Cartoon Network’s Toonami programming block returned this week after a nearly 4 year hiatus. It will air as part of Adult Swim on Saturdays Midnight – 6AM.

In addition to the regular lineup, two new series premiered:

Deadman Wonderland, which is about an amnesiac boy named Ganta. He’s framed for the murder of his classmates and sent to a gladiatorial prison where he meets Shiro, a strange girl in skin-tight bodysuit that leaves little to the imagination. They’re best friends but Ganta doesn’t remember.

Casshern Sins, which about an about an amnesiac robot boy named Casshern, who is a literal killing machine. He is hated and hunted for bringing about the end of the world.

“This is a marathon, not a sprint. Keep watching if you want more stuff, and we’ll keep you posted,” tweeted Jason DeMarco, VP of strategic marketing and promotions for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim.

The Toonami bumps featured all new animation but its CGI host TOM (Steve Blum) was oddly quiet with the exception of a video game review of I Am Alive. That’s probably a result of how rushed they were. It was only last month that the idea of Toonami returning was an April Fools’ joke.

Show your support by tweeting with the following hashtag:
#ToonamisBackBitches http://toonami.com #Toonami

Toonami is Back Bitches is a post from: L7 World

The Walking Dead Social Game is delayed but not dead. A limited number of Facebook users have been invited to a closed beta. Gameplay footage shows menus screens like custom character creation and weapons store. There’s also some of those hardcore gamer elements the developers promised. Zombies respond to sound but that’s not necessarily a drawback. You can strategically make noise to lead zombies into traps or perhaps an enemy camp.

The Walking Dead Social Game Beta is a post from: L7 World

The Walking Dead season 2 ended with the appearance of a mysterious hooded figure. Now we get our first look at what’s under the hood: actress Danai Gurira looking every bit as badass as her comic book counterpart.

Series creator Robert Kirkman told EW, “We looked at a lot of talented people that were really fantastic, but we were waiting for that one spark, that moment where everyone was completely in agreement and completely excited, and we felt like we had found the essence of this fictional character that just randomly appeared in another person, and that person was Danai Gurira. She kind of came in and really just blew us all away. She’s got incredible presence, and she’s got a theater background, and is very physical, and was just perfect for the role.”

Michonne tweaks

“The essence of the character — her personality, her motives, everything that makes Michonne Michonne — remains intact from the comics,” says Kirkman. “But like a lot of things on the show, there will be little tweaks and differences here and there. We saw that her introduction is slightly different from how it was in the comic, and her interaction with Andrea is really going to be a really cool addition to the character that I think will get television viewers up to speed, and they’ll get to know her a lot faster than comic book readers did.”

Just how much “interaction” will Andrea and Michonne have? Could they become friends with benefits? In the comic book, Michonne hooked up with Tyreese, who isn’t in the TV series, and Andrea shacked up with Dale, who is already dead in the TV series. It appears that Kirkman is purposefully whittling down their romantic options. Andrea has shown that she’s attracted to powerful people and with Shane gone, that leaves Michonne.

Michonne Unveiled is a post from: L7 World

AMC has renewed both Talking Dead, a live talk show where guests discuss the most recent episode of The Walking Dead, and Comic Book Men, an inside look at the lives (or lack of) of comic book geeks. Season 2 of both series will consist of 16 half-hour episodes. The respective hosts were ecstatic and even shocked at the news.

“Talking Dead has been an amazing experience and I cannot pile enough hugs and thanks onto AMC for renewing it. I CAN’T WAIT for Season 3 of Walking Dead, so that we can finally talk about Rick meeting [SPOILER] and [SPOILER]-ing him with a heavy-duty [SPOILER] at the [SPOILER]. And let’s not forget all the rest of the [SPOILER]s getting in on the action! [EXPLETIVE] me! It’s going to be great…,” Chris Hardwick subtly hinted.

“Pinch my fat ass, ’cause I must be dreaming! A thousand thank you’s wouldn’t cover the gratitude I’m feeling right now. And as you might imagine, everyone at SModcast Pictures is in love with everyone at AMC today! Rest assured, Walt, Bry, Mike, Ming and I are suited up and ready to hit the ice for our second season with Team AMC,” said Comic Book Man Kevin Smith.

Return of the Talking Dead and Comic Book Men is a post from: L7 World

Community takes its two-dimensional characters to the next level in “Digital Estate Planning.” The group gets digital avatars in an old school video game and must compete for Pierce’s inheritance. But when they break the rules and use teamwork, they get some major competition from the executor of the will, Gilbert Lawson.

They literally battle racism as well. The game features politically incorrect characters and references like sex crazed hippies, the “Valley of Laziness” AKA Mexico, and the “Black Cave” which is filled with jive turkeys that must be killed before they multiply. They successfully obtain the sought-after White Crystal but are quickly dispatched by Gilbert, who uses cheat codes.

The group has to restart the game from the beginning where they reunite with Abed, who stayed behind to start a new life with an NPC named Hilda. By maxing out her trust and affection levels he gains access to a front end scripting language, which among other things allows him to make an army of baby Abeds to defeat the game. There’s also an option for a “Spacetime RPG” referring to Inspector Spacetime, an ongoing parody of Doctor Who. Unfortunately, there’s no time play it but as the episode ends, Abed goes back to download a backup of Hilda. The question isn’t if we’ll see the Inspector Spacetime RPG but when…

Community Video Game is a post from: L7 World

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin became a billionaire as a result of the Facebook IPO but apparently that wasn’t enough money for the 30-year-old. Saverin renounced his citizenship prior to the windfall allegedly in order to avoid paying millions in U.S. taxes. Saverin says his decision was based solely on his desire to live in Singapore, which not-so-coincidentally has no capital gains tax. In carefully worded statement, he said: “I am obligated to and will pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes to the United States government. I have paid and will continue to pay any taxes due on everything I earned while a U.S. citizen.” [emphasis added]

Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer (NY) and Bob Casey (PA) say “(We) have a status update for him: pay your taxes, or don’t set foot in the United States ever again.” The senators have introduced legislation that would ban Saverin from entering the U.S. and subject him to a 30% tax on capital gains on U.S. investments. The Ex-PATRIOT Act, which stands for “Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy Act,” would apply to anyone with net worth of $2 million who renounces citizenship to avoid paying taxes, as determined by the IRS. “Mr. Saverin’s social network is about to get a lot smaller,” Schumer warns.

However, Saverin still has lots of friends like fellow tax dodger Rush Limbaugh. “I left New York state for the same reason. Now, I didn’t have to renounce citizenship, but I left New York state for the same reason. I moved to a state with no state income tax,” brags the radio host.

“If it’s a more favorable tax haven that you can find elsewhere and you go there, why is it automatically that you are unpatriotic? Why is it automatically that you are a coward, that you are not paying your fair share? It’s this whole class envy thing rearing its head again.”

Lobbyist Grover Norquist went so far as to compare the Jewish author of the bill to a Nazi. He likened the bill to the Reichsfluchtsteuer, a 25% tax levied on Jews fleeing persecution.

“I think Schumer can probably find the legislation to do this. It existed in Germany in the 1930s and Rhodesia in the ’70s and in South Africa as well,” said Norquist. “He probably just plagiarized it and translated it from the original German.”

An American hero

“In Saverin’s case, his decision to renounce his U.S. citizenship will have a definite impact, and for that, those of us who seek smaller government should view him as a hero,” writes Tamny. “Saverin’s decision will starve the feds of revenue they would almost certainly waste, it will force a rethink of a tax code that penalizes income and investment success, and the unconsumed dollars kept from the hands of government will reach today’s and tomorrow’s businesses. Let’s raise a glass to Eduardo Saverin. He’s a true American hero.”

While most people shy away from being called a hero, Saverin revels in it. Saverin’s Facebook page features an article from the Brazilian magazine Vega that calls him “an American hero.”

House Speaker John Boehner called Saverin’s actions “absolutely outrageous” on ABC’s This Week. Boeher said he would support the bill if necessary but pointed out there’s already an existing law, referring to a 1996 statute introduced by Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island.

In fact, Sen. Reed has already written a official letter urging to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano enforce Section 212(a)(10)(E), which states:

“Any alien who is a former citizen of the United States who officially renounces United States citizenship and who is determined by the [Secretary of Homeland Security] to have renounced United States citizenship for the purpose of avoiding taxation by the United States is excludable.”

Facebook Unfriends US is a post from: L7 World

Film studio The Asylum is trying to stay under the radar with their newest mockbuster, American Battleship. They changed the name to American Warships in response to a lawsuit by Universal Studios that claims they’re infringing on the official Battleship movie.

The similarities don’t end there. American Warships also features alien invaders that can only be stopped by an old battleship turned museum. Unlike the Hollywood version though, this low budget knockoff relies heavily on invisible enemies. The aliens use cloaked ships that decloak only when attacking. One crewman points out the similarity to the Klingons from Star Trek. The difference is that when these aliens appear they’re always seen in the distance and indistinguishable from an ordinary ship, which is exactly what they want as it threatens to trigger a nuclear war. It’s not until the very end of the movie that we see a closeup of a ship that transforms into a spaceship. It’s not worth the wait.

“American Warships really was a $200 million action film made on a tenth of a percent of the budget,” Director Thunder Levin told Dread Central. “And of course that entails great compromise in almost every aspect of the filmmaking process. But for all the corners that one must cut, it’s the time factor that’s the worst part. We had three weeks to shoot what a studio film would have taken months and months on.”

Levin says they have more vfx than Star Wars, though he admits in terms of quality of the Death Star blows it out of the water. Fortunately, they were able to add some sense of realism on the cheap.

“We were very fortunate in that we found an actual battleship to stand in for the USS Iowa (the USS North Carolina in Wilmington, NC) and we were granted pretty much full access to the ship, so long as we didn’t damage anything. That provided a lot of production value right there,” said Levin.

“The real key is to focus on the characters. If you can get the audience emotionally involved in the characters, then they won’t need quite so much spectacle to keep them entertained.”

However, it’s difficult to get emotionally invested in the characters when they can’t do it themselves. It’s not just a matter of bad acting, but bad writing. There’s no conflict, even where there clearly should be.

Admiral Hollis (David Polinsky) unwittingly gets caught up in the battle when he boards the USS Iowa for what is supposed to be an uneventful final voyage before both he and the ship retire. He’s inexplicably absent for most of the film. When the Admiral does finally appear, he meekly questions the Captain’s choice to return fire on the ship, which they presume is North Korean. The Captain calmly suggests he relieve him if he wants to run the ship but the Admiral is speechless and quickly vanishes again. There’s no back and forth, no debate, no tension.

Even worse is watching General McKraken (Carl Weathers) get chewed out by the Secretary Of Defense Alter (Elijah Chester), who is the only character to even attempts to show any emotion. It’s literally painful watching the actor who played Apollo Creed reduced to the role of punching bag.

The only real interaction between the characters is a not-so-secret on-board romance between Captain Winston (Marion Van Peebles) and Lt. Caroline Bradley (Johanna Watts). The Captain reprimands her for being too casual with him publicly, but the crew doesn’t seem to care so why should the audience? This couple has about as much passion as Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley. Not even slow motion can save their big kiss, in which Peebles looks like he’s kissing a lemon.

The most dramatic scene is also the funniest. An explosion rocks the ship and sends an artillery shell slowly rolling towards Lt. Bradley, who has fallen down and for no apparent reason can’t get up. She crabwalks backwards while an equally gimpy crewman crawls after the shell. It’s like an unintentionally funny version of the steamroller scene from the Austin Powers movie.

In the end, it’s not aliens or even a lawsuit that sink this battleship. It does that all by itself.

American Warships (American Battleship) – Review is a post from: L7 World

Inside the Actors Studio host James Lipton says he was inspired by a New York Times comic strip (pictured left) to write a piece titled: “How to Act Human: Advice for Mitt Romney From Inside the Actors Studio.”

Lipton criticizes everything from Romney’s mirthless laugh to his mismatch fashion sense. He even suggests that the stiff Romney take a cue from the graceful Sarah Palin, who is a “constant pleasure to watch (with the sound turned on or off, depending on your persuasion).”

Romney’s real problem is that he’s trying to be something he’s not: the common man. Actor Ronald Reagan wasn’t either but Romney’s no Reagan.

“So, for what it’s worth, my advice to Mr. Romney is this: Since the evidence indicates that you lack the skills to simulate what you’re not, you should stick to typecasting and go with what you’ve got and who you are. It’s not just your best option, sir, it’s your only one,” writes Lipton.

Romney is unlikely to willing appear on the Actors Studio so Lipton used news clips of the presidential candidate to put together a satirical question and answer segment (video below).

James Lipton Teaches Mitt Romney How to Act Human is a post from: L7 World

Ann Romney says there’s a misconception that her husband is a stiffly stifferson. “There’s a wild and crazy man inside of there,” she told CBS This Morning. Mrs. Romney reminisced about her high school sweetheart playing jokes but didn’t go into detail for good reason. Mitt Romney was the high school bully from hell, according to the Washington Post.

During his senior year at Cranbrook School, Romney and his friends forcibly cut the hair of their classmate, John Lauber. “It started out as ribbing, sort of a pointed ribbing about his hair, but it very quickly became an assault, and he was taken down to the ground, pinned,” said Phillip Maxwell. “It all happened very quickly — it was like a pack of dogs.”

Lauber had long bleached-blond hair and was targeted for his perceived homosexuality. “He can’t look like that,” Romney reportedly told Matthew Friedemann. “That’s wrong. Just look at him!”

While his friends deeply regret the incident, Romney says he has no recollection of it and laughed off the whole thing as youthful indiscretion. “I participated in a lot of high jinks and pranks during high school and some might have gone too far,” he halfheartedly apologized on Fox News.

Romney’s idea of what constitutes a prank is eerily reminiscent of an old Saturday Night Live skit in which Christopher Walken and Robert De Niro prank their victims to death.

Mitt Romney Haircut Prank is a post from: L7 World

Forget Red Bull. Xiaogang No.1 High School uses intravenous drips to help energize its students.

“The state grants a 10-yuan subsidy for amino acids to each graduating senior that will participate in the gao kao (National College Entrance Exam). Any student that feels not well can go to the infirmary and take amino acids on the IV drip,” explained the Director of Office of Academic Affairs.

The IV drips became even more controversial when they were moved directly into the classroom to prevent any interruption in studying. School officials say they will continue to offer the injections, which are popular among students.

“I don’t think it’s inappropriate at all,” one student said. “Students preparing for the college entrance examination at our school began to take infusions of amino acids years ago and some of them took them more than twice.”

The exams are literally a matter of life and death for students. The National Higher Education Entrance Examination is a prerequisite for enrollment at the undergraduate level. The pressure to pass is contributing to China’s high rate of suicide, which is the leading cause of death among young adults.

China VS. USA

China is experiencing a meteoric rise in education, while U.S. test scores sink like a stone. The 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tested 15-year-old students from 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Shanghai ranked 1st in reading, math, and science. The U.S. ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science, and 25th in math.

Singapore and Hong Kong recruit teachers from the top third of graduate schools. The U.S. recruits from the bottom third, according to the OECD.

“In the late 1990s we moved to all-graduate [teachers]. If we want to have high achievement, subject expertise is very important for secondary schools,” said Catherine K.K. Chan, deputy secretary for education in the Hong Kong government.

More than 80% of Shanghai secondary students attend after-school tutoring followed by three to four hours of homework each day.

Around 80% of Shanghai students (24% nationally) go on to college compared to 70% of U.S. students.

Chinese Students’ Studious Nature is in Their Blood is a post from: L7 World