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Sunday, January 31, 2016
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Eugene Chung Wants To Be Virtual Reality's First Auteur
“We almost decided that we shouldn’t show it to you.”
Eugene Chung is standing in his office, hesitating. Really, he’s standing in a desk-filled condo in a residential building, but here in San Francisco’s fog-soused, startup-heavy Soma neighborhood, all that steel and glass blends together, so we’ll call it an office. And really, he’s not so much hesitating as explaining himself, managing expectations, doing the nervous dance of a perfectionist who’s not quite ready to share what he’s made with the world.
What he’s made is "Allumette", a 10-minute virtual reality movie about an unnamed orphan girl in a floating city. This studio full of 15 animators and designers and engineers has been working on it for the past six-odd months. They’re called Penrose. They’re nervous. The next day, the year-old studio will head to Sundance, where they’ll be making the rounds, showing "Allumette" in private meetings with various movers and shakers, and screening The Rose and I, an earlier work, publicly as part of the festival’s New Frontier showcase.
New Frontier started as an exhibit for experimental film techniques, but in recent years, it has become colonized by virtual reality. This year — the year many hope will be the one that takes VR from a tech-y curiosity to a mainstream pursuit — there are 31 VR experiences at New Frontier.
That's huge, and it's illustrative of the inflection point virtual reality is at right now. The headsets are coming soon, and they’re great. What VR needs, desperately, is things to fill the headsets with. That content is coming; artists and filmmakers and techies and startups and investors all see the same opportunity. Games will be first, goes the industry logic, but narratives — the movies and TV shows and whatever else they can drop a viewer into — are what will take this mainstream.
Michelle Rial / BuzzFeed News
But VR is currently manned almost entirely by technologists, not artists, so there’s a hunt for storytellers — good ones. And, of all of them, Chung, the founder of Penrose and, to date, its sole director (in the filmmaking sense, although the title works in the executive sense as well), might have the most impressive bona fides: He worked on production at Pixar before founding Oculus’s Story Studio — the arm of the VR giant that makes narrative experiences — as the company’s head of film & media. Now he’s struck out on his own to form a studio with complete editorial independence, no allegiances to a single headset or platform, and a team culled from places like Pixar and Dreamworks.
Chung stands a little below average height, with hair long enough that he periodically sweeps it off his forehead during conversation. He has a penchant for slim-fitting sweaters and cool shoes and, like his films, is unfailingly put together and incredibly detailed-oriented. (When he heard a BuzzFeed photographer was coming to the office, he instructed the Penrose staffers to wear solid colors so the pictures would turn out better.) In a field made up largely of computer scientists obsessed with testing the technical limits of this latest, greatest gadget, he’s an unabashed aesthete, the kind of person who casually drops references to Bertolucci and Dostoyevsky in conversation.
The rest of Penrose seems to share Chung’s sensibility. For the entirety of its production, "Allumette" has been known around the office as "Rope", after the Hitchcock film of the same name. When it was first conceived, the studio decided it would be made without cuts — the hallmark of the original Rope. The plan didn’t stick, but it speaks to the ambition of the studio: It's clear that Penrose is gunning to be included in a canon.
The problem is, for VR right now, there isn’t any canon to speak of, and the rules to entry aren’t going to be clear for quite some time. Chung may be well-positioned to become the medium’s first auteur, but to do that he has to figure out what makes for a VR classic before anyone else.
Michelle Rial / BuzzFeed News
Ultimately, Chung decides that "Allumette" is ready to show. Close enough, at least. But he’s quick to point out that it’s not a movie, it’s a trailer — a 10-minute-long, narrative trailer that doesn’t exactly give an idea of what the movie is about so much as drop the viewer into a world and let them look around before starting a story and jerking them out once things get moving. It is, essentially, a Sundance-worthy short film: breathtaking, ambitious, a little confusing.
It’s certainly not a trailer in the traditional sense of the word. But Chung — like Penrose as a studio — is a perfectionist, and the prevailing sense of the office is that everything, no matter how long it’s been in production, is a work in progress. The product can always be better. They call "Allumette" a trailer because, even in its polished state and despite its ability to wow viewers, they don’t consider it finished.
Penrose
"Allumette" takes place in a cobblestone-paved city dominated by canals. It’s based on Venice but it’s in the sky, the waterways replaced with clouds. The protagonist is a young girl, alone, dragging a suitcase behind her. She settles on a corner and opens the case. In it are three long matches, almost as tall as her, each one a different color. She strikes one and it glows, iridescent, brighter until it takes up your entire field of view and all you can see is a gold that brightens into a white screen.
When the light from the match fades, you see empty sky filled with clouds, and a ship, powered by clockwork gears, flying across it. The match girl has a mother in this scene, and when they dock in the city they sell a match to a pedestrian. The scene fades, back to the little match girl alone again, at night, where she strikes another match.
The perspective through which all of this is viewed is important. "Allumette" and The Rose and I — Penrose’s first feature — both do something unusual for virtual reality movies, which is take the viewer a step back from the experience. To date, most VR sets and experiences have been designed for first-person viewing. But Penrose’s style — inasmuch as a studio can have a style after just two pieces — is to disregard the first person. In both The Rose and I and "Allumette", the viewer is much, much bigger than the story — a disembodied person in space with the story playing out in miniature in front of them.
It works a lot like the third person in a book. You’re reading the book, but it’s from a perspective where you can see all the characters at once. Like a book, "Allumette" doesn’t make you think too hard about this. You can still relate, obviously, get caught up in the action, and identify with the characters. In VR you just notice the strangeness of perspective a little more.
The approach isn’t all that different than a standard, 2D movie, but in VR, it’s almost heretical. Penrose is breaking the fundamental promise of VR — to put you in another person’s shoes. This kind of approach has been trumpeted at length by the most visible people working in the field. Chris Milk, creator of the app/platform/production studio Vrse and longtime VR evangelist — he was recently the subject of a Vanity Fair profile touting him as “virtual reality’s first auteur” — calls the medium as an “empathy engine.”
The problem is, this doesn’t work. At least not for storytelling.
Michelle Rial / BuzzFeed News
Right now, a foundational tenet of virtual reality is the concept of presence. How realistic can each headset make a new world? How does each experience pull you in, make everything feel real? How in the moment are you? Presence is discussed as if it's a quantifiable metric, and, because it’s the true differentiating factor between VR and film — VR is the one you can actually live in — it’s considered by many in the field to be the most important quality. So much so that some enthusiasts capitalize it in writing: Presence.
But there are a few major problems with this. The is a fundamental one. It's virtual reality, not reality, and at some point you're going to run up against that. You can’t lean against a table in VR and not fall over in your living room — there are limits to how realistic this can all get, and at some point the sense of presence has to be broken.
The second problem is that presence is fundamentally at odds with storytelling. “Presence is the holy grail of VR,” says Chung, “but when you feel present it’s hard to absorb a story.” Stories require attention — good ones have characters and plot and dynamism. Presence requires only existence. The things that you’re in the moment for, the thing some virtual reality enthusiasts and creators are striving for, is an experience that you’re unable to separate from real life, which makes it hard to also absorb a story. It would be like trying to listen to Serial while having sex.
“There’s a really interesting identity question in VR. Who are you in the experience? It’s a difficult question to answer,” says Chung. “There was one idea we had early on that you’re a ghost. Or a comatose person — a Diving Bell and the Butterfly–type effect. But if you are trying to tell a story, there’s a problem of identity.When you change the scale of the story, you skirt that problem. You don’t have to wonder who you are.”
The Rose and I takes place in space — the little prince, from the classic French children’s story, lives on another planet and finds a rose that is coughing. He goes inside, finds a watering can, and waters the rose. In most VR experiences, the viewer would be one of the two characters: the prince or the rose. Instead, the entire planet is about the size of a beach ball, the prince inches tall. Instead of being one of the characters, the viewer is a kind of director, deciding where to watch from.
The choice appears to have paid off in the case of The Rose and I. “They made really good use of positional tracking,” says Will Mason, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of UploadVR, a virtual reality trade publication that launched in 2014. “You’re controlling how you’re viewing the story — do you follow the rose or the person? It really added to the storytelling.”
There’s a race going on, but because this is art, no one knows where the finish line is.
Mason says he’s seen too many virtual reality experiences to count, and what Penrose has produced so far ranks “very close to the top.”
And Shari Frilot, a senior programmer for Sundance and the curator (and co-founder) of New Frontier, says The Rose And I “still stands out from the pack.”
“The craft of it is so great, and its approach is so unique ... It would absolutely work in our animation section, but it’s a virtual reality piece.”
“I’ve got my eye on them.”
Penrose
Chung didn’t have to be nervous about showing "Allumette". Any imperfections are of the kind that are only visible to the person who made it. It's richly realized fantasy world, filled with cobblestones that seem solid, clouds you can walk through and wonder why they don’t feel like San Francisco fog, and a character you ache to understand. You want to see what happens next.
Penrose
"Allumette" feels handcrafted because, in a sense, it was. Virtual reality experiences are usually created on computers, but Penrose found a new method — working on the piece in virtual reality. That means that engineers and designers are putting on headsets and manipulating the actual environment with controllers to get every single detail right. The tools to do this hadn’t existed before "Allumette." They were never necessary, until Penrose (and others) realized that things would work better if environments could be designed in virtual reality — so they had to develop the tech on the fly. It’s a little like inventing a new kind of paintbrush while finishing a painting.
“The way we’ve done it for decades, it doesn’t translate,” says Chung. “It’s so much faster when you do things natively. You don’t jump out and jump back in to check each part of your work. We’re becoming native VR creators. We’re thinking in VR.”
It’s that experience that makes Chung confident that "Allumette," when completed, won’t be hampered by its length. At 10 minutes, the trailer is at the longer end of the spectrum for virtual reality movies — and it’s only the first third of the final version. Chung talks about the finished product in vague terms, but "Allumette" could ends up clocking in at more than 30 minutes — something that hasn’t been tackled yet by a virtual reality narrative.
Michelle Rial / BuzzFeed News
What Chung is doing — and he seems to relish the task — is lay out the ground rules for a new art form. It’s a risky business. If "Allumette" is too long, and it gives viewers nausea, or makes their eyes ache, or just becomes impossible to follow, that’s likely a year’s worth of work down the drain. And it’s an invaluable year — other virtual reality creators are puzzling at the same problems Penrose is, and the painstakingly detailed approach means that a nimble studio could figure out keys to success before the perfectionists do. There’s a race going on, but because this is art, no one knows where the finish line is.
Chung has chosen not to make things easy. He’s the son of an opera singer, obsessed with the early days of film, and not looking to pull any punches. “I think ultimately what drives us is pushing the medium forward,” he says. “Audiences can always smell inauthenticity.” At a moment when many virtual reality projects are interested in a documentary experiences that get as close to real life as possible, Chung & co. opt for a claymation-style aesthetic, and jerky stop-motion animation instead of something smoother and less challenging. Chung understands that this is a risk, but it sounds like one he’s happy to make. “It would be a disservice to not try things like that,” he says, “because we don’t have a studio we can make decisions like this.”
When it's finished,"Allumette" will be be a three-chapter-long saga set in a Venice of the clouds, with flying ships powered by perpetual motion machines. It's longer — maybe much longer — than we know audiences will tolerate. It will be about “sacrifice and the love that a mother has for a child, the things that a parent is willing to do for the greater good.”
It will be, if nothing else, the fulfillment of an artistic vision.
“We’re doing this for art’s sake, for story’s sake, not because anyone wants us to,” Chung says.
Art is usually what defines technology, not the other way around. We can list countless films, but no one still marvels at the projector that made them possible. The stage is set for virtual reality’s mainstream release, and it has the potential to become its own medium, but if we look back on it in a few years, the important thing about virtual reality won’t be the refresh rates of the screens or the amount of head-tracking each headset can do, or even the price of each piece of hardware — the tech is going to improve, steadily and probably quickly. What people will remember is the first thing that truly blew them away when they put on a headset. And to find out what’s going to do that, you need artists.
“All the early stuff did was show you that this is a different medium,” says Chung. “Now we need to test those limits.
“It does feel like we’re on the frontier of something.”
Penrose
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Saturday, January 30, 2016
Grindr Went Down And Panic Ensued
“Swear #Grindr goes down more times than I do”
Grindr had an outage on Saturday, and users were pretty upset to say the least.
Via Twitter: @JMPoff
The app appeared to be down for several hours, forcing many to take to social media to vent their frustrations.
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22 Things Everyone Obsessed With Daiso Knows To Be True
Cute animals. CUTE ANIMALS EVERYWHERE!
You can't help but be lured by the magical aura of this beautiful neon sign.
reis_thomas / Via instagram.com
You'll always be overwhelmed by cute animals on literally everything.
"I really don't need this mug... BUT LOOK AT THAT WITTLE PIGGY! IZ ZO CUTE!"
artecriativaatelie / Via instagram.com
Everything is cheap AF, so you'll end up buying the entire store for $100.
"I don't NEEEEEEEED this tiny kitten figurine...but it's only $1.50...PUT IT IN THE BASKET!"
meow_deleine_ / Via instagram.com
You'll have the urge to buy ALL THE POCKY.
Pocky City.
hello_leanne926 / Via instagram.com
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Friday, January 29, 2016
#motivational #quote
We Asked 13 Friscans How They Feel About Frisco
Frisco gives us the ~feels~!
1. You should!
2. This dog is also wrong.
It its defense, it is a dog.
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Facebook To Restrict Private Firearms Sales
Facebook is planning to announce that the network will no longer allow its user to conduct private firearms sales through pages and groups, according to a Reuters report.
While Facebook confirmed that "Licensed retailers will still be able to advertise firearms on Facebook that lead to transactions outside of Facebook's platform," sales from private citizens will be subject to crackdown from the site.
Previously, Facebook's terms of service stipulated that, "Ads and Sponsored Stories may not promote firearms, ammunition, paintball guns, bb guns, fireworks, explosives, pepper spray, knives, tasers, or weapons of any kind, including those used for self-defense. Ads and Sponsored Stories may not directly or indirectly link to landing pages where users can purchase any of these products." It did not mention private groups, pages, or private messages, leaving room for pages such as this:
Facebook / Via Facebook: 882482471810753
As of now, it's unclear whether this affects just Facebook's site or its other companies as well, including What'sApp and Instagram.
Facebook has not yet responded to request for comment.
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This Is The Version Of The Kim Kardashian Game That Could've Been
A rival game company’s lawsuit claims Kim Kardashian: Hollywood was based on these images.
Kung Fu Mobile claims in a lawsuit that they met with Kris Jenner in 2011 to discuss a potential Kardashian themed video game – and showed her mockups of what the game would look like. Jenner didn't go with Kung Fu, and instead partnered with competitor Glu Mobile instead. Glu subsequently came out with the smash hit Kim Kardashian: Hollywood in 2014.
The lawsuit claims Glu based its game off the mockups and pitch that Kung Fu had made for Jenner, and is suing for copyright infringement and breach of contract.
Kris Jenner and Glu are fighting the claims and asking for a dismissal. A hearing for the motion to dismiss will be held February 29th.
Kung Fu's mockups were entered into evidence in the court document of the case. Here's what their game would've looked like:
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Why A Marxist Social Policy Is Gaining Ground In Silicon Valley
Thierry Ehrmann / Flickr / Via flic.kr
This week, the startup incubator Y Combinator put up a job listing for a researcher to study basic income, a policy where the government would, as described by Y Combinator boss Sam Altman, give all citizens "enough money to live on with no strings attached."
There are other ways to describe the UBI ("universal basic income"), the cutest being "mincome" (short for minimum income), but the general parameters include just that: all citizens get a base amount of money, unconditional on employment status or other factors.
"If you give people freedom — and you free them from the worry and stress of paying for food — some people will do nothing," Altman told BuzzFeed News in an interview. "And some people will create incredible new wealth."
It's an idea that has united Marxists and libertarians, making unlikely comrades of anarchist anthropologist David Graeber and billionaire investor Peter Thiel. Some proponents argue the policy would raise the standard of living, return a degree of labor market power to working people, and compensate unwaged work by women. Others believe direct cash payments are a more efficient way for the government to distribute money than the current welfare system.
To these pluses, Altman adds the promise of a "truer" meritocracy.
"Fifty years from now, I think it will seem ridiculous that we used fear of not being able to eat as a way to motivate people," Altman wrote. "I also think that it’s impossible to truly have equality of opportunity without some version of guaranteed income."
The notion of paying people for nothing, which has been gaining popularity in recent months, last had traction at the level of government in the 1960s and 70s, when both conservatives and liberals voiced support for versions of the policy. Free-market champion Milton Friedman and Richard Nixon each favored variations of basic income, as well as Democratic politicians such as George McGovern.
'Pepper', humanoid robots, are displayed at a smartphone stall to illustrate their applications for corporate use.
Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP / Getty Images
The idea in, its new tech context, is a kind of Soylent for economics, a synthetic miracle cure-all for poverty, manufactured by the same method and minds that tackled hunger by making a hipper, nerdier version of nutritional shakes.
After all, basic income is not such a far cry from unemployment benefits, the Earned Income Tax Credit, social security, or a souped-up take on Obama's recently proposed "wage insurance." But when techno-utopian VC firms get involved, a semi-radical social safety net study becomes a futuristic moonshot to sketch a blueprint for a society in which robots will have eliminated most kinds of work.
"I’m fairly confident that at some point in the future, as technology continues to eliminate traditional jobs and massive new wealth gets created, we’re going to see some version of this at a national scale," Altman wrote.
BuzzFeed News spoke with Altman to learn more about the proposal. Here's what he had to say.
Given that a number of studies have looked at basic income in the past, what's behind the decision to fund more research now?
I think those past studies are not super relevant to the world in 2016. It’s such a different time in the world. Technology in 2016 enables people to accomplish much more, with much less, than at any time in history.
Which technology in particular do you have in mind?
I don't think it's any one technology. I think it's where we are on the general exponential curve of technology. We are not so far away from a society where we have enough for everyone.
Also, in the world today, many people can create new innovations. However, with the fear of poverty that so many people face, it's very difficult to take the risks to do that. I don't think we can have equality of opportunity without something like a basic income.
Do you think favor for basic income has reached a high level of saturation in Silicon Valley?
I think there are still a lot of people who think it’s a really horrible idea. And there are a lot of people who look at how quickly everything’s changing and see this as something on the scale of the industrial revolution or cultural revolution in terms of changing the potential of what people can accomplish when you take away the fear of not being able to pay rent or for food.
If you give people freedom — and you free them from the worry and stress of paying for food — some people will do nothing. And some people will create incredible new wealth. We see this all the time at Y Combinator with people who wouldn’t be able to start up without support from us.
People dress as robots for Halloween in West Hollywood.
David Mcnew / AFP / Getty Images
You mentioned you've been interested in basic income for a long time. Did you come to it via conservative thinkers like Milton Friedman, liberal theorists, or some combination?
I honestly can't point to the time I became interested in this. [It's been] sort of a gradual process over the past 10 years. As you point out, it comes from a lot of places — it's one of the few ideas that I've heard staunch support for from liberals, conservatives, libertarians, authoritarians, etc.
What do you think it is about basic income that appeals so much to some in the tech community, rather than proposals such like welfare, unemployment benefits, food stamps, the Earned Income Tax Credit, or wage insurance?
I'm not entirely sure. Speaking for myself, it seems fair, it seems simple, and it seems like it could be good for society.
Mannequin robots perform different poses during a demonstration at the annual International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo.
Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP / Getty Images
There seem to be good indicators that on-demand economy workers can't all count on making minimum wage. Might a basic income help underwrite gig economy startups, by raising the floor for contingent workers? Or could you see basic income undercutting the model?
I'm not sure. It would certainly give the workers much more power [and] flexibility.
One of the questions you mention trying to answer is, "Do people sit around and play video games, or do they create new things?” To push against that — would it be so bad if people do both — if a basic income enables more play?Of course it'd be okay. I personally love playing video games. On a more serious note, I don't think hard work for its own sake is valuable (only if it actually creates new value). I think we are heading towards a world where we don't need everyone to work. If some people are happy and fulfilled playing video games, more power to them.
(Edited and condensed for clarity and length.)
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Facebook Doesn't Like Calling Twitter By Its Name, And Twitter Is Pissed
When a Twitter flame war between Wendy's and Burger King last week ended with Wendy's saying it would respond to its rival's antics by serving "edible food," the spat became national news. And like many such silly and shareable stories, it made its way to Facebook's Trending List, which happily named the brands involved, but not the platform on which they sparred.
To Facebook, the Wendy's vs. Burger King Twitter fight happened not on Twitter, but in an otherworld called "Social Media."
Evidently, the word "Twitter" is something of a stumbling block for Facebook, which seems to abstain from using it, particularly in its Trending column where Twitter-related stories are often described as "Social Media" ones. And this has caused enough consternation over at Twitter that some executives are finally calling bullshit. Twitter COO Adam Bain, for example, has clearly lost patience with the euphemism, repeatedly calling it: Facebook's "Code for Twitter."
And, to be fair, Facebook has given Bain and Twitter plenty of reason to protest this week. That epic Kanye West vs. Wiz Khalifa Twitter fight? Facebook said it happened on "Social Media." The Twitter debate between B.O.B and Neil deGrasse Tyson on the Earth's shape? Yup, also "Social Media."
All this during a week in which Facebook poached Twitter product head Kevin Weil to work for Instagram, and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg began referring to Facebook as the new "town hall" — a phrase that sounds an awful lot like Twitter's description of itself as the "global town square."
In fairness, Facebook does occasionally refer to its own posts as occurring on "social media," and the company has no policy forbidding the use of Twitter's name.
Asked why the Trending column often refers to Twitter as "Social Media," a Facebook spokesperson sent the following response in an email: "Trending topic descriptions and summaries are written with the goal of making sure that the topic is clear and well-summarized, so that people get an accurate summary of the news event quickly.”
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28 "Star Wars" Tattoos That Will Awaken The Force In You
Make space for at least one BB-8 tattoo.
A watercolour stormtrooper.
A dapper looking C-3PO.
Han Solo frozen in carbonite.
Luke Skywalker's severed hand.
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If You Hate "The Big Bang Theory", This Tweet Will Make You Stand Up And Applaud
Bazinga.
The Big Bang Theory is one of the most watched and highest-rated shows on television right now.
CBS
Buttttt, there are still a few people who don't quite fancy the show.
And it's pretty damn spot on.
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17 Teeny Tiny Necklaces For Your Inner Scientist
Beautiful things come in small packages.
This dainty dinosaur necklace.
By Hannah Run, £17.22.
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Thursday, January 28, 2016
Ted Cruz Mocks Trump Debate Absence With Cartoon Duck Snapchat Filter
Ted Cruz has a new nickname for Republican rival Donald Trump: Ducking Donald. And he's propagating it on Snapchat.
The nickname is a reference to Trump's decision to withdraw from tonight's Republican debate, and Cruz's campaign used it in a sponsored Snapchat filter that also included a cartoon rubber duck sporting Trump's trademark hairdo.
In an email, a Snapchat spokesperson confirmed the filter's authenticity and said that it will run today in Iowa only.
Snapchat isn't exactly a part of the political-advertising mainstream, but it's picking up some steam. The campaigns of Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul and John Kasich — as well as some Super PACs — have all run ads on the platform this election season.
Cruz used the same "Ducking Donald" attack in a post included in Snapchat's Live Story from the debate. "I'm looking forward to being on the debate stage tonight in Iowa," he said. "The only question is: Where will Donald be?"
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FCC: U.S. Broadband Still Terrible
Matt King / Getty Images
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday agreed to release its 2016 Broadband Progress Report to the public at the end of this week. And when it’s published it will be as shocking and dismal as the one that preceded it.
Conducted over 2015, the FCC’s review found that broadband internet is “not being deployed in a reasonable and timely fashion to all Americans,” a finding that prompted the agency to “take immediate action” to accelerate connectivity. Worse: The U.S. ranks just 16th out of 34 developed nations in broadband speed and access.
34 million Americans currently lack access to broadband internet, according to the FCC. Rural communities are especially deprived, with 39 percent of the rural population lacking access, compared to just 4 percent in urban areas. The commission found that 41 percent of American schools have failed to meet the agency’s short-term goal of 100 Mb speeds. These schools educate nearly half of the nation’s children.
FCC officials described the disparity in web access as a significant barrier to economic and social life. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn challenged those who have access to connected computers and mobile devices to “forgo either for a week” to see “how challenging it is to keep up with the daily demands of work, school, home, health, commerce, sanity, just about everything.”
But even as the majority of FCC commissioners support efforts to close the gap — providing broadband subsidies for poor households, offering government grants to schools and rural communities, spurring industry investments in network infrastructure — commissioners Michael O’Rielly and Ajit Pai registered their displeasure.
“The [Obama] administration’s policies have failed,” said Pai, who along with O’Rielly, the other Republican commissioner, often voices dissenting opinions within the FCC. “You might think that for all the money the Administration has spent, there would be real progress. But the FCC doesn’t think so. And in many ways, I agree."
O’Reilly characterised the broadband report as politically motivated, designed to invite additional government regulation into the broadband market. “I strongly oppose the notion that broadband is not being deployed in a timely fashion,” he said. “Apparently, no amount of progress will ever be good enough for a commission that is bent on regulating broadband at any cost.”
To be fair, the FCC’s report indicates that the country’s glaring internet gap seems to be closing, with the percentage of Americans without access at 20 percent in 2012, 17 percent in 2013 , and 10 percent in 2014. That said, five years ago, in its 2011 Broadband Progress Report, the agency also concluded that "broadband is not being reasonably and timely deployed and is not available to all Americans,” a conclusion the agency has come to pretty much every year since.
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Amazon Stock Crashes After Company Reports Record Profit
Yes, profit.
David Ryder / Getty Images
Amazon
Amazon stock had soared in the lead-up to what many expected would be a positive earnings report. It was up up almost 9% on Thursday, and its share price more than doubled in the past year.
But investors sold off the stock in after-hours trading following the earnings report, and the stock was down almost 13%. Amazon reported a $482 million profit for the quarter, which was more than double the $214 million profit in the same period in the previous year, but well below what analysts expected. It was also the largest quarterly profit Amazon has ever reported.
This is a huge shift for Amazon, which in recent years has worried investors with its large spending and seeming indifference to profits. In early 2013, Slate described Amazon as "a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit of consumers." The company was coming off a $39 million loss in 2012.
In 2013, it would earn $274 million, and in 2014, the company lost $214 million. In all of 2015, however, profit soared $482 million. The gyrations in income came with massive investments by Amazon in faster delivery, free delivery for Amazon Prime members, and the expansion of its media offerings, including original content, for Prime members.
But revenue didn't grow as much as people expected in the last three months. Amazon had $35.7 billion worth of sales, up 22% from $29.3 billion a year ago but slightly below what analysts had expected.
Investors have flocked to Amazon because of the belief that it will continually hoover up more and more of the brick-and-mortar retail business, along with having the most profitable cloud computing business in the world. That's why Amazon trumpets metrics besides profits like revenue, to show how quickly its e-commerce footprint overall is growing, and different measures of cash flow, which generally track money coming into the company and the money it takes to run the business in a given period.
One bright spot was Amazon web services, the company's cloud computing business. It reported $2.4 billion in revenue, just above what analysts expected, and $687 million in operating profit — a huge number given that all of Amazon made about $1.1 billion in operating profit for the quarter.
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Carrie Fisher Was Considered To Play Sandy In "Grease"
Summer lovin’ in a galaxy far, far away.
We're all well familiar with Carrie Fisher's little role in the Star Wars films as Princess Leia...
20th Century Fox
And when we think of Sandy from Grease, we immediately think of Olivia Newton-John's curly blonde locks.
Paramount Pictures
But what if Carrie Fisher played BOTH roles? Well, according to Vanity Fair, this peculiar casting almost happened.
20th Century Fox
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Neil DeGrasse Tyson Hilariously Shut Down B.o.B's Argument That The Earth Is Flat
Neil deGrasse Tyson is a national treasure.
Scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson recently stopped by The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore to shut down rapper B.o.B's belief that the Earth is flat.
Yes, you read that correctly. In the year 2016 there are still some people who don't believe we're floating on a spherical rock in the middle of the Milky Way.
For context, here are a few examples of the things B.o.B has tweeted in the past.
Twitter / Via Twitter: @bobatl
He's really sticking to his beliefs, which, er, he's entitled to, I guess.
Twitter / Via Twitter: @bobatl
Earlier this week, Tyson challenged B.o.B on his antiquated stance on the shape of the Earth.
The rapper even released a song earlier this week supporting his claim.
Twitter / Via Twitter: @neiltyson
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