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'Daily Show With Trevor Noah' premiere ratings on par with Jon Stewart

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trevor noah jokes pope

Trevor Noah's premiere episode of "The Daily Show" earned pretty close to Jon Stewart-level ratings.

In an act of Viacom synchronicity usually reserved for the the MTV Video Music Awards, 12 networks simulcast the premiere episode at the same time.

Combined, they captured about 3.48 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings reported by Variety. Stewart's final episode was viewed by the same number, 3.48 million.

Looking at Comedy Central by itself, Noah's debut earned 1.09 million viewers, including 561,000 viewers in the advertiser-coveted demographic of 18 to 49-year-olds. While Stewart's daily show could reach 2.5 million viewers on occasion, it generally averaged 1.5 million viewers per episode. That leaves Noah some room for growth.

SEE ALSO: Trevor Noah absolutely nailed his 'Daily Show' hosting debut

MORE: New 'Daily Show' host Trevor Noah admits he's feeling a lot of pressure before his big debut

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Things you may not know about Jon Stewart, and how he got to 'The Daily Show'











8 years of selfies document the amazing aging process of a teenage boy

Dolby has an amazing joke from 'Spinal Tap' memorialized in its new headquarters

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"This is Spinal Tap" is one of the funniest movies of all time.

It's a parody of a heavy metal band "rockumentary" from the 1980s, and was released in 1984. The premise is that the filmmakers are following a successful group, Spinal Tap, except the tour turns out to be a rolling disaster, with sparse crowds and epic failures throughout. Along the way, Christopher Guest and crew poke fun at every 1970s rock and roll cliche imaginable, and the movie's full of now-classic lines like the one about the amps that go to 11. Even if you don't really know or care about heavy metal or rock movies, it's worth watching.

One of the classic scenes in the movie is this one, where the lead singer's girlfriend is trying to explain why the new album isn't selling well, and criticizes how it was mixed, saying "You don't do heavy metal in Dobly."

She means "Dolby," a noise-reduction technique that was used on consumer stereo equipment in that era. The guitarist, Nigel Tufnel, takes her to task.

Flash forward 31 years. Dolby is still a going concern, and makes audio technology used in everything from PCs to movie theaters. Today, it showed reporters its new headquarters in San Francisco. There, it has memorialized the joke forever:

dobly spinal tap joke

The best part? Apparently employees write in all the time saying "Nice piece, but you misspelled 'Dolby.'"

SEE ALSO: Taylor Swift shouldn't have bothered with Spotify fight, says Lady Gaga's former manager

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NOW WATCH: These kids were totally baffled by an old cassette player










The music industry has made more money in 2015 from a century-old technology than ad-supported streaming

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riaa music royalties chart

The numbers are in: vinyl is back.

According to the mid-year report from the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA), vinyl sales beat out ad-supported streaming — like Spotify or Pandora's free tier or YouTube — so far in 2015.

Vinyl LP and EP sales beat out ad-supported streaming in the first half of 2014 as well, but it appears the gap is getting bigger.

In the first half of 2014, vinyl LP and EP sales netted an estimated $145.8 million compared to $128.0 million from ad-supported, on-demand streaming. One year later, vinyl sales had grown in value by 52.1% to $221.8 million while the ad-supported streaming grew by only 27.1% to $162.7 million.

Paid digital subscriptions, on the other hand, dominated both vinyl and ad-supported streaming in terms of sheer value. In the first half of 2014, paid subscriptions brought in $382.7 million, growing by 24.9% to $477.9 million for the first half of 2015. The digital royalty group SoundExchange brought in $387.2 million in the first half of 2015, up 19.7% from the first half of 2014.

Despite the jump in vinyl, phsical media accounts for only 24% of units shipped in 2015 so far, down from 29% last year.

Read the full report on the RIAA's site.

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Bill O'Reilly confronts Donald Trump after Fox News boycott: 'You have to be kind of presidential'

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bill oreilly donald trump

Property magnate Donald Trump broke his Fox News boycott Tuesday night.

The Republican presidential front-runner appeared on "The O'Reilly Factor" just one week after he said he would not be appearing on Fox shows "for the foreseeable future."

Though host Bill O'Reilly did not mention Trump's feud with the network, the host did confront Trump more generally about whether he was being "mature" on the campaign trail.

"Am I fair to say that in order for you to win the Republican nomination, that you're going to have to change your style and be a bit kinder and more mature?" O'Reilly asked. "Is that a fair question?"

Trump said he found the question fair but thought the word "mature" was inappropriate. He went on to tout his own poll numbers and argue that the 2016 contest would be about competence, not kindness.

"You have to be kind of presidential," O'Reilly countered, playing a video clip from last week in which Trump called Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a Republican presidential rival, a "clown."

"Now would I be unfair to say to you — which I would if we were at a Yankee game — 'Hey, calling Sen. Rubio a 'clown' was not presidential,'" O'Reilly continued. "Calling him a 'clown,' that's not presidential … It's the 'clown stuff' that's not fine."

Trump insisted that he started attacking Rubio after the senator threw the first punch by bashing Trump's national-security credentials earlier last week. The two have been trading shots since then.

"I'm a counter-puncher — he hit me all of a sudden," Trump said while trashing Rubio's "unbelievably weak" immigration-policy record. "He hit me very viciously."

The real-estate developer's Fox News interview followed his on-again-off-again battle with the network.

The fight exploded out into the open after the Fox-hosted presidential debate in August. Megyn Kelly, a debate moderator who hosts "The Kelly File," asked Trump numerous tough questions, including one about derogatory remarks he has made about various women.

megyn kelly reuters

After the debate, Trump repeatedly tore into Kelly, accusing her of being unfair to him, and kicked the feud to the next level with comment that many interpreted to be a crude reference to menstruation. Trump said that specific comment was misinterpreted but continued ripping Kelly on Twitter.

Fox News chief Roger Ailes brokered a truce with Trump, and both sides said they settled their differences. But that cease-fire ended later in August after Trump unleashed a tweetstorm slamming Kelly and sharing a supporter's message calling her a "bimbo."

Trump eventually started doing regular interviews on the network again. But last week he suddenly started attacking O'Reilly and Kelly for bringing people he called "Trump haters" onto their shows. He further called Kelly "the worst" and said O'Reilly "was very negative to me in refusing to post the great polls that came out."

He wrote that Fox News had "been treating me very unfairly & I have therefore decided that I won't be doing any more Fox shows for the foreseeable future."

But that boycott is apparently off. Trump and Fox executives are reportedly set to meet sometime this week to discuss the network's coverage of his campaign.

For his part, O'Reilly ended his Trump interview by asking the candidate to confirm that it was a "fair" discussion. Trump said it was indeed a fair interview.

Watch the Trump interview below:

SEE ALSO: Donald Trump clobbers 'bankrupt' Forbes for 'embarrassing' $4.5 billion net-worth valuation

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NOW WATCH: Meet the real people who want Donald Trump to be president










New 'Daily Show' host Trevor Noah skewers 2016 candidates for pandering to celebrities

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trevor noah hillary clinton lena dunham

Trevor Noah used his second episode hosting "The Daily Show" on Tuesday to mock presidential candidates for their outreach to celebrities.

"Presidential elections — in a democracy they're the ultimate contest to find the toughest leader, the sharpest thinker, and of course the old person who is best at pretending to like young people things," Noah quipped.

He titled the segment "Panderdemic 2016."

Noah singled out three White House hopefuls in particular: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

He started out by playing a clip of Rubio professing his fandom of West Coast hip-hop while stressing that he didn't think Biggie and Tupac "should have shot each other and had a dispute that way.'

"I'm glad you clarified that for us because I was really fooled by your 'Thug Life' exterior, Rubio," Noah responded.

The comedian also mocked Carson, a leading Republican candidate, for engaging rapper Kanye West.

Noah played a clip of West praising Carson as "brilliant" and put a photo of the Kardashian family up on the screen.

"Congratulations, doctor. The man who hangs out with these people all day thinks you're a genius," he jabbed. "Look, I understand the need to pander. But I don't think you two even know who you're pandering to."

Noah also picked on Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, for her recent interview with actress Lena Dunham. Clinton, who is trying to show more humor on the campaign trail, feigned interest when Dunham brought up a viral video of Lenny Kravitz accidentally exposing himself on stage.

"Hillary Clinton just made a joke about Lenny Kravitz's penis," Noah announced. "And just like Lenny Kravitz's penis, it was pretty impressive." 

Watch below:

SEE ALSO: Ben Carson has an incredible riff to describe how the brain accomplishes even the simplest of tasks

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12 wildly successful people who still use flip phones

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anna wintour

The flip phone isn't extinct yet. Some even say it's making a very trendy comeback.

Celebrities, CEOs, sports-team owners, and politicians have all been spotted with archaic, clunky flip phones. Some cling to them citing security reasons. Others like them for their functionality.

At a time when everything from confidential corporate emails to iCloud accounts are getting hacked, these successful people might have the right idea by returning to flip phones.

SEE ALSO: Look inside the insanely successful life of billionaire Uber CEO Travis Kalanick

Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of private equity behemoth Blackstone Group, uses a Nokia 6350.

"Steve uses his flip phone to make and get phone calls. It does that better and more easily than any other device. He has an iPad for everything else," Schwarzman's representative told Business Insider.



Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour still flaunts hers.

Though Anna Wintour has owned both an iPhone and a BlackBerry in recent years, she was spotted carrying an unidentifiable flip phone at the US Open last fall.



Kate Beckinsale has been spotted with a flip phone.

She's professed her love for her red Verizon LG flip phone for years. "I'm not much interested in an iPhone," she said in an interview.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider








Here are the new movies and TV shows coming to Amazon Prime, iTunes, Hulu, and more in October

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trainwreck

As we turn the calendar to another month it’s time to give you the new titles coming to your favorite streaming services.

Highlights include hits like “Inside Out,” Trainwreck,” and the latest season of shows like “Fargo” and “Nathan For You.” But view movies like “Pixels” and “Vacation” at your own risk.

Check out all new titles below:

iTunes

terminator genisys arnold schwarzeneggerAvailable October 6

“Pixels”

Available October 13

“Inside Out”
“Vacation”
“Mississippi Grind”
“The Wolfpack”

Available October 20

“Trainwreck”
“Terminator Genisys”
“The Gift”

Amazon Prime

Nathan Fielder Nathan For YouAvailable October 1

“American Horror Story: Freak Show”
“Astro Boy”
“Chicago P.D.” (Season 3)
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”
“The Fly” (1958)
“The Impostors”
“John Carpenter's Vampires”
“Jurassic World”
“Light It Up”
“March of the Penguins”
“Max Dugan Returns”
“Nell”
“The Other Son”
“Pee-wee's Big Adventure”
“The Secret Garden”
“Someone Like You”

Available October 2

“Blacklist” (Season 3)
“Dr. Ken”
“Sleepy Hollow”
“Bones”

Available October 5

“Family Takeover”
“Bar Rescue” (Season 6)

Available October 6

“Ador”
“Cartel Land”
“Pixels”
“Testament of Youth”
“Tremors 5: Bloodline”

Available October 7

“The Flash” (Season 2)
“iZombie: (Season 2)

Available October 8

“American Horror Story: Hotel”
“Couples Therapy” (Season 6)
“Arrow” (Season 4)
“Supernatural” (Season 11)

Available October 9

“”Ridiculousness” (Season 11)
“Colony”
“The Vampire Diaries” (Season 7)

Available October 12

“The Walking Dead” (Season 6)

Available October 13

“Fargo” (Season 2)

Available October 14

“Chicago Fire” (Season 4)

Available October 16

“Nathan for You” (Season 3)

Available October 20

“Terminator Genisys”
“The Vatican Tapes”

Available October 23

“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt1”

Available October 23

“While We're Young”

Available October 30

“Danny Collins”

Available October 31

“Grimm” (Season 6)

HULU

Dwayne Johnson, Pain and GainAvailable October 1
 
“Chicago P.D.” (Season 3 Premiere)
“MythBusters” (Complete Season 16)
“All Is Lost” (
“Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues”
“The Blair Witch Project”
“Blood Simple”
“Blue Chips”
“Carrie” (2013)
“Dear White People”        
“The Expendables 3”
“G.I. Joe: Retaliation”
“Hannah And Her Sisters”
“Hercules” (2014)
“Hugo”
“The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”
“In A World…”
“Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit”
“Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa”
“Joe”
“Labor Day”
“A Most Wanted Man”
“Much Ado About Nothing”
“Nebraska”
“Noah”
“Pain & Gain”
“Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones”
“Primal Fear”
“Private Parts”
“Pulp Fiction”
“Rabbit Hole”
“Robocop” (2014)
“Serendipity”
“The Skeleton Twins”
“Star Trek: Into Darkness”
“Tales from the Hood”
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (2014)
“The Innkeepers”
“The Program”
“Transformers: Age of Extinction”
“The Wolf of Wall Street”
“World War Z”
“You’re Next”

Available October 2

“Bones” (Season 11 Premiere)
“Sleepy Hollow” (Season 3 Premiere)
“Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For”

HBO NOW

margot robbie will smith focusAvailable October 1

“28 Days”
“Alvin and the Chipmunks” (2007)
“Bee Movie”
“Blazing Saddles”
“Blood Diamond”
“Brick”
“Burn After Reading”
“Ella Enchanted”
“Happy Feet”
“House on Haunted Hill” (1999)
“The Kid”
“License to Drive”
“Little Miss Sunshine”
“Lost in Translation”
“Magnolia”
“Mrs. Doubtfire”
“Return to House on Haunted Hill”
“Revenge of the Nerds”
“Rugrats in Paris: The Movie”
“Rumor Has It”
“Shrek”
“The Rock”
“Trick ‘R Treat”
 
Available October 3

“American Sniper”

Available October 4

"The Leftovers" (Season 2 Premiere)

Available October 9

“Magnífica 70” (Season 1 Premiere)

Available October 10

“Focus”

Available October 17

“Amy Schumer: Live at the Apollo”
“Taken 3”

Available October 18

“Doll & Em” (Season 2 Finale)

Available October 24

“Bad Words”

Available October 31

“The Purge: Anarchy”

Redbox

tomorrowland4Available October 2

“Avengers: Age of Ultron”

Available October 6

“Insidious Chapter 3”
“Dark Places”
“Air”
“Justice League Bizarro League”

Available October 13

“Furious 7”
“Tomorrowland”
“The Ouija Exorcisms”

Available October 20

“Pitch Perfect 2”
“The Vatican Tapes”
“Z For Zachariah”

Available October 27

“Spy”
“Pixels”
“Poltergeist”
“Entourage”
“Southpaw”
“Trace”

SEE ALSO: Here's what's coming to Netflix in October

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This is what it's like inside Elon Musk's futuristic Tesla factory











A cable company changed its mind and wants to charge a Wisconsin man $117,000 for internet — after he already built his house

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the cable guy originalWisconsin web developer Cole Marshall is currently living in an internet nightmare, and it would cost him $117,000 to crawl out of it.

Marshall’s troubles began in November, 2014, when he began construction on a new house just outside the town of Sun Prairie, Ars Technica reports. When Marshall purchased the plot of land, he was told it was “cable-ready.” But he isn’t the type to just take someone at his word.

Before buying the lot, Marshall did four things, according to Ars Technica:

  1. He went on the website of local cable company, Charter, and checked if his address was covered (yes)
  2. He also checked his neighbor’s addresses on Charter’s website (yes)
  3. He called Charter and asked if they could provided service to his house (yes)
  4. As a backup, he checked DSL options, and found that Frontier Communications could provide 24Mbps download speeds

It turns out that wasn't actually the case.

After Marshall completed construction on the house, Charter said it could only provide him service if he paid an insane $117,000. For what? That was how much it would cost extend its network to encompass the new house. Charter confirmed that estimate to Ars Technica.

This was a setback, but Marshall still had his DSL backup. He approached Frontier, who then informed him that he would only be able to get snail-fast 3Mbps download speed (which he told Ars Technica slows to 2Mbps at night). Marshall was forced to relent, and suffer through horrible internet as he tries to make his living as a web developer. It’s not easy.

Marshall pays an absurd $53.78 for two DSL lines, one for his work and the other for “grainy Netflix” in the living room, he told Ars Technica. That's $53.78 for a combined maximum of 6Mbps download speeds — “broadband” is speeds 25Mbps or more.

And it wouldn’t be a classic cable company experience without a little extra salt in the wound. "I did get a mailing right after I moved in, 'welcome to your new home,  [Charter] Spectrum broadband Internet and it made my blood boil when I saw that," Marshall told Ars Technica.

SEE ALSO: How an accidental Siri butt dial saved the life of an 18 year old

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Animated map reveals the 550,000 miles of cable hidden under the ocean that power the internet










'The Walk' really wants you to know how impressive it is

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the walk

One of the biggest issues with Robert Zemeckis' "The Walk," the film about Philippe Petit's 1974 tightrope walk between the two towers of the World Trade Center, is evident in the very opening sequence.

The film opens with Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, donning a comically thick French accent and actually speaking quite a bit of French) addressing us, the audience, as he prepares to take us through his incredible journey firsthand.

At first, the camera is framed eerily close to his face, but once the camera pulls away, we realize Petit is standing in the torch of the (poorly computer-generated) Statue of Liberty, with the twin towers framed prominently in the background. The film cuts back to this sequence throughout, and Petit tells us how he feels every single step of the way.

By repeatedly breaking the fourth wall, Zemeckis is doubling down on the audience's interest in Petit. Gordon-Levitt's accented narration is the film's main narrative drive, which feels like a safety net to ensure that the audience is properly thrilled and impressed with Petit's passion and achievement. This is wildly unnecessary.

The Walk 2A film about one of the most daring and memorable feats in New York City history shouldn't have to do any heavy lifting to engage an audience. A better film would show that Petit was a madman determined to achieve to dreams, not let him yell it at the camera.

Any time "The Walk" gets you in its hold, Petit is seconds away from interrupting the flow to tell you how impressed you should be. He's constantly dictating his feelings and talking about his dream in an attempt to instill a sense of wonder that's already inherently there.

This irritating narration is rather disappointing, because when the film works, it works quite well. It's at its best when it circumvents these generic "true story" pitfalls and just lets the characters breathe.

Technically speaking, the film is a mixed bag. Some of the CGI is just terrible (the aforementioned opening sequence is pretty rough, as well as a weird scene with a bird), but once things kick into high gear during the finale, the effects are incredibly spellbinding.

the walk 1"The Walk" culminates in a sequence that is undeniably visceral and an absolute technical marvel. It's hard to not get caught up in the spectacle as you're dangling 110 stories off the ground along with Petit, especially in IMAX 3D. I still despise 3D as a general rule, but I was happy to be getting the full experience once the titular walk actually began.

Zemeckis is a seasoned filmmaking veteran, so it's a bit of a surprise to see him lack the faith to fully commit here. The material is so ripe for a blockbuster experience, and while the last 30 minutes definitely deliver that, the film's many misfires really weigh it down. The acclaimed documentary "Man on Wire" is still the definitive take on this story.

Watch the trailer below.

"The Walk" opens in theaters nationwide October 9 and in IMAX 3D on September 30.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The truth about 'the most interesting man in the world'










First behind-the-scenes look shows the making of Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs movie

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Steve Jobs by Michael Fassbender

We've seen a couple of trailers for Oscar-winning writer Aaron Sorkin's upcoming movie about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, but now it's time to see how the controversial film was made.

"Steve Jobs" is directed by "Slumdog Millionaire's" Danny Boyle and stars Michael Fassbender, Seth Rogan, Jeff Daniels, and Kate Winslet. Its world premiere will be at the New York Film Festival in October.

ScreenSlam recently shared some extensive behind-the-scenes footage of the movie along with cast and crew interviews. We've pulled the highlights.

Seth Rogan plays Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. "If you embarrass these people, you're going to see a brain drain of this company, my brother," he tells Jobs in one scene.



"I think Steve Jobs was a great salesman," Fassbender says. "I think we was a great negotiator, and I think he was a great observer of talent."



"The structure is so cinematic... and so different from a normal biographical movie that it almost eliminates it from having to be real life," says Rogan.

Aaron Sorkin's screenplay is divided into three acts surrounding individual product launches by Steve Jobs at Apple.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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'Science as a religion': The screenwriter for 'The Martian' tells us his key demand for the film

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The Martian Fox final

Warning: Spoilers ahead

When Drew Goddard began reading Andy Weir’s book, “The Martian,” he couldn’t help but think back on his youth.

Weir’s tale of astronaut Mark Watney being stranded on Mars definitely sucked in Goddard, but it was Watney’s MacGyver-like task to survive on the Red Planet that kept him reading. The science behind it reminded him of his hometown, Los Alamos, New Mexico.

“Los Alamos is a town of rocket scientists,” Goddard told Business Insider at the Toronto International Film Festival. “There’s a combination of intelligence but gallows humor that I always found scientists have that I never saw captured on screen; that was my big attraction to this book.”

That attraction led Goddard, who is know best for being the screenwriter of titles like “World War Z” and “Lost” and the director of “The Cabin in the Woods,” to adapt the book into a screenplay for 20th Century Fox.

But he told the Fox executives one thing before he started.

“I told them, ‘Don’t make this if you’re going to simplify it.’” Goddard told Business Insider.

Directed by Ridley Scott, “The Martian” is filled with 3D effects that put you on the edge of your seat as you watch Matt Damon (Watney) use his wits and limited supplies to stay alive.

martian potatoes (1)But unlike Scott’s previous ventures into space with “Alien” and “Prometheus,” there’s a more realistic feel to “The Martian” and a big reason is the science and math that plays a major factor in the story.

“We’re treating science as a religion,” Goddard said about the story. “It’s less about Mark thinking he’s so smart and more about this is what he’s devoted his life to and he knows he may not have the answer but he knows how to get to the answer.”

Goddard said the process of adapting the book for the screen was a quick by Hollywood standards. Six months after he began reading the book, Fox greenlit the film.

After handing in the script, Goddard, Scott and Weir combined forces to figure out how to visually translate that science on the page to something audiences would understand.

“It was less about what should the movie be and much more about how do we get this done,” Goddard said. “Andy is the smart one of the group, so much of it was Andy explaining to Ridley and I, and we would figure out how to translate that to the audience. Because we didn’t understand it.”

Goddard recalls how they created the sequence in the movie where Watney finally communicates with NASA.

In the book, after rebooting a long-forgotten Pathfinder probe left on Mars, Watney uses the camera on it to send images back to NASA. However, there is no audio. To communicate, Watney came up with the idea of using a numbers and letters system known as hexadecimal (or hex) to communicate.

Watney placed the hex symbols around the Pathfinder in a circle. The Pathfinder camera would then point to specific hex symbols that they would decode to communicate.

Drew Goddard Kevin Winter Getty“I remember me, Ridley, and Andy were in a room figuring out how many degrees the camera has, recreating what happens in the book. So when I saw that scene in the movie I was like, ‘Oh, we were in a board room figuring that out.’”

“That’s an example where if you don’t know what hex is you will see it visually and figure it out,” said Goddard.

“Part of the fun of this movie is watching people that are smarter than we are work it out.”

And then there’s the biting charm that Damon brought to the Watney character once production began.

Watney is our guide as he talks directly into tiny cameras throughout his base on Mars, almost giving us a layman’s play-by-play. And though there’s a lot of math and science the audience has to take in, he doesn’t deliver dry science jargon. Damon gives the characters a funny sarcasm that makes what we’re taking in seem less like we’re sitting in on a professor’s lecture.

“Some of my favorite moments in the movie are the things Matt did,” said Goddard. “It’s little and subtle but it all adds up. He’s one of the rare actors that you can point the camera at and leave on and magic happens.”

But would the combination of geeky science talk and Damon staring at a camera cracking jokes be enough to get audiences through a 130 minute movie?

The test audiences gave the only answer needed.

“I’m confident that I will never have a movie that I’m part of test as well as this movie tested,” said Goddard. “I was fully expecting [the studio] to say ‘We’re going to need to simplify this,’ and the opposite was true.”

Goddard said that when they looked over the audience responses the most popular comment they got back was, “We love the science.”

damon interstellar

Perhaps another factor in the audience’s enjoyment in the film was the smart space movies that preceded it. “The Martian” was being made when both “Gravity” (Goddard noted he handed in the script the day that movie opened) and “Interstellar” were released. And in the latter, Damon plays an astronaut stranded on a planet beyond the Milky Way.

“‘Wait, Matt’s playing an astronaut in that? And he’s all by himself?!’” Goddard recalls reacting. “But we watched it and it was very different. It made us feel good that both movies were intelligent and about science and space and audiences responded.”

“You realize the mistake we all make in Hollywood,” Goddard went on to say. “We talk down to the audience when they prefer to be talked up. The lesson I keep learning is audiences are always so much smarter than you think. It was nice to see that play out in this movie.”

“The Martian” opens in theaters Friday.

Watch the trailer:

SEE ALSO: Ridley Scott learned about water on Mars two months ago but couldn't put it in "The Martian"

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How Gisele Bündchen became the highest-paid supermodel in the world










This sexually explicit casting contract reveals just how kinky HBO's 'Westworld' could be

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HBO westworld extras agreement

Just how kinky is HBO planning to go with its television series adaptation of the film, "Westworld"?

Actors' union SAG-AFTRA wants to make its rules clear when it comes to the kinds of sexual acts HBO's "Westworld" extras were being asked to agree to on Tuesday before working on the series.

Here's what the agreement said extras may have to perform:

– "genital-to-genital touching"

– "oral sex with hand-to-genital touching"

– "contort to form a table-like shape while being fully nude"

– "pose on all fours while others who are fully nude ride on your back"

– "ride on someone's back while you are both fully nude."

– "other assorted acts the project may require"

HBO westworld extras agreement ag

SAG-AFTRA sent out a member alert with a reminder on its rules for consent under the above conditions:

The SAG-AFTRA Agreement provides that consent to appear in scenes requiring nudity or sex acts may be withdrawn at any time (consent may not be withdrawn as to scenes already shot).

Business Insider has reached out to HBO for comment.

According to the pay network, the one-hour drama "is a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin."

An adaptation of the 1973 sci-fi film of the same name, which was written and directed by Michael Crichton, the TV version of "Westworld" has some name writer/executive producers attached, including Jonathan Nolan ("Dark Knight") and J.J. Abrams ("Star Trek Into Darkness," "Lost").

It premieres in 2016 and stars Anthony Hopkins, Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Harris, James Marsden, Thandie Newton, and Jeffrey Wright.

See the sexually explicit agreement below:

westworld

SEE ALSO: The first teaser for HBO's creepy movie to TV adaptation 'Westworld' is here

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NBC is producing a game show based on a mobile app

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quizup for iphone

NBC has just given a 10-episode series order to a game show based on the mobile app, QuizUp.

According to a network press release, the new trivia show will pit studio contestants against players from anywhere in the country who are competing on their mobile phones in real time.

Players can win up to $1 million for winning eight rounds. If an at-home player wins, he or she receives the money allocated to that round only.

At-home players will be qualified to participate through the app. If a player doesn't qualify, he or she will still be able to play along with the broadcast show in real time on the app.

From Plain Vanilla Corp., QuizUp has become the No. 1 downloaded app in 128 countries.

“QuizUp in America is an exciting next step for us, and we couldn’t ask for a better partner than NBC,” said QuizUp founder and CEO, Thor Fridriksson, in a statement.

He continued, “In the past five months we’ve completely revamped QuizUp by incorporating social elements and have launched My QuizUp to create an open, user-generated platform. QuizUp in America is bringing engaging, addictive trivia to the masses and we’re incredibly excited about it.”

Universal Television and Apploff Entertainment ("Don't Forget the Lyrics") will produce the QuizUp game show for NBC.

It was only a matter of time before Hollywood began looking to hit mobile apps. Just like books and movies, popular apps give producers the assurance that they were popular in another medium.

SEE ALSO: The much-anticipated 'Coach' reboot is dead at NBC

MORE: After 7 seasons and 3,500 competitors, NBC names the first-ever champion of its physically grueling 'American Ninja Warrior' competition

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Katy Perry got groped by a wild fan while performing a concert

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Katy Perry

Katy Perry loves her fans — but maybe not this much. The "I kissed a girl" singer got extremely up close and personal with a female fan onstage at her concert in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The completely dazed fan ran onstage and immediately started attempting to take selfies with Perry. She then started kissing her neck.

"Come here baby girl you look great," she said as the fan walked up to the stage. "She's kissing my neck!" Perry said when she realized what was going on. The fan then took it a step further by grabbing the singer's breasts.

Perry obviously felt a little violated, but overall was good sport about the encounter however — she complied with the selfies, even holding the fan's phone. When the fan started to eat up concert time, Perry kindly sent her off but not before patting her on the butt. The fan of course responded by patting Perry back.

See the entire interaction below:

SEE ALSO: Katy Perry heads to Burning Man for the first time

MORE: The incredible way Katy Perry became the world's richest female celebrity

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You can now make your Facebook profile picture a GIF (FB)

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Facebook just launched a slew of new profile features, including the ability to make your profile picture a GIF or set temporary profile pictures that will change after a specified amount of time. 

The new feature means you can shoot a short, looping clip that will play whenever someone visits your profile (technically, Facebook's calling them "profile videos"). 

"Profile videos will let show a part of yourself you couldn't before, and add a (literal!) new dimension to your profile," the company writes in its blog post on the news. 

Here's how a profile GIF could look:

 

Facebook's also making it more convenient for people to change their profile picture briefly, for example around a time-specific event like the Superbowl or a vacation, and then set a time for it to automatically change back. Think of it like a profile picture timer of sorts. When Facebook released its Celebrate Pride rainbow profile picture filter, for example, 26 million people used it, but then had to grapple with when to change back to their old picture. Now, they could specifically designate a one-week window at the outset. 

Here's what a temporary profile picture could look like:

Facebook

You can also now pull more information to the top of your profile, including a new, one-line "bio" section, info about where you work, and up to five "featured photos." All of that info will be showcased at the top of your profile.

Facebook is also changing the way Facebook profiles look on mobile by centering profile pictures.  Here's what they will look like now:Facebook

Here's another look at the profile videos in action:

 

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Blake Lively's kitschy e-commerce website is shutting down

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Blake Lively

Last summer, celebrity Blake Lively launched a twee and kitsch e-commerce site called Preserve.Us.

She's not the first celebrity to launch such a website — Gwyneth Paltrow founded lifestyle company GOOP and Jessica Alba co-founded an organic e-commerce company called The Honest Company.

Lively hadn't talked much about Preserve since writing a rather strange letter at its launch last summer, but Preserve was part-lifestyle blog and post-e-commerce store. You could buy things on the site like $10 salt and a $95 wooden bike crate.

Now it appears the website is shutting down.

Lively told Vogue that Preserve is closing down on October 9 because the website has not "caught up to its original mission":

We have an incredible team of people who do beautiful work, but we launched the site before it was ready, and it never caught up to its original mission: It’s not making a difference in people’s lives, whether superficially or in a meaningful way.

And that’s the whole reason I started this company, not just to fluff myself, like, “I’m a celebrity! People will care what I have to say!” It was so never meant to be that, and that kind of became the crutch because it was already up and already running, and it’s hard to build a brand when you’re running full steam ahead—how do you catch up?

But Lively is not done with her entrepreneurial endeavors forever. She tells Vogue she's done research into Jessica Alba's Honest Company and wants to create a "shoppable lifestyle," which may or may not involve more ventures into e-commerce in the future: 

“Our goal has always been to touch millennials through storytelling, and the idea is to create a shoppable lifestyle. And that’s not to say to turn everything into commerce, but to make things easier: This is a thing that I created with my own two hands and this is how you can do it, or this is something that I found on my adventures and travels and this is how you can have it. It’s about creating a level of ease for the people who identify with us. We’ve focused in so much that it’s actually very simple, it’s very clean, it’s very direct.”

You can read the full Vogue story here. 

SEE ALSO: Blake Lively Introduces E-Commerce Site In A Letter Where Every Sentence Is Weirder Than The One Before It

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Taylor Swift reportedly dropped $25 million on this legendary Beverly Hills estate

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taylor swift beverly hills

Taylor Swift reportedly spent $25 million on a Beverly Hills mansion that previously belonged to legendary film producer Samuel Goldwyn, Variety reports

The sale closed at the beginning of September, though the buyer was masked behind an LLC with a Nashville address. Variety, citing multiple unnamed sources, is now reporting that the mystery buyer was indeed Swift. 

The 11,000-square-foot mansion would be Swift's second in Beverly Hills — she also owns a $3.55 million home there, in addition to properties in New York City, Rhode Island, and two in Nashville.

The Goldwyn Estate has six bedrooms, a tennis court, guest apartment, swimming pool, and large gardens. Goldwyn frequently used his home to host stars of the golden age of Hollywood, including Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Bette Davis, and Frank Capra. Though Goldwyn died in 1974, the estate had belonged to his son, the late Samuel Goldwyn Jr., ever since.

Swift addressed Variety's report in a tweet Tuesday.

Since the sale closed earlier in September (and she had been in Los Angeles for the VMAs around the same time) it's still very possible that Swift was the buyer.  

SEE ALSO: Personal finance guru Suze Orman is selling her Plaza apartment for $4.5 million

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Caitlyn Jenner won't be prosecuted for causing a fatal car crash

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GettyImages caitlyn jenner manslaughter charges car crashThe decision is in! Caitlyn Jenner will not face prosecution for causing a car crash that killed a woman in Malibu on February 1.

The Los Angeles District Attorney's office has decided not to pursue charges against the reality star and former Olympian according to papers filed on Wednesday, which Business Insider has obtained.

The D.A.'s office decided not to prosecute, because it believed Jenner's actions weren't "a violation of a misdemeanor or infraction."

The office also decided that Jenner isn't guilty of negligence.

"Based on facts," the D.A. wrote, "we cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that suspect's conduct was unreasonable."

A single misdemeanor manslaughter charge could have meant a yearlong jail sentence.

Last month, a Sheriff Department's report showed that Jenner's actions "put into motion" the chain of events that led to the death of Kim Howe. Jenner's vehicle pushed Howe's into oncoming traffic and then it hit another vehicle holding five people. Jenner was actually driving below the speed limit, but at an unsafe speed for the road conditions that day, the report determined.

Jenner has argued that her speed was not illegal and expressed concern over prisons and how they treat transgender people when she appeared on "Today" recently.

Even though Jenner won't be prosecuted for manslaughter, it's still possible that the victims of the crash or their estate could sue her in civil court for millions of dollars.

See the D.A. declination form below:

Jenner_declination

SEE ALSO: Caitlyn Jenner thinks the controversial Halloween costume based on her Vanity Fair cover is 'great'

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TheStreet’s Jim Cramer to speak at IGNITION 2015

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When it comes to investing, few are as “mad” about money as Jim Cramer.

That’s why we’re pleased to announce that TheStreet.com founder, best-selling author, and host of CNBC’s “Mad Money” Jim Cramer will take the stage at IGNITION: Future of Digital.

In an intimate one-on-one interview, Cramer will discuss managing both a media empire and – what else – money, by helping turn confusion into confidence amidst a mercurial market that, at times, instills anything but.

 CNBC’s ever-vocal host and market expert behind several financial help books — will join a lineup of media and finance heavy-hitters that includes RBC Capital Markets' Mark Mahaney, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, CBS Corporation's Leslie Moonves, Facebook's Carolyn Everson, and more.

Along with Cramer we've lined up an explosive speaker list of some of the best and brightest minds in media today. Get your ticket to IGNITION 2015 now before it sells out. 

 

Follow @BI_Events on Twitter or join the IGNITION group on LinkedIn to find out who will be speaking at IGNITION 2015. 

SEE ALSO: Sony CEO Michael Lynton will discuss the future of entertainment at IGNITION 2015

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