'The Wolverine' - movie review

Action. Starring Hugh Jackman, Rila Fukushima and Tao Okamoto. Directed by James Mangold. (PG-13. 120 minutes.)

Somewhere along the line somebody must have had a crazy idea, that maybe for once the Wolverine required a decent script, and shouldn't rely only on action, audience goodwill and the sight of Hugh Jackman with his shirt off. And so a team was assembled, made up of people who have made some very good movies.

Those movies are too many to list here, but for a taste: Director James Mangold made "Walk the Line" and "3:10 to Yuma," and screenwriters Mark Bomback, Scott Frank and Christopher McQuarrie made "Live Free or Die Hard," "Out of Sight" and "The Usual Suspects," respectively. This time out, nobody is slumming.

Within five minutes, it's apparent that the audience, and "The Wolverine," are in good hands. The movie, a sequel to 2009's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," begins with three gripping sequences, including a vivid one in which our hero survives the atomic bomb blast at Nagasaki. Of course he does - he's that kind of person. His hair and skin may be burned off, but he flexes and growls, and a moment later, everything has grown back.

Less immediately apparent than the quality of the action is the subtle and welcome change the filmmakers have wrought in Wolverine. Of the mutant superhero X-Men, he was always the sad sack, the depressive, the self-hating one, the one who didn't want to use his powers; but in "The Wolverine," he is less angst-ridden, and more angry and motivated, which activates the movie.

Straight-up action hero

At the start, he is drifting and haunted by nightmares, but he still has the gumption to pick a fight when he witnesses an injustice. In the best way, he is more like a straight-up action hero - no longer a miserable guy like Lon Chaney Jr.'s Wolf Man, but capable, dangerous and, when it's called for, sarcastic.

The clash between mutants and humans has been the relentless focus of previous "X-Men" movies. "The Wolverine" drops that exhausted subject in favor of something more clear-cut and immediate: The Wolverine is asked to travel to Japan in order to say goodbye to the man whose life he saved in Nagasaki. The Wolverine, who's not doing much of anything these days besides growing out his sideburns, agrees, and soon gets involved in a tangled and dangerous conflict over the old man's will. The old man skips over his own son and makes his granddaughter, Marika (Tao Okamoto), the richest woman in Asia.

A nice feature of "The Wolverine" is that it always stays with our hero, and his task is always simple and easy to grasp, despite whatever complicating machinations are taking place off camera. He saves Marika's life - as soon as people find out that she is about to inherit everything, armies of assassins pop out from everywhere - and he becomes determined to keep her alive. Why? Because he's a nice guy, and he likes her.

Unfortunately, the Wolverine is not the best relationship material at the moment. He can't go to sleep without having nightmares that cause him to leap out of the sheets, waving his adamantine knuckle blades, ready to kill anything that moves. Handsome or not, he is definitely a case for separate beds.

"The Wolverine" is the first film from the X-Men universe to show Jackman to full advantage. The actor has worked himself into a physical condition that is downright humbling, or inspiring, depending on your viewpoint, and his performance is in the best action tradition of strength and humor.

The action sequences are not perfunctory and, though they had to have been cooked up on a computer, they don't look like it. Or at least, they're imaginative enough that you don't have time to think of them in that way.

Train chase

For example, there's a chase on top of a train, a familiar action-movie trope last seen as recently as "The Lone Ranger," a few weeks ago. But the chase in "The Wolverine" takes place on a Japanese bullet train going 300 mph, which completely changes the dynamic. The scene is faster, quieter and more eerie, and the fighting requires different strategies.

"The Wolverine" shows that, while originality would be nice, a little novelty and enthusiasm in the presentation of the familiar can be quite enough. The bottom line is that audiences aren't stupid and will not settle for just anything, as the anemic box office for recent blockbusters is showing. "The Wolverine" deserves to break out from the pack.

Source: http://www.sfgate.com

Regions Bank website down, debit cards being declined

Statement issued by Regions via Facebook at 2:18 p.m. Thursday. “Access to regions.com and Online Banking were disrupted intermittently for some customers today by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. Some customers may have also been unable to use their Check Cards at ATMs or at merchants. We apologize for the difficulties this has caused and are working to resolve the issues as quickly as possible.”

Update: Statement issued by Regions via Facebook at 1:03 p.m. Thursday. “We are continuing to work to resolve the current issues and appreciate your patience. In the meantime, if we can answer questions about your account, please email askRegions@regions.com with your phone number. One of our Customer Care representatives will call to assist. Thank you.”

Update: The website appears to be back online, though the web page had to be refreshed several times before it appeared.  However, a message on the website says, “Regions Online Banking is currently unavailable.”

For the second time this year, Regions Bank is having website problems and customers are being left in the lurch. Regions is the largest bank in Alabama.

The bank acknowledged that the website was down with a statement on their Facebook page.  Customers complained of debit cards being declined in the comment section below the announcement.

“We apologize if you’re experiencing issues accessing regions.com. Our team is working diligently to resolve the issues. We will continue to post updates and additional information here. Thank you for being patient with us,” the post stated.

Customers, who were also inconvenienced in April when Regions neglected to renew their web domain, were irate over the continuing IT problems with the bank.

“Same old, same old. It’s getting old, Regions,” Brandi Cash posted.

Regions customer Ashlea Rauth stated, “… according to Regions customer service. You have to go in a branch to get your money out. ATMs are not recognizing cards.”

Regions has not responded to any of the customers’ comments.

There has been no word on when service will be restored. The last update posted on the bank’s Facebook page was at 11:52 a.m. on Thursday.

Source:http://www.trussvilletribune.com

Nexus 7 Trade-Ins Suggest Lots Of Upgraders To New Model

Source:http://techcrunch.com

The new Google Nexus 7 is a big improvement over the original with a bunch of additions like LTE and a super high-resolution display – the best in tablets, in fact. And that’s driving a lot of first generation device owners to trade in their old Nexus 7, according to gadget buy-back site Gazelle. There was a 333 percent spike in the number of Nexus 7 tablets traded in compared to the same day last week, for example.

Between Tuesday and Wednesday, that spike was even higher – a 442 percent jump in Nexus 7 tablets happened between the day before Google’s official unveiling of the new model, and the day of. The Nexus 7 trade-in activity spiked so high that it made up nearly a quarter of all trade-ins for non-iPad tablets since the site began accepting them earlier this year.

Wednesday, the day Google made its announcement, was also the biggest Nexus 7 trade-in day at Gazelle to date, beating the next biggest day by 380 percent. That previous record was set when the new Nexus 7 leaked on July 17, which clearly prompted early adopters to take advantage of a small head start ahead of the big reveal.

The news means that Google Nexus 7 owners are probably happy with their devices and eager to grab new ones, by trading in their last-gen devices to fund their purchases, but there’s another stat that tells another side of the story: Gazelle saw no appreciable increase in iPad trade-ins on the new Nexus 7 launch day. That means Google probably isn’t luring iPad owners away from the iOS fold.

It’s probably not surprising to longtime tablet space watchers that the new Nexus 7, with all its apparent merit, isn’t an iPad killer. The Apple camp seems happy where they are, but the tablet market has plenty of room to grow; we’ll see if Google can expand outward, or if it’s mostly eating its own Nexus tail with this new model.

Spain train crash: Safety system Failure

Source:http://www.thehindu.com

As Spain grieves for the 78 people dead after Wednesday’s deadly train derailment with memorial services planned for the victims, an increasing number of questions are being asked as to the causes of the accident and whether it was avoidable.

Festivities for Saint James, the patron saint of Compostela, have been cancelled and memorial services for the victims will be held instead. A judicial enquiry into the causes of the crash continues apace.

One of the two drivers of the train, Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, with more than 30 years service to his credit, has been formally placed under investigation. Spanish media revealed that he had boasted of touching very high speeds on his Facebook page. “I’m at the limit and I can’t go any faster or they will fine me,” he posted along with a photo of a speedometer with the needle at 200 km per hour. That page has now been blocked.

Spanish rail authorities rule out any material or technical failure and have attempted to favour the human error theory. “The train had no operational problem whatsoever and had passed a technical check that very morning. The train’s record book showed it was in perfect working order,” the president of Renfe, Julio Gomez-Pomar Rodriguez told journalists.

While there is general consensus that excessive speed was the cause of the accident, specialists are asking if it could have been avoided by installing better preventive security measures on the track. The excessive speed certainly explains the very high casualty rate. Of the 222 persons on the train 80 died and 95 were injured over 30 of them critically.

“It was an accident just waiting to happen. Spain undertook an ambitious plan to develop a high-speed network in the 80s. But at some point Renfe ran out of money and the Spanish track is a tricky mix of high-speed [straight] and classic [curvy] track with different gauges. High speed trains travelling on such classic track have to take extra precautions,” Michel Chevalet, a specialist writer on science and technology told The Hindu.

“On this particular part of the track linking Ourense to Santiago de Compostela, there are four kilometres where the high-speed track was not laid, probably because land acquisition cost too much. Trains have just a few seconds to go from speeds in excess of 180 km per hour to under 80 km per hour. The baffling aspect in security terms is that this bit of track used both by the AVE (super fast up to 250 km per hour) and the Alvia trains (upto 180 km per hour) is not equipped with the ERTMS or European Rail Traffic Management System which automatically blocks the train if the driver ignores warnings to slow down,” Mr. Chevalet explained.

This part of the track, considered particularly dangerous because of steep curves, is equipped with the AFSA system, which warns the driver when the train is over the speed limit but can block a train only when it is running at over 200 kilometres per hour. “Why was this allowed to happen? Not laying fresh track but converting the old gauge to accommodate faster trains meant that the Renfe spent substantially less. But was that wise?” Mr. Chevalet asked.

Renfe’s answer is that the curve is just four km short of a station and the driver has to slow down anyway. So in the eyes of the Transport Minister Rafael Catala, security was “adequate” and the accident was caused by “human error”.

But the Spanish railwaymen’s union ADIF said in a communiqué that the accident could have been avoided. The decision not to lay fresh track but to convert and adapt existing track “allowed substantial savings in investment and maintenance costs”, the union said.

“Unfortunately, the ERTMS system was not installed on the four kilometres of track before Santiago de Compostela,” Juan Garcia Fraile, the General secretary of the Spanish rail drivers’ union told Spanish national radio. Transport specialists say this bit of track was know to have caused problems in the past.