Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2335

AMAZON Are Expanding Their Plans for Actual, Physical Bookstores

The rise of Amazon is widely cited as one of the reasons that fewer and fewer physical bookstores remain in business. However, it appears that Amazon is looking to open another new physical bookstore, which could pave the way for an even bigger expansion down the line.

Via Mashable, The Financial Times is reporting that Amazon is planning to create a new Amazon Books in Chicago, which coincides with previously announced plans for stores in San Diego, California and Portland, Oregon. The first Amazon Books was opened in Seattle back in 2015, and it appears to have been just the beginning of its expansion beyond the company’s website. Four stores is a long way from the hundreds of Borders and Barnes & Noble locations that were set up across the country, but it’s been five years since Borders declared bankruptcy and closed, while Barnes & Noble has financially struggled. This could be the most opportune time for Amazon to swoop in and begin taking steps to challenge Barnes & Noble on a national scale.

As Mashable notes in its report, the Amazon Books location in Seattle appears to be geared towards pushing Amazon’s Kindle e-book readers, Amazon Fire TV, and Amazon Echo. Of course, there are also books in the store, most of which are best-sellers or highly rated on Amazon.com itself. Barnes & Noble has also attempted to promote its e-book reader, the Nook, in its stores for many years. But so far, Amazon appears to have the edge between the two e-readers.

Would you be excited to see Amazon Books expand beyond their current locations, or are they missing the point of why people like them? Let us know in the comment section below!

Image: Amazon

The History of the Battery That’s Lasted 176 Years

Battery life is still a constant headache for anyone using a portable device, despite many improvements in battery technology over the last few decades. Yet even high-end consumer batteries can’t match the longevity of the Oxford Electric Bell, which has now been running for an astonishing 176 years!

The latest video on Tom Scott‘s YouTube channel features guest host Sally Le Page as she briefly explains the history of batteries before putting the Oxford Electric Bell in context. She notes that Alessandro Volta’s first battery in 1800 was inspired by Luigi Galvani’s dissection of a frog twenty years earlier; which led to the discovery that muscle contraction could be stimulated by an electric current. The Oxford Electric Bell was created in 1825, a mere 25 years after Volta’s first battery; and it has been recognized as the longest-lasting battery in the world. Top that, Duracell!

How is that battery still ringing a bell after nearly two centuries? No one is entirely sure. As Le Page explained, it’s a dry pile battery, “so it’s got a paste inside with a minimum amount of water needed for the electrolyte to work.” The battery is covered in a solid sulfur coating, and it’s theorized that the interior contains thousands of discs made of manganese dioxide and zinc. But the only way to know for sure would be to cut open the battery, which would bring the long-running experiment to a premature end. So far, no one has been willing to do that, and the Oxford Electric Bell will probably continue to ring under the glass for a long time to come.

What did you think about this video? Ring the bell and share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Image: YouTube/Tom Scott

Ed Harris Is Ready to Go Full Terminator in New WESTWORLD Trailer

[Cue Murray Head backbeat] Westworld, Michael Crichton setting, and the viewers don’t know what their TV is getting. The creme de la creme of the cable world in a…show with everything except Yul Brynner.

So Far, HBO‘s Westworld has given us a promising look at a sci-fi future of self-doubting robots who wonder if their life in the wild west is real (SPOILER: no). We’ve seen Anthony Hopkins as a possibly mad scientist, and equal time given to the amusement world and the behind-the-scenes creation elements. But up until now, we old-school Westworld fans haven’t been given anything resembling Yul Brynner’s unstoppable, charismatic proto-Terminator from the original movie.

Until now. Introduced, no less, with a signature lens flare from executive producer J.J. Abrams, Ed Harris‘ Man in Black looks poised to become the big, bad, break loose from his entertainer role gunslinger who’s going to offer some serious resistance to all humans. And as successors to Brynner go, that’s a pretty good call.

Revealed initially by Entertainment Weekly, the new trailer (with “Mature” content that may make it mildly NSFW) also focuses on Evan Rachel Wood’s Dolores, a frontier woman who begins to sense that all is not right or real in her life. Hopkins’ answer to her final question is very telling, and probably sets up the storyline to come.

Will this be more Game of Guns, or Do Madmen Dream of Electric Cowboys? Judging by what we’ve seen so far, probably a bit of both. But Harris looks tough enough that one night in Westworld won’t make this hard man humble.

Are you ready to go West? Before you do, go just south of this article and tell us what you think in comments.

This Couple Took Wedding Pictures in Front of an Active Volcano

Think of lava, and you may think of that (regrettably) unforgettable scene on Mustafar between Anakin and Obi-Wan, or maybe even that time scientists threw a big bag of organic waste into a volcano to theorize about what would happen if a human fell into it (hint: not great things). But despite its raucous melting powers, there is a loveliness to lava, and one young couple and their photographer couldn’t help but take advantage of it for some wedding pictures.

Prepare to have your hearts, and possibly some other things, melted.

According to the Huffington Post, the lava-adjacent wedding pictures (which you can see in their article; the image above is a video still) were taken near the Big Island’s Kilauea volcano, and are the brainchild of photographer Jenna Lee, who told HuffPo that “she prides herself on unique, daring photoshoots.” The newlyweds who volunteered to have their pictures taken on the volcano, Alex and Lauren, apparently share the same sense of adventure, as well as a distaste for shoes.

The absence of shoes is no small feat considering the fact that lava can run as hot as 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit, and that Alex and Lauren managed to come quite close to it. There’s also apparently the possibility for acid vapor or steam clouds to develop when lava interacts with sea water, as well as an instability in the ground near lava flows.

But, as Shrek and Say Anything have taught us, we must brave anything for love—and the opportunity to stay off Tinder, even if Seth Rogen does help out with the swiping from time to time.

What do you think of these lava-licious wedding pics? Would you ever be brave enough to walk near lava for your significant other, and probably a boatload of internet points? Let us know in the comments section below!

Images: Makai Creative

The JUSTICE LEAGUE WEIRD Trailer Brings the Odd to the DCEU

When the Justice League trailer dropped at this year’s SDCC, there seemed to be two camps about it. Some people believe that this was a step in the right direction, and make the DCEU a little less gloomy. Others say that this was nothing more than Warner Brothers trying to catch up to Marvel’s success too quickly. But thanks to Aldo Jones, we now have a trailer for an alternate version of the movie that would just be too insane for anyone to miss.

Aldo took the Justice League trailer and added his own touches, tho make it seem like Justice League WEIRD is the super team to beat at the box office. Replacing Batman as the team leader is Santa Claus himself, still played by Ben Affleck. I am not sure where both generations of Ghostbusters fit into the movie’s plans, but they are there (I like the fact that the older busters are being buried by the new version. That won’t cause controversy at all). While I am a fan of Danny Trejo, I am not sure replacing Gal Gadot with him as Wonder Woman was quite the best move. Although I would like to see the version where Barry Allen thinks Bruce Wayne is secretly the video game character Paperboy.

Oh, and I had a Batman tricycle when I was little. It’s good to know that it’s going to be canon.

 

You can check out more of Aldo’s videos on his YouTube channel here.

Justice League, directed by Zack Snyder, opens in theaters November 17, 2017.

So what do you think? Is THIS the Justice League movie you’d like to see? What other trailers would you like to see Aldo take a crack at parodying? Let me know on Twitter or sound off in the comments below.

Images: Warner Brothers/Aldo Jones

The Original GHOSTBUSTERS Get the High End Figure Treatment

The first Ghostbusters team from the ’80s have been immortalized as action figures and statues before, but perhaps never as impressively as their upcoming 1:6 scale figures from Blitzway. The latest images of the figures have been released, and they fully capture the likenesses of Dan Aykroyd as Raymond Stantz, Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler, Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore, and Bill Murray as Peter Venkman.

Via Figures.com, Blitzway has revealed several new photos of the Ghostbuster figures, as well as the movie-accurate accessories and even Slimer. Each member of the Ghostbusters comes with 30 points of articulation,  and all four members come with a Proton Pack, but only Ray and Winston come with Ghost Traps. Egon is getting some of the best accessories: a PKE Meter and a Gamma Rate Meter.

Fair warning: these are not gonna be cheap. Egon and Winston are priced at $224 each, while Peter is set for $219. Ray’s figure has the highest price at $229, but he comes with the most accessories of the group. Blitzway is offering two different options to buy the figures as sets. The Dr. 3 Pack excludes Winston, but it features Ray, Peter, and Egon with Slimer for $672. If you want all four Ghostbusters together, it will cost $896 for the Special Pack, which also includes Slimer and the Ghostbusters logo sign.

You can see the rest of the pics in our gallery below. Admittedly, these prices may be out of range for most collectors, but we are really impressed by these figures. They may be the best Ghostbusters figures that we’ve ever seen!

The Ghostbusters figures are available for pre-order here, and they are expected to ship sometime between December 2016 and February 2017.

What do you think about these figures? Are you ready to bust your wallet to buy them? Tell us who you’re gonna call in the comment section below!

Images: Blitzway

Go Inside CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR’s Airport Battle in New Video

One of the standout scenes of Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War brought together the two feuding superhero factions for a showdown in Germany’s Leipzig/Halle Airport that may be the best live-action superhero fight to date.  It was a showstopping 15-minute sequence that was apparently cut down from 19-minutes; which means that the recently revealed moment between Cap and the Winter Solider was just a small part of the scene that didn’t make the final cut.

Yahoo! Movies has posted a clip from the upcoming Captain America: Civil War Blu-ray that explores the making of airport battle, as Anthony Mackie, Jeremy Renner and others weigh in on what went into that sequence. There are also a few glimpses of the film’s pre-visualization animation for the scene, as well a peek at what the on-set action looked like before the background CG was added. If you look closely, you’ll also see some of the stunt doubles practicing their moves for the fight.

According to Yahoo! Movies’ report, the airport battle took 30 days to film and work began on planning the fight eight months before filming began. That allowed the Russo brothers and their team to carefully block out the scene in stages and give everyone involved in it their own moment to shine. “That sequence took a long time to conceive, to structure, and then to execute,” co-director Anthony Russo said to Yahoo! Movies. “And it involved all phases of production, from pre-production to production to post-production.”

Joe Russo added that “I think we achieved something grand with it. And now we’ve got to work hard to try to outdo ourselves on Infinity War.” It’s hard to argue with that, and we can’t wait to see what the Russo bros. come up with when they’re able to use all of the Avengers in that film.

What did you think about the clip from Captain America: Civil War‘s Blu-ray? Pick a side, and share your thoughts below!

Image: Marvel Studios

Could Ant-Man have really become Giant-Man? Glad you asked.

Bask in the Pixelated Majesty That Is 8-Bit THE REVENANT

Oh hey there, Nerdist Reader! If you’re reading this, you’re most likely a big fan of Cinefix’s series 8-Bit Cinema, where they recreate iconic movies in the style of old side-scrolling video games. And if you’re anything like us, we’re sure you’re already bracing yourself for the things that happen when we share these videos. The list usually goes something like this:

Most of us enjoy an awesome and creative video that recaps some sort of blockbuster
It’s shared with friends for even more enjoyment
A good portion of the comments become dedicated to pointing out how this “really isn’t 8-bit”
Another portion dedicates themselves to pointing out how “it’s really closer to 16-bit”
Someone points out that those two points are “mentioned in the article if you read it”
The writer of this article dies a little inside for seeing that same debate yet again
We all store this video in our personal memory banks to share again when we re-watch the actual film

Needless to say that in spite of all this, we still cannot get enough of Cinefix’s videos. There’s a certain beauty in distilling an epic story into a small amount of pixels and still being able to convey the story. This is especially true when the pixel-fication (new word! totally real) is done to a film like 2015’s visually stunning The Revenant. Now, we’re not saying that by condensing a film so expansive in scenery, scope, and emotional acting grunting down to a only a few minutes of video game animation does the actual film justice. However, it does hit all the high points of it (except the horse/cliff/Tauntaun scene. Come on, Cinefix) thereby compelling us to watch the original again and again. Come to think of it, it’s this quality that Cinefix is able to capture with each of their 8-Bit Cinemas that we just might love the most about them.

What are your favorite 8-Bit Cinemas? What’s the count for what the “this isn’t 8-bit!” war cries will be up to by the time you read this? Let’s discuss in the comments below!

Image: Cinefix

Explore Luigi’s Existential Angst When Mario Is out Adventuring

en·nui – änˈwē

noun

1. a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement.

En·nuigi – änˈwēˈjē

noun

1. Mario’s brother who has been forever dissatisfied due to lack of occupation or excitement.

From time to time, the internet gives us something deserving of the best kind of appreciative slow clap. Today, the thing we give that high honor to is Ennuigi; a flash game by Josh Millard. Brought to our attention by a recent post on Polygon, this side-scrolling game staring Luigi is equal parts hilarious and heart-wrenching.

The often forgotten plumber is rarely the star of his own adventures and nowhere is it more apparent than the world of the first Super Mario Bros. for NES. Rarely can anyone say they actively played as Luigi unless you lived in a household with siblings and multiple game controllers. In that first game he went largely ignored, and that’s where Ennuigi steps in to let us know what the L-Man is up to while Mario is out and about saving the Mushroom Kingdom. It’s apparent that Luigi went to some dark places when we left him alone, and now gives a perfect explanation to that “Death Stare” of his.

The game‘s controls are simple; use left and right keys to walk, up to ruminate on all manner of things, and down to smoke. As you walk, the scenery changes slightly which can lead to some deep thoughts about pipes, blocks, and the world Luigi finds himself stuck in. He gazes up into the sky pondering his existence and the life he now leads thanks in part to him simply being a supportive brother to Mario.

Playing it for quite a while, I didn’t see anything in the way of repeated phrases so there are probably lots more to be found. Take a look in the gallery for some of our favorites, and make sure to mention the ones that hit your heartstrings in the comments below!

Images: Josh Millard

ASH VS. EVIL DEAD’S Ash Williams for President?

It’s been a wild Presidential election season, and it’s not over yet. Sometime between now and Tuesday, November 8, citizens of the United States are going to have to pick our next leader. But now, there’s a viable third-party candidate who wants to make America groovy again: Ashley J. Williams!

Starz has kicked off a promotional campaign for the second season of Ash vs. Evil Dead which puts Bruce Campbell‘s title character into the Presidential spotlight. That’s more ambition than Ash has ever shown in the Evil Dead movies or the TV show, but just roll with it, America! Because we know that he will. (And now that Ash mentions it, he does look a little like Mitt Romney from the waist up. Plus Campbell has already played Ronald Reagan on Fargo, so he sort of has presidential experience by osmosis.)

We admit that on paper, Ash’s resume is a little thin. Three decades as a stock boy doesn’t exactly scream “leadership qualities.” Ash is only at his best when fighting the Deadite menace. In fact, it’s the one thing that he’s really good at. Even though Ash can’t string together enough words to make a truly inspiring speech, no one can say that he doesn’t exude confidence and bravado. Perhaps that’s the real trick of politics: getting the public to buy into your BS and even believing it yourself.

There’s also a second video, which finds Ash making a few more promises about how he’ll handle America’s purple mountain majesties.

You can follow the campaign at Ash4President.com. The second season of Ash vs. Evil Dead will begin on Sunday, October 2.

Do you support Ash for President? Let us know in the comment section below!

Image: Starz