Just Here

There are 'satsleeves', which are basically satellite modems that attach to normal smartphones, so it's possible. At about the 16:40 mark in the episode (on Paramount+), Colter's phone has a stubby external antenna, so it looks like the phone he is using could be satellite-capable.

The airport cold open was too pretentious and more of an example of telling, rather than showing. Also, for a series that looks to be going for a grounded/realistic style, the use of Hollywood!Interpol is disappointing. Additionally, as noted by @Snazzy Daisy, the CIA officer character is one of the show's weak links. A more subtle character would have provided an opportunity for a subplot with Malik that in some ways parallels and in other ways contrasts with the Imogen/Adilah cat-and-mouse plot. E.g., are both the male officers working together for the same motives, or does one have different priorities.

30-second trailer commercial for the final season: edit: here's the YouTube version Link to Twitter version

Kennedy McMann has been cast as the lead of The Good Lawyer, which is a potential spinoff from ABC's The Good Doctor

Teaser:

‘Witch Mountain’ Pilot Set at Disney+, Bryce Dallas Howard to Lead Cast (Deadline) From the Deadline article (which also has names and descriptions for each of the series regular characters): Sounds very CW-y, complete with a love triangle.

Filed under "Cast in Other Roles"... Last Thursday, Christopher Judge won "Best Performance" at The Game Awards for his role in the video game God of War Ragnarok, and ended up giving an almost eight-minute speech, which is well worth watching (NSFW due to an F-word).

A thread to discuss and ask questions about various social media sites/apps. FYI: Twitter may delete "inactive" accounts in the near future. As of now, this is just a pronouncement without any specific details regarding what qualifies as an "inactive account". However, Twitter's "User Guidelines" essentially defines a non-active account as one that hasn't been logged into for over six months: If you have an account that you haven't used in a while and would like to keep, it would be a good idea to log into the account (and perhaps even post a tweet or two). Also, make sure that the account is connected to an email address that you check regularly. Here's a link to a UPI article about the possible mass deletion, in case the above Insider article is paywalled.

Both "soccer" and "football" are used in Australia to refer to association football. "Soccer" is the traditional term: The Aussie governing body used to have "soccer" in its name until 2005 (news article, Wikipedia).

Original Sesame Street cast member Bob McGrath has passed away, according to a Facebook post by his family. Before Sesame Street, McGrath was a featured tenor on the Mitch Miller's Sing Along with Mitch TV series. (Wikipedia)

Season Two preview teaser:

Leah Lewis is the voice of the female lead ("Ember") in Pixar's Elemental, which is slated for June 2023. Also: Tunji Kasim has been cast in the Bridgerton "limited prequel" Queen Charlotte (Deadline). Alex Saxon apparently has a recurring role in Apple TV's upcoming comedy series, High Desert, which stars Patricia Arquette. (I can't find any confirmation beyond IMDb.) Kennedy McMann recently appeared in two episodes of Hulu's Tell Me Lies.

Star Trek: Picard | Teaser Trailer (NYCC 2022)

For those in the USA, all three seasons are currently available via the CW's app and website (https://www.cwtv.com/shows/dark-matter/).

Besides the mug cake kits, Duncan Hines does still have a line of small cake kits (https://www.duncanhines.com/easy-kits-mega-cookies) though it looks like they discontinued some flavors and availability seems to be an issue. (Locally, for me, only Walmart carries these kits, but the Chocolate Lover's flavor is currently only available online, not in-store. That flavor is also currently out-of-stock on Amazon, not counting third-party sellers.) So they could be in the process of being discontinued, or it might just be a temporary shortage. You could try contacting Duncan Hines' customer service for a more definitive answer. (screenshot from above link)

For those interested in seeing the next generation of players, this year's edition of the FIFA Under-20 Women's World Cup (Wikipedia) kicks off on Wednesday, August 10th. All of the United States' group stage matches, along with some other matches, will be broadcast on FOX Sports 1 and 2: Thursday, August 11th at 1:00 p.m. ET - USA vs. Ghana (TV: FS2) Sunday, August 14th at 7:00 p.m ET - USA vs. Netherlands (TV: FS1) Wednesday, August 17th at 7:00 p.m. ET - USA vs. Japan (TV: FS2) The USA's roster is available here: U.S. U-20 WYNT Head Coach Tracey Kevins Names 21-Player Roster for 2022 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica. One notable, but not unexpected, absence for the USA is the Washington Spirit's Trinity Rodman (b. May 20, 2002), who already has several senior USWNT caps and thus doesn't need the experience of another youth World Cup. Mexico and Canada have also qualified for the tournament, with Mexico in Group B (along with Germany), and Canada in Group C (along with France).

Warner Brothers Discovery had a quarterly earnings conference call on Thursday afternoon, where they announced a combined streaming service, that is set to be launched next year in the U.S.A. THR: Warner Bros. Discovery Details New Streaming Plans: U.S. Launch of Combined Service in Summer 2023, Free AVOD Service to Follow Earlier in the day, Warner Brothers Discovery announced that some Magnolia shows will also stream on HBO Max, while some CNN special series will be available on Discovery+ via a CNN "hub". (THR)

The Lego Ideas set #21336 "The Office" was officially revealed today and is now available for pre-order direct from Lego (USA), with a ship date of after October 1st. Priced at $119.99, the set has 1164 pieces and 15 minifigs: The set measures about 12 inches wide, 10 inches deep, and 3 inches high. For those interested in buying and building the set, but are not familiar with modern Lego sets, the most challenging aspect of building this set will be applying the numerous stickers. (The BrickNerd blog has good tips on how to best apply stickers to Lego parts.) Lego's building instructions should be easy to follow, as they always include a parts list for each step nowadays and highlight those parts in the step's image. (And, if your last experience with Lego was from the 1990s or earlier, the building steps are much more iterative nowadays, with just a few pieces per step, compared to sometimes a dozen or so.) More (and larger) photos can be viewed at the Lego shop link above or at Brickset.com (Lego review and set database site). My earlier post about the approval announcement:

A previous Stargate SG-1 Lego Ideas proposal (screenshot below), which had reached the 10,000-vote threshold for an official review, was not selected to become an official set in the review cycle that ended today (official Lego Ideas Blog). For an Ideas proposal based on an existing IP, two of the most significant factors in whether the proposal actually gets approved are: (1) The owner of the rights to the IP in question (here, most likely Amazon/MGM) has to agree to license the proposed set, and (2) No other entity has an exclusive toy license that covers Lego-like toys. It's also possible (though unlikely) that Lego could already have an official Stargate set in the works. Additionally, a rejected Ideas proposal does not mean that another proposal down the road based on the same IP will not be approved and made into an official set. For example, a set based on the U.S. version of The Office was approved in October 2021 after two other The Office projects that had reached the 10k threshold were rejected in previous years.

The use of "We Have All the Time in the World" bothered me more than Bond's apparent death (which I was already aware of). Though, given that James Bond is the modern equivalent of a mythic national hero, a "king in the mountain" (Wikipedia) ending where he puts himself into some sort of hibernation chamber (say in hopes that scientists could find a way to neutralize Heracles) would have been a more fitting literary nod, especially with the established use of "James Bond will return" in previous Bond films. And, since that the island had a garden of infinite plot devices, one of those rare plants could have had medicinal properties to induce a hibernation-like state in humans, so this resolution could have been easily established earlier in the film with just a line or two of dialogue. I wouldn't mind Naomie Harris' Moneypenny coming back as the new M. Of the actors in recurring supporting roles, Harris was the biggest revelation for me. This would also add interesting office dynamics with the new Moneypenny (who could either be handled as just a "no relation" or as a non-close relative).

The first Tron premiered 40 years ago (July 9, 1982). While groundbreaking, with its extensive use of CGI, the film was perceived by Disney as a commercial disappointment due to its modest first-run box office take. The film's gross may have been higher, had Disney not decided to move up Tron's release date from December 1982 to July 1982, where it ended up competing against the juggernaut that was E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. However, the film went on to become something of a cult favorite and is now recognized as a pioneering classic. (Wikipedia: Tron) Tron Original Trailer Disney+ "Unofficial" Trailer for Tron It's been a while since I've watched the original Tron, so I don't have any detailed thoughts about the film, other than thinking that it was one of the most awe-inspiring films in terms of presenting a unique and immersive fantasy world, especially to a young kid.

Until an actual deal is announced, I don't think we'll see any firm details as to what a streaming version of "Sunday Ticket" would look like. The news about "Sunday Ticket" likely moving to a streaming service came from an interview Goodell gave on CNBC today. One possible model is Apple's recent deal with MLS (press release). From The Athletic's summary of the Apple-MLS deal (subscription required): Edit/Correction: Removed incorrect details about the Apple-MLS deal.

Details on Ghosts' Comic-Con panel (press release):

According to the Instagram account of his son, Wilke Itzin, and the personal Twitter account of director/producer Jon Cassar, actor Gregory Itzin (IMDb profile) has passed away. From his son's Instagram: Itzin's most famous role was as (Vice) President Logan in over forty episodes of 24. In addition to recurring roles on other TV shows before and after 24, Itzin also had numerous character parts in many classic or notable TV series, going back to 1979 and some films, including Airplane! and The Fabulous Baker Boys.

So, the USWNT has qualified for the 2023 Women's World Cup, while Mexico looks like it will miss its second straight WWC, after losing to Haiti 3-nil. Mexico's poor performance is slightly surprising. It's also disappointing, given that its development of a domestic leaque (Liga MX Femenil) hasn't translated into noticeable improvements at the senior WNT level, nor really at the U-20 level. And, there's no sense that Mexico's federation has any interest in strengthening the WNT, so Mexico's dark days could continue through the next WWC cycle. Though, Haiti's rise is not that unexpected, as their U-20 WNT had two strong cycles in 2018 (qualified for its first U-20 WWC by defeating Canada 1-nil in the 3rd place match of CONCACAF's qualifying tournament and only losing to the USA in the semifinals via a penalty shoot-out) and 2020 (lost to Mexico in the semifinals of the qualifying tournament via another penalty shoot-out). (Wikipedia: CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship) On the other side of the pond, Group B of the Women's Euros gets underway today. Spain lost their talisman, Alexia Putellas (current Ballon d'Or Féminin winner), to a left ACL injury just before the tournament began.