Geek Goddess Olivia Munn’s Latest Magazine Photos – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 08 June 2013

Geek Goddess Olivia Munn’s Latest Magazine Photos – the 32-year old actress is not only a huge favourite of most of the world’s geeks but is also something of a self-confessed geek herself.

She is appearing on the cover of this month’s Flare magazine and can be seen wearing a swimsuit to show off those famous legs.

She is currently playing the role of super smart financial reporter Sloan Sabbith in tv series The Newsroom which is shortly to start its second series on HBO.

In the latest edition of Canadian fashion mag Flare, Olivia talks about her role in the hit series as well as her childhood where she was raised by a Chinese mother and spent much of her early years in Tokyo due to her stepfather’s job with the US military.

After an early job on game review program Attack of the Show! Olivia soon became a hot favourite of the show’s mostly geek audience. The show features regular items on video gaming, comic book reviews and a Women on the Web feature which reviewed the web’s 10 hottest women for that week.

Olivia famously appeared on one of the Attack of the Shows! episodes in a French maid’s outfit leaping into a big cream pie. This last stunt seems to be one of the few things that Olivia regrets doing in her career.

 

St Patrick’s Day, Portal 2

St Patrick’s Day – there are loads of world landmarks turning green today to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

Amongst the many famous sights involved with the celebrations the Empire State Building, Niagara Falls, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the London Eye are all “greening up” for the day.

It is no surprise that one of the biggest celebrations on St Patrick’s Day is held in Dublin. Around half a million people saw this morning’s parade through the streets of Dublin, ending up outside the city’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Today’s parade had a scientific theme to showcase the city’s choice as the City of Science 2012.

Moving away from Ireland the country most associated with big St Paddy’s Day celebrations is the US. In particular New York, Boston and Chicago all have big celebrations to mark the day as they have a strong Irish community in all of these cities. This year the Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Enda Kenny is going to be the Grand Marshall of the parade in Chicago.

It is a good day to be called Patrick if you are in Dublin today as the Guinness Brewery is offering free admission to its premises to anyone called Patrick. Guinness has always been a big part of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and it is thought that around 13 million pints of Guinness are going to be drunk today around the world. A Guinness advert to celebrate St Paddy’s Day says that all the pints of Guinness sold today would fill up 60% of the Empire State Building.

Amazingly for the saint of such a small country, St. Patrick’s Day is thought to be the most widely celebrated saints day in the world.

Portal 2 – Valve’s game had a good night yesterday picking up 3 separate awards at the British Academy Video Game Awards.

The first person puzzle shooter took away the night’s biggest prize of Best Game and also won awards for Best Story and Best Design.

The game was released last April and it os not surprise that it was the sequel to the hugely popular Portal. It is available for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and also for Mac’s and Windows-based computers.

The game is solved by completing a series of puzzles using the help of lasers, light bridges, tractor beams and the portal gun, which creates portals between different planes. By shooting 2 different virtual doorways using the portal gun you can go through one doorway and emerge out through the other. Things quickly get more confusing with the interaction of elements like the tractor beams.

The game can be played in an even more complicated set of 2 player challenges. These can be set as either split screen for those in the same room and there is also an online option.

Other winners on the night included Battlefield 3,which won Best Online Multiplayer Game, and LA Noire, which won Best Original Music. Luke Skywalker, well actor Mark Hamill, took the award for Best Actor for his role as The Joker in Batman: Arkham City.

The evening, which was held at the London Hilton, was hosted by Irish comedian Dara O’Briain and the audience included chat-show host Jonathan Ross and his wife Jane Goldman.

 

Tulisa, Raspberry Pi cheap computer

Tulisa – the X Factor judge seems to have got more than a little close to former TOWIE Mark Wright while she was on her long holiday break in the US.

It has been reported that 23-year old Tulisa and 25-year old Mark ended up sharing a bed in a Miami hotel after a wild night out.

It seems like Mark has had his eye on the singer for some time and a source close to Wright said to The Mirror about the pair: “He’s head over heels for ­Tulisa and can’t stop ­talking about the time they spent together in ­Miami. He’s very much hoping things progress into a relationship. But Tulisa’s mortified by the whole thing and is furious that Mark’s been opening his gob to everyone and anyone about their snog.

“She didn’t think it was anything but a laugh after a few drinks. Mark on the other hand definitely wants more than just friendship and thinks they could be a great ‘power couple’ in showbiz. It’s all a bit ­embarrassing for him.”

It might be a new showbiz romance is on the cards but we should also keep in mind that both Tulisa and Mark Wright share the same manager, Jonathan Shalit so things may not be as simple to decide as all that!

Whatever happened or may be happening between the pair they are both free agents at the moment as Mark finished with ex-fiancee Lauren Goodger last August and apart from a brief fling with Sam Faiers has been single since. Tulisa also split with long-term boyfriend and bandmate Fazer in January.

By the way the photo shows how good Tulisa was looking while on her US holiday last month.

Raspberry Pi cheap computer – anyone hoping to get their hands on one of the new Raspberry Pi computers may face a longer wait.

It has been revealed that during the manufacture of the computers the Chinese factory had mistakenly soldered on the wrong sort of network port. The bare-bones computer is sure to be a big hit and is intended to make it easy for anyone to be able to learn computer programming and provide a technology push in UK schools.

The Raspberry Pi is available for just £22 and is due to be joined by an even cheaper model retailing at £16 later in the year.

For your £22 you do not get a keyboard or screen but you do get 2 USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port, an HDMI socket, 3.5m audio out jack, 256mb RAM and an SD card slot. The Raspberry Pi went on sale here at the end of February and with the computer attracting over 2m enquiries it was no surprise that initial stocks sold out straight away.

It looks a great deal if you want to try programming and coding and the Raspberry Pi uses a Linux based operating system. The Raspberry Pi uses Python as its main programming language.

If you are worried it may look a little underpowered compared to bigger desktops and laptops the Pi is capable of showing HD video and the company say that the onboard graphics are roughly equivalent to an X Box 1’s level of performance.

The Pi can be powered by 4 AA batteries as well as by the more usual 5v micro USB external power supply.

We are sure you know the answer to this but in case you were wondering why this UK-based initiative is manufactured in China the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the charity behind the computer, originally wanted to manufacture the Pi in the UK but was forced to go to Chinese manufacturers because somewhat bizarrely imported components are taxed whereas imported computers are not.

 

Xbox 720, Keira Knightley – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 31 January 2012

Xbox 720 – it seems that everyone will have a longer wait than expected for the new console as we will definitely not be seeing it anytime this year.

As well as not having a launch date it also appears that the new machine will not even be previewed at the E3 games show this June. Cedrick Delmas, the Marketing Director from Microsoft France, said to the French newspaper Le Point ” “what is certain is that there will be nothing new in 2012.”

He also said: “We’re not here to counter Nintendo and they’re not here to fight the other manufacturers. Nintendo has put itself in a different cycle, it’s going forward to its own rhythm, with success as we have seen with the Wii, and now it’s their turn to present their innovation.”

This news comes at the same time as a rumour that the new Microsoft games console will not have the ATI GCN/HD7000/Southern Islands graphics processor that was first thought but something more like the sort of GPU you would find in the home cinema market. Put simply the new Xbox 720 although around 6 times more powerful than the Xbox 360 is just 20% more powerful than Nintendo’s new Wii. This certainly cuts down the power level advantage that hardcore Xbox gamers enjoy at the moment over their Nintendo friends.

While he says that there will be no Xbox 720 this year Delmas also is keen to point out that the current Xbox 360 has plenty of power advantage over its current rivals  and that this is why the company has not made a price cut in the product this year. He also thinks that it is more than likely to still be the most powerful games console when the lucrative Christmas sales start this year.

Keira Knightley – the actress has been talking about how reading the script to Sense and Sensibility helped her get over dyslexia.

Knightley is a massive fan of Emma Thompson who wrote the screenplay for the film and her mother worked with Thompson on the film and managed to get her a copy of the screenplay so she could read it at home. At the time she was struggling with her studies and her parents made a deal with her that if she did enough reading for her studies then they would get her an agent. Jane Austen’s work has been important to her in her career as she won praise for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in 2005’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Keira’s latest film is “A Dangerous Method” which tells the story of the relationship between the psychoanalysts Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. She plays Sabina Spielrein, a sex starved masochist who is admitted to a psychiatric hospital and ends up having an affair with Jung before going on to become a well-known psychoanalyst herself.

The movie involved several sex scenes with Keira being seen topless as well as being spanked with a leather belt. It is all a long way from her role in Love Actually! She admitted that to get her through these scenes she drank some vodka to give her courage. Interestingly the role of Sabrina in the movie was originally written for Julia Roberts.

A Dangerous Method is directed by David Cronenberg and as well as Keira Knightley the movie stars Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen and Vince Cassel. It is due for general release in the UK on 10 February 2012.

Keira is also appearing in the March edition of GQ magazine in a set of sexy photos. The photos and an interview with Keira are available when the magazine goes on sale this Friday (03 February).

 

Pat Eastenders, Sonic The Hedgehog 4 – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 01 January 2012

Pat from Eastenders – tonight sees Pat’s departure from the show after actress Pam St Clement has played the part for 26 years.

Pat discovered she was suffering from terminal cancer just a few days ago and tonight her death is marked by a specially composed piece of music (Pat’s Theme, composed by Simon May) which will be played over the end credits. Today’s show will also have another change involving the credits as they will show the new Olympic Stadium at Stratford for the first time.

Pat will be showing gradually fading away during the programme and she will have a whole host of different people visit her on her death-bed. She has been involved with a host of different men during her time on the programme including ex-husband Frank Butcher (played by Mike Reid) and Dirty Den Watts (played by Leslie Grantham). As well as her romantic entanglements Pat also served a stint in prison due to a drink-driving  offence and also briefly had to work as a prostitute. Life was certainly never dull for Pat in Eastenders.

Actress Pam St Clement said that after such a long time playing the part of Pat leaving the show was like a bereavement. Her final scenes shot for tonight’s episode were particularly emotionally draining and she was apparently one of the few people on set who weren’t crying by the time filming stopped.

Tonight’s special 70 minute episode is on BBC1 at 7pm.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II – SEGA has finally announced that Sonic 4 Episode II will be released this year.

According to SEGA the new game will have a sharper look than previous adventures with our hedgehog friend as the physics engine of the game has been completely reworked. This is no doubt due to the number of complaints that Episode I of the game received with regard to the physics engine behind that game.

As well as the improved game engine there is other good news for Sonic fans as the new Episode II will feature the return of Sonic’s sidekick Tails the fox whose real name is actually Miles Prower.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II will be released for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 via Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network respectively.  For the game’s mobile release, Episode II will be released via the Apple App Store, Android Market (where it’ll support Nvidia Tegra processors) and Windows Phone 7. You can see from the list of formats above that the new game is not to be released on Wii and this appears to be due to the poor sales of Episode I on the Nintendo format.

Haruki Satomi, Senior Vice President of Digital Business at SEGA of America said of the forthcoming release: “After twenty years in action, it’s clear that Sonic hasn’t slowed down one bit. The first entry in the Sonic 4 saga was a major success. We’ve listened to the fans and been hard at work making sure we recapture that same spirit of fun in Episode II. We hope the fans will enjoy it.”

Although SEGA have confirmed the new game will be released this year there is no official date available yet.

You can watch the official trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II below.

 

Zumba Fitness, Stonehenge – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 02 December 2011

Zumba fitness – a big surprise to many people is the fact that the biggest selling title of the year on the Nintendo Wii is not a shoot-em-up or a sports game but Zumba Fitness from 505 Games.

The Zumba Fitness title is used in conjunction with the Wii Balance Board and is also available on the PlayStation 3 for use with the PlayStation Move and the Xbox 360 for use with its Kinetic controller. The Zumba Fitness titles are all based on the Latin inspired Zumba dance fitness program which was developed by the Colombian dancer and choreographer Alberto “Beto” Perez.

You can tell that Zumba is an extremely active dance when you hear that it incorporates elements from salsa, samba, mambo, merengue, hip-hop, martial arts and Bollywood. Add into this squats, lunges and some belly dancing and you begin to get the idea what zumba is all about.

With the original Zumba Fitness title shifting around 1m units it was no great surprise when it was announced that there was a second title due to be released last month. The official announcement of the sequel was made during an advertising break in the X Factor.

Zumba Fitness 2 is expected to sell extremely well in the run up to Christmas and very unusually for a title for games systems its main target audience is women. With fitness and weight reduction on everyone’s mind after the festive season it is expected to take the good run of sales through to the post-Christmas period as well.

On the Wii platform the original Zumba Fitness will cost you around £20 with Zumba Fitness 2 setting you back about £25. As well as letting you get fit at home on your own you can also invite some friends round to get involved with you. The whole zumba craze has been a very social thing.

The health benefits of zumba are appreciated by many fitness experts and one of the NHS Primary Care Trusts in the North East has even decided to run zumba classes to keep its staff fit and well.

Stonehenge – the ancient monument finds itself in the hot and trending charts after it was suggested that it be lit at night.

The discussion on a change at the site began after Lady Mimi Pakenham, of Warminster, in Wiltshire, raised the idea in The Times. She said:  “The magic of Stonehenge could be shared every evening with all who pass, many of whom can’t afford a ticket, just as it was a magical place thousands of years ago, sometimes with the Moon and clouds shining as well. With subtle lighting sunk well out of view and endless possibilities of solar energy, the monumental power of ancient man’s achievement in another age would inspire all who pass by. Perhaps in depressing times a cocktail of cost-free magic is the very least we can expect from the guardians of the national heritage.”

For all her enthusiasm and well-chosen words it appears that not everyone agrees with Lady Mimi about illuminating the ancient site. One of the reasons for this is that the site is thought to have originally used the stones to link not just with the sun but also the moon and the night stars and many feel that lighting the monument would spoil the authenticity of the experience at Stonehenge. Those opposing the change include the unusual partners of scientists and Druids.

One further point against illuminating the site is the possibility of an increase in road accidents caused by people on the nearby road slowing down to look at Stonehenge. The site was in fact previously lit up in the late 70’s and early 80’s and this ceased due an increase in road accidents at that time.

Stonehenge is located in Wiltshire 8 miles north of Salisbury and just to the west of the town of Amesbury by the A303 road. The monument is believed to have been constructed sometime between 3000 and 2000 BC.

The 2 main mysteries associated with Stonehenge are how the huge stones got put into place so long ago and what was the site used for?  With regard to its function as well as being a burial ground the site is thought to have been used for worship and also healing.

 

Angry Birds, Jamie Oliver – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 08 October 2011

Angry Birds– a new version of the popular video game buit on Adobe’s Flash Player 11 was previewed at this week’s launch of Flash Player 11 and AIR 3.

Andrew Stalbow, general manager of Rovio’s North American operations, said  the new version of Angry Birds is due “in the next few months.”. This will let the company reach more people than the 400 million people who have downloaded the game. He added “Our goal is to deliver Angry Birds to every device, platform, and person around the world,”

“While Rovio has worked with several technologies from native development on mobile devices to HTML, this new Flash Player version of Angry Birds will further broaden the game’s reach and help Rovio gain a wider audience for its content,” Adobe said in a blog post.

Adobe’s latest potential gain comes as Apple Inc. is discouraging its users from using Flash in Mac OS X, and Microsoft is turning to HTML5 in its upcoming operating system Windows 8.

Jamie Oliver – Britain’s favourite cheeky chappie chef is already being tipped to top the Christmas book charts.

His new book, called Jamie’s Great Britain, is tied in with a new Channel 4 series and that publicity, combined with Jamie’s popularity, guarantees healthy sales figures.

Bookmakers William Hill made Jamie 1-2 favourite to top the Christmas charts with the Guinness Book of World Records second favourite at 11-2 followed by the Inbetweeners Year Book and the memoirs of former Manchester United star Paul Scholes at 10-1..Jamie’s last book, 30 Minute Meals, topped the charts for half a year and became Britain’s biggest selling non-fiction title of all time.

William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams said: “After storming the 2010 charts, it is difficult to see past Jamie Oliver, but, the gift of Jamie two year’s running perhaps shows a lack of thought and the Inbetweeners Year Book looks a Christmas cracker at 10/1.”

 

Cloud Gaming, Kitty Brucknell – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 26 September 2011

Cloud gaming – this Thursday is a big day for gamers in the UK with the launch of OnLive, the on-demand cloud gaming service.

OnLive has announced a partnership with BT for its launch, in which BT’s broadband customers will be offered three months of free access to the cloud-gaming service.  Anyone attending the Eurogamer Expo gaming convention in London can get a free OnLive Game System, while supplies last.

Cloud gaming allows access to games without the need of a console and largely makes the capability of the user’s computer unimportant, as the server is the system that is running the processing needs.

Among the titles on offer through OnLive’s service are recent releases such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution, DiRT 3, Homefront and F.E.A.R. 3. The OnLive service will initially be available to gamers on their Macs, PC’s or H.D.T.V’s. There are however already plans to extend the service to iPads and Android tablets.

Kitty Brucknell – the X Factor competitor has been likened to both Lady GaGa and Britney Spears and is already back in the news as the most talked about competitor so far from this year’s series.

One of Kitty’s friends has been talking to the Daily Mirror saying there are fears that being on the show could be really bad for her health. Kitty apparently suffers from problems with a weakened immune system and her family and friends are worried about all the stress being on the show will put Kitty under.

Her mother, Mary, claims Kitty is being badly portrayed on the show, saying, “The whole experience has been extremely tough on her and if it gets really bad, I’ll have no hesitation in telling her to pull out”. During Sunday evening’s instalment, Brucknell was seen collapsing in tears after being told she had made it through to the next stage of the competition. She had previously performed in a £2,000 dress, complete with flashing lights.

Despite all the press attention that Kitty is getting it is young Irish singer Janet Devlin that is currently the favourite to win the show.

 

Rhys Ifans, Kat Von D, Playstation Vita, M4 – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 26 July 2011

Rhys Ifans – Welsh actor Ifans, who has recently been linked with the upcoming Bond film directed by Sam Mendes, is in trouble for reportedly pushing a female security guard at the Comic-Con Festival in San Diego. He was arrested by San Diego on a charge of battery and was described as abusive and aggressive by a police spokesperson. Ifans got into trouble after he tried to enter Comic-Con without proper ID. He was there to promote the upcoming movie “:The Amazing Spiderman”. in which he stars as “The Lizard”.

M4 closed – not a person and not a smartphone but a motorway makes the top list today. The M4 may remain closed for a number of days after a lorry caught fire on the Brynglas tunnel at Newport. The incident occurred at 8.30 a.m. today and there were quite quickly long queues building up in the South Wales area. Structural engineers will need to check out the tunnel to make sure it is structurally sound before it is re-opened. You can keep track of the situation by monitoring the M4 on the AA site.

Kat Von D – US tattoo artist famous from the programme “LA Ink”. As with the end of all relationships these days she has Tweeted that she is no longer with Sandra Bullock’s ex Jesse James. They got engaged 6 months ago and it seems that the perils of having a relationship whilst living hundreds of miles away is to blame. Not sure if Jesse will still be in them but here are some of “Kat’s Favourite Things”.

Playstation Vita – the eagerly awaited new handheld device from Sony is likely to be available for the Gamescom fair in Tokyo next month. It has also been suggested that the new Vita will be at the Gamescom show in Cologne in September as well. Follow the news on the Vita on Sony’s official Vita blog.

 

Kate Thornton, Zumba Fitness – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 13 July 2011

Kate Thornton – the tv presenter has just been axed from ITV’s Loose Women after ratings have slumped. It seems that she does not have the sort of audience figures that she enjoyed when she presented the first series of the X Factor. As well as Kate, Zoe Tyler has also lost her place on the show, which has seen ratings slump from around 2m viewers to just 700k per day. See the Mirror for their thoughts on who might replace Kate and Zoe.

Kate was the original host of X Factor, staying on the show from 2004 until 2006.

She started her career as a journalist and was the youngest ever editor of pop mag Smash Hits when she took over the top job at the age of 22. Her first issue in February 1996 covered the break-up of Take That.

Cigarette prescriptions – Iceland is looking at making cigarettes available on a prescription only basis as a way of improving the nation’s health. MP’s in Iceland are to debate the new bill, which would eventually only allow people with a valid medical certificate to obtain cigarettes legally. THe bill is proposed by a former health minister who claims that the price of £5.50 per pack should really be 3 times that figure to cover the cost of reduced productivity from smoking breaks, sick leave and premature retirement on health grounds that all come from smoking. See more on this in today’s Guardian.

Zumba Fitness – new fitness dance program for the Wii, X Box 360 and Playstation 3. It is top of the gaming charts again this week thanks to its fun latin dance themed workouts. The Wii version has a Zumba dance belt that tracks your hip action and scores you points for the amount of effort you put into your dancing. Retail price for the game is meant to be £35 but you can get it in most shops and sites for between £22-23. To get an idea of what the game is about have a look at this video of people dancing to the game on-screen. It gives you a good idea of whether the program is for you or not.

Liam Gallagher – Liam has responded following his brother Noel’s accusation that he was responsible for the break up of Oasis. Noel had said that Liam was only interested in advertising his Clothing label Pretty Green in the band’s tour programme. It seems that the brothers are still not playing happy families at the moment. Fans should not expect a tour anytime soon we think. Check out Liam’s fashion range at the Pretty Green site.