The Ledge, a movie guaranteed to cause controversy in the US
To all the liberal minded Brits who go about their day with nothing more than a rather infrequent “be a winner not a sinner” from a Christian with a megaphone outside Oxford St Tube, a story like the one told in the movie The Ledge might seem a little over dramatic. However the idea of “coming out as an atheist” to your family is downright scary to some and focusing your movie on the topic of free-thinking is a brave move for both actors and producers alike.
According to a recent gallup 2011 poll America is still a very religious society with over 92% saying “yes” to the question “Do you believe in God?”. It’s a regular topic of conversation on main stream news channels and has caused outrage even when used as a topic for jokes in mainstream entertainment.
Many stories have emerged of atheists being persecuted, mostly by the Evangelical groups inside institutions such as the Armed Forces, but there also instances where non-believers have received even harsher treatment when using legal methods to oppose religious practices, such as the case of Damon Fowler and Ellen Beth Wachs.
So the release of the film The Ledge will at least be a controversial one in the US – it’s being heralded as the “Brokeback Mountain” for American atheists and could cause a wave of renewed interest in the movement.
The story focuses on the lives of two people from opposing ends of the spectrum, who become enrolled in a lethal game that neither God nor the police can stop. It stars Charlie Hunnam from Sons of Anarchy, Patrick Wilson, Liv Tyler and Terrence Howard.
Svengali – Grand Canal Theatre Dublin, Tickets on Sale 24th June
The Dublin dates are March 29th, 30th, 31st 2012. Tickets will go on sale on the 24th, please don’t swamp the venue with calls/emails until then.
Learn Something New Every Day, By Email
Dan Lewis has created a lovely little idea for his site. Everyday he sends you something new to learn that will help brighten your day, like the fact that carrots were originally purple until the Dutch got their hands on them.
Derren Brown Svengali at the Wycombe Swan 2012
Tickets for the Wycombe Swan have just gone on sale. For those of you in the Buckingham area who’ve not been able to get to London – now is your chance.
Click here to book tickets as they are likely to sell out fast.
Svengali Review: The eeriest, most captivating, brain-baffling show I’ve ever seen
After press night there’s been a lot of reviews in the press. If you spot one, do send it to us. Here’s a recent one that we (the Web Team) came across, featuring Davina McCall and DB’s parents.
Throughout Derren Brown’s long and successful career, there have always been questions about whether or not he possesses supernatural powers – such is the extent of his magical ability.
And, after seeing his latest offering Svengali, I might be joining in with these debates, given that the show was the most brain-baffling two hours of my life.
While Brown requested nothing about the actual content of Svengali should be given away, I might add that it is undoubtedly Brown’s darkest show yet, concentrating significantly on ‘wonders of the occult’.
As with Brown’s other shows, such as last year’s Enigma, the performance relies a lot on audience participation – leading to many cynics to question the legitimacy of the members chosen to be involved in tricks on-stage.
But Brown contends that he has never been one to use plants or ‘stooges’.
‘It used to frustrate me that some people think I use stooges, as I have genuinely never used them, but if it’s a sign that they can’t work something out (and therefore resort to the old standby) then I’m probably doing something right,’ he said.
‘If no one thought it, I imagine I’d need to change something! I expect and receive all sorts of reactions, from the overly-credulous to the overly-cynical.’
RSA Animate – The Paradox of Choice
RSA animate create another gem of animation and insight with their latest release. In this episode Renata Salecl - a senior researcher at the Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana and visiting professor at the University of London – explains the Paradox of choice.
In the days of communism choice wasn’t freely available, all resources and the means of production were controlled by the government. When choice became ubiquitous it created a layer of anxiety in people.
Renata explores these ideas in beautifully animated words.
Svengali, Wales Millenium Centre, Cardiff April 6th – 9th 2012
Tickets for the Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff go on sale on June 3rd 2011.
The show will run from April 6th – 9th 2012. Tickets usually sell out fast, so get in soon.
First quantum computer just sold to Lockheed Martin but binary computers fight back
On Wednesday, D-Wave Systems made history by announcing the sale of the world’s first commercial quantum computer. The buyer was Lockheed Martin Corporation, who will use the machine to help solve some of their “most challenging computation problems.” Lockheed purchased the system, known as D-Wave One, as well as maintenance and associated professional services. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
D-Wave One uses a superconducting 128-qubit (quantum bit) chip, called Rainier, representing the first commercial implementation of a quantum processor. Built around a superconducting processor, the entire system’s footprint is approximately 100 square feet. The total wall-plug power consumed by a D-Wave One system is 15 kilowatts (a standard laptop uses about 60 watts). Unfortunately the actual speed of the computer is secret, but this is because speed isn’t actually the point of a quantum computer.
A normal computer operates on the basis of units known as bits. Each bit in a normal computer can only be one of 0 or 1 and nothing else. No matter how many bits you have, each computer at a single point in time can only occupy one combination of these bits in order for the programming to actually work.
A quantum computer is different from this because of a principle in quantum mechanics known as superposition. The sort of problem that a conventional computer is very slow at which a quantum computer would be very good at are the ones where you are trying to find one out of billions of billions of billions of combinations which produces an answer. A conventional computer has to go through all the possibilities one by one, the quantum computer can in some sense try them all out at once and can therefore do the calculation in far fewer steps. They are however extremely expensive, the DWave has been rumoured to cost a cool $10-Million.
Despite the fact traditional binary machines have started to reach their limits, new emerging concepts are showing incredible promise. Marc McAndrew is one individual who has invented a machine known as The Charity Engine. The surprising thing is it’s more of a concept than an actual computer. McAndrew has realised that the wasted processing power of machines can be collectively harnessed to make the worlds most powerful supercomputer – for nothing.
By simply running his software on your PC (when it’s idle), you’ll be part of the world’s fastest computer, helping research cures for cancer or new technologies. And the best part of this is that the money the network generates from this research goes to charity. It’s infinitely more environmentally friendly and is so revolutionary that the likes of Amnesty International, Water Aid, Oxfam and ActionAid have all created donation programs to plug in to it – they also monitor the research that takes place to make sure it’s all completely 100% ethical from head to toe. McAndrew (an already successful business owner) has also signed up to a The Giving Pledge that guarantees if he ever makes any real money from the business most of his share will go to charity too. Could you ask for more?
You can sign up to the facebook page here, find out when the Engine will be launching and do your bit for charity too. To encourage you, everyone who signs up is automatically entered in to a completely free lottery draw of $1Million.
Loom – incredible masterpiece of 3D
Loom is the work of specialist animators Polynoid. It took an entire year to construct this truly jaw dropping 5 1/2 minutes of excellence. If you’re a little squeamish and don’t like spiders, this one might give you nightmares.
