PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 25, 2023--

Black Mirror is returning to our screens for a new series in June - get hyped. It has been four years since fans of the dystopian drama were last treated to a taste of the anthology TV series and 12 since it first aired in the UK so safe to say, its return has been long awaited. But since it first graced our screens in 2011, a lot has changed in the world. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Life has often imitated art and Black Mirror now seems less of a dystopia and more of a documentary. Especially in these seven instances where the show was just a bit too on the nose... 1. PM has sex with a pig In season one of the show, a kidnapper demands that the prime minister, Michael Callow, has sex with a pig on live television to secure the safe return of a British royal family member. While this certainly did not happen in real life, it sounded a bit like Piggate - a claim that surfaced in 2015 that, during his university years, former prime minister David Cameron inserted his penis into a dead pig's mouth at a party. 2. People ride bikes for tokens In another season two classic, Black Mirror writer Charlie Brooker imagines a world where people ride stationary bikes for a virtual currency used to buy essentials. Today in Paris's station Gare Du Nord, people can ride bikes to generate power to charge their phones while they wait for their trains. 3. AI versions of deceased loved ones In season two episode Be Right Back, a woman brings her dead boyfriend back to life (kind of) by getting an android version of him, which learns his speech patterns by using his social media posts and online communications Last year Amazon revealed an experimental Alexa feature that allows the app to mimic the voices of users' dead relatives. 4. Joke politicians go viral The Waldo Moment sees a satirical computer-animated bear become a politician. Now we could resort to some rubbish satire of our own and say all the politicians we have in the House of Commons are no better than cartoon bears but that would be cheap. What is the case is that joke candidates like Count Binface and other representatives from the Monster Raving Loony Party frequently outperform fringe candidates in by-elections that take place in the UK nowadays. 5. People rate their social interactions In season three, an episode called Nosedive sees people rate all of their social interactions on a five-star scale which then go on to form a person's socioeconomic status. This is quite similar to people rating each other on Uber and swiping across each other on dating apps like Hinge and Bumble if you ask us. Black Mirror | Nosedive Featurette [HD] | Netflix www.youtube.com 6. Tracking health through tablets In Arkangel, a season four episode, Marie implants her three-year-old daughter with an Arkangel system which monitors her health, vision and hearing via a tablet computer. It is not too dissimilar to the rise of Apple Watches and FitBits which people use to obsess over their resting heart rate, sleep score and step count. 7. The rise of dating apps In Hang the DJ, people use an electronic device called "Coach" which chooses their partners and the duration of their relationship. Nowadays there is always a new dating app every other week promising to find people love and happiness in different ways. So it is safe to say Black Mirror really had its finger on the pulse when envisioning a not-too-distant future. We can't wait to see what phenomena the next few episodes will predict. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Elon Musk has revealed new details about the next major test flight for SpaceX’s Mars-bound Starship rocket, which he claims is ready to launch. SpaceX is still awaiting approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to launch the biggest rocket ever built, with the US regulators currently undertaking a “mishap investigation” for the previous Starship launch in April. The 400-foot-tall (121 metre) rocket exploded over the Gulf of Mexico just three minutes into a planned 90 minute flight on 20 April, breaking up into pieces over the water. An inadequate launchpad was also destroyed by Starship’s huge engines, blasting concrete chunks and metal shards across a 700-acre area. The SpaceX boss had predicted that the rocket would explode, saying ahead of the attempt: “I am not saying it will get to orbit but I am guaranteeing excitement.” The tech billionaire is more hopeful for the latest launch attempt, having made several key changes to how it operates. “We are doing a new staging technique called hot staging where you light the upper stage engines while the booster stage is still firing,” Mr Musk told the All-In Podcast this week. This is the most efficient way to do stage separation of a rocket going to orbit but we did not try that on the last mission... I think, I hope, we have a well over 50 per cent chance of getting through stage separation, and maybe a close to 50 per cent chance of getting to orbit if the hot staging separation method works. “I’d say it’s above 50 per cent chance of getting to orbit this time, whereas previously I said below 50.” Once in orbit, Starship will travel around the planet before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean just north of Hawaii. The Starship rocket is currently fully stacked at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas, though it is not clear how long the private space firm will have to wait before receiving FAA approval. “The SpaceX Starship mishap investigation remains open,” the FAA said in a statement last week. “The FAA will not authorise another Starship launch until SpaceX implements the corrective actions identified during the mishap investigation and demonstrates compliance with all the regulatory requirements of the licence modification process.” Read More SpaceX launch of Starship rocket on hold amid ‘mishap investigation’ SpaceX launch of Starship rocket on hold amid ‘mishap investigation’ Starship ‘ready to launch’, Elon Musk says SpaceX smashes rocket launch record as Musk eyes historic Starship mission

BOCA RATON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 7, 2023--

How to find all the Wonder Tokens in Pipe Park in Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on an Iran-based technology firm for its role in facilitating the Iranian government’s censorship of the internet as anti-government protests swept the country