- It was only a matter of time. Given the success of this
year's “The Jungle Book,” Disney was guaranteed to turn to one of its other
classic animated films and look to turn it into a live-action remake. The
studio’s choice, it seems, is “The Lion King,” a classic tale of a young lion
who sees its father murdered by its uncle, goes into self-imposed exile and
returns to reclaim its kingdom with the help of a warthog and a meerkat. Just like
“Jungle Book,” the new take on “The Lion King” will feature an innovative mix
of live action and CGI. To try to further connect the two, Disney has inked “Jungle
Book” director Jon Favreau to helm the story of Simba and friends. "The
Lion King builds on Disney’s success of reimagining its classics for a
contemporary audience with films like Maleficent, Cinderella and The Jungle
Book,” Disney said in a statement. “The upcoming Beauty And The Beast, starring
Emma Watson as Belle, is already one of the most anticipated movies of 2017. Like
Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King will include songs from the animated film.”
Of course, Elton John and Tim Rice famously scored the original film and the
soundtrack was a hit, with 'Circle Of Life' and 'Can You Feel The Love Tonight?,'
which went on to win an Oscar for the 1994 film. Favreau actually dropped a
hint about his involvement with the movie prior to Disney’s announcement,
although no release date or casing has been announced yet for the project………
- Are memes capable of hate speech? According to the
Anti-Defamation League, they definitely are, even if the centerpiece of that
meme is a cartoon frog. Yes, Pepe the Frog has been around for years, lurking
online in updated forms and ribbiting his way through life as the star of meme
after meme, mostly innocuous and mildly entertaining. But of late, Pepe has
taken a dark turn and for that reason, he’s landed one of the coveted spots in
the league’s database of hate symbols. Credit that development to a few
Internet trolls turning Pepe into an amphibian version of Adolf Hitler, a Ku
Klux Klansman and various other racist caricatures. "Once again, racists
and haters have taken a popular Internet meme and twisted it for their own purposes
of spreading bigotry and harassing users," Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO
said in a statement. "These anti-Semites have no shame. They are abusing
the image of a cartoon character, one that might at first seem appealing, to
harass and spread hatred on social media." Thankfully, the ADL is not
blanket-stereotyping Pepe and won't label all Pepe memes as hate speech because
most of them are not "bigoted" in nature, the ADL said. Still, it
raises the question: If racists will radicalize a cartoon frog, what won't they
deface? Keep your eyes peeled, Kermit…….
- Top draft picks are expected to make a quick impact on
their new team almost regardless of the sport, but maybe Toronto Maple Leafs
phenom Auston Matthews could’ve chosen a different route. Matthews, chosen
first overall in this year’s NHL draft, skated with his new teammates for the
first time and proceeded to show his appreciation for the team that drafted him
by wrecking some of its property. A wayward slapshot shattered a pane of glass
surrounding the rink after the formal portion of practice and after breaking a
glass panel rather than a glass ceiling, Matthews was cracking jokes. “It was a
terrible shot, too," Matthews said. "It wasn't even hard, just
happened to hit the right spot, I guess, and shattered the whole thing. We were
just messing around. It was me, [Mitch] Marner, [Andrew] Nielsen, the last guys
on the ice, we were just taking shots and [I] missed the net, broke the
glass." He was asked if he thought he would have to pay for the damage and
cracked that Maple Leafs general manager Lou Lamoriello “won't be too happy”
about the glass. Prior to his property damage, Matthews skated on a line with
James van Riemsdyk and Leo Komarov, both of whom had enough respect for the
practice facility to not start breaking things. Having played in Toronto during
the World Cup of Hockey, maybe the Scottsdale, Arizona native felt a little too
at home. Next time, keep the puck skidding along the ice where it belongs. A………
- It’s amazing what fear will do to a populace. No, not the
fearmongering, xenophobic followers of a certain American presidential
candidate….this time, it’s Switzerland, where voters have granted new
powers to their country's intelligence
services, allowing them to track internet activity, snoop on email and tap
phones to better fight spies, criminal hackers and violent extremists. Not only
did voters give the thumbs up to governmental overreach, but a whopping
majority of 65.5 percent voted for the new law in the national referendum. With
this mandate, the Federal Intelligence Service and other authorities will be
allowed to tap phones, infiltrate email and deploy hidden cameras and
microphones to monitor suspects who are deemed a clear threat -- but only if
authorized by the federal administrative tribunal and oversight counselors.
Previously, Swiss authorities had been barred from using anything more than
publicly available information or tips from foreign officials when monitoring
threats inside the country and on the surface, that would seem to be a major
handicap for an intelligence organization. That’s why supporters of the law
argue that it’s necessary to help Switzerland catch up with other countries
that have stronger legal arsenals to counter cyber-crime or extremist attacks.
Those on the other side are making the argument familiar to privacy advocates
around the world, claiming that the law will erode civil liberties and
Switzerland's long-vaunted neutrality without actually doing anything
noteworthy to combat terrorism. Sadly, only 35 percent of Swiss voters value
their privacy and civil liberty enough to vote against this measure, so
neutrality will have to take a back seat to paranoia in the land of cheese and
chocolate……..
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