Month: January 2021

Owen Wilson (Shanghai Noon, Zoolander) plays a man who finds himself flitting between two worlds, one of which is supposedly a simulation, in Bliss, a new science fiction film coming to Amazon Prime next month that co-stars Salma Hayek (Desperado, Frida). Sure, the basic concept sounds a bit like a ripoff of The Matrix with a dash of Solaris, but Mike Cahill is the director, which bodes well for Bliss being a fresher take on a familiar premise.

Cahill, you see, also directed the 2011 indie sci-fi film, Another Earth—his first feature—which received a standing ovation at its premiere and won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. It was also among the top 10 indie films of the year selected by the National Board of Review Awards. Cahill's 2014 followup feature, I Origins, also snagged the Sloan Prize; Cahill is the only director to have twice won the award. In short, he's got some serious indie sci-fi film street cred.

Whoa.

The plot of Another Earth centered on the discovery of a mirror Earth planet, where everyone has a doppelgänger. Clearly, Cahill is interested in exploring themes of duality, because he's returned to that rich vein for Bliss (not to be confused with the 2019 Fantastic Fest selection of the same name.)  Per the official premise: "An unfulfilled man (Wilson) and a mysterious woman (Hayek) believe they are living in a simulated reality, but when their newfound ‘Bliss’ world begins to bleed into the ‘ugly’ world they must decide what’s real and where they truly belong."

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  The Razer Project Hazel N95 mask concept. [credit: Razer ]

The annual deluge of CES gadgets and gizmos usually tries to predict what consumer-grade tech will look like in living rooms of the near future. But after a year like 2020, bendable TVs and surround-sound systems seem less interesting than a more pressing category: tech to help people go outside during an ongoing pandemic.

That's why we're taken by the Razer Project Hazel, arguably the most high-end face-mask concept we've seen since COVID-19 began ravaging the globe. This N95 mask concept was revealed as part of Razer's CES line of gamer-centric products on Tuesday, and it showed up as a surprise entry alongside the company's usual fare of laptops and gaming peripherals.

16.8 million colors on your face? Sure, why not

Razer's sales pitch alleges that this shouldn't be surprising at all, since the company repurposed at least one of its production lines to pump out over one million disposable, surgical-grade face masks in 2020. From there, someone at the company decided to go one further and make what looks like a fancypants, LED-smothered gamer mouse... for your face. Project Hazel immediately reinforces the company's affinity for customizable lighting grids, thanks to two rings of light—which support 16.8 million colors, because, why not—circling the mask's ventilation slots. We wouldn't be shocked if Razer eventually let gamers sync these light grids with nearby mice and keyboards.

Enlarge / Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on December 14, 2020 in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty | Jacquelyn Martin)

The Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed is shifting gears for distributing COVID-19 vaccines in a last-ditch effort to accelerate the country’s sputtering rollout—and it’s using plans that closely resemble those announced by President-elect Joe Biden’s team last week.

More doses

Warp Speed officials said in a Tuesday press briefing that they will now increase the number of doses available to states and jurisdictions, ditching the current strategy of holding back half of available doses to reserve them for the second round of the two-dose immunizations. Members of Biden’s transition team announced a similar plan last week, saying that the president-elect “supports releasing available doses immediately and believes the government should stop holding back vaccine supply so we can get more shots in Americans’ arms now.”

When asked if Warp Speed officials had discussed the plan with Biden’s team—which will take over next week—Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that they had not. “We at the Operation Warp Speed board made the determination” to make the changes, Azar said. He also repeatedly emphasized that changing the board’s plans was always part of its members’ intentions.