Descendant

Russell Crowe has claimed to be directly related to the last man to be beheaded while alive in England – a Jacobite who lived a life of “devious intrigue”.Writing on X, the New Zealand-born actor said research into his ancestry had revealed he was related to Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, who was executed aged 80 in 1747 at the Tower of London for high treason.The execution was considered so significant by King George II that the monarch put up additional stands for the extra spectators who wished to witness the event.…

Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images, Disney Although we wish the weekend had been kinder to Disney, the company, unfortunately, encountered news-breaking antisemitism and racism outside the entrance of Disney World on Saturday; it wasn’t long before one of Walt Disney’s very own descendants (yes, really) made a public statement condemning the situation on behalf of her grandfather — that’s how you know things are bad.  Thankfully, the icky news stops there as the latest Disney/Pixar short film has been announced…

I’ve played a ridiculous number of games in my lifetime, so it takes a special kind of experience to permanently stick in my mind. That’s the case with Okami, a 2006 adventure game that has had no real peers up until this point. Drawing inspiration from The Legend of Zelda series, Okami stands out in a crowded genre for its lovable wolf protagonist, memorable cel-shaded art style, and a wholly unique combat system that involves painting to slash enemies. For nearly two decades, I’ve been searching for an adventure…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The analysis of ancient DNA allows scientists to trace human evolution and make important discoveries about modern populations. The data revealed by ancient DNA sampling can be valuable, but the human remains that carry this ancient DNA are often those of the ancestors of modern Indigenous groups, and some communities have expressed concerns about the ethics of sampling by outside parties. A…

Genealogical records reviewed on the show Finding Your Roots reveal that Pocahontas, the mythologized 17th-century Native American woman, is the 12th great-grandmother of actor Edward Norton.The PBS history show confirmed Norton’s longstanding family lore on a recent episode, with host Henry Louis Gates Jr telling the American actor: “You have a direct paper trail, no doubt about it, connection to your 12th great-grandmother and great-grandfather, John Rolfe and Pocahontas.”Pocahontas, the daughter of a Powhatan chief,…

A descendant of the Doctor Zhivago author, Boris Pasternak, has lost a claim for copyright infringement against the writer of a novel about the publication of the Russian epic.Anna Pasternak claimed seven chapters in Lara Prescott’s work of historical fiction, The Secrets We Kept (TSWK), copied elements from her own book Lara, a 2016 biography of her great uncle’s lover Olga Ivinskaya.Ivinskaya was the muse for the character of Lara, played by Julie Christie, in David Lean’s 1965 film adaptation of Doctor Zhivago, which…

Descendent, Margaret Brown’s documentary about the search for America’s last known slave ship, begins with a distant figure kayaking through a sun-dappled swamp. Green leaves blanket the water’s surface and the rower’s strokes are slow and meditative. Nothing to see here, just a man – a Black man, we gather, as he glides closer – in nature, accompanied by the buzz of insects and the lone egret that is keeping watch. It’s a strikingly bucolic beginning for a work about so devastating a subject. We’re in for something…

Margaret Brown doesn’t see herself as the director behind Descendant. “It’s not my story to tell,” she says about her Netflix documentary following activists in Africatown – a Black community in Mobile, Alabama – who rally to reclaim and preserve their history.Many of Africatown’s citizens are descended from the Clotilda, the last recorded vessel to bring enslaved people into the United States in 1860. At the time, importing such human cargo was illegal. In her film, Brown, a Mobile-native who currently resides in Austin,…

Lots of cooperative shooters have entered the fray over the past couple of years, and one of the most intriguing ones on the horizon is Nexon’s The First Descendant. Developed by the internal Magnum Studio at Nexon Games, this is a sci-fi shooter where players’ superpowered characters, called “Descendants,” defend humanity from an invading force. Along the way, they’ll take on hordes of enemies and giant bosses as they shoot and loot. Intrigued by this bold new franchise in one of gaming’s hottest subgenres,…

Nexon’s bombastic Unreal Engine 5 RPG looter shooter just got its official title ahead of an appearance at Gamescom: The First Descendant. Nexon — a South Korean video game developer and publisher known for games like MapleStory, KartRider, DNF Duel, and LawBreakers – first revealed this game under the title Project Magnum in September 2021. It looks like a mixture of every major AAA gaming trend. The First Descendant will be a free-to-play, sci-fi, cooperative shooter. Hot off the heels of games like…