culture

$1,700-“smart”-bassinet-adds-$20/month-sub—but-only-if-you-buy-it-used

$1,700 “smart” bassinet adds $20/month sub—but only if you buy it used

bassinet, culture, Smart devices, snow, Tech / /

“SMART” —

Non-new Snoos now lose some use.

–

Picture of the Snoo

Enlarge / The Snoo, a “smart” bassinet.

Owners of the $1,695 Snoo “smart” bassinet like to gather in forums like Reddit’s r/snoolife to swap tracking graphs of their children’s sleep patterns. But they also like to complain about Happiest Baby, the company behind the Snoo. That’s because Happiest Baby this summer added a $20 monthly subscription fee to several of the Snoo’s “premium features,” which are controlled by a smartphone app.

Those who bought their Snoo from an “authorized” retailer before July 15, 2024, get the premium features free for nine months. No problem!

But those who bought their Snoo from an unauthorized retailer—that is, got it used—can “enjoy all the fun and benefits of our premium App features—for FREE—until July 15, 2024,” the company announced in its fine print. After that date, premium features went away; the only option for premium feature access on used Snoos now is to cough up $20 each month, atop the $600–$1,000 already spent on the device.

Because the Snoo is so [fabulously|ludicrously|incandescently] expensive, and because a bassinet is used only for those first few months while a newborn [learns to sleep|bawls its head off at least six times a night], and because having a new baby can be [expensive|extremely expensive], many [new parents|sleep-deprived zombies] seek out a non-new Snoo. And the parents are not happy about this new subscription fee. Says one Reddit user:

Just saying. This is bullshit. The current owners and users of Snoo should have been grandfathered in and continue to have access to basic feature like motion lock (the one I use most) and future new accounts should get a clear notification that without paying $20/mo they’re just buying a $2,000 basket.

Time to review bomb their app.

Dazed and confused

The Snoo works by rocking the bassinet at different levels while tracking the baby’s sleep level, and it can do things like simulate a car ride or offer gentle motion when a baby wakes at night. The idea is that the baby and parents both sleep more.

Basic features of the Snoo work for everyone, even those who purchased used devices, but the premium package includes things like the aforementioned “car ride mode,” responsiveness settings, weaning mode (to get ready for a crib), sleep tracking and logging, a “level lock,” and “sleepytime sounds.” In other words, the premium sub includes some pretty basic functionality that most Snoo owners want. (A common online complaint, in fact, is that the “premium” features are quite basic for a smart device like this.)

Many of the angriest online comments appear to get the actual details of the new subscription wrong, especially the fact that new Snoo purchasers do still get the premium features for free (well, for nine months).

But that’s part of the problem with these sorts of sudden business model changes—the details are confusing! Customers buy an expensive piece of hardware, hoping to placate a squalling child, and then find that in addition to a squalling child and a lot of cash out of pocket, they have to think about email addresses and online accounts and subscription fees and whether they bought a device new or used and if today is before or after July 15. Just rock the crying baby, smart bassinet!

In addition, whatever its legality, charging for features that used to be free can often feel like an injustice, leading even mild-mannered Snoo owners to take the above Redditor’s advice and start “review bombing” Happiest Baby’s apps.

On the Google Play Store, for instance, Happiest Baby’s smartphone app is currently down to 1.4 stars. Most of the recent reviews are one-star complaints that say things like:

When we first got our Snoo, the app was free and it worked properly. 5 months later you now charge to access the log (and other features) that were free. And now the app is glitching all the time too! Every time we go to turn it on, we have to reset the app first and then it’ll comment. Glad we only have 1 month left. I LOVE the snoo. It has been a savior. But the decision to charge for most of the app features out of no where was shameful. Even wean mode? That’s bull.

Or:

This app used to be great. But then they took many of the more important features and locked them behind a “Premium” subscription of $20/month, which is ridiculous. And just in case Happiest Baby tries to “clarify”, yes, the free version has several features. But that doesn’t change the fact that all of those “Premium” features USED TO BE FREE. It is purely a way to try and get more money out of parents who are just trying to do what is best for their kids.

Angry parents have also gone to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to leave complaints about Happiest Baby, which currently has one out of five stars and is rated an “F.”

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german-warship-floats-down-thames-while-playing-darth-vader’s-theme

German warship floats down Thames while playing Darth Vader’s theme

culture / /

BUM BUM BUM —

“No deeper meaning,” says German navy.

–

The German navy going “full Empire” down the Thames.

The FGS Braunschweig is a German naval corvette made for stealthy littoral (shoreline) operations, but the Braunschweig ditched the stealth completely while transiting up the Thames this week on a training mission to London. Instead, the ship turned out its enlisted men to stand on deck in light blue shirts and dark pants while the boat blasted a recording of “The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)” from Star Wars as it floated past Tower Bridge.

Coming eight decades after Londoners lived through the German “blitz” in World War II and then spent years waiting for a German naval invasion that never materialized, playing the Big Bad Guy’s theme from Star Wars films was certainly a bold choice. But a German naval spokesperson assured the BBC that the music had “no deeper message” and added that it was not some sort of commentary from the German naval staff. Rather, the boat’s commander “can choose the music freely.”

The little spectacle did show two things. One—assuming this was, in fact, a joke—it put the lie to the old stereotype that the Germans have no sense of humor, a stereotype which has led to the production of actual BBC headlines like “Why people think Germans aren’t funny.”

Second, it’s a reminder that people of my generation, those who grew up watching the original (and best!) Star Wars trilogy, are now the people running the world and its weapons systems. And we’re bringing our musical tastes with us, even if they come from a galaxy far, far away.

Listing image by Lucasfilm / ILMxLAB

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disney-cancels-the-acolyte-after-one-season

Disney cancels The Acolyte after one season

culture, Disney Plus, Entertainment, Lucasfilm, star wars, streaming television, The Acolyte / /

haters gonna hate —

Star Wars series was admittedly uneven, but didn’t deserve the online hate it received.

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Asian man in white robe with one hand extended in front of him

Enlarge / We have doubts that any amount of Force powers will bring the show back.

YouTube/Disney+

In news that will delight some and disappoint others, Disney has canceled Star Wars series The Acolyte after just one season, Deadline Hollywood reports. The eight-episode series got off to a fairly strong start, with mostly positive reviews and solid ratings, albeit lower than prior Star Wars series. But it couldn’t maintain and build upon that early momentum, and given the production costs, it’s not especially surprising that Disney pulled the plug.

The Acolyte arguably wrapped up its major narrative arc pretty neatly in the season finale, but it also took pains to set the stage for a possible sophomore season. In this streaming age, no series is ever guaranteed renewal. Still, it would have been nice to see what showrunner Leslye Headland had planned; when given the chance, many shows hit their stride on those second-season outings.

(Spoilers for the series below. We’ll give you another heads-up when we get to major spoilers.)

As I’ve written previously, The Acolyte is set at the end of the High Republic Era, about a century before the events of The Phantom Menace. In this period, the Jedi aren’t the underdog rebels battling the evil Galactic Empire. They are at the height of their power and represent the dominant mainstream institution—not necessarily a benevolent one, depending on one’s perspective. That’s a significant departure from most Star Wars media and perhaps one reason why the show was so divisive among fans. (The show had its issues, but I dismiss the profoundly unserious lamentations of those who objected to the female-centric storyline and presence of people of color by dubbing it “The Wokelyte” and launching a review-bombing campaign.)

The Acolyte opened on the planet Ueda, where a mysterious masked woman wielding daggers attacked the Jedi Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss) and killed her. The assassin was quickly identified as Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg), a former padawan now working as a meknek, making repairs on spaceships. Osha was arrested by her former classmate, Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett), but claimed she was innocent. Her twin sister, Mae, died in a fire on their home planet of Brendok when they were both young. Osha concluded that Mae was still alive and had killed Indara. Osha’s former Jedi master, Sol (Lee Jung-jae), believed her, and subsequent events proved Osha right.

Mae’s targets were not random. She was out to kill the four Jedi she blamed for the fire on Brendok: Indara, Sol, Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman), and a Jedi Wookiee named Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo). The quartet had arrived on Brendok to demand they be allowed to test the twins as potential Jedi.

The twins had been raised by a coven of “Force witches” there, led by Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith), who believed the Jedi were misusing the Force. While Mae was keen to follow in their mother’s footsteps, Osha wanted to train with the Jedi. When the fire broke out, both Mae and Osha believed the other twin had been killed along with the rest of the coven. How the fire really started, and the identity of Mae’s mysterious Master who trained her in the dark side of the Force, were the primary mysteries that played out over the course of the season.

(WARNING: Major spoilers below. Stop reading now if you haven’t finished watching the series.)

Lightsabers and wuxia

wuxia-inspired fight scenes.” height=”320″ src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/acolyte-olega-640×320.jpg” width=”640″>

Enlarge / The camera moved on a single axis for the wuxia-inspired fight scenes.

Lucasfilm/Disney+

From the start, The Acolyte was a bit of a departure from a typical Star Wars series, weaving in elements from wuxia films and detective stories while remaining true to the established Star Wars aesthetic and design. That alone made it an intriguing effort, with fresh characters and new takes on classic Star Wars lore. And the martial arts-inspired fight choreography was clever and fun to watch—especially in the shocking, action-packed fifth episode (“Night”).

But there were some obvious shortcomings as well, most notably the clunky dialogue—although that’s kind of a long-standing attribute of the Star Wars franchise. (Alec Guinness notoriously hated his dialogue as Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope.) The pacing lagged at times, and there was a surprisingly high body count among the central characters.

A high body count: All of these Jedi are dead.

Enlarge / A high body count: All of these Jedi are dead.

Lucasfilm/Disney+

That alone might have made a second season challenging. I mean, they killed off Moss’ Jedi master in the first 10 minutes (although she reappeared in flashbacks), with Torbin and Kelnacca meeting the same fate over the next few episodes. By the time the final credits rolled, almost all the Jedi lead characters were dead. And senior leader Vernestra (Rebecca Henderson) opted to blame the murders on Sol (RIP) rather than Mae’s master, who turned out to be Vernestra’s former apprentice, Qimir (a scene-stealing Manny Jacinto)—now apprentice to Sith lord Darth Plagueis. (This was strongly implied in the finale and subsequently confirmed by Headland.)

Ultimately, however, it all came down to the ratings. Per Deadline, The Acolyte garnered 11.1 million views over its first five days (and 488 million minutes viewed)—not bad, but below Ahsoka‘s 14 million views over the same period. But those numbers declined sharply over the ensuing weeks, with the finale earning the dubious distinction of posting the lowest minutes viewed (335 million) for any Star Wars series finale. That simply didn’t meet Disney’s threshold for renewal, so we won’t get to learn more about the Qimir/Darth Plagueis connection.

Disney cancels The Acolyte after one season Read More »

kraven-the-hunter’s-new-trailer-gives-us-a-dark,-gore-filled-revenge-story

Kraven the Hunter’s new trailer gives us a dark, gore-filled revenge story

culture, Entertainment, film trailers, Kraven the Hunter, Sony Pictures, Sony's Spider-Man University, Trailers / /

“When the man comes around” —

It’s the latest installment in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which has floundered recently.

–

Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Bullet Train) plays the title character in the forthcoming film Kraven the Hunter.

Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) got off to a strong start with Venom (2018) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), both of which racked up high box office earnings despite mixed-to-negative reviews from critics. But then the studio foundered badly with a couple of box office flops: 2022’s Morbius and 2024’s Madame Web.

Sony hopes to right the ship with a third Venom film in October (The Last Dance) and the much-delayed Kraven the Hunter this December. We’ve got a new trailer for the latter, leaning heavily into R-rated gore and set to Johnny Cash’s moodily atmospheric “The Man Comes Around.” It’s an entirely different, darker vibe from prior offerings: a revenge narrative rife with violence and daddy issues. Color us intrigued.

Comic book fans are well acquainted with Kraven as one of Spider-Man’s most formidable foes, a founding member of the Sinister Six. He’s a Russian immigrant with an aristocratic background who fled his home country when Tsar Nicholas II’s reign collapsed in 1917. He’s a big game hunter with enhanced abilities thanks to ingesting a mysterious potion made from jungle herbs. He’s very hard to injure, has super-human strength, and enhanced sight, hearing, and smell, as well as being a good tactician with excellent hand-to-hand combat skills.

Screenwriter Richard Wenk has said that Sony intended to adapt the critically acclaimed 1987 storyline in Kraven’s Last Hunt by J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Zeck, and Bob McLeod, which leaned heavily into the character’s Russian origins to create a very Dostoyevsky-like arc of a tortured soul. That storyline features an older Kraven whose health is failing who decides to hunt Spider-Man one last time, whereas the film is clearly an origin story. And Kraven actually dies by suicide in that comic arc, but we’re guessing Sony has plans to use him in other SSU films, with or without his arch-nemesis Spider-Man.

Per the official premise:

Kraven the Hunter is the visceral, action-packed origin story of how and why one of Marvel’s most iconic villains came to be. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Kraven, a man whose complex relationship with his ruthless father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.

In addition to Taylor-Johnson and Crowe, the cast includes Ariana DeBose as the voodoo priestess Calypso, Kraven’s love interest; Fred Hechinger as Dmitri Smerdyakov, aka Chameleon, Kraven’s half-brother; Alessandro Nivola as Aleksei Sytsevich, aka Rhino, a Russian mercenary who can transform into a human/rhino hybrid; Christopher Abbott as a mercenary and assassin called the Foreigner; and Levi Miller as young Sergei.

Kraven the Hunter hits theaters on December 13, 2024.

Listing image by YouTube/Sony Pictures

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the-witch’s-road-might-take-everything-in-agatha-all-along-d23-trailer

The Witch’s Road might take everything in Agatha All Along D23 trailer

Agatha All Along, culture, D23 Expo, Disney Plus, Entertainment, streaming television, Trailers / /

witchy women —

“The Witch’s Road will give you the thing you want most… if you make it to the end.”

–

Kathryn Hahn seeks a new witchy coven in Agatha All Along.

Disney introduced the poster and first full trailer for Agatha All Along during its annual D23 Expo this weekend. The nine-episode series, starring Kathryn Hahn, is one of the TV series in the MCU’s Phase Five, coming on the heels of Secret Invasion, Loki S2, What If…? S2, and Echo.

(Spoilers for WandaVision below.)

As reported previously, Agatha All Along has been in the works since 2021, officially announced in November of that year, inspired by Hahn’s breakout performance in WandaVision as nosy neighbor Agnes—but secretly a powerful witch named Agatha Harkness who was conspiring to steal Wanda’s power. The plot twist even inspired a meta-jingle that went viral. That series ended with Wanda victorious and Agatha robbed of all her powers, trapped in her nosy neighbor persona.

Head writer Jac Schaeffer (who also created WandaVision) has said that the series would follow Agatha as she forms her own coven with “a disparate mixed bag of witches… defined by deception, treachery, villainy, and selfishness” who must learn to work together. And apparently we can expect a few more catchy tunes—one of which is front and center in the new trailer. This new series picks up where WandaVision left Agatha. Per the official premise:

The infamous Agatha Harkness finds herself down and out of power after a suspicious goth teen helps break her free from a distorted spell. Her interest is piqued when he begs her to take him on the legendary Witches’ Road, a magical gauntlet of trials that, if survived, rewards a witch with what they’re missing. Together, Agatha and this mysterious teen pull together a desperate coven, and set off down, down, down The Road…

In addition to Hahn, the cast includes Aubrey Plaza as warrior witch Rio Vidal; Joe Locke as Billy, a gay teenage familiar; Patti LuPone as a 450-year-old Sicilian witch named Lilia Calderu; Sasheer Zamata as sorceress Jennifer Kale; Ali Ahn as a witch named Alice; and Miles Gutierrez-Riley as Billy’s boyfriend.

Debra Jo Rupp reprises her WandaVision role as Sharon Davis (“Mrs. Hart” in the meta-sitcom), here becoming a member of Agatha’s coven. Also reprising their WandaVision roles: Emma Caulfield Ford as Sarah Proctor (aka “Dottie Jones”); David Payton as John Collins (“Herb”); David Lengel as Harold Proctor (“Phil Jones”); Asif Ali as Abilash Tandon (“Norm”); Amos Glick (pizza delivery man “Dennis”); Kate Forbes as Agatha’s mother, Evanora; and Brian Brightman as the Eastview, New Jersey, sheriff.

The first two episodes of Agatha All Along drop on September 18, 2024, on Disney+, with episodes airing weekly after that through November 6.

Disney+

Listing image by YouTube/Disney+

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jude-law’s-jedi-befriends-kids-lost-in-space-in-star-wars:-skeleton-crew-trailer

Jude Law’s Jedi befriends kids lost in space in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew trailer

culture, Disney Plus, Entertainment, Skeleton Crew, star wars, Trailers / /

“It’s dangerous out there in space” —

The standalone series is set in the same time frame as The Mandalorian and Ahsoka. 

–

TKTK Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.

The Star Wars universe continues to expand on streaming television with the release of the first trailer for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew this weekend at Disney’s annual D23 Expo. The eight-episode standalone series is set in the same time frame as The Mandalorian and Ahsoka.

Executive producer Kathleen Kennedy was intrigued when series co-creator Jon Watts pitched a Star Wars series inspired by the 1985 film The Goonies. (Kennedy had co-produced that film and co-founded Amblin Entertainment.) She told co-creator Christopher Ford that The Goonies hadn’t been created specifically for kids, instead telling a story that just happened to be about kids going on an adventure. So Ford and Watts wrote Skeleton Crew with the same mindset: a show for everyone that just happened to feature kids as the central characters. Per the official premise:

Skeleton Crew follows the journey of four kids who make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, then get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy, crossing paths with the likes of Jod Na Nawood, the mysterious character played by [Jude] Law. Finding their way home—and meeting unlikely allies and enemies—will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined.

Jude Law leads the cast as the quick-witted and charming (per Law) “Force-user” Jod Na Nawood. Ravi Cabot-Conyers plays Wim, Ryan Kiera Armstrong plays Fern, Kyriana Kratter plays KB, and Robert Timothy Smith plays Neil. Nick Frost will voice a droid named SM 33. The cast also includes Tunde Adebimpe, Kerry Condon, and Jaleel White in as yet undisclosed roles.

The trailer opens with our young protagonists at school, preparing to take a test that will set the course of their respective futures. At least one of them is bored with the daily routine and longs to do something more exciting. “What if we could go anywhere we want in the whole galaxy?” he asks. “A real adventure. No more pretend.” Naturally they find a mysterious “lost Jedi temple” buried in the woods and soon find themselves rocketing away on a spaceship—and getting lost. Can they survive all the dangers of space and find their way back to their home planet? With the help of Law’s Jedi, we like their chances.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew premieres on December 3, 2024, on Disney+.

Listing image by LucasFilm/Disney+

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Infamous $30 Logitech F710 called out in $50M lawsuit over Titan sub implosion

culture, Logitech, sub, Titan, video game controller / /

what could go wrong? —

Family of dead Titanic expert blasts “hip” electronics.

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Stockton Rush shows David Pogue the game controller that pilots the OceanGate Titan sub during a CBS Sunday Morning segment broadcast in November 2022.

Enlarge / OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush shows David Pogue the 2010-era game controller that pilots the Titan sub during a CBS Sunday Morning segment broadcast in November 2022.

CBS Sunday Morning

In a 2022 CBS Sunday Morning segment, CEO Stockton Rush of deep-water submersible company OceanGate gave journalist David Pogue a fun reveal. “We run the whole thing with this game controller,” Rush said, holding up a Logitech F710 controller with 3D-printed thumbstick extensions. The controller was wireless, and it was the primary method for controlling the Titan submersible, which would soon make a visit to the wreck of the Titanic. Pogue laughed. “Come on!” he said, covering his eyes with his hand.

Journalists loved the controller story, covering the inexpensive F710 and the ways that video game controllers have become common control solutions in various military and spaceflight applications in recent years. After all, if your engineers and pilots grew up using two-stick controllers to waste their friends in Halo multiplayer, why not use that built-in muscle memory for other purposes?

So the use of a video game controller was not in itself a crazy decision. But after the Titan sub imploded on a June 2023 dive to the Titanic site, killing all five passengers including Stockton Rush, the use of a wireless $30 control interface began to look less “cool!” and more “isn’t that kind of risky?” The only question at that point was how long it would take the Logitech F710 to show up in a lawsuit.

This week, we got our answer. In the first Titan wrongful death lawsuit, filed this week by the estate of Paul-Henri Louis Emile Nargeolet, the Logitech controller comes in for some prominent criticism.

“Hip, contemporary, wireless”

Nargeolet “was known worldwide as ‘Mr. Titanic,'” says the new lawsuit (PDF) against OceanGate, Rush’s estate, and various companies that helped build the Titan. Nargeolet had been on 37 dives to the Titanic wreckage and, on his final dive, was working with OceanGate as a Titan crewmember who would “guide other crewmembers and assist with navigation through the Titanic wreckage, which he knew so well.”

The lawsuit reiterates all the main criticisms of the Titan.

First, the sub was not made from titanium (as most submersibles are), which gets stronger under compression; it was made instead from carbon fiber, which can crack under repeated compression. Rush, who saw himself as an innovator like “Steve Jobs or Elon Musk,” the complaint says, once told Pogue, “At some point, safety just is pure waste.” Rush thought he had found a lighter way to build subs.

Second, the complaint singles out the Titan’s “hip, contemporary, wireless electronics systems.” (Those adjectives are not compliments).

TITAN was piloted using a mass-produced Logitech video game controller (normally used with a PlayStation or Xbox) rather than a controller custom-made for TITAN’s design and operation. Moreover, the controller worked via Bluetooth, rather than being hardwired. TITAN also had only “one button” (for power) within its main chamber—the remainder of its controls (for lights, ballast and so on) and gauges (for depth, oxygen level and so forth) were touchscreen. RUSH stated that TITAN was “to other submersibles what the iPhone was to the BlackBerry.” As with an iPhone, however, none of the controller, controls or gauges would work without a constant source of power and a wireless signal.

OceanGate’s previous submersible, the Cyclops I, had also used a video game controller (a Sony DualShock 3) and some other wireless tech.

The DualShock 3 controller used to run the Cyclops I.

Enlarge / The DualShock 3 controller used to run the Cyclops I.

The complaint quotes an expert saying that such systems provided “multiple points of failure” and that “‘every sub in the world has hardwired controls for a reason,’ namely that a loss of signal would not imperil the vessel.” But such issues were “disregarded by OceanGate, as Titan employed nearly identical systems to Cyclops I,” says the complaint.

The lawsuit also attacks the engineering team that designed and integrated all the electronics systems into Titan, saying that the team was made up mostly of current or recent Washington State University grads with “virtually no real-world experience and no prior exposure to the deep-sea diving industry.”

The complaint does not allege that the Logitech wireless controller, the carbon fiber construction, Titan’s innovative porthole, or the use of disparate materials with differing expansion/compression coefficients—four main areas of criticism—were individually responsible for the sub’s implosion. But it does suggest that these systems could have together contributed to a “daisy chain of failures of multiple improperly designed or constructed parts or systems.” The complaint says that Nargeolet’s estate is entitled to at least $50 million in damages.

Too good to be true

A final investigatory report from various government agencies has been in process for over a year and has not yet been completed, but it seems likely that the Logitech controller—along with the five people on the sub—is gone forever.

But the prospect of a cheap piece of plastic surviving the catastrophic implosion was just too good for social media to ignore. Shortly after the Titan disaster, people began “sharing a photo that purports to show the controller resting on the bottom of the sea,” according to a 2023 AP fact check. “The image shows a sandy ocean bottom with a part of the photo magnified to supposedly show a close up of the controller.”

“The cheapest part survived,” one X (Twitter) user posted.

Alas, it did not; the photo was a fake.

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in-world-first,-russian-chess-player-poisons-rival’s-board-with-mercury

In world first, Russian chess player poisons rival’s board with mercury

chess, culture, Mercury, poisoning / /

Poisoned pawn —

At least it wasn’t novichok.

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A still from a video of Amina Abakarova spreading mercury on her rival's chess board.

Enlarge / Amina Abakarova allegedly spreading mercury on her rival’s chess board.

Russia is no stranger to unique poisonings. State agents have been known to use everything from polonium-laced tea to the deadly nerve agent “novichok” when making assassination attempts against both defectors in the UK and internal political rivals like Alexei Navalny. But a new “first” in the long history of poisonings was opened this month in the Russian republic of Dagestan, where a 40-something chess player named Amina Abakarova attempted to poison a rival by depositing liquid mercury on and around her chess board.

Malcolm Pein, the English Chess Federation’s director of international chess, told the UK’s Telegraph that he had “never seen anything like this before… This is the first recorded case of somebody using a toxic substance, to my knowledge, in the history of the game of chess.” Usually, he said, chess rivals confine themselves to “psychological” tactics.

Oliver Carroll, a Ukraine war correspondent for The Economist, summed up the situation with some social media snark: “I know that on the standards of Russian doping it’s perhaps only a 7 out of 10. But still…”

Mercury near the Caspian Sea

The strange story began on August 2, when a regional chess tournament was taking place in Makhachkala, a Russian town on the Caspian Sea just north of Azerbaijan. According to the Telegram channel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Dagestan, emergency services were called after 30-year-old Umayganat Osmanova fell ill during a chess match.

Osmanova said she had seen some tiny gray or silver “beads” rolling out from beneath her side of the chess board, but this apparently didn’t seem odd until she began to feel unwell. A chess.com story translated some of Osmanova’s remarks about what happened. “I still feel bad,” she said. “In the first minutes, I felt a lack of air and a taste of iron in my mouth. I had to spend about five hours on this board. I don’t know what would have happened to me if I hadn’t seen it earlier.”

Such symptoms are consistent with exposure to elemental mercury, the liquid or “quicksilver” version of mercury sometimes used in thermometers. According to the Cleveland Clinic, this form of mercury is “usually harmless if you touch or swallow it because its slippery texture won’t absorb into your skin or intestines.” But if you breathe in any of it, watch out—symptoms occur “immediately” and can include coughing, breathing trouble, nausea, bleeding gums, and a “metallic taste in your mouth.”

Tournament officials consulted security camera footage, where they saw Abakarova walking through a nearly empty room of chess tables some 20 minutes before play was to begin. (In one news account, Abakarova had been asking casually beforehand whether there were any such cameras in the venue.) In the footage, Abakarova walked over to one particular table, pulled a small vial from her bag, and appeared to smear something on the pieces and the table itself.

The security camera footage was soon released onto the Internet, and you can now watch it on YouTube.

Sazhid Sazhidov, the minister of sports of the Republic of Dagestan, posted a note to Telegram after footage of the incident began circulating, saying that “a multiple winner of these competitions, Amina Abakarova from Makhachkala, treated the table at which her opponent—the no less titled European Champion Umayganat Osmanova from Kaspiysk—was to play with an unknown substance which, as it later turned out, was mercury compounds.” (One news outlet claims that Abakarova admitted to police that the mercury she used had come from thermometers.)

Sazhidov noted that he was “perplexed by what happened, and the motives of such an experienced athlete as Amina Abakarova are also unclear to me. The actions she took could have led to the most tragic outcome, they threatened the lives of everyone who was in the chess house, including herself. Now she will have to answer for what she did before the law.”

The president of the Russian Chess Federation, Andrey Filatov, temporarily suspended Abakarova from competitions until the conclusion of the case against her, at which point she could face a lifetime ban from competitive chess.

The source of Abakarova’s dispute with Osmanova remains unclear. One Russian news outlet said that the two had known each other for years but had recently fought. In this version of the story, Abakarova showed up to one recent match with a phone, which is against the rules. Osmanova was upset but did not tell the judges. “She should have been grateful to me that I didn’t make a fuss and forgave her,” Osmanova said. “Instead, Amina refused to shake my hand during the competition last week.”

Chessbase said the dispute was over a recent match between the two in which “both chess players scored the same number of points, but the victory was awarded to Osmanova, based on additional factors.”

Another Telegram channel says that the issue was about negative statements made by Osmanova about Abakarova and her family members.

Whatever the source of the conflict, Abakarova now faces the prospect of several years in prison—and the world of chess just got meaner.

In world first, Russian chess player poisons rival’s board with mercury Read More »

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Broadway embraces particle physics with musical about Higgs boson discovery

culture, Higgs boson, Particle Fever, particle physics, Physics, Science, science documentaries / /

Catch the fever —

The 2013 documentary Particle Fever is being turned into a Broadway musical.

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A collision between subatomic particles in the Large Hadron Collider's CMS detector.

A collision between subatomic particles in the Large Hadron Collider’s CMS detector.

Particle physics is poised to hit the bright lights of Broadway with the adaptation into a musical of the 2013 documentary Particle Fever, which charts the journey to detect the Higgs boson at the world’s largest particle accelerator. According to Deadline Hollywood, the creators described their musical as being filled with “heart, humor, and hope,” calling it an “exploration of the very nature of exploration itself… Particle Fever proves that even the very best theories are often no match for reality.”

(Spoiler: Physicists discovered the Higgs boson in 2012.)

Johns Hopkins University’s David Kaplan was a film student turned theoretical physicist when he came up with the idea for a documentary on the search for the Higgs boson—at the time, the last remaining piece of the Standard Model of Particle Physics yet to be detected. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN was designed for that purpose, although the physics community hoped (in vain thus far) to also discover exciting new physics.

Kaplan has said he originally planned to make the film himself, but his Los Angeles-based sister talked him out of it. Mark Levinson (a physicist turned filmmaker) ended up directing, with Oscar winner Walter Murch handling the editing, sifting through nearly 500 hours of footage—including amateur video footage shot by CERN physicists themselves.

Particle Fever.” height=”427″ src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/particle1-640×427.jpg” width=”640″>

Enlarge / Physicist David Kaplan interviews Fabiola Gianotti, head of one of the two teams that found the Higgs Boson at CERN, in a still from Particle Fever.

Anthos Media

The project took seven years to complete and made its debut at various small film festivals before enjoying a limited US release in March 2015. It received critical acclaim, and for fans of popular physics, it was delightful to see working physicists like Monica Dunford—then a post-doc working on the ATLAS experiment, now a professor at Heidelberg University—and Nima Arkani-Hamed of the Institute for Advanced Study front and center, highlighting the give-and-take between experiment and theory as they sought to detect the elusive Higgs boson.

Kaplan and his crew were there in July 2012 when the momentous discovery was announced, capturing the standing ovation for an emotional Peter Higgs. It was physics in action, right down to the theorists’ disappointment that the Higgs mass turned out to be about 125 GeV, consistent with many models predicting new physics.

Still, it’s hardly the first documentary that comes to mind when one thinks “musical.” But ROCO Films CEO Annie Roney, whose company distributed the film, had that vision. “It’s already infused with the elements that make a musical memorable and desirable,” she told The New York Times. “It has universal themes of humankind trying to understand the meaning of our lives and our place in the universe. The story celebrates the best in humanity—collaboration, curiosity.” And while she liked the explanations of the heady physics concepts in the film, “I thought that the bigger concepts can be best communicated by music nonverbally.”

Roney has been working to bring that vision to life ever since, tapping noted Broadway playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) to write, with music and lyrics by Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica, Rings of Power) and Zoe Sarnak (Galileo: A Rock Musical). Leigh Silverman, who just won a Tony for the Broadway musical Suffs, will direct. There’s no word on when we’ll be seeing Particle Fever: The Musical on Boardway, but the group just held the first private reading: a basement industry-only performance featuring songs about particle physics.

Trailer for Particle Fever.

Broadway embraces particle physics with musical about Higgs boson discovery Read More »

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Google pulls its terrible pro-AI “Dear Sydney” ad after backlash

2024 olympics, AI, culture, Google, google ai, Google Gemini / /

Gemini, write me a fan letter! —

Taking the “human” out of “human communication.”

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A picture of the Gemini prompt box from the

Enlarge / The Gemini prompt box in the “Dear Sydney” ad.

Google

Have you seen Google’s “Dear Sydney” ad? The one where a young girl wants to write a fan letter to Olympic hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone? To which the girl’s dad responds that he is “pretty good with words but this has to be just right”? And so, to be just right, he suggests that the daughter get Google’s Gemini AI to write a first draft of the letter?

If you’re watching the Olympics, you have undoubtedly seen it—because the ad has been everywhere. Until today. After a string of negative commentary about the ad’s dystopian implications, Google has pulled the “Dear Sydney” ad from TV. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, the company said, “While the ad tested well before airing, given the feedback, we have decided to phase the ad out of our Olympics rotation.”

The backlash was similar to that against Apple’s recent ad in which an enormous hydraulic press crushed TVs, musical instruments, record players, paint cans, sculptures, and even emoji into… the newest model of the iPad. Apple apparently wanted to show just how much creative and entertainment potential the iPad held; critics read the ad as a warning image about the destruction of human creativity in a technological age. Apple apologized soon after.

Now Google has stepped on the same land mine. Not only is AI coming for human creativity, the “Dear Sydney” ad suggests—but it won’t even leave space for the charming imperfections of a child’s fan letter to an athlete. Instead, AI will provide the template, just as it will likely provide the template for the athlete’s response, leading to a nightmare scenario in which huge swathes of human communication have the “human” part stripped right out.

“Very bad”

The generally hostile tone of the commentary to the new ad was captured by Alexandra Petri’s Washington Post column on the ad, which Petri labeled “very bad.”

This ad makes me want to throw a sledgehammer into the television every time I see it. Given the choice between watching this ad and watching the ad about how I need to be giving money NOW to make certain that dogs do not perish in the snow, I would have to think long and hard. It’s one of those ads that makes you think, perhaps evolution was a mistake and our ancestor should never have left the sea. This could be slight hyperbole but only slight!

If you haven’t seen this ad, you are leading a blessed existence and I wish to trade places with you.

A TechCrunch piece said that it was “hard to think of anything that communicates heartfelt inspiration less than instructing an AI to tell someone how inspiring they are.”

Shelly Palmer, a Syracuse University professor and marketing consultant, wrote that the ad’s basic mistake was overestimating “AI’s ability to understand and convey the nuances of human emotions and thoughts.” Palmer would rather have a “heartfelt message over a grammatically correct, AI-generated message any day,” he said. He then added:

I received just such a heartfelt message from a reader years ago. It was a single line email about a blog post I had just written: “Shelly, you’re to [sic] stupid to own a smart phone.” I love this painfully ironic email so much, I have it framed on the wall in my office. It was honest, direct, and probably accurate.

But his conclusion was far more serious. “I flatly reject the future that Google is advertising,” Palmer wrote. “I want to live in a culturally diverse world where billions of individuals use AI to amplify their human skills, not in a world where we are used by AI pretending to be human.”

Things got saltier from there. NPR host Linda Holmes wrote on social media:

This commercial showing somebody having a child use AI to write a fan letter to her hero SUCKS. Obviously there are special circumstances and people who need help, but as a general “look how cool, she didn’t even have to write anything herself!” story, it SUCKS. Who wants an AI-written fan letter?? I promise you, if they’re able, the words your kid can put together will be more meaningful than anything a prompt can spit out. And finally: A fan letter is a great way for a kid to learn to write! If you encourage kids to run to AI to spit out words because their writing isn’t great yet, how are they supposed to learn? Sit down with your kid and write the letter with them! I’m just so grossed out by the entire thing.

The Atlantic was more succinct with its headline: “Google Wins the Gold Medal for Worst Olympic Ad.”

All of this largely tracks with our own take on the ad, which Ars Technica’s Kyle Orland called a “grim” vision of the future. “I want AI-powered tools to automate the most boring, mundane tasks in my life, giving me more time to spend on creative, life-affirming moments with my family,” he wrote. “Google’s ad seems to imply that these life-affirming moments are also something to be avoided—or at least made pleasingly more efficient—through the use of AI.”

Getting people excited about their own obsolescence and addiction is a tough sell, so I don’t envy the marketers who have to hawk Big Tech’s biggest products in a climate of suspicion and hostility toward everything from AI to screen time to social media to data collection. I’m sure the marketers will find a way—but clearly “Dear Sydney” isn’t it.

Google pulls its terrible pro-AI “Dear Sydney” ad after backlash Read More »

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Star Trek: Lower Decks S5 teaser gives Cerritos crew one last mission

culture, Entertainment, paramount plus, san diego comic con, Star Trek, Star Trek Section 31, star trek strange new worlds, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, streaming television / /

“Lower decks! Lower decks!” The fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks will be the animated series’ last (boo!).

Star Trek: Lower Decks is a particular favorite among Ars staffers; it’s arguably the best of the recent crop of Star Trek shows, along with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. So we were disappointed when we learned that the animated series would be ending with its fifth season. Paramount+ debuted the first teaser for S5 during the Star Trek panel at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend, along with a teaser for Star Trek: Section 31—a spinoff film from Star Trek: Discovery featuring Michelle Yeoh’s Philippa Georgiou—a clip from Strange New Worlds S3, and the latest news about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

The Lower Decks teaser opens with a suitably nostalgic recap of some of the highlights of the adventures of the plucky crew of the USS Cerritos, inviting viewers to join them for one last adventure. Cue Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Mariner (Tawny Newsome) in voiceover objecting to that description (“Yeah, right, we’re not done voyaging—we’ve hardly even cracked one quadrant yet”). Their S5 mission involves a “quantum fissure” that is causing “space potholes” to pop up all over the Alpha Quadrant (“boo interdimensional portals!”), and the Cerritos crew must close them—while navigating angry Klingons, an Orion war, and who knows what other crazy developments?

The final season of Lower Decks premieres on Paramount+ on October 24, 2024, and will run through December 19.

Newsome is already committed to her first post-Lower Decks project: co-writing the first live-action Star Trek comedy with franchise head honcho Alex Kurtzman. There’s no title yet, but Deadline Hollywood reports that the premise will involve “Federation outsiders serving a gleaming resort planet [who] find out their day-to-day exploits are being broadcast to the entire quadrant.” So, a Star Trek Truman Show? Color us intrigued.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S3

A first look at what’s coming in the third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Strange New Worlds marked a welcome return to Star Trek’s original episodic structure. The franchise’s Comic-Con panel featured a special sneak peek at the upcoming first season. The clip is a callback to the S2 episode “Charades,” in which a higher-dimensional race, the Kerkohvians, accidentally reconfigured Spock’s half-human, half-Vulcan physiology to that of a full-blooded human—just before Spock was supposed to meet his Vulcan fiancee’s parents.

The S3 clip has the situation reversed: The human crew must make themselves Vulcan to succeed on a new mission. They succeed in record time but aren’t able to change back. The Vulcan versions of the Enterprise crew are hilariously on point, and a long-suffering Spock must endure repeated references to his inferior half-Vulcan status.

We also learned that Cillian O’Sullivan will join the recurring cast as Dr. Roger Korby. ToS fans will recognize that name; it’s a legacy character (originally played by Michael Strong). Korby was a renowned archaeologist in the field of medical archaeology, introduced in the episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?‘ as Nurse Chapel’s long-missing fiancé. That’s bound to cause problems for SNW‘s Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), who is currently romantically involved with Spock. SNW S5 will premiere sometime in 2025, and the series has already been renewed for a fourth season

Speaking of Strange New Worlds, remember that fantastic S2 episode (“Substance Rhapsody”) in which a quantum probability field caused the entire crew to break into song? Executive producer Akira Goldman revealed during the panel that he is toying with the idea of a Star Trek stage musical, although he cautioned that “We’re in the very early stages of figuring out whether we can bring a version of [“Substance Rhapsody”] to the stage.”

Star Trek: Lower Decks S5 teaser gives Cerritos crew one last mission Read More »

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Marvel has cast Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom in two new Avengers movies

Avengers: Doomsday, Captain America: Brave New World, culture, Fantastic Four First Steps, mcu, MCU Phase Five, MCU Phase Six, Robert Downey Jr., Russo brothers, san diego comic con, Thunderbolts / /
Robert Downey Jr in all-green outfit and sunglasses standing with arms spayed wide in triumph

Enlarge / Robert Downey Jr. will play Doctor Doom in two new Avengers movies from the Russo brothers.

Marvel Studios

The Marvel Cinematic Universe received a much-needed boost this weekend with the box office dominance of Deadpool and Wolverine, which raked in a record-breaking $438.3 million worldwide and $205 million domestically. And the Marvel panel at this weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con kept up the momentum, delighting attendees with sneak peeks of what’s to come—most notably the return of Robert Downey Jr. to the MCU. The twist: RDJ won’t be donning his usual Iron Man suit. Instead, he’ll be playing Doctor Doom for Avengers: Doomsday (2026), with the Russo brothers returning to direct. This will be followed by the Russo-directed Avengers: Secret Wars (2027).

Comic-Con attendees were also treated to exclusive new footage from Captain America: Brave New World, and updates on Thunderbolts and The Fantastic Four reboot, titled First Steps, as well as a surprise screening of Deadpool and Wolverine.

“New mask, same task”

Avengers: Secret Wars and Avengers: Doomsday.” height=”427″ src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/marvel4-640×427.jpg” width=”640″>

Enlarge / The Russo brothers will direct Avengers: Secret Wars and Avengers: Doomsday.

Marvel Studios

It’s no secret that Marvel Studios originally planned to build its Phase Six Avengers arc (The Kang Dynasty) around Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror (and associated Variants), introduced in Loki and last year’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. But then Majors was convicted of “reckless assault and harassment” (domestic violence), and Marvel fired the actor soon after. That meant the studio needed to retool its Phase Six plans, culminating in the announced return of the Russo brothers, who directed four of the MCU’s most successful films, which brought in more than $6 billion at the global box office.

Joe Russo told the assembled fans that he and his brother had thoroughly enjoyed their “incredible” four-movie run, but “it left us with our emotions spent.” But over time, “We came to see a road forward with you all,” Anthony Russo chimed in.

Rather than keeping Kang as the villain and recasting the character, the Russo brothers decided to strike out in a new direction: bringing the Secret Wars storyline to the big screen. It’s one of their favorites and an ambitious task, but before they can take on Avengers: Secret Wars (slated for May 2027), the duo told the audience in Hall H that they had to make another movie first: Avengers: Doomsday (slated for May 2026), featuring the wildly popular comics villain Doctor Doom. Of course, the biggest reveal came when a masked figure dressed in the Doctor’s trademark green came onstage and revealed himself to be none other than RDJ, to wild cheers.

Marvel has cast Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom in two new Avengers movies Read More »