Adidas Wilson's Blog, page 99
August 11, 2017
Game Of Thrones: Who Is Arya Going To Kill With Littlefinger’s Dagger?
A girl received a dagger on this week’s episode of Game of Thrones.
Arya Stark’s long-awaited return to Winterfell didn’t disappoint. The youngest and deadliest Stark daughter, Arya (Maisie Williams), reunited with her surviving siblings Brandon (Issac Hemstead-Wright) and Sansa (Sophie Turner). Things have definitely changed since the Stark children last saw each other all the way back in season one. Today, Sansa is Lady Stark in charge of Winterfell in the absence of their brother Jon Snow (Kit Harington), the King in the North. Bran no longer considers himself Brandon Stark; he’s the Three Eyed Raven now. Bran also has no need for weapons, such as Valyrian steel daggers with dragonbone hilts.
The dagger Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) gave Bran in “The Spoils of War,” which Bran in turn gave to Arya, might be the most important weapon in the history of the show, in terms on its impact on the events that have transpired since season one. Littlefinger is the only man to claim ownership of the dagger, but as he told Bran, where the dagger came from and who it really belongs to is the question that essentially launched the War of the Five Kings. Given to a cutthroat assassin and meant to be used to kill Bran, the dagger passed to Bran’s mother Catelyn (Michelle Fairley), to his father Ned (Sean Bean), and back to Littlefinger when he betrayed Ned to the Lannisters. The dagger’s whereabouts were unknown until season 7, and now it belongs to Arya.
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In Arya’s hands, the dagger could have its final and most significant impact still to come. Herself now an assassin trained by the Faceless Ones of Braavos, Arya may be back in Winterfell, but she still harbors a list of enemies she plans to kill. Ayra told Sansa that most of the people on her list are dead, but that’s not exactly true.
The people on Arya’s list still breathing are Cersei, The Mountain (Gregor Clegane), The Hound (Sandor Clegane), Melisandre, Thoros of Myr, Beric Dondarrion, and Ser Illyn Payne. Payne was Joffrey’s royal executioner who beheaded Ned Stark with his own greatsword, Ice. Melisandre makes the list for taking Genry away, and Thoros and Beric from the Brotherhood Without Banners earned Arya’s enmity for selling Gendry to her. The Mountain made the list for the torture she saw him perpetrate at Harrenhaal, and she has never forgiven the Hound for killing Micah, the butcher’s boy, back in season one.
Cersei is now the name at the top of Arya’s list, but Arya surrendered her chance to become a Queenslayer when she decided to turn back from her course towards King’s Landing and return to Winterfell to reunite with her family. As Cersei is unlikely to venture to the North any time soon, especially with her war with Daenerys Targaryen still raging, the Queen is safe from Arya – for now.
However, counting Cersei out as an achievable target for the time being, there are now two very intriguing new potential victims in the North a girl can add to her body count thanks to her new Valyrian steel dagger.
Source:
http://screenrant.com/game-of-thrones-arya-list-littlefinger-valyrian-steel-dagger/
August 10, 2017
‘Game Of Thrones’ Fans Think They Spotted A Long-Dead Character In The Latest Episode
Before the seventh season of Game of Thrones premiered, author George R.R. Martin was asked about his least favorite book-to-show changes. “I think one of the biggest ones would probably be when they made the decision not to bring Catelyn Stark back as Lady Stoneheart,” he said. “That was probably the first major diversion of the show from the books and, you know, I argued against that, and [David Benioff and Dan Weiss] made that decision.”
The delayed arrival of Lady Stoneheart (think: Zombie Catelyn Stark) has become an in-joke among Game of Thrones viewers, but it’s extremely unlikely she’ll appear on the show. There was a point last season where it might have made sense, but no dice (instead, we got Lem Lemoncloak giving a familiar speech). That hasn’t stopped some fans from searching for Catelyn, though.
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If you watch the sparring scene in [season seven episode four, “The Spoils of War”] between Arya and Brienne, when Arya asks, “Didn’t you vow to serve both my MOTHER’s daughters?” – at the word MOTHER you can see a woman in a long green dress w/ long auburn wavy hair with her head down walking past the background gate, resembling Cat. If it’s unintentional, it’s awesome. If not, more awesome. Catelyn cheking on Brienne keeping her vows.
Is that Catelyn Stark? I mean, I guess it could be, but I’m going to say: no. If you look hard enough at this scene, you can find a CleganeBowl clue, though.
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‘Game Of Thrones’ Fans Think They Spotted A Long-Dead Character In The Latest Episode
Tips for photographing the total solar eclipse
I’ve never been a big fan of astronomical events: there are just too many meteor showers or planet transits to keep up with, and a slightly larger Moon just doesn’t do much for me. But I have completely shed my cynical attitude regarding the upcoming total solar eclipse. The more I learn about it, the more excited I am to see it — and to photograph it. I’ll be heading down to Nashville, which lies in the path of the eclipse’s shadow, so I’ll have the opportunity to get an incredible snapshot of the Sun completely covered by the Moon.
I consider myself an amateur photographer, but I’ve never tried taking pictures of celestial events before, and I’ve never even witnessed an eclipse. So I turned to a self-proclaimed astrophotographer Justin Starr to give me some tips about how to best snap a picture of the Sun — before, during, and after totality. Watch his demonstration in the video above and check out a summary of his suggestions below.
WHAT YOU NEED
When it comes to setting all of your gear up, you’re going to need a pair of solar filter glasses. These are specialized lenses that block out 99.99 percent of the Sun’s light. You’ll need to wear them in order to spot the Sun in the sky and also to watch as the Moon starts to cover the solar disc. NASA and the American Astronomical Society have a list of approved manufacturers of solar filter glasses on their sites.
JUST AS YOUR EYES NEED PROTECTION, SO DOES YOUR CAMERA LENS
Once your eyes are safe, there are four basic things you’re going to want to use to photograph the eclipse:
A DSLR camera or a camera with full manual controls
A telephoto lens (we’re using a 70 to 200 millimeter zoom lens)
A tripod
A solar filter for your lens
Just as your eyes need protection, so does your camera lens. That’s where the solar filter comes in. These specialized instruments are made to fit over your camera’s lens to block out most of the sunlight. Most of the filters will turn the Sun into a golden or orange disc in your photographs. And you’ll need to be sure that your filter will properly screw on to the front of your lens.
SETUP
Once your lens is fitted with a filter, set up your camera on your tripod and aim it toward the sky. You may need to spend a few minutes searching for the Sun, which will be tricky with the solar filter, as it blocks out basically everything else but the Sun. And no, you don’t want to take the filter off leading up to and after the eclipse. “If I did not have a solar filter on here, I could really fry the imaging sensor on my camera,” Starr told me during a demonstration. Even when 5 percent of the Sun’s light is left, it’s enough to do some damage.
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Disney sued for allegedly spying on children through 42 gaming apps
A federal class action lawsuit filed last week in California alleges that the Walt Disney Company is violating privacy protection laws by collecting children’s personal information from 42 of its apps and sharing the data with advertisers without parental consent.
The lawsuit targets Disney and three software companies — Upsight, Unity, and Kochava — alleging that the companies created mobile apps aimed at children that contained embedded software to track, collect, and then export their personal information along with information about their online behavior. The plaintiff, a San Francisco woman named Amanda Rushing, says she was unaware that information about her child, “L.L.,” was collected while playing mobile game Disney Princess Palace Pets, and that data was then sold to third parties for ad targeting.
The class action suit says this violates the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which was enacted by Congress in 1999 and designed to protect the privacy of children online. COPPA requires that companies designing apps for children under the age of 13 obtain consent from parents before collecting personal information. In 2013, the FTC revised COPPA, expanding what counts as personal information to include things like geolocation markers and IP addresses. The update also requires third-party advertisers to comply with the rules.
Disney has responded to the lawsuit, saying:
“Disney has a robust COPPA compliance program, and we maintain strict data collection and use policies for Disney apps created for children and families. The complaint is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of COPPA principles, and we look forward to defending this action in court.”
This is not the first time Disney has faced COPPA violations. In 2011, the FTC levied a $3 million civil penalty against subsidiary Playdom after it illegally collected and disclosed personal information from “hundreds of thousands of children under age 13 without their parents’ prior consent.”
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Uber adds in-app messaging between riders and drivers
Uber is starting to roll out a new in-app chat feature globally today, which will allow riders to send text messages directly to their driver once they book a ride, and vice versa. The new feature replaces the somewhat clunky mechanism of SMS for text communication between rider and driver, helping to preserve privacy for both sides in all markets, and cutting down on potential confusion.
Now, when you book a ride, a chat option appears that lets you message your driver directly. It’ll show your driver’s name, vehicle type and plate number at the top of the messaging window, and you can see read/received receipts for messages sent. On the driver side, received messages will be read aloud to help minimize distraction, and drivers can acknowledge a message with one tap to send a ‘thumbs up’ emoji response. Drivers can also initiate chat, but the Uber driver app cautions directly in the messaging window that drivers should only do so when stopped and not actually driving.
The in-app messaging feature arose because the SMS method had a number of areas where it was lacking from a user experience perspective, according to Uber Product Manager Jeremy Lermitte. He explained in an interview that in some markets, there is cost sensitivity associated with using limited SMS plans for getting in touch (and in some cases, drivers don’t have voice plans on their devices at all for calls), and that’s just one among many reasons to bring messaging in-app.
“In many of our markets, SMS isn’t actually available for us, we don’t have the technology in place,” Lermitte said. “That’s especially true in some of our key markets like Brazil and India. And then in other emerging markets where we do offer SMS, we don’t have the technology in place to anonymize the personal contact info, so the rider and driver are actually sharing their personal contact information in some of those markets.”
Source:
Uber adds in-app messaging between riders and drivers
Anker made a tiny Alexa speaker that’s like an Echo Dot but cheaper
If you own an Amazon Echo and want to get Alexa into more rooms of your house, your best bet has long been the tiny, $50 Echo Dot. But now the accessory company Anker taking on Amazon with a similarly tiny smart speaker with built-in Alexa that sells for only $35.
Anker’s speaker is called the Eufy Genie. And while that’s kind of a weird name, the product itself is pretty straightforward. It’s only slightly bigger than the Echo Dot, but Anker claims it’ll offer better audio and pretty much all the same features. So it’ll still be listening for you to ask questions or give Alexa commands, and it’ll be capable of doing all the things that Alexa is normally capable of, like ordering stuff, playing music, and controlling smart home gadgets.
Whether it’s actually better or at least as good as the Echo Dot remains to be seen. The product is being announced today, but it doesn’t ship for another week, until August 16th. But if it manages to at least match the Echo Dot’s abilities, Anker has a good shot at winning over customers looking to put Alexa in another corner of their house.
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The Eufy Genie has one additional feature that isn’t part of the typical Alexa repertoire, though it’s nothing too exciting: the Genie will also be able to connect with and control other Eufy-branded smart home products from Anker. There aren’t a ton of them yet, but Anker plans to release some lights and wall plugs in the next few weeks. But given the price of the Genie, you can assume they’ll be priced in a similarly aggressive manner.
Anker also plans to introduce a $40 version of the Eufy Genie that includes Bluetooth support, which might let it connect to external speakers for playing music. That’s something the Echo Dot can do, so the inclusion would help bring the Genie even closer to Amazon’s product.
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Starz Pledges “Legal Action” Against ‘Power’ Leaker; Posted Episodes Online
“The final three episodes of Power’s fourth season were leaked online due to a breach of the press screening room,” said Starz in a statement Wednesday. “This seems to be a case of password sharing that resulted in homemade videos of the episodes which were taped off a TV screen and posted online,” the home of Power, Outlander and American Gods adds. “Starz has begun forensic investigations and will take legal action against the responsible parties.”
That action may not be so hard to take against said responsive parties, as the leaker filmed the episodes off a phone and post them on his personal social media with commentary – so not exactly a criminal mastermind of Ghost or Kanan proportions at work here. By the way, even with the big HBO hack and the leak out of an Indian distributor of the August 6 episode of GoT last week, the David Benioff and D.B. Weiss EP’d show based on George R.R. Martin’s books actually went up to a series viewership high.
The Omari Hardwick, Lela Loren, Joseph Sikora, Naturi Naughton and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson starring Power started its current season strong on June 25 with steady linear viewing and big numbers via Starz’s much promoted app. Already renewed for a Season 5 when it got the Season 4 pick-up in July 2016, the show’s fourth season wraps up on September 3.
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Source:
Starz Pledges “Legal Action” Against ‘Power’ Leaker; Posted Episodes Online
