Month: May 2019

The seemingly harmless inhabitants of a remote Swedish village are harboring a terrible secret in Midsommar, a new film from Director Ari Aster, who brought us last year's chilling horror film Hereditary. The official synopsis describes the film as "a dread-soaked cinematic fairytale where a world of darkness unfolds in broad daylight." Judging from the trailer, that sounds about right.

Aster is a longtime fan of the horror genre and kicked off his career with a controversial short film called The Strange Thing About the Johnsons, in which a son develops a taboo incestuous relationship with this father. Hereditary, his first feature, also rooted its horror in dysfunctional family drama, with themes of trauma and grief—right before turning into a bone-chilling nightmare. It was lauded by critics as the scariest movie of the year and likened to such horror classics as The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby.

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  Dani and Christian are on the verge of breaking up. [credit: YouTube/A24 ]

Midsommar seems like it owes more to the 1973 horror/mystery, The Wicker Man, in which a police sergeant investigates a missing girl on the remote Hebridean island of Summerisle, where the inhabitants practice a form of Celtic paganism. It's a genuinely creepy, if dated and somewhat hokey, film. (The less said about the 2006 remake starring Nicolas Cage, the better.) Midsommar features the same bucolic setting with sinister undertones, and incorporates the same notion of a harvest festival featuring a maypole dance. It's not a stretch to suspect that the same theme of pagan sacrificial rituals will appear.

Enlarge / WRIGHT, WY - OCTOBER 19: Train cars full of 100 tons of coal leave a mine near Wright, Wyoming on October 19, 2006. Empty cars head to the facility. (credit: Photo by Andy Nelson/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images)

Cloud Peak Energy, the US' third-largest coal mining company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late last week as the company missed an extension deadline to make a $1.8 million loan payment.

In a statement, Cloud Peak said it will continue to operate its three massive coal mines in Wyoming and Montana while it goes through the restructuring process. Colin Marshall, the president and CEO of the company, said that he believed a sale of the company's assets "will provide the best opportunity to maximize value for Cloud Peak Energy."

Cloud Peak was one of the few major coal producers who escaped the significant coal industry downturn between 2015 and 2016. That bought it a reputation for prudence and business acumen.

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  We promise these are pictures of the OnePlus 7, and not just recycled OnePlus 6T images. [credit: OnePlus ]

It's launch day for the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro. While we already have a full review up for the flagship OnePlus 7 Pro, many people will probably ask about the regular OnePlus 7. A review for that phone is not happening, because, well, it's not coming to the US. OnePlus is changing up its product strategy this year: in the US, it's offering the more premium OnePlus 7 Pro, keeping last year's OnePlus 6T on the market with a small price drop; the OnePlus 7 is destined for other, non-US markets.

So what exactly are we missing out on when it comes to the OnePlus 7? Well, while the OnePlus 7 Pro is an all-new device with a pop-up camera, all-screen design, and a 90Hz display, the OnePlus 7 is just a spec bump of the OnePlus 6T. The OnePlus 7 design is basically identical to the OnePlus 6T: there's a glass back with two rear cameras, a fixed front camera with a teardrop notch, and an in-screen fingerprint reader. The phone should be a bit faster, though, as it has been outfitted with a new Snapdragon 855, speedier UFS 3.0 storage, and a 48MP main camera that is hopefully the same as the excellent OnePlus 7 Pro camera. The rest of the OnePlus 7 specs are just like the OnePlus 6T: a 6.41-inch, 2340×1080 display, 6GB or 8GB of RAM, 128GB or 256GB of storage, and a 3700mAh battery.

The OnePlus 7 will be released in China, India, Hong Kong, and most of Europe. In Europe, the OnePlus 7 starts at €559 ($626) for the 6GB RAM/128GB storage version. For context, the OnePlus 7 Pro is €709 in Europe, or $794, which is way more expensive than the $670 MSRP in the US.

Enlarge / Andrew Wakefield, disgraced former doctor found to have committed fraudulent research. (credit: Getty | Peter Macdiarmid)

Andrew Wakefield, Del Bigtree, and other prominent anti-vaccine advocates unleashed fear and toxic misinformation last night at a well-attended symposium in New York’s Rockland County. The area is currently grappling with one of the largest and longest-standing measles outbreaks in the country, mainly in its tight-knit, ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

The Monday, May 13 event was reportedly promoted by targeted robocalls and billed as being a “highly informative night of science and discussion addressing your concerns, fears, and doubts.” But according to reporters who attended the event, the speakers made numerous unsubstantiated and egregiously false claims—as usual. In one instance, Brooklyn Orthodox Rabbi William Handler reportedly made the unsubstantiated claim that getting measles, mumps, and chickenpox reduces the risk of cancer, heart disease, and stroke by 60 percent. He did not provide a citation.

Psht, who needs 'em? (credit: Squirmelia)

It has been about a month since Microsoft announced its disc-drive-free, "All Digital" Xbox One S. At the time, we pointed out that the system's $249.99 MSRP was unsustainably high given the fact that standard 1TB Xbox One S systems, complete with a disc drive and a bundled game, were selling for the same price or less at major retailers.

Now that the All Digital edition has been on store shelves for about a week, that state of affairs has continued. While the less-capable, disc-drive free system was officially supposed to undercut the price of its disc-drive equipped brethren, it seems the reverse is still happening at some major retailers.

Yes, major retailers like Target and Best Buy are sticking to Microsoft's MSRP of $299.99 for a 1TB, disc drive-equipped Xbox One S bundle. That price does indeed make the $249.99 all-digital edition, complete with three downloadable games, look like a great deal.

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  The OnePlus 7 Pro. With a front that is nearly all pixels, there isn't much you can do to improve smartphone design from here. [credit: Ron Amadeo ]

Wow. OnePlus is putting the rest of the smartphone world on notice with the launch of its newest smartphone, the OnePlus 7 Pro. The company has become known for providing excellent value in the Android market, and while that is still true of the OnePlus 7 Pro, everything moves even further toward the premium side of the spectrum with this device. With a bigger bill of materials budget behind it, OnePlus has created the best Android phone on the market.

OnePlus isn't just offering features and performance that feel a generation ahead of many of the current devices on the market—it's doing so for a lower price than the super-premium, $1,000 flagships out there. While you can buy a OnePlus 7 Pro today, I think a lot of manufacturers are going to spend the next year scrambling to catch up to OnePlus.

Brace yourselves for an incredibly positive review of the OnePlus 7 Pro.