Friday, July 15, 2016

Pokemon Go ruins South Korea, naming an NHL team is hard and lifeguards napping it out


- When you’re making a wholly unnecessary sequel and bringing a long-dormant movie franchise back to life, why not go to the extreme? Go really overboard, cast tons of people and make it a really bloated movie with too many moving parts… right producers of “Blade Runner 2?” The film’s cast is once again growing, having adding actors Hiam Abbass (“Exodus: Gods and Kings,” “Munich”) and David Dastmalchian (“Ant-Man”) in roles so new that their identities aren’t yet known. They join an incredibly crowded sound stage that already includes Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright, Carla Juri, Ana de Armas, Mackenzie Davis, Sylvia Hoeks and Dave Bautista. Hell, the movie doesn’t even have a title yet and still, the studio is stacking up actors like pieces of firewood. What is known is that Denis Villeneuve (“Sicario”) will direct the project from a script written by Hampton Fancher, co-writer of the original “Blade Runner.” Ridley Scott directed the original 1982 sci-fi classic, but he’s moved to the executive producer’s chair for this one. The sequel will be set several decades after the conclusion of Blade Runner and is the brainchild of Scott and Fancher. Interestingly, Ford's iconic character Rick Deckard will not appear in the entirety of the sequel. "Harrison is very much part of this one, but really it's about finding him; he comes in in the third act,” Scott said. The only clues about the film’s name come from reports that Warner Bros. has registered the domain names bladerunnerandroidsdreammovie.com and androidsdreammovie.com……..


- Napping it out on the job is option for some people. If you’re the night security guard at a warehouse or storage facility, catching a few z’s during your shift isn't the end of the world. Should you be the person tasked with counting the number of orange barrels to be used for an upcoming construction project, no one is going to be upset is you snooze on the employee’s lounge couch. But if you happen to be, for example, a lifeguard, you typically need to be awake and alert on the job. That goes for you, Myrtle Beach lifeguard publicly embarrassed by Karl Mroch, who he was walking along the beach at about 3 p.m. when he saw the lifeguard sleeping at around 4th Avenue North. In Mroch’s defense, he tried saying "hello" to the lifeguard several times before he began recording a video he obviously posted to Facebook. In the video, Mroch raises his camera up to the lifeguard, whose eyes are shut, and taps the guard’s face with his phone. At that point, the well-rested lifeguard woke up and looked at Mroch, who said hello and stopped recording. He said that he then lectured the man on how his job was to save lives and when he tried to defend himself, Mroch told him to look at the word “LIFEGUARD” on his shirt. What qualifies Mroch to lecture anyone about not being able to sleep on the job is unclear, but the situation was brought to the attention of Lack’s Beach Service, the company that provides lifeguard services to beaches in Myrtle Beach. The lifeguard could be disciplined or fired for his actions, but maybe Mroch should be too. Rather than film the lifeguard to make a public spectacle of him, he could have immediately awoken the man so he could get back to doing the job he had been neglecting………


- Getting an NHL franchise is apparently easier than naming one for Las Vegas hockey franchise owner Bill Foley. Foley was fired up three weeks ago when he was awarded the NHL’s 31st franchise, but nearly a month after the face, his group is having trademark issues and finding a difficult road to naming their team. Foley did take a step forward by selecting George McPhee as his general manager, but then expressed impatience at how the process has stalled. "We have a lot of names in mind, but a lot of the ones I really liked are trademarked, so that's a little bit of an issue," Foley said. "I'm happy to take any suggestions anyone has for a name, particularly one that's not already trademarked." As a 1967 graduate of West Point, Foley has expressed an affinity for the name "Black Knights" as a nod to the Army and multiple reports have suggested hat "Knights" was likely to be the name of the Las Vegas team, which will begin play in 2017-18. Foley actually made a salient point when he joked that after agreeing to pay the league a $500 million expansion fee, he should be able to pick the name. "Our goal is to have a logo and a team name ASAP," Foley said. "I didn't realize how complicated it was. It is complicated, and we're working our way through the process right now as we speak." With all of the gambling and entertainment ideas around Sin City, can there really be that many issues with trademarks for every good name? Are the Las Vegas Tacky Neon Signs or All-You-Can-Eat Late-Night Buffets already taken? Time to step up your imagination level, Foley ownership group………


- Damn you, Pokemon Go. Your brief burst of fame is getting to be pretty damn annoying, what with idiots causing car accidents and walking into other people on the street so they can “find” animated characters who don’t actually exist. It’s creating havoc in places where the game isn’t even in existence, such as the seaside South Korean city of Sokcho. Right now, the poor residents of Sokcho are dealing with hundreds of kooks wandering their streets at all hours, noses firmly planted in their phones because they’ve flocked to the only place in the country where Pokemon Go players can chase the mobile game's virtual monsters. Sure, local restaurants, hotels and businesses are trying to capitalize on the sudden surge of visitors, trying to lure them in with photos of Pikachu and other monsters and promising free gifts to the Pokemon "trainers." Even the city’s mayor is pledging to fuel this craze by vowing to increase free Wi-Fi hotspots and battery charging stations. Quick-reacting travel agencies are offering Pokemon-themed tour packages to Sokcho and hotels in the east coast city near the North Korean border have seen reservations soar. What’s worth noting is that the game has not been officially launched in South Korea and might never be, despite its blockbuster status in the United States. The reason South Korea is likely to be excluded from the Pokemon Go's Asia launch because South Korea's government restricts Google Maps service for security reasons. Sadly, that means South Koreans will have to work hard to find other ways to waste their precious time…….

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