Marvel Studios has dropped the first teaser for Wonder Man, an eight-episode miniseries slated for a January release, ahead of its panel at New York Comic Con this weekend.

Part of the MCU's Phase Six, the miniseries was created by Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of Five Rings) and Andrew Guest (Hawkeye), with Guest serving as showrunner. It has been in development since 2022.

The comic book version of the character is the son of a rich industrialist who inherits the family munitions factory but is being crushed by the competition: Stark Industries. Baron Zemo (Falcon and the Winter Soldier) then recruits him to infiltrate and betray the Avengers, giving him super powers ("ionic energy") via a special serum. He eventually becomes a superhero and Avengers ally, helping them take on Doctor Doom, among other exploits. Since we know Doctor Doom is the Big Bad of the upcoming two new Avengers movies, a Wonder Man miniseries makes sense.

In the new miniseries, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II stars as Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man, an actor and stunt person with actual superpowers who decides to audition for the lead role in a superhero TV series—a reboot of an earlier Wonder Man incarnation. Demetrius Grosse plays Simon's brother, Eric, aka Grim Reaper; Ed Harris plays Simon's agent, Neal Saroyan; and Arian Moayed plays P. Clearly, an agent with the Department of Damage Control. Lauren Glazier, Josh Gad, Byron Bowers, Bechir Sylvain, and Manny McCord will also appear in as-yet-undisclosed roles

Rounding out the cast is Ben Kingsley, reprising his MCU role as failed actor Trevor Slattery. You may recall Slattery from 2013's Iron Man 3, hired by the villain of that film to pretend to be the leader of an international terrorist organization called the Ten Rings. Slattery showed up again in 2021's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, rehabilitated after a stint in prison; he helped the titular Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) on his journey to the mythical village of Ta Lo. We only get a brief glimpse of him in the teaser, getting his makeup done for a shoot, so it's unclear whether he'll be a hero or villain or perhaps neutral comic relief this time around.

The one-minute teaser leans into the meta-humor with gusto. It opens with an online interview with Von Kovak (Zlatko Buric), fictional in-universe director of the Wonder Man reboot, who drones on about "superhero fatigue" while insisting that his project will reinvent the superhero genre. Simon was a huge fan of the original Wonder Man—we catch a glimpse of young Simon in a theater with his dad as a cheesy scene involving Wonder Man battling laser-armed soldiers plays on the screen. So naturally he's thrilled about the reboot, especially since it's in the early days of development and Kovak has not yet begun casting. Clearly, this is his big break, as an actor, stuntman, and superhero.

Wonder Man will debut on Disney+ in January 2026.

Read full article

Comments

Approximately every human being on the planet has been texting me about the Qatar air base story:

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the Pentagon has agreed to host a new Qatari Emiri Air Force facility in Idaho, saying that the nation has played a “core part” in securing the Gaza peace deal.

Hegseth made the announcement during an enhanced honor cordon arrival ceremony at the Pentagon for Qatar’s Minister of Defense Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

“Today, we’re announcing a letter of acceptance in building a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho,” Hegseth said.

Qatar is a small country that has purchase extremely fast, extremely expensive fighter jets. In this Qatar is similar to Singapore, which… also has an airbase in Idaho.

The U.S. Army Flight Training Detachment includes six Army National Guard pilots who fly with RSAF pilots. The arrangement is one of several arrangements the RSAF has with the U.S. military. RSAF pilots rotate through the training station in Arizona to train in desert environments and alongside U.S. pilots.

“It’s the best job I’ve had in the Army by far,” said Denton. “It’s a lot of fun. There’s a lot of uniqueness to working with other countries. It’s rewarding to break through those cultural barriers, and you can see the smile on their faces when they go out and accomplish something.”

While at the OCTC, Denton said RSAF pilots conducted individual and crew-level qualifications and worked with Marine Joint Terminal Attack Controllers to simulate providing close air support. Each engagement is recorded, allowing crews to review their training run while receiving real-time feedback from senior pilots, master gunners and range personnel.

So… it is not an arrangement without precedent. It is true that there are a variety of fishy things going on with Trump’s relationship with Qatar (and some of those are manifesting in the effort to broker an Israel-Hamas deal), and it is quite possible that this represents a payoff for Qatar. But it’s not nearly as surprising or alarming when you appreciate why countries that have basically no airspace might want to conduct training in Idaho, which has rather a substantial amount of airspace.

That said, fun to watch MAGA freak:

Photo Credit:By Airwolfhound from Hertfordshire, UK – F-15QA, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=151156385

The post The Qatar Thing appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money.

New York Comic Con (NYCC) has kicked off with an extended teaser for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, a new Game of Thrones spinoff series based on George R.R. Martin's novella series, Tales of Dunk and Egg.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms adapts the first novella in the series, The Hedge Knight, and is set 50 years after the events of House of the Dragon. Per the official premise:

A century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros: a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.

Peter Claffey co-stars as Ser Duncan the Tall, aka a hedge knight named "Dunk," along with Dexter Sol Ansell as Prince Aegon Targaryen, aka "Egg," a child prince and Dunk's squire. The main cast also includes Finn Bennett as Egg's older brother, Prince Aerion "Brightflame" Targaryen; Bertie Carvel as Egg's uncle, Prince Baelor "Breakspear" Targaryen, heir to the Iron Throne; Tanzyn Crawford as a Dornish puppeteer named Tanselle; Daniel Ings as Ser Lyonel "Laughing Storm" Baratheon, heir to House Baratheon; and Sam Spruell as Prince Maekar Targaryen, Egg's father.

This being a Game of Thrones series, there's also an extensive supporting cast. Ross Anderson plays Ser Humfrey Hardyng; Edward Ashley plays Ser Steffon Fossoway; Henry Ashton as Egg's older brother, Prince Daeron "The Drunken" Targaryen; Youssef Kerkour as a blacksmith named Steely Pate; Daniel Monks as Ser Manfred Dondarrion; Shaun Thomas as Raymun Fossoway; Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Plummer, a steward; Steve Wall as Lord Leo "Longthorn" Tyrell, Lord of Highgarden; and Danny Webb as Dunk's mentor, Ser Arlan of Pennytree.

It's a good rule of thumb in the Game of Thrones universe not to get too attached to any of the characters, and that probably holds true here, too. But Knight of the Seven Kingdoms also seems to be aiming for a different, lighter tone than its predecessors, judging by the teaser, which has its share of humor. Martin has said as much on his blog, although he added, “It’s still Westeros, so no one is truly safe.”

Since Dunk is a humble hedge knight, there are lots of scenes with him trudging through mud and rain, and jousting will apparently feature much more prominently. "I always love Medieval tournaments in other pictures," Martin said during a NYCC panel. "We had several tournaments in Game of Thrones, they were in the background, but not the center. I wanted to do something set during a tournament. I sent (the TV writers) a challenge: Let’s do the best jousting sequences that were ever done on film. My favorite was 1952’s Ivanhoe.”

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms debuts on HBO on January 18, 2026.

Read full article

Comments

Cards Against Humanity, the often-vulgar card game, has launched a limited edition of its namesake product without any instructions and with a detailed explanation of each joke, "why it’s funny, and any relevant social, political, or historical context."

Why? Because, produced in this form, "Cards Against Humanity Explains the Joke" is not a game at all, which would be subject to tariffs as the cards are produced overseas. Instead, the product is "information material" and thus not sanctionable under the law Trump has been using—and CAH says it has obtained a ruling to this effect from Customs and Border Patrol.

"What if DHS Secretary and Dog Murderer Kristi Noem gets mad and decides that Cards Against Humanity Explains the Joke is not informational material?" the company asks in an FAQ about the new edition. (If you don't follow US politics, Noem really did kill her dog Cricket.) Answer: "She can fuck right off, because we got a binding ruling from Trump’s own government that confirms this product is informational and 100% exempt from his stupid tariffs."

Pre-orders for the $25 product end on October 15, and it will allegedly never be reprinted. All profits will be donated to the American Library Association "to fight censorship."

This is the way

Now, I would never claim that Cards Against Humanity is a particularly highbrow form of entertainment; for instance, the website promoting the new edition opens with "Trump is Going to Fuck Christmas" in giant white letters. (That headline refers to Trump's tariffs... I hope.)

"This holiday season, give your loved ones the gift of knowledge, give America’s libraries the gift of cash, and don’t give Donald Trump a fucking cent," the site says.

Some of the cards and their explanations are more literate than you might expect. For instance, English majors and poetry lovers may recognize the source of this quotation, found on one of the game's cards, as the final lines of T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men":

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Cards Against Humanity mucks this up a bit by printing the final line as "Not with a bang, but with _____________" (extra comma, extra "with"). Ouch. But it redeems itself slightly by adding a nice note about the time and context of the composition, noting that the "humor comes from a juxtaposition of the poem's grandiloquent language with Cards Against Humanity's often crude, low-brow jokes." Hopefully, it inspires at least a few people who have never before heard the name "T.S. Eliot" to read some of his verse.

(If you want to give it a go, the greatest hits are probably "The Waste Land," "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "The Hollow Men," "Journey of the Magi," "Ash Wednesday," and Eliot's long late masterpiece "The Four Quartets." Eliot is also responsible for the poems that served as the basis of the musical "Cats," which eventually became a feature film featuring human performers who at one point in development had feline buttholes. According to reports from inside the production, "The job of editing out all of the buttholes was ultimately left to one crew member who was hired specifically to excise unintended buttholes." Eliot would have hated everything about this sentence.)

CAH has done this sort of thing before. In 2017, the company bought a small plot of land in Texas on the US/Mexico border to "make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for Trump to build his wall." In 2024, CAH sued SpaceX, saying that the rocket company had moved construction equipment onto CAH's Texas land without permission.

Read full article

Comments

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr says Internet service providers shouldn't have to list every fee they charge. Responding to a request from cable and telecom lobby groups, he is proposing to eliminate a rule that requires ISPs to itemize various fees in broadband price labels that must be made available to consumers.

The rule took effect in April 2024 after the FCC rejected ISPs' complaints that listing every fee they created would be too difficult. The rule applies specifically to recurring monthly fees "that providers impose at their discretion, i.e., charges not mandated by a government."

ISPs could comply with the rule either by listing the fees or by dropping the fees altogether and, if they choose, raising their overall prices by a corresponding amount. But the latter option wouldn't fit with the strategy of enticing customers with a low advertised price and hitting them with the real price on their monthly bills. The broadband price label rules were created to stop ISPs from advertising misleadingly low prices.

This week, Carr scheduled an October 28 vote on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that proposes eliminating several of the broadband-label requirements. One of the rules in line for removal requires ISPs to "itemize state and local passthrough fees that vary by location." The FCC would seek public comment on the plan before finalizing it.

"We propose to eliminate the requirement that providers itemize discretionary, recurring monthly fees that represent costs they choose to pass through to consumers and which vary by consumer location," Carr's draft proposal said. "Examples include state and local right of way fees, pole rental fees to utility companies, and other discretionary charges where the provider does not set rates or terms directly. We seek comment on whether providers should instead display on the label the aggregate amount of such fees."

So many fees, they “overwhelm” other label info

The proposal is part of Car's "Delete, Delete, Delete" initiative that aims to eliminate as many rules as possible. In the Delete, Delete, Delete proceeding, cable lobby group NCTA and other broadband industry groups asked the FCC to ditch the list-every-fee requirement and other broadband label rules.

The FCC was required by Congress to implement broadband-label rules, but the Carr FCC says the law doesn't "require itemizing pass through fees that vary by location."

"Commenters state that itemizing such fees requires providers to produce multiple labels for identical services," the FCC plan says, with a footnote to comments from industry groups such as USTelecom and NCTA. "We believe, consistent with commenters in the Delete, Delete, Delete proceeding, that itemizing can lead to a proliferation of labels and of labels so lengthy that the fees overwhelm other important elements of the label."

In a blog post Monday, Carr said his plan is part of a "focus on consumer protection." He said the FCC "will vote on a notice that would reexamine broadband nutrition labels so that we can separate the wheat from the chaff. We want consumers to get quick and easy access to the information they want and need to compare broadband plans (as Congress has provided) without imposing unnecessary burdens."

ISPs would still be required to provide the labels, but with less information. The NPRM said that eliminating the rules targeted for deletion will not "change the core label requirements to display a broadband consumer label containing critical information about the provider's service offerings, including information about pricing, introductory rates, data allowances, and performance metrics."

ISPs said listing fees was too hard

In 2023, five major trade groups representing US broadband providers petitioned the FCC to scrap the list-every-fee requirement before it took effect. Comcast told the commission that the rule "impose[s] significant administrative burdens and unnecessary complexity in complying with the broadband label requirements."

Rejecting the industry complaints, then-Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said that "every consumer needs transparent information when making decisions about what Internet service offering makes the most sense for their family or household. No one wants to be hit with charges they didn't ask for or they did not expect."

The Rosenworcel FCC's order denying the industry petition pointedly said that ISPs could simplify pricing instead of charging loads of fees. "ISPs could alternatively roll such discretionary fees into the base monthly price, thereby eliminating the need to itemize them on the label," the order said.

Assuming Carr's proposal is implemented, ISPs will have less incentive to simplify their pricing. In addition to ditching the list-every-fee rule, his proposed rulemaking would eliminate a few other label rules.

One rule on Carr's chopping block requires ISPs to read the labels to customers over the phone. The rule was instituted to make the labels accessible to consumers who shop for broadband service on the phone instead of online.

"We believe that because the label is a fundamentally visual medium, its format does not easily lend itself to presentation in a telephone conversation," the Carr FCC proposal said.

Multilingual requirement could be axed

Another rule in line for axing requires providers to display the labels in customer account portals. The labels would still have to be available online when consumers shop for service. Citing objections from ISPs, the proposal said the "requirement may confuse customers over time and imposes a significant burden on providers. For example, as data and prices change, the original label [in the customer account portal] could become outdated and no longer useful."

One rule proposed for deletion requires ISPs to make labels available in machine-readable format. "We are unconvinced that the machine-readability requirement is a necessary component for transparency," the proposal said. "Machine readability might facilitate research or comparisons across many providers' plans by third parties, but the FCC's statutory mandate is to allow for the greater disclosure of information to consumers."

The FCC is also seeking comment on whether to eliminate a multilingual requirement that forces providers to display the labels in English and other languages spoken in their markets. Wireless lobby group CTIA asked the FCC to drop this rule.

Technically, the Carr FCC is not currently proposing to eliminate the multilingual rule. But including the question in the NPRM raises the possibility that it could be axed along with the other rules slated for deletion.

The NPRM is likely to be approved by the Republican-majority commission, though Democrat Anna Gomez could dissent. Gomez said in a statement provided to Ars today, "I believe that transparency in all aspects of a transaction helps consumers make fully informed decisions. I'm also deeply concerned about the proposal to remove the multilingual display requirement. If a company markets their service in multiple languages, then there should be no impediment to providing transparent information about the service in those languages. I'm reviewing all proposals in this notice with an eye to ensuring that consumers are not left in the dark as a result of our actions."

Read full article

Comments

MARANELLO, ITALY—The E-Building is one of the newest on Ferrari's sprawling factory complex. One of the first LEED-certified buildings in Italy, the gleaming white interior is the latest in flexible factory design, capable of assembling any model in the automaker's range. And from next year, that will include Ferrari's first electric vehicle.

It's a momentous occasion for Ferrari, and one it's taking its time over—although it has now briefed us on some powertrain and chassis details, we'll have to wait until next year before seeing the interior or exterior of a car that it's calling the Ferrari Elettrica—for now at least.

Ferrari says it considered an all-electric two-seater or even something with occasional rear seats, but the performance benefit of an electric powertrain wasn't enough to offset the added mass for either of those applications. Those calculations did work out in favor of a four-seater, though; the battery pack lowers the center of gravity by 3.1 inches (80 mm) compared to an internal combustion engine powertrain and reduces the polar moment of inertia by 20 percent.

However, the Elettrica won't be massive. While we don't know most of the exterior dimensions, the wheelbase is 116.5 inches (2,960 mm)—slightly less than a Hyundai Ioniq 5—and Ferrari says that the Elettrica features very short front and rear overhangs. Seventy-five percent of the aluminum used for the chassis (and the body panels) is recycled, helping save 6.7 tons of CO₂ per car.

F1 influence

Ferrari has been working with electric powertrains since the introduction of hybrid systems to Formula 1 in 2009. The motors here aren't direct copies of the ones you'd find in Ferrari's F1 racers, but the influence is there—like the Hallbach arrangement of the magnets in the rotor. Think of it like the Konami code for magnet orientation, except here it keeps the magnetic field concentrated on the stator. A thin carbon sleeve helps contain the magnets in the rotor, and the stator windings are embedded in a vacuum-impregnated resin that has much greater thermal conductivity than air.

There are four electric motors, one for each wheel. At the front, the two 140 hp (105 kW) motors share a single inverter, mounted atop the drive unit, which fits in the compact space between the front chassis rails, just behind the crash structures. Depending on the drive mode, the front axle can be disconnected entirely from the motors via clutches for greater efficiency. These motors can spin to 30,000 rpm and have an efficiency of 93 percent.

The rear drive unit features a pair of more powerful 415 hp (310 kW) motors, each with its own inverter but again packaged together for better volumetric and weight efficiency. The rear motors spin at up to 25,000 rpm and have the same 93 percent efficiency as the front motors. For those keeping score, the motors have a power density of 1.9 hp/lb (3.23 kW/kg) at the front and 2.9 hp/lb (4.8 kW/kg) at the rear.

Like the drive units, the battery pack is made in-house, although the NMC pouch cells are supplied by SK On. Robots assemble 14 cells into a module, with 15 modules making up the Elettrica pack—13 in a slab with another two at the rear underneath the back seat. Ferrari said it went for a modular approach to future-proof the Elettrica; more than 90 percent of the cars it has made are still on the road, and it wants that to be true of its EVs as well, so it should be possible to repair the battery of the EV in the future. (This reasoning is why Ferrari rejected using cylindrical cells for the Elettrica, or a cell-to-pack design for the battery.) Decades from now we may even see Ferrari design a new battery to keep classic Elettricas on the road.

The pack has a gross capacity of 122 kWh, with a pack power density of 195 Wh/kg. Specific energy density is 280 Wh/L, with a power density of 1.9 kW/L. Peak output for the pack, which operates at 800 V, is 1,113 hp (830 kW). That should translate to a 2.5–second 0–62 mph (0-100 km/h) time and a top speed of more than 192 mph (310 km/h), Ferrari told us. It will DC fast-charge at rates of up to 350 kW, which should add 70 kWh in 20 min, we're told. Like the hardware, Ferrari designed the battery monitoring system and cell supervision software entirely in-house.

It has to feel like a Ferrari

Longitudinal acceleration. Lateral acceleration. Braking. Sound. Gear change. Those are the five elements that Ferrari considers necessary to imbue a car with "driving thrill," and this EV will be no different. Longitudinal acceleration has mostly been addressed already. Controlling lateral acceleration, and the car's ability to corner, is partly the job of a new third-generation active suspension system.

Where other OEMs might have gone for air springs or magnetorheological dampers, here you'll find coilover spool valve dampers, which use a ball screw controlled by a 48 V electric motor to control ride height as well as bound and rebound. The setup is a refinement of that found in the Purosangue SUV and the F80 hypercar, but with a greater pitch on the ball screw that better controls vertical motions.

Additionally, the vehicle's dynamic controller (operating at 100 Hz) and the inverters allow Ferrari to precisely control the amount of power and torque sent to each wheel as well as each corner's suspension behavior. And there's independent rear-wheel steering of up to 2.15 degrees; the system can counter-steer to the front wheels to increase agility, steer together with the front wheels at higher speed for directional stability, steer just a single wheel if needed, or increase the toe-in when driving in a straight line.

Regenerative braking can send up to 500 kW back to the battery pack, with a maximum regen deceleration of 0.68 G before the carbon-ceramic friction brakes take over.

Since there's no internal combustion engine to mask road noise and other NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness), Ferrari had to pay particular attention to minimizing their intrusion into the cabin. For the first time in a Ferrari, the rear suspension (and the drive unit) is fitted to a subframe, which in turn is mounted to the chassis via elastomeric bushings.

And it has spent a lot of time thinking about the car's sound. There's no faking the noise of cylinders and combustion; instead an accelerometer inside the rear drive unit acts like the pickup in an electric guitar, detecting certain frequencies that are then amplified. Like Porsche with the Taycan, Ferrari's engineers were resolute that there is no fakery going on, just enhancing the natural sounds of the power electronics and transmission.

Finally, Ferrari has given the Elettrica a simulated paddleshift transmission, similar to the one you'll find in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. Here it's called Torque Shift Engagement, but the idea is the same: the paddles on the steering wheel toggle through five different maps of power and torque, as well as lift-off regenerative braking to recreate the experience of changing gears in a conventional powertrain.

More details, including the Elettrica's price, should follow next year.

Read full article

Comments