Mike Wallace, '60 Minutes' interviewer, dies at 93

[via EW]

Have a great Sunday, gang!

Horrorthonners, sound off! What are you watching?

I was already thinking I didn't want to look at that dead mammoth all weekend, and then I happened across the What Are You Watching? Horrorthon pre-game post. It's been a six months and I wonder what new entertainment you people have been sucking into your eyebones.

How about it? What's been hogging your screens, clogging your speakers or keeping your page-turning fingers busy? Speak up!

Humans likely butchered mammoth 10,000 years ago

(CNN) Ten thousand years ago, a young mammoth probably got into a scuffle with a large predator, and was then apparently butchered by ancient settlers of Siberia. Both lions and humans may have been involved in its death, according to the BBC.

Today, the mammoth's remains are some of the best-preserved of their kind, thanks to the low temperatures in the area where it was discovered.

The team of scientists that are studying Yuka (the creature's nickname) estimate that the mammoth was between 2 and 3 years old at the moment of its death.

The evidence also revealed signs of human interaction with animals in the region. The expedition was financed by the Discovery Channel and the BBC.

“This is the first relatively complete mammoth carcass – that is, a body with soft tissues preserved – to show evidence of human association,” Daniel Fisher, curator and director of the University of Michigan’s Museum of Paleontology, told Discovery News.

Fisher explained that the settlers removed “parts include most of the main core mass of Yuka's body, including organs, vertebrae, ribs, associated musculature, and some of the meat from upper parts of the legs,” but the rest remained intact.

Kevin Campbell of the University of Manitoba is one of the scientists involved in the investigation, and hopes that this finding could lead to one of the most controversial bioengineering experiments: the cloning of a mammoth.

Yuka’s discovery will be broadcasted in the BBC/Discovery Channel TV show “Woolly Mammoth”, produced and directed by Tim Walker. Walker told Discovery News that it could take years or even decades to clone this extinct species.

Not Even A Hat Would Keep This Thing From Freaking Me Out

2001 to Timecop: 8 Movie Futures Already Proven Wrong

From cracked,

The Predictions

Advanced Artificial Intelligence: The closest thing we had to HAL in 2001 were AOL Instant Messenger Bots, which can "chat" in an irritating, judgmental way. These bots were designed to function at an intelligence level on par with your average AOL user, so let's just say we weren't in immediate danger of a HAL-like consciousness taking over a NASA mission and eliminating its crew members. Luckily, our 2001-era highly-combustible space shuttles were quite capable of killing astronauts on their own, thank you very much.

Innovative New Technology: There's a scene in 2001 in which a character is dozing in front of a flat-panel screen built into the seat in front of him--an impressively accurate prediction of JetBlue and other airlines with TVs in their seat back. Even more noteworthy is that he's watching programming that's obviously from the 1960s, eerily anticipating Nick at Nite.

Widespread Space Travel: It's easy to chide Space Odyssey for its ambitious forecast of turn-of-the-century space travel, but keep in mind that the film was released in 1968, a full year before we faked the moon landing. Nobody could have guessed that the Soviet Union would forfeit the Space Race for fear of getting its dress dirty, and then finally collapse like a little girl. This deprived us the fruits of competition. Were the Soviets still tinkering around with satellites, we'd probably be colonizing Pluto instead of bitterly revoking its status as a planet.

Overall Accuracy

2001 is often celebrated for its clairvoyance, because a few of its inane predications came vaguely true. But, the major plot elements still seem like crackhead visions of the distant future. And the movie's notion that we'd still have attractive flight attendants in 2001 now seems preposterous.

See the rest here

Hitch

Alfred Hitchcock in his apprenticeship on the set of The Mountain Eagle (1926). Also in the photo is his future wife, Alma Reville.
Image Credit: guardian.co.uk

This early photograph of Alfred Hitchcock makes me laugh because he just looks so enthusiastic.

10 signs that the movie you’re watching is from the 80s

#10 It ends on a freezeframe

From denofgeek, If you’re watching a movie and it suddenly stops approximately 100 minutes in, don’t worry - your Blu-ray player hasn’t crashed. It probably just means the movie you’ve been watching was made in the 80s. Used to singularly dramatic effect at the conclusion of the 1969 classic, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, the freezeframe ending became mysteriously popular among filmmakers a little over a decade later.

Stallone loved the technique, and presumably nicked it from John G Alvidsen, who later ended his Rocky remake, The Karate Kid, with a shot of Mr Miyagi looking sage and, if we’re being honest, a little bit smug. At any rate, almost every Rocky movie ended on a freezeframe of Rocky Balboa’s face looking battered yet relieved, and usually draped in the stars and stripes.

1984‘s Against All Odds ended with an extended freezeframe of Rachel Ward’s face, streaked with tears - tears provoked, no doubt, by the Phil Collins music playing in the background. Similarly, The Breakfast Club concluded with a still shot of a young Judd Nelson punching the air in jubilation, probably at the thought of the glittering Hollywood acting career which lay ahead.

Like many of the other 80s trappings on this list, freezeframes have still appeared occasionally since (quite memorably in The Full Monty), but never as frequently as they did in that decade.

See the full list here

Obama gives Vulcan salute with Lt. Uhura

From usatoday, President Obama, a fan of the Star Trek television series and movies, has often been compared to Spock, the cool, logical, and emotion-free first officer from the planet Vulcan.

So it was only natural that when he received a visit from Nichelle Nichols -- the actress who portrayed Lt. Uhura -- Obama would deliver the Vulcan salute.

Nichols tweeted out this picture along with the Vulcan saying: "Live long and prosper."

On the day of her visit, Feb. 29, Nichols tweeted that "I was honored to get a chance to meet with Pres Barack Obama today in the White House. He was as charming and handsome as I had expected."

"Months ago Pres Obama was quoted as saying that he'd had a crush on me when he was younger," Nichols also wrote. "I asked about that & he proudly confirmed it! President Obama also confirmed for me that he was definitely a Trekker! How wonderful is that?!"

Barack Obama wasn't the only young American male to have a crush on Nichols, a trailblazer herself.

One of the first African-Americans with a continuing role on a major television show, Nichols also shared the small screen's first interracial kiss (with Captain James Kirk, played by William Shatner).

Trailer for Safety Not Guaranteed

This popped up at the end of the House at the End of the Street trailer, and I clicked on it because I have a thing for Aubrey Plaza.

Wipe that smirk off your face

Lara Flynn Boyle at the 2003 Golden Globes (top) and yesterday (bottom). I could have just posted a picture of the big "HOLLYWOOD" sign because it would have gotten the same idea across. What goes up must come down; time to pay the piper; etc.