The German's aren't happy with the US' debt ceiling, Harry Potter sets a record, the six million dollar man is back . . . there's a lot going on!
Economics/Geekonomics:
Guess what? Germans aren't happy with America's debt ceiling mess. Our political stupidity is threatening our economy, the global economy, and looks to permanently damage the country's political standing. Keep watching, because a failure means not only a double-dip recession, but a need for a political as well as economic recovery.
Movies:
OK, disclaimer: I loved Burrough's 'Mars' novels in my youth; how can you not love a crazy-romantic mixture of swordplay, romance, action, aliens, science-fiction, and of course Tars Tarkas, the best four-armed brother-in-arms EVER? OK, I'm biased.
Anyway the trailer for the John Carter movie is out. I'm tentatively intrigued as it seems to have it's own style, be rather understated, and Lynn Collins is totally making me buy her as Dejah Thoris. So why is this important? Because the 'Mars' series is A) very formative to Space Opera, and B) eleven freaking novels long, begging for a lot of series and takes.
If this film succeeds it could open up people's interests in old-school SF like Skylark, Lensman, and more. That's a mineable and rich amount of material. If it fails, it'll annoy a LOT of people and probably put the kibosh on retromakes for awhile.
I of course want it to succeed. William DeFoe as Tars Tarkas is awesome.
On to Harry Potter, the second Deathly Hallows film set a midnight box office record.
Publishing:
A look at why Sony's e-reader isn't a Kindle Killer and what they messed up. How bad? Well I keep forgetting there IS a Sony e-reader and this is me. Sony's had a lot of stumbles lately, this is another one that does make me nervous.
Remakes:
OK, I'm not sure I can get behind a Six Million Dollar Man reboot as 'The Bionic Man.' However with Kevin Smith helming it, I'm tentatively confident. With the retromakes lately, if this works look for a possible movie or TV option.
Security:
The Pentagon lost 24,000 files in a cyberattack on a contractor. Contractors are actually a big point of vulnerability, period. I'm waiting for the fallout from all these hacks and outages as I can't think people are standing by and not wanting to pass laws, improve security, freak out, etc. I just don't see it yet – are we so passive now? Or do we accept this?
Social Media:
MUST READ: Has Facebook missed it's IPO window? The article says it hasn't, but notes all companies has their time, and Facebook is being nibbled at by time and Google+. If Facebook has indeed missed an ideal window, an IPO could be disappointing – and dangerous.
It looks like Microsoft has some social networking tool in the works.
Video Games:
Hmmm. EA raised debt to purchase PopCap though it did have cash on hand. Do they have other plans that are going to need the money?
QUESTION OF THE DAY: So why do you think EA went into debt instead of spending cash?