Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Google is a household name around the globe – at least in households with regular internet access. It’s even a verb in foreign languages. Now, Google Chairman, Eric Schmidt is in North Korea to… well, no one really knows. Maybe he’s there to get the Google Maps car better access to the driveway of this “Covert Runway“. He might be there to try the North Korean style nang-myun he’s heard so much about from his Bay Area foodie friends, but a few days into his visit and it’s still a mystery. The “official” story is that he’s accompanying former New Mexico governor, Bill Richardson, on a humanitarian mission to negotiate the release of a Korean American hostage. CEOs are the new influential world leaders, so I suppose it’s possible, but somehow I think Schmidt lacks that Clinton charm that helped to free Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Some believe that Schmidt is there to urge Kim Jong Un to ease restrictions on internet and data access. Others believe there’s a different agenda. North Korea is a new frontier when it comes to Google style information sharing. Schmidt will likely learn at least a tiny bit about the future of digital media in the new regime, and he may be looking for a foothold. Five years of Google in communist China didn’t pan out quite the way everyone had hoped though. How will North Korea handle the world’s largest search engine? Will Google+ and its Google Hangouts help re-unite the peninsula? All I know is that if any of the Kim boys want to add me to their circles, I’m SO adding them back.
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It’s edited down a bit, but you’ll get the idea of what transpired at Giant Robot 2 on Saturday for Jawbreaker Day. [youtube]8aBdk6Grbyc?[/youtube]
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One of the things I really miss about editing Giant Robot magazine is assembling the reviews. Did you know that I actually purchased most of the movies that were listed in the TV Party section? I can’t really justify doing that any more, so I was stoked to receive a couple of interesting screeners from WellgoUSA. Back-to-back viewings of Tai Chi Zero and The Assassins doesn’t quite replace double features at the Kuo Hwa–which got me into Asian movies to begin with–but it’s as close as I get these days.
Huell Howser passed away at 67. “KCET director of communications Ariel Carpenter told LA Weekly that Howser died of natural causes last night.” We will miss him and it was an honor to be featured in one of his segements. (LAWeekly – Huell Howser Passes Away)
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Ly Sam played a machine. The machine at the Sheraton Saigon Hotel awarded him the jackpot of 55 million +. The machine supposedly has a limit of $46,000. It may have malfunctioned. Yet, the Vietnamese American was awarded the jackpot he won in 2009. The management assured him he’d be paid, he took photos, got witnesses, and they only offered him $300, what he spent gambling. Years later, the court costs was worth it. We hope he gets paid. (tuoitrenews – Ly Sam)
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