The greatest movies never made: Brian De Palma, Robert Zemeckis, and Steven Spielberg’s ‘Carpool’ was ‘Rear Window’ on four wheels

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

(Credits: Far Out / Alamy / Press) Wed 15 January 2025 4:30, UK As far as dream teams go, they didn’t come much more impressive in the mid-1980s, or ever, than Brian De Palma, Steven Spielberg, and Robert Zemeckis.The first two had planted their feet firmly in the industry as part of the ‘New Hollywood’ era when the movie brats began to take over the industry and rework it in their own image. While Zemeckis wouldn’t make his feature-length directorial debut until 1978’s Beatles-inspired comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand, he quickly found a career-long ally in Spielberg, who was already a friend of De Palma’s.The auteur behind Obsession, Carrie, Blow Out, Scarface and Body Double was already regarded as one of the most distinctive and provocative auteurs in Tinseltown, toeing the line between risque cinema and crowd-pleasing entertainment by delivering a string of critically and commercially successful features that refused to bow to convention yet still always managed to find an audience.Having reshaped the complexion of the business with Jaws, Spielberg continued going from strength to strength by helming Close Encounters of the Third Kind, launching one of the most popular franchises on the planet with Raiders of the Lost Ark, directing the highest-grossing release of all time once again with ET the Extra-Terrestrial, and segueing into producing, which proved to be very beneficial for Zemeckis.Spielberg executive produced his first film and its follow-up, Used Cars. He was also the one power player in Hollywood who backed Zemeckis and writing partner Bob Gale when they unsuccessfully pitched an ambitious sci-fi adventure called Back to the Future around town and were greeted with nothing but disinterest and rejection.To put things into context: in 1986, Zemeckis and Gale’s two most recent screenplays were Romancing the Stone and the first instalment in Michael J Fox’s time-bending trilogy; Spielberg was fresh from steering The Color Purple to 11 Academy Award nominations and lending his EP expertise to Richard Donner’s beloved The Goonies, and De Palma was gearing up for the Oscar-winning The Untouchables.Take three heavyweight talents at the top of their game, unite them on the same project, and have them put their heads together on a high-concept premise that was described as Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window on four wheels, and there was no chance the end result was going to be anything other than top tier.That was the plan, anyway, after it was announced in early 1986 that De Palma would wield the megaphone on Carpool, working from a script authored by Zemeckis and Gale, which had Spielberg on board to produce. Those three names alone were about as close to a guarantee of quality as anyone could hope to find when the triumvirate were all working on a level above almost anyone else, but it wasn’t to be.The Rear Window comparisons were incredibly apt, considering the cues it was set to take from Hitchcock’s masterpiece were less than subtle, but if Shia LaBeouf’s Disturbia can go to a court of law and prove that it’s not an unofficial remake after being sued, then Carpool wouldn’t have been in any danger of litigation.Body Double displayed De Palma’s knack for homaging the ‘Master of Suspense’, and the story was right up a similar street. The plot follows a man injured in a car crash who ends up witnessing a murder while waiting for the emergency services and authorities to attend to his predicament. Once his safety is secured, he mounts a one-man investigation into the killing the culprit has no idea he saw with his own eyes, dragging him into a web of mystery and danger that threatens to do a lot more damage to his wellbeing than an automotive incident.Post-Scarface De Palma, post-Color Purple Spielberg, and post-Back to the Future Zemeckis joining forces on Carpool had the potential to add yet another riveting slice of cinema to three individual filmographies that were already overflowing with excellence in the ’80s, only for the entire thing to go up in a puff of smoke.[embedded content]Related TopicsSubscribe To The Far Out Newsletter

6 Hawaii teachers honored by president for work in science, math education

Science and Health

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – President Joe Biden honored six Hawaii educators with the nation’s highest award for science and math teachers.The recipients of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST), announced Tuesday, included:Whitney Aragaki, Waiakea High SchoolJessica Barbera, Thomas Jefferson Elementary SchoolMichael Ida, Kalani High SchoolGregory Kent, Kailua Elementary SchoolKarleen Lynch, Pearl City High SchoolSarah Milianta-Laffin, Ilima Intermediate SchoolLynch and Milianta-Laffin were part of the 2023 cohort of awardees; Barbera and Kent were part of the 2022 awardees; and Aragaki and Ida were part of the 2021 cohort.They are among 336 teachers and mentors from across the country who were nominated by their principals, teachers, parents, students or members of the general public for serving as role models to their colleagues, inspiration to their communities and leaders in the improvement of STEM education.They’ll each receive a certificate signed by the president, a trip to Washington, D.C., and $10,000 from the National Science Foundation.Copyright 2025 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

GPT-Fabricated Scientific Papers Flood Google Scholar, Scientists Say

Science and Health

In a new study published in the Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, researchers from the University of Borås, Lund University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences found a total of 139 papers with a suspected deceptive use of ChatGPT or similar large language model applications; out of these, 19 were in indexed journals, 89 were in non-indexed journals, 19 were student papers found in university databases, and 12 were working papers (mostly in preprint databases); health and environment papers made up around 34% of the sample; of these, 66% were present in non-indexed journals.
Word rain of environment- and health-related GPT-fabricated, questionable full-text papers. Image credit: Haider et al., doi: 10.37016/mr-2020-156.
The use of ChatGPT to generate text for academic papers has raised concerns about research integrity.
Discussion of this phenomenon is ongoing in editorials, commentaries, opinion pieces, and on social media.
There are now several lists of papers suspected of GPT misuse, and new papers are constantly being added.
While many legitimate uses of GPT for research and academic writing exist, its undeclared use — beyond proofreading — has potentially far-reaching implications for both science and society, but especially for their relationship.
“One of the major concerns with AI-generated research is the increased risk of evidence hacking — that fake research can be used for strategic manipulation,” said University of Borås researcher Björn Ekström.
“This can have tangible consequences as incorrect results can seep further into society and possibly also into more and more domains.”
In their study, Dr. Ekström and his colleagues searched and scraped Google Scholar for papers that included specific phrases known to be common responses from ChatGPT and similar applications with the same underlying model: ‘as of my last knowledge update’ and/or ‘I don’t have access to real-time data.’
This facilitated the identification of papers that likely used generative AI to produce text, resulting in 227 retrieved papers.
Out of these papers, 88 papers were written with legitimate and/or declared use of GPTs and 139 papers were written with undeclared and/or fraudulent use.
The majority (57%) of the questionable papers dealt with policy-relevant subjects (i.e., environment, health, computing), susceptible to influence operations.
Most were available in several copies on different domains (e.g., social media, archives, and repositories).
“If we cannot trust that the research we read is genuine, we risk making decisions based on incorrect information,” said University of Borås Professor Jutta Haider.
“But as much as this is a question of scientific misconduct, it is a question of media and information literacy.”
“Google Scholar is not an academic database,” she noted.
“The search engine is easy to use and fast yet lacks quality assurance procedures.”
“That’s already a problem with regular Google results, but is even more problematic when it comes to making science accessible.”
“People’s ability to decide which journals and publishers — for the most part — publish quality-reviewed research is important for finding and determining what constitutes reliable research and is of great importance for decision-making and opinion formation.”
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Jutta Haider et al. 2024. GPT-fabricated scientific papers on Google Scholar: Key features, spread, and implications for preempting evidence manipulation. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review 5 (5); doi: 10.37016/mr-2020-156

Grant boost for multicultural business

Business News

A Wyndham business is striving to help African Australian women running small businesses.
Afro Aussie Women in Business recently received received a $20,000 grant from the state government to support its Accelerate Your Net Work program.
The program aims to support African Australian business owners across Melbourne to upskill and grow their business with tailored training and networking events.
According to the state government, these will include financial literacy workshops, investment strategy seminars, and personalised mentoring sessions.
Afro Aussie Women in Business founder Patience Rabai said she was thrilled the government was recognising the vital role of multicultural businesses in driving innovation, fostering economic growth and enriching communities.
“This initiative reinforces the importance of supporting diverse enterprises, empowering African women, and creating opportunities that benefit all Australians,” she said.
Small Business Minister Natalie Suleyman said Afro Aussie Women in Business is working closely with multicultural female business owners across Melbourne to help them take their businesses to the next level..
“Small businesses are the heart and soul of Victoria and we’re backing trader groups so they can support business owners to grow and thrive,” she said.
The state government said that multicultural businesses play a “crucial role” in Victoria’s economy, creating employment opportunities and increasing the vibrancy of our business precincts.
According to the state government over a third of Victoria’s more than 718,000 small businesses are owned by migrants.
To view and access small business grants: business.vic.gov.au/

Has the United States Erred?

Technology

When Donald Trump takes the oath of office for the second time later this month, he will face a world quite different from eight years ago. In response to more complex global challenges, President-elect Trump seems willing to shift his previous China policy of containment.
In the United States, there is an increasing call for the incoming administration to reassess its strategy toward China. Over the past eight years, the U.S. has failed to achieve its intended outcomes in efforts to contain China in areas such as trade, technology, military and public perception. The trade war, which has endured for more than six years, has neither reduced the U.S. trade deficit with China nor impacted China’s share in global trade. In the first 11 months of 2024, total value of China’s goods imports and exports surpassed 39.79 trillion yuan ($5.6 trillion). Its exports rose 6.7 percent year on year during this period to 23.04 trillion yuan ($3.24 trillion), while imports climbed 2.4 percent to 16.75 trillion yuan ($2.36 trillion).
Sanctions and restrictions on Chinese companies, including tech titan Huawei, drone industry leader DJI, and technology firm ByteDance, have not forced these companies to capitulate; rather, they have enhanced their global recognition. Export controls on advanced U.S. chips have only fortified China’s determination to independently develop its semiconductor industry. Last December, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo publicly stated that the U.S. efforts to restrict China’s access to advanced semiconductor technology had not hindered China’s progress, asserting that attempting to impede China in the semiconductor race also ended up being a fool’s errand.
The U.S. has also waged a global war of public opinion against China, both by attempting to demonize it for what it asserts are human rights issues and also by scaremongering about what China’s rise will mean for the rest of the world. In response, China has implemented a policy granting visa-free stays of up to 30 days for passport holders from 38 countries and visa-free transit for up to 240 hours to passport holders of 54 countries, primarily Western nations. According to statistics released by China’s National Immigration Administration, from January to November 2024, the number of foreign nationals entering China through its ports of entry reached 29.22 million, a year-on-year increase of 86.2 percent. Numerous videos depicting China’s real situation have been shared on international social media, assisting many false rumors to fall apart on their own.
Has the U.S. strategy toward China failed? This question has been raised for some time. In fact, as early as 2017, the Trump administration abandoned the U.S.-China strategic engagement that had been in place since the 1970s. The strategy aimed to engage China through diplomacy, trade, science and educational and cultural exchanges, encourage political reforms in China and thus integrate it into the U.S.-led international system.
China’s development has surpassed expectations, even those of the Chinese people themselves. China becomes the world’s second largest consumer market and the leading trading partner of over 130 countries. The rapid economic growth also fueled advancements in China’s culture, technology and military, while strengthening the confidence of its people.
Looking at the outcomes over the past eight years, it is clear that this strategy has backfired. It not only brought China-U.S. relations to a historical low but also had a significant negative impact on both the U.S. and the world.
If humanity as a whole benefits from technological and economic progress in the 21st century, with the global wealth gap narrowing and living standards improving, it is clear that the development of China and other developing countries is driving the global economy. China is willing to be a force for maintaining global peace and stability, so for the U.S., its previous containment strategy toward China may be erred by the root. As Trump secures another term, he’ll have a fresh chance to correct past missteps.
 
Copyedited by G.P. Wilson
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Sorcery belief hindering business development, says local businessman

Business News

Sorcery-related beliefs is common in Papua New Guinea and this belief system is being blamed to be one of the contributing factors that is affecting the progress of small businesses (or Small and Medium Enterprise) on community level, a local business man in the alluvial mining sector said.

Apart from sorcery-related violence cases that has been reported around the country, a small businessman is raising claims that people are practicing black magic (sorcery) that are affecting others.

In this case, an alluvial miner and young entrepreneur who wanted to progress in business and create job opportunities for many in the community, is a victim.

 Lopa Josango, an alluvial miner in Morobe Province, based in Wau-Waria District, is a businessman who owns businesses that include operating a trade store, providing a Public Motor Vehicle (PMV) services to people from Lae to Bulolo to Wau and operating a small-scale mining in Wau Little Creek in Kaindi.

Apart from facing difficultieswith road conditions and other expenses in his business, sorcery is an additional issue that is still around, he said.

“I use my vehicles to transport store goods for selling in my trade store at village Namasali, but there are some things that are affecting my business that is sorcery- related,” he said.

Mr Josango said people are facing similar problems and cannot excel in their small businesses because other people are using sorcery (witchcraft) to hinder business development for others who are trying to excel in business. He said people small business people are trying to develop the community and bring basic services to the people.

Mr Josango said such practises are not good and makes the community suffer from the good development that the alluvial mine industry and the related businesses that it brings with.

“People should do away with such activities and get themselves involve in real hard work that will benefit them and their community.”