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First, let me say that I went into Ford v Ferrari with the mindset of “This is going to be a film, and it is going to be a film that I have watched,” and I left yelling, “Vroom vroom, cars go fast!” Second, give Noah Jupe the world. Ford v Ferrari focuses on the real-life story of Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby, two men who brought the Ford Racing Company into existence and won the Le Mans ’66 together.

Basically, the kind of movie my parents would watch and tell me was really good, but I would never want to sit through. So, what is it that makes this movie so interesting to me? I guess it’s probably the fact that it is, somehow, a comedy about two men who love each other that then devolves into the saddest ending I’ve ever seen, so I just sat there and cried for ten minutes.

Let’s get into. Ken Miles (Christian Bale) is a hot-headed driver, and when Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) cannot race because of his heart condition, the two begin to really work with each other. Miles is hard to work with, but Shelby continually campaigns for him because he loves him, and the two are constantly trying to help each other while still following orders from the big guys: Ford Motors.

Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) is angry that his company is basically falling apart because of sports cars (men, amirite?), and so one of his employees, Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal), suggests getting them into the racing business to, essentially, take out Ferrari. The battle begins when Ford tries to buy Ferrari, since they’re broke, but Ferrari just uses their offer as a pitch to Fiat to give them more money.

Angry, Ford then agrees to hire Shelby to help start the racing division, and then the movie gets into a lot of car talk that I just nodded along to because boy oh boy do I know absolutely nothing about cars. There is a point in the movie where they just LITERALLY swap out a brake system in a car, and I said, “Is that even possible?” and then remembered it was based on a true story and said, “Okay then.”

Maybe once I unpack more of this movie, I’ll realize that I didn’t like it that much. But right now, I’m still thinking about them going real fast and Matt Damon pulling little tricks trying to win the Le Mans ’66, and how he just loves Ken Miles so much. Maybe Ford v. Ferrari rules?

(image: 20th Century Fox)

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 —The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

The golden era of celebrities performing in masks continues as FOX and Ellen DeGeneres team up for The Masked Dancer. A spin-off of the inexplicably popular The Masked Singer, The Masked Dancer will feature a panel of judges trying to guess the identity of the celebrity sweatily pop and locking while dressed as a skateboarding mushroom.

FOX made the announcement at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour today. DeGeneres said of the project, “This is gonna be just as fun and suspenseful as The Masked Singer, but with a lot more Krumping … And I cannot wait!”

People like to talk about this being the golden age of television, but I feel like this show is definitive proof that we’ve crossed the Rubicon and are now just celebrating nonsense. First of all, how are these celebrities going to dance in those ridiculously elaborate costumes? Won’t someone get hurt? Isn’t all of this not a little bit humiliating?

I’m reminded of one of my all-time favorite short stories, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut. The story is set in a dystopian future, where new amendments to the Constitution have been added to ensure complete equality of all Americans. Citizens are outfitted with “handicaps”, which make beautiful people uglier, smart people dumber, and so on. That’s what this feels like: watching performers so obscured by detritus that we miss what makes them talented in the first place.

Is the enjoyment in the guessing of these performer’s identities? Is it taking former A-listers down a peg? Is it divorcing humanity from art? Am I reading way too much into what is simply a high concept game show we imported from Korea? It’s most likely that last one.

But I can’t help but feel a deep well of melancholy when I see these performers slogging their way through some top 40 hit while dressed as psychedelic breakfast foods. It’s one thing to celebrate talent, as a myriad of reality competitions do. Shows like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance share the belief that talent and charisma can turn an average Joe into a star. At their core, they are aspirational.

But what are these masked shows aspiring to? If it’s entertainment, I feel like they are lacking. But take a closer look into the dead behind the eyes Gangnam-Style Palm Tree and tell me I’m wrong.

(via AdWeek, image: Michael Becker/FOX)

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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

BB-8, roll aside, for we have here a new, IRL spherical robot from Samsung—and this one makes cute little beeping sounds, too. The little ball of electronics goes by “Ballie” and apparently its aim is to be both a user’s pet and their own personal Alfred.

Samsung’s teaser clip showing off Ballie’s capabilities. 

Recently revealed at this year’s CES in Las Vegas, Ballie is an example of Samsung’s “human-centric vision of robots,” which the company says “takes personalized care to the next level.” In the teaser clip showing off what Ballie can do (above), we see it perform various tasks via bluetooth commands (probably), including: opening the shades, activating a wake-up alarm, filming people so they can see themselves in real time, entertaining the dog, and ordering an autonomous vacuum to clean up a spill.

During Samsung’s demonstration at CES (below), Ballie rolled itself onto the stage, and followed Samsung Consumer Electronics President and CEO H.S. Kim around for about two minutes. Ballie’s introduction was a subsection of Samsung’s overall electronics presentation, which it referred to as the “Age of Experience,” and promoted “a decade of human-centric innovation.”

A closeup of Ballie. 

According to Samsung Newsroom, Ballie is “a small, rolling robot that understands you, supports you, and reacts to your needs to be actively helpful around the house.” And while there isn’t too much information regarding technical details currently available, Samsung does say that Ballie uses “on-device AI.” This isn’t a surprise considering the fact that neural networks are making their way into countless IoT (Internet of Things) devices, and are required for capabilities that Ballie promises to have.

Samsung says that even though Ballie will be AI-powered, and capable of seeking “solutions for people’s changing needs,” it won’t affect their privacy standards. Obviously it’s difficult to say whether this will be true or not once the Ballies roll out to the masses, but there’s no question they’ll be hackable and full of their owners’ personal information. (Perhaps Ballie will have some kind of self-destruct feature?)

BB-8 + Wall-E = Ballie #CES2020 pic.twitter.com/PwJBDGyN37

— Sun Ray (@sunsarray) January 7, 2020

There are no details regarding what Ballie will retail for, or when it will be released, but a cursory glance at twitter’s reaction to the rolling smart gadget seems to suggest possible demand. It’s hard to say how capable Ballie’s tech is at this point though, as it’s only been shown following Kim around while keeping its distance. But it’s undeniably cute, and maybe it can Babu Frik its way into people’s homes, where it can tamper with things and kind of make them work.

What do you think about Ballie? If it retails for a reasonable price, would you buy this little, rolling robot, or do you think the privacy concerns outweigh the possibility of increased convenience? Let us know your opinions in the comments before Ballie takes over that function too!

Images: Samsung 

The post ‘Ballie’ Is a Rolling Pet Robot That Controls Your Home appeared first on Nerdist.

Sometimes fandom is nice! I know, it feels like it’s rare nowadays, but it’s still pleasant to be reminded of the good in the world fans can do. After fans of Kylo Ren, Adam Driver and the ship of Rey and Kylo – aka “Reylo” –  were disappointed by their favorite fallen character’s fate in The Rise of Skywalker, they decided that they would show their affection not by harassing people or yelling online, but by raising funds for a charity created and supported by Adam Driver: Arts in the Armed Forces.

Arts in the Armed Forces was founded by Driver – who enlisted in the marines after the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001 – to, as they state on their site “use the powerful shared experience of the arts to start conversations between military and civilian, service member and family member, the world of the arts and the world of practical action.”

The Reylo and Ben Solo family started a GoFundMe campaign the same day as The Rise of Skywalker was released and fans began to realize that their favorite didn’t get the ending they wanted for him. We won’t debate whether Ben Solo’s end was just right now, but Adam was, in my opinion, the strongest performer in the film and I definitely see why fans are drawn to him. This campaign was called “The Rise of Ben Solo” and blew past its initial goal of $10,000 in a day.

In the weeks since the GoFundMe has raised just over $53,000 for Driver’s charity and today Driver himself sent a message of thanks to the fans.

A message from AITAF Founder Adam Driver pic.twitter.com/EFbSSSn2q0

— Arts in the Armed Forces (@AITAF) January 7, 2020

We don’t have to agree on Ben Solo or Reylo, but we can agree that fandom is at its best when it creates a place for people to support others, be kind and do good through art. Good work, Kylo fans!

(image: LucasFilm)

Here are a few other things we say today:

• Prozac Nation author Elizabeth Wurtzel has died at age 52. (via USA Today)
• The CW just renewed pretty much everything on their lineup that’s not already in a final season. Yes, that includes Dynasty. (Via TVLine).
• Yay!

• The first national US observatory to be named after a woman! @LSST is now the NSF Vera C. Rubin Observatory (Rubin Observatory or VRO for short). https://t.co/j3EpAwwLSF

• Here’s a nice promo video: https://t.co/7lYTgFjGlF pic.twitter.com/JPMhESSS56

• — ★ dr amanda bauer ★ (@astropixie) January 7, 2020

• Lindsay Ellis takes on the myth of the Girl Boss:
• As Weiststein goes to trial, we need to think about the men we allow to make comebacks. (via HuffPo)
• Somehow men have found a way to blame women for … the lack of women in games? (via Kotaku)
• And finally, The Honest Trailer For … Every Quentin Tarantino flick.

That’s all we saw today, dear Mary Suevians. How about you? Are you back in the swing of things after the holiday or ready to go back to bed?

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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—