If plans are bets about the future, Uncle Sam has kept a few hundred million dollars worth of chips riding on ‘blinding flash.’ Here’s what that looks like.
If you’ve ever wondered what a nuclear apocalypse looks like from inside the Defense Department’s concrete holy of holies, we can help you out with that now. Sort of.
On Thursday, the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) released two 3-D glimpses of armageddon architecture: the Pentagon’s emergency bunker at the Raven Rock Military Complex and Russia’s command center inside Kosvinsky Mountain, rendered as playable worlds for the Minecraft video game platform.
The worlds are designed about as close to the real thing as open sources and Minecraft’s Lego-like block world will allow. An MIIS team led by Dr. Jeffrey Lewis (full disclosure: I helped out on the project) used data from NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography mission to mirror the real world geography of the sites, filling in the structures with help from satellite photos and a declassified document released through the Freedom of Information Act to map the inner network of tunnels at Raven Rock. The rest, particularly at Kosvinsky—about which Russia has released little—was left up to the creative imagination of MIIS’ 3-D modelers.
For those unfamiliar, Raven Rock is the Defense Department’s home away from home in the event that their home becomes a radioactive ash heap. First opened under President Eisenhower, the bunker complex lies in the heart of Raven Rock Mountain in southern Pennsylvania, just a short helicopter ride from the Pentagon. Today, it’s part of a network and served as a secure base for Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz during the 9/11 attacks.
So what’s the point of creating a Minecraft bunker world?
When military and political leaders talk about the possibility of nuclear war with the general public, they sometimes speak in reassuring tones that are less than explicit about the nature of the threat than the facts would suggest.
In November, North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 8,100 miles, putting the entire continental U.S. within range of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, but defense officials play down the threat, publicly doubting the North’s ability to reach the U.S. mainland. In the event that a rogue state like North Korea does light off a nuclear volley across the Pacific, the tweeter-in-chief himself reassures us that, “We have missiles that can knock out a missile in the air 97 percent of the time, and if you send two of them, it’s going to get knocked down.”
Economists use a concept called “revealed preference” to suss out a consumer’s true priorities. The basic gist of it is that what you spend your money on says more about what’s important to you than what your own words may indicate—the “hips don’t lie” of interpreting consumer behavior.
During the Cold War, there wasn’t much of a difference between rhetoric and spending on doomsday preparation. The U.S. invested heavily in a massive network of bunkers and emergency facilities for various parts of the federal government in preparation for a doomsday scenario whose likelihood the American public, accustomed to duck-and-cover civil defense drills and the occasional superpower standoff, broadly believed could happen.
A funny thing happened after the Cold War ended, though: The talk of world-ending nuclear clashes declined but the federal government’s doomsday preppers kept going. Sure, the pace and scale of activity wasn’t near its Cold War peak after the fall of the Soviet Union, but a rump collection of facilities lived on and gained new life over the years.
The coordinated attacks against the headquarters of American political and military leadership on 9/11 moved the prospect of armageddon, or at least something approximating it, higher up in the minds of policymakers. The government dusted off its network of panic rooms and started investing in upgrades to places like Raven Rock, which has since grown from 450,000 to 639,000 square feet according to Garrett Graff’s book about the facility.
If plans are bets about the future, Uncle Sam has kept a few hundred million dollars worth of chips riding on “blinding flash” at the roulette wheel.
It’s not quite the world of Dr. Strangelove, where the lecherous old men of national security, having destroyed the world with nuclear weapons, prepare to abandon their constituents and secretly head down into mine shafts with a “bold curiosity for the adventure ahead” as they repopulate the world with a ratio of 10 women to every man. But it does highlight the gap between public rhetoric and private hedging.
And that’s where a doomsday bunker rendered in Minecraft comes in. Sure, we know where Raven Rock is along with a few of its other federal cousins, but the facilities themselves are closed off to the public, tended to by guards with guns who aren’t keen on photography.
For most people, a Minecraft tour of Raven Rock is the closest they’ll ever get to seeing the frightening world the federal government has quietly contemplated through their own eyes.
According to ScreenGeek Disney is not only bracing themselves for Solo: A Star Wars Story to be a critical dud but also prepares itself for it being a bomb. Most apparently due to the lead actor.
And here we go again.
Another day, another Star Wars story. And just like most Star Wars related news recently this one is sure to raise some eyebrows as well. According to an “anonymous source close to the film” the newest entry in the Star Wars franchise titled “Solo: A Star Wars Story” is supposed to be a mess. But read the sources thoughts for yourself: “Disney is bracing themselves for the Han Solo movie to bomb. They were worried about it before all The Last Jedi controversy, but now they’re essentially writing Solo off. The lead actor, Alden Ehrenreich, can’t act, and they had a dialogue coach on hand for all of his scenes. On top of that, the script is unworkable. It’s going to be a car crash.” Now, obviously this should be taken with a huge grain of salt. Not only is the source anonymous but also it's doubtfull that Disney would let out any piece of information like that without having their elite-sniper squad informed.
However this information does not come as much of a surprise given recent reports of an acting coach being hired to help Ehrenreich deliver a believable performance and Howard apparently having reshot over 70% of the movie.
Not only are these reports pretty damning but also some people are adding the lack of promotional material for the movie as further evidence of the movie being already written off.
Remember: this movie is opening in about 5 months. At least a teaser trailer would have been possible to be put out by now, however none in sight so far. Also pictures are rare, we only have Instagram photos, none of wich featuring Ehrenreich (wich further leads people to believe the rumors about his lacking performance might be true) and no official ones.
What do you think? Will “Solo: A Star Wars Story” bomb? Will it be as divisive as “The Last Jedi”? Or will it be the smash hit Disney isn't expecting?
Microsoft has decided to pull the trigger and promote the boss of Minecraft to take charge as the chief executive for strategizing Microsoft's line-up of games across the company's platforms, which includes the Xbox One and the Xbox One X for the foreseeable future.
VentureBeat is reporting that the man in question is none other than Matt Booty, who was previously the business leader in charge of Microsoft's Minecraft division under Microsoft Studios. He's now working as the vice president in strategy for video game development and publishing.
The way it's going to work now is that Matt Booty will answer directly to the head of the Xbox games department, Phil Spencer. Booty will be in charge of elevating Microsoft's publishing arm and getting more games into the pipeline and out to customers.
Booty's previous role will be occupied by Helen Chiang, who will now oversee the development of Mojang's Minecraft brand under the Microsoft banner. Booty was originally appointed the role back when Microsoft bought up Mojang's studio and the Minecraft intellectual property back in 2014 for $2.5 billion.
But, now it's not just a single studio that Booty will have to oversee. There will be multiple studios with multiple projects that the executive will have a say-so over, ranging from 343 Industries and the Halo franchise to Killer Instinct, to Sea of Thieves at Rare, to the Forza Motorsport franchise headed up by Turn 10 Studios and Playground Games, to The Coalition and the Gears of War franchise.
Maintaining what's there is one task, but the real challenge for Booty is building what isn't there: new intellectual properties.
Microsoft had an opportunity with Scalebound to create something large and dynamic for the Xbox brand from the highly lauded Platinum Games, but the company forfeited those endeavors by canceling Scalebound. It was a move that sent shock waves through the gaming community, who had grown attached to the concept of the game.
Original titles like Scalebound could really help Microsoft out of its funk, especially given that Nintendo is fast catching up to the install base of the Xbox One with the Nintendo Switch. The Switch's library of original, high-quality exclusives have set it apart from everything else on the market, and so it's a do or die situation for Microsoft.
In fact, the above is literally Booty's philosophy: that they live and die by the great games they make. So, having a content guy in the role will be key for the success of future software publishing on the Xbox brand, and it sounds like the company may have the right man for the right position.
Now, let's see how well Booty can take advantage of this promotion while aiming to bring new and compelling software to the Xbox platforms. The real test will be what Microsoft demonstrates at this year's and next year's E3, as we'll have a gauge on if the company will allow Booty to leverage his executive powers to refocus the Xbox One and Xbox One X on worthwhile exclusives.
CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — Twelve-year-old Isabelle Szczerbinski is a bit of a Minecraft master.
In the game Minecraft, you use your skill to build better worlds.
“I think Minecraft is important because it's a strategy game,” Isabelle said. “You can do whatever you like. You can get as many blocks as you want. You can build anything.”
She can also tell you why she likes the game in French, Polish, and Mandarin Chinese (her favorite).
Isabelle is a profoundly-gifted 12-year old homeschooler from Midlothian, Virginia who has won multiple national awards for her language skills.
Isabelle has lobbied Congress for funding public school language education with LanguagePolicy.org, meeting with the staffs of U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner.
A US-China Strong Student Ambassador, Isabelle recently did a presentation (entirely in Mandarin) to a 6th grade class in Chengdu, China on daily life for children in the U.S. and China.
In December, Isabelle received the national People-to-People award at the Confucius Institute Gala in Washington D.C. and delivered the acceptance speech on behalf of all the honorees.
“Only 18 percent of American kids learn a second language,” she told the audience. “In China and Europe, almost all kids are exposed to second languages. We need to do better.”
Isabelle said she hoped to one day be a diplomat or translator.
“Once you understand someone; you understand their culture, you understand their background, where they're from; you just get along better,” Isabelle said. “I think that if everyone could do that, we'd have a more peaceful world.”
Isabelle also appears in the newly released film, Permanent, with Rainn Wilson and Patricia Arquette.
She also appeared on Lifetime’s Child Genius (Season 1) with NASA astronaut and University of Richmond graduate Leland Melvin.
In February, Isabelle will join renowned chef Peter Chang at his restaurant in Williamsburg in a class teaching people how to make dumplings. She’s become friends with the famed chef and his wife.
She met them through her affiliation with the Confucius Institute U.S. Center.
One of weirdest Pokémon spin-offs yet is being released in the West after all, but sadly without the voice of Danny DeVito.
It can often be frustrating defending Pokémon against people that haven’t played the mainline games and their often surprisingly good spin-offs. But we have to admit that even we don’t understand what’s going on with Detective Pikachu.
The game was originally released in Japan two years ago, to no particular acclaim, and yet for some reason it’s getting a live action film adaptation staring Ryan Reynolds. There was also a 40,000-strong petition to get Danny DeVito to do the voiceover for the English version of the game but, as you can hear in the trailer below, he said no.
The reason the game has got so much attention is that it involves a talking pikachu, rather than one that just keeps saying his name over and over, so there’s actually a proper story for once.
The plot involves the deerstalker-waring pokémon teaming up with a human whose dad has gone missing, in what is essentially a point ‘n’ click adventure game.
As you can see, the graphics are really good considering this is only on the 3DS. But reviews from Japan suggest the gameplay and story are rather simplistic, and a bit boring.
According to Hugh Jackman, he's completely done with playing Wolverine. As he has long promised, Logan is his swan song – and a fitting one it is – and he's off to put his body through considerably less strain for more pleasant roles. The world of comic book movies is a poorer place for his loss, and there will be some – including his Logan director James Mangold – who believe he shouldn't be recast at all.
Luckily though, Fox aren't complete idiots. They may have struggled to make a good Fantastic Four movie three times and some of their X-Men releases have been patchy at best, but they know the strength in the Wolverine brand. They know he is their blue chip commodity, and dropping him from the bill would be like Warner Bros putting Batman on ice. It's just not going to happen.
So what happens next? Does the studio set about trying to find someone who will be able to perform as Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine, for the sake of a smoother transition? Do they go bold and cast against type and reimagine the character? Do they simply promote X-23 to the leading role? (They shouldn't, she deserves her own movies).
What everything boils down to now is one over-arching, massively important question. Who replaces Jackman as Wolverine?
12. Iwan Rheon
Obviously, the Inhumans casting is rather unfortuitous for anyone who wants to see Game Of Thrones' best villain Iwan Rheon going berserk as Wolverine, but it might not be entirely fatal. Marvel villains have a habit of dying off, after all, and there's no saying he's even necessarily tied in for multiple seasons of the show.
Without all of those logistical issues, Rheon would make an exceptional candidate for Wolverine, provided fans can shake off the ghosts of Ramsay Bolton. He might find himself cast as villains for a while after doing so well in that show, but it's worth remembering that he started in a more heroic role on Misfits, and experience counts.
It would be far more interesting to see a new Wolverine with more ambiguous morality than Hugh Jackman's staight-laced grump could really offer once he was moved into his leadership position, and having Rheon's darker influence in there would offer an entirely different dynamic.
11. Ben Foster
There's a good case for Ben Foster being the most talented, under-appreciated actor currently working in Hollywood: he is a genre-hopping chameleon, adept with comedy, horror, villainous roles and heroic ones, and he comes with a ready made bubbling fury that is a fundamental part of Wolverine's genetics.
Like all of his fellow candidates here, he works remarkably well with more intense roles, he's familiar with dark-sided characters and he has enough charm to keep Wolverine's anti-heroism just the right side of good. He'd arguably be the best candidate if Fox decide to introduce Wolverine as an antagonist first and then face turn him later. And he deserves an opportunity for a meatier leading man role.
He's already been in an X-Men movie, of course, but he was horribly miscast – and even more horribly under-used – as Angel in X-Men: The Last Stand. For that alone he deserves another shot as a mutant.
10. Kristofer Hivju
With most of Game Of Thrones' cast probably coming to the end of their contracts very soon, studios would do well to put them to work to try and capture some of the fandom's affection for the character roles they've just left.
One of the more intriguing figures on the Westeros cast is Kristofer Hivju – Tormund Giantsbane in the show – who could either disappear into Scandinavian dramas for the rest of his career and make a solid living, or play supporting level villains in Hollywood (as he is in the new Fast & Furious). It sounds cruel, but Hollywood knows how to typecast his breed of actor, in a way that will reduce his obvious talent to something like the level of a Jason Statham.
But he could do so much more: his Wilding wildman in Game Of Thrones is a low-key fan favourite, and beyond mighty facial hair, he also boasts the right sort of intensity, physical power and mischievous charm that could make Wolverine the interesting side character he should be relaunched as initially.
9. Jack O'Connell
Having kicked off his career in the excellent British show Skins, Jack O'Connell has gone about cementing his status as one of the UK's brightest rising stars (even if Money Monster wasn't quite as good as he would have hoped). His true break-out came with Starred Up, a brutal portrait of modern prison corruption from behind bars.
You can almost see Wolverine's back-story in Starred Up's victim-creating: O'Connell's Eric is as much a prisoner of his own vulnerability and emotional turmoil as he is the cage that holds him. He's a monster, defined by violence and hewn for its inevitability, but he carries dark mysteries, just as Wolverine does.
O'Connell has proven himself to be particularly adept at that sort of frenetic, intense performance, and if Fox look to cast young, he would make as impressive a candidate as Iwan Rheon.
8. Rory McCann
As soon as The Hound is killed in Game Of Thrones (of course it's going to happen, he's a character in Westeros), it's likely Rory McCann will be inundated with offers to play intelligent hardmen, competing with the likes of Ray Stevenson for similar roles, or lumped with imposing supporting roles in genre films. He deserves better, and there's a lot of Wolverine in The Hound's make-up.
His relationship with Arya while it lasted was as uneasy and as perversely patriarchal as Wolverine's relationship with Rogue, and his predilection to violence, despite being surprisingly eloquent given the opportunity could easily have been modelled on Logan.
McCann would be a completely different prospect to the majority of the others on this list, chiefly because of his massive size, but he's basically already proved that he can play the character, so he's got to be worth an outside consideration.
7. Aaron Taylor-Johnson
After appearances in both Avengers: Age Of Ultron and two Kick-Ass flicks, Aaron Taylor-Johnson qualifies as something of a veteran of the genre, but he's never had a role he can get his chops into as well as Wolverine.
Though the Englishman started with more clean-cut roles (even in a film as outrageous as Kick-Ass), he has blossomed into a more interesting character actor more recently, taking on more challenging roles. And you can see from his recent work – particularly in Nocturnal Animals – that he suits darker, more explosive material.
He'd suit an agenda by Fox to introduce a more leading-man-type Wolverine while simultaneously catering to the demons of the character in a darkly charismatic way.
6. Walton Goggins
Anyone even remotely familiar with Walton Goggins' work will know that he is at his best with intense material that allows him to channel his wilder side. He plays great villains, but he has a sort of off-kilter charisma that works well for anti-heroes too – as The Hateful Eight proved.
He's also a very gifted actor, perhaps limited more to genre roles because of his look and his predilection for grander characterisation, with a lot of interesting work coming up (not least Three Christs with Peter Dinklage and History series SIX). The physical requirements might appear to be beyond him, but he has some previous, and he's just stepped into Joe Mangianello's boots for SIX playing a Seal team leader, so he's obviously got something about him.
Goggins would be a particularly good choice if Fox decide to introduce Wolverine as a villain initially, and he'd definitely fit the requirement to not have him strong-arm his way into a leadership role again.
5. Trevante Rhodes
Now that Moonlight has picked up a surprising but heart-warming Best Picture victory at the Oscars, all of the talent involved should see their profiles sky-rocket. Barry Jenkins, Naomie Harris, and Mahershala Ali already won't be shy of offers, but the newer cast members are likely to find their agents are far busier than they've ever been.
Trevante Rhodes has now leapt firmly into the Rising Star bracket, with both The Predator and war drama Horse Soldiers (for newcomer director Nicolai Fuglsig) coming in 2018, and there is definitely something in the intensity in his performance as Chiron that suggests he'd translate well to powerful, action-heavy performances.
Fox should steal a march on the other comic book film-makers who will no doubt come sniffing, and strike a blow for progressive characterisation by completely changing Wolverine. No better way to distance themselves from Jackman than to make Wolverine a black man.
4. Jake Gyllenhaal
Gyllenhaal has come a long way since he auditioned to play Christopher Nolan's Batman. Even then he would probably have come across as too refined and too light-weight to play the character (Christian Bale's American Psycho history made him the most interesting candidate), but he's an entirely different actor now.
He's quietly gone about ascending the Hollywood ladder, making a string of great films since Batman Begins with Brokeback Mountain, Jarhead, Zodiac, Brothers, Source Code, Prisoners, Enemy, Nightcrawler, Southpaw and Nocturnal Animals all wowing. And the thing that keeps improving as he does is his flair for intense roles with a hotline on emotion.
He's also proved himself able to bulk for roles, and he would suit the wiry, skinned dog look Jackman was sporting at his physical peak for The Wolverine. He might not quite have the cocky charm, but there have been flashes of the necessary bravado before (and it's not like stage musical star Jackman had a great deal of specific experience when he stepped into the role).
3. Norman Reedus
As he's so expertly proven in The Walking Dead (and probably Boon Dock Saints too), Reedus has a particular flair for outsider types with the kind of cool that fans lap up. Even when the material hasn't been up to much, Reedus has fashioned a cult mythology about himself that would suit a new take on Wolverine too.
Imagine him playing Logan as a brusque, cold drifter – the image we were fed of him initially in Bryan Singer's X-Men – rather than the more heroic leader he would later become in the movie franchise. Wolverine needs to channel his nastier genes again, and that would only work in the hands of an actor who could blur the lines of villainy and still remain likeable.
In the absence of Jon Bernthal thanks to The Punisher, Reedus is the actor most qualified for that particular angle.
2. Joe Mangianello
He might already be ear-marked for Deathstroke in The Batman, but that is absolutely not a certainty at this stage, given the well-publicised issues with that production. Who is to say that Matt Reeves won't want to start his own story, and that screen test will ultimately end up the only time Mangianello even gets to put the costume on?
Arguably what makes the Magic Mike actor such a good prospect for Wovlerine is the same as why he'd make a good, charismatic Deathstroke: he has the hulking size, he has disarming charm and he has a sort of snark that suits both characters. Though he has superhero good looks, there's no way he could play a boy scout hero: he's got anti-hero written all over him, and they don't come more credible or more challenging than Wolverine.
1. Tom Hardy
Seriously though, who better?
There's a pretty compelling argument that Tom Hardy could play any comic book character on screen and nail the role. He'd be an intriguing Batman, a psychopathic Joker, an eloquent, violent Riddler, a charming, twinkle-eyed Superman… He's a transformative actor, after all, whose performances are far more complex than the mumbling hulk he threatened to become around the time he played Bane.
Most interestingly for fans of Wolverine, Hardy has an intangible otherness – a manner like Michael Keaton's that suggests he's not quite of this world – which he combines with a Bondian refined accent and mischief in his eyes that would fit Wolverine's cult anti-hero status. And he'd also fit the size requirements: reclaiming Wolverine's bulk after Jackman slimmed down somewhat for his later roles.
Obviously he'd look silly in yellow spandex, but so would everyone else on this list, and the most compelling case for his employment as the new Wolverine comes down to his irresistible screen presence, his charisma and his likeability factor even when playing killers. Someone at Fox needs to get the ball rolling on this one immediately.
