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Back to the Future Reminder (October 21)
26 years ago, Marty McFly and Doc Brown climbed into their time-traveling flying DeLorean and set the controls to the distant future — October 21, 2015 — which happens to be this week.
This is a fun post about the predictions that Back to the Future got right, the predictions they got wrong, and the amazing technologies we have today that they just completely left out.
Meanwhile, in New York:
Ride-hailing service Lyft is offering free DeLorean rides Wednesday, October 21st in New York City to celebrate Back to the Future Day, when Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled to the future in the (let's face it) middling sequel to the 1985 original blockbuster. The company is partnering with Universal and Verizon for the promotion, which will be offered to users from 11AM to 5PM via a "McFly Mode" toggle on the app.
Rides will be free, but the ability to travel either forward or back through the timestream is dependent on reaching 88 mph, and the speed limit in the Big Apple was just lowered to 25 mph, so don't get your hopes up.
Star Wars Ticket Demand Crashes Cinema Websites
Huge demand for tickets to the first screenings of Star Wars: The Force Awakens has put a strain on cinema websites.
Odeon and Picturehouse said their sites were affected, with Picturehouse saying it had seen "unprecedented" demand. However a Vue spokesman said it had sold 10,000 tickets in 90 minutes, adding "our customers continue to purchase online with ease".
The new film, which hits cinema screens on 17 December, is one of the most anticipated titles of the year. It reunites stars from the original trilogy of films including Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher. Advance tickets went on sale this morning, but the volume of people trying to buy them was too high for website servers to cope.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 21 2015, @04:08AM
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-34583416 [bbc.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday October 21 2015, @04:25AM
A conspiracy of Jews using the latest Star-Wars film as race-mixing propaganda to dilute the pure White race into a more-easily-controlled underclass?
Not so much -- the answer, simply, is that forced diversity in media sells more shit to more people. That minorities have more equal representation, and/or that the film appeals to sexual interracial undertones, is incidental. The primary objective is to sell more shit to more people. A marketing type might say, "accessible to more demographics" or some shit. Anybody with half a brain can see it for what it really is -- pandering. It's why New Captain America is Black [marvel.com] and why New Ghostbusters are all Female. [usmagazine.com] It's not about equal or even proportional representation, it's about making more people wanna buy or otherwise consume your shit.
Much in the same way the big push in STEM isn't about a more scientifically-educated populace, it's about raising the labor supply and driving wages down courtesy of those big benevolent tech companies lobbying your lawmakers.