans Supporting Foodbanks more to donate then it has done its job. Also, we can celebrate a young lad like Trent who is someone who is inspiring kids every day.

"We're really proud of it and we love that Trent loves it and it has become a landmark to inspire kids in the area to show them what can be achieved. That is a brilliant thing."

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Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool close to immortality - but their lasting legacy is already painted across Merseyside - Liverpool Echo

Photo courtesy of BCEagles.com

Growing up in the Boston area, there have been plenty of athletes who have rolled through the Heights that have been a pleasure to watch. One, being star guard Troy Bell who recently had his own jersey retired by the Men's Basketball program. My first "super hero" was a kid from upstate New York, winger Brian Gionta.

As an 11 year old kid, I was present for David Emma's jersey, number 16, being raised to the Conte Forum rafters, securing his immortality. This happened as the 2000-01 regular season was wrapping up with the Brian Gionta led Eagles that lost to Michigan in the National Championship game. It was this night, it seemed that someday Gionta, who had 62 points that season and cemented himself in BC history, would have his night as well.

His impact for the BC program went beyond the ice, and gave the Boston College faithful a superstar the program needed for another championship run. For a program that was fresh on 3 straight frozen four appearances, a Hobey Baker winner in Mike Mottau, BC only had one championship banner, and that read 1949. Boston College had been a great team that was on the brink of pushing through but up to the 2001 season, continuously came up painfully short.

On a senior laden team that boasted plenty of NHL talent including Brooks Orpik, Chuck Kobesew, Scott Clemenson, and Bobby Allen, Gionta was the captain, the leader and the super star that carried the Eagles to a thrilling overtime victory against North Dakota in the National Title game. For the first time since 1949, the Eagles were National Champions. clearly Jerry York and his leadership was a big part of this, but Gionta was the rock that anchored the program that season.

During his time in maroon and gold, Gionta's success helped usher in a new era of Boston College hockey that included eight Frozen Four appearances and an additional 3 National Championships. Over the past 20 years since Gionta last wore the maroon and gold, there have been countless NHL level talents to grace the ice of Kelly Rink, including a Hobey Baker in Johnny Gaudreau.

Gionta's legacy has withstood time and has only grown, as there are some that believe that he is possibly the best player in Eagle's history. Nearly 20 years later after Emma's jersey went up into the rafters, Gionta's jersey will rise up as well this weekend. Finally, the Boston College star will be honored and immortalized at Kelley Rink.

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After Legendary Career With Boston College, Brian Gionta Will Be Immortalized This Weekend - Sports Illustrated