Todays HaHa

Entertainment News

Directors Guild of America to bestow top honors on Ridley Scott

Director Ridley Scott will receive a lifetime achievement award from the Directors Guild of America in February. (Kerry Brown / 20th Century Fox)

In a celebrated career already dotted with various awards, director Ridley Scott is about to add one more top honor. On Tuesday, the Directors Guild of America announced that Scott is the 2017 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Achievement in Motion Picture Direction.

“Masterful in any genre, Ridley’s groundbreaking methods and peerless directing instincts have brought to life some of the most memorable films of our time, capturing the resilience of the human spirit and captivating the hearts and minds of audiences around the world,” Paris Barclay, DGA president, said in a statement.

“Over the course of four decades, his trailblazing career has demonstrated the impact and importance of the director’s singular vision. For these reasons, and so many more, we are honored to present the Lifetime Achievement Award in feature film to Ridley Scott,” Barclay added.

Scott, whose films include “Alien,” “Thelma and Louise,” “Gladiator” and “The Martian,” was awarded the American Cinematheque Award in October for his body of work.

“Tonight, we are here to pay tribute to one of the finest directors and producers of our time,” actor Russell Crowe said at that ceremony, before noting that Scott had directed more than 40 films since his 1977 debut, “The Duellists.”

Scott was 40 years old when that film was released. “Not bad for a late bloomer,” Crowe quipped.

The DGA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Motion Picture Direction has been awarded only 34 times in the guild’s 80-year history.  The honor was last bestowed on Miloš Forman in 2013.

Scott will join an esteemed and exclusive group of previous winners, including Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, John Huston and Alfred Hitchcock.

Scott will receive the award Feb. 4 at the 69th annual DGA Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

By Libby Hill Contact Reporter

Trivia

Oscar The Grouch Wasn’t Originally Green, But?

Blue	Yellow
Black	Orange

Answer: Orange

The iconic children’s show Sesame Street has been on the air for over forty years, and for every one of those years, the grumpy lives-in-a-trash-can Oscar the Grouch has been as green as the leaves of the city street he lives on—all those years except for the first one, that is.

In the very first season of Sesame Street, Oscar the Grouch wasn’t green at all. He was a brilliant shade of orange that one might expect to find available only in a mid-century shag carpet. Stranger yet, Oscar wasn’t even originally intended to be green or orange, but magenta. In the earliest design sketches of the Sesame Street muppets, Oscar’s original shade was a rich magenta color. Why doesn’t he appear magenta in a single episode? Early color televisions had trouble displaying the bright purple color and they scrapped magenta for orange.

After the first season, Jim Henson himself decided that orange just didn’t look right and they switched his fur to green. If you’re worried that kids were confused by the change, don’t be—they explained it away with a simple premise. Oscar had gone on vacation to Swamp Mushy Muddy and something unspecified about the experience turned his fur green.

Did You Know/Todays Term

Did You Know?

Treeshrews, two families of tiny mammals (Tupaiidae and Ptilocercidae) native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, have the highest brain-to-body mass ratio of any mammal on Earth.

Today's Tech Term 

allintitle

allintitle is a Google search operator that restricts search results to just webpages that contain all of the “chosen/entered” keywords in their title.

An example of an allintitle search query is: allintitle:Slack Keyboard Shortcuts

Sat Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

More from Paul about what real love looks like.

“It does not dishonor others.” (I Corinthians 13:5)

Another way to say this is, “Love is not rude or ill-mannered.” Love doesn’t cut the other person down and it doesn’t cut the other person short. Love doesn’t interrupt when the other person is talking and love doesn’t ignore the other person when the other person is trying to talk. Any of those things, quite simply, dishonors other people and it is rude. How does your love measure up and how is it working out for you?

“It is not self-seeking.” (I Corinthians 13:5)

To put it another way, it doesn’t always insist in getting its own way. If anything defines real love it is this - love is a self-less love. The greatest example of this is Jesus. If Jesus had had His own way He would have not gone to the cross. If Jesus had been self-seeking we would all be on the ocean of sin in a boat without a paddle, but real love says, “I have made a commitment to put your needs ahead of my needs.” Real love doesn’t say, “What can you do for me?” Real love says, “What can I do for you?” How does your love measure up and how is your love working out for you?

“It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” (I Corinthians 13:5)

The word that Paul uses here for keeping a record is an accounting term or a bookkeeping term. It literally says, “Love doesn’t keep a ledger of bad deeds.” Love doesn’t keep a list in its back pocket to pull out whenever you need to remind someone of when they did you wrong. Love not only has a long fuse, but it has a short memory. Real love not only doesn’t keep a record of the wrongs that have been done to you, but it is a refusal to keep a record of the things you have done right for the other person.

Let me make this real simple. Love doesn’t hold a grudge. Love is both quick to forgive and quick to forget. That is not always easy. C.S. Lewis once said, “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive.” How does your love measure up and how is it working out for you?

Finally,

“Love does not delight in evil.” (I Corinthians 13:6)

This may be the hardest part of real love of all. Love rejoices with the truth. Do you know what that means? When you really love someone you are willing to tell him or her the truth when they need to hear it and you are willing to receive the truth from them when you need to hear it. We talk about communicating in a marriage? You cannot have communication in a marriage unless it is both give and take. If you are not willing to speak the truth to your spouse, you don’t love them. If you are not willing to hear the truth from your spouse, you don’t love them either. How does your love measure up and how is it working out for you?

Season of Hope

A Season of Hope

A Season of Hope
By Debbie Holloway, Crosswalk.com Contributor

“The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).

The winter festivities continue to fly by. First came Halloween and harvest time, then Thanksgiving, and now the Advent season is upon us. For many, the season of Advent is spent in little else except preparing for Christmas. Gifts are bought, wrapped, and tucked away beneath the tree. Verses are read from the books of Luke and Isaiah as we recall the nativity story. People find it easier to remember to love their neighbors, give to the poor, and reflect on the meaning of Christmas.

I myself have been thinking a little bit about Advent… and about hope. You see, of the five Advent candles, the Prophecy Candle is lit first, which represents hope.  We’re all familiar with that oft-quoted verse…

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).

Prophecies like these gave the Israelites hope that God would not forget them. During some of their darkest days, prophets like Isaiah gave them words from the Lord as a reminder that God would not abandon them to sin and slavery forever. Immanuel means “God with us,” and that is perhaps the most stirring theme of ancient prophecies.

Today may seem just as dark to us now. Wars are fought all over the world, bringing staggering civilian casualties as well as solider deaths. Children are abused and underfed. Homelessness is evident on every inner city street corner. Families are torn apart by greed, hatred, selfishness, and pride. But, just as the prophets gave hope to the ancient Israelites, we have a renewed hope through Christ.

“And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

There it is again: Immanuel. God with us. Because God is with us! He spoke it over and over throughout history, and Christ affirmed it. As we enter into this season of Advent, is that not the greatest hope we could wish for? Through our struggles, failures, faults, and fears – we have the blessed hope that Christ is not only with us, but will continue to be with us and will return again.

Intersecting Faith and Life: Into what areas of your life can you inject hope? Remember, no situation is too dire for God.

Further Reading

Jeremiah 29:11

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Romans 12:12

So That...

So That…

By Touching Lives 

“If You, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve You.” Psalm 130:3-4

Reader’s Digest tells an amazing story of forgiveness. After a long shift at the fire department, Matt Swatzell fell asleep while driving and crashed into another vehicle, taking the life of pregnant mother June Fitzgerald and injuring her 19-month-old daughter. Fitzgerald’s husband, a full-time pastor, asked for the man’s diminished sentence – and began meeting with Swatzell for coffee and conversation. Many years later, the two men remain close. “You forgive as you’ve been forgiven,” Fitzgerald said.

June Fitzgerald’s widower understands the words we read in Psalm 130:3-4: “With You there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve You.” There are two very powerful words in this passage that are packed with meaning. So that. Those two words connect the forgiveness of Christ with the service of those He forgives. We are forgiven so that we can serve Christ with reverence…and serving Christ means serving others.

Have you ever thought about your forgiveness this way? When viewed biblically, our salvation becomes the basis for our service. We serve others not out of pity, but out of gratitude. We serve not out of obligation, but out of joy. We serve not for our own gain, but so that others will know the God who has so graciously saved us.

I encourage you to spend some time this week reflecting on how you have been forgiven by God. Let this become the basis for your love for others as you serve Christ.

Father, Thank You for forgiving me from all of my sins. I pray that I will remember you have saved me so that I can serve You by serving others. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

News

Trevor Noah grills Tomi Lahren about 'the right way' for black people to protest in America

Trevor Noah"The Daily Show" host Trevor Noah. (Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)

Conservative political commentator Tomi Lahren braved the lion’s den that is “The Daily Show” on Wednesday for a heated conversation with host Trevor Noah about race and protesters.

Much like how Noah became popular for his witty yet unapologetic political takedowns during the election, Lahren rose in prominence because of her incendiary attacks on current events such as  the Black Lives Matter movement and even Colin Kaepernick.

Noah got right to the point in kicking off the interview, asking Lahren why she was so angry. And while the segment did contain some lighter moments, such as Lahren’s response when asked if she considered herself a conservative, or what she does at a traffic light if she “doesn’t see color,” much of their dialogue was charged.

When the conversation turned to Kaepernick’s ongoing protests, Lahren explained that she just doesn’t believe that the quarterback kneeling during the national anthem is “the right way” for him to take a stand.

“When people say that, I’m always fascinated,” Noah said. “What is the right way? So here is a black man in America who says I don’t know how to get a message across. If I march in the streets, people say I’m a thug. If I go out and I protest, people say that it’s a riot. If I bend down on one knee, then it’s not [the right way].

“What is the right way?” Noah continued. “That is something that I’ve always wanted to know. What is the right way for a black person to get attention in America?”

Lahren, however, did not waver from her beliefs.

“Why would you take out your perceived oppression of black people on our national anthem and our flag?” countered Lahren. “A country that you live in. A country that you benefit from. A country that people of all races have died for, have died to protect, have died for the vote.

“How do you then go and disrespect the flag and the anthem of that country? Why is that the outlet?” Lahren asked.

“Well, maybe you’re a person who’s lived and read through history and you realize that a lot of those people of ‘every color’ who died for this country, some of them didn’t have the rights that their fellow servicemen had when they came back to the country after fighting for it,” replied Noah.

“Maybe you’re one of those people who realizes that the penal system in America was designed to oppress black people,” he went on. “It was designed to enslave people. It’s a relic of slavery. Maybe you’re one of those people.”

And finally:

“So what I don’t understand is, a guy is kneeling in the corner. I don’t understand why that offends you so much,” Noah said. “It’s not even like he’s trying to sing over you. He’s not doing anything that affects you. I don’t understand why that gets to you. I genuinely don’t.”

By Tracy Brown Contact Reporter

Clear Your Page File @ Shutdown

How to Make Windows Clear Your Page File at Shutdown (and When You Should)

Windows uses a paging file, also known as a page file, as additional virtual memory when your RAM fills up. Windows can clear your page file every time you shut down, ensuring no sensitive data is left in the page file on the drive.

How This Works

When you shut down your computer, the system’s RAM is always erased—it’s erased whenever it loses power. But the page file isn’t. If you’re worried about someone snooping for sensitive data that may be left in your page file, Windows can erase it each time you shut down. It does this by writing 0’s to every bit of the page file, overwriting any existing data. If someone pulls the hard drive from your computer, they can’t inspect the page file to find any potentially sensitive data that may have been stored in memory.

There’s a real downside to enabling this feature. It will make your computer take much longer to shut down. Your shutdown time may go from a few seconds to a few minutes, or even longer. It depends on how fast your computer’s hard drive is and how large your page file is. This is why Windows doesn’t automatically clear the page file at shutdown by default. It’s a trade-off, and one most people wouldn’t want.

We Recommend Encryption Instead

Rather than rely on clearing your page file, we recommend setting up full-disk encryption on your Windows PC, if possible. If your page file is stored on an encrypted drive, you don’t have to wipe it each time you shut down—the page file will be encrypted, too. That means no one can pull the drive and attempt to examine the page file without having your encryption key.

More importantly, encryption also prevents attackers from looking at all the other files on your hard drive. But, if you store your page file on an unencrypted drive, or if an organization uses thin-client systems, this option can be useful.

Home Users: Erase the Page File on Shutdown with the Registry Editor

If you have a Home edition of Windows, you will have to edit the Windows registry to make these changes. You can also do it this way if you have Windows Pro or Enterprise, but just feel more comfortable working in the Registry as opposed to Group Policy Editor. (If you have Pro or Enterprise, though, we recommend using the easier Group Policy Editor, as described in the next section.)

Standard warning: Registry Editor is a powerful tool and misusing it can render your system unstable or even inoperable. This is a pretty simple hack and as long as you stick to the instructions, you shouldn’t have any problems. That said, if you’ve never worked with it before, consider reading about how to use the Registry Editor before you get started. And definitely back up the Registry (and your computer!) before making changes.

First, open the Registry Editor by pressing Windows+R, typing “regedit” into the Run dialog that appears, and pressing Enter.



Use the left sidebar to navigate to the following key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management



You should see a “ClearPageFileAtShutdown” setting in the right pane. If you don’t, right-click the “Memory Management” key in the left pane, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and enter “ClearPageFileAtShutdown” as the name.

Double-click the ClearPageFileAtShutdown value, set enter “1” in the value data box, and press Enter.

You can now close the Registry Editor window.



If you want Windows to stop clearing the page file at shutdown, return here, double-click the ClearPageFileAtShutdown setting, and set it back to “0”.

Download Our One-Click Registry Hack

We’ve created two downloadable registry hacks that do the work for you. One disables the “ClearPageFileAtShutdown” setting, and one disables it. Download the archive below, double-click the registry hack you want to use, and add the information to your registry.

Download ClearPageFileAtShutdown Hacks

These are really just two small .REG files that change the registry value we showed you how to change above. If you ever want to see what a .REG file does, you can right-click it and select “Edit”. And, if you enjoy tweaking the registry, you can make your own registry hacks.

Pro and Enterprise User: Use the Group Policy Editor

If you’re using a Professional or Enterprise edition of Windows, the easiest way to have Windows clear your page file at shutdown is by using the Local Group Policy Editor. It’s a pretty powerful tool, so if you’ve never used it before, it’s worth taking some time to learn what it can do. Also, if you’re on a company network, do everyone a favor and check with your admin first. If your work computer is part of a domain, it’s also likely that it’s part of a domain group policy that will supersede the local group policy, anyway.

To open it, press Windows+R on your keyboard, type “gpedit.msc” into the Run dialog that appears, and press “Enter”.

If you see an error message saying gpedit.msc wasn’t found, you’re using a Home edition of Windows. You can’t use this tool.



In the left pane, navigate to the Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options folder.

Locate the “Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile” option in the right pane and double-click it.



Click the “Enabled” option in the properties window that appears and click “OK”. Windows will now clear the page file each time you shut down.

You can now close the group policy editor window.



If you ever want to stop Windows from clearing your page file each time you shut down, return here, double-click the “Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile” setting, and select the “Disabled” option.

Download From Netflix for Offline Viewing

How to Download Movies and Shows From Netflix for Offline Viewing

After years of being on people’s wish lists, Netflix has finally started rolling its most oft-desired feature: the ability to download movies and shows for offline viewing. For the time being, this option is only available on mobile devices—smartphones and tablets that run iOS and Android—but you can start using it now.

This means a couple of things: you can watch Netflix on the go without eating up your data cap, and you can watch your favorite shows or movies while on a plane or subway with no data connection. That’s pretty huge.

Of course, there are caveats, too. Firstly, the option to download movies or shows isn’t available for the entire Netflix catalog yet, but rather a specifically curated subset. A large part of the offline catalog includes Netflix original shows (which, let’s be honest here, is some of the best stuff on Netflix anyway), along with some other select titles. I imagine the selection will continuously change, which should keep things fresh.

So, how do you get this new feature? It’s actually incredibly easy.

The first thing you need to do is make sure you have the latest version of the Netflix app on your respective device. These things often become available in staged rollouts, so if it’s not yet available on your account, you can wait a few days, or—in the case of Android, at least—find the APK and sideload it.

Once you have the app installed, it will be quick to let you know about the new feature as soon as you open it up. Front and center, baby.



You can always select “Find something to download” to get started, but if you happen to navigate away from that window, you can also open the menu by swiping in from the left side and selecting  “Available for download.” This will show the entire offline catalog.

5

Before you start going download crazy, however, you should be aware of some of the new settings regarding downloads. You can choose to only download content on Wi-Fi (which is highly recommended, and on by default), as well as what quality to download. Unfortunately, Netflix isn’t very straightforward with the options, just “Standard” and “High.”



As you can probably assume, Standard will take up less space, where High will eat up more. On my Pixel C, I could definitely see pixelation and artifacting with the “Standard” setting, but things cleared up quite a bit with “High.” I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the latter is 720p, but there’s no documentation that directly states this.

The first time you open a title that has the download option available, Netflix will kindly let you know with a small popup.



Even after that window is gone, however, grabbing a show or movie is super easy: tap the download button right next to the episode name or below the movie description.



When the download starts, a progress bar will show up at the bottom of the screen. When it’s finished, a notification will appear letting you know it’s ready to go. On Android, you’ll also get a notification in the shade.



To access your downloaded content, slide the menu open (again, sliding in from the left) and select “My Downloads.”



Movies will start playing as soon as you tap the entry, where shows will open a list of everything you’ve downloaded from that series. Tap on one of those entries to play it.



When you’re ready to delete an item, tap the icon in the upper right corner (on the My Downloads page)—it’s a pencil on Android, and reads “Edit” on iOS.



On Android, check boxes will show up next to the downloaded content—tap those boxes for the entries you’d like to remove.



On iOS, red Xs will show up next to the titles. Tap the X to remove the download.



Alternatively, if you’d like to remove all downloaded content, you can head back into the Settings menu by sliding in from the left and scrolling down to “App Settings,” then tapping the “Delete All Downloads” button.



And there you have it: Netflix’s new offline feature in a nutshell.

Create of Collage, Animation, Movie w/Google Photos

How to Create a Collage, Animation, or Movie with Google Photos on Android

Google Photos is a huge improvement over Android’s old “Gallery” app, but it does a lot more than just keep your stuff organized and synced. You can easily manipulate your photos into some very cool, shareable collages, animations, and even movies.

If you have a modern Android phone, then you likely have Google’s Photos app installed. If not, you can get it from the Play Store—and you’ll probably want to. It’s more than just a simple photo manager: it’s a backup system, a light editor, and a powerful tool that lets users transform simple photos into something much more meaningful.

Most of its power lies in the Assistant feature, which you can access by tapping the “Assistant” link at the very bottom of the main Photos window. From here, there are a variety of things you can do, but we’re going to focus on the top options: Album, Collage, Animation, and Movie. Before we look at those, however, I do want to mention that Photos will often create these things for you under certain circumstances, like when several similar photos are taken together, for example. When this happens, it will generate a notification to let you know; from there, you can delete the animation or save it. It’s neat.



But if you want to build something for yourself instead of waiting for Google to do it for you, that’s incredibly easy: just pick one of the top options on the Assistant page. For this example, we’ll put together a collage, but the process is essentially identical across the board.

First, choose your option (again, in this case, we’re going with “Collage”). This will open the gallery window, allowing you to select multiple photos. For a collage, you can select between two and nine pictures—for most of the others, you can select up to 50 photos, because that makes more sense for an animation or video. Let’s go with four, because that really just seems like a good number for a collage.


Once you’ve selected the photos, go ahead and tap the “Create” button in the top right. A brief progress bar will show up, followed by your new creation. It’s all very, very simple, which is really the biggest benefit and weakness of Assistant: there are very little customization options going on here. For example, in our collage, we didn’t get to select a layout or format—it just slapped the images into a standard 4×4 layout. Sometimes this is fine, but others it may seem lacking. Of course, if you want to do more, there are plenty of tools for the job—Photos’ Assistant is great because it’s so simple.



After your collage, animation, or video has been created, it will automatically be saved to your gallery and backed up (assuming your settings allow this, of course).

Install Play Store on Amazon Fire

How to Install the Google Play Store on the Amazon Fire HD 8

Amazon’s slightly-larger Fire HD 8 tablet is a bit more expensive than the entry-level Fire Tablet, but it comes with a faster processor and a higher-resolution display that’s well worth the cost. However, it still comes with the same Fire OS interface and restrictions that only give you access to the Amazon Appstore. Here’s how to install the Google Play Store on the newer Fire HD 8 and get access to a lot more apps and games.

This method doesn’t require rooting the device, nor does it require a PC to do the legwork—everything is done right on the tablet itself.

Before You Begin

We tested this on a device running 5.3.1.1, but readers have reported it working on the latest 5.3.2 as well. You can check what version you have by going into Settings > Device Options > System Updates and looking at the version number at the top of the screen, but for now, version shouldn’t matter.

Next, go into Settings > Security and enable “Apps from Unknown Sources”. This will allow you to install the necessary APK files that will give you the Google Play Store.

Step One: Download the Google Play Store APK Files

Next, there are four .APK files you’ll need to download, using the built-in Silk browser on your tablet. The easiest way to do this is to open up this tutorial in the Silk browser and click on the links below, which will take you to the download pages. These come from APK Mirror, an established and trustworthy source for Android APKs.

Google Account Manager APK

Google Services Framework APK

Google Play Services APK

Google Play Store APK

To download each APK file, click on the link, scroll down, and tap on “Download APK”.



The download will start shortly. When it does, a pop-up will appear saying that this type of file can harm your device (don’t worry—it won’t). Tap on “OK” when the pop-up appears.



After each file downloads, do the same thing for the next APK file until all four files are downloaded.

Step Two: Install the Google Play Store APK Files

Close out of the Silk browser and open up the built-in file manager app on your Fire table called “Docs”.



Tap on “Local Storage”.



Select the “Downloads” folder.



Your APK files will appear in this folder. Simply tap on one to begin installing it. Be sure to install the APK files in the order that you downloaded them from the list above. In other words, install the Google Account Manager APK first, then the Google Services Framework APK, followed by the Google Play Services APK, and then the Google Play Store APK to finish it out.



On the next screen, confirm the installation by tapping on “Install” at the bottom. Toward the upper-left corner it will say which APK you’re installing, so again, make sure you install them in the right order.



Repeat this process for each APK file until all four are installed. Once that’s done, the Google Play Store app will appear on the home screen of your Fire HD 8 tablet. Open it up, log in with your Google account, and download some apps!

Thanks to Gilly10 on the XDA-Developers forums for providing this method. If you need troubleshooting help, head over to the XDA-Developers forum thread for more information.

Trivia

The First Woman To Appear On A U.S. Postage Stamp Was?

Harriet Tubman	Susan B. Anthony
Martha Washington	Queen Isabella

Answer: Queen Isabella

One would assume that the first U.S. postage stamp that bore a woman’s face would bear the face of an American woman. Over the years, there have been many such stamps, like those commemorating Susan B. Anthony (women’s rights advocate), Amelia Earhart (aviator), and Clara Barton (American Red Cross founder).

The first U.S. postage stamp with a woman’s face on it, however, wasn’t commemorating a woman specifically, but linking that woman with a man: Christopher Columbus. In 1893, a stamp was issued commemorating Columbus’ voyage to the New World and alongside his portrait was a portrait of his patron—Queen Isabella of Spain, who made his journey possible.

It wouldn’t be until 1902 that a woman would be featured by herself on a piece of U.S. postage. That year, the post office released a stamp commemorating Martha Washington, the first “First Lady” of the United States.

Did You Know/Todays Term

Did You Know?

Birds and bats may both fly, but whereas birds flap their forelimbs (akin to a human flapping their entire arm), bats flap their very specialized long digits (akin to a human flapping just their hands).

Today's Tech Term 

AIDC

AIDC (short for Automatic Identification And Data Collection or Capture) refers to the process of electronically capturing or collecting data automatically without the use of a keyboard.

Some examples of AIDC are: barcode scanning, alphanumeric codes, RFID, biometrics, smart cards, OCR, and magnetic strips.

Entertainment News - Episode VIII

Gwendoline Christie: Fans won't be disappointed by Episode VIII

(Lucasfilm)
Star Wars

As we get excited for the unveiling of Rogue One, somewhere in Disney’s top secret post-production editing and visual effect bays are prints of year’s top-secret Episode VIII – which completed principal photography all the way back in July and won’t be released until another date that’s far, far away (December 15, 2017).

We recently spoke to Gwendoline Christie, who reprises her role as chrome trooper Captain Phasma in the film, and asked if there were any vague teases she could give us.

“No,” she said.

Please?

“I don’t think anyone’s going to be disappointed,” she added, and then she made this remarkable expression – her eyebrows shot up, her eyes got wide, and she clamped her lips shut as she smiled, as if thinking about some intensely exciting secrets she’s just bursting to reveal … but absolutely positively will not.

One big question, of course, has been if/when her character will remove her helmet so we can get a look at the real Phasma – though Christie has also defended Episode VII’s choice to keep her appearance mysterious. “I thought it was a really interesting opportunity to play a female character where we formed an opinion of her based on her actions rather than the way she has been made flesh,” Christie told us. “And that concept within a Star Wars movie, a mainstream phenomenon, was very modern and interesting and exciting. I made no secret of the fact I wanted to be in the film, I campaigned hard to be in the film. But to be in it as that kind of character – she’s a woman, she’s in armor, the armor isn’t sexualized, and in the film we don’t see the actor’s face – I thought that was an exciting, modern concept.”

Before Episode VIII comes out, however, Christie will be back in HBO’s Game of Thrones, which returns for its seventh season next summer. 

BY JAMES HIBBERD