According to multiple reports, the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) have been secretly collecting vast amounts of internet data by gaining direct access to the servers of big tech companies.
The Guardian and The Washington Post said they have obtained a 41-page powerpoint presentation dated April 2013 of the covert program, known as PRISM, which was intended for NSA senior analysts. It would give the agency the power to circumvent legal processes required to seek personal information such as e-mails, photos and videos, according to the two news outlets.
The companies implicated by PRISM include Apple, Google, Skype, Facebook, Microsoft and AOL, with Microsoft reportedly being the first to sign up for the program back in 2007. While the NSA say they have the complete co-operation from the all tech companies involved, none of the companies have either denied their involvement or have refused to comment on the issue.
If all true, PRISM basically has access to your life.
So what are you afraid the government may find out about you? Possible one of these 10 things.
1. Where you hid your 50 Shades of Grey .PDFs and other smutty fanfics
They’re in the folder titled “Nickelback,” aren’t they?
2. You’re a secret bronie
3. You’re a little too cat-obsessed
Via Buzzfeed
Call me whatever you want but I don’t understand the appeal of the Fast and the Furious franchise. To me, Fast and the Furious is (nerd alert!) the failed American gun-trafficking investigation where the sale of guns to suspected criminals were allowed as an attempt to track them back to violent drug cartels in Mexico. Sorry to say that is more exciting than watching two hours of Vin Diesel, he who likes to think Hollywood is more harsh on men than women when it comes to appearances, driving around in fancy cars.
With that being said, I would totally give up my Fast and the Furious non-watching streak if it means getting a 2 Slow, 2 Curious movie which MUST star sloths. Just sloths. No people. No Vin Diesel. Just two unadulterated hours of sloths of being cute. SorryImNotSorry. Let’s get a Kickstarter ready!
I’m not entirely sure where Vin Diesel was going with this cover, but he certainly succeeded in making me a little creeped out. Singing along to Rihanna’s “Stay” playing in the background, the actor tries his hardest to live up to the singer.
I don’t know if this is supposed to be serious or funny, but the part when he says “Happy V Day, amore” complimented with a wet smooch has me cringing and squirming all over.
Vin, I think it’s safe to say that you should stick to what you do best: looking badass while driving cars.
For the past decade, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker have gotten paid millions of dollars to act poorly and drive around in a bunch of fancy cars.
It’s hard to imagine a seventh “Fast & Furious” film is already in the works. Vin Diesel just confirmed the news today with The Hollywood Reporter.
“With the success of this last one, and the inclusion of so many characters, and the broadening of scope, when we were sitting down to figure out what would fit into the real estate of number six, we didn’t have enough space,” he tells the Magazine.
It must be really hard to come up with an original storyline after five films have already made. Every “Fast & Furious” film follows the same pattern: Vin and Paul hang out, race some cars, pick up some chicks and fight off the bad guys. Paul and Vin win the fight and get to take the hot chicks home. The end.
Movie goers aren’t bothered by the fact that the last movie, “Fast Five” had a dull storyline and bad acting, because the movie ended up grossing $626 million worldwide.
Diesel doesn’t confirm with The Hollywood Reporter on whether the sixth and seventh films will be played as a two-part film (like Twilight’s Breaking Dawn) or separately. No word on whether or not Eva Mendes will return to the franchise, either. Judging by how buzz-worthy the actress is right now, it’ll probably help with the box-office sales.
andPOP is giving you a chance to win 1 of 5 copies of Fast Five on DVD, available Oct 4th.
When Dominic “Dom” Toretto (Vin Diesel) is being transported to Lompoc prison by bus, his sister Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) and friend Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) lead an assault on the bus, causing it to crash, freeing Dom. While authorities search for them, the trio escape to Rio de Janeiro. Dominic and his crew find themselves on the wrong side of the law once again as they try to switch lanes between a ruthless drug lord and a relentless federal agent.
Contest ends Oct 14, 2011. Open to residents of Canada, excluding Quebec. One entry per person.
‘Fast Five,’ the fifth installment of the ‘Fast and Furious’ movies, opened up this weekend with a whopping $83.6 million, reports the LA Times.
This is quite a surprise for a sequel film. The film marks the biggest opening weekend for any film this year by far, blowing away ‘Rio’s’ $39.2 debut last month. It’s also the best opening of any film in the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise, whose fourth film brought in $71 million on its premiere in 2009.
The other two new films that opened in wide release this weekend failed to compare in ticket sales. The cheesy teenfest ‘Prom’ only grossed a weak $5 million, meanwhile the animated sequel “Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil” opened with a soft $4.1 million, far less than the original.
‘Fast Five’ has helped pushed the box office out of its slump as well, with ticket sales up 52% this weekend as compared with the same weekend last year.
The studio spent at least $170 million to produce the movie, according to three people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss the film’s budget. A Universal spokeswoman said the actual cost was $125 million.
The studio made a number of changes to the “Fast” franchise with this film, switching its genre from a pure underground-racing movie to a heist film. Guess it paid off. The movie reunites stars from all four ‘Fast’ movies, including Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, and introduces newcomer Dwayne Johnson. ‘Fast Five’ also has a different international setting, taking place in Rio de Janeiro.
The movie also did well overseas too, opening in 14 foreign markets this weekend and collecting $45.3 million, bringing its international tally to $81.4 million. The film took the No. 1 spot in 10 countries.
Those who saw the film loved it, giving it an average grade of A, according to market research firm CinemaScore.
I honestly thought everyone was over this film, but apparently not, so expect many sequels to come. I stopped watching after the second.
Don't be scared, you won't need all of those. At once.
Nerd Games (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love RPGs)
You start work at a new office. You meet someone on the subway or a streetcar, and conversation starts. For someone like me (men in their early twenties), mentioning to someone you play video games still has a bit of a nerdy connotation to it. Although video games have definitely become a mainstream form of entertainment for boys and girls alike and even more significantly men and women, if you ask someone you just met if they’ve played Fallout 3 or Oblivion, you run the risk of sounding like a nerd (not that there’s anything wrong with that). You may even come across as childish, although it’s become popular opinion that video games can and are played by men and women of all ages. All said though, it’s not really too big of a deal.
Now try the exact same situation, but instead of asking your new-found friend if they have played the new Call of Duty or Batman: Arkham Asylum you ask them if they know what Dungeons and Dragons is. Completely different story. Telling someone in 2009 that you play Dungeons and Dragons is like telling someone in 1989 that you play video games – or Dungeons and Dragons, for that matter.
“Fast and Furious” star Vin Diesel is getting ready to break all sorts of road rules again as the star of Paramount Pictures’ “The Wheelman.”
According to Variety, the movie is a live-action adaptation of the Diesel-produced Ubisoft videogame “Wheelman,” which hit store shelves last month.
The game features the voice and visage of Diesel himself as the main character, an expert driver who emerges from retirement to help a woman from his past. His mission takes him to Barcelona, where he gets tangled up in the middle of a gang war.
Testosterone, check. Darkness, check. Funky glasses, check. You ARE Vin Diesel. The sequel, Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, released 5 years after Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay puts everyone’s favourite night seeing, space flying protagonist from the motion picture Pitch Black in yet another action packed sci-fi. Yes, that’s right, this IS a movie licensed video game, but wait, don’t leave, don’t click that close button because Dark Athena isn’t all that bad!
Still with me? Good! Dark Athena takes place shortly after Escape from Butcher Bay ends, as such (I don’t want to spoil anything, but the game came out 5 years ago!) you begin with yourself and Johns in stasis on a ship, your stasis short circuited and you woke early. The benefit of this coincidence is that you get to see your ship being reeled in like a trout by one of the scariest looking ships I have ever seen, the Dark Athena. The mercenaries (or space pirates, whatever you want to call them) board your ship with just enough time for you to hide in the darkness (a recurring theme in this game) and watch as they break your ship and capture Johns, who spends a lot of time sleeping throughout the game. It’s up to you, Riddick, Vin Diesel, the only chance of getting the other prisoners off the ship and the only one capable of pulling off the feat, to kick some ass.
Fast and Furious sped away from expectations to gross a humongous $72.5 mil, according to early estimates from Media by Numbers. That result is effectively double what most industry observers had predicted for the debut of the fourth feature in Vin Diesel’s car franchise, and it left in the dust a number of notable records:
According to ew.com, these are the records defeated this weekend:
