Fahrenheit451
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Michael B. Jordan burns all the books in 'Fahrenheit 451' trailer
Last year, HBO announced that it was adapting Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 into a movie and today we get its first trailer. In it, we see Captain Beatty, played by Michael Shannon, telling underling fireman Guy Montag (Michael B. Jordan) about the dangers of books and why they have to be burned. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," he says. "News, facts, memoirs, internet of old -- burn it." We also see Jordan's character spreading those ideas to school children, lighting room-fulls of books ablaze and saying with barely restrained fury, "I want to burn."
HBO adapting Ray Bradbury's dystopian classic 'Fahrenheit 451'
We're already living in a dystopian reality, so it's not surprising that our entertainment reflects that. Following Hulu's release of The Handmaid's Tale, showing a dark US theocratic future, HBO is adapting one of the original dystopian classics, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, according to Variety. The project is in development, but HBO is pushing it toward production with Michael B. Jordan (who also popped up in Matrix relaunch rumors) and Michael Shannon in starring roles.
Web status code tells you when sites are censored
With a few exceptions, web status codes are meant to indicate errors. A 404 page shows up when you tried to reach content that wasn't found, for example. However, there's now a code for those times when that absence is all too intentional. The newly published 451 code (a nod to Fahrenheit 451, naturally) lets site hosts and network providers warn you when censorship and similar "legal obstacles" prevent you from seeing web material. In theory, this gives you a much better explanation than the generic 403 "forbidden" code -- and a not-so-subtle hint that you need to jump through hoops to get the truth.
Ray Bradbury dies at 91, our world is that much poorer
It's a sad day for science fiction fans everywhere, as Ray Bradbury has passed on at the age of 91. We'll always know him best as the author of Fahrenheit 451, but it's really massive legacy in short stories that defined his role in technology. Collections like The Illustrated Man and The Martian Chronicles made it a point to illustrate technology's impact and to never let our gadgetry trample human nature. Appropriately, for all of his ability to envision the future, he was actually rather cautious about embracing it: he only reluctantly allowed e-books and was worried the world was rushing too quickly towards devices. The irony of paying tribute on a technology website to this trepidation isn't lost on us, but we sincerely appreciate Bradbury's literary legacy -- he kept us honest (and entertained) in an industry that sometimes needs a reality check. He'll be missed. [Image credit: Alan Light, Flickr]
Fahrenheit 451 now available as an ebook, memorize at your own discretion
E-books may have caught on in a big way these past few years, but there have been a few big holdouts. The Harry Potter series' ebook future was only confirmed earlier this year (with the release of the books themselves now slated for sometime next year), and now Ray Bradbury has finally allowed his dystopian classic, Fahrenheit 451, to be made available in electronic form (the title remains unchanged). Bradbury himself has been a longtime critic of ebooks -- and the internet itself, for that matter -- but he reportedly relented when his publisher, Simon & Schuster, explained that a new contract wouldn't be possible without ebook rights. Other Bradbury novels may also be released as ebooks eventually, according to his agent, but there's apparently no firm plans for those as of yet. There are plans for a new paperback edition of Fahrenheit 451 to be released in January, however, followed by new editions of The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man that are slated for release in March. We're fairly certain you can still consider those the Bradbury-approved editions.
