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Netflix series 'What/If' is a social thriller anthology
Netflix recently ordered 10 episodes of a new social thriller anthology entitled What/If with Renee Zellweger in a lead role. Now, the streaming service has announced the names of the actors joining the cast and starring opposite Zellweger, Glee alum Blake Jenner and Castle Rock's Jane Levy. According to Deadline, Dave Annable of the ABC show Brothers & Sisters will play a character called Dr. Ian Harris, while Westworld's Louis Herthum will play Zellweger's driver and right-hand man.
U.S. electrical grid penetrated by spies, hackers, or something unfathomably more terrible (update: China responds)
The Wall Street Journal has reported that the electricity grid in the United States has been infiltrated by "cyperspies," in an attempt to map the infrastructure, leaving behind software that could pose potential threats in times of crisis. Quoting anonymous "current and former" national security officials, the report claims that the spies, hailing from China, Russia, and "other countries" have not attempted to do any damage, but that they could, and that these types of intrusions are on the rise. Officials are of course worried about the potential implications of such penetrations, noting that much of our infrastructure, including nuclear power plants and financial institutions, are at risk. Unfortunately for the WSJ and its Cold War-era headline, the article goes on to state that it's not really possible to know whether a particular attack is "government sponsored," or just the work of regular old hackers from those regions running amok in cyberspace. Additionally, spokespeople from the Russian and Chinese Embassies vehemently deny their respective governments involvement in any such work. The Wall Street Journal, of course, fails to point out the most obvious of explanations: it's aliens. Update: China has officially responded to the report. From a WSJ blog post: "The intrusion doesn't exist at all," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular press conference. "We hope that the concerned media will prudently deal with some groundless remarks, especially those concerning accusations against China." "I have also noticed that the U.S. White House had denied the media reports," she said.
Forum Post of the Day: If WoW ended in 24 hours...
The premise that Bugsy has put forth on the EU forums is fairly simple. If WoW were to shut down in 24 hours, what do you think you'd do with all the free time? Would you be going through WoW withdrawal, or would you suddenly develop a close and personal relationship with your (potentially neglected) chores? Many of the forum replies out there suggest gathering their guilds together and finding another game to go to. (I expected the Warhammer references, but was surprised to see EVE in there too.) Still others just said they'd sell their accounts as fast as they could, or head out and enjoy time in meat-space.As for me, if WoW were shutting down in 24 hours, I think I'd probably squeeze every last moment out of it. That would probably involve corpse-hopping as far as possible in Black Temple -- if only to say that I'd seen the inside of the place. (who cares about repair bills when the whole game is going to go away the next day?) From there, I'd jump on my guild's forums, put the plans into work for a full guild raid on [insert large theme park here] where we could all meet up for one hell of a weekend bash before we scatter to the MMO winds. (As I have an open EVE account currently, I pretty much know where my focus would shift to...)What would you do? Are there any MMOs on the horizon that you think your guild might jump to, or that you're really looking forward to? Would you return to the MMO/MUD you may have been playing before WoW came along? Or would you agree with some in the thread -- that WoW is the first and last of the genre you'd play? [Many thanks to our own Dan O'Halloran!]
What if... you could learn real guitar through games?
When the New York Times wrote about the PC Recording Studio Guitar (a guitar that plugs in to a Mac or PC via USB), we wondered immediately whether the device could be used for a more authentic guitar-hero experience. Instead of mindless entertainment that does little to advance skills that are appreciated by the non-gaming public, game technology could be used to teach us skills that might help us climb the Maslovian pyramid to self actualization. If a capable game developer were to write a strong rhythm game that used a real guitar as a controller, we'd gladly slap down the 200 bones required to learn guitar. It'd be a steal, and an investment in the future.
