iblog

Rushda: It is a rather unusual phemonenon for a film’s title to be kept secret until it is released, but that is the new strategy of Lost creator J.J. Abrams who due to the success of the baffling TV drama, has had fans and ordinary filmgoers alike squirming to work out what is going on behind his latest project. All we know is the codeword ‘Cloverfield’, the date January 18, 2008, and an almost creepy trailer of what appears to be an ordinary disaster movie. Or is it? Well, that’s what Abrams seems to be trying to confuse people with by creating suspense in the form of viral marketing which is slowly spreading intense excitement through the Internet.

The trailer for the film first started speculation by being shown in cinemas before the Transformers movie. The clip shows a happy bunch of teenagers who are suddenly witnessing catastrophes, including the head of the Statue of Liberty being blown off and landing at their feet. Paramount Pictures, which is financing the movie, refuses to give more details. Incredibly, even the potential actors for the film were apparently left in the dark, with none of the auditionees for the casting being shown the script until they were chosen. Ultimately what’s most interesting is how Cloverfield, or whatever it is called, is probably a run-of-the-mill film but has turned into a puzzle, with thousands of people trying to grab clues from web searches and put together theories about what’s going on. Abrams obviously has enough respect from determined fans for this to become something huge. Perhaps it is?

Rushda: For many avid downloaders of music who are conscious of the illegality of free downloads, nothing other than the iTunes music store will do - it is reliable and offers a huge library. However, worryingly ITunes has been dominating the world of music downloads for a long time now and there are a number of niggling problems with it. All tracks downloaded, for example, are in special format called Digital Rights Management (DRM) and so they cannot be transferred outside iTunes and Ipods with ease. Because of such problems, big names such as Universal and SonyBMG have started to release their own rival software that is supposedly better than what Apple has to offer.

One of the best programs that is coming out of these initiatives is Gbox by Universal, which is becoming hugely popular. Gbox sells tracks without being formatted with the copy protection technology which is the ultimate downfall of iTunes tracks. Not only are the tracks more flexible in this way than those offered in the iTunes music store, but each track also costs less, at around 50p per track (whereas iTunes charges about 79p). As Gbox starts becoming more popular, it is also benefiting from special advertising with Google, whereby when particular songs are searched for with the search engine, adverts for Gbox will appear. As Universal Music Group chief executive Doug Morris says,

“We’re committed to exploring new ways to expand the availability of our artists’ music online, while offering consumers the most choice in how and where they purchase and enjoy our music.”

Finally downloaders can rest assured that there are other programs available that will cut the cost of their downloaded tracks and make them easier to copy. Perhaps now that iTunes is losing its monopoly over music downloads, more people will be keener to stop music piracy by buying tracks at reasonable costs elsewhere.

Virgil: You are presented with a Rubik’s Cube, disordered, and ordered to solve it. You twist and turn the thing for hours through thousands of rotations but get nowhere - it’s just become random and frustrating. As if only to make the defeat more cutting, a new bit of research has proved that at any given stage you are no more than 26 turns away from the solution.

But what if you were God? God would, for every Rubik arrangement, know exactly which twists to make - he’d be able to solve it in the minimum amount of moves. It’s this piece of speculation that has led to the number being called “God’s Number” - the minimum moves needed to solve any Rubik’s Cube if you are omniscient. Whilst the new proof tells us God’s Number is below 26, the truth of the elusive number remains to be discovered.

Why the number is so tantalising a prospect to figure out is anyone’s guess, but perhaps it’s the sheer difficulty of the problem compared to the simplicity of the solution - just an integer in its “low twenties”. Contrasted to the low solution are the 43 billion billion possible Rubik arrangements to plough through to get it - far too much even for a supercomputer.

Graduate student Daniel Kunkle and Gene Cooperman from Northeastern University in Boston thought of a clever way to get round cracking the problem. By telling their computers to only solve the different cube arrangements half-way - arriving at points where they knew only a few more moves would be needed, they came to the half-proof that most arrangements took 26 moves or less, but some were taking 29 or more. They were then able to focus all the computer’s energies on the problem cases above 26, which numbered significantly fewer, finally being able to resolve all of these cases.

Whilst the 21st century’s Rubik counterpart is something like Su Doku, easily solvable by most computers, the Rubik’s Cube of the 1980’s remains firmly mysterious and yet as ever a tantalisingly simple puzzle - if only you knew…

Rushda: A Chinese talent show similar to Pop Idol in Britain has been banned by the the state’s broadcasting watchdog for being tasteless and “vulgar”. The show, which is called The First Heartthrob had attracted about 100,000 Chinese contestants since it began last year, and was one of the few talent shows which got such high ratings. But after consideration, The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (Sarft) announced that it was unacceptable to air it any longer as it was only aiming at “the low-grade interests of a minority”.

It is difficult to know whether to be appalled or amused about the cancellation, as it would be unheard of for any popular shows in Britain, such as Big Brother or X Factor, to be banned because they do not match the artistic quality of Mozart. It is also unclear what exactly was wrong with The First Heartthrob for it to apparently show a lack of social responsibility. In their own words Sarft say:

“The design of the show is coarse. The judges’ behaviour lacks grace. The programming lacks artistic standards. The tone of the show has cheapened. The songs performed are vulgar.”

Apparently the decision might have something to do with a tightening of media controls due to the Chinese Communist Party’s congress. Alternatively, it is also speculated that it might have been prompted by a contestant making a judge cry. Either way, it’s quite a confusing issue that no doubt thousands are unhappy about. Perhaps this story will mean I end up watching the new series of X Factor with pride!

Rushda: The wait is on for the final installment in the Harry Potter series of books, and Royal Mail have decided to mark the occasion by producing millions of stamps with pictures of covers from all seven of the books. The stamps will be available on 17th July, four days before the release of the final book, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows. Well, as anticipated the excitement is building up even more. J.K Rowling is so lucky - as ever she is one of the highest women on this year’s new UK’s rich list, and I only wonder how much richer she’ll get with the sales and surrounding publicity of her new book.

Caroline: Two TV programmes this week have had me wondering what we mean by being shy or embarrassed. First there was Virgin School, where 26 year old virgin James was sent to Amsterdam to lose his virginity with the aid of three mature Dutch ladies. He attended three days per fortnight for four months and I am pleased to report that by the end of his tutoring, the mission was accomplished. Part of James’ problem was apparently shyness and low self-esteem. It therefore seemed extraordinary that he had the guts (note the careful choice of word) to bare his soul and every other part to provide primetime entertainment. Equally extraordinary was the fact that James wears two pairs of underpants, possibly related to the fact that he shops for his undies with his grandmother. The next programme was on Thurs, Embarrassing Illnesses, and I couldn’t help wondering why these people who had been too shy to approach their GP with their ailments (some thirty odd years in the case of the man with piles) were suddenly willing to air their problems to the TV viewing public. Perhaps it’s all to do with us seeking our five minutes of fame but if these are the shy ones I dread to think what the more confident amongst us might reveal.

Rushda: I think it’s about time another reputable company apart from Apple have their own music download store, so it was quite interesting to see that Amazon are about to open their own music store “later this year”. And what’ll make it better than ITunes is the fact that the tunes it’ll sell will be without copy protection. DRM will be absent from every track up for sale. This is brilliant news. As much as I love iTunes I’m always feeling like the tunes I’ve just bought aren’t really “mine” because I can’t copy them at will to more than a couple of specially authorised machines. I’ll happily go to Amazon if their stock and pricing is comparable - in fact, I really hope it’s even better! I also think such ventures will help towards the bid to combat music piracy.

Rushda: He may not wear the costume, do funky jumps or shoot web out of his hands, but a man has been nicknamed Spiderman and has been scaling towers all over Germany without any safety equipment… just for fun. The latest one he did was in Berlin and a video of him can be seen here. Too bad, however, that he doesn’t have as much respect as his superhero - his latest feat involved getting caught by police when he descended again!

Caroline: If you’ve read William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” you’ll no doubt be wondering at the wisdom of creating a reality TV show inspired by the book. In Golding’s Nobel prize-winning work the group of children abandoned on an island struggle with their primitive instincts and eventually, reverting to savages, hunt and kill one of their number. Kid Nation, as the show is to be called, follows forty children between the ages of eight and fifteen who have been left in a deserted New Mexican town for forty days, to see whether they can set up a well-ordered community or whether chaos will ensue. There will be no Big Brother-type evictions although each week the children will be able to vote to give someone a reward. The children can also leave the show whenever they wish, which, if the fate of poor Piggy in the book is anything to go by, is just as well.

Rushda: Just when I was getting excited about how finally celebrities such as Paris Hilton are getting their just desserts and will for once live long meagre existences in dark and dirty prison cells with violent inmates, my hopes were drained when I read an article about how her sentence has been halved. Apparently the cause of this is that she has “been a good girl” since she was convicted - and by that the officials mean they were impressed by things like the fact that Paris came to court on time on her last court date. Not only is her sentence now only 23 days long but her prison sentence will be a stay in a special room designed for only two people, a unit which has been reserved for high-profile prisoners. And if that doesn’t get you frustrated enough, here’s something to top it all off: Paris will get time each day to watch television, participate in outdoor recreation and talk on the telephone. Argh!