Monday, March 31, 2008

World of Warcraft now terrorist research


On-line "terrorists" blowing themselves up and spreading disease inside the video game World of Warcraft may give counterterrorists a view of similar real-world actions.

Such activities in the massively multiplayer online game,which has a history of in-game terrorist activity, bear an eerie resemblance to actual terrorism, and analyzing terror tactics in Warcraft could prove more effective than recent simulations that counterterrorists have been using.

Early on, players found a curse in a dungeon that would turn them into living bombs. After finding this curse hey then teleported to major cities and detonated themselves, killing other players. They gradually began to target areas where large numbers of players gathered, often at auction houses or banks. Eventually, attacks happened so frequently that some players began avoided dangerous cities. They also began using a contagious curse called Corrupted Blood that could kill most players in seconds. Players purposely infected other players and created a semi-permanent source of disease in cities' non-player characters.

"People got really smart about figuring out how to cause the most damage to the largest number of people," said Robert Allen, a level-60 mage and self-admitted virtual bioterrorist who purposely spread an in-game contagion to kill other players.

Charles Blair, deputy director of the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies, said he thinks the game could be used as a powerful new way to study how terrorist cells form and operate. CETIS already uses computer models to study terrorists' tactics and decision-making, but World of Warcraft's "army" of players adds a realistic aspect that might be more helpful than even the best artificial intelligence.

"The main strength is that [Warcraft] involves 'real' people making real decisions in a world with some kind of [controllable] bounds," said Blair. "To put it academically, you have both dependent and independent variables."


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Sunday, March 9, 2008

Charisma as Natural as Gravity

By Christopher Nolan | NEWSWEEK
Feb 4, 2008 Issue | Updated: 3:21 p.m. ET Jan 26, 2008


Heath Ledger, 28, Actor

Best known for his haunting, Oscar-nominated performance as Ennis Del Mar, one of the gay cowboys in 2005 ' s "Brokeback Mountain," Ledger was a massive young talent on the cusp of greatness when he died last week in New York. The native Australian, who is survived by his 2-year-old daughter, Matilda, had recently finished work on this summer's "Batman" sequel, "The Dark Knight," in which he plays a villain, the Joker. Christopher Nolan, the film's director, shared these memories:

One night, as I'm standing on LaSalle Street in Chicago, trying to line up a shot for "The Dark Knight," a production assistant skateboards into my line of sight. Silently, I curse the moment that Heath first skated onto our set in full character makeup. I'd fretted about the reaction of Batman fans to a skateboarding Joker, but the actual result was a proliferation of skateboards among the younger crew members. If you'd asked those kids why they had chosen to bring their boards to work, they would have answered honestly that they didn't know. That's real charisma—as invisible and natural as gravity. That's what Heath had.

Heath was bursting with creativity. It was in his every gesture. He once told me that he liked to wait between jobs until he was creatively hungry. Until he needed it again. He brought that attitude to our set every day. There aren't many actors who can make you feel ashamed of how often you complain about doing the best job in the world. Heath was one of them.

One time he and another actor were shooting a complex scene. We had two days to shoot it, and at the end of the first day, they'd really found something and Heath was worried that he might not have it if we stopped. He wanted to carry on and finish. It's tough to ask the crew to work late when we all know there's plenty of time to finish the next day. But everyone seemed to understand that Heath had something special and that we had to capture it before it disappeared. Months later, I learned that as Heath left the set that night, he quietly thanked each crew member for working late. Quietly. Not trying to make a point, just grateful for the chance to create that they'd given him.

Those nights on the streets of Chicago were filled with stunts. These can be boring times for an actor, but Heath was fascinated, eagerly accepting our invitation to ride in the camera car as we chased vehicles through movie traffic—not just for the thrill ride, but to be a part of it. Of everything. He'd brought his laptop along in the car, and we had a high-speed screening of two of his works-in-progress: short films he'd made that were exciting and haunting. Their exuberance made me feel jaded and leaden. I've never felt as old as I did watching Heath explore his talents. That night I made him an offer—knowing he wouldn't take me up on it—that he should feel free to come by the set when he had a night off so he could see what we were up to.

When you get into the edit suite after shooting a movie, you feel a responsibility to an actor who has trusted you, and Heath gave us everything. As we started my cut, I would wonder about each take we chose, each trim we made. I would visualize the screening where we'd have to show him the finished film—sitting three or four rows behind him, watching the movements of his head for clues to what he was thinking about what we'd done with all that he'd given us. Now that screening will never be real. I see him every day in my edit suite. I study his face, his voice. And I miss him terribly.

Back on LaSalle Street, I turn to my assistant director and I tell him to clear the skateboarding kid out of my line of sight when I realize—it's Heath, woolly hat pulled low over his eyes, here on his night off to take me up on my offer. I can't help but smile.

© 2008

A darker deadlier 'Dark Knight' for Nolan




For Christopher Nolan, director of this summer’s “Batman” sequel “The Dark Knight,” the film has been an even darker exploration into darkness and death than its predecessor.

Christian Bale, who stars as Batman sees “The Dark Knight” is an even lonelier venture for his character, who initially and rather unrealistically thought his crime fighting could last forever.

“This escalation has now meant that he feels more of a duty to continue,” he said. “And now you have not just a young man in pain attempting to find some kind of an answer, you have somebody who actually has power, who is burdened by that power, and is having to recognize the difference between attaining that power and holding on to it.”

“The Dark Knight,” which will hit theaters July 18, is full of story, characters and action that creates the films tone of “unintended consequence.”

“As we looked through the comics, there was this fascinating idea that Batman’s presence in Gotham actually attracts criminals to Gotham, attracts lunacy,” Nolan said. “When you’re dealing with questionable notions like people taking the law into their own hands, you have to really ask, where does that lead? That’s what makes the character so dark, because he expresses a vengeful desire.”

Christopher Nolan’s creation of Batman will soon see if it can maintain its hold on the imaginations of comic fans and critics, while expanding its reach to a wider summer moviegoing audience, even when the death of Heath Ledger, who played the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” has added unforseen morbidity to the film’s deliberate dark tone.

It’s known that it always seems harder to improve upon an original by making a sequel but with this possibly being Heath Ledger’s last performance coupled with claims that the prescription sleep aids that had a part in his death could have been caused by the physical and mental demands of his intense performance it automatically makes things that much more difficult.

Ledger, also said of his performance “the most fun I’ve ever had, or probably ever will have, playing a character.”

However, Ledger’s exhaustion was obvious, said Michael Caine, who co-stars with Ledger.

“He was exhausted, I mean he was really tired. I remember saying to him, ‘I’m too old to have the bloody energy to play that part.’ And I thought to myself, I didn’t have the energy when I was his age.”

Wally Pfister, the cinematographer, said Mr. Ledger seemed “like he was busting blood vessels in his head,”

“It was like a séance, where the medium takes on another person and then is so completely drained,” he said.

Whatever the effect that Ledger’s death has over the feel of the film Nolan said he felt a “massive sense of responsibility” to do honor Ledger’s “terrifying, amazing” performance.

“It’s stunning, it’s iconic,” Nolan said. “It’s going to just blow people away.”


For the entire story click here



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Saturday, March 8, 2008

Hollywood stars support Swayze in his struggle

Stars have been sending actor Patrick Swayze messages of support since the news was released that Swayze was fighting pancreatic cancer, Britain's Telegraph newspaper reports.

Whoopi Goldberg, who acted with Swayze in the film "Ghost," said, blowing a kiss: "We want you to feel better and we will talk soon, I hope,"

"It is so sad," Swayze's "Dirty Dancing" co-star, Jennifer Grey, said, according to the Telegraph. "If I saw him on the streets today, I'd throw my arms around him and love him up."

The National Enquirer released news of Swayze's cancer on Wednesday. Swayze's representative confirmed the claim but said doctors are optimistic about his treatment for what is typically a fatal disease.

If pancreatic cancer, which effects about 30,000 people a year, is caught in its advanced stage it has less than a five percent survival rate over a five year span. When caught early and treated aggressively with surgery and chemotherapy — and if the cancer has not spread to lymph nodes — the five-year survival rate can increase up to 17 to 25 percent.

For the entire story click here.



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Monday, March 3, 2008

Bale battles bots in May

Warner Bros. will open Christian Bale's newest film, "Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins," on May 22, 2009, the beginning of Memorial Day weekend.

A deal with Halcyon Co., which owns all franchise rights to the "Terminator" series, Warner will distribute the film throughout North America.

The last film in the franchise, "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," the last film in the franchise, opend in 2003 and earned $150.4 million domestically.

Storyline is being kept secret, however the plot is part is the first of a three-picture arc that opens after Skynet has destroyed most of the human race in a nuclear holocaust. A group of survivors led by John Connor (Bale) fights to stop the machines. Sam Worthington ("Avatar") is said to star as well.

"T4" begins filming in New Mexico on May 5.

For the entire article click here


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