ARMAGEDDON

It is not uncommon for asteroids to hit Earth. In 2013, the Chelyabinsk meteor exploded over Russia, injuring hundreds. Credit: Alex Alishevskikh, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0The Chelyabinsk asteroid impact in 2013 highlighted the threat of asteroids and spurred international cooperation on planetary defense, leading to initiatives like the International Asteroid Warning Network and missions to study and potentially deflect asteroids, such as ESA’s Hera and the proposed NEOMIR telescope.It’s a scenario made famous by the…

Governments and businesses are not prepared for the havoc quantum computers will sow in cybersecurity by the end of the decade, according to an International Business Machines Corp. executive.  “Is quantum going to really create a cybersecurity Armageddon?” Ana Paula Assis, IBM's general manager of Europe, Middle East and Africa, said on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday. “It's going to.” Quantum computers, an emerging technology that vastly accelerates processing power by performing calculations…

Ricky Gervais' latest Netflix stand-up special, Armageddon, is a masterclass in the art of stagnation. It's a comedic exploration of the end of the world, and one can't help but feel that perhaps the real apocalypse is the lack of evolution in Gervais's comedy. Ricky Gervais brings a difficult-to-digest new standup act. What sort of worksLet's start with the positives, because we wouldn't want Ricky to think we're fragile and scared of words. His delivery is as relaxed as ever, almost as if he's delivering the…

Ricky Gervais is responding to critics of material in his latest special, which includes a description of young cancer patients as “baldy” as well as a derogatory term for having disabilities, saying in a recent interview that they’re “hecklers” who are “faux” offended. A teaser for the Emmy and BAFTA-winning comedian’s new show Armageddon, which is set to release Christmas Day, previews a section of his special focused on his work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In it, he jokes about how he…

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) - Official Trailer (HD)Thanks to its team-up with Showtime, Paramount+ also has the excellent 1978 remake starring Donald Sutherland, which takes the pod-people plot of the original and somehow makes it even scarier than hell. And if you’re still itching for some Star Trek... Leonard Nimoy is in this, too. Watch on Paramount+. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) - Official Trailer (HD)Thanks to its team-up with Showtime, Paramount+ also has the excellent 1978 remake starring…

Sam Esmail sacrificed his hearing while making his new apocalyptic thriller Leave the World Behind. You see, in the Netflix adaption of Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel, there’s a noise so terrifying that it incapacitates the entire country — and Esmail had to get it just right. “As a filmmaker, I was so excited to explore that aspect because sound is everything to me,” Esmail says. “There’s a fine line of making a sound haunting without actually having the audience get up and leave. I pushed it so much initially in the…

It starts not with a bang, but a lack of Wi-Fi. The Internet goes down, which means no social media, no email, no communications with the outside world, and — because this is a Netflix movie about worst-case scenarios — no streaming. Then satellites are knocked out, which kills any and all navigation systems reliant upon orbiting technology in the U.S. Because animal migration patterns have been disrupted, you may see more deer than usual popping up in your front yard. Keep an eye out for flamingos in your pool, too.…

Before “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” became synonymous with Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler, the song from Michael Bay‘s 1998 science fiction disaster flick Armageddon had its beginnings in another romance. Performed by Aerosmith, the power ballad was written by prolific song writer Diane Warren, who was inspired by an exchange between Barbra Streisand and husband James Brolin. In her new memoir My Name is Barbra, Streisand writes about lying in bed with Brolin one night, when he told her, “I don’t want to fall…

via Buena Vista If you were asked to name the best thing about Michael Bay’s Armageddon, then any other answer besides “Ben Affleck’s DVD commentary” would be incorrect, because it’s a thing of beauty that’s vastly superior to anything that unfolds onscreen throughout the entire running time of the apocalyptic blockbuster. The actor does nothing but tear the movie to shreds from start to finish, and his insights entered the realm of legend long ago. The most memorable by far comes when Affleck regales the…

One of the best things about movies is how they can become a part of your life. How you can fall so deeply in love with one that watching it is almost like a blanket: something warm and comfortable that makes you feel good. And that’s especially true of films that came out in your formative years and stuck with you all the way through adulthood. In 1998, a movie about an asteroid hitting the Earth did that for me. I saw it, loved it, bought it on DVD, watched it a million times, and anytime it’s on TV, which it is…