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TV Series Review: Star Wars Andor (2022, Disney+) *No Spoilers*

I'm a huge fan of most of the live action Star Wars, Disney+ TV series. Though I do think The Book of Boba Fett and Obi Wan both dropped the ball a little with fan expectations.  Star Wars Andor , on the other hand, is a series no one was really asking for but quite a lot of us who tuned in are hugely thankful that it was made. Many have commented that this is the best Star Wars we've seen in quite a while. Personally I think it's the best Star Wars since The Empire Strikes Back . Having said that, I will concede, for fans that feel this series is slow and boring (of which there clearly are a lot of you), I did feel the episodes leading up to the heist really started to drag a bit. Which is not to say the earlier episodes weren't good, they just seemed to keep promising the heist episode sooner than it actually happened. Andor covers the start of the Rebellion in the Star Wars universe. It's basically the other side of the story to the prequel trilogy which show t
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Comic Book Movies are Becoming Too Long for Theatres

You would think you can never have enough of your favorite comic book movie characters on the big screen. The longer a movie the better, right? Well, actually, no. Some recent examples; The Batman was just shy of three hours long. Thor Love and Thunder, almost two hours, Black Adam, two hours five minutes, Wakanda Forever , two hours forty one minutes. Runtime is seriously starting to become a factor as to whether I want to go see a film in a theatre because anything north of two hours is a long time to be seated, and then you really have to start factoring in a bathroom break. The Bathroom Break - Just Go. It's No Big Deal! I realize this is a very first world problem, and I hear those who say if you need a bathroom break during a film just go. It's not a big deal... and it isn't, I agree but... When I see a movie I don't really want to be taken out of the experience - especially literally. If I'm going to need a bathroom break it's very likely it's going t
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Movie Review: Clerks III (2022) *Spoiler Free*

I am generally a fan of director Kevin Smith's films, but after one watch through I'm not really sure if Clerks III really lives up to my expectations. Which is partly because I've heard nothing but positive feedback from audiences who saw the movie in theatres as part of Smith's Convenience Tour (in which he personally introduces the movie and I believe has a Q&A session afterward). I do tend to ignore negative reviews of Smith's films because critics (and people in general) who really don't care for his films tend not to hold back. They'll criticize everything mercilessly, like a tidal wave of negativity that just tells you they're probably horrible people with parental issues. Anyway, Clerks III, continues from Clerks II but pays more homages to the original Clerks over the course of the film. The time jump is basically the real life equivalent of time between Clerks II and III. Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) are still
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There's Gold in Them Thar Hills... Err.. Asteroids - The Space Gold Rush 'Pot of Gold in the Sky'

Space Prospector on Mars, Image: TET/DALL.E NASA is said to be pushing ahead with its plans to launch a mission to a nearby asteroid that potentially contains gold, along with enough quantities of other precious metals, to make everyone on Earth rich beyond their wildest dreams. At least that's the hyperbolic headline Channel Ten's The Project put on their article,  NASA To Explore Golden Asteroid That Could Make Everyone On Earth A Billionaire . Can you imagine? That's one mega huge 'pot of gold in the sky' just waiting for every tin pot prospector to 3D print spaceship conversions for their rusty old trucks and take off for the new frontier! You know those Big Cheese , one percenters, with their own personal spaceships, have thought about it, and Space X (Elon Musk's reusable Spaceship Company) is a part of getting the mission off the ground (literally). As it turns out, while NASA plays down the gold aspect, to the point of barely mentioning the potential v
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Elon Musk Buys Twitter, Launches Twitter Blue... FaceBook Probably Watching Very Closely

Elon Musk in a spaceship sending out a Tweet. Image by David Arandle + Mage.AI Most people who follow the news cycle are probably aware that tech billionaire, Elon Musk, bought the social media giant Twitter . While his overall goal is to make the platform a better experience with fewer bots, he's also invested in turning it into a network that actually makes rather than loses money. After firing a large part of Twitter's workforce, which former CEO, Jack Dorsey, has taken responsibility for by saying he grew the company too fast too soon, Elon launched Twitter Blue . The initial rumored price for Twitter Blue was US$20.00 per month but this has since been revised and set at US$7.99/per month.  Though on my own account in Australia the cost is AU$6.99 per month, which at the current conversion rate means I'm getting a considerable discount. The point of Twitter Blue, aside from offering a number of features not available to those on 'free' accounts, like longer twe
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Book Review: Unbelievable - My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History by Katy Tur

I was quite looking forward to reading this book despite being on the complete opposite side of the political spectrum to Donald Trump. However, while it started out strong, it reads very much like how Trump's Presidential campaign panned out, getting less and less interesting as it gets closer to an ending that everyone knows. Unbelievable - My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History by Katy Tur doesn't really deliver much of an insider view beyond what NBC correspondent, Katy, and others reported on the news. Sure we get an insider look at Katy's perspective and some of the politics of being an on air news reporter when you're not particularly known for political reporting, but I don't feel we really get too much more. I didn't get the sense it was particularly any more crazy than any other campaign despite Trump's head on approach to saying exactly what he thought in front of the media, and for his supporters seemingly thinking they h
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Robot Uprising Update: Google's Army of One Hundred AI Enabled Robots

An Everyday Robot contemplating its life choices and the problem of stairs. I've been monitoring the impending robot uprising for years in this blog (you're welcome) and, while iRobot is making some progress toward putting robot vacuum cleaners into every home, Google is taking it to the next level. Which doesn't mean they've decided to attach laser guns to internet connected vacuum cleaners to kick off an early robot Armageddon, fortunately. Their big idea is Everyday Robots , a robot helper for your home that can learn and help with almost anything. From the Everyday Robots website: Our vision is to build robots that will be as transformative to the physical world, as our computers are in the digital world. But to get there, we first need to take on the hardest problem in robotics — building robots that can learn how to help us with just about anything. Google's robot basically looks like a mobile pedestal with cameras on the head and a fairly substantial robot
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