World War Z’s Biggest Mystery: What Was Up With Brad Pitt’s Hair?

Thank goodness World War Z is getting a sequel, because the first movie left one enormous plot strand dangling: We never found out why Brad Pitt's hair is so scene-stealingly long! As ex–United Nations investigator Gerry Lane, Pitt rocks a shoulder-length do that practically invites florid description; Critic Richard Roeper led his video review of the movie by deeming it "a dubious haircut that makes [Pitt] look like a drag queen in the very early stages of figuring out who he is in this life." (Well, that is definitely a thing to say!) What could have been the motivation behind Pitt's conspicuous coiffure? Since last month's tell-all Vanity Fair cover story declined to offer any helpful hair-related tidbits, we can only offer four of our own theories for them locks.

To Get Back to His Roots
Brad Pitt used to be one of our very best Hair Actors, a thespian who could be counted on to always radically alter his hair for a role. Just think of his Johnny Suede pompadour, or his focus-pulling "I'm the pretty one" mane in Legends of the Fall, or even his Michelle Williams pixie cut in Seven Years in Tibet! And yet, ever since Pitt put the nineties behind him, he's kept his hair neat and orderly (save for one moment of long-haired lustrousness in 2004's Troy, where he was sadly upstaged by his own abs). It's only fair that as Pitt approaches his 50th birthday this year (related: you are old), he might hope to recapture some of his former follicular glory on the big screen. Let's not forget that Harrison Ford got an earring in his fifties; let Brad have his own midlife-crisis thing.

To Cover Up Plot Holes
Yes, much of the U.S. government was wiped out in World War Z's scene-setting zombie attacks, but is Brad Pitt really the only person left who can save the world? He's a mumbly retiree who sleeps in! To justify the sudden decision to basically shove Pitt off that aircraft carrier with barely a "Good luck, buddy," it makes a lot more sense if you imagine that government officials were just conspiring to get Brad Pitt out of the room so they could gossip about his hair. "Shoulder length? What is with that guy?"

To Express Solidarity With a Woman
We know that Pitt often adopts the haircut of a woman close to him; he famously pulled off the "Rachel" while dating Jennifer Aniston, and you may recall that while courting Gwyneth Paltrow, he also rocked her asymmetrical "judging you" bob. "But Kyle," you say after glancing up at the byline to make sure Amanda Dobbins didn't write this, "Brad's World War Z haircut doesn't look much like Angelina's, so who could he have been patterning himself after?" Who indeed ...

To Add Visual Interest
With expensive reshoots looming, Marc Forster was in a quandary. "Brad," the director told his star, "We need a way to convey the stakes in this movie. How will the audience — "

Brad's second assistant Serena cut Forster off. "Brad is only communicating with you through an intermediary," she reminded him.

"Well," Forster said, his German-Swiss accent gone suddenly flinty, "Will you tell Mr. Pitt that we're looking for a novel way to convey the stakes in these action sequences? The audience knows that Brad Pitt won't die, and yet, owing to the nature of these zombie attacks, he also can't exactly fight back. How will we make the audience understand the gravity of these situations if all Brad ever does is run? How can we make running interesting?"

Before Forster had even finished his last sentence, Pitt silently pulled something from the pocket of his black Givenchy tunic: a small notebook that's loose-leaf sheafs were harvested specifically for Pitt via a sustainable paper mill in Uganda founded by his partner, Angelina Jolie. (Remember the loom from Wanted? It's now a paper press and clean-water generator.) He opened the notebook to a random page and began jotting down a message.

"That's his answer?" Forster said.

Ten minutes later, Forster returned with Pitt's sandwich, and a suggestion. "Brad, I think — "

Serena waved her hands in the air, attempting to volley back the sound waves that would bring Forster's unsolicited words to her employer's ears. "Intermediary," she warned him, terse.

"Fine," said Forster. "Please tell Mr. Pitt that I've figured out a way to add some much-needed pizazz to the many, many sequences where he must run away from zombies." He paused for emphasis before the big reveal: "In these scenes, Brad will be wearing a flouncy scarf."

Without acknowledging his director, Pitt stared into space and began chewing the eraser of his pencil, an eraser that had been specially customized to dispense a nicotine high when nibbled. Finally, he put lead to paper.

Serena peered at Pitt's notepad. "I have a better idea," she read out loud.

Pitt walked off set and entered an empty broom closet. As Forster and Serena stood there, waiting for their star, they heard an odd mechanical grinding noise come from the closet, as though the windup key on a music box were being turned with great effort after a decade of disuse.

After three minutes, Pitt emerged from the closet. Somehow, his hair had grown six inches in the interim.

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Vodafone to buy Germany's biggest cable operator for $10.1 billion

Vodafone to buy Germany's biggest cable operator for $10.1 billion data = {blogUrl: "www.engadget.com",v: 315};when = {jquery: lab.scriptBs("jquery"),plugins: lab.scriptBs("plugins"),eng: lab.scriptBs("eng")}; var s265prop9 = ('20632345' !== '') ? 'bsd:20632345' : ''; var postID = '20632345'; var modalMNo = '93319229', modalVideoMNo = '93320648', modalGalleryMNo = '93304207'; when.eng("eng.omni.init", {pfxID:"weg",pageName:document.title,server:"acp-ld39.websys.aol.com",channel:"us.engadget", s_account: "aolwbengadget,aolsvc", short_url: "",pageType:"",linkInternalFilters:"javascript:,",prop1:"article",prop2:"cellphones",prop9:s265prop9,prop12:document.location,prop17:"",prop18:"",prop19:"",prop20:"", prop22:"daniel-cooper", prop54:"blogsmith",mmxgo: true }); adSendTerms('1')adSetMOAT('1');adSetAdURL('/_uac/adpagem.html');lab._script("http://o.aolcdn.com/os/ads/adhesion/js/adhads-min.js").wait(function(){var floatingAd = new AdhesiveAd("348-14-15-14d",{hideOnSwipe:true});}); onBreak({980: function () { adSetType("F");htmlAdWH("93319229", "LB", "LB"); adSetType("");}}); EngadgetMenu NewsReviews Features Galleries VideosEventsPodcasts Engadget ShowTopics Buyers Guides Sagas Store HD Mobile Alt Announcements Cameras Cellphones Desktops Displays Gaming GPS Handhelds Home Entertainment Household Internet Laptops Meta Misc Networking Peripherals Podcasts Robots Portable Audio/Video Science Software Storage Tablets Transportation Wearables Wireless Acer Amazon AMD Apple ASUS AT&T Blackberry Canon Dell Facebook Google HP HTC Intel Lenovo LG Microsoft Nikon Nintendo Nokia NVIDIA Samsung Sony Sprint T-Mobile Verizon About UsSubscribeLike Engadget@engadgettip uswhen.eng("eng.nav.init")when.eng("eng.tips.init") onBreak({980: function () {htmlAdWH("93308280", "215", "35",'AJAX','ajaxsponsor');}});Vodafone to buy Germany's biggest cable operator for $10.1 billionByDaniel CooperpostedJun 24th, 2013 at 4:40 AM 0

Every summer, the world's second biggest mobile provider likes to splash out on a broadband company to bolster its cellular offerings. Last year, for instance, Vodafone snapped up Cable & Wireless' British fiber-optic network for $1.6 billion -- but that's a bargain compared to the $10.1 billion it's just sealed for Germany's largest cable company, Kabel Deutschland. Unlike last year's deal, which concentrated on infrastructure, this move will see Vodafone entering the triple-play market, offering mobile, fixed-line and TV services. Anyone got a German dictionary to hand? We want to look up what "technofreaks" translates to.

Show full PR text

Cable Germany Holding AG: obtaining the announcement of a takeover bid

Announcement according to § 15 German Securities Trading Act (WpHG)

The Fourth Vodafone mbH, a subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc, has today announced its intention to acquire the cable Germany Holding AG. The proposed transaction rated cable Germany with EUR 87 per share, or an equity value of the company of around 7.7 billion euros. The transaction will be implemented through a voluntary public takeover offer of 84.50 euros per share in cash plus the payment of the proposed dividend from cable Germany for the financial year 2012/13 in the amount of 2.50 euros per share. Management Board and Supervisory Board of Cable Holding AG Germany welcome the announcement by Vodafone.

Vodafone and Cable Germany have an agreement in principle closed, are recorded in the specific intentions.

Cable Germany also published today its financial results for the fourth quarter and the entire financial year 2012 / 13th Originally, this was for 27 June 2013 provided.

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Via: Reuters

Tags: Acquisition, Business, Europe, Germany, Kabel Deutschland, KabelDeutschland, Purchase, Vodafone

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Biggest Solar Flares of the Year Erupt From Sun

Tariq Malik for Space.com 2013-05-13 20:33:20 UTC

A hyperactive sunspot on the surface of the sun has fired off two of the most powerful solar flares of the year in just 24 hours, and promises to unleash more solar storms over the next several days, space weather experts say.

The active sunspot went into overdrive on Mother's Day when it erupted late Sunday night with an X-class solar flare, the strongest type of solar storm possible, NASA scientists said in an update. That first eruption registered as an X1.7-class event on the space weather scale, and was followed midday Monday by an even more powerful X2.8 solar flare, which is the third-strongest solar storm in recent years.

You can see a video of the huge solar flares together here as seen by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and other spacecraft.

The Mother's Day solar flare sent a super-hot wave of solar plasma, called a coronal mass ejection, hurtling through space at about 2.6 million mph (4.3 million km/h). The solar eruption was not aimed at Earth, so should pose no threat to satellites and astronauts in orbit, NASA officials said.

The solar storm could deliver a glancing blow to NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope and sun-watching Stereo-B spacecraft, according to NASA's update.

"If warranted, operators can put spacecraft into safe mode to protect the instruments from solar material," NASA officials explained in a statement. "There is some particle radiation associated with this event, which is what can concern operators of interplanetary spacecraft since the particles can trip computer electronics on board."

The back-to-back solar storms erupted from an active sunspot region that is just out of sight over the left side of the sun. The region has been active in recent days, spouting off two medium-strength M-class solar flares, but the two X-class solar storms are its most powerful events yet.

The region "will soon rotate into view" as seen from Earth, NASA officials said. When it does, any major solar flares and eruptions could be aimed squarely at Earth.

"Increased numbers of flares are quite common at the moment because the sun's normal 11-year activity cycle is ramping up toward solar maximum, which is expected in 2013," NASA officials said in the update Monday.

When aimed directly at Earth, X-class solar flares can pose a serious risk to astronauts and satellites in space, and interfere with GPS and communications signals. The strongest solar storms can even affect ground-based power system infrastructure. Moderately strong solar flares can supercharge the Earth's northern lights to create spectacular aurora displays.

The sun's current space weather cycle is called Solar Cycle 24 and began in 2008. A fleet of spacecraft, including NASA's powerful Solar Dynamics Observatory, keep constant watch on the sun for signs of solar flare activity.

NASA and the Space Weather Prediction Center operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are providing updates throughout today on the recent solar flares.

Image courtesy of NASA

This article originally published at Space.com here

Topics: astronomy, NASA, Science, space, sun, U.S., US & World, World Space.com is a Mashable publishing partner that is the world's No. 1 source for news of astronomy, skywatching, space exploration, commercial spaceflight and related technologies. This article is reprinted with the publisher's permission.

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The Tonight Show's Biggest Viral Hit Is Probably Fake

Kevin Collier for The Daily Dot 2013-05-13 23:03:15 UTC

That video of a couple singing karaoke at a gas station, Jay Leno's all-time greatest YouTube success, is totally fake.

The clip is of a well-established Tonight Show bit called Pumpcast News, in which a news anchor on a screen placed above a gas station pump starts interacting with the customera in front of him. In this one, he notices a man singing as he starts to pump, then asks him and his wife to karaoke. In the four days since the clip went up on YouTube, it's gotten more than 7.5 million views.

The first clue that the video isn't capturing a spontaneous moment of comedy at the one minute mark, when the newscaster announces "here's Will!" without the singer giving his name.

In real life, the two, Will and Monifa Sims, are Chicago-trained actors. Will claimed in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times that the only reason that fact wasn't revealed in the Tonight Show segment (or the second one, in which the two were invited to Leno's stage to reprise their songs), was because the show's producers "didn’t want [people] to think we were actors and it was a plant."

In the interview, he indicated that he hadn't been in on the segment before it was filmed.

“You never, in a million years, think you’re going to pump gas and be on the Internet, let alone the Tonight Show,” he said.

However, as noticed by the Smoking Gun, Monifa has been highlighted in a different Pumpcast News segment on the show, possibly filmed the same day. Unnamed at the time, she's challenged by the newscaster to run around the gas station in exchange for free gas.

"On both occasions, Monifa was in the same Chrysler Pacifica (she drove during the first taping, while her husband was at the wheel during the recent shoot). Additionally, she is seen wearing identical workout pants in each segment," the Smoking Gun reports.

"This almost seems like a plant," Leno said when he brought them on his show, introducing Will as a bartender and Monifa as a fitness instructor. "We had no idea these people were coming."

Homepage image courtesy of YouTube, tonightshownbc

This article originally published at The Daily Dot here

Topics: Entertainment, fake, jay leno, tonight show, Television, Video, Videos, viral video The Daily Dot is a Mashable publishing partner that reports on the most important and relevant topics from within, applying tried-and-true principles drawn from community journalism to the growing cultures of the Internet. This article is reprinted with the publisher's permission.

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Inside the Biggest Cyberattack in History

Alex Fitzpatrick2013-03-27 23:16:46 UTC

A cyberattack originally targeting a single company is now being described by experts as one of the biggest Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in Internet history. The assault, which recently began impacting elements of the Internet's physical infrastructure, has been dragging down Internet speeds in Europe — but what makes this type of attack different from all other attacks?

First, some background: The attacks originally targeted a European anti-spam company called Spamhaus, which blacklists what it considers sources of email spam and sells those blacklists to Internet Service Providers. The attack began early last week as waves of large but typical DDoS assaults shortly after Spamhaus blacklisted Cyberbunker, a controversial web hosting company. Cyberbunker has not directly taken responsibility for the attacks against Spamhaus.

In a common DDoS attack, hackers use thousands of computers to send bogus traffic at a particular server in the hopes of overloading it. The computers involved in DDoS attacks have often been previously infected with malware that gave a hacker control of the machine without the legitimate owner's knowledge. Hackers use malware (often sent via email spam) to amass large networks of infected computers, called "botnets," for DDoS operations and other purposes.

Spamhaus contracted with security firm CloudFlare to help mitigate the attacks soon after they began. CloudFlare has been defending Spamhaus by spreading the attacks across multiple data centers, a technique that can keep a website online even if it's hit by the maximum amount of traffic a typical DDoS can generate.

"Usually these DDoS attacks have kind of a natural cap in their size, which is around 100 gigabits per second," CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince told Mashable before explaining the limitation in typical DDoS attack size is due to routing hardware limitations.

These attacks, however, have evolved into a complex and ferocious beast, pointing up to 300 gigabits per second at an expanding list of targets. How?

After the hackers realized they couldn't knock Spamhaus offline while it was protected by CloudFlare, they chose a different tactic: targeting CloudFlare's own network providers by exploiting a known fault in the Domain Name System (DNS), a key piece of Internet infrastructure.

"The interesting thing is they stopping going after us directly and they started going after all of the steps upstream from us," said Prince.

"The interesting thing is they stopping going after us directly and they started going after all of the steps upstream from us," said Prince. "Going after our immediate transit providers, then going after their transit providers."

DNS essentially turns what humans type into an address bar ("www.mashable.com") to the desired website's IP address and helps to deliver the desired Internet content to a user's computer. An essential element of the DNS system are DNS resolvers — 21.7 million of which are open and able to be found and manipulated by hackers.

"The attack works by the attacker spoofing the victim's IP address, sending a request to an open resolver and that resolver reflecting back a much larger response [to the victim], which then amplifies the attack," said Prince. A detailed technical explanation is available on CloudFlare's blog.

Because DNS resolvers are connected to large pipes with plenty of bandwidth to point at a target, hackers can manipulate them to amplify standard DDoS attacks from a maximum of about 100 gigabits per second to the neighborhood of 300 gigabits per second.

Prince told Mashable these attacks have been "certainly the largest attacks we've seen."

Prince told Mashable these attacks have been "certainly the largest attacks we've seen."

"And we've seen what we thought were some big attacks," he added. Kaspersky Labs, a leading security research group, called it "one of the largest DDoS operations to date."

Internet speeds around the world can be impacted by such large-scale DNS amplified DDoS attacks because the Internet relies on DNS to work — major interference with DNS can have consequences for services not necessarily being directly targeted by such an attack.

What can be done about preventing these specialized DDoS attacks? First, said Prince, Internet Service Providers should implement technologies that prevent hackers from spoofing victims' IP addresses. Second, network administrators need to close any and all open DNS resolvers running on their network.

"Anyone that's running a network needs to go to openresolverproject.org, type in the IP addresses of their network and see if they're running an open resolver on their network," said Prince. "Because if they are, they're being used by criminals in order to launch attacks online. And it's incumbent on anyone running a network to make sure they are not wittingly aiding in the destruction of the Internet."

If there's a silver lining to these continued attacks, it's that they have likely motivated the security industry, which has been talking about, but taken apparently insufficient action on, the open DNS issue for some time. Prince, however, warns DNS-amplified DDoS attacks won't be going away any time soon.

"The good news about an attack like this is that it's really woken up a lot of the networking industry and these things that have been talked about for quite some time are now being implemented," said Prince.

"There was some progress on shutting down open resolvers before," he added later. "I think that's going to be a constant process — this is a problem that we're going to have to live with for the next several years."

Image via iStockphoto, Vertigo3d

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