'Black Panther' star Chadwick Boseman dies from colon cancer

 

LOS ANGELES: Chadwick Boseman, star of the groundbreaking superhero movie "Black Panther," has died after a private four-year battle with colon cancer, his publicist told AFP on Friday (Saturday in Malaysia).

Boseman, 43, never publicly discussed his condition and continued to work on major Hollywood films during and between "countless" operations and chemotherapy, his family said in a statement.

"It was the honor of his career to bring King T'Challa to life in 'Black Panther,'" they said.

"A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all," the statement added.

Boseman became the first black superhero to get his own standalone film in the record-breaking Marvel franchise with 2018's "Black Panther."

The movie, set in the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda, was adored by critics and audiences, becoming the first comic book film to be nominated for best picture at the Oscars and grossing over US$1 billion worldwide.

Earlier in his career, Boseman played black icons, Jackie Robinson, in "42" - today, ironically, was Jackie Robinson Day in the US - and James Brown in "Get on Up."

The news of Boseman's death sent shockwaves through Hollywood and around the world.

"The true power of @chadwickboseman was bigger than anything we saw on screen," wrote Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

"From the Black Panther to Jackie Robinson, he inspired generations and showed them they can be anything they want - even superheroes."

Boseman's Marvel co-star Mark Ruffalo tweeted: "Brother, you were one of the all-time greats and your greatness was only beginning. Lord love ya. Rest in power, King."

Leading US civil rights organization the NAACP praised Boseman for "showing us how to conquer adversity with grace" and "to walk like a King, without losing the common touch.""#RestInPower #BlackPantherForever," its tweet concluded.

Boseman had recently appeared in Spike Lee's Vietnam War-set "Da 5 Bloods," and was set to appear in a sequel to "Black Panther" due in 2022.

"Our hearts are broken and our thoughts are with Chadwick Boseman's family. Your legacy will live on forever. Rest In Peace," wrote the official Marvel Twitter account.

His character T'Challa, king and protector of technologically advanced Wakanda, was the first black superhero in mainstream American comics, having been featured in "The Fantastic Four" in 1966.

The Marvel film was celebrated as an important cultural moment for its mainly black cast, and for subverting stereotypes by depicting a prosperous African country that takes in refugees and extends its culture and technology to poorer nations. Boseman shrugged off doubters who tried to convince him not to give the superhero an African accent.

"There was a time period where people would ask me questions about whether or not an audience could sit through a movie with a lead character that spoke with that accent," he said at the time. "I became adamant about the fact that it's not true," he added.

Born in South Carolina, the son of a nurse and an upholstery entrepreneur, Boseman has roots in the West African state of Sierra Leone.

Before Marvel, he was best known for his acclaimed portrayal of the legendary Robinson in Brian Helgeland's "42" (2013), which had the highest-grossing debut for a baseball movie in Hollywood history.

He was also lavished with praise for his interpretation of soul singer Brown in "Get on Up" (2014), earning inclusion among the top 10 performances of 2014 by Time magazine.

Asteroid heading towards Earth has 0.41 per cent chance of hitting planet, NASA data shows

 

An asteroid which is projected to come close to Earth later this year has a 0.41 percent chance of hitting the planet, according to Nasa data.

The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), from Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said the celestial object, known as 2018VP1, is predicted to pass near Earth one day before the US presidential election on 2 November.

The space agency said there were three potential impacts but, “based on 21 observations spanning 12.968 days”, it did not think a direct impact was likely.

2018VP1, which was first identified at Palomar Observatory, California, in 2018, is not considered a “potentially hazardous object” due to its small size - with a diameter of 0.002 km (about 6.5 feet), according to NASA data.

Potentially hazardous objects - usually asteroids or comets - are those which have an orbit taking them close to Earth and are large enough to cause significant regional damage if they ever hit the planet.

Earlier this week, an asteroid flew just 1,830 miles over the southern Indian Ocean - the closest such an object has flown past Earth on record.

The object, known as asteroid 2020 GC, was spotted by the Zwicky Transient Facility, a robotic camera which scans the sky, and is thought to be roughly the size of a large car.

Its small size meant asteroid 2020 GC did not pose much of a threat to Earth as it would have likely broken up in the planet’s atmosphere if it was on course for direct impact.

“It’s really cool to see a small asteroid come by this close because we can see the Earth’s gravity dramatically bend its trajectory,” Paul Chodas, director of CNEOS, said of the discovery.

“Our calculations show that this asteroid got turned by 45 degrees or so as it swung by our planet."

Linux users no longer safe from this up-and-coming DDoS botnet

 

An up-and-coming DDoS botnet known for infecting Windows devices and using them to mine cryptocurrency has now been ported to Linux.

The malware behind the botnet has been given the name Satan DDoS by its creators but security researchers have taken to referring to its as Lucifer in order to avoid confusion with the Satan ransomware.

Lucifer was first discovered by researchers at Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 back in May and at the time, the malware was being used to deploy an XMRig miner on vulnerable Windows systems. The firm's researchers began looking into the botnet after they discovered it while following multiple incidents involving the exploitation of a critical vulnerability in a component of the Laravel web framework which can lead to remote code execution.

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The cybercriminals behind the botnet have already updated the capabilities of its Windows version to steal credentials and escalate privileges in addition to being able to mine for Monero using infected machines.

Lucifer Linux port

According to a new report from Netscout's ATLAS Security Engineering & Response Team (ASERT), the Linux port of the Lucifer malware displays the same welcome message as its Windows counterpart.

The new Linux version of the malware has similar capabilities to the Windows variant and includes modules for cryptojacking and for launching TCP, UCP, and ICMP-based flooding attacks. Linux devices infected with Lucifer can also be used in HTTP-based DDoS attacks.

In their report, Netscout's researchers explained how Lucifer's operators can utilize infected Linux systems to launch even larger DDoS attacks, saying:

“The fact that it can run on Linux-based systems means that it can potentially compromise and make use of high-performance, high-bandwidth servers in internet data centers (IDCs), with each node packing a larger punch in terms of DDoS attack capacity than is typical of most bots running on Windows or IoT-based Linux devices.”

By adding support for Linux, Lucifer's operators will be able to add even more machines to their botnet which will allow it to mine for more cryptocurrency using infected systems.

Toshiba exits laptop business after 35 years

 

Toshiba was a pioneer in personal computer space and had launched its first laptop – T1100, in 1985.

Toshiba is out of the laptop business, officially, after transferring its remaining shares in Dynabook to Sharp Corporation.

The Japanese company said it has transferred the 19.9% of the outstanding shares in Dynabook Inc. that it held to Sharp Corporation. Toshiba had transferred 80.1% of the outstanding shares of Toshiba Client Solutions Co., Ltd, in 2018, which was renamed Dynabook in 2019.

“As a result of this transfer, Dynabook has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sharp,” Toshiba said in a statement.

Toshiba was a pioneer in personal computer space and had launched its first laptop – T1100, in 1985. It was an IBM PC-compatible laptop computer powered by an Intel 80C88 clocking at 4.77 MHz, with 256 kB RAM.

T1100 - Toshiba's first laptop, launched in 1985.   | Photo Credit: Toshiba

T1100 had a 3.5” floppy drive for internal storage, and a monochrome display. It worked on Microsoft’s DOS (2.11) operating system, weighed 4.1 kg, and was priced around $2000.

“The T1100 was a true pioneer in the development of laptop PCs, winning acceptance not only from PC experts but the business community as well,” the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) said in a report.

Toshiba was a prominent brand in the portable PC business, and in the past 35 years, it has developed several products. Its Satellite, Portégé, and Qosmio line of laptop computers were introduced during the 1990s and early 2000s; they competed against products made by IBM, Apple, and Dell.