If you were excited for Rian Johnson’s upcoming trilogy of Star Wars films, there’s even nerdier news incoming. Another film series in a galaxy far, far away has just been announced — and they will be written and produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the showrunners of HBO’s Game of Thrones . The only thing we know about the new series is that it will be from both the main Skywalker saga and Johnson’s trilogy. Otherwise, nothing has been announced regarding their focus or release dates, though Weiss and Benioff noted they won’t start work on the films until Game of Thrones ‘ final season wraps. But at least this suggests a broader Star Wars universe beyond the stories we grew up watching. “David and Dan are some of the best storytellers working today, ” Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, said in a statement according to Variety . “Their command of complex characters, depth of story and richness of mythology will break new ground and boldly push Star Wars in ways I find incredibly exciting.” “In the summer of 1977 we traveled to a galaxy far, far away, and we’ve been dreaming of it ever since, ” Benioff and Weiss said in a joint statement. “We are honored by the opportunity, a little terrified by the responsibility, and so excited to get started as soon as the final season of Game of Thrones is complete.” Source: Variety
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‘Game of Thrones’ showrunners will write a new ‘Star Wars’ series
What if you could cool buildings without using electricity? charlesj68 brings word of “the development of a plastic film by two professors at the University of Colorado in Boulder that provides a passive cooling effect.” The film contains embedded glass beads that absorb and emit infrared in a wavelength that is not blocked by the atmosphere. Combining this with half-silvering to keep the sun from being the source of infrared absorption on the part of the beads, and you have a way of pumping heat at a claimed rate of 93 watts per square meter. The film is cheap to produce — about 50 cents per square meter — and could create indoor temperatures of 68 degrees when it’s 98.6 outside. “All the work is done by the huge temperature difference, about 290C, between the surface of the Earth and that of outer space, ” reports The Economist. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
HughPickens.com writes: Seth Abramovitch reports in the Hollywood Reporter that actor and LGBT activist George Takei says Paramount’s plans to have Sulu’s character in the upcoming ‘Star Trek Beyond’ the first LGBTQ lead character in Star Trek history is out of step with what creator Gene Roddenberry would have wanted. [Roddenberry] “was a strong supporter of LGBT equality, ” says Takei, now 79. “But he said he has been pushing the envelope and walking a very tight rope — and if he pushed too hard, the show would not be on the air.” Takei says he’d much prefer that Sulu stay straight. “I’m delighted that there’s a gay character, ” says Takei. “Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate.” The timeline logic of the new revelation is enough to befuddle even the most diehard of Trek enthusiasts, as the rebooted trilogy takes place before the action of the original series. In other words, assuming canon orthodoxy, this storyline suggest Sulu would have had to have first been gay and married, only to then go into the closet years later. Simon Pegg, who has co-written the latest Star Trek movie, as well as starring as Scotty, has responded to criticism by the actor George Takei at the film-makers’ decision to make the character he used to play openly gay. “He’s right, it is unfortunate, it’s unfortunate that the screen version of the most inclusive, tolerant universe in science fiction hasn’t featured an LGBT character until now. We could have introduced a new gay character, but he or she would have been primarily defined by their sexuality, seen as the ‘gay character, ‘ rather than simply for who they are, and isn’t that tokenism?” says Pegg. “Our Trek is an alternate timeline with alternate details. Whatever magic ingredient determines our sexuality was different for Sulu in our timeline. I like this idea because it suggests that in a hypothetical multiverse, across an infinite matrix of alternate realities, we are all LGBT somewhere.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.