#also who in their right mind would follow bruce banner in revolution

[avengerphobic]

But wasn't Amadeus against Bruce Banner dismantling the government? Namor was the one that was completely behind Banner's anti capitalist crusade.

amadeus doesnt like the government and its p ooc if he isnt outwardly against it. Like in incredible Hercules he took down shield and the only reason he didnt keep them down was because herc was like if you do this you'll be a villain. during the illuminati shit he criticized the government to sue storms face. If this is about immortal hulk I honestly respect his reasoning I dont trust a white middle class man to lead the revolution or dismantle the government. especially not bruce banner. amadeus loves the hulk but he also knows the hulk.

[imsuchmarveltrash]

Revolutionary (A Stucky x Reader Imagine) - inspired by Badlands by Halsey [PROLOGUE + Chapter One]

“Hello, and I’m sorry: a salutation and a farewell. I don’t have much time. This Times New Roman is gonna fly through my fingertips, like a plague of moths. The hollow black-letter shells crunched into the ground, like the skin of a cicada. And you can do whatever you want with it–keep it to yourself, or let it serve as a warning.

“This city is disgusting; a corpse of what it used to be. The people are filthy, gluttonous: ruled by the power exchange of sex from the hands of the proletariat to the bourgeoisie. The tops of the skylines buzz with the lacklustre enthusiasm. The ground level is caked in dirt and rust and grime, and the people that dwell there awake and rub the filmy layer off their lukewarm eyes.

“There are some here I love, some who fear me, and some who wish I was dead. I didn’t ask for this. No one asks for this. You’re born into it. You grow up oblivious and sheltered, and one day the evil realities of this place hit you square between the eyes, like a perfectly aimed bullet. If this were a movie, I would ride off in some blood red sunset, down a stretch of desert road, into the wasteland that keeps us captive here. But this isn’t a movie. These are the Badlands.”

-Halsey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWCOW7TaGQE 

Chapter One: Castle

These were the Badlands. A singular long-forgotten city that existed leagues away from any other known civilisation. No one knew what happened to the rest of the world, just that as far as your eye could see, all that remained was a stretch of desert wasteland, seemingly endless. The city itself was completely dystopian: a dilapidated ground level filled with squalor and people living in misery. They were referred to as The Proletariat–the 99% that was forced to live off the scraps the government could barely care to provide. That other 1% was what you called the Bourgeoisie. They were the richest of the rich, living lives of excess and gluttony. Yet, the superfluity could never hide the emptiness that never wavered from their dull eyes.

The government could barely care for order. They’d passed few rules of society and as long as they weren’t broken there were never any issues. These rules were:

1.      The Badlands are what’s left of society, you may never leave.

2.      There is a clear line between Proletariat and Bourgeoisie. You cannot cross it. Be exiled if you dare.

3.      Relations between the Proletariat and Bourgeoisie are taboo. People who break this rule will be outcasted.

The government’s biggest concern was keeping the Proletariat separate from the Bourgeoisie. Naturally, people had their ways of bypassing the rules. They met in secret, spoke in codes. That was how you’d become part of an underground circle that believed in equal treatment of all people. The government only acted to keep the people they liked happy. The needs of the rest of the city were never prioritised. The group you belonged to wanted change.

You were a small group–barely over fifteen people. Consisting of people mostly part of the Proletariat, there were few Bourgeoisie members. These included Tony Stark, Natalia Romanova (better referred to as Natasha Romanoff), Loki Laufeyson, and Nicholas J. Fury.

The mastermind that was Tony Stark remained a mystery to you. The government adored him. A descendant of Howard Stark, the man responsible for the city surviving, Tony had both privilege and the weight of rather large shoes to fill. Yet, Tony was treated as royalty, but he couldn’t care less for the system the government had in place. He’d seen too many people  dying in the streets to be able to continue turning a blind eye. Soon after embracing his dissatisfaction, he’d met you, and the two of you formed a pact, vowing to make a difference.

Natasha was a beauty born straight into the government. She’d seen what they were doing and had been appalled. Unlike the rest of society, Natasha didn’t grow up sheltered. Her parents were government agents who helped enforce the ruling system. They wanted her to grow up to be just like them, so the system was her harsh reality from the start.

Loki was the most reluctant of the Bourgeoisie members in the group. He enjoyed his life of luxury and liked being able to have the entire city at his fingertips. He  just couldn’t take the injustice anymore. Not after his brother, Thor, renounced his position within the Bourgeoisie to be exiled to a low-class Proletarian lifestyle.

Nicholas Fury had stumbled into your group by chance, but it was a chance you were all thankful for. He was the right-hand man to Alexander Pierce, the leader of the government’s schema. His desire for equality along with his pull within the government, made him an integral part of your circle.

The Proletariat members consisted of you, Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Thor Odinson, Peter Parker, Clint Barton, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, Bruce Banner, Vision, James Rhodes, and Maria Hill.

You, Steve and Bucky had grown up together. Growing from friends in your youth to something so intricate yet indescribable as the three of you got older. They were your closest confidants and gave you both everything you wanted and needed. Relationships and labels didn’t exist within the Badlands, so you could exist freely with your boys. The three of you had made a pact to follow each other to the end of the line, even if that meant that they were following your lead through this revolution.

Thor Odinson joined shortly before his brother Loki. He’d been a member of high society but had a good heart. He’d spend a lot of his money trying to help those he could within the Proletariat in whichever way he could. This made him highly unfavoured with the government, so they propositioned him. He could either stop helping the Proletariat or be stripped of his wealth and become one of them. The convoluted system somehow gave the government the rights to do that. So, Thor chose to rather be a part of the Proletariat.

Peter Parker was your youngest member. He had a brilliant mind and, together with Maria Hill and Wanda Maximoff, had found a way to hack all of the government systems. There was no special reason for any of them being in your circle, they were only tired of living in squalor.

James “Rhodey” Rhodes and Pietro Maximoff also only joined for the cause. Rhodey because of Maria, and Pietro because of his sister. They were both strong fighters, which you knew you’d need to win this war, so you accepted the both of them gladly.

Bruce and Vision were two of the most intelligent men you’d ever known. They both had a passion for knowledge and, unfortunately, being born into the Proletariat didn’t allow them much access to it. Yet, with what they had, they somehow managed to be incredible at developing the weapons and tools that would be needed to power this revolution. Vision was spectacular with raw materials, having the skill to rival even the most qualified mechanical engineer, whereas Bruce was the Proletariat leading expert in chemical and biological weaponry.

Lastly, Clint Barton probably had the biggest vendetta out of anyone in your circle. Like Thor, he was exiled from the Bourgeoisie. What hurt him the most was that he’d lost his position because of falling in love and the government stripped him from his choice in the matter. Instead, they took his wife, Laura, only minutes after they’d gotten their marriage licence signed in secret. They took her to a government facility, never to be seen again, and had outcasted Clint to be a Proletarian. Knowing the cruelty of the government, he worried for Laura’s life and all that pain changed him, hardened him into the man he is now.

You were chosen as your circle’s  leader not only because of founding the group with Tony and your elaborate mind for strategy, but you all knew that the city would need a Proletariat leader after you overthrew the government. You weren’t self-elected. The group all believed in you. They knew that, mentally, you were the strongest and would be the best person to lead them both through the overthrow of the government and the change in the future. These may have been the Badlands, but this was your revolution.

[acaseofthehiccups]

Got some Thor: Ragnarok Opinions for HD (and whoever else wants to read them, but most likely just HD and maybe Jana?) below the cut. This is, unsurprisingly, just a mess of incoherent, unrelated thoughts, and obviously, spoilers abound. 

WOW SO THAT WAS A NEON LED ZEPPELIN EXPERIENCE

First of all, Korg is my new favourite and I would like him to be in every Avengers movie from here on out. “I’m made of rocks, as you can see. Perishable rock!” His revolution failed because he didn’t print enough pamphlets. Bless. Next character I play might have to be some apologetic, soft-spoken orc who tries to kick ghosts and start revolutions in the most passive-aggressive way. 

I appreciated that whole theme of “Asgard is this seemingly beautiful place with a long ugly history that the rulers would like to cover up with fairy tales” DOESN’T THAT SOUND FAMILIAR. I loved Hela (hot DAMN Cate Blanchett) -- watching her just pull weapons out of NOWHERE was delightful, and she was just so exasperated all the time. We never saw a body or anything, so I’m curious to see if she’s going to come back...because that would be wonderful. I feel like she could have been used more as a character -- we just kind of see her being a badass, and she gets a few good moments, but I just wanted more! Mostly she just...talks to empty rooms? I feel like we just didn’t get a very good feel for what exactly she wanted, I guess. 

Same with Valkyrie, really. I just want more Valkyrie, all the time. Valkyrie movie?? 

IDRIS ELBA, THOUGH. 

(is it weird that Ragnarok Heimdall is more or less how I imagine Kravitz, except in a button up? also Chill Odin with the Braids looked a lot like Merle, except without the Hawaiian shirt) 

“The Devil’s Anus” 

I actually appreciated that there was more swearing in this one. I think sometimes the films are toned down a lot because they’re trying to please an older and a younger audience, and Ragnarok was like “yeah fuck that noise, gonna be some swearing and adult humour all up in this joint.” It worked really, really well, and I laughed way harder because of it. 

“Thor, Son of Odin.” “Surtur, son of a bitch!” 

I’m 99% sure that half of this movie was just improv. 

I felt a bit weird watching Hulk beat up Fenris. Like, yeah, go Hulk, but should I be cheering for him to beat up a dog? I felt very conflicted. 

I’m also a little conflicted about Odin. Like...are we just supposed to pretend that everything’s cool now that he’s got a nice lil braid and wears comfortable clothing? I guess he’s supposed to be sort of a complicated fellow, and I think it’s something that all of the Thor movies have sort of had a hard time portraying -- they go back and forth between portraying him as this sage old man who doles out wisdom left and right, and also just a massive bag of dicks. But I think maybe the movies tend to sort of...I don’t know, they talk about how terrible he is but then every scene he’s in they sort of make him seem like this wise leader and put him in a very rosy light. Maybe that’s the point they’re trying to make, I don’t know. 

Bit of queer representation, perhaps?? They’re probably gonna claim plausible deniability but I am taking it and running with it. Valkyrie and Korg have got to be in the next 20 Avengers movies. Valkyrie and Korg space trip movie 2019. 

I’m still annoyed at them for bringing up the Bruce/Natasha shit, though. Like, what the fuck you guys, I thought we were going to pretend that that NEVER EVER HAPPENED. Don’t remind people of it! 

In general I’m pretty happy with the lack of weird forced romance plots, though. Bit weird that they just...dropped Jane in a single exchange, though? Like, ok, bye, I guess? Bit out of nowhere. Wait, does this mean we’re never seeing Darcy again?? 

Shit, though, I really love what they’re doing with Thor’s power now. I’m gonna miss all of the Mjolnir jokes (myuh-myuh tearing Strange’s house apart) but shit if they’re not taking Thor’s abilities to cool places. I also appreciate Thor learning from his mistakes re: Loki. Like, falling for those illusions only works cinematically so many times, and it was really nice to see the tables turn. 

I remember some article commenting ages ago that the movie was really colourful, which sort of went back to how bright and colourful comic books are -- I don’t know if I was looking for it or if they just did a really nice job, but it really felt like an adaptation of a comic book. The colours, some of the angles/how things were shot (look, I’m reaching the end of my film vocabulary here, I know nothing about filming but all I’m saying is, it really looked like they were adapting a comic book into a movie, instead of putting a comic book character into an action movie). 

“Ass-gard”

“On any other world, I’d be millions of years old, but on Sakaar............” 

I cannot imagine a more perfect casting choice than Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster. 

Also, where was Sif this entire time?? She just...disappeared? I guess it was good she wasn’t there though otherwise she’d have been killed like the rest of Thor’s friends, what the fuck

During the whole play scene I was like, wow, the guy they got to play Thor looks a lot like Chris Hemsworth. Was scanning the credits and what do you know, it’s ANOTHER GODDAMN HEMSWORTH BROTHER. 

Playing “Pure Imagination” while Thor is going through the tunnel on Sakaar. 

I guess the one potential issue with all of the jokes, etc., would be that there wasn’t a huge focus on the actual issue. Like, Ragnarok was supposed to be this big, devastating moment, I guess, but the entire time it just felt very distant. It was hard to keep in mind that, yeah, I guess shit’s going down on Asgard, but I was much more interested in what Thor and Banner were doing in that moment than what was coming in the long run. I think they tried to remedy that by switching back and forth between Hela and Thor, but it sort of felt like two very distinct storylines for a while, and I still sort of hold them separately in my head -- there was Thor’s plot line on this dumpster planet, and then a small side plot where Asgard gets blown up or something I guess. Ragnarok just didn’t really seem like a very big deal for most of the film. 

I love how they play Thor’s disconnect with technology. Like, he’s got juuuuust enough awareness to pretend like he knows what he’s talking about, but not quite enough for the follow through. The cell phone/email exchange and his difficulties with the quinjet were pure gold. 

[pcmobilezone]

Can Samsung’s Bixby Smash Alexa?

In the battle of the virtual assistants, Amazon has friends and Google has search. Samsung has your TV and washing machine.

Samsung's Bixby AI system, coming on the Galaxy S8 phone which launches on March 29, starts out as voice commands for your phone. But its end goal is to tie together all of your home electronics—Samsung or not—with natural-language voice interfaces. The question is whether Samsung can spin its plans up quickly enough to chase Amazon and Google, or whether Bixby will languish on phones as the next S Voice.

We spoke with Samsung Mobile's CTO, Injong Rhee, at Samsung headquarters in Korea. Rhee, whose leonine curls make him look like a 1980's pop star on a reunion tour for screaming moms, has a big, long-term vision for Bixby, which is fully supported by Samsung mobile chief DJ Koh.

Bixby isn't named after the TV actor best known for playing Bruce Banner in the Incredible Hulk. Samsung just came up with a bunch of names that sounded good, and "Bixby was the No. 1 choice among the millennials," Rhee said.

Coincidentally, the Bixby Bridge by Big Sur is a California landmark, so the name "has the connotation of bridging machine and human."

It also helps that the "X" in the middle of Bixby makes it easy for computers to understand the word, and that it jibes with another Samsung product, Knox.

Bixby defaults to a female voice, and initially works in English and Korean; US Spanish will follow, then other languages. It may also have a male voice option, but that wasn't clear.

Speak to Me, Bones

Initially, Bixby is a voice interface for the built-in features on phones. It also does some computer-vision tricks, translating languages and identifying places in photos shot with your phone. But the full idea is an "intelligent user interface" to let you control all the features of home electronics.

"Right now our focus is on device interface and application controls," Rhee said. For internet-based queries, the next Galaxy phone will presumably also have the Google Assistant, but there was some back-and-forth about whether Bixby would be able to hand off web queries to Google Assistant in the future. It sounds like Samsung's working on it.

"It starts off with smartphones, but anywhere that has an internet connection and a microphone, Bixby can be used. It can be in any devices we produce: appliances, TVs, refrigerators, washing machines," Rhee said.

Before you wonder about washing machines, think about the complicated dials are on today's machines. Then think about just standing in front of it and commanding it to "wash a large load of lights on hot and tell me five minutes before it's done."

"I always go to my washing machine and say, 'Hmm, what do I do?' That's a limit of the interface," Rhee said.

Samsung envisions Bixby as working across networks of devices, probably linked through Samsung's SmartThings Hub (above). LG is trying to make a similar vision happen with Amazon's Alexa and its own SmartThinq hub.

That way, you can say, "'What's the email message I just received, and can you show it on my TV?' That capability might not be on the TV, but it may be in your smartphone, and you're doing it with the TV remote control," Rhee said.

Press the Button

In an era when we're getting nervous about always-listening devices, Samsung has a slightly retro solution: a button. By default, Bixby won't listen until you press the button.

A Bixby button could be a fingerprint sensor on the front of a washing machine, verifying a user's identity and waking up the voice interface. Or it could be on a remote control, the way it is with Amazon's voice-activated Fire TV$89.99 at Amazon.

"How can you make sure [the user] has control of the data? That's why the button is so important. We're not going to listen to the user unless the user does something with the hardware button," Rhee says. "Our plan is to have that button almost everywhere, including our appliances."

Samsung's possible great leap forward here—if it works—is in applying true, natural language voice interfaces to local commands on electronics. Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and their ilk still think like computers, looking for specific trigger words and say "I don't understand you" if they can't parse a sentence. Bixby is supposed to react in a more human manner, Rhee said.

"We know it's really cognitively challenging for people to understand exact commands," he said. So you could say, "show me a picture that I took in Paris. Turn that picture around. Share it with Michael," and Bixby would get as far as it can. If it can't figure out who Michael is, it'll show you a list of possible Michaels and transition to a more traditional touch-screen interface.

"For a fairly convoluted or complicated task, a user has the freedom of speaking it in any manner and stopping in any place," he said.

Samsung recently bought Viv Labs, an AI firm started by the creators of Siri, with natural language processing chops and an open third-party application platform. But the first version of Bixby won't integrate Viv's technology, Rhee said. Now we get to Samsung's greatest danger.

Version 1.0 Troubles

Bixby needs to take some inspiration from its non-namesake, because to battle Amazon's wonder woman, it's going to need to hulk out—fast.

While Amazon's Alexa has hundreds of third party "Skills," and both Google Assistant and Siri have a seemingly endless array of knowledge cached from the internet, Bixby must be tied into specific applications and devices.

And Bixby's initial feature set, while fine for a 1.0, is definitely a 1.0. While the full details haven't been released yet, I'm concerned that the first Galaxy S8 owners will feel it's too much like the long-unloved S Voice at start, and that assessment will stick in people's minds.

Therein lies the danger. Viv's natural language technology? Coming. Third-party app support? It's coming. Support for internet-based search queries, or smoothly handing off to Google Assistant for search queries? Coming. Those promises are all well and good, but Samsung is starting in third or fourth place, and can't afford to delay differentiating features.

Rhee wants Bixby to become a broad standard, on the back of Samsung's market dominance in phones. Samsung reps say that with the new leadership of Rhee and mobile CEO DJ Koh (who's been in the role for about a year), the company is supporting its services much better than it used to. Against the older story of Samsung's failed Milk Music service and struggling Gear third-party apps platform, they put Samsung's newer, successful Knox security system. Bixby is of the new era, they say.

Samsung's position is inherently difficult. No Android manufacturer in a Google Play-supporting country (in other words, not China) has developed services that have really driven sales. It's telling that the four big voice interface companies—Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft—all control their own OS platforms. While that's true of Samsung's appliances, on phones it has to deal with the push-and-pull of being dependent on Google for its software.

"There's a revolution in interface technologies, and the operating system becomes less relevant as time goes on," Rhee argued.

That said, if Samsung opens this up big, and fast, it may have a chance. "I don't see it as so difficult to have it on other devices, even competitors. That's a future we have to think about, it's not completely out of the question," he said. "It personally makes sense to me."

Source: pcmag

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