Tomorrow's world of "The Hunger Games" doesn't just showcase the reality TV spectacle of teenagers battling to the death — it also features futuristic hovercraft, force fields and bioengineered "Mutt" creatures. Those technological marvels represent tools of oppression for the dystopian nation of Panem, where the Capitol elite live in high-tech luxury supported by the old-fashioned sweat of district coal miners, farm hands and factory workers.
But the popularity of the "Hunger Games" series has not stopped some fans from eying the technological imbalances of the story. Some question why a post-apocalyptic North America filled with futuristic technologies would still rely upon coal for its electricity needs; others wonder about the story's complete absence of the Internet. One character in "The Hunger Games" books complains about "forgotten" military technologies such as high-flying planes, military satellites and robotic drones, even as he rides inside a hovercraft.
Such "gaps" in technology don't necessarily represent plot holes, according to historians of science and technology. Real societies have adopted or rejected technologies based on whether they suited their particular economic, political or cultural circumstances.
"Technology is not pre-determined as "better" — it becomes better when a society deems it to be better or more advanced," said Joline Zepcevski, a researcher with a Ph.D. in the history of science and technology at the University of Minnesota. "With respect to "The Hunger Games," there is no reason why a new society, rising from the ashes of an old society, would necessarily re-invent the same technologies."
Technology has come and gone throughout history, said Marie Hicks, an assistant professor of history of technology at the Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago. Electric cars appeared on U.S. roads at the start of the 20th century, but disappeared for almost a century before making their recent comeback. Supersonic civilian jetliners made their debut with the Concorde in 1976, but ended up grounded in 2003.
Are Miley Cyrus and boyfriend Liam Hemsworth taking their nearly 3-year relationship to the next level?
The "Party in the U.S.A." singer, 19, Tweeted a photo of her left hand rocking a mysterious diamond sparkler on Thursday with the caption, "I am sooo obsessed with @jennahipp nail foundations!"
Despite the accompanying manicure-related Tweet, the focus-grabbing diamond was the obvious star of Miley's photo, sparking speculation that the singer/actress and her "The Hunger Games" star beau could be engaged.
The gorgeous pair did nothing to squelch engagement rumors as they stepped out together for Muhammad Ali's Celebrity Fight Night XVVIII in Phoenix, Ariz., on Saturday evening, where Miley posed for red carpet photos with the rock prominently displayed on her wedding ring finger.
immerman's lawyer, when shown part of the interview being aired Sunday night on Dateline, emphasized that his client would be claiming self-defense.
"I think there were efforts made to render aid to Trayvon," Craig Sonner told NBC's TODAY show.
Mary Cutcher told Dateline that she and her roommate both saw Zimmerman "straddling the body, basically a foot on both sides of Trayvon's body, and his hands pressed on his back."
Cutcher added that Zimmerman told her and her roommate to call the police.
"Zimmerman never turned him over or tried to help him or CPR or anything," Cutcher said.
Sonner also reiterated what he had said in recent days, that Zimmerman suffered a broken nose and a gash to the back of his head.
Arnold Palmer was conspicuously absent from the 18th-hole ceremony at his Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday evening because he was rushed to a local hospital with what a tournament official said was high blood pressure.
"I just talked to his daughter Amy (Saunders) who's with him, and I think the blood-pressure situation is starting to ameliorate and improving," Alastair Johnston, the chief operating officer of Arnold Palmer Enterprises, said in a hastily arranged news conference minutes after Tiger Woods' dramatic five-shot victory. "Nobody is overly concerned about the prognosis, although he is going to remain in the hospital overnight for observation."
Palmer, 82, reportedly had been under observation all week because of his blood pressure and did not play in the pro-am portion of the tournament. Palmer's blood pressure improved after he received treatment at Dr. Phillips Hospital, Johnston said.
The golf legend left his Arnold Palmer Invitational about 15 minutes before Tiger Woods put the finishing touches on his seventh victory at Bay Hill and thus was not able to attend the awards ceremony as usual.
Palmer underwent surgery for prostate cancer in 1997. He has been remarkably active in his senior years and served as the ambassador for his eponymous annual tournament on the PGA Tour's Florida Swing.
Palmer's 62 PGA Tour victories rank fifth all-time and include seven major championships.
Hollywood icon James Cameron has made it to Earth's deepest point.
The director of "Titanic," ''Avatar" and other films used a specially designed submarine to dive nearly seven miles, completing his journey a little before 8 a.m. Monday local time, according to Stephanie Montgomery of the National Geographic Society.
He plans to spend about six hours exploring and filming the Mariana Trench, about 200 miles southwest of the Pacific island of Guam.
"All systems OK," were Cameron's first words upon reaching the bottom, according to a statement. His arrival at a depth of 35,756 feet came early Sunday evening on the U.S. East Coast, after a descent that took more than two hours.
The scale of the trench is hard to grasp — it's 120 times larger than the Grand Canyon and more than a mile deeper than Mount Everest is tall.
Cameron made the dive aboard his 12-ton, lime-green sub called "Deepsea Challenger." He planned to collect samples for biologists and geologists to study.
"It's really the first time that human eyes have had an opportunity to gaze upon what is a very alien landscape," said Terry Garcia, the National Geographic Society's executive VP for mission programs, via phone from Pitlochry, Scotland.
The first and only time anyone dove to these depths was in 1960. Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Capt. Don Walsh took nearly five hours to reach the bottom and stayed just 20 minutes. They had little to report on what they saw, however, because their submarine kicked up so much sand from the ocean floor.
"He is going to be seeing something that none of us have ever seen before. He is going to be opening new worlds to scientists," Garcia said.
One of the risks of a dive so deep is extreme water pressure. At 6.8 miles below the surface, the pressure is the equivalent of three SUVs sitting on your toe.
Cameron told The Associated Press in an interview after a 5.1 mile-deep practice run near Papua New Guinea earlier this month that the pressure "is in the back of your mind." The submarine would implode in an instant if it leaked, he said.
President Barack Obama weighed into the controversial killing of a black teenager in Florida in very personal terms on Friday, comparing the boy to a son he doesn't have and calling for American "soul searching" over how the incident occurred.
Seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin, dressed in a "hoodie" hooded sweatshirt, was shot dead a month ago in Sanford, Florida by a 28-year-old white Hispanic neighborhood watch volunteer who said he was acting in self-defense.
"If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon," Obama said in his first comments about the shooting, acknowledging the racial element in the case.
"Obviously, this is a tragedy," Obama told reporters. "I can only imagine what these parents are going through. And when I think about this boy, I think about my own kids."
The case has galvanized the nation and prompted rallies protesting the failure of police to arrest the shooter, George Zimmerman, and more broadly, a pattern of racial discrimination that black leaders cite in Sanford and elsewhere in the country.
Obama, the first black U.S. president, made his remarks at a White House event to announce his pick to lead the World Bank, waiting briefly after the announcement to take a reporter's question about the incident.
Martin's parents thanked the president for his words.
"The president's personal comments touched us deeply and made us wonder: If his son looked like Trayvon and wore a hoodie, would he be suspicious too?" they said in a statement.
Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law allows people to use deadly force in self-defense.
Similar laws are in effect in at least 24 states including Florida, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Calls are mounting to repeal them. Earlier this week, a Florida state senator said he was drafting new legislation to drastically change the law in Florida.
A South Carolina state representative said on Friday he had introduced a bill to repeal his state's law.
RACIAL DIVIDES
Bakari Sellers, a black Democrat and gun owner, said he wanted to prevent an incident like the Trayvon Martin shooting happening in his state. "I'm six-five and a black guy," he said. "I just know that it could have been me."
Obama said the "Stand Your Ground" laws should be studied.
"I think all of us have to do some soul-searching to figure out how does something like this happen. And that means that we examine the laws and the context for what happened, as well as the specifics of the incident," he said.
"Every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this, and that everybody pulls together - federal, state and local - to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened."
Obama, the son of a white mother from Kansas and black father from Kenya, does not comment frequently on race, a sensitive topic in the United States, which still grapples with a legacy of slavery, segregation and discrimination.
Former GOP Vice President Dick Cheney is recovering from heart transplant surgery at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Northern Virginia, a spokeswoman said Saturday evening.
In 2010, Cheney had a left ventricular assist device implanted for treatment of end-stage heart failure. The former vice president has been on the cardiac transplant list for more than 20 months.
Though he and his family do not know the identity of the donor, they will be forever grateful for this lifesaving gift, the spokeswoman also said.
Cheney, who is in intensive care, expressed his thanks to the teams of doctors and other medical professionals at Inova Fairfax and at George Washington University Hospital, where he also has been treated, for their "continued outstanding care.
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Newt Gingrich released the following statement offering his and wife Callista's well wishes.
"Vice President Cheney is in our thoughts and prayers tonight, as he recovers from surgery. Callista and I hope that his recovery is peaceful, and we wish him and his family all of the best. He has been a colleague and friend for many years, and we are glad that the surgery went well," the couple said.
Cheney, 71, served under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009. He has a long history of cardio-vascular disease, having had five heart attacks since age 37.
Cheney was born in Lincoln, Neb., and served in the Nixon, then the Ford administration, for which he was chief of staff. He was elected to the House in 1978 as a Wyoming congressman and won reelected five times.
Cheney was secretary of Defense under much of George H.W. Bush’s administration, overseeing Operation Desert Storm. He was also chief executive officer for the Halliburton Co. from 1995 to 2000.
Cheney has remained a strong voice in the Republican party and has been an outspoken critic of President Obama.
He has undergone several bypass surgeries and other procedures, including the one two years ago. Cheney also had a mild heart attack in June 2010.
More than 3,100 Americans currently are on the national waiting list for a heart transplant. Just over 2,300 heart transplants were performed last year, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. And 330 people died while waiting.
The group also reports 332 people over age 65 received a heart transplant last year.
The majority of transplants occur in 50- to 64-year-olds.
More than 70 percent of heart transplant recipients live at least five years, although survival is a bit lower for people over age 65.
