In the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding that followed, the New Orleans Times-Picayune and NOLA.com did a wonderful job in updating the outside world about the conditions in their city, and have further kept going in bringing the city back together in the wake of the hurricane.  Unfortunately, this is a “what have you done for me lately?” world, and Katrina was 7 years ago.  With falling circulation rates, a falling New Orleans population, and rising costs, New Orleans will become the first major American city without a daily newspaper.  The New Orleans Times-Picayune will be cutting down to 3 print editions a week, according to the Times-Picayune’s parent company Advance Publications.

“For us, this isn’t about print versus digital, this is about creating a very successful multi-platform media company that addresses the ever-changing needs of our readers, our online users and our advertisers,” said Advance Publications’ president of local digital strategy, Randy Siegel.  ”This change is not easy, but it’s essential for us to remain relevant.”

It’s not just New Orleans that is going to suffer.  Advance Publications owns several newspapers throughout that area of the South, and four of them are getting the axe.  New Orleans is joined by The Birmingham News, the Mobile Press-Register, and The Huntsville Times; all newspapers are in Alabama, and all are dropping to 3 printed papers a week as well.  The Mobile Press-Register dates back to 1813, and now it’s becoming an afterthought.

It was fun while it lasted, print media.

Tags: randy siegel, advance publications, new orleans, louisiana, times-picayune, new orleans times-picayune, new orleans to become first major american city without a daily newspaper, newspapers, daily newspaper ends in new orleans, times-picayune drops to 3 days a week, the death of newspapers

That's a real, non-Photoshopped tornado.

In Harper, Missouri, tornadoes are a way of life.  The city is located within Tornado Alley, so the twister is not a foreign phenomenon.  However, most people don’t invite tornadoes to their wedding.  Caleb and Candra Pence are not most people.  As you can clearly see, a massive twister is a special guest at their outdoor wedding.  Caleb and Candra Pence were photobombed by an EF-3 tornado in a series of dramatic photos captured by wedding photographer Cate Eighmey.

“I had my mind on marrying my now wife,” said Caleb Pence.  ”I don’t know how we did it.  It boggles my mind how perfect it worked.”

The incredible thing is, even with this tornado in the background, the 250-person wedding was not altered.  The 20-minute service even had a song solo, and bride and groom rode a horse (they met at a rodeo) following the ceremony to a metal barn-like structure that had been turned into the reception area.  The storms finally arrived to where they were, but the party went on past midnight anyway.  Good thing, because they spent their Wyoming honeymoon fielding calls from the media about their unusual, uninvited wedding guest.

Tags: harper, missouri, tornado alley, photobombs, tornado photobombs wedding couple, tornado photobom, wedding photos with tornado behind them, unusual pictures, unusual images, caught in action, funny images, caleb pence, candra pence, caleb and candra pence, Cate Eighmey

Just when you thought the news couldn’t get any better for the combined monolith of Activision-Blizzard, they drop the long-awaited, much-wanted Diablo III.  It was a very successful launch for Blizzard, improving on the history of the Diablo franchise.  How successful was it?  Blizzard estimates 4.7 million copies of Diablo III were active within the first 24 hours of the game’s launch; that’s 3.5 million copies sold and an additional 1.2 million copies released as part of a deal where WoW subscribers who renewed for a year got a free copy.  Within the first week, Blizzard had 6.3 million players on the system, which is incredible.  That would make Diablo III the fastest-selling computer game of all time.

Let’s do a total, shall we?  Actiblizzard has the best-selling console game of all time in Call of Duty: Black Ops and those games, they’ve got the most popular MMORPG in the genre’s history in World of Warcraft, and now they’ve got the best-selling computer game of all time in Diablo III.  Activision-Blizzard is practically rolling around in cash, which is just incredible when you think about it.

Have you guys been playing Diablo III?  I guess if you have been, you’re probably not reading this website because Diablo III is sucking up all your free time.

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Hewlett-Packard is one of the world’s largest companies, and as such, they are not immune to mistakes.  Given their current revolving door at CEO, it’s no wonder the company has been making some bad decisions.  Paying too much money for Palm, killing the TouchPad, and generally just making mistakes left and right due to not having a strong direction.  Now, latest CEO Meg Whitman knows how to turn the company’s fortunes around:  fire everyone.  HP will be cutting 8 percent of its work force by firing 27,000 people over the next two years.  That’s a staggering 27,000 jobs; the move will save HP $3.5 billion dollars in employment costs.

“Work force reductions are never easy,” said HP CEO Meg Whitman on Wednesday.  ”They adversely impact people’s lives, but in this case, they are absolutely critical to the long-term health of the company.  Our goal is simple: a better outcome for the customers at reduced cost for HP.”

The job cut will be the largest cut in HP’s 73-year history.  Rather than making a big layoff, HP hopes to reduce most of the positions with voluntary retirement, early retirement, and other austerity measures that don’t end in severance payments and pink slips.  The company is also merging its PC and printer businesses in an attempt to reduce redundant management positions.  HP is a multi-billion-dollar company.

Tags: HP, HP to cut 27000 jobs over two years, HP to cut 27000 jobs, largest workforce purge in HP’s 73-year history, massive firings, HP to cut 27000 workers, job losses, jobs, technology company, Hewlett-Packard, HP to cut 8 percent of its work force by October 2014

Actor Jim Parsons comes out of the closet.

Golden Globes winner Jim Parsons, best known as Sheldon Cooper from the hit television sitcom The Big Bang Theory, has made a very public announcement.  Or rather, he did it in a very subtle way.  In a recent New York Times piece discussing his role in the Broadway version of Harvey, the writer references the play The Normal Heart, where Parsons played gay activist Tommy Boatwright.  That’s when the bombshell dropped.  Not only is Jim Parsons gay, he’s been in a serious relationship with his boyfriend for the last 10 years.  Cue the surprised reactions.

Honestly, I’m not sure why anyone is surprised.  The National Enquirer outed Parsons in 2010, and he’s always kind of seemed gay to me. Especially as Sheldon Cooper, he’s set off my gaydar.  Hopefully, this will be a positive development for Parsons’ personal life.  It doesn’t seem like he wanted to make a big deal of the announcement of his homosexuality, because this is a very casual way to let that information out publicly.  Honestly, at this point, it shouldn’t really matter, but here we are.

People still care that their favorite actor is gay, even when he’s not exactly hiding it.

Tags: television, the big bang theory, big bang theory, jim parsons, jim parsons gay, jim parsons comes out as gay, sheldon is gay, jim parsons comes out of the closet, actors, hollywood, celebrities, sheldon cooper, harvey, the normal heart, tommy boatwright

Facebook’s IPO has been an incredible windfall for its founders, and a huge flop for investors.  Since the massive IPO late last week, the stock price has collapsed.  There are concerns over ad sales, revenues in general, and now, there are allegations of insider trading after people have alleged that Morgan Stanley warned favored investors that they were cutting earnings estimates for Facebook before the stock even hit the market.  The stock is only a few days old and already there’s allegations of insider trading!

“I think there is a lot of reason to have confidence in our markets and in the integrity of how they operate, but there are issues that we need to look at specifically with respect to Facebook,” said Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman Mary Schapiro.

Here’s the thing very few people are getting.  Yes, Facebook’s not making as much money off their ads as they could be given their massive user base, but consider this.  The company just made tens of billions of dollars by selling itself to the public.  Why do they need advertising revenue when they can simply buy companies that are profitable and fold them under the Facebook umbrella?  If you want revenue streams, go out and buy them!  Buy some ad sales companies, buy some content providers, buy some patents!  It takes money to make money, and now you HAVE MONEY.  Yes, the stock was overpriced, but that’s because everyone wanted a piece of the company.

Tags: facebook, facebook ipo, securities and exchange commission, nasdaq, facebook ipo legal trouble, morgan stanley, facebook ipo getting sec investigation, mary schapiro, mark zuckerberg, morgan stanley insider trading, insider trading of facebook stock

The Google Moog Doodle, or Moogle.

I’m not going to pretend that I understand the thing that Bob Moog invented and perfected in the 1950′s and 60′s, but it is an awesome machine.  Dr. Robert Moog, AKA Bob, passed away in 2005 but Google is honoring his legacy with an awesome musical Google Doodle that recreates the complexity and possibilities of the Moog synthesizer.  It is one of the first synthesizers ever created, and it is still one of the most powerful electronic musical instruments ever created.  And it all started from Bob Moog’s theremin company that he started in college.  Fittingly, Google’s Moog Doodle is incredibly complex and able to create an incredible amount of sounds.

“The new Doodle really came out of the love for what Bob Moog did by creating the Moog digitizer,” says Google’s Chief Goodler, Ryan Germick.  ”This is our most technically ambitious Doodle yet.”

Somehow, Google has managed to recreate all the oscillators, dials, tones, and buttons on the actual Moog to the point where it’s a functioning mini-synthesizer!  Like the Moog, you can play Google’s moog with your keyboard, record it for multiple layers of sound, and even save and share your sonic creation with your Google+ friends. In fact, the guys at Moog Music have already started playing with their honorary doodle!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Remember kids, if it wasn’t for Moog, there’d be no RickRolling.

Tags: google doodle, google, musical google doodle, bob moog, happy birthday bob moog, bob moog’s 78th birthday, unusual google doodles, google logo, google doodle music, google honors bob moog, moog synthesizer, google honors synthesizer inventor bob moog, music, musical instruments, Moog Music, Ryan Germick

Leo DiCaprio IS The Great Gatsby!

Leonardo DiCaprio and Baz Luhrmann are two crowd-pleasing forces when separate, but when you combine them you get star-making.  Their 1996 team-up Romeo + Juliet made stars out of DiCaprio and Claire Danes, and since then both have gone on to some pretty big things.  Well, they’re reuniting for a big budget, flashy version of the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby!  MTV has the scoop on what to watch for in the trailer, and we’ve got the trailer!  Check out 2012′s The Great Gatsby below!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Say what you will about the merits of redoing The Great Gatsby in 3D, but they’ve assembled a great team for it.  I’m not a huge fan of Baz Luhrmann, but there’s no fault on him as a visual director.  The dude knows his spectacle, he moves the camera well, and I think he’ll be able to make Gatsby‘s 3D really work.  The cast is also stellar:  Leonardo DiCaprio in full star mode, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, and Joel Edgerton?

Tags: baz luhrmann, great gatsby, the great gatsby, the great gatsby trailer, trailer for the great gatsby released, leonardo dicaprio, great gatsby 2012, tobey maguire, carey mulligan, great gatsby 3d, movie trailers, hollywood, movies, literary adaptations, youtube

"Wheeee! Spinning is fun!"

Never let it be said that football players aren’t competitive in everything they do.  Consider Donald Driver, who won a Super Bowl last season before heading to the dance floor as part of the 14th cast of Dancing With The Stars.  He came, he saw, and he blew everyone away.  Donald Driver is Dancing With The Stars season 14 champion!

“We’ve had some great footballers on the show over the years,” said notoriously tough DWTS judge Len Goodman.  ”My feeling is, you are the best we’ve had.”

Driver defeated Katherine Jenkins and William Levy to claim the mirror ball trophy.  He is the seventh athlete to win on the show during its 14 seasons, and the third football player behind former Dallas Cowboy and Arizona Cardinal Emmitt Smith and the recently retired Steeler Hines Ward.

“I would have to say it was a miracle,” admitted Driver.  ”We did what we had to do on the floor, and we knew we had to leave it up to the judges and the fans.  The fans made the decision, and the fans loved our freestyle last night.  I think the freestyle put us on top, and after that, there was no looking back.”  Driver later compared his win to the Super Bowl championship he took home last season.  ”It’s truly something special.  I reached the greatest milestone in my career, and that was winning the Super Bowl.  I just made my partner [Peta Murgatroyd] reach her greatest milestone, and now she’s Dancing With the Stars champion.”

Tags: peta murgatroyd, donald driver, dwts, dancing with the stars, donald driver wins dancing with the stars, donald driver and peta murgatroyd win dancing with the stars, green bay packers, dancing with the stars winner, abc, len goodman, reality television, dancing competition, Katherine Jenkins, William Levy

A dangerously-distracting eclipse got two people run over.

Solar eclipses are very rare, but they probably should be used as an excuse for a car accident.  Then again, if you saw the sun disappearing, you might freak out a little bit.  A 26-year-old San Bernadino, California, woman blames the recent solar eclipse on a car accident in which she hit a woman and her 10-year-old daughter that were using a crosswalk.  That’s right, a woman was distracted by the eclipse and hit two people with her car.  Distracted driving, from bikini-line shaving to texting and baby-juggling, is a problem, but I guess this one falls under act of God since nobody can cause an eclipse.

The woman claims the recent “ring of fire” eclipse blinded her and she did not see the crossing pedestrians; apparently the police believed her, as she was not ticketed or charged with a crime.  Fortunately for everyone involved, no one was seriously hurt.  The girl who was hit by the car broke her arm; the mother was hit but not seriously harmed.

At the time of the accident, 7:10 PM on Sunday, the eclipse was happening out West.  San Bernadino is a suburb of San Francisco.

Tags: eclipse, ring of fire eclipse causes car accident, eclipse causes car accident, woman hits mother and child due to eclipse, unusual accidents, distracted driving, san bernadino, california, san francisco, woman hits two people with her car due to eclipse, eclipse car accident, unusual excuses, unusual car accidents, eclipse brightness causes car accident, ring of fire eclipse

Alibaba is closer to leaving the Yahoo! nest.

Yahoo has made a whole lot of mistakes in recent years.  Since ousting founder Jerry Yang in 2008 as CEO, the company has had five bosses.  Their most recent CEO was fired over his inaccurate resume and false credentials.  They’ve lost so much of their market share to Google, have been the target of multiple buy-out bids, and are struggling to find a new direction.  The one thing Yahoo has done right was invest in Alibaba, a Chinese web portal that has become the Google of China.  Yahoo is selling part of its share of Alibaba for a staggering $7.1 billion dollars; Yahoo bought into Alibaba for $1 billion in 2005 and that investment has paid off handsomely.

“The transaction will establish a balanced ownership structure that enables Alibaba to take our business to the next level as a public company in the future,” said Alibaba CEO Jerry Ma.

According to the terms of the deal, Yahoo will sell off half of its share of Alibaba and will license its brand and some proprietary technology to Alibaba, which has become a $35 billion dollar company in recent years.  Yahoo will receive $800 million in preferred stock and $6.3 billion dollars in cash.  Yahoo plans on buying back about $5 billion in stock to improve performance for shareholders and to make up for the loss of some of Alibaba’s income stream.  Yahoo made $172 million from its investments in the first quarter of 2012, most of which comes from Alibaba.

Tags: yahoo, alibaba, yahoo sells stake in alibaba, jerry ma, yahoo sells chinese web search engine alibaba, yahoo sells half of alibaba, search engines, yahoo sells chinese search engine, yahoo sells alibaba for .1 billion, yahoo sells half of its alibaba shares

Stan Van Gundy and Dwight Howard don't see eye-to-eye and that's not a short joke.

The Orlando Magic really want to keep Dwight Howard after this season.  Dwight Howard, slam dunk champion,  is one of the best centers in the NBA and that’s a hard thing to come by these days.  Orlando knows they have to do something big to convince Howard to resign with their team, and they’ve done it.  Orlando CEO Alex Martins has fired coach Stan Van Gundy and GM Otis Smith in the wake of another first-round collapse.

This has been a long time coming.  Van Gundy has been really talking to the media lately and calling out his players publicly, and Dwight Howard looks like the SVG method is no longer working to fire him up given the way he quit on his team this season.  While Martins and Orlando front office people are saying the firing of Van Gundy has nothing to do with Howard, we can believe it has everything to do with Howard.  If you want to keep your best player, sometimes you have to push a coach out the door in spite of his skill.  This might be what convinces Howard to resign with Orlando after his optional year is up.

Or, perhaps, Orlando will be really rebuilding after this season with a new coach, new general manager, and no star player to build around.  That’s got to be the nightmare scenario for Martins and the Magic ownership, yet it’s also a very probable end result of all this business.

Tags: orlando, orlando magic, nba, national basketball association, stan van gundy, orlando magic coach stan van gundy fired, dwight howard, stan van gundy fired by the orlando magic, basketball, professional basketball, sports, van gundy fired, van gundy, stan van gundy fired, orlando magic fire gm otis smith, otis smith, general manager, orlando magic fire head coach and general manager, otis smith fired, alex martins

The launch of Google Chrome has really changed the web browser landscape.  Thanks in no small part to its great speed, Google Chrome has gone from nothing to being incredibly popular.  Just how popular?  Google Chrome has passed Internet Explorer to become the most-used browser in the world, according to StatCounter’s page views metric.  Google Chrome has 32 percent of traffic, IE has 31 percent, and Firefox is holding steady at 25 percent.  Safari is roughly 14 percent and Safari is about 1.75 percent of all web traffic.

Interestingly, IE is still the most-used browser in the United States, even if it has bumped IE to second internationally.  I’m sure that has to do with the growth of computer use internationally and Google’s international marketing efforts to promote Chrome in other countries, as well as the stranglehold Windows has here in the United States; after all, for most older versions of Windows, IE is the default browser and most people are very lazy.  I’m sure a comparison of install bases still favors IE (because so many places/websites still make you use IE to access their features, like banks and schools), but Chrome seems to be more popular in terms of general usage, and that should be important.

Image:  Digital Trends

Tags: google, google chrome, ie, internet explorer, google chrome is the most-used browser in the world, google chrome is the most-used browser, web browsers, internet browser, internet portals, statcounter, page views, most page views is google chrome, internet explorer drops to second place, trends

"Not so fast, Elon Musk!"

It was as dramatic as the closing sequence of any James Bond movie.  The clock was counting down–5, 4, 3, 2, 1–and at the last second, everything ground to a halt.  It wasn’t some evil plot that was stopped, but a good plot.  Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, a pioneer in commercial space flight, was scheduled to do something great:  dock a commercial space shuttle to the International Space Station and deliver supplies to the ISS.  That did not happen.  SpaceX cancelled the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket due to engine pressure problems.

“This is not a failure,” maintained Gwynne Shotwell, president of the Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX.  ”We aborted with purpose.  It would be a failure if we were to have lifted off with an engine trending in this direction.  The software did what it was supposed to do — aborted engine five, and it went through the remaining engine shutdown.”

The rocket was slated to take off from NASA’s home base of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 4:55 AM on Sunday morning.  The Falcon 9 needs nine rockets to achieve liftoff and seven rockets to achieve orbit.  Without Engine 5, the ship is a dud.  SpaceX and NASA are planning to check the engine out with a goal of relaunching the shuttle on May 22 (with a backup day of May 23).

Tags: elon musk, Space Exploration Technologies Corp, spacex, cape canaveral, florida, spacex rocket, nasa, spacex rocket launch scrubbed, spacex trip to the iss scrubbed, spacex launch called off at the last second, iss, international space station, space travel, commercial space travel, gwynne shotwell, hawthorne, california

Van Halen is taking an unscheduled break. Again.

Van Halen’s tour in support of their first new album with David Lee Roth in nearly 30 years, A Different Kind of Truth, has been really successful.  However, it hasn’t been without its problems.  Some of those problems have resurfaced, apparently, though the band isn’t talking about what’s going on.  After their June 26 show in New Orleans, Van Halen is postponing 31 shows on their world tour; however, 13 shows will go on as scheduled before their slate is pushed back.

I saw Van Halen when they stopped in Louisville to play the KFC Yum Center with Kool and the Gang, and I have to say that the show was amazing.  The band sounded great, they looked like they were having fun, Dave did Dave things and ran around like crazy on stage, and even Wolfgang Van Halen was able to do a decent Michael Anthony impression while holding down the low end with Alex Van Halen.  It was a good time and a great show, and I had a great time.  I hope this isn’t a sign of something bad having happened, like Eddie needing to go back to rehab or Eddie’s cancer flaring up.  Maybe Dave just needs to rest his voice?  Who knows what’s going on?  Well, the band does, but they’re not talking.

Postponements are nothing new to Van Halen.  During their first reunion tour in 2007-08, multiple concert dates were postponed.  The dates were eventually made up.  Van Halen has sold over 56 million albums since the band formed in 1974.

Tags: music, rock and roll, concerts, van halen, van halen postpones 31 concert dates, van halen concerts postponed, david lee roth, a different kind of truth, eddie van halen, van halen to postpone 31 shows, van halen concert dates changed

At one point, the toning shoe was a fad that you could not get away from.  It was a basic sneaker with an odd-shaped sole that was supposedly designed to help the wearer burn more calories and tone up while doing essentially nothing to add to their fitness level.  As it turns out, just walking around is what tones, not special toning shoes, and the Federal Trade Commission has been hitting companies hard over false advertising claims concerning their shoes.  Sketchers USA will be paying $40 million in refunds to customers over the Sketchers Shape-Ups; Reebok paid $25 million to settle FTC complaints about their Reebok Easy Tone shoes earlier in the year.

“The FTC’s message, for Skechers and other national advertisers, is to shape up your substantiation or tone down your claims,” said the punderful David Vladeck, director of the FTC’s consumer protection bureau.  ”The only thing that got a workout was their wallet,” he added.

That’s the thing; people actually bought in that a rocker bottom added to shoes would suddenly transform your average rancid pair of sneakers into some kind of portable fitness machine.  Unless they’re made of lead, shoes are pretty much shoes and generally won’t make you fit (though they will make getting fit easier if they’re stable, supportive, etc.).

Tags: sketchers, sketchers usa, ftc, federal trade commission, sketchers lose million lawsuit over toning shoes, toning shoes, fitness shoes, sketchers shape-ups lawsuit, sketchers shape-ups, workout shoes, unusual shoes, reebok, reebok easy tone, easy tone, phony workout shoes, david vladeck

Avoid skin cancer while avoiding dangerous chemicals? No thanks!

When it comes to sun protection, humans can’t slather ourselves in mud to preserve our tender skin from the burning rays of the sun, so every year, the Environmental Working Group puts together a list of the safest possible sunscreens.  While the FDA has approved sunscreen additives like oxybenzone (since 1978) and retinal palmitate, the EWG doesn’t exactly agree with the safety of those products.  When it comes to safety, most people would rather be safe than sorry, which is why the Environmental Working Group has released their 2012 round-up of safest sunscreens on the market.

“The results are slightly better than previous years, but it continues to surprise us that we can recommend such few products,” said Nneka Leiba, an Environmental Working Group senior analyst.  ”We will continue to push for better options every year. We’re trying to fill the gap where the FDA has failed.  Consumers get frustrated when there are no alternatives, but the point of this is that you don’t have to be completely disheartened, because there are products on the market that don’t contain these chemicals.”

Here is EWG’s Skin Deep list of safe sunscreens for 2012.  The company provides lists of both sunscreens, lip balms, and makeup that contain no oxybenzone, retinyl palmitate, have SPF 50 or above sun protection, and block both UVA and UVB rays.

Tags: sunscreen, harmful chemicals in sunscreen, environmental working group, nneka leiba, oxybenzone, retinyl palmitate, SPF, UVA and UVB rays, UVA, UVB, SPF protection, 2012 sunscreen guide, best sunscreens for 2012, food and drug administration, FDA, sun protection, sunburn prevention, best sunscreen for the summer

General Motors is very popular on Facebook, even without ads.

General Motors is an incredible rebound story, from getting government bailouts to returning to profitability in a very short time.  Part of GM’s prowess is their dedication to advertising.  General Motors is the third-largest advertiser in the United States, spending a staggering $1.8 billion dollars per year on ads.  That’s an incredible amount, but there’s one place GM is going to be trimming its advertisement budget.  GM is pulling its ads from Facebook, admitting that the results from Facebook ads aren’t quite as effective as they had hoped.  GM had been spending $10 million on paid advertising on Facebook, in addition to having about $30 million in unpaid Facebook ads.

“We are reassessing our Facebook advertising, but we remain committed to very aggressive social media strategies and will continue to push content on Facebook through our product and brand Facebook pages,” said GM spokesman Patrick Morrissey.

This isn’t great timing for Facebook, considering the company is about to launch a record-breaking IPO (and just dropped $1 billion on Instagram).  Facebook depends on two things to keep running:  visitor eyeballs and ad dollars.  If more companies feel they’re not getting the proper amount of bang for their advertising buck, that won’t be good.  Even if companies like GM maintain active Facebook presences, it’s meaningless to Facebook without the spent income to go along with it.

Tags: facebook, facebook ads, general motors, gm, gm pulls its ads from facebook, gm to stop advertising on facebook, gm facebook ads, facebook ads do not work, gm says facebook ads do not work, advertising, online advertising, social networks, patrick morrissey, gm facebook advertising

Like him or not, the late Apple founder Steve Jobs had an interesting life.  He founded a major tech company, was kicked out by the board, then came back to save the company from failure in the ultimate redemption story.  Jobs changed the way we use computers, changed the way we listen to music, and pretty much turned the tablet computer from a very niche market to a major computer sales point.  Long story short, the dude was interesting for his business exploits before you even get into his personal life.  Aaron Sorkin would be the perfect writer to handle a Steve Jobs movie, which is great because Aaron Sorkin is going to write the official Steve Jobs biopic.

Sony Pictures has hired Sorkin to adapt Walter Isaacson’s official biography of Jobs; Sorkin has previously brought drama to the White House as creator of The West Wing and turned Mark Zuckerberg and computer programming into excitement in The Social Network.  If he can turn something like Facebook into riveting, five-star cinema, he can turn Steve Jobs’s life into something as riveting and pulse-pounding as an action movie.  Sorkin is also co-creator of the upcoming HBO series The Newsroom, as well as an upcoming stage play about Harry Houdini.

Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal said of Sorkin, “No writer working in Hollywood today who is more capable of capturing such an extraordinary life.  In his hands, we’re confident that the film will be everything that Jobs himself was: captivating, entertaining and polarizing.”

Tags: aaron sorkin, the social network, west wing, steve jobs, sony pictures, steve jobs biopic, aaron sorkin to write steve jobs biopic, amy pascal, walter isaacson, hollywood, movies, celebrities, steve jobs biography, aaron sorkin to write official steve jobs movie, upcoming movies, steve jobs movie

Apparently he approves of the name Mason.

When you give a baby a name, you’re charting the life course for that person.  Names are for life, and they will affect how your child acts (if you put stock in Freakonomics).  It’s a tough choice for any parent, as you try to balance giving your child a unique name, but not so unique that they’re forced to become a reality television star or something.  The top baby names of 2011 have been released, and there’s a new top gal on the block.  Sophia and Jacob were the most popular names in the United States for 2011, with Mason (as in Mason Kardashian) knocking Michael out of the top five boy names for the first time in 63 years.

“It shows what we’re paying attention to, what we’re thinking about.  Today, you can’t walk through a supermarket without learning more than you hoped to know about the Kardashian family.  That’s just reality,” said Laura Wattenberg of the website babynamewizard.com.  However, don’t blame the popularity of Mason on reality television.  ”Celebrity naming is just about the exposure, and about everybody hearing that name at the same time.  It’s not about the fame, it’s about the name.”

However, besides Mason, other names became popular due to reality TV.  Briella shot up 394 spots thanks to Briella Calafiore, star of TV’s Jerseylicious and Glam Fairy.  Elvis, which dropped off the list last year after being on the baby list since 1955, has returned to the list at 904.

In the movie The Social Network, Sean Parker asks Facebook founder Eduardo Saverin a question:  ”You don’t even know what the thing is yet.  How big it can get, how far it can go.  This is no time to take your chips down.  A million dollars isn’t cool, you know what’s cool?  A billion dollars.”  Mark Zuckerberg and company have taken this fictional lesson to heart.  Facebook has raised the price of its IPO and the valuation of the company sits at $104 billion dollars assuming the IPO goes well.  Facebook raised the maximum price of its stock to $38, and will be selling 337 million shares once it hits market.

This means that Facebook would be the first US company to be valued at $100 billion dollars at the time of its IPO.  The previous record for an IPO valuation by a US company is a paltry $60 billion.  The opening stock sale could raise as much as $12 billion dollars for the company when it hits the market, with stock prices between $34 and $38 dollars.

Facebook is rumored to be making its debut Friday on the NASDAQ.  Its stock ticker symbol will be FB.

Tags: facebook, the social network, nasdaq, facebook to debut on friday on the nasdaq, facebook ipo friday, fb, facebook nasdaq symbol is fb, mark zuckerberg, facebook raises stock price, facebook valuation, facebook valued at 4 billion, facebook stock to be a share, facebook stock price, 0 billion dollar IPO, record IPO for a US company

This is my "ool." Notice there is no "P" in it.

It sounds like a bad comedy routine.  Someone out swimming in the water pauses to go to the bathroom, and then dead fish start popping up out of the water, killed by the potency of the swimmer’s waste.  Well, it’s not funny to fishermen in Hamburg, Germany.  Eichbaum Lake, a destination near Hamburg, is the latest place to be victim to a massive fish kill.  While it’s not in the millions, it’s a pretty small lake, so 500 dead fish is a big deal to local anglers.  Some local fishermen believe that swimmers peeing in the water is killing the fish.

“Swimmers who urinate in the lake are introducing a lot of phosphate,” said Manfred Siedler, a spokesman for a local fisherman’s group.  ”We’re calculating half a liter of urine per swimmer per day.”

The pee isn’t the only problem Eichbaum Lake is having; ice skaters in winter are also causing a lot of trouble for the local fishermen.  Apparently, anything you do in a lake can kill fish, if by anything you mean relieving your bladder and then skating on the yellow ice.

“The ice-skaters make a noise that wakes the fish out of hibernation,” says Kerstin Graupner, a spokeswoman for the local environmental authority.  ”Then they can’t breathe and freeze.  That’s a very common phenomenon.”

Swimmers have been banned from Eichbaum due to the high concentration of algae there, which causes swimmer’s itch.  Apparently the algae blooms feed off of the urine in the water, then they consume all the oxygen as they grow, live, and die, which causes the fish to suffocate.  So far, all attempts by the local government to clear the lake of algae have failed.

Tags: Eichbaum lake, Hamburg, Germany, lake closed after swimmer pee kills fish, swimmer urine kills fish, swimmer pee kills fish, unusual environmental hazards, swimmers peeing in lakes can kill fish, algae blooms, urine, urine kills fish, unusual news, weird news, weird nature news, the environment, Manfred Siedler, Kerstin Graupner

Eduardo Saverin is a billionaire, but he's too cheap to get his eyebrows waxed.

When you’re preparing to receive a billion-dollar windfall in the biggest IPO of all time, it’s a smart move to flee the United States.  Eduardo Saverin, who was Mark Zuckerberg’s friend and business partner at Harvard, owns about 4 percent of Facebook stock as a result of his many court battles with Zuckerberg.  That’s going to be lucrative in a few weeks when Facebook launches its IPO, and has proven very lucrative on the private market.  Hence, to dodge his US tax bill, Facebook’s Eduardo Saverin has renounced his US citizenship in a move that could save him a whole lot of money in a week’s time.

“Eduardo recently found it more practical to become a resident of Singapore since he plans to live there for an indefinite period of time,” said Saverrin’s spokeswoman, Sabrina Strauss.  ”He plans to invest in Brazilian and global companies that have strong interests in entering the Asian markets.  Accordingly, it made the most sense for him to use Singapore as a home base.”

Saverin, who has lived in Singapore since 2011, was born in Brazil before becoming a US citizen in 1998.  Saverin is one of 1780 people who renounced US citizenship last year.  He is worth an estimated $2 billion.

Tags: singapore, eduardo saverin, eduardo saverin renounces us citizenship, facebook founder leaves the united states, facebook founder renounces us citizenship, leaving the united states, mark zuckerberg, facebook ipo, sabrina strauss, income tax law, income taxes, leaving the country to avoid taxes, billionaires, facebook founders

Thor and Captain America lay waste to box office records.

The Avengers had a record-shattering opening weekend, becoming the fastest movie ever to $200 million in US box office history.  That was a good warm-up act.  The record-breaking continues for The Avengers in its second weekend, when the movie grossed $103.2 million dollars.  This is the first time in movie history that a movie has broken $100 million dollars in its second weekend in theaters.  That’s just part of it; internationally, The Avengers (or Avengers Assemble) has taken in $1 billion dollars.

That’s just mind-boggling.  Already, the movie has cracked the top ten in box office earnings all time, and before everything is said and done, The Avengers might be the third-highest grossing movie of all time, just behind James Cameron’s Avatar and Titanic.  Both those movies have had multiple releases, too.  It takes money to make money, but compared to the other huge movies of the last decade, The Avengers has cost practically nothing and is just raking in cash hand-over-fist.

Tags: the avengers, avengers assemble, the avengers makes

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The new and original Coal Miner's Daughters together.

In 1978, Loretta Lynn brought actress Sissy Spacek onto the stage at the Grand Ole Opry and announced, to the world, that Spacek would be playing Loretta Lynn in an upcoming biographic film.  That movie, Coal Miner’s Daughter, won Spacek the best actress Oscar and helped turn Loretta Lynn into an icon far beyond her Country Music Hall Of Fame career.  Last night, at the Ryman Auditorium during a Grand Ole Opry show, Loretta Lynn brought Zooey Deschanel onto stage and announced that Deschanel would be playing the eponymous Coal Miner’s Daughter in the Broadway version.

“I have a friend here tonight.  I don’t know if ya’ll remember when Sissy Spacek was with me.  I brought her out here with me. She about fainted.  We both fainted,”  laughed Lynn, now 80.  ”She went on to do the Coal Miner’s Daughter, and you know from there.  Well, there’s a little girl back stage that’s going to do the play of Coal Miner’s Daughter on Broadway,” Lynn continued.  ”Zooey, where you at honey?”

Deschanel came out and performed the titular song with Loretta Lynn.  The question is, will Deschanel find time to take on the role?  She’s filming a Fox sitcom, The New Girl, she’s the owner of the website Hello Giggles (and an active participant there), and she maintains an active recording career as half of the folk-pop duo She And Him with M.Ward.  The producers of the Broadway show insist their run will work with The New Girl‘s shooting schedule.  I’m sure Deschanel, a producer on The New Girl, can make that happen if there is any conflict.

Tags: zooey deschanel, loretta lynn, coal miner’s daughter, loretta lynn wants zooey deschanel to play her, grand ole opry, ryman auditorium, loretta lynn zooey deschanel, loretta lynn coal miner’s daughter, broadway, musicals, music, theater, she and him, the new girl, fox, hello giggles

Time's tempest in a C cup.

Breastfeeding is normal, natural, and a wonderful way to bond mother to baby.  Key word in that sentence, for most people, is “baby.”  Not toddler, and certainly not kindergartner.  Time Magazine has kicked off a scrum of controversy with a photo depicting a woman breastfeeding a 3-year-old boy.  Meanwhile, the crux of the issue isn’t breastfeeding or even attachment parenting (which encourages this sort of thing), but Dr. Bill Sears, author of The Baby Book.  But all anyone can talk about is that cover.

“People have to realize this is biologically normal,” said Jamie Lynne Grumet, the 26-year-old stay-at-home mother from Los Angeles who is on the magazine cover.  ”The more people see it, the more it’ll become normal in our culture.  That’s what I’m hoping.  I want people to see it.”

So, my take on the issue as a non-breastfeeding non-parent?  If the child can walk, talk, and get food without serious assistance, maybe it’s time to wean said child.  Or, if you can’t wean, at least not breastfeed the child in public.  There are bottles and ways to express said breastmilk.  Once the child can form memories of being breastfed, the act gets into some strange Alicia Silverstone spitting food into his son’s mouth territory.

Tags: breast feeding, breastfeeding, breastfeeding toddlers, time magazine, time magazine cover, time magazine scandal, breast feeding time magazine cover, time magazine breastfeeding cover, unusual magazine covers, attachment parenting,  Jamie Lynne Grumet, the baby book, bill sears, controversies, los angeles, california

Birdman Andersen's home was raided by police.

When it comes to crimes against children, there’s nothing more shocking than when that crime allegation comes against a sports figure, especially one known for his charity work.  While his minutes have disappeared this season, Denver Nuggets basketball player Chris “Birdman” Andersen is very popular in the community for his colorful tattoos, high-flying blocks, and his charity work.  He’s something of a redemption story, coming off a two-year drug suspension to resume his NBA career, but that career might be over.  Chris “Birdman” Andersen’s home was raided by the Douglas County Internet Crimes Against Children unit.

“For me right now, I think I’m at a stage where I don’t know enough information,” said George Karl, Andersen’s coach with the Denver Nuggets. “I think we all were advised probably not to talk about it until we know the information.  The only thing I will say is I trust Chris.  In my years with him, he’s been fantastic.  I think he’s really grown as a person.  We’re going to support him and stand by him.”  Karl added, “I think enough guys individually have been told what’s going on. I don’t think we have the full information, the full story to analyze or scrutinize.  Like I said before, I trust Bird.  I think Bird will figure this out.”

Andersen has been suspended indefinitely by the team pending the results of the investigation.  No one has been arrested as a result of this investigation, and no arrests are pending.  Andersen shares the home with several roommates.

Tags: Chris Andersen, Birdman, Chris Birdman Andersen, Denver, Colorado, Denver Nuggets, Internet Crimes Against Children, Birdman Andersen investigated for child pornography, child pornography, crimes against children, george karl, basketball, sports, nba, national basketball association, basketball player chris andersen investigated for child porn

Vidal Sassoon was suave until the end.

The change was overnight.  Gone were the heavily hairsprayed helmets and greased-down locks of the 50′s.  The product was minimized; the cut was the thing according to Vidal Sassoon, and he crafted some of the most iconic hair styles of all time at his London, England salon.  He would later go on to revolutionize the hair care industry with a series of iconic commercials stating, “If you don’t look good, we don’t look good.”  Vidal Sassoon, beauty industry pioneer, passed away at 84.

Vidal Sassoon’s most famous creation was a very public one.  After doing the hair for Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion, director Roman Polanski paid Sassoon $5000 to give Mia Farrow her iconic pixie haircut in the movie Rosemary’s Baby.  It ushered in a whole new look for women and made Farrow one of the most iconic women in horror.  All thanks to a nice trim and shape.

“I made up my mind then that if I was going to be in hairdressing long term, I wanted to change things,” said Sassoon in the documentary Vidal Sassoon:  The Movie.  ”I didn’t have a picture of what hair should be, but I had a definite picture of what hair shouldn’t be.”

He also created the modern beauty industry.  Before selling his company in 1983, Vidal Sassoon’s company brought in $100 million dollars a year.  Not bad for a poor Jewish boy from London who spent time in an orphanage before becoming an apprentice at age 14.

Tags: vidal sassoon, vidal sassoon dead at 84, vidal sassoon dead, mia farrow, hairdressers, hair dresser, vidal sassoon hair dresser, london, england, mia farrow, rosemary’s baby, roman polanski, beauty products, pioneers, hair salon

The Sukhoi Superjet-100 crashed in Indonesia.

The best way to sell something like a car or an airplane is to take people up, show them what it can do, and then sell them on the comforts and luxury of the plane.  That’s what Sukhoi was doing with their new Superjet-100, which was on the fourth stop of a six-nation Asian tour.  Unfortunately for the 42 passengers and 8 crew, the Superjet wasn’t so super.  During a test flight, the Sukhoi Superjet-100 crashed with 50 people on board.  The plane crashed into Mount Salak, a dormant volcano outside of Jakarta, Indonesia.

“The airplane crashed at the edge of Salak mountain,” said Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.  ”An investigation must be done immediately and thoroughly.”

The results of the investigation may determine the future of the Superjet-100.  If it was some sort of pilot error or tower error, then the plane might be okay.  If it was a technical problem, then the long-delayed next-generation small jet from Sukhoi might be doomed before it can even take off.

Tags: Jakarta, Indonesia, superjet, superjet crashes into volcano, test jet crashes into volcano, unusual accidents, jet crashes, Sukhoi, Sukhoi Superjet-100, Superjet-100, Superjet-100 crashes on sales flight, jet sales flight ends in tragedy, airplane crashes, air industry, test flight ends in crash, 50 people dead in plane crash in Indonesia, mount salak, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Take THAT, Nazis!

Once upon a time, having a game that renders in 3D was a novelty.  Among the best of this first generation of 3D shooters is the Nazi blasting classic, Wolfenstein 3D.  Wolfenstein 3D is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and Bethesda Software has a unique celebration for that event.  Bethesda has published a free browser-based version of Wolfenstein 3D to honor the game’s legacy!   That’s right, kids, it’s free and it’s fun!  Wolfenstein 3D was a remake of Return To Castle Wolfenstein for the Apple II; originally published by iD Software, iD was acquired by Bethesda in 2009.

“The core essence of taking an experience that used to be done in top-down – we were all familiar at the time with top-down shooters like Gauntlet and things where you would run around and shoot at the enemies there – taking really similar gameplay and projecting it into the 3D environment, adding perspective and the fact that that changed the game experience so much was the real triumph of what we did then,” said John Carmack, founder of iD Software and a game developer.

The game will play in any modern browser:  Google Chrome 16, Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 11, and Apple Safari 5.  It works as keyboard only, or with keyboard and mouse.  You can play Wolfenstein 3D at Bethesda’s homepage.

Tags: iD software, bethesda, id, wolfenstein, wolfenstein 3d, video games, first person shooters, 3d shooters, 20th anniversary of wolfenstein, free wolfenstein 3d, video game anniversaries, browser-based games, browser games, bethesda gives away wolfenstein 3d, 3d video games, john carmack

Tom Gabel is becoming Laura Jane Grace.

For years, punk musician Tom Gabel has harbored a secret.  Apparently, that secret has been gender dysphoria.  That’s when a man or woman feels like they should have been born as a member of a different gender, like the infamous pregnant man.  Against Me! lead singer Tom Gable is planning to become Laura Jane Grace.  He’s going to begin his transition with electrolysis and hormone treatments.

“For me, the most terrifying thing about this was how she would accept the news,” says Gabel of his wife Heather, who he will stay married to.  ”But she’s been super-amazing and understanding.”

I’m having a lot of trouble dealing with this news, if only because Against Me! is one of my favorite bands ever, I’ve seen them multiple times, and if Tom Gabel starts getting hormone treatments and his voice changes into something different, the band won’t be able to sound the same.  His voice is crucial their entire sound, and I’m sure injecting yourself with hormones will probably end up changing the quality of your voice (and that’s before we get into things like voice lessons to sound more feminine, getting your Adam’s apple shaved, and that sort of thing).

Realistically, it’s his body, and his voice has changed anyway from the first recordings until now, so I guess if it makes him happy, he’s welcome to change whatever he wants about himself.  I’ll still see the band next time I get a chance, and maybe it won’t change his sound a lot since it didn’t affect Jayne County a whole lot.  Of course, he transitioned in the 70′s, so who knows what his future holds now.  I guess that’s between him and his gender reassignment therapist.

Tags: tom gabel, against me!, against me tom gabel, tom gabel becoming a woman, transgender, music, rock music, punk rock, laura jane grace, tom gabel to become laura jane grace, heather gabel, gender dysphoria, rolling stone

An unairbrushed Kardashian walking down the street.

Between 1960 and 1980, 15 percent of the population was obese.  Those numbers stayed flat and consistent, but since then, obesity rates have skyrocketed.  In 2010, 36 percent of Americans were considered obese (30 pounds or more over their healthy weight range) and 6 percent were considered severely obese (100 pounds over their healthy weight range).  Unsurprisingly, those numbers are only going to get worse.  By 2030, health experts predict that 42 percent of the US population will be obese.

“The obesity problem is likely to get much worse without a major public health intervention,” said lead researcher Eric Finkelstein of the Duke University Global Health Institute.

The study was released at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Weight of the Nation” conference and will be published in full in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine.  It used a variety of CDC data, including the body-mass index (which is a flawed metric for most people and one I hate), to determine the future trends in obesity.  The rate will continue to rise, but not as quickly as it has in recent years.

According to the BMI, the healthy weight range for a 6′ man is 136-184 pounds.  At my lowest weight, 180 pounds, I was barely not obese, and I had to not eat anything I enjoyed to get there.  I’ll just stay obese, thanks.

Tags: obesity, health epidemics, obesity rates to rise, 42 percent of US to be obese by 2030, US to grow in obesity by 2030, US obesity rates, united states health concerns, united states, obesity, Duke University Global Health Institute, Eric Finkelstein,  American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Weight of the Nation,  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Nevada governor Brian Sandoval goes for a spin in a self-driving car.

Nevada is the first name you think of when you think of gambling.  Nevada is the home of Las Vegas, the world’s gambling mecca, and as such, it’s the state most associated with risk-taking and putting everything on the flip of a stack of cards.  Unsurprisingly, Nevada’s gambling goes past casino games and covers pretty much anything.  In this case, Nevada has become the first state willing to take a chance on self-driving cars.

Remember that self-driving car Google has been testing?  Well, there are now officially eight of them on the road:  six Priuses, an Audi TT, and a Lexus RX450h.  Nevada governor Brian Sandoval gave his approval yesterday for the test run of driverless cars, though he has hedged his bets by mandating two people in the car during tests, one behind the driver’s seat and one in the passenger’s seat.  The human driver can take over for the car’s sophisticated self-driving system of GPS and sensors by tapping the brakes and turning the wheel.  Still, the cars are now on the road, and you’ll notice them by their red license plates featuring the infinity symbol on the left side of the plate.

“I feel using the infinity symbol was the best way to represent the ‘car of the future,’” said DMV director Bruce Breslow.

Tags: las vegas, nevada, driverless cars, cars with no drivers, self-driving cars, google self-driving car, google gets self-driving car license in nevada, nevada becomes first state to allow driverless cars, nevada approves google self-driving cars, unusual vehicles, car of tomorrow, driverless cars, auto cars, brian sandoval, technology, automotive technology, bruce breslow

Bryce Harper stealing home plate.

There are a lot of exciting plays in baseball.  Chicks dig the long ball, and everyone loves a good fight, but the Washington Nationals haven’t had a lot of positive highlights in their team history since reforming as a Major League Baseball franchise in 2005.  There’s Stephen Strasburg and that’s about it.  Then, Bryce Harper came along.  The top pick in the 2010 draft, Bryce Harper is turning heads in Washington thanks to stealing home plate in a game versus Philadelphia.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Nationals lost to the Phillies 9-3, but Harper showed Phila starter Cole Hamels that deliberately plunking him, even in the first inning, is a bad idea.  After Hamels’ bean ball, Harper moved along to third and then, when Jayson Werth was running to first base, Harper struck, blasting from third to home and just beating out the throw.  Serves Hamels right, who admitted to reporters after the game to hitting Harper deliberately.

“I was trying to hit him,” said Hamels, who hit Harper in the back with a 93-mile-an-hour fastball.  ”I’m not going to deny it. That’s just — you know what, it’s something that I grew up watching. That’s what happened, so I’m just trying to continue the old baseball. . . . I’m not going to injure a guy. They’re probably not going to like me for it but I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t trying to do it.”

Tags: philadelphia phillies, washington nationals, bryce harper, cole hamels, jayson werth, bryce harper steals home base, stealing home, bryce harper steals home, videos, youtube, sports highlights, sports, baseball, major league baseball, mlb, unusual feats, phillies beat nationals 9-3

George Lindsey as Goober Pyle.

It’s not often that a show puts multiple iconic characters into the national consciousness, but The Andy Griffith Show was no ordinary show.  When secondary character Gomer Pyle proved to be so popular he got his own spin-off program, Gomer’s cousin Goober Pyle stepped right into the role of comic relief in Mayberry, filling in at Wally’s Gas Station and putting the bumpkin in country bumpkin.  The man who brought Goober to life, George Lindsey, passed away in Nashville following a short illness.  He was 83.

The most interesting part about Goober’s life is just how George Lindsey got the role.  In 1962, he was one of the men who auditioned for the role of Gomer Pyle, but lost out to Jim Nabors.  Naturally, when Nabors left Mayberry after two seasons, Lindsey stepped right into the role of Gomer’s cousin Goober.  Goober, a slang take on the African word Nguba for “peanut,” which spawned the phrase “Goober pea” for peanut and turned the word “goober” into a slang term for a dork.

Lindsey played Goober for seven seasons, four on Andy Griffith’s show and three on follow-up Mayberry RFD.  He also played Goober in a staggering 44 appearances on Hee-Haw, making him one of the show’s most popular guest stars.

Tags: andy griffith, george lindsey, jim nabors, goober, goober pyle, mayberry, mayberry rfd, goober pyle dead, george lindsey dead at 83, george lindsey dead, nashville, tennessee, hollywood, obituaries, television, television actors, peanuts

Hawkeye, Captain America, and Black Widow guard Marvel's money vault.

When Marvel started the process to create an Avengers movie, it was a bit worrisome.  After all, The Avengers combines four franchises, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and The Hulk (also Hawkeye and Black Widow), which would mean at least establishing franchises for two new characters in the wake of the two moderately successful Hulk films and the $1.2 billion dollar Iron Man franchise.  As it turns out, Disney/Marvel‘s gamble has paid off handsomely.  Marvel’s The Avengers, AKA Avengers Assemble, smashed box office records on its opening weekend to the tune of $200.3 million dollars.

Along the way, it broke records both American and International, including the highest-ever opening in Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Central America, Bolivia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Philippines.  It took second in America’s one-day box office gross record on Friday, bringing in $80.5 million.  It broke the record for Saturday as well, taking home $69.7 million.  The movie’s $50.1 million on Sunday was the biggest Sunday release ever, unsurprisingly.  It was the fastest movie to $100, $150, and $200 million at the box office in movie history.

The trailer was marketing brilliance, and the movie itself must have also been great, as it earned a nearly-impossible A+ on CinemaScore and has gotten great word-of-mouth.  I’m sure timing its release for Free Comic Book Day weekend was both intentional and a boon to the movie.

Tags: Marvel Entertainment, Marvel, Marvel Comics, The Avengers, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, The Hulk, Avengers Assemble, The Avengers breaks 0 million on opening weekend, The Avengers opening, The Avengers is the highest opening movie of all time, Marvel’s The Avengers, box office records, The Avengers has the fastest 0 million in history, The Avengers has the highest Saturday box office ever, movies, Hollywood, box office records, world records

A wild Super Moon approaches!

Ever since NASA bombed the moon in 2009, the moon has been looking to get its revenge.  You see, we started a war with the moon, but we didn’t finish it.  The moon will not be tamed so easily.  Tonight, Saturday May 5, the moon will return stronger than ever.  That’s right, tonight is the night of the Super Moon.  Someone let the werewolves know it’s time to party!

Basically, in a super moon event, the moon is as close to the earth as it is going to be all year, thus the moon looks larger than it does the rest of the year.  It doesn’t count as a super moon until the full moon, which will be on Saturday at this particular point in the moon’s orbit around the earth.  The super moon is expected to be 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than normal, making it the biggest and brightest the moon will look in 2012.

NASA says that the optimal time for viewing the super moon will be as the moon rises over the earth just after sunset.  That is expected to be at about 8 PM tonight, depending on your location.

Tags: moon, super moon, supermoon, brighter and larger moon, may 5 will be super moon night, super moon may 5, super moon on saturday night, super moon on saturday, lunar events, astronomy, nighttime, nighttime sky events, big moon, may 5 will have super moon, unusual lunar events, unusual astronomy, weird science

Just call her "Red Dreams" for short.

When her son died young, 41-year-old Dawn McManus founded a charity known as Red Dreams to help young people live out their artistic dreams.  The woman, from Hartlepool, England, has been a big cheerleader for the charity since its foundation, and the organization has helped out many people during its time.  That’s why Ms. McManus is becoming the form Ms. McManus.  Dawn McManus’s new official first and last names are Red Dreams, but it is her new middle names that are drawing attention.  Dawn McManus has changed her name to 161 words.

Dawn McManus has changed her name to the following:  Red Wacky League Antlez Broke the Stereo Neon Tide Bring Back Honesty Coalition Feedback Hand of Aces Keep Going Captain Let’s Pretend Lost State of Dance Paper Taxis Lunar Road Up Down Strange All and I Neon Sheep Eve Hornby Faye Bradley AJ Wilde Michael Rice Dion Watts Matthew Appleyard John Ashurst Lauren Swales Zoe Angus Jaspreet Singh Emma Matthews Nicola Brown Leanne Pickering Victoria Davies Rachel Burnside Gil Parker Freya Watson Alisha Watts James Pearson Jacob Sotheran Darley Beth Lowery Jasmine Hewitt Chloe Gibson Molly Farquhar Lewis Murphy Abbie Coulson Nick Davies Harvey Parker Kyran Williamson Michael Anderson Bethany Murray Sophie Hamilton Amy Wilkins Emma Simpson Liam Wales Jacob Bartram Alex Hooks Rebecca Miller Caitlin Miller Sean McCloskey Dominic Parker Abbey Sharpe Elena Larkin Rebecca Simpson Nick Dixon Abbie Farrelly Liam Grieves Casey Smith Liam Downing Ben Wignall Elizabeth Hann Danielle Walker Lauren Glen James Johnson Ben Ervine Kate Burton James Hudson Daniel Mayes Matthew Kitching Josh Bennett Evolution Dreams.

Said Dawn of her new name, “Officially I should be called Red, but I appreciate some people will find it hard to embrace the change.”  She added that sometimes her husband will slip up and still call her Dawn.

I guess that tops the woman who changed her name to an A-Z list of the alphabet and the woman who changed her name to badmouth her travel agents.  At least this name will honor her charity and hopefully raise awareness and help more budding artists.

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MCA, far right, progressed from party boy to peace activist.

You cannot say enough about pioneering rap group The Beastie Boys.  Three Jewish kids from New York named Mike D, Ad Rock, and MCA took punk rock and metal and fused it with the growing hip-hop sound and thus straddled two genres.  They rapped over beats from the Dust Brothers and they rapped over music they played live with traditional rock instruments.  They combined macho bravado with comedy and science fiction nerdery, and no one was more important to their sound than the gruff, tough MCA, AKA Adam Yauch, who has lost his battle with cancer.  Adam Yauch was 47.

However, MCA was important for far more than his rapping; he was also an activist and a film producer.  He was one of the founders of arthouse distributor Oscilloscope Pictures and–when he wasn’t busy selling 40 million albums, winning 3 Grammy awards, getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and putting out 8 iconic albums–was one of the organizers of the Tibetan Freedom Concerts, a series of all-star benefit concerts to benefit Tibet and Tibetan independence.

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Best. Day. EVER!

Are you busy Saturday, May 5?  If not, then you’re in for a treat.  The first Saturday in May has been dubbed Free Comic Book Day for a few years now, so that means Free Comic Book day is coming up on Saturday, May 5.  Thousands of comic book stores are planning on giving away over 3.5 million comic books in an attempt to win over new customers and expand their business.

While comic books are entering your local library and cracking best-of lists, they’re still a niche market and thus they need to spread the word to survive.  Things like Free Comic Book Day may cost the industry as a whole money, but if they can lure a few new fans into the world of Bongo Comics or The Avengers, then they have a fan for life who is more likely to buy other comics (good for the industry) and buy that series of comics (good for the company).

There looks to be a wide variety of free comics available for Free Comic Book Day, but I suggest getting to your local store early to get copies of what you want before everyone else shows up and takes the rest.  Here’s a list of the free comics that may be available in your area.  You can see a list of participating comic shops at FreeComicBookDay.com.

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