Techlife News №550 2022

Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | Exhilarating 201

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This film is technically the sequel to “Doctor Strange,” a movie that came out six years ago. But so much has happened in Marvel land that involves Stephen Strange and his goatee — “Infinity War,”“Endgame” and, yes, the most recent “Spider-Man” — that where it falls in the “Doctor Strange” standalone film continuity is entirely beside the point. One could not simply watch “Doctor Strange” and then “Doctor Strange 2” and expect it to make sense. Not only that, understanding, or at least being invested in “Doctor Strange 2,” also requires some passing knowledge of “WandaVision,” the nine-episode Disney+ series that runs almost six hours total. This is not a surprise or a burden to Marvel fans, but it does seem like quite a lot to ask of the average moviegoer (though perhaps at this point they’re one and the same). So it’s especially interesting that Sam Raimi agreed to jump into this messy corporate multiverse at this point. His “Spider-Man” movies are still among the top of the crop of modern superhero franchises, after all. Raimi was able to put his own stamp on this endeavor, including but not limited to a Bruce Campbell cameo. There are horror elements, too, some so intense that families might think twice before bringing everyone to the multiplex, some interesting visuals not entirely dissimilar to the city-bending of “Inception” and some humor. But Raimi doesn’t take “Doctor Strange” to an entirely new tonal place, like, say Taika Waititi did with Thor. He mostly sticks to the framework established by Scott Derrickson. The main issue is that it’s a bit of a kitchen sink movie centered on an entirely new and 203

Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | Official Trailer 204

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underdeveloped character, America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), a teen who has the power to travel the multiverse but doesn’t quite know how to control it. She’s being hunted by someone who wants her powers and Strange decides to help, possibly out of genuine altruism and possibly because it was a good excuse to literally jump off a balcony to get out of his old flame Christine’s (Rachel McAdams) wedding early. Unfortunately, he asks the wrong Avenger for help: Elizbeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff is the one after the power to go multiverse jumping and has been dabbling in some dark arts to make it happen. She’s motivated by the idea that she has children out there in an idyllic suburban multiverse in which she wears yoga pants and loose cotton tops and tucks her boys in at night after ice cream and movies. Soon she and Strange are having a standoff in midair. The script is inventive in the way it plays around with a jumble of big sci-fi concepts, which makes sense considering screenwriter Michael Waldron is a veteran of “Rick & Morty.” But it also underwhelms when it comes to the mishmash structure and the women. Olsen still sells Wanda’s pain like the best of them, even though she’s been reduced to a stereotype of female hysteria. Christine is merely there to make Strange realize things about himself. And America, well, she never really earns our emotional investment. After “Infinity War” and “Endgame,”“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” feels a little bit like wheel spinning. Cumberbatch has fun with his character, but his limitless ego seems to have been a little muted here as he 206

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Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | Mind-Flip 208

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Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | Official Teaser 210

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grapples with his own happiness. And that invites more questions, like do we ultimately care about whether or not Doctor Strange is happy? Does he? Could everyone just use some post blip therapy instead of these interdimensional bottle episodes? Perhaps the Marvel universe is finally starting to feel like a long running comic book series. Or maybe Phase 4 just hasn’t kicked into gear just yet. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” a Disney release in theaters Thursday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for, “intense sequences of violence and action, frightening images and some language.” Running time: 126 minutes. Two stars out of four. MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. 213

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SAVE ON FAMILY TRAVEL WITHOUT STRESSING My family didn’t travel much when I was a kid, but when we did, my parents jumped through hoops to cut costs. On a trip to Disney World, for example, our family of six switched hotels. Every. Night. My mom worked for a hotel chain and could get one free night per property. Did my parents save money? Yes. Did it add to the mental burden of traveling with four kids? Absolutely. As an adult now, planning a trip with my own child, I fully understand how expensive — and hard — it is to travel with kids. Planning and packing requires accounting for naps, snacks, tantrums and blowouts. And you’re budgeting for extra airfare, a bigger rental car and additional lodging. 215

You can save money on family travel and still have peace of mind. To find out how, I consulted two experts. Here’s what they had to say. PAY WITH POINTS The secret of savvy travelers? They don’t actually pay for airfare and lodging. Instead, they use rewards credit cards to turn everyday purchases into free flights and hotel rooms. “Make your money work for you,” says Preethi Harbuck, a San Francisco Bay Area-based travel writer behind the blog Local Passport Family. Harbuck’s family of seven (soon to be eight) travels almost exclusively on credit card points. “There are more expenditures when you have kids but you can leverage those into greater benefits.” Card hopping can net you major points thanks to signup bonuses but can be hard to manage, says Jamie Harper, mother of four and author of the travel blog Fly by the Seat of Our Pants. To keep things manageable, stick to one or two primary cards. Harper and her husband rotate between Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton cards, which offer perks like free breakfast, Wi-Fi and anniversary nights. PACK LIGHT — AND SMART Overpacking can be a disaster on multiple fronts. First, you have to lug all that stuff with you and keep track of it along the way. The odds of a lost blankie are high. Second, checked bags are expensive — around $30 to $35 per bag, each way. Harbuck and her family stick to either one checked bag or a few smaller carry-ons. Rather 216

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than a fresh outfit for each person, each day, they rewear outfits and typically do laundry on each trip. “Pack clothing that’s lightweight, packs up well and dries quickly,” she says, noting that wool items are great for colder weather. Having layers is crucial, too. Skimp on this and you may wind up spending $50 per kid on souvenir sweatshirts to keep them warm, Harper says. CHOOSE ACTIVITIES MINDFULLY Pack your itinerary with free things to do, like local parks, hikes, beaches or free museums. You can also tap into perks included with memberships you already have — to your local zoo or children’s museum — or invest in passes that you can use again and again. When you do pay for experiences and excursions, consider your family’s life stage. Rather than taking your toddler to an art museum, for example, opt for an outdoor sculpture garden where they can run around or a museum tailored toward children with plenty of interactive features at their level. Your family’s travel priorities should also guide you, Harbuck says. Learning about a place’s culture and history is important for her family, so they spend money on activities that achieve that goal and skip more popular tourist attractions. “We’ve been to London several times but have never ridden the London Eye,” she says. “It doesn’t help me feel connected to the culture, and it’s super expensive.” 219

PACK SNACKS, GROCERY SHOP There’s no rule that says you have to dine out for every meal when you’re on vacation. Instead, pick one meal a day to eat out. Lunch is a good option, as it’s typically cheaper than dinner (which in some countries starts later than most kids’ bedtimes). By packing your supper or eating at home, you avoid an overpriced meal where children are either melting down or asleep at the table. Harbuck’s family hits up local markets to stock up on food when they land in a new city. Taking a road trip? Keep a cooler with food for rest- stop picnics. “If we don’t eat out twice, we’re saving $100 a day — and that’s the cheapest possible meal,”Harper says, noting her kids are picky eaters.“We spent $7 per kid on buttered pasta once. It was the worst experience ever. They didn’t even eat it.” 220

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GOOGLE STRIKES CONTENT DEALS WITH 300 EUROPEAN PUBLISHERS Google said that it struck licensing deals with 300 news publishers in Europe in its latest effort to comply with a recently introduced European Union copyright law. The tech giant signed the agreements with national, local and specialist news publications in Germany, Hungary, France, Austria, the Netherlands and Ireland and said discussions with many others are ongoing. It didn’t disclose how much it’s paying or give names of the news outlets. 222

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European Union countries have been adopting into local law a 2019 EU directive granting publishers additional rights over their content. The new law allows search engines like Google to link to and use snippets of news content, while giving publishers new rights when extended previews are used online. It doesn’t, however, specify where the line between the two lies. The agreements are aimed at avoiding costly and lengthy lawsuits over that distinction. Google last year announced copyright deals with several large German publications and a group of French news publishers. The company also said it’s rolling out a new tool to offer licensing agreements to thousands of other European publishers, starting in Germany and Hungary. The tool’s licensing offers “are based on consistent criteria which respect the law and existing copyright guidance, including how often a news website is displayed and how much ad revenue is generated on pages that also display previews of news content,” Sulina Connal, Google’s director of news and publishing partnerships, said in a blog post. 225

SUPPLIES LAUNCHED TO CHINA’S NEW SPACE STATION FOR NEXT CREW A Chinese cargo vessel docked with the country’s under-construction space station Tuesday ahead of a new three-person crew expected to arrive next month. The Tianzhou-4 spacecraft was slung into space atop a Long March-7 Y5 rocket at 1:56 a.m. from the Wenchang Launch Base in the southern island province of Hainan. State media said it docked with the station about seven hours later. The cargo vessel is carrying supplies for the next crew’s six-month stay, along with research equipment and spare parts for maintaining the station. The station’s last crew returned to Earth last month after six months on the station, China’s longest space mission to date. 226

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China intends to finish building the station this year with the addition of two laboratory modules in July and October to link with the Tianhe living module that was launched in April 2021. Another cargo craft, the Tianzhou-3, remains docked with the station. China’s space program launched its first astronaut into orbit in 2003, making China only the third country to do so using its own resources after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. It has landed robot rovers on the moon and placed one on Mars last year. China has also returned samples from the moon, and officials have discussed a possible crewed mission to the moon. The government announced in 2020 that China’s first reusable spacecraft had landed following a test flight but no photos or details have been released. China is excluded from the International Space Station due to U.S. unease that its space program is run by the ruling Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army. The Shenzhou 14 crewed mission is scheduled to launch next month for a six month stay. Toward the end of that mission, three more astronauts will be launched aboard Shenzhou 15 for a further six months, with the two crews overlapping for three to five days, marking the first time the station has six people aboard. 229

CALIFORNIA LAYS OUT PLAN TO DRASTICALLY CUT FOSSIL FUEL USE New homes built in California starting in 2026 need to be powered by all-electric furnaces, stoves and other appliances if California is to meet its ambitious climate change goals over the next two decades, according to a state pollution-reduction plan released this week. The roadmap by the California Air Resources Board sets the state on a path to achieve “carbon neutrality” by 2045, meaning as much carbon is removed from the air as is emitted. The state’s timeline is among the most ambitious in the nation; Hawaii has a similar goal and some other states have a 2050 deadline. California could reach its goals through a drastic transition away from fossil fuels that power 230

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cars, trucks, planes, ships, homes, businesses and other sectors of the economy. The board staff recommends the state cut the use of oil and gas by 91% by 2045 and use technology to capture and store carbon emissions from remaining sources. The plan was put together by air board staff and it is not final; a public comment process will begin and the political appointees who make up the air board will ultimately decide whether to make any changes. The Legislature or other regulatory bodies would have to agree to put the various policies in place. The California Energy Commission, for example, sets building codes. Still, state officials said the document represents an important step for California and the rest of the nation. California is the nation’s most populous state and has the world’s fifth largest economy compared to other nations. That economic power means the state’s policy choices can drive major business changes, and other states often follow California’s lead on climate policy. “When final, this plan will serve as a model for other industrial economies around the world,” said Jared Blumenfeld, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. But neither environmental justice advocates nor the oil industry were happy. Environmental groups blasted the plan for its reliance on carbon capture technologies, which they say allows oil refineries, cement plants and other industries to continue polluting in disadvantaged neighborhoods. They also pointed to a little-noted element of the plan that 233

calls for the expansion of natural gas capacity as a failure by the air board. “At a time when we need to be planning for a phaseout of fossil fuels, our top air regulators are instead planning for a massive expansion of dirty gas-fired power plants,” Ari Eisenstadt, campaign manager for Regenerate California, said in a statement. The group is a partnership between the California Environmental Justice Alliance and the Sierra Club that advocates for clean energy. The Western States Petroleum Association, meanwhile, decried the plan would mean more “bans, mandates and expensive regulations.” “Forcing people to pick certain jobs, certain cars, certain homes, and certain times to use energy is out of touch with how ordinary people live,”WSPA President Catherine Reheis- Boyd said in a statement. Changing how buildings and means of transportation are powered is at the center of the air board’s plan. It suggests the state require all new homes to have electric appliances starting in 2026 and new businesses by 2029. For existing homes, 80% of appliance sales should be electric by 2030 and 100% by 2035. That would help ensure older homes transition to electric-powered appliances when owners need to upgrade. Transportation, meanwhile, is the state’s largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions. The state is already on track to require all new passenger cars sold to be zero-emission by 2035. The plan also recommends: All truck sales to be zero-emission by 2040, 10% of airplane fuel demands to be met with hydrogen or batteries 234

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by 2045, 100% of drayage trucks to be zero- emission by 2035, and 100% of passenger train sales to be zero-emission by 2030. The plan would put significant new demand on the electric grid, requiring the state to rapidly scale up solar power and storage options, as well as hydrogen infrastructure including pipelines. California’s 2045 carbon neutrality goal stems from an executive order then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed in 2018. But the air board has been required to release a roadmap for achieving the state’s climate goals every five years since 2008. The last version of the plan explored how California will meet a state law requiring a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2030. Some observers of the process had called for a robust analysis of the state’s progress toward the 2030 goal, including the role California’s signature cap-and-trade program was expected to play. But the 200-plus page document released this week includes just a small section on the state’s progress toward 2030 and does not directly lay out what level of emissions reductions are expected from the various programs the state already has in place. It says the role of cap and trade in achieving the state’s goals will likely diminish. The program requires businesses to buy credits equal to how much carbon they want to emit, with the goal of spurring reductions overtime as the price of credits increase. The air board won’t assess whether changes are needed to reach the 2030 goal until after the scoping plan is finished, the plan said. 236

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