Adidas Wilson's Blog, page 124
June 29, 2017
Star Wars: The Last Jedi; Disney might bring back Yoda
Rumors regarding the new Star Wars: The Last Jedi are running rampant online and some of these theories seem accurate if you put the pieces together. Toys have been known to give spoiler-like giveaways to movies prior to their releases, but there came a theory via Mike Zeroh’s YouTube channel. Take it with a grain of salt, but since the Disney theme parks will be adding Star Wars expansions to their property, Mike said that there will be a force tree on display there.
Rumor has it that theme park attendees can enter into the tree and hear Yoda’s voice within. Disney Imagineers and Lucasfilm intend on making the park as immersive as possible for the patrons, so you really couldn’t exclude this rumor as a possibility.
There had already been rumors of Force ghosts making an appearance in the past, but the idea of a Star Wars expansion borrowing elements from The Last Jedi does make sense because we are in an era of using cinematic projects with connective tissue that bring it all together.
Back in April Mike had said he believed that a reporter had seen a sizzle reel and within it was Rey and some circling orbs or wisp-like apparitions appearing around her. Just think Groot’s spores in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1.
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Speaking of “connective tissue” and to further support this theory, Editor-In-Chief Jason Ward of Making Star Wars brought out his own theory about Yoda being in the new Last Jedi flick. He discussed that Variety had done an interview with Frank Oz and asked him whether or not he would be reprising the Yoda role “in the new Star Wars.”
Of course, being how secretive this entire franchise is, Oz gave his deflective but suitable enough answer to keep things fair as he considers a certain loyalty to his family that he’s worked with all these years.
There were also reports of Frank Oz on set of The Last Jedi and then the aforementioned “orbs of light,” according to the Making Star Wars EIC. He even made the connection of the orbs found in Rebels and further back into The Clone Wars. Mike Zeroh just took his theory up a notch thinking this immersive experience for Disney theme park patrons would likely be utilized from Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Source:
http://www.inquisitr.com/4310221/star-wars-the-last-jedi-disney-rumors/
xXx 4 finds funding, Vin Diesel returning as Xander Cage once again
xXx: Return of Xander Cage, the third instalment in the Triple-X franchise, was met rather tepidly by American audiences, taking just $44.9 million from an $85 million budget.
However, thanks to an impressive Chinese haul — partly thanks to marketing putting actor Donnie Yen before Vin Diesel on posters — taking the total takings to $346.1 million, a sequel is coming.
New launched Los Angeles-based production-financing entity H Collective is backing the project, along with numerous other films, including Aaron Paul’s thriller The Parts You Lose.
Return of Xander Cage director D.J. Caruso is currently working on the fourth instalment, confirming Ruby Rose, Nina Dobrev, Deepika Padukone, and the majority of the main cast will reprise their roles.
“In today’s Hollywood, it requires strong partners to produce and finance such big-budget movies as the xXx series, and The H Collective is a welcome and exciting new company that we look forward to working with,” the film’s producer Joe Roth told Variety.
The production company hopes to release four projects every year, one of those being action-comedy White House Chef, which will see a Chinese chef working for The White House ‘save the First Family after he becomes unintentionally involved in a secret terrorist plot targeting an important state dinner’.
Source:
Adele Says She May Never Tour Again on First Night of Wembley ‘Finale’
LONDON — The first words out of Adele’s mouth at Wembley Stadium on Wednesday evening were memorable ones. “F— me,” the singer said. “I have never been so f—ing scared in all of my f—ing life.”
The singer’s anxiety as she began the first of four shows at the London venue, dubbed “The Finale” because they end her 18-month tour run on “25,” was understandable. The opening show broke attendance records for Wembley, drawing nearly 98,000 fans to the in-the-round setting — breaking the venue record set by U2 in 2009. The singer, who joked that she’d considered canceling the concert the night before, was quick to note, however, “Once I settle into me nerves, I’ll be fine.”
Settle she did. As the 18-song set unfolded, frequently interrupted by the singer’s rambling, hilarious chatter, Adele seemed more and more at ease in the massive arena. From her opening number of “Hello,” she grew increasingly more comfortable with the space—and with the fact that the fans circled the stage, which was set aloft in the middle of the field. By her fifth number, a lively rendition of “Rumour Has It,” Adele had found her groove.
She rolled through a selection of both hits and deeper album cuts and scattered her setlist choices across all three of her albums rather than emphasizing “25.” The set, which lasted nearly two hours and had no opening act, relied on Adele’s voice to carry the audience through. The production was minimal and classy. Video screens encircled the stage, playing clips previously used in this touring cycle, although the shots of London during “Hometown Glory” were edited to include shots of a burned Grenfell Tower — the singer made an impassioned plea for audience members to donate 5 pounds each to the relief fund for victims of the fire earlier this month, in which an estimated 80 people died.
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In a lighter moment, the singer brought out a men’s choir for her rendition of “Skyfall,” joking that they’d ignored her request to perform shirtless; a fireworks display illuminated “Set Fire to the Rain,” the song that concluded the main set.
Despite the enormity of the venue, which implemented heightened security checks at the entrances, Adele encouraged a feeling of intimacy throughout. The circular stage gave her the means to interact with all sides of the room and she took a pause midway to fire a T-shirt gun in four directions (“Say hello to my little friend,” she quipped, gripping the gun). She repeatedly told the crowd that she’d forgotten the words to the next song, asking for help with each lyric. Whether she actually needed the help was a moot point; the assertion gave the audience an even bigger motivation to sing louder and more forcefully. As Adele launched into “Someone Like You,” the three-track encore’s finale moment, there was a tangible sense of community. The collective feeling of 98,000 fans, all who have felt hurt or heartbreak at some point in their lives, lingered after the final notes.
The impact wasn’t lost on Adele, who took a moment to thank her significant other and her son for their support: The night’s performance marked the singer’s 120th global show on this touring run. Before the last track, Adele choked up, telling the crowd how blown she was by the experience.
Source:
Adele Says She May Never Tour Again on First Night of Wembley ‘Finale’
Netflix Castlevania series reveals voice cast
The cast of Netflix’s animated Castlevania series has been officially revealed by producer Adi Shankar and actor Graham McTavish, who will play Dracula in the upcoming show.
The cast of Netflix’s Castlevania appears to draw heavily from characters introduced in Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse. Richard Armitage, who played Thorin in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit film trilogy, will voice vampire hunter Trevor Belmont. Joining him in the fight against Dracula will be James Callis, best known for playing Dr. Gaius Baltar in Battlestar Galactica, as Alucard.
Alejandra Reynoso will voice Sypha Belnades and Emily Swallow will voice Lisa Tepes, the wife of Dracula and mother to Alucard.
Matt Frewer, perhaps best known for his roles as Max Headroom and Dr. Aldous Leekie on Orphan Black, will play a character known as The Bishop. Veteran character actor Tony Amendola will voice a character called The Elder.
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Castlevania will begin streaming on Netflix on July 7. Check out the first teaser trailer for the animated series for a taste of what’s to come.
Source:
https://www.polygon.com/tv/2017/6/28/15888948/netflix-castlevania-voice-cast
Pinterest begins rolling out two-factor option for all accounts
Pinterest is the latest service rolling out two-factor security. The company announced this morning that a two-factor option would be available for all accounts within “the next few weeks,” letting users add an additional security check every time they log in.
Two-factor on Pinterest works pretty much like two-factor everywhere else: those who have enabled it will have to type in both their password and a short code sent to them in a text message every time they attempt to log into the site or app.
The feature makes it harder for an account to be stolen. With two-factor enabled, a hacker can’t steal an account using just its password — they’d also have to be in possession of the phone the additional code is being sent to (or jump through some additional complications to intercept the code). Enabling two-factor does make logging in take a bit more work, but the security benefits are worth it.
Pinterest is also providing a two-factor option that can make getting the code a bit less annoying and a bit more secure. Rather than getting it sent by text message, it can be delivered through a push notification from the two-factor app Authy.
In addition to two factor, Pinterest is also rolling out email alerts for new logins and the ability to see a list of all devices logged into your account.
More and more services have been adding two-factor security over the past few years. And at this point, most major online services support it. That includes Facebook, Instagram, Apple IDs, Twitter, Amazon, and Google. Again, it’s a bit more work to sign in once you have two-factor enabled, but it’ll go a long way toward protecting your accounts. You can read our how-to guide on two-factor setup for help getting started.
Source:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/27/15879930/pinterest-two-factor-security-rolling-out
Chinese Province Larger Than Texas Just Ran For An Entire Week On Only Renewable Energy
While the U.S. flounders on environmental action and a growing number of cabinet officials out themselves as climate deniers, China continues to make waves as an emerging leader in this space.
Chinese state media announced this week that the sprawling province of Qinghai in the country’s northwest had run for seven consecutive days entirely on renewable energy. The province, which is larger than Texas, relied only on wind, solar and hydroelectric power from June 17-23, reported Xinhua. These renewable energy sources reportedly provided Qinghai and its population of 5.8 million with 1.1 billion kilowatt hours of electricity — equal to about 535,000 tons of coal.
Qinghai’s fossil fuel-free week was part of a trial that the Chinese government initiated to see if an entire province could successfully achieve zero emissions for an extended period of time. Wang Liming, deputy governor of Qinghai, told China Daily this month that the experiment would set a new global clean energy record.
“It will break the current record of four days held by Portugal,” he said, referring to the four days in May last year when the European nation of 10 million ran on just renewable energy.
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As Grist notes, Qinghai is a hub for clean energy in China. Located on the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau, the province gets plenty of sun (more than 3,000 hours of daylight every year) and is home to the world’s largest solar farm. Also the location of the headwaters of Asia’s three largest rivers ― the Yellow, Yangtze and Mekong ― Qinghai’s hydropower potential is immense.
“Qinghai is the country’s important warehouse of natural resources and it plays a vital role in the development of the nation’s green industry,” said Miao Wei, China’s minister of industry and information technology, this month, according to China Daily.
The world’s biggest solar farm at Qinghai: 4 million panels covering 10 square miles. Taken by @NASAEarth this year https://t.co/IuCusZxLqO pic.twitter.com/MnfaUvmq9W
— Dr Paul Coxon (@paulcoxon) March 7, 2017
China has been positioning itself as a global leader of green energy in recent years. In January, the Chinese government announced plans to spend $360 billion on renewable energy by 2020, an investment they could create 13 million jobs.
With its commitment to clean energy development and reducing its coal consumption, China is set to overachieve the pledges it made in the Paris climate agreement, according to a recent Climate Action Tracker report. Together with India, China’s climate commitments have been so significant that they could offset the negative impacts that President Donald Trump’s climate policies could have on the globe, the report’s authors said.
“Five years ago, the idea of either [China or India] stopping — or even slowing — coal use was considered an insurmountable hurdle, as coal-fired power plants were thought necessary to satisfy the energy demands of these nations. Yet, recent observations show they are now on the way towards overcoming this challenge,” the report said. “This stands in contrast to the decisions of the U.S. administration under President Trump, who appears intent on going in the opposite direction.”
Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/qinghai-china-renewables-week_us_5954d053e4b02734df3020c7
Facebook’s Hate Speech Rules Make ‘White Men’ a Protected Group
Is Facebook really training its content moderators to protect white men over black children?
Facebook, which topped 2 billion global users yesterday, has been working to fend off critics who say the social networking giant doesn’t do enough to police offensive content and online harassment on its site. But now those efforts may be backfiring following a new report that claims to show the awkward criteria the company uses to choose which content to censor.
A new report on Wednesday from ProPublica, which reviewed internal documents from Facebook, sheds some light on what appears to be the convoluted process through which the social media company determines which allegedly offensive posts are removed and the accounts that get suspended for hate speech. ProPublica reports that the internal guidelines that Facebook uses to train its content censors differentiates between groups such as white men, who fall under a so-called “protected category,” and black children. The latter belong to “subset categories,” which include groups of people whom Facebook would reportedly not protect from online hate speech, according to ProPublica.
The report went on to explain the reasoning behind Facebook’s seemingly confusing moderation policies, which look to censor slurs and other attacks against “protected categories” that are based on race, sex, gender identity, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, and serious disability or disease. Facebook posts including slurs based on those factors would be subject to removal. Other factors—including age, appearance, occupation, social class, and political affiliation—are lumped into unprotected categories based on the idea that they are less central to a person’s identity. Therefore, Facebook’s guidelines would call for slurs against “white men” (which are based on race and sex) to be categorized as hate speech over offensive posts aimed at “black children” (a group based on race and age).
The reasoning there would seem to be that two protected categories outweigh only one. It’s a solution that, perhaps, makes more sense as an algorithm than it does when put into practice with real people and actual offensive posts.
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Still, even if the logic behind Facebook’s policies becomes somewhat less cringeworthy upon further explanation, the company will undoubtedly still have to deal with the backlash stemming from the ProPublica report, which includes a pretty regrettable company training slide that asks moderators which groups Facebook protects and presents the options as “female drivers,” “black children,” and “white men” (with the latter group inexplicably represented by a photo of the pop ensemble the Backstreet Boys, no less). White men are the correct answer under the company’s reported guidelines.
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NEW: Facebook’s secret censorship rules protect white men from hate speech… but not black children https://t.co/sRGjQ7sOQEpic.twitter.com/fb6elbtjBF
– ProPublica (@ProPublica) June 28, 2017
At the very least, the company knows that its policies are not perfect. “The policies do not always lead to perfect outcomes,” Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, told ProPublica. “That is the reality of having policies that apply to a global community where people around the world are going to have very different ideas about what is OK to share.”
Bickert offered a similar response last month, after the Guardian published more leaked documents showing examples of “disturbing” content that Facebook’s moderation rules would still allow to remain on its site. At the time, Bickert noted that moderating content on a massive scale “is complex, challenging, and essential,” but she also admitted that the company can “get things wrong, and we’re constantly working to make sure that happens less often.”
Facebook certainly isn’t the only digital company to face criticism for its handling of offensive content and online harassment, with Twitter among those also frequently coming under fire. In early May, Facebook hired an additional 3,000 content moderators (bringing the total to 7,500), and the company said it is deleting roughly 66,000 posts it identifies as hate speech each week as part of stepped-up efforts to combat online harassment along with offensive and violent content. Unfortunately for Facebook, the fallout from the ProPublica report is the latest stain on those efforts.
Source:
http://fortune.com/2017/06/28/facebook-hate-speech-censorship-policies/
Amazon’s 2017 Prime Day sale will be July 11th
Amazon just announced its third annual Prime Day, the retailer’s answer to Black Friday that originally started to celebrate its 20th anniversary. While Amazon had previously said they would be doing a third year of Prime Day, this is the first time we’re getting the actual date and previews of some of the sales.
Amazon is tempting Prime customers by saying there will be “hundreds of thousands of deals”, with new ones coming as often as every five minutes. As a refresher, you have to be a Prime member to access these deals, although you can technically sign up for the free trial option.
This year there will be 30 hours of sales, starting at 6pm PT / 9pm ET on Monday July 10th and continuing through all of Tuesday July 11th. Also, Prime Day sales will now be available in China, India and Mexico – bringing the total amount of countries with deals to 13.
Last year Prime Day was Amazon’s biggest day ever, even with the checkout glitches the site suffered from during peak shopping times.
This year Amazon will be organizing deals by themes – i.e pet lovers, techies and gardeners. This is a big deal because one complaint during past Prime Days have been that it’s really hard to find deals you actually want to take advantage of. What good is a hundred thousand deals if you can’t find one for something you actually want to buy?
Another complaint in past years was that some deals were low-quality and for items no one really wanted. While this was most likely the result of algorithms and not human curation, it was still disappointing to some customers.
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While there are still bound to be some duds among the hundreds of thousands of deals this year, Amazon is emphasizing that this year’s sale will have great TV deals, which is something all customers love and traditional Black Friday sales are known for. The retailer is specifically touting (still unspecified) discounts on the Element 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV – Amazon Fire TV Edition, which will help make it “one of the largest volume TV deals in history”.
While Amazons says they will have a record amount of inventory, they probably will still sell out of their most discounted TVs (and other electronics), so it’s best to monitor the site as often as possible to make sure you can score one.
While Amazon isn’t yet mentioning any deals on its own devices, it’s a safe bet that you’ll find discounted prices on Kindles, Fire Tablets, Fire TV, Echo Speakers and more. Last year Amazon said it sold “hundreds of thousands of kindles” and over 2.5 times more Fire TV devices than during the prior year’s Prime Day.
Prime Day will also benefit entrepreneurs that sell on Amazon, with 40% of Lightning Deals will come from small businesses.
Source:
Amazon’s 2017 Prime Day sale will be July 11th
3 Tips to Create Content And Social Media Marketing That Sells
As organic reach on Facebook continues to plummet to zero, investing in paid promotion is a necessity. One of the strengths of today’s social networks lies within the targeting capabilities available to advertisers. Social media platforms have amassed rich data on consumers that financial marketers can leverage.
Using your research and sales data, you can identify specific segments that can be targeted within social platforms. You can target people who are either engaged, married or pregnant, or those who are members of a credit union, or customers at a national/community banks. For example, 70% of people rolled over their 401k into an IRA due to a recent job change according to Oliver Wyman.
Here are some other great examples of targeting options available within Facebook, and the potential banking products that match with them:
First-Time Home Buyer – FHA Loans, Mortgages
Newly Engaged, Newlyweds – Mortgage, Joint Accounts, Savings Accounts, Financial Advisors
New Job – IRA Rollovers
New Mover, Recently Moved, Likely to Move – Checking Accounts, Mortgages, IRA Rollovers
New Vehicle Buyers & Shoppers – Vehicle Loans
2. Synch Sales With Marketing
To develop a sound content strategy, marketing and sales teams need to be aligned. They need to share knowledge, and agree on what qualifies as “good leads.” Working together, they should define common pain points and objections, plan upcoming initiatives and establish metrics for measuring progress.
A study by Marketo found that when both sales and marketing teams are both in synch, organizations became 67% better at closing deals and generated 209% more value from their marketing efforts.
3. Map Content to Personas
People have different needs and expectations as they get deeper into the sales funnel; accordingly, they seek specific information unique to each stage. Marketers need to develop the right content that speaks to prospects’ needs at each stage of the sales funnel. Personas and journey mapping can be a powerful way to determine appropriate messaging for different segments. Although it takes more effort to develop unique messages for different target audiences, there’s greater potential to make a bigger impact and produce better results. People want to feel like you are speaking directly to them. Let’s use the persona “Frank the First-Time Homebuyer” as an example for a quick content mapping exercise:
Awareness. Frank is newly engaged and is aware of a problem – he rents and feels it’s like throwing away money and isn’t sure if he can afford a home. Create content that helps him determine if it’s better to buy or rent and how much he can afford, like a blog post with a buy or rent calculator. This isn’t the time to hard-sell Frank on a mortgage. At this time, just introduce your financial institution and offer helpful advice for his specific needs. During this stage, drop a remarketing pixel on your website, so you can target Frank to return and continue to build awareness.
Consideration to Conversion. Frank is now considering a solution to his problem, buying his first home, but wants to know how to get the lowest mortgage rate, and is concerned about his ability to afford a 20% down payment. Create content that explains how rates aren’t the only factor in the final actual cost of a mortgage (to compete with online mortgage sites with super low rates and high closing costs), and share information on how he could get a home with no money down. You can also offer more calculators, information on how to get pre-approved or pre-qualified, and a mortgage checklist. At this stage, include a strong call to action to set up appointment with a loan officer or direct him to your online mortgage application.
Loyalty. Frank has become a happy customer and moved into his new home. Now is a wonderful time to introduce a referral program to get him to refer his friends, or ask to get a positive review on social media. Frank may also benefit from some of your other banking or loan products down the road so make sure you keep him engaged with your brand for the next time he’s in the market for another financial product.
Source:
https://thefinancialbrand.com/66036/social-media-content-marketing-strategy/
