House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) found a rather imaginative way to explain the importance of entitlement reform on Friday.

Boehner's office released a listicle featuring GIFs of featuring actor Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie "Titanic" in order to highlight a recent bipartisan vote for "doc fix" legislation reforming Medicare reimbursement practices. 

"Something big happened recently," Boehner aide Caleb Smith wrote on the speaker's blog. "You might even say it was something titanic."

Smith connected the "doc fix" bill to "Titanic" by noting the legislation was reminiscent of the last time Congress came together to reform entitlements in 1997, the same year DiCaprio starred in the blockbuster film.

"Republicans and Democrats actually came together to pass meaningful entitlement reform without raising taxes. Put plainly, it is the single biggest entitlement reform since 1997 – nearly two decades ago," he continued. "That same year, another remarkable event played out: Titanic came to the big screen. So to help explain the titanic entitlement reform just passed by the House, here are 10 GIFs from the blockbuster 1997 film."

It should be noted that Boehner is no stranger to using GIF memes to explain policy positions. In January, his office deployed a series of Taylor Swift images to argue that President Barack Obama's college savings plan was flawed.

One Democrat told Business Insider that he was puzzled by the movie reference because neither the Titanic nor DiCaprio made it to the end of the film.

"They're aware the Titanic sank, right?" he asked.

Boehner's DiCaprio GIF listicle is below:

1. It’s no secret. Washington has a spending problem.

 2. You can search for savings everywhere…but ultimately, the biggest driver of our debt is the outdated structure of our entitlement programs.

3. Unfortunately, today's costs are just the tip of the iceberg compared to what's coming if we don't change course.

4. Eventually, national debt can flood even the biggest of ships.

5. For years, Washington has gone round and round to avoid long-term solutions, opting instead for perennial band aids.

6. The fight for meaningful entitlement reform has been lonely at times...but it's time to face the music.

7. We owe it to future generations to clean up this mess.

'

8. So Democrats and Republicans came together and passed real entitlement reform.

9. And that is titanic.

10. There is much more to be done to fully reform and save programs like Medicare, but this breakthrough is more than just a life raft. It is an important step to begin to right the ship and secure fair winds and calm seas for our children and grandchildren – the future kings and queens of the world.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Animated map of what Earth would look like if all the ice melted

Nearly 200 million Americans say they play video games. Half of that group is female. So why do such a small number of games have female main characters? 

That's what one young game fan wondered in a moving Washington Post op-ed piece last month, titled, "I’m a 12-year-old girl. Why don’t the characters in my apps look like me?" 

Her name is Madeline Messer, and she's one of the billions of people playing the hit mobile game "Temple Run."

You've probably seen the game or played it yourself: It's one of those "endless runner" games, where your character continuously moves in one direction until that character collides with an object or falls to their death. Both Apple's App Store and Android's Play store are rife with such games, including licensed takes on the "Temple Run" concept from Disney, Sega and others.

The game stars "Guy Dangerous," a white man who's running for his life from crazed, angry baboons. To play as a female ("Scarlett Fox"), NPR's Jess Jiang discovered she'd need to play for at least eight hours. The other option, of course, is to simply fork over some cash: one dollar.

"I think of it, like, this dollar is worth one donut to me," Messer told Jiang on a recent episode of NPR's Planet Money podcast, in reference to one Disney game charging $30 for a female character. "Am I spending 30 donuts to get this girl character?" That's a lot of donuts.

Messer channeled her frustration into a sadly telling study: She played the top 50 "endless runner" games on Apple's App Store. Her discovery? Out of 50 games, just five offered free playable female characters. And the average cost to play as a female in those games? $7.53, or seven and a half donuts.

"Temple Run" is, by far, the most popular game in the genre, topping one billion downloads as of June 2014. It was developed by two people — a married couple — one of whom is a female. Her name is Natlia Luckyanova.

She says the choice to make the default character a white male wasn't conscious discrimination as much as a mistaken guess at who would play the game. "It didn't look like the stereotypical sort of game that women would play. And it didn't look like the stereotypical game that kids would play," Luckyanova says. But play it they did, to the point where women make up the majority of the player base. Sixty percent of "Temple Run" players are female.

"For all of our good intentions, and for all of my good intentions, it's true that you start out with this male character. The white male is always the default. Anything else, you have to work for it. I think she had a point," Luckyanova told NPR. 

After reading the op-ed by Messer, the game's development team acted swiftly. Luckyanova wrote to Messer promising to make the game's female character into a free option. The game is also getting an update that adds even more playable females. As of Friday, the change has yet to be implemented.

SEE ALSO: Gains and gaps in women's fight for gender equality since 1995

AND: Gender equality at work more than 80 years off

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Gina Bianchini: Here's The Best Way To Handle Gender And Other Biases In Silicon Valley

Hodor hodor hodor. Hodor hodor? Hodor. Hodor-hodor. Hodor!

Oh, um, excuse me. Did you catch what I said? Fans of the hit HBO show "Game of Thrones," the fifth season of which premieres this Sunday, know what I’m referencing, anyway. Hodor is the brawny, simple-minded stableboy of the Stark family in Winterfell. His defining characteristic, of course, is that he only speaks a single word: “Hodor.”

But those who read the "A Song of Ice and Fire" book series by George R R Martin may know something that the TV fans don’t: his name isn’t actually Hodor. According to his great-grandmother Old Nan, his real name is Walder. “No one knew where ‘Hodor’ had come from,” she says, “but when he started saying it, they started calling him by it. It was the only word he had.”

Whether he intended it or not, Martin created a character who is a textbook example of someone with a neurological condition called expressive aphasia.

Losing speech ability

In 1861, French physician Paul Broca was introduced to a man named Louis-Victor Leborgne. While his comprehension and mental functioning remained relatively normal, Leborgne progressively lost the ability to produce meaningful speech over a period of 20 years. Like Hodor, the man was nicknamed Tan because he only spoke a single word: “Tan.”

Just a few days after meeting Broca, Leborgne passed away. Broca’s autopsy determined tissue damage, or a “lesion”, in the frontal lobe of Leborgne’s left brain hemisphere, just next to a brain fold called the lateral sulcus. Over the next two years, Broca acquired brains from 12 more patients with Leborgne’s symptoms -- all of the autopsy evidence was strikingly consistent.

Neuroscientists are still examining this small region of the brain, now often referred to as “Broca’s area” to parse out its many functions. While most research has focused on a patient’s inability to form syntactically complex sentences when this area is damaged, more recent work using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has also reported that Broca’s area is active during language comprehension tasks, interpretation of movement, and comprehending various gestures also associated with speech, such as waving goodbye.

Telegraphic speech and brain damage

In collaboration with French scientists in 2007, a group at the University of California revisited the brains of Leborgne and Lelong (another of Broca’s patients who could only speak five words) using magnetic resonance imaging. One of their most interesting findings was that their lesions extended much deeper than Broca had reported, suggesting that multiple brain regions were probably contributing to their speech deficits.

This evidence of widespread damage is unsurprising. Leborgne, Lelong -- and even Hodor -- are actually more extreme examples of individuals with expressive aphasia. More commonly, a person with the disorder will express themselves in “telegraphic speech”, which usually comprises three or so words, including a noun and a verb. For example, someone may say, “Anne, dog, walk” to mean “I walked the dog with Anne today.”

The most common cause of expressive aphasia is stroke, which occurs when a blood clot blocks a vessel in the brain, resulting in tissue damage due to lack of oxygen. It’s estimated that expressive aphasia occurs in 12% of stroke patients, while roughly 35% of stroke patients suffer from a language aphasia of some form.

Expressive aphasia can also be caused by a tumour, haemorrhage, a haematoma in the membrane covering of the brain, or trauma to the head. It has been reported that Leborgne suffered from epileptic seizures as a child -- some have speculated that he may have experienced head trauma during one such episode.

So what’s Hodor’s story? Did he sustain a blow to the head, suffer a stroke, or was he simply a giant baby dropped by his mother?

He may only speak one word, but like the other characters in the show, Hodor too may have a quite an interesting backstory.

SEE ALSO: The Poison That Killed A Major Game Of Thrones Character Is Real

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The remarkable story behind the first man without a beating heart

Hip hop artist Cam'ron is leading New Yorkers on a Willy Wonka scavenger hunt across Manhattan.

The New York native planted four boxes of his new "Killa Crunch" cereal across the island each with a $100 bill inside. The locations are being shared on social media at the top of each hour.

The first box was found just after 1:00 p.m. EST at a Harlem bodega at 133rd St and Frederick Douglas Blvd. The lucky winner was shown online posing with the box while wearing a throwback New York Giants Lawrence Taylor jersey.

A second box was hidden at 2:00 p.m. inside a bodega at the corner of St. Marks Street and 1st Avenue, according to an Instagram post. It was found within minutes.

The third box was stashed at a deli on the corner of Prince Street and Mulberry Street, in SoHo just outside Little Italy.

The remaining box was hidden on the Lower East Side inside a store at the corner of Orchard and Stanton.

Another scavenger hunt will take place on Saturday, according to the Virgin Mega USA Instagram account. Virgin Mega is promoting the event.

"We're picking bodegas that are easily accessible by public transportation," a spokesperson told DNAinfo.

Killa Crunch comes in yellow boxes that prominently feature the rapper pointing a gun with the words "some material too killa for human consumption."

"Every Killa Crunch box panel is jam-packed with goonie goodness inspired by the Dipset don," Virgin Mega claims in a press release. 

The back of the box has a “U Mad Lib” and “Dumb Smart” crossword, a limited edition t-shirt is also inside.

"The breakfast cereal killa," gets its name from Cam'ron's other name  — "Killa Cam."

If you missed out on today's treasure hunt additional boxes can be bought for $45 each by downloading either an android or iOS app.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A lawyer in Florida has come up with an ingenious way for drivers to evade drunken-driving checkpoints

Every week it seems like Disney has another live-action film in the works.

After the theatrical success of "Maleficent," a live-action adaptation centered around the villainess in "Sleeping Beauty," Disney announced plans to roll out "The Jungle Book" and "Beauty and the Beast" with all-star casts. After March's "Cinderella" recently, the studio announced plans for more live-action works.

Wednesday, Deadline reported the studio is taking on a "Pinocchio"-inspired film.

What's going on?

At this point, Disney’s on track to have a huge year at the box office. The studio has two of the biggest anticipated movies under its umbrella with “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (out May 1) and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (December 18).  

"Avengers: Age of Ultron" is currently on track to make over $200 million opening weekend. If the sequel to the 2012 film passes the $207 million run, it could very well break the record for the highest-grossing opening weekend ever in theaters.

Disney’s in a great position right now.

Studio-owned companies Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Pixar have movie plans for the next few years. Marvel has superhero films squared away until 2028. Lucasfilm has at least six "Star Wars" films in the works (Episodes VII, VIII, and IX along with spinoffs). Pixar's titles include another “Toy Story.”

Then there's Disney Animation which will release an animated musical featuring The Rock, "Moana," and has a sequel to its $1 billion “Frozen” in the works. 

The Mouse House is at a point where they can experiment with other releases and kind of see what works. Disney has had immense success with its live-action fairytale ABC series, “Once Upon a Time,” so it’s a natural extension to try and duplicate that success on the big screen. 

Both live-action versions of “Maleficent” ($758.4 million) and “Cinderella” ($402.2 million) have already been big hits at the box office (though the latter debuted with an exclusive short for Disney’s juggernaut “Frozen”).

Here are all of the current Disney live-action films in the works:

"The Jungle Book" 

Expected release date: April 15, 2016
What we know so far: The film about a young boy, Mowgli, raised in the jungle was originally for release later this year, but was pushed back until 2016. The adaptation of the 1967 animated film has a huge cast ranging from Bill Murray as the loveable bear Baloo to Ben Kingsley, Scarlett Johansson, Lupita Nyong'o, and Giancarlo Esposito (Gus from "Breaking Bad"). Personally, we're excited for Murray to sing the classic film's song "The Bare Necessities."

"Beauty and the Beast"

Expected release date: March 17, 2017
What we know so far: The "tale as old as time" will feature Emma Watson and Dan Stevens as the beauty, Belle, and Prince Adam, the beast, respectively. Luke Evans ("The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug") will play Gaston while Josh Gad will be his right-hand man Lefou. Tim Rice and Alan Menken will team up once more to score the film with inspiration from both the animated picture and Broadway musical.

"Dumbo"

Expected release date: TBD
What we know so far: Tim Burton will direct the 1941 film about a big-eared circus elephant who wishes to fly. Ehren Kruger ("Transformers") will write the script. The film won't be using real elephants on screen. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney will use a mix of CGI and live action. 

"Mulan"

Expected release date: TBD
What we know so far: Disney purchased a script from Elizabeth Martin and Lauren Hynek for the 1998 animated picture, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Before Jennifer Lawrence was Katniss Everdeen, Mulan was really one of the first animated characters from the Mouse House to side-step the whole Disney princess thing (though has since been marketed as a princess alongside the other Disney female leads). Mulan took the place of her father in war and ended up becoming both a skilled fighter, and one of the most-respected warriors in all of China.

"Winnie the Pooh"

Expected release date: TBD
What we know so far: According to Deadline, the film's focus will be on Christopher Robin as an adult who is brought back to the Hundred Acre Wood with Pooh and his pals. Alex Ross Perry ("Listen Up Philip") has been hired to direct.

"Pinocchio"

Expected release date: TBD
What we know so far: Not much is known about this adaptation of the 1940 Disney film other than Peter Hedges is writing feature. The animated classic follows a woodworker, Geppetto, who wants nothing more than a son, and his puppet Pinocchio, who comes to life and wants nothing more than to be a real boy. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Disney's Live-Action Version Of 'Cinderella' Finally Gets A Full-Length Trailer

Here's the best news of the day: starting today, you can order all 6 Star Wars episodes on Amazon. 

Each episode can be purchased individually for $19.99

Or you can save $29.95 by pre-ordering  "Star Wars: The Digital Movie Collection" in HDfor$89.99.

"Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace"

Extras include: "Conversations: Doug Chiang Looks Back," "Discoveries From Inside: Models & Miniatures"

Legacy content includes: "The Beginning"; The Podrace: Theatrical Edit; plus eight deleted scenes

Available in HD for $19.99 and SD for $19.99.

"Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones"

Extras include: "Conversations: Sounds In Space," "Discoveries From Inside: Costumes Revealed"

Legacy content includes: "From Puppets To Pixels: Digital Characters In Episode II"; State Of The Art: The Previsualization Of Episode II; and "Films Are Not Released, They Escape"; plus Episode II Visual Effects Breakdown Montage and six deleted scenes

Available in HD for $19.99 and SD for $19.99.

"Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith"

Extras include: "Conversations: The Star Wars That Almost Was," "Discoveries From Inside: Hologram & Bloopers"

Legacy content includes" documentaries "Within A Minute: The Making Of Episode III"; The Journey Part 1; and The Journey Part 2; plus six deleted scenes

Available in HD for $19.99 and SD for $19.99.

"Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope (20th Century Fox)"

Extras include: "Conversations: Creating A Universe," "Discoveries From Inside: Weapons & The First Lightsaber"

Legacy content includes: "Anatomy Of A Dewback"; Star Wars Launch Trailer; plus eight deleted scenes

Available in HD for $19.99 and SD for $19.99.

"Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back"

Extras include "Conversations: The Lost Interviews," "Discoveries From Inside: Matte Paintings Unveiled"

Legacy content includes: "A Conversation With The Masters" (2010); "Dennis Muren: How Walkers Walk"; "George Lucas On Editing The Empire Strikes Back 1979"; and "George Lucas On The Force: 2010"; plus six deleted scenes

Available in HD for $19.99 and SD for $19.99.

"Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi"

Extras include: "Conversations: The Effects,"
"Discoveries From Inside: The Sounds Of Ben Burtt"

Legacy content includes: "Classic Creatures: Return Of The Jedi"; "Revenge Of The Jedi Teaser Trailer"; Return Of The Jedi Launch Trailer; "It Began TV Spot"; "Climactic Chapter TV Spot"; plus five deleted scenes

Available in HD for $19.99 and SD for $19.99.

Order "Star Wars: The Digital Movie Collection" for $89.99 today

SEE ALSO: The Hubsan X4 Royal Blue can do a barrel roll [45% off]

SEE ALSO: The 16 greatest books about how to be a man

SEE ALSO: 6 shampoos to use if you're worried about hair loss

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What the Chinese saying 'The ugly wife is a treasure at home' actually means

Since the days of Cain and Abel, sibling rivalries have dotted history.

Some brothers and sisters wage bitter fights over money and power, while others are purely playful, competitive one-upsmanship.

These 17 sibling rivalries prove that it's impossible to expect brothers and sisters to get along all the time. And some just simply have it out for one another.

Mukesh and Anil Ambani, Indian business tycoons

When Reliance Industries founder Dhirubhai Ambani died in 2002 without a will, his elder son, Mukesh, took over the company as chairman while his younger son, Anil, was made vice-chairman.

Mukesh then reportedly tried to push Anil off the board, and tension between the siblings turned into an ugly legal battle, resulting in a de-merger of the company led by the brothers' mother in 2005. For the next five years the brothers continued to wage war against one another, both in and out of court, until their mother intervened again, this time issuing a noncompete agreement between the two in 2010.

Though the brothers announced soon after that they were no longer feuding, new deals in the telecommunications industry could become a new source of competition for the Ambanis.

LaVerne, Patty, and Maxene Andrews, singers

Their careers were built on harmonizing together, but the Andrews Sisters weren't always as bright and cheery as their songs. Known for hits like "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," the Andrews Sisters were the most successful female recording group in pop history, according to a 1987 Los Angeles Times article.

So it's strange — or maybe natural — that their success is clouded by a decades-long feud. All three sisters are deceased as of January 2013, but Maxene once chalked their intense loathing for one another up to too many years of working too closely together ... though it may not have helped things that Patty joined another singing group in 1951 without telling her sisters.

But in spite of their sweet trio image, Patty believed that their diehard fans didn't care about the feud at all, telling the LA Times, "When I start singing the Andrews Sisters songs, they don't give a damn whether I talk to my sister or not."

Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergso and Mikkel Borg Bjergso, brewers

Mikkel Borg Bjergso and Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergso have been making beer for years, and while they started out brewing together, the last few years have been spent brewing apart.

The identical twins each own their own beer outfit — Mikkel is the mastermind behind the brewery Mikkeller in Copenhagen while Jeppe runs the now-Brooklyn-based Evil Twin Brewing— but the two haven't spoken to each other in more than a year. The rivalry is clear; after all, each brother runs a business in the same industry, but the Bjergsos say they don't look at one another as competition — or at least, Mikkel doesn't. "I don't see Jeppe as a rival," he told The New York Times' Jonah Weiner in a recent article about the brothers' ongoing love of beer and animosity toward each other.

Weiner makes it clear that, rivalry or not, there's definitely a feud between the two that the brothers even tried to resolve with some couples-type counseling, but to no avail.

It may look like nothing more than a small ball of metal, but the shape-shifting and self-propulsion abilities of a liquid metal alloy discovered by scientists at China's Tsinghua University has captured the imaginations of scientists and science-fiction fans across the world.

Professor Liu Jing and his team have created what they believe could prove the first step toward developing a robot similar to the infamous T-1000 shape-shifting, liquid metal assassin from the Terminator movies.

"The soft machine looks rather intelligent and [can] deform itself according to the space it voyages in, just like [the] Terminator does from the science-fiction film,"professor Liu told New Scientist.

The device is made from a drop of metal alloy consisting mostly of gallium, which is a liquid at just under 30 degrees Celsius. Last year they discovered that an applied electrical current causes the gallium alloy to drastically alter its shape. Changing the voltage applied to the metal allowed it to 'shape-shift' into different formations. When the current was switched off, the metal returned to its original drop shape. 

But the team made their biggest breakthrough when they realized that bringing it into contact with a flake of aluminum caused a reaction creating hydrogen bubbles that allowed it to move of its own accord. Liu said it was able to 'fuel' itself for about an hour.

Here is what the process looks like:

Aluminum merges with the droplet of mostly gallium:

The reaction creates bubbles that help  propel the droplet forward:

When electric volts are added the droplet changes shape. When the electricity is removed, the material reverts back into its original form:

"The machine has two processes. One is to create gases like hydrogen. Part of these gases form the propulsion. There's also something important, in fact very important, which is the electricity generated behind the alloy. So this galvanic battery creates an internal electrical power, and this type of electricity will very easily lead to stretching of the surface of the liquid metal in an asymmetrical pattern, and this pattern leads to rotations inside the liquid metal, and the process of these rotations will set the liquid metal in motion in a certain direction," he said.

While the scientists are still learning more about the properties of the metal, Liu believes it could have a variety of medical applications, for example delivering medicine in blood vessels. 

"At present it has potential to become a robot, but a robot for the veins. So apart from a robot for the veins it could for example [be used in] people's windpipes and digestive system, it may perhaps be able to carry out some medical tasks, for example transporting some medicines," he said, adding that scientists would of course first have to ensure that there would be no side-effects to ingesting the metal.

As for comparisons to the deadly machine in the Terminator movies, Liu said that while the thought of his discovery bearing resemblance to the T-1000 did make him chuckle, he hoped that his robot would work for the good of mankind.

"Perhaps people think it's like the Terminator but I think to a certain extent the Terminator's not very good, he wasn't good for mankind. So we hope that if in the future we can really make a soft robot, we hope that it can be a more human-like robot," he said.

Here's a video of the process:

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Animated map of what Earth would look like if all the ice melted

On April 24, Diane Sawyer will have an exclusive interview with Bruce Jenner.

BuzzFeed notes that the matters discussed in the interview have not formally been announced, but media speculation insinuates the two-hour sit down will revolve around Bruce's rumored decision to begin his transition to being a woman.

The following clip is the first thirty-second look we've had at the interview.

Former Olympian Jenner, who recently divorced third wife Kris, is the father of Burt, Casey, Brandon, Brody, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, and stepfather to Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, and Robert Kardashian.

US Weekly had recently reported daughter Kendall Jenner had said of her father: “I love my dad. He’s always been there for me and my sisters. He’s a wonderful man. And just because he’s changing shoes now, so to speak, doesn’t make him less wonderful. I will always love my dad, whether he’s a man or a woman.”

The quote was the first confirming statement of Bruce's transition from his family, but was later retracted. 

TMZ reports the interview with Sawyer will be "a farewell to Bruce. He will 'present himself' as a woman publicly for the first time. But it's not about his look -- it's about his mental state and his journey."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This is what happens to your brain and body when you check your phone before bed

"Game of Thrones" fans are gearing up for the season 5 premiere on April 12. Here are what the show's biggest stars look like in real life.

Produced by Devan Joseph 

Follow BI Video: On Facebook

Join the conversation about this story »

An Argentine judge ordered the arrest of pop star Justin Bieber if he sets foot in the country after the Canadian singer failed to face questions about an alleged assault at a Buenos Aires nightclub in 2013, his court secretary said on Friday.

A local photographer, Diego Pesoa, accused Bieber and one of his bodyguards of lashing out at him when he tried to take a picture of the star as he left the club in the capital's trendy Palermo Hollywood neighborhood.

Entertainment website FarandulaShow (www.farandulaShow.com) posted a copy of the court ruling ordering Bieber be detained on its web page. Court secretary Soledad Nieto, a co-signatory of the order paper, confirmed the document was authentic.

"I consider it pertinent to order the immediate detention of the accused," read Judge Alberto Julio Banos' order, which is dated April 8.

The court also ordered the detention of one of Bieber's bodyguards.

In November, another local judge magistrate had ordered Bieber to appear for questioning within two months over the same alleged incident and requested the assistance of Argentina's Interpol branch to help locate the 21-year-old.

Bieber has had a string of run-ins with the law in several countries.

Bieber's representatives did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Inside A Bizarre Barbie-Themed Hotel Room In Argentina That Is Already Booked Until Next Year

The Apple Watch's largest screen size is under two inches.

With such little real estate, you might think that the games headed to Apple's new wearable would be miniaturized as well. And you'd be wrong, apparently. At least in one instance.

The folks behind "Runeblade" believe that Apple Watch games don't have to be small in scope to appeal to Apple smartwatch owners. They've created the first big title: A role-playing game set to launch alongside Apple Watch on April 24.

Given the limited capacity for interaction on a two-inch watch screen, actions are limited to swipes and taps for combat. The game appears to focus on battle over exploration; again, there's only so much you can do with a tiny screen that's strapped to your wrist. 

Is this the game for you, soon-to-be Apple Watch owner? Well, if you were able to snag an Apple Watch pre-order this morning, and your shipment isn't delayed until several months from now, you'll soon be able to find out.

Check out the game in action just below, care of Everywear Games.

SEE ALSO: The first Apple Watch apps are slow and limited, except the ones Apple built

AND:  The 15 Apple Watch apps we're most excited to try

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Trying the Apple Watch at the store won't persuade you to buy one

When people ask what the Great American Novel is, there's really one answer you can take seriously. 

"The Great Gatsby," which had its 90th birthday on Friday.

Compared with F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, all the others contenders make reading feel like a slog, which has to be at least part of the reason that 23% of Americans don't read a book in an entire year. 

Let's review:

• "Moby Dick"? Boring. Who needs to spend hours reading Herman Melville spill details of New England whaling? 

• "The Scarlet Letter"? Nathaniel Hawthorne was at his best with "The Minister's Black Veil."

• "To Kill A Mocking Bird"? Hope that Harper Lee's next book is little more compelling. 

• "Infinite Jest"? Anyone who says they've read the whole thing is lying.

There's "Gatsby," then there's everything else. 

Here's why: reading shouldn't be a punishment. 

For me, reading "Gatsby" in 11th grade was when I first realized that "pleasure reading" could be a thing that exists in real life. 

While he wrote in rhyme and image and symbol and detail, Fitzgerald still pulled the plot taut — the book clocks in at under 50,000 words. 

It made me want to be a writer. For my friend and novelist Jack Cheng, it's the same story. 

"I read it and said, 'Holy s---, I want to do what this guy does," he recalls. "For me, its a very visual book, and for me, the way Fitzgerald uses language, it can be so visually unexpected." 

A few cases in point. 

This exchange between narrator Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby, where Gatsby talks about winning back Daisy Buchanan: 

Or the way Nick's romantic interest Jordan describes summer in New York: 

Or, most of all, the novel's final lines, care of Nick: 

There's just nothing like it.

SEE ALSO: 11 Things You Don't Know About 'The Great Gatsby'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This Scientology documentary made HBO hire 160 lawyers — here's the trailer

Many of the Valley's elite turned up for Wednesday's party promoting season two of "Silicon Valley," a satirical comedy that's grown into a full-fledged hit for HBO.

The new season premieres on Sunday, April 12, at 10 p.m. ET.

Most of the cast appeared at the event. Notably missing was T.J. Miller, who caused an uproar in February when he hosted the Valley's version of the Oscars, the "Crunchies," and delivered remarks viewed by many as offensive.

That was just the latest in the blurring of fact versus fiction, real versus unreal, in a show that has captured the absurdity of this singular place and time.

First off, there are no sacred cows. The show's intentions were clear from its first poster, in which its band of hapless entrepreneurs strike the same self-important pose as the one famously associated with Steve Jobs.

And who better to deliver cutting social satire than creator Mike Judge? He brought the world such unforgettable creations as the cult hit "Office Space" and '90s morons "Beavis and Butt-head," expertly skewering the world of work and meaningless culture.

In season one, main character Richard (in burgundy hoodie) creates a music app containing a revolutionary compression algorithm. Gavin Belson, founder of Hooli, offers Richard $10 million for the algorithm, but Richard decides instead to grow his own company, Pied Piper, and accepts a $200,000 investment from quirky venture capitalist Peter Gregory. Belson seeks revenge and builds Nucleus to rival Pied Piper's algorithm.

Also see, "Before He Died, Christopher Evan Welch Gave Us The Perfect Embodiment Of Tech-World Hubris."

Artificial Intelligence has become a popular topic in movies recently, ranging as far in themes from gun-toting Chappie to the lovable Baymax in "Big Hero 6."

But "Ex Machina," opening in limited release Friday, features an AI so realistic that you'll be thinking about it long after the credits roll.

“Ex Machina” is the directorial debut of Alex Garland (best known for writing "28 Days Later" and "Dredd") and follows young programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) who is invited to stay with Nathan (Oscar Isaac), a reclusive Steve Jobs-like CEO of the company he works for. Once there, Caleb learns that Nathan has created one of the most sophisticated AIs and wants Caleb to test it to see how human it can be.

The AI, named Ava (played by newcomer Alicia Vikander), speaks and acts as any human being, but physically there's no mistaking that she's a robot.

This distinction was one Garland was adamant about.

We reached out to Mark Simpson, who previously worked with Garland on "Dredd," to learn more about the physical evolution of Ava. Simpson, who's known in the art world as Jock, was responsible for Ava's concept art — the drawings and designs the production uses as a starting point in the creation of the characters and sets. 

Jock shared six of his concept images for "Ex Machina" with Business Insider; taking us through his process for the creation of Ava.

To get Ava right, Garland and Jock spent a lot of time talking about what the movie's AI should not look like.

"We went through so many variations in the early stages of designing Ava. I started out with a figure much closer to human, with internal lights and a few subtle oddities in the joints, but Alex really pushed for a far more robotic look; and of course his instincts were right. To present something that is entirely mechanical, and then ask how the viewer feels about it, that's a really interesting question. These variations are somewhere in between those two initial ideas."

Here we see the evolution of Ava. 

"This image was one that got us closer to the final design. The breakthrough with Ava came when Alex came up with the idea of the mesh that would cover her entire body. In certain light, she'd look entirely mechanical, with her midriff and limbs missing — almost a typical 'robot' — but the light would catch the mesh as she turned, or in certain light would reveal a beautiful female form. I think it works incredibly well in the film — she looks completely seductive but entirely mechanical. This is obviously underpinned by Alicia's amazing performance and Double Negative's entirely convincing VFX."

Though most of the movie is inside Nathan's underground compound, Jock didn't know that when he was creating his concepts. This gave him the freedom to place Ava in any world he wanted.

"Very early concept work is completely free from the constraints of budget, location, and sets — or at least when I work with Alex he encourages that mind set. The practicalities of getting it on film are a problem to overcome later, and he's always keen for me to be free of any constraints in the conceptual stage. This image was obviously before production found the stunning Norway location where the exteriors were eventually shot, so it shows a different feel to the landscape."

But sometimes the concept art can inspire the way shots come together when filming takes place.

"This proved a popular image in production, and you can see this shot in varying degrees in the final film. There are smoked glass doors all over Nathan's mansion, providing glimpses of figures as they enter or leave. The metaphors are fairly obvious here, with Ava appearing slightly unseen and enigmatic."

Concepts also help express the kind of tone the film should have.

"This is probably my favorite image, but perhaps not the most obvious. For me it sums up, tonally, what the film is about; It's explicit, but has beauty. It's very naturalistic, but we also see the inner workings of the robot, giving a mechanical quality to the figure. I like that juxtaposition."

At the end of the day, the goal of the concept art is to be the first step of a character's life and their world — sometimes, even, the world they dream of.

"Another thematic idea, rather than a specific shot from the script; 'What would this robot look like in a natural environment?' 'What would it be looking for, once it was outside?' More often than not the more successful images come from a simple feeling rather than trying to manufacture a look. And this was one of those, produced very quickly."

Here's a finished look of Ava as she appears on the poster for "Ex Machina":

"Ex Machina" is currently in limited release and goes wide theatrically April 24.

SEE ALSO: Top scientists have an ominous warning about artificial intelligence

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This Sports Illustrated swimsuit rookie could become the next Kate Upton

This week just got even better for HBO. The season premiere of "Game of Thrones" is just two days away. The network released the trailer for the highly-anticipated second season of "True Detective." And now they've just revealed the first taste of what appears to be another potential hit for the network.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson tweeted the first trailer for "Ballers," the new scripted comedy that's executive-produced by Mark Wahlberg and his fellow "Entourage" colleague Stephen Levinson. Johnson plays an ex-football player who now works as a high-profile agent.

The show premieres on June 21.

Follow BI Video: on Facebook

Join the conversation about this story »

F. Scott Fitzgerald always wanted his novel "The Great Gatsby" to become a "consciously artistic achievement."

Today, it is just that. 

His American classic is mandatory reading across English classrooms. There was a time, however, when no one wanted to read about Gatsby and his lost love, Daisy.

Some may say, "Gatsby" was simply ahead of its time.

On the 90th anniversary of Fitzgerald's beloved book, here are a few things you may not know about the tale.

The book was highly influenced by Fitzgerald's failed play "The Vegetable: or from President to Postman."

Fitzgerald spent a year and a half working on the comedy — a satire on the American Dream and spoof of President Harding's administration — which he hoped would make him a famous Broadway playwright.

The young author began work on "Gatsby" after the first draft of "Vegetable" was complete while traveling between Long Island, Great Neck, and New York City for play rehearsal.

"Vegetable" was a disaster opening night in the fall of 1923 in Atlantic City, NJ.

(Source: "The Great Gatsby")

"Gatsby" was originally set in the Midwest—not New York—around 1885.

The original concept was to have a "Catholic element" in the novel.

Today, the story takes place in the summer of 1922 — during the Jazz Age — in both Long Island and New York City.

(Source: "The Great Gatsby")

There's a short story dedicated to Gatsby's childhood.

During Fitzgerald's early manuscript of "Gatsby," he wrote about a Catholic boy growing up in the Midwest.

According to Fitzgerald, this was to describe Gatsby's childhood in a prologue; however, it was cut from the book.

Instead, the bit was published nearly a year before "The Great Gatsby" in June 1925 in the short story, "Absolution."

(Source: "The Great Gatsby")

HBO's new controversial Scientology documentary "Going Clear" has brought the church to the forefront. Here are 7 famous Scientologists.

Produced by Devan Joseph 

Follow BI Video: On Facebook

Join the conversation about this story »

SNL secrets, scandals, affairs.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This is what happens to your brain and body when you check your phone before bed

There was a time when even some of today's biggest comedy stars struggled. 

While promoting the new season of "Louie" on "The Tonight Show," Louis C.K. shared a story about a time when both he and Jimmy Fallon were struggling comics in New York, and Louis attempted to sabotage Fallon's budding career.

While working as the head writer of the short-lived "The Dana Carvey Show," C.K. oversaw Fallon's audition for the show. Fallon apparently played guitar and did impressions of famous musicians, which sounds very similar to the "Late Night" bits that made him a huge star. 

While most of the staff was onboard with hiring Fallon, Louis was against it. 

"I think I actually said, 'I will quit the show if you hire that kid," he said. While he knew that Fallon was going to be a star, the decision was mainly out of pure jealousy. 

"This is really f****d up to be doing this because this kid is really talented, but I don't want to look at him every day because it will make me upset about myself," C.K. added. 

Even though Fallon seemed only partially upset that Louis C.K. "squashed [his] dreams," C.K. was quick to note that "The Dana Carvey Show" got cancelled after seven episodes, and thus getting rejected might have been the best thing for him. 

"Everything that happens in your path leads to where you are, right?" was the advice C.K. had to offer. 

Louis C.K. and Jimmy Fallon have both had their own diverging paths of success since their first encounter. "Louie" is the first basic-cable sitcom ever to be nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. C.K. is also the first comic ever to sell out Madison Square Garden "three times in a single tour." "Louie" returns to FX on April 9.

Meanwhile, Fallon coanchored Weekend Update while on "Saturday Night Live" and has consistently topped his competition in the 11:30 p.m. slot as host of "The Tonight Show."

Watch the video below:

SEE ALSO: Comedy Central tried to get Amy Poehler, Louis CK, and Amy Schumer for 'Daily Show' job

Join the conversation about this story »