Episode 26 – Ashley Madison Extortion, Drones with Tasers and Force Friday
(music one)
Welcome to another episode of Geek Bytes Podcast.
I’m Ramon Mejia…….I’m Edgar Acosta
Now every podcast we bring you the roundup of the week’s best Geek and Tech news, then we discuss that news and anything else we’re interested in that week.
In Geek News this week, we’ll talk about Twitter and Facebook’s response to Virginia Shooter, Ashley Madison Extortionist, The Force Awakens Force Friday Event, YouTube Gaming, Drones with tasers, movie and tv news, trailers of the week, and more
In our Discussions section we’ll talk about Fear the Walking dead, and Halloween stuff
Now let’s Begin our show with Geek News
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Geek News
Gunman kills 2 live on air then posts video on Twitter
Reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, were broadcasting a live interview with an official from the local chamber of commerce when there was the sudden sound of gunfire and screams. The camera tumbled to the ground, and producers at the local WDBJ7 news station cut off the broadcast, switching to a shocked-looking anchor in the studio.
Four hours after the shooting, Victor Flanagan began tweeting about the incident, using a Bryce Williams Twitter handle. Flanagan tweeted that Parker made racist comments and that he filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission report. He also tweeted that Ward went to human resources about him "after working with me one time!!!"
A short time later, Flanagan posted two short videos of the shooting which quickly circulated through Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. The companies quickly shut down the accounts associated with Victor Flanagan or Bryce Williams.
The shooting set off an intense manhunt that ended hours later when the suspect shot himself in a rented car as police closed in, Franklin County Sheriff Bill Overton said. The suspect, Vester Flanagan, was rushed to a hospital in critical condition but later died.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/26/virginia-gunman-kills-reporter-cameraman
Extortionists Are After the Ashley Madison Users and They Want Bitcoin
Last week a group hackers released a ton of user data that they stole from the affair site Ashley Madison site. Now, another group of people have used that information to extort bit coins from that user group. They are asking for a ransom of “exactly 1.0000001 Bitcoins” (about $225 US) or they will notify the users spouse that they were using Ashely Madison.
http://gizmodo.com/extortionists-are-after-the-ashley-madison-users-and-th-1725675204
THE FORCE AWAKENS AROUND THE WORLD WITH GLOBAL FORCE FRIDAY EVENT
Star Wars: The Force Awakens products will be unveiled in the world’s first-ever global live toy unboxing event. Unfolding over 18 hours in 15 cities and 12 countries, the event will highlight all the new merchandise in a celebration featuring top digital stars from the Maker Studios network.
Kicking off in Sydney, Australia on September 3, the Star Wars YouTube channel will host the live stream of unboxing videos
The stream will continue through Asia, Europe, Canada, and North and South America, with Star Wars commentators Anthony Carboni and Andi Gutierrez hosting the event from the YouTube Space, Los Angeles. Each of the 15 locations will reveal a new product and the grand finale will be at Lucasfilm in San Francisco. All of this will lead up to retailers around the world opening their doors at midnight to eager fans.
https://nerdist.com/star-wars-force-awakens-global-force-friday-event-disney/
YouTube Gaming launched this week
YouTube Gaming is a video game streaming service similar, well exactly like, Twitch. Twitch is a site, acquired by Amazon, that lets you watch others play video games…or stream your games and broadcast your own show.
Google and Amazon had quiet the bidding war when Twitch went up for sale. Google lost and created their own competitor based on their streaming platform.
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/25/youtube-gaming-its-twitch-competitor-set-to-launch-tomorrow/
Police in North Dakota can now use drones armed with tasers
The Daily Beast reports that It is now legal for law enforcement in North Dakota to fly drones armed with everything from Tasers to tear gas thanks to a last-minute push by a pro-police lobbyist.
With all the concern over the militarization of police in the past year, no one noticed that the state became the first in the union to allow police to equip drones with “less than lethal” weapons. House Bill 1328 wasn’t drafted that way, but then a lobbyist representing law enforcement—tight with a booming drone industry—got his hands on it.
The bill’s stated intent was to require police to obtain a search warrant from a judge in order to use a drone to search for criminal evidence. In fact, the original draft of Representative Rick Becker’s bill would have banned all weapons on police drones.
Then Bruce Burkett of the North Dakota Peace Officer’s Association was allowed by the state house committee to amend HB 1328 and limit the prohibition only to lethal weapons. “Less than lethal” weapons like rubber bullets, pepper spray, tear gas, sound cannons, and Tasers are therefore permitted on police drones.
Fizzgig puppet from Jim Henson's 'The Dark Crystal' up for auction
The many-fanged Fizzgig from the Jim Henson and Frank Oz film "The Dark Crystal" is up for auction, along with a heap of other science fiction and fantasy treasures including Leonard Nimoy's Spock uniform from "Star Trek" and the forever quoted "Multi Pass" of "The Fifth Element" fame, the Sports Almanac form Back to the Future II, a storm trooper helmet from the Empire Strikes Back, a model of the Enterprise from Star Trek the Next Generation, and more
Curating of the auction is taking place in London and Los Angeles, and the sale itself is set for Sept. 23 at the BFI IMAX in London. Call-in and online bidding is allowed. For more information, head to the Prop Store.
From the original designer of Gears of War
Cliff Bleszinski, one of the original creators of Gears of War, launched his own game studio a few years ago after a falling out with Epic Games. He’s been very hush hush about what type of game his new studio was making until now. This week they announced details about their new game Law Breakers.
LawBreakers is a competitive, team-based FPS set in a future world, where gravity has been changed forever by a cataclysmic event known simply as "The Shattering". Society has been split into two factions - one that aims to keep the peace and uphold the law, and the other that's formed a highly-organized crime syndicate determined to break it. Both sides use new-age technology to manipulate gravity and the human body to achieve nearly super-human goals - and both sides are fighting for control.
Borderlands is being turned into a blockbuster movie
The post-apocalyptic shooter, Borderlands is having its space western world transformed into a movie for Lionsgate, the studio behind the Hunger Games franchise. Avi Arad and Ari Arad are on board as producers, which tells you at least one thing: this movie should be big. The Arads are pretty much exclusively behind blockbuster films, some — like Iron Man and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man.
No details on when to expect the movie though.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/28/9220215/borderlands-movie-being-made
Stephen Amell's WWE Fight With Stardust Helped Raise Over $228K For Charity
The star of The CW's superhero television series Arrow was able to leverage the attention he received over the past several months feuding with WWE wrestler Stardust to generate a significant amount of money for charity.
Leading up to the SummerSlam match that took place last Sunday, a T-shirt commemorating the bout was sold on Amell’s Represent webpage. A portion of the proceeds went to Emily’s House, a hospice care facility for children.
The goal was to sell a thousand shirts. They ended up selling 15,689 shirts. How much is that (pretend you didn't see the headline)?
"Our campaign for Emily's House in Toronto raised $228,867.60 (USD) in just under 6 days," Amell revealed on his official Facebook page.
The WWE SummerSlam fight: https://youtu.be/jigRNsCV6Xs
http://comicbook.com/2015/08/28/stephen-amells-wwe-fight-with-stardust-helped-raise-over-228k-fo/
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR WRAPS
Captain America: Civil War as filming has finished in Germany marking the end of production.
Chris Evans, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan and Chadwick Boseman were in attendance at the wrap party along with Scarlett Johansson.
Marvel co-president and producer Louis D’Esposito announced the end of principal photography on Twitter as well.
Captain America: Civil War is slated to premiere May 16th, 2016.
http://www.cosmicbooknews.com/content/captain-america-civil-war-wraps
Female Lead for Gambit Film filled
Deadline has confirmed that Lea Seydoux will officially star alongside Channing Tatum in the upcoming Gambit film. You might have seen the French actress in such films as: Inglorious Bastards, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, and The Grand Budapest Hotel. You’ll also see her as a Bond girl in the upcoming movie Specter. She will be taking on the role of Bella Donna Boudreaux in the Gambit movie.
Here’s a description of the character from Marvel.com
Daughter of the leader of the New Orleans Assassins’ Guild, Bella Donna Boudreaux was born while the Guild was involved in an ages-old conflict with the similarly-structured Thieves’ Guild. Bella first met Remy LeBeau when they were children. Although she and LeBeau came from very different backgrounds, they nevertheless became fast friends. After LeBeau was accepted into the Thieves’ Guild, Bella’s friendship with him was seen as a chance for an alliance between the Guilds, and the two were betrothed by their respective parents. Immediately after the wedding, Bella’s brother Julien refused accept their marriage and challenged LeBeau to a duel. LeBeau won, and as punishment for killing an Assassin he was excommunicated from the Thieves’ Guild and exiled from New Orleans.
https://deadline.com/2015/08/lea-seydoux-gambit-channing-tatum-james-bond-1201504941/
Sons of Anarchy Spin Off in works
EW has learned that series creator Kurt Sutter is now in the preliminary stages of developing a new show set in the Northern California motorcycle club scene. The project focuses on the Mayans — the Oakland-based Hispanic MC gang that had quite a rocky history with SAMCRO across seven seasons. In the original series, the Mayans run heroin factories and are also involved in prostitution. Their cuts bear the legend “Los Asesinos de Dios” — Assassins of God.
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/26/sons-anarchy-spinoff-mayans
Trailers of the Week
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Lucasfilm has released a very brief teaser video for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It offers fans a few bits of new footage from the film, but the most compelling shows John Boyega's Finn igniting a lightsaber as he is confronted by Adam Driver's Kylo Ren.
Kill Your Friends
Based on John Niven’s best-selling novel, and starring Nicholas Hoult as you’ve never seen him before, Kill Your Friends is a jet-black comedy about a music executive at the height of the 1990’s Britpop era who will stop at nothing to further his career. Stars Nicholas Hoult (Beast from X-Men Days of Future Past) and has a Nov. 6th release date.
Legend
Tom Hardy plays the Kray Brothers — a pair of twin gangsters who ruled London in the 1960s. LEGEND is a classic crime thriller taking us into the secret history of the 1960s and the extraordinary events that secured the infamy of the Kray Twins.
Ash Vs Evil Dead
“Ash vs Evil Dead” follows Ash, the stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead. When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons –personal and literal. Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its “Evil” grip.
The show premieres on the Starz network on Halloween.
http://www.geekbytespodcast.com/news/2015/8/27/watch-the-latest-trailer-for-ash-vs-evil-dead-tv-show
The Final Girls
When Max (Taissa Farmiga) and her friends reluctantly attend a screening of "Camp Bloodbath," an infamous ‘80s cult horror film that starred Max’s late mother (Malin Akerman), they are accidentally sucked into the silver screen. They soon realize they’re trapped inside the movie and must team up with the horny, regan-era idiot “Camp Bloodbath” counselors -- including Max’s mom as the shy scream queen -- to battle the film’s machete-wielding killer, Billy Murphy
The Hobbit –Extended edition trailer
Warner Bros. and Fathom Events have released a trailer for their upcoming three-night event in which fans can watch the entire Extended Editions of The Hobbit trilogy on the big screen.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will screen on October 5th,
TheHobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will be shown on October 7th
TheHobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, which was recently confirmed to be rated R, will show on October 13th.
http://geektyrant.com/news/trailer-for-the-the-hobbit-trilogy-extended-edition-theatrical-release
For a review of the topics we covered and any of the links in show notes for this episode visit our site geekbytespodcast.com
If you have any comments or news suggestions for us, please e-mail us at feedback@geekbytespodcast.com
Onto our Discussion section
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Discussion-
Fear the Walking Dead
Halloween- Odd/controversial costumes, plans,
That will be it for us this week.
Thanks for listening folks. Now Go Geek out about something.
(Music 4)
Music Credits
"Happy Bee", "Movement Proposition", "Theme for Harold (var.3) ", "Take the Lead"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/