Day: February 27, 2021

  • The Slaying of Joss Whedon

    The Slaying of Joss Whedon

    VARIETY hits!

    In a new piece on the acclaimed Hollywood site, the organization cast a wide net to interview people associated with BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and ANGEL.

    Both of those shows were hits in the late 1990s through the early 2000s.

    Long term readers of the HORROR REPORT may recall author “Mr Benson” writing weekly takes on the episodes as their aired.

    But producer and writer Whedon has been embroiled in an old fashioned Hollywood feeding frenzy since early winter.

    Stars from both shows socially-media distanced themselves from him.

    This event occurred after revelations of verbal abuse on the set.

    Along with that, years of other allegations of bullying have followed Whedon in his career..

    WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

    VARIETY reports:

    Interviews that Variety conducted with 11 individuals who worked directly on “Buffy” or “Angel,” or were closely familiar with the productions during their runs on The WB and UPN, painted a portrait of Whedon as a talented, collaborative writer-producer with a pattern of inappropriate, imperious and disparaging behavior toward those who worked for him. Whedon created a “cult of personality” around himself, according to these sources. Those on the inside of Whedon’s circle basked in his attention, praise and friendship; those on the outside got the opposite: scorn, derision and callousness. (Everyone Variety spoke with did so on condition of anonymity, either so they could speak freely or out of concern for their careers.)

    Variety also reached out to 40 other actors, writers, producers and directors from “Buffy” and “Angel” — including Sarah Michelle Gellar, Michelle Trachtenberg, Amber Benson, Eliza Dushku, David Boreanaz and Alyson Hannigan — all of whom declined to participate in this story.

    MEANWHILE..

    Sarah Michelle Gellar is reportedly severing her relationship with Whedon and future return shows…

    INDEED…WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE..?

  • VACCINE 3: JOHNSON & JOHNSON EMERGENCY USE AUTHORIZED

    VACCINE 3: JOHNSON & JOHNSON EMERGENCY USE AUTHORIZED

    • The FDA has authorized third vaccine with Johnson & Johnson one-shot jab to be distributed as early as Monday 
    • By the end of March, J&J has said it expects to deliver 20 million doses to the U.S., and 100 million by summer 
    • Worldwide, company aims to produce 1 billion doses globally by the end of 2021 
    • Johnson & Johnson shot only requires a single shot compared to Pfizer and Moderna’s jabs 

    VARIOUS MEDIA REPORTING..

    The vaccine, made by Janssen, J&J’s vaccine arm, is safe and effective, and it’s considered flexible. It’s a single dose, and it doesn’t require special storage.

    The vaccine is authorized for people ages 18 and older.

    New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson said 20 million doses would be delivered in the US by the end of March. The company plans to deliver 100 million doses during the first half of 2021.

    The doses can be stored in a standard fridge, unlike the ultra-cold conditions required by the other two vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, both of which are two-shot regimes.

    “We need a vaccine that can be quickly mass produced,” Dr. Greg Poland, head of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group, said Friday. “We’d want to see a reasonable duration of efficacy and protection.

    Developing..

  • The day before tomorrow

    The day before tomorrow

    CBS news reports this today in climate changes being noted.. And the cause thereof:

    An influential current system in the Atlantic Ocean, which plays a vital role in redistributing heat throughout our planet’s climate system, is now moving more slowly than it has in at least 1,600 years. That’s the conclusion of a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience from some of the world’s leading experts in this field.

    Scientists believe that part of this slowing is directly related to our warming climate, as melting ice alters the balance in northern waters. Its impact may be seen in storms, heat waves and sea-level rise. And it bolsters concerns that if humans are not able to limit warming, the system could eventually reach a tipping point, throwing global climate patterns into disarray.

    The Gulf Stream along the U.S. East Coast is an integral part of this system, which is known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC. It was made famous in the 2004 film “The Day After Tomorrow,” in which the ocean current abruptly stops, causing immense killer storms to spin up around the globe, like a super-charged tornado in Los Angeles and a wall of water smashing into New York City.

    This was the type of climate change made popular in the film THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW.. that film showcased a sudden stoppage of the gulfstream, causing a super charged storm to take over the planet with flooding rains and an immediate new ice age..

    While it may not happen quite that fast (though there is some evidence of food still being newly consumed by animals in previous ice ages) the Gulf Stream is dramatically important to the way climate works across the planet. It is the super highway of weather..

    New research shows that the circulation has slowed down by at least 15% since 1950.

    Scientists in the new study say the weakening of the current is “unprecedented in the past millennium.” Scientists worry that it is estimated the circulation may slow by 34% to 45% if we continue to heat the planet..by the end of the century.

    Art Bell and Whitley Streiber wrote THE COMING GLOBAL SUPERSTORM way back in the 20th century..

    Now science accepts the impact the Gulf Stream would have over global climate.

    So it is interesting to see how both authors were treated by Matt Lauer in 1999.

  • The dogs came back the very next day

    The dogs came back the very next day

    GAGA DRAMA OVER..

    THE DOGS ARE BACK

    X X X

    Lady Gaga’s two French bulldogs, which were stolen by thieves who allegedly shot and wounded the dogwalker, were recovered unharmed, Los Angeles police said Friday.

    A woman brought the dogs to the LAPD’s Olympic Community Police Station, just northwest of downtown, around 6 p.m, said Captain Jonathan Tippett, commanding officer of the elite Robbery-Homicide Division.

    Lady Gaga’s representative and detectives went to the station and confirmed that they were the dogs. The singer is currently in Rome to film a movie.

  • THE STORM IS CLOSING IN! BUT FORTNITE SO FAR IS SAFE

    THE STORM IS CLOSING IN! BUT FORTNITE SO FAR IS SAFE

    An outage of Sony’s PlayStation Network that began Friday afternoon appeared to be persisting on Saturday morning. According to an update on the status page timestamped 6:33PM (not clear what time zone that is) on February 26th, 2021, the affected platforms are PS Vita, PS3, PS4, and PS5.

    “You might have difficulty launching games, apps, or network features. We’re working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience,” the update reads.

    Engadget reported that the outage may be affecting some games but not others; Fortnite appeared to be accessible but Minecraft and Call of Duty: Warzone were not.

    Developing..

  • BIDEN ADMIN WILL BEGIN SCREENING PASSENGERS FOR EBOLA!

    BIDEN ADMIN WILL BEGIN SCREENING PASSENGERS FOR EBOLA!

    The Biden administration is moving forward with plans to screen airline passengers from two African countries arriving in the U.S. for Ebola, which will involve sending them to one of about a half dozen designated airports.

    The Centers for Disease Control confirmed the plan Friday evening, several hours after Yahoo News first reported that administration officials were finalizing details of how the screenings would work. “Out of an abundance of caution,” the U.S. government will institute public health measures for the very small number of travelers arriving from the [Democratic Republic of Congo] and Guinea,” the CDC said in a statement.

    The U.S. government will, under the plan, send passengers from those countries to six airports where data will be collected for contact tracing and they will undergo basic health screenings. 

    DEVELOPING..

  • The re-rise of the vinyl record

    The re-rise of the vinyl record

    The RIAA has released its annual year-end revenue report, surveying the state of the recorded music industry at the end of 2020. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, trends across the past several years carried on: Streaming is up 13.4%, generating $10.1 billion last year compared to $8.9 billion in 2019, accounting for 83% of the total revenue of the industry. Vinyl sales have continued to rise, too, increasing a whopping 29.2% to $619.6 million, compared to $479.5 million in 2019.

    The rise in vinyl sales made up for the continued decline in CD sales, leading to a marginal 0.5% decrease in revenue across all physical media from to 2019 to 2020. Music downloads continue to trend downwards, too, decreasing by 18% to $674.4 million last year as compared to $822.8 million in 2019. The RIAA report concludes that streaming has driven the industry to grow for the fifth consecutive year, with revenues increasing 9.2% in 2020, generating $12.2 billion in total. Read the full report here.

    If you wait long enough, everything comes full circle. All of the trends of the past, all of the nostalgic representations of yesterday return for a visit now and then.

    CDs are dead. Remember the scenes from NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION when the Griswald’s snobby neighbors get their brand new giant CD player destroyed by Clark’s tree? CDs were highbrow and snobby at that time, while cassette tapes were the music venues of the working class heroes!

    Now.. as vinyl returns, THAT TOO becomes the highbrow class. Most records are more than $30, and when people buy them they keep them in shrink wrap and love them for their cover art. 

    Everything comes full circle.

    Now if tapes come back? Well, new generation, get ready for a level of frustration that you have never felt in your life.

  • UPDATE: FBI WON’T TALK ABOUT UFO SEEN BY PILOT

    UPDATE: FBI WON’T TALK ABOUT UFO SEEN BY PILOT

    ‘UFO’ MYSTERY AS AMERICAN AIRLINES DOESN’T DENY SPOTTING & SAYS TALK TO FBI →

    “I hate to say this but it looked like a long cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise missile type of thing moving really fast. It went right over the top of us.”

    Speaking to Fox News in a statement American Airlines verified the transmission is from flight 2292 – but said the channel should “contact the FBI” for additional information.

    The US Sun has also contacted the FBI for further comment.

    “Following a debrief with our Flight Crew and additional information received, we can confirm this radio transmission was from American Airlines Flight 2292 on Feb. 21,” an American Airlines spokesperson told Fox News in a statement…

    FBI ‘AWARE OF’ AMERICAN AIRLINES POSSIBLE UFO SPOTTING BUT STOPS SHORT OF CONFIRMING INVESTIGATION →

    The FBI is “aware of” an American Airlines pilot’s report of an apparent UFO seen soaring over Northeast New Mexico earlier this week – but stopped short of confirming whether an investigation is underway..

    This is probably a future FBI document to be released decades from now in the making..

    From FOX NEWS:

    “The FBI is aware of the reported incident,” spokesperson Frank Connor wrote in an email.  “While our policy is to neither confirm nor deny investigations, the FBI works continuously with our federal, state, local, and tribal partners to share intelligence and protect the public. Anyone who is aware of suspicious or criminal activity should contact their local law enforcement agency or the FBI.“

    In Sunday’s radio transmission, the American Airlines pilot could first be heard asking an unidentified person, presumably from air-traffic control, if they had “any targets up here.”

    This portends to be a story 30 years or 40 years from now that will show up in a released document on the FBI vault website. If the internet still exists..