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Author Iain Banks has died aged 59, two months after announcing he had terminal cancer, his family has said. Banks, who was born in Dunfermline, Fife, revealed in April he had gall bladder cancer and was unlikely to live for more than a year. He was best known for his novels The Wasp Factory, The Crow Road and Complicity.

I downloaded Season 1 and Season 2...very impressed. Lot's of stuff that shakes up our culture and lot's of stuff that get's back to our founding fathers. I had only recently read "1776" and "John Adams" by David McCullough...and was surprised at to how the storyline of "Falling Skies" follows the real history of our Country...and our apocalyptic (and Biblical) visions of the future.. Your thoughts would be appreciated. Season 3 starts next week.

As NSA data collection from Verizon Wireless is defended this morning by no less than the office of the President of the United States, actor Wil Wheaton and top Android hacker/developer Koushik Dutta have announced their departure from the carrier. The order in question was revealed yesterday, having originated from the FBI and passed down to the public media by an anonymous source. The order shows how the National Security Agency uses Verizon specifically to mine records of phone calls, numbers, and everything in-between for data. Data such as “unique identifiers”—unspecified beyond that, call length, number of individuals on each...

The Purge is an attack on the Tea Party and NRA.

The news that Matt Smith is to leave his role in Doctor Who at the end of 2013 has already prompted speculation on the identity of his replacement. A host of names have been suggested in Sunday's papers, among them Idris Elba, Dame Helen Mirren and John Hurt.

Movies don’t come bigger than this, and zombie flicks tend to come an awful lot smaller. In Shaun of the Dead, the undead had to content themselves with snacking off a handful of British actors in a deserted pub. Here, it’s the future of humanity at stake. This time, Brad Pitt is here to save us, and the skies are soon full of crashing helicopters, screaming jets and stuntpeople being sucked out of aircraft. So what’s it like? Well, it’s awfully like all the epic action films made by Roland Emmerich, ranging from the nearly sublime (Independence Day) to the...

Doctor Who star Matt Smith is to leave his role as the Doctor at the end of this year, the BBC has announced. After four years as the Time Lord on the BBC One show, viewers will see Smith's Doctor regenerate in the 2013 Christmas special. The 30-year-old actor said working on the show had been "the most brilliant experience". Doctor Who marks its 50th anniversary in November with a special episode, which Smith has already filmed. The BBC said Smith's "spectacular exit" was yet to be revealed and would be "kept tightly under wraps". Smith first stepped into the...

Will Smith has never spoken openly of his connections to the Church of Scientology, but they are well documented. Whether or not Smith is a devout member or simply curious about this Hollywood faith, he has visible ties to the group. In 2007, he donated $122,500 to several Scientology rehabilitation organizations. Two years later, he and wife Jada Pinkett Smith opened California's New Village Leadership Academy, a private school founded on the teachings of Scientology creator L. Ron Hubbard. Yet to this day, when asked about his own involvement, Smith suggests close friend Tom Cruise introduced him to the practices...

My Review of Star Trek Into Darkness -- short version: wait to rent it. Long version: Disappointingly annoying. What follows could be considered a spoiler, but there is nothing original in this film, so there is nothing that can be spoiled. Sorry. We went to see Star Trek into Darkness on Saturday. Very crowded and had to sit close. I was an original fan, captivated by the television series in the late 1960s, with Star Trek scrap books and posters, models of space ships and everything. There are serious problems with the Into Darkness script that are not merely anathema...

YES, THERE ARE SPOILERS.It’s generally a bad idea to go into darkness. You tend to bump into things and hurt yourself. You break things and people will get very cross.And yes, there are fans very cross at STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS. To them, this is STAR TREK dumbed down. It’s looking backwards and recycling old storylines in a banal way. It shits on Gene Roddenberry’s legacy. It’s hollow fanservice. The counterargument is this is STAR TREK for the kids, for people who have never seen Star Trek or liked it before.I don’t hate STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS. It’s a fast,...

World War Z could be the most expensive flop in cinematic history. Brad Pitt's zombie action flick has been mired by negative publicity concerning rewrites, re-shoots and an inexperienced creative team that has caused the film's budget to increase from $170million to a reported $400million. Based upon Max Brooks's science fiction novel, the film now has the biggest budget ever recorded.

The producers of a new movie called “Europa Report” have released a new trailer about their film, which features a near-future mission to Jupiter’s moon, Europa, in search of extraterrestrial life. From the trailer, the film looks to be of extremely high quality, and it stars Sharlto Copley (District 9), with music score from composer Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica, Eureka).

Star Trek Into Darkness writer Damon Lindelof apologises for including 'misogynistic' Alice Eve underwear scene Trekkies and moviegoers around the globe have been very vocal with their criticism about one particular scene in the new Star Trek Into Darkness movie. A short scene in the blockbuster that features a semi nude Alice Eve has caused such furore that the film's producer has publicly apologised for it. Damon Lindelof used his Twitter account to say sorry for the clip which has been deemed 'misogynistic' and unnecessary by some viewers.

If you weren't excited from the explosions-filled Man of Steel movie trailer before, after seeing this final trailer that teases General Zod threatening Earth, you will be. It shows more of the conflict of the film and reveals even more insane action sequences. In the trailer, which is probably the final one before the movie releases next month on June 14, you hear Michael Shannon as General Zod demand that Kal-El surrender himself or Earth will suffer consequences. This is going to be a good one, huh. [WarnerBros]

Women of America – particularly female "Star Trek" fans – co-writer/producer Damon Lindelof has something to say to you: There was no practical reason for Alice Eve to appear in her lingerie in "Star Trek Into Darkness," and he's sorry for that.

The Earth is a pretty bleak place for humans in the new science fiction movie, "After Earth." Set 1,000 years in the future, "After Earth" depicts a future in which humanity is forced to abandon Earth in search of a new home. The remnants of the human race travel to and resettle on Nova Prime — a fictional planet located light-years away from Earth.

t's Star Trek vs. Star Wars in the skies over San Francisco! Which would win in a battle, the Death Star or the Enterprise? Let us know in the comments! After Star Trek IV, the crew of the Enterprise needed more whales, so they came back to San Francisco again, except this time it's an alternate universe where Reagan's Star Wars defense initiative from the 80's is coming to fruition as the Death Star nears completion (superlaser already fully operational). Star Wars is our military

Director J.J. Abrams' 2009 prequel to the dusty Star Trek property got the space saga out of mothballs and back on the pop culture radar. Star Trek Into Darkness resumes the franchise's penchant for futuristic allegories to modern times. Well, if you consider the Bush years the state of today's foreign policy debates.The '60s series never bludgeoned viewers with its mission statements, and the Star Trek sequel similarly embraces razzle dazzle over speechifying. Abrams is too keenly focused on ambitious action sequences, those maddening lens flares and the bond between the ship's crew that made those prior voyages such a...

Star Trek: Secrets of the Universe Tonight, May 15, 10/9c, History Channel

I hope this helps: Previous threads STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Opens Strong Internationally 'Star Trek Into Darkness' is lost in space 'Star Trek Into Darkness' review: Energized Star Trek Into Darkness – review ‘Star Trek Into Darkness' movie review Review: Star Trek Into Darkness 'Star Trek Into Darkness' review: Fast and fun IMDb user reviews IMDb external reviews Rotten Tomatoes Metacritic