#like a week ago Master and Commander (2003) was on tv

[leona-florianova]

Utterly enamored and morbidly fascinated by the pathetic miserable ways this man conducts himself on dry land and outside of his areas of expertise.. I cheer for every social blunder and fail...While also thinking "Oh, poor Captain Aubrey, that was really, truly sad"

......Id love to study him like some kind of bug.

[bountyofbeads]

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/wayne-barrett-donald-trump-rudy-giuliani-peas-pod-article-1.2776357?outputType=amp&__twitter_impression=true

REMINDER: Trump has relied on Rudy Giuliani as a "fixer" ever since Trump bribed Rudy to kill a mob-related money laundering investigation into him 30 years ago.

The late Wayne Barrett wrote about their corrupt 30-year relationship in 2016:

Peas in a pod: The long and twisted relationship between Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani

By WAYNE Barrett | Published SEP 04, 2016 5:00 AM ET | NEW YORK DAILY News | Posted September 25, 2019 |

Let's start with the fact that Donald Trump's top surrogate, Rudy Giuliani, is on the payroll. In January, he joined a law firm, Greenberg Traurig, that represents Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Last year, the firm handled Trump's suit against the Florida city of Doral so his golf course could override noise regulations that barred him from bulldozing before sunrise. More recently, it handled Kushner's $340-million acquisition of the Watchtower properties in downtown Brooklyn.

When Trump paid a $250,000 fine in 2000 for secretly funding a million-dollar lobbying campaign against an Indian casino in upstate New York, he was represented by Greenberg.

Giuliani brought Marc Mukasey, the stepson of ex-U.S. Attorney General and lifelong Giuliani friend Michael Mukasey, with him to Greenberg; Mukasey is now representing legendary leg man Roger Ailes. Mukasey launched into a tirade recently against New York Magazine reporter Gabriel Sherman, calling the Ailes biographer "a virus" willing to "use any woman" to Weinerize the Trump debate adviser. His dad, who once branded Trump a "peril" to national security, delivered a Republican Convention speech the night after Rudy's screed.

This intertwine may or may not have something to do with why the Greenberg firm lets Rudy, one of its newest partners, hired early this year ostensibly to run a cybersecurity unit, travel the country with Trump, introducing him at rallies and fundraisers, challenging Hillary Clinton's health based on stuff he finds in corners of the internet, declaring her Clinton Foundation troubles worse than Watergate, wearing a "Make Mexico Great Again Also" cap, and helping draft policy speeches diagnosing African Americans for white audiences.

I even watched Rudy on TV, before one joint trip to Ohio, loading suitcases into the back of a Trump SUV in front of Trump Tower, the only baggage that slows him down.

Rudy has actually been more visible in his buddy's campaign than he was at times in his own $50 million presidential attempt in 2008, when he managed to convert the months-long top ranking in the polls into a single delegate. The imperial 2016 candidate who hates losers, especially ones who wind up in Vietnamese prisons, has instead embraced an epic dud, his solitary act of empathy in a campaign of callousness. He could've trashed Rudy like he did John McCain: "I like people who weren't caught with their command center down."

But the onetime comb-over twins just had too much in common. Though bombs-away hawks today, they got multiple draft deferments during the Vietnam War, with athlete Donald citing bad feet as his excuse and Rudy using an ear defect to sidestep his ROTC obligations.

Trump is now warning of a rigged election, invoking the image of Philadelphia blacks cheating at the ballot box and calling for voter suppression squads to "monitor" suspect precincts. Rudy said the 1989 mayoral election he lost was stolen and spent millions on suppression squads, dispatching off-duty white cops and firefighters to minority districts, when he won in 1993.

The two amigos also spark similar antipathy in Mexico, their latest joint destination — Donald for a mantra of insults, and Rudy for a multi-million-dollar anti-crime contract his consulting company won in Mexico City that flopped so badly the police chief declared he was "no fan" of Giuliani's. Rudy even tried to lend credence to the Trumpian fantasy that "thousands" of Muslims in Jersey City celebrated 9/11, quibbling only with the number.

Then there's the wife trifecta. No one in American public life, other than perhaps their kindred spirit Newt Gingrich, has ever mastered the art of a bad divorce like Rudy and Donald, carrying on as if spousal humiliation was the point.

Ask the kids. When Trump married mistress Marla Maples nearly four years after he walked out on Ivana, the three convention stars, Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric, didn't show up. Andrew and Caroline Giuliani made strained appearances at Rudy's 2003 wedding to Judi Nathan, but in 2007, both distanced themselves from their father's presidential pursuit, with Caroline Facebooking her preference for Obama, as close to the ex-mayor's heart as she could plunge the dagger.

Rudy's wife Donna found out he wanted a divorce when he announced it on TV, just as Marla had a couple of years before. Rudy then chose Mother's Day to alert the press that he would be having dinner with his new love and led the cameras on a 10-block walk with her after dinner, kissing her goodbye while his wife and kids simmered. His divorce lawyer declared "we're going to have to pry her off the chandeliers to get her out of" Gracie Mansion. Even Donald Trump was offended, writing an open letter to New York Magazine and urging Donna and Rudy "to sit down with each other in a room, without your lawyer, and see if you can settle this."

But Rudy was only following in the divorce-as-spectacle footsteps of Donald, who'd used the New York Post as his personal hammer a decade before, relishing in Marla's "best sex I ever had" headlines even as they horrified young Ivanka and Don. Trump told Newsweek the scandal was "great for business," and pushed Marla to seize on the opportunities it presented, including half a million to pose in "No Excuses" jeans.

He'd brought his mistress to the same Atlantic City boxing matches he brought his wife to, aboard the same helicopter, just as he'd set up Marla in a sparkling suite on the Aspen slopes while he was vacationing with his family. Young Don told his father then "you just love your money," a line he did not revive in his convention script. Ivanka, shocked by headlines on newsstands during her walk to school, just wept.

Rudy and Donald first got together in the late 1980s shortly before Donald became a co-chair of Giuliani's first fundraiser for his 1989 mayoral campaign, sitting on the Waldorf dais and steering $41,000 to the campaign. A year earlier, Tony Lombardi, the federal agent closest to then-U.S. Attorney Giuliani, opened a probe of Trump's role in the suspect sale of two Trump Tower apartments to Robert Hopkins, the mob-connected head of the city's largest gambling ring.

Trump attended the closing himself and Hopkins arrived with a briefcase loaded with up to $200,000 in cash, a deposit the soon-to-felon counted at the table. Despite Hopkins' wholesale lack of verifiable income or assets, he got a loan from a Jersey bank that did business with Trump's casino. A Trump limo delivered the cash to the bank.

The government subsequently nailed Hopkins' mortgage broker, Frank LaMagra, on an unrelated charge and he offered to give up Donald, claiming Trump "participated" in the money-laundering — and volunteering to wear a wire on him.

Instead, Lombardi, who discussed the case with Giuliani personally (and with me for a 1993 Village Voice piece called "The Case of the Missing Case"), went straight to Donald for two hour-long interviews with him. Within weeks of the interviews, Donald announced he'd raise $2 million in a half hour if Rudy ran for mayor. Lamagra got no deal and was convicted, as was his mob associate, Louis (Louie HaHa) Attanasio, who was later also nailed for seven underworld murders. Hopkins was convicted of running his gambling operation partly out of the Trump Tower apartment, where he was arrested.

Lombardi — who expected a top appointment in a Giuliani mayoralty, conducted several other probes directly tied to Giuliani political opponents, and testified later that "every day I came to work I went to Mr. Giuliani to seek out what duties I needed to perform" — closed the Trump investigation without even giving it a case number. That meant that New Jersey gaming authorities would never know it existed.

It's hard to watch Giuliani invoke his 14-year history as a federal prosecutor when he calls for Clinton's prosecution and square it with the seedy launch of his own relationship with Trump.

When Rudy was mayor, Trump hired the lobbying firm that included name partner Ray Harding, the head of the state's Liberal Party, whose ballot line had provided the margin of difference in Giuliani's 1993 election. Harding's firm quickly went from three lobbying clients to 92, and it steered the controversial, 90-story Trump World Tower, the tallest residential tower in city history, through three levels of Giuliani administration approvals despite loud opposition from community groups led by Walter Cronkite.

Both Harding and his son, a top Giuliani official, wound up felons. His other son, Robert Harding, a Giuliani deputy mayor, has long been a lobbyist at Rudy's current employer, Greenberg.

The Giuliani administration also wrote a 1995 letter of support to HUD for $365 million in mortgage insurance for Trump's Riverside South project, affirming that the Westside Yards site was in a blighted neighborhood, a contention so ludicrous that Donald had to eventually withdraw the application. A board of Giuliani appointees, pushed by Harding's firm, also approved renovations at Trump's 100 Central Park South, where Eric Trump now lives.

Rudy wound up a friend, speaking at Fred Trump's 1999 funeral, doing a grope scene with Donald in a 2000 Inner Circle skit, inviting Donald and Melania to his Gracie Mansion wedding and attending Trump's 2005 Mar-A-Lago wedding.

As aligned as Trump and Rudy appear, there are enough stark differences to make the embrace uncomfortable, at least if the blank-slate broadcast interviewers would do a search or two. When Mitt Romney ran against Giuliani, he said Rudy made New York a "sanctuary city," based on Giuliani's urging undocumented people to settle in the city. PoliFact found the assertion "true."

As mayor, Giuliani was the top Republican champion of the assault-weapons ban, sued the gun industry and called for "uniform licensing" of all guns, contending that the free flow of firearms into the city from unregulated states was killing New Yorkers.

Rudy was also one of the only elected pro-choice Republicans who even supported partial birth abortion. He's recently begun to perform same-sex marriages. He is, in all of these respects, an anti-Trump surrogate.

Yet Trump has said he might name Rudy to chair an immigration commission or to head homeland security. Trump apparently forgets that Rudy already gave us one homeland security secretary, his business partner and former correction and police commissioner Bernie Kerik, who blew up like a land mine before he could take office and wound up sentenced to four years in federal prison, partly for lying to the White House.

[aion-rsa]

The Tragedy of The Last Duel Flopping at the Box Office

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The Last Duel did not have a good weekend at the box office. As a medieval epic from director Ridley Scott for the post-#MeToo era, the 20th Century Studios release posted a meager $4.8 million over its first three days in release. And that is on a reported budget of $100 million—a figure which does not include marketing and publicity costs.

There are many aspects that likely contributed to The Last Duel’s box office failure. The pandemic, for one, has left the movie industry on uncertain footing for nearly two years, a period of time where Scott’s pricy melodrama had already been greenlit and filming before the ground fell out beneath the feet of theatrical releases. While recent franchise spectacles like Venom: Let There Be Carnage, No Time to Die, and Shang-Chi are doing big business, audiences appear still recalcitrant about venturing to cinemas for adult-skewing dramatic work. Indeed, older audiences are particularly shy about moviegoing with the spread of the Delta variant this fall, and more than half of The Last Duel’s audience skewed age 35 or older. When the subject matter is also as uncomfortable as that of The Last Duel’s—with the film centering on a legally sanctioned duel in 14th century France after one knight is accused of raping another’s wife—getting younger audiences to show up is all the more difficult.

Additionally, there will likely be some second-guessing about the rollout by Disney/20th Century Studios. While I can anecdotally attest it was hard to miss awareness of the film’s arrival due to omnipresent sporting event TV ads in recent weeks, as well as some pricy digital billboard real estate space being used in New York City’s Times Square, the release didn’t necessarily feel like the premiere of a must-see Oscar contender. This was all the stranger given the fair amount of deserved critical praise for Jodie Comer’s devastating turn in the film as Marguerite de Carrouges. Setting the film opposite the seasonal event of Halloween Kills, and one week after the also older-skewing blockbuster No Time to Die, also didn’t do it any favors.

And yet, whatever the reasons for its flopping, The Last  Duel’s new status as a major box office bomb is a bitter thing for cinema in its own right. One that will have greater repercussions than just diminishing this particular movie’s Oscar prospects.

The Last Duel, which was written by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Nicole Holofcener, was surprisingly refreshing when I saw it several weeks ago in a theater. With the typically lavish production designs you’d expect from a Scott period piece, it felt like the type of Hollywood epic that rarely gets made anymore. Similarly, the screenwriters’ Rashomon-inspired storytelling structure, where we witness the events leading up to the duel from the vantage of the film’s quarreling knights (Matt Damon and Adam Driver), and then the actual woman at the center of this horrible melodrama (Comer), was a striking way of drawing parallels between the barbaric patriarchal double standards of the Middles Ages and those in our own still often tragically flawed cultures.

Made with the pomp and grandeur of films that were once clear blockbusters, such as Scott’s own Gladiator (2000) or Master and Commander (2003), and with an uncomfortable yet proactive subject matter that used to still be the stuff of popular adult dramas like The Accused (1988) or Scott’s own Thelma & Louise (1991), The Last Duel feels in some ways like a relic of the past: a splashy period piece marketed on the appeal of its movie star cast and harrowing subject. On paper, Damon and Affleck are still A-list movie stars, with the latter fresh off being a relatively popular Batman. The film also marks the pair’s first screenplay together since their Oscar winning script for Good Will Hunting (1997), and Driver just did a three-film stint as Kylo Ren in the $3.3 billion-grossing Star Wars Sequel Trilogy.

But all that prestige and box office success in franchise entertainment can’t even translate to a $5 million opening weekend for something that’s adult-skewing and divorced from intellectual property.

There are a myriad of reasons for why this particular movie might’ve flopped, including some audiences being fairly turned off by its subject matter. But whether one considers The Last Duel an artistic success in how it handles this material, or a middle brow attempt by a male director at telling a sensitive story about a woman’s suffering, the film’s failure sends a strong and far simpler message to Hollywood: Expensive, ambitious movies made for adults lose money. Pandemic or not, audiences will show up in droves for familiar franchises and/or superheroes—hence Venom 2 breaking the October opening weekend record earlier this month, and Shang-Chi shattering September’s last month. But a movie dealing with adult themes and challenging ideas, even with the gruesome sword-on-shield carnage that made Scott’s Gladiator a box office and Oscar champ 20 years ago? That’s dead on arrival for audiences who’d rather play in fantasy’s PG-13 sandbox, or with Venom’s big ball of CGI goo.

On social media, I’ve already seen some suggesting that The Last Duel should have been a streaming release. And there’s some cold, despairing logic to that. Older audiences who might be attracted to a movie like The Last Duel are more inclined to stay home and watch whatever’s on Netflix, especially after the pandemic. However, save for the rare instances when Netflix wants to invest in its own prestige, Oscar-courting showcases, finding a streaming service willing to spend this type of money that can produce such an old school spectacle with the type of craft that goes into The Last Duel is rare.

Getting to see such filmmaking on the big screen’s sprawling canvas, with the images skewing toward drama and painful emotions instead of dopamine-tickling popcorn, is rarer still. And with movies like The Last Duel flopping, such projects could soon become outright extinct. Which is a shame when those projects produce things as powerful as Comer’s harrowing performance—or Affleck’s delightfully decadent one. In fact, for those who love cinema, it can be its own type of minor tragedy.

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The post The Tragedy of The Last Duel Flopping at the Box Office appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3AU0vkK

[thatsnotcanonpodcasts]

Seaweed, DMCA & Transformers

Professor and DJ are back to talk about billion-year-old seaweed found in China. This seaweed is older than the combined ages of all our listeners, but doesn't complain when you say "OK Boomer". It also has no thoughts on how you should live your life. Not many thoughts on anything, really, it's extinct. Professor summarises the development of life to DJ, but since DJ is a robot, he just doesn't get it.

Activision are trying some legal tactics to close some leaks while ignoring their own incompetence revealing the new Warzone game mode to the world without the efforts of a leaker. Are they just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic: Modern Zombies Ops 8?

This week it's DJ's turn to rant about a missing voice actor. #NOTMYOPTIMUS. A new Transformers series without Michael Bay is in the works from the same people who made the recent Godzilla anime trilogy. Who joins the ranks of the NA wall of wasted cast?

Of course, the Nerds talk about games and have some remembrances for some big names this week, Katherine Johnson and Kazuhisa Hashimoto.

Stay healthy, and we'll be back next week.

Oldest green plant fossil ever found…..billion year old seaweed found in China

            -https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-25/billion-year-old-chinese-seaweed-discovered-by-scientists/11998720?fbclid=IwAR2MYKIY8PyA_3uPFz1TBtIk3kpa7NM9k6Sq4HIROEu95VDNU5jLttBwNUo

Activision’s modern warfare tactic….DMCA takedown

            -https://torrentfreak.com/activision-subpoenas-reddit-to-identify-call-of-duty-warzone-image-200221/

New Transformer anime series coming soon on Netflix

                - https://ew.com/tv/2020/02/22/transformers-war-for-cybertron-trailer-netflix-anime/

                -https://comicbook.com/anime/2020/02/25/netflix-transformers-war-for-cybertron-trilogy-siege-plot-synopsis/

Games Played

DJ

– Genesis - https://www.genesismoba.com/

Rating – 3.5/5

Professor

– Kingdom - https://store.steampowered.com/app/368230/Kingdom_Classic/

Rating – 3/5

Other topics discussed

Why programmers hate time (Reddit Link)

- https://www.reddit.com/r/programminghorror/comments/5x5ql0/this_is_why_programmers_hate_time/

Dugong’s diet (When eating they ingest the whole plant, including the roots. Although almost completely herbivorous, they will occasionally eat invertebrates such as jellyfish,sea squirts, and shellfish.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugong#Feeding

Wakame (a species of edible seaweed, a type of marine algae, and a sea vegetable. It has a subtly sweet, but distinctive and strong flavour and texture. It is most often served in soups and salads.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakame

Sea Lettuce (The sea lettuces comprise the genus Ulva, a group of edible green algae that is widely distributed along the coasts of the world's oceans.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_lettuce

Cyanobacteria (also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum consisting of free-living photosynthetic bacteria and the endosymbiotic plastids, a sister group to Gloeomargarita, that are present in some eukaryotes.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobacteria

Great Oxidation Event (sometimes also called the Great Oxygenation Event, Oxygen Catastrophe, Oxygen Crisis, Oxygen Holocaust, or Oxygen Revolution, was a time period when the Earth's atmosphere and the shallow ocean experienced a rise in oxygen, approximately 2.4 billion years ago (2.4 Ga) to 2.1–2.0 Ga during the Paleoproterozoic era.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event

Timeline of the evolutionary history of life (This timeline of the evolutionary history of life represents the current scientific theory outlining the major events during the development of life on planet Earth. In biology,evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Life_timeline 

Oxygen Cycle (The oxygen cycle is the biogeochemical transitions of oxygen atoms between different oxidation states in ions, oxides, and molecules through redox reactions within and between the spheres/reservoirs of the planet Earth)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_cycle

Stromatolite (layered mounds, columns, and sheet-like sedimentary rocks that were originally formed by the growth of layer upon layer of cyanobacteria, a single-celled photosynthesizing microbe.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromatolite

Cyanobacteria found in Australia

- https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/cyanofr.html

Prototype iPhone left in a bar

- https://appleinsider.com/articles/10/04/19/prototype_iphone_was_left_at_bar_by_apple_software_engineer

 Rob Cantor – "Shia LaBeouf" Live

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0u4M6vppCI

LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner - HEWILLNOTDIVIDE.US

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaBeouf,_Rönkkö_%26_Turner#HEWILLNOTDIVIDE.US,_2017_%E2%80%93_present

CNN vs Reddit over Trump meme

- https://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/04/politics/kfile-reddit-user-trump-tweet/index.html

Decepticon (main antagonists in the fictional universes of the Transformers multimedia franchise.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decepticon

Roosterteeth Shows

- Camp Camp - https://roosterteeth.com/series/camp-camp

- RWBY - https://roosterteeth.com/series/rwby

- Gen:Lock - https://roosterteeth.com/series/gen-lock

- Haunter - https://roosterteeth.com/series/achievement-haunter

Cybertron (Cybertron is the home planet of the Transformers and (usually) the body of their creator, Primus.)

- https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Cybertron_(planet)

Vector Prime (Vector Prime is Primus's appointed guardian of time and space.)

- https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Vector_Prime

Crocubot (Crocubot is a superhero and a member of The Vindicators. Crocubot is basically part crocodile and part robot, which technically makes him a cyborg.)

- https://rickandmorty.fandom.com/wiki/Crocubot

SwitchBlade (5v5 vehicle game)

- https://www.switchbladegame.com/

Greed (The Greed are the grey, faceless creatures who swarm and attack the Kingdom at night.)

- https://kingdomthegame.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Greed

Other Kingdom games

Kingdom: New Lands - https://kingdomthegame.fandom.com/wiki/Kingdom:_New_Lands

Kingdom: Two Crowns - https://kingdomthegame.fandom.com/wiki/Kingdom:_Two_Crowns

Konami Code (cheat code that appears in many Konami video games, and some non-Konami games.)

↑↑↓↓←→←→BA

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konami_Code

Johnny English (2003 spy action comedy film directed by Peter Howitt and written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and William Davies.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_English

Aum Shinrikyo in Banjawarn station

- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-10/doomsday-cult-aum-shinrikyo-sarin-gas-tests-at-banjawarn-wa/9401216

Aum Shinrikyo Anime Recruitment Video

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UIyKJwRgaI

Scared Shitless (TNC Podcast)

- https://thatsnotcanon.com/scaredshitlesspodcast

Shout Outs

24  February 2020 – Katherine Johnson passes away - https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/24/us/katherine-johnson-death-scn-trnd/index.html

Katherine Johnson, an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights. During her 35-year career at NASA and its predecessor, she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations and helped pioneer the use of computers to perform the tasks. The space agency noted her "historical role as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist." Johnson's work included calculating trajectories, launch windows and emergency return paths for Project Mercury spaceflights, including those for astronauts Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and John Glenn, the first American in orbit, and rendezvous paths for the ApolloLunar Module and command module on flights to the Moon. Her calculations were also essential to the beginning of the Space Shuttle program, and she worked on plans for a mission to Mars. In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was portrayed by Taraji P. Henson as a lead character in the 2016 film Hidden Figures. In 2019, Johnson was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Johnson died at a retirement home in Newport News, at age 101. Following her death, Jim Bridenstine, NASA's administrator, described her as "an American hero" and stated that "her pioneering legacy will never be forgotten."

25 February 2020 – Kazuhisa Hashimoto, Japanese video game developer, best known for having created the Konami Code passed away – https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/26/tech/kazuhisa-hashimoto-konami-code-dead/index.html

Hashimoto is best known for inventing the ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A hack found in multiple video games that has become a geek touchstone in the gaming community. The cheat code gives you different perks, depending on the game. Hashimoto had inadvertently created it while bringing the arcade version of Gradius to the NES in 1986. Hashimoto knew the arcade version of the game was hard and he would likely not finish it, so he added a sequence of button presses that he could easily remember that gave the ship he controlled in the game the full range of power-ups so that he could easily complete the game for in-house testing purposes. He had intended to remove the programming code for that sequence before the game was shipped, but the game had shipped with the code included. Since then, the Konami code is not only used across other video games from other developers and publishers in similar manners, but as Easter eggs in other forms of media. His death reported by both Konami and by Hashimoto's friend Yuji Takenouchi , a composer and video game sound designer, who tweeted that the code creator died.

22 February 2020 – 81 year old man became the oldest man to sail around the world - https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-22/bill-hatfield-oldest-person-to-sail-solo-around-the-world/11991436?fbclid=IwAR0r50t6ZI5eHnBuMxqkmgfPTlUiarwhHzVFFPZo5OrKRR4aI95ezGw6Ll0

After four attempts, Bill Hatfield has become the oldest person to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world. The 81-year-old completed his eight-month journey on Saturday morning, sailing into The Spit on the Gold Coast in his 38-foot yacht L'Eau Commotion. The former fisherman from Bundaberg said he'd been dreaming of this achievement since he was seven years old. Mr Hatfield said he lived on strict rations while at sea. "For fresh water I had a desalinator that pumps through a membrane, and my daily diet was a third of a tin of beans, a tin of tuna, 100 grams of rice and flour and oats, and 150 grams of milk powder." The achievement is all the more impressive considering he sailed west, battling against the prevailing winds and currents.

22 February 2020 – Michael Hughes popularly known as "Mad" Mike Hughes passed away - https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-22/bill-hatfield-oldest-person-to-sail-solo-around-the-world/11991436?fbclid=IwAR0r50t6ZI5eHnBuMxqkmgfPTlUiarwhHzVFFPZo5OrKRR4aI95ezGw6Ll0

Hughes, a self-styled daredevil, flat-Earth theorist and limousine-jumping stuntman, died Saturday when his crudely built contraption propelled him on a column of steam, spiraled through the air and cratered into the sagebrush. The rocket’s green parachute tore away moments after takeoff, sending the crowd of 50 or so people into a panic. In March 2018, Mr Hughes propelled himself almost 600m into the air before a hard landing in the Mojave Desert. After professing his belief in a flat Earth later that year, Hughes gained support within the flat-Earth community. His post-flat-Earth fundraising campaign made its $7,875 goal. He had said he intended to make multiple rocket journeys, culminating in a flight to outer space, where he believed he would be able to take a picture of the entire Earth as a flat disc. He died in Barstow, California at the age of 64.

Remembrances

27 February 1887 – Alexander Borodin -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Borodin   

Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin, Russian chemist and Romantic musical composer of Georgian ancestry. He was one of the prominent 19th-century composers known as "The Mighty Handful", a group dedicated to producing a uniquely Russian kind of classical music, rather than imitating earlier Western European models. A doctor and chemist by profession, Borodin made important early contributions to organic chemistry. Although he is presently known better as a composer, during his lifetime, he regarded medicine and science as his primary occupations, only practising music and composition in his spare time or when he was ill. As a chemist, Borodin is known best for his work concerning organic synthesis, including being among the first chemists to demonstrate nucleophilic substitution, as well as being the co-discoverer of the aldol reaction. Borodin was a promoter of education in Russia and founded the School of Medicine for Women in Saint Petersburg, where he taught until 1885. He died from heart attack at the age of 54 in Saint Petersburg.

27 February 1936 – Ivan Pavlov - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov

Russian physiologist known primarily for his work in classical conditioning. Inspired by the progressive ideas which D. I. Pisarev, the most eminent of the Russian literary critics of the 1860s, and I. M. Sechenov, the father of Russian physiology, were spreading, Pavlov abandoned his religious career and devoted his life to science. Pavlov won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1904, becoming the first Russian Nobel laureate. Pavlov's principles of classical conditioning have been found to operate across a variety of behavior therapies and in experimental and clinical settings, such as educational classrooms and even reducing phobias with systematic desensitization. Pavlov also contributed to many areas of physiology and neurological sciences. Most of his work involved research in temperament,conditioning and involuntary reflex actions. This research served as a base for broad research on the digestive system. He died from natural causes at the age of 86 in Leningrad, Russian SFSR.

27 February 1980 – George Tobias - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Tobias

American film and television actor. He had character parts in several major films of Hollywood's Golden Age, but today he is probably best known for his role as Abner Kravitz on the TV sitcom Bewitched. He came to Hollywood in the late Thirties and quickly became a fixture in films of all genres, primarily at Warner Bros. He was a frequent foil for James Cagney and played everything from comedies to dramas and musicals. He died from bladder cancer at the age of 78 in in Los Angeles, California.

Famous Birthdays

27 February 272 – Constantine the Great  – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great

Known as Constantine I, was a Roman Emperor who ruled between AD 306 and 337. As emperor, Constantine enacted administrative, financial, social and military reforms to strengthen the empire. He restructured the government, separating civil and military authorities. To combat inflation he introduced the solidus, a new gold coin that became the standard for Byzantine and European currencies for more than a thousand years. The Roman army was reorganised to consist of mobile units (comitatenses) and garrison troops (limitanei) capable of countering internal threats and barbarian invasions. Constantine pursued successful campaigns against the tribes on the Roman frontiers—the Franks, the Alamanni, the Goths and the Sarmatians—even resettling territories abandoned by his predecessors during the Crisis of the Third Century. Constantine was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He has historically been referred to as the "First Christian Emperor" and he did favour the Christian Church. He was born in Naissus, Moesia Superior.

27 February 1869 – Alice Hamilton – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Hamilton

American physician, research scientist, and author who is best known as a leading expert in the field of occupational health and a pioneer in the field of industrial toxicology. Her scientific research focused on the study of occupational illnesses and the dangerous effects of industrial metals and chemical compounds. Hamilton's best-known research included her studies on carbon monoxide poisoning among American steelworkers, mercury poisoning of hatters, and "a debilitating hand condition developed by workers using jackhammers." In addition to her scientific work, Hamilton was a social-welfare reformer, humanitarian, peace activist, and a resident-volunteer at Hull House in Chicago. She was the recipient of numerous honors and awards, most notably the Albert Lasker Public Service Award for her public-service contributions. She was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York.

27 February 1807 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow

American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and was one of the Fireside Poets from New England. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841).  Longfellow wrote many lyric poems known for their musicality and often presenting stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular American poet of his day and also had success overseas. He has been criticized by some, however, for imitating European styles and writing specifically for the masses. He was born in Portland, Maine.

Events of Interest

27 February 1980 – “I Will Survive” wins first and last Grammy for Best Disco Recording

- https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/i-will-survive-wins-the-firstand-lastgrammy-ever-awarded-for-best-disco-recording

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences gave disco their stamp of approval, deciding to give a Grammy award for Best Disco Recording, just as the musical style was preparing to die. As popular as the music was on the radio and in the clubs, disco had failed to produce many of the kind of dependable, multi-platinum acts that the industry depended on for its biggest profits. The Best Disco Recording category, recognized by the Grammys for the first time, was summarily eliminated from the following year’s awards.

27 February 1994 – TekLab was aired - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111387/

On this day in 1994, TekLab aired as one of the telefilms launching William Shatner's TekWar SciFi series.  The film starred Greg Evigan and Eugene Clark, and here's the plot summary compliments of IMDB.com: "The actual sword of Excalibur has been stolen in London, and futuristic detectives Jake Cardigan and Sid Gomez are assigned to track it down and to find out who is trying to block the British reign from its rightful heir.".

27 February 2004 – Shoko Asahara, the leader of the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, is sentenced to death for masterminding the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_subway_sarin_attack#Aum/Aleph_today

Asahara was sentenced to death by hanging on 27 February 2004, but lawyers immediately appealed the ruling. The Tokyo High Court postponed its decision on the appeal until results were obtained from a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation, which was issued to determine whether Asahara was fit to stand trial. Asahara and twelve other Aum cultists were finally executed by hanging in July, 2018, after all appeals were exhausted. The group reportedly still has about 2,100 members, and continues to recruit new members under the name "Aleph" as well as other names. Though the group has renounced its violent past, it still continues to follow Asahara's spiritual teachings. Members operate several businesses, though boycotts of known Aleph-related businesses, in addition to searches, confiscations of possible evidence and picketing by protest groups, have resulted in closures.

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Hot Property: They really should just call it Kalabasas

It really is getting hard to keep up with the Kardashians.

This week, Kylie Jenner — the youngest sister of the Kardashian-Jenner clan — sold her starter home in (Where else?) Calabasas. The Kardashian-Jenners have become the informal first family of Calabasas. Rob Kardashian recently sold his Calabasas home, while sisters Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian have their own Calabasas pads; Kim Kardashian and matriarch Kris Jenner live nearby in Hidden Hills.

Aside from the reality TV star, we also followed the real estate moves of two big television actors and a popular Dodgers slugger.

Once you’re done checking out these star-studded transactions, visit and like our Facebook page, where you can find Hot Property stories and updates throughout the week. That’s also a fine place to leave a tip about a celebrity home deal.

– Neal J. Leitereg and Andrea Chang

Kylie Jenner quits Calabasas starter home

Reality television personality Kylie Jenner has officially parted ways with her gothic-glam home in Calabasas, selling the renovated two-story for $3.15 million.

The Tuscan-inspired contemporary, built in 2006, was extensively updated by the 19-year-old during her two years of ownership. Ebony-stained floors, designer tilework and crystal hardware are among the new-look details. One of the six bedrooms was refashioned as a “glam room.”

A great room, a center-island kitchen and a home theater also lie within 4,851 square feet of space. Separate walk-in and accessory closets highlight the redone master suite.

The property originally came up for sale last summer at $3.9 million and was more recently listed for $3.3 million, according to the Multiple Listing Service.

Jenner is largely known for her family’s reality series, “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.” Last year she launched the makeup line Kylie Cosmetics; she is also a prominent social media star.

Jenner owns other property in Hidden Hills.

Riley Jamison

Kylie Jenner of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” fame has sold her starter home in Calabasas for $3.15 million.

Kylie Jenner of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” fame has sold her starter home in Calabasas for $3.15 million.

(Riley Jamison)

Slugger lists Sherman Oaks pad

Yasiel Puig, slugging outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers, has put his home in Sherman Oaks on the market for $2.3 million.

The Mediterranean-villa-style house, built in 2003, sits behind walls and gates and has a two-story entry. Interior appointments include stone and hardwood floors, skylights and ornate ironwork. The open-plan living and dining rooms share a wet bar.

The upstairs master suite is outfitted with a sitting room, a fireplace and French doors that lead to a balcony. The soaking tub in the master bath takes in a view of the backyard. A total of six bedrooms and six bathrooms lie within more than 4,600 square feet of living space.

Outside, ample patio space surrounds a swimming pool with a tiled spa. Next to the pool is a built-in barbecue.

Puig bought the property two years ago for $1.8 million.

The 26-year-old has 18 home runs in 94 games for the Dodgers this year, seeing the majority of his time in right field. He previously made the all-star team in 2014.

From Central Perk to Century City

“Friends” star Matthew Perry has purchased a full-floor penthouse in Century City for $20 million, or about $2,146 per square foot, according to real estate sources with knowledge of the sale.

The actor, who is currently selling a home in Hollywood Hills West, purchased the 9,318-square-foot unit in July through a blind trust, records show. It had been listed for $26.5 million.

Found within the Robert A.M. Stern-designed Century building, the residence features floor-to-ceiling windows, a living room with two fireplaces and a center-island kitchen. The formal dining room can seat as many as 25 guests.

Perry, 47, is known for his role as Chandler Bing on the long-running sitcom “Friends.” Last year he made his playwriting debut, “The End of Longing,” in London.

He is asking $13.5 million for his home in the Bird Streets section of Hollywood Hills West.

Realtor.com | Inset: Los Angeles Times

“Friends” star Matthew Perry bought the Century City condominium in June for $20 million.

“Friends” star Matthew Perry bought the Century City condominium in June for $20 million.

(Realtor.com | Inset: Los Angeles Times)

Ari Gold would be proud

Actor Jeremy Piven, known for his role as the power agent on the long-running HBO show “Entourage,” has bought a home in the Mount Olympus area of Hollywood Hills West for $6.8 million.

Perched on a hilltop, the modern residence employs a switchback design that vaults the dining room ceiling while creating a rooftop terrace above. Ample outdoor living space and walls of windows maximize dramatic cityscape and ocean views.

The 4,800 square feet of open-plan living space includes an artistic floating staircase, a center-island kitchen, living and game rooms, four bedrooms and five bathrooms. In the master suite, which features a fireplace and soaking tub, a pocketing glass wall opens to a canyon-facing balcony.

The home came up for sale in December for $7.9 million and was more recently listed for $6.999 million, records show.

Piven, 51, won multiple Primetime Emmys during his eight-season run on “Entourage.” The actor also has film credits that include “Old School” (2003), “Spider-Man” (2003) and “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” (2014).

More recently he starred in the British drama series “Mr. Selfridge.”

Realtor.com | Inset: Los Angeles Times

Actor Jeremy Piven of “Entourage” fame has paid $6.8 million for a modern showplace in the Mount Olympus neighborhood.

Actor Jeremy Piven of “Entourage” fame has paid $6.8 million for a modern showplace in the Mount Olympus neighborhood.

(Realtor.com | Inset: Los Angeles Times)

His favorite room

Barry Watson was a teen heartthrob on “7th Heaven.” Now he stars on “Date My Dad” and whips up quail-egg grilled cheese sandwiches for his kids in his rustic Venice kitchen.

Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

“Cooking is my detox from working,” says the “Date My Dad” and “7th Heaven” actor. He loves to cook for the kids, but they don’t get to help in the kitchen, his “command center.”

“Cooking is my detox from working,” says the “Date My Dad” and “7th Heaven” actor. He loves to cook for the kids, but they don’t get to help in the kitchen, his “command center.”

(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)