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Looking for an original piece of artwork to wear that expresses your love for all things pop-culture while at the same time only spending $9? Well, my friend look no further than TeeFury.com they update their site daily with cool new designs from emerging artists. The only trick is the shirts are available to purchase for 24 hours only. Here's the print of the LOST t-shirt I bought a few weeks ago.
from the BBC:
South Korean government workers are being given an unusual instruction - go home and multiply.
At 1900 on Wednesday, officials at the Ministry of Health will turn off all the lights in the building.
They want to encourage staff to go home to their families and, well, make bigger ones. They plan to repeat the experiment every month.
The country has one of the world's lowest birth rates, lower even than neighbouring Japan.
Boosting the number of newborn children is a priority for the government, which is staring into the abyss of a rapidly ageing society, falling levels of manpower and spiralling health care costs.
The Ministry of Health, now sometimes jokingly referred to as the Ministry of Matchmaking, is in charge of spearheading this drive, and it clearly believes its staff should lead by example.
Generous gift vouchers are on offer for officials who have more than one child, and the department organises social gatherings in the hope of fostering love amongst its bureaucrats.
But critics say what is really needed is widescale reform to tackle the burdensome cost of childcare and education that puts many young people off starting a family.
PS: Good luck South Koreans. I hope your children grow up to be as talented, energetic, and entertaining as this guy.
Hollywood is preparing to re-release some past hits, including Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in 3-D following the record-breaking success of Avatar.
Studio executives are drawing up schedules of popular films that will be “retro-fitted” with 3-D technology after the science fiction blockbuster, directed by James Cameron, last week became the second highest grossing movie of all time.
A 3-D version of Avatar has driven ticket sales to more than $1.14 billion (£700m) in just three weeks; only Titanic, Cameron’s 1997 epic, has made more money at the box office.
Rival studios had been waiting to see if Avatar took the 3-D experience — albeit using special glasses — beyond the popularity of animated tales such Monsters vs Aliens.
Experts now predict that 3-D will become the new multiplex standard within five years. This will be as dramatic a shift as when the “talkies” killed off silent movies in the early 20th century.
Retro-fitting a screen classic with 3-D imagery could take as little as four months, using software to manipulate a digital copy of the film.
Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings, said last spring that he wanted to reissue the trilogy in 3-D if Avatar persuaded enough cinemas to put in new 3-D projectors. Last week technicians at Weta, the production company that had worked on the trilogy, said they had experimented with 3-D battle scenes and proclaimed them to be “gob-smacking”.
The Lord of the Rings is expected to be re-released after Jackson has finished producing the two-part version of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit over the next two years. This would mean that a 3-D version of The Fellowship of the Ring, the first part of the trilogy, could be in cinemas by Christmas 2012.
It may be beaten to the screen by a revamped version of Star Wars. George Lucas, the director, spent $13m filming the original in 1976, added special effects in 1997 and 2004, and will now spend another $10m to change it into a 3-D spectacular.
“George cannot leave it alone,” said an associate. “He is salivating at the opportunity to play with it again. This time the Death Star is really going to explode all over the audience and leave them gasping.”
At the moment there are only half a dozen companies that can turn reels of celluloid into 3-D digital movies.
Last week one of the leaders, Legend Films in San Diego, said telephones had been “ringing off the hook” as Hollywood bosses seek to revive past glories.
“We can turn an older film into 3-D in around 16 weeks,” said Bobby Jaffe, the chairman. “It mostly suits action films, such as Top Gun or The Matrix, but Avatar proved it’s best to use the technology to immerse the audience in the story rather than throw things at them. This is the new, more sophisticated era of 3-D.”
The “Avatar effect” means that conventional 2-D films commissioned last year are already being updated. Sir Ridley Scott has asked for a further $8m from his backer, Universal Films, to add an extra dimension to his untitled Robin Hood venture starring Russell Crowe in the lead role and Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian. Two versions of the film will be released in May.
Last week the University of Southern California (USC) published a report suggesting that after seeing a 3-D film in the cinema in 2009, 40% of people would prefer to watch television in 3-D, too.
“It will quickly become the new norm,” said David Wertheimer, director of USC’s entertainment technology centre. “It’s no longer a gimmick, but an expectation.”
They will not have long to wait. Last week in Las Vegas, Sony and LG, its Korean rival, revealed 3-D television sets, still requiring special glasses, which will go on sale this summer. Panasonic showed a prototype 3-D television with a giant 152in screen, perhaps more suitable for pubs and for showing advertisements in shopping centres than for home viewing.
Broadcasters are also gearing up to meet demand. Sky is preparing to transmit matches from the football World Cup in South Africa this summer on a dedicated 3-D channel, even if few homes will have the new televisions by then. “Few had high-definition televisions when we started broadcasting in HD either, but it shows the future,” said one executive.
The pace of change is accelerating. The first 3-D films on Blu-Ray, the successor to the DVD, will be released by Christmas. They will be a mixture of 2010 hits and remastered old favourites.
One other advantage of 3-D that has encouraged the film studios is the fact that, at least for the time being, it is pirate-proof. Avatar is estimated to have been illegally downloaded at least 1m times over the internet, but such 2-D copies do not match the cinematic experience.
“It’s only a matter of time before a teenager develops a 3-D stealing camera, but meanwhile Hollywood has a breathing space to earn some money,” said a studio executive.
TAKEN FROM "THE SUNDAY TIMES"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/
Listen to these idiots in the crowd acting like something terrible happened. Wow someone knocked down the pope. As if he's not just some lunatic in a ridiculous hat anyway.
Crackheads candy is actual roasted espresso coffee beans, covered with delicious white and dark chocolate. Because there is an actual espresso bean inside each one, the candy has a hefty kick of caffeine.
So, the candy maker has this candy with an addictive ingredient. Do they name it something acceptable like "Choco Beans" or "Espress-o-riffic?" Nope. They name it after the most addictive drug of all time -- crack cocaine.
When we first saw Crackheads candy, we thought it was a joke. But after eating some, we discovered it is really delicious. Each box of Crackheads (we love typing that name) contains 1.3 ounces of Crackheads. The back of the box includes a diagram of a caffeine molecule, and boasts that espresso has more caffeine than just about anything else.
Is it addictive? Well, with the combination of creamy dark and light chocolate, crunchy tasty espresso bean, and caffeine kick, you're gonna find yourself craving more. We are happy to report, though, (as far as we know) Crackheads Candy contains no crack cocaine.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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About a month and a half ago I wrote an article asking "when is it too soon to make a remake". In that article I also questioned why is it that movie studios feel the need to take already great films and remake them into watered down pieces of crap. Hollywood's latest victim was set to a be re-imaging of the Japanese manga Old Boy (an adaptation of this already happened in 2003 with Chan-wook Park's awesome film Old Boy); two giants of the movie industry, Steven Spielberg & Will Smith, were set to head the project. Thankfully, someone listened to their instinct (although, I'd like to imagine they read my post) and the remake has been cancelled!! Now, let's just hope the remake of Let The Right One In falls through too. Below is the story they're running over at AintItCool.com about this:
Will Smith and Setven Spielberg's OLDBOY project has gone belly-up, according to Latino Review. The film was being spun as a direct adaptation of Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya's manga as opposed to a "remake" of Park Chan-wook's 2003 feature film.
According to a trusted source…
…It’s DEAD!
Mandate and DreamWorks didn’t see eye to eye therefore DreamWorks has apparently walked away.
No Spielberg.
No Will Smith.
THEY’RE OUT!
Hence no stateside Oldboy remake…or whatever you want to call it.
(the original post can be found here)
BeyondHollywood.com has posted the first still images from “The Killer Inside Me”, and your first look at Jessica as prostitute Joyce Lakeland. In other movie news, IMBD has added ‘First Love, Then Marriage‘ to Alba’s profile.
Hey, look, it’s Jessica Alba as a prostitute! A really classy looking prostitute, anyway. I was expecting truck stop dirty, but apparently Michael Winterbottom’s adaptation of Jim Thompson’s “The Killer Inside Me” is a period movie, with fedoras, classic cars, and movie picture shows and all that period stuff. From the guy who gave us “Nine Songs”, this is not quite what I was expecting. Aw, well, you can’t always get what you want. Some images from the movie, set for sometime in 2010, have surfaced over at Quiet Earth.
Via Rawstory.com
A new advertisement for Starbucks coffee's latest instant brew is causing a stir among right-wing media watchers for it's rather tame spoof of angry, loud town hall attendees who became a hallmark of American media over the summer.
The ad, which promotes the coffee giant's new "Via" instant beverage, shows an "actual portrayal" of a town hall. A narrator says: "People who yell at town hall meetings can't taste the difference."
Among a crowd of seated people, one man stands and shouts, "I can't taste the difference!" Another stands and adds: "I can't either!"
The narrator concludes: "Can you?"
Because of this allegedly offensive display, the Sean Hannity Web forums are aflame, with a thread 16 pages and growing.
Of course, few dare defend the displays of racial hatred, Nazi imagery and mob intimidation tactics that seemed to saturate media over the last several months. ... All of which is apparently more offensive to some than the actual events being sort-of mocked.
Even though such acidic behavior reflects upon a relatively small number of the health reform protesters, the coffee chain's ad hardly broaches the topic. (Although, under the title "Via teaser spot" on the Starbucks YouTube page, it would be easy to assume there's more coming soon.)
Sadly, it may only be a matter of time until someone walks into a Starbucks and shouts, "You lie!"
-- Stephen C. Webster
This video was posted to YouTube by Starbucks on Sept. 27, 2009.
And here is the rest of it.
Via: Details Magazine
STORCH FELT 'PRESSURED' TO WORK WITH BROOKE HOGAN
Music producer SCOTT STORCH only agreed to help HULK HOGAN's daughter BROOKE launch a pop career because he felt "pressured" into it by the wrestling legend.
The beatmaker, known for his work with 50 Cent, Dr. Dre and Beyonce, admits he was constantly high on cocaine when he met with the Hogans in 2006 to discuss working on the blonde singer's career.
He ended up signing Brooke Hogan as the first artist to his label Storch Music Company, but he admits his judgement was so clouded by the amount of drugs he was taking, the music was far from the quality he had become known for.
Storch, who has since beat his drug addiction, tells Details magazine, "I was doing blow (cocaine) 24/7. It was out of control.
"I love Brooke, but I did that s**t because her father was putting all sorts of pressure on me.
"Sure, it was fun. But the thing is, I didn't make one good bit of music when I was high on coke. Not one bit."
Singer Hogan parted ways with Storch 10 months after her album Undiscovered was released in October 2006.
This is the best show on radio. Not only does it showcase real hip hop but it's entertaining as hell. If you want to hear Soulja boy and all that bullshit then stay away but if you want to hip hop in it's purest form. Great beats, real lyrics etc... Then make sure you check it out on 103.3 fm. Princeton radio. If you live in jersey pa area. Oh the pic is wrong now it's from 8 - 10 now on friday night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is the track list from his last show... 
Ok, so I came across this video over the weekend and was having some major debates (in my head) over whether it was real or not. It has the potential to go either way - as a dumb joke to prepare/remind us of how terrible the planet's living conditions are and will be in the future or as a frighting reality in which we'll all actually need a SurvivaBall.
I really wanted to believe this was just a joke or at least some stupid movie tie-in where the studios make fake websites and videos to get people interested in their lame-ass films. But when I went to survivaball.com to verify this thing and saw a list all these top companies in the Fortune 500 range that are associated with SurvivaBall my mind nearly exploded from confusion. Luckily, I came across these guys and my mind became at ease. Still, for all of Sunday I was thinking of all the ways SurvivaBall could be real and how fucked up it was that oil and car companies were sponsoring it. Haha. Good job. You got me.
The video has this "too-creepy-to-be-real" tone to it. Here it is.
Note: No actual bear appears in this story. They couldn't have just used some archived footage of a bear roaming around the woods? Nope, throw in a completely fake cut out of one. No one will notice, right? Thanks again Fox for the wonderful journalism.
Via: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/zune-marketplace
The Zune HD’s lack of a compelling software market will make it nothing more than a repeat failure, according to mobile developers and an analyst.
Microsoft on Tuesday released its newest media player. Priced at $290 for the 32GB version, it’s packed with impressive hardware features, including a vibrant, touch-sensitive OLED display. Still, the hardware alone won’t be enough to make the device a success, observers say.
“They apparently had no idea the App Store was coming or was going to be big,” said Phillip Ryu, co-creator of the popular iPhone app Classics. “This all reeks of last-minute scrambling.”
The center of criticism is Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace, the Zune HD’s version of an app store. But it’s not really a store: Third-party developers cannot easily create apps to be sold through Zune Marketplace. In fact, no apps will be sold at all.
Instead, Microsoft has handpicked third-party companies to code apps that will be offered for free in Marketplace. The initial software available for Zune HD will include games, a weather app and a calculator. And in November, Twitter and Facebook apps and some 3D games will launch in the “store” as well.
Unlike other mobile stores, Microsoft’s Marketplace is essentially closed to outside developers.
That’s an unusual move in the mobile tech landscape. By contrast, Apple’s App Store allows anyone to submit iPhone and iPod Touch apps, although Apple exerts stringent (and often capricious) control over which apps make it to the public. Google’s Android Market is completely open to any developers who wish to offer apps for it. Research in Motion, Verizon and Palm have also all opened mobile app stores to compete with Apple’s.
Even Microsoft is drafting developers for its Windows Mobile 6.5 app store — but oddly enough, the company is not integrating the same store for its Zune media player.
Microsoft’s Zune marketing manager Brian Seitz said the Windows Mobile Marketplace is being separated because the Zune HD has a different focus than smartphones. Seitz said the Zune HD’s focus is music and video playback.
However, Microsoft’s message is contradictory, because Seitz later said that since the Zune HD features Wi-Fi and not a constant cellular connection, the device would focus on gaming.
“The thing that Zune HD is made for is really rich music and video playback experiences for people,” Seitz said in a phone interview with Wired.com. “We know there’s other things folks want to do with these devices that are sometimes connected … and those apps are typically games.”
Seitz added that the Zune HD’s primary goal is not to compete with Apple’s App Store. However, he did acknowledge the Zune HD’s main competitor is the iPod Touch.
Matt Drance, Apple’s former iPhone evangelist and current owner of Bookhouse, an iPhone app development company, said Microsoft was wise to shy away from directly competing with the App Store, because the tech giant is already too far behind in this market segment.
“I’ll give [Microsoft] credit for acknowledging they’re not ready to compete,” Drance said in a phone interview. “They’re going to have to do something really special at this point. When you’re staring in the face of 75,000 apps in the App Store that have been downloaded 2 billion times, you can’t just say, ‘Hey, me, too.’”
There’s very little Microsoft can do with the Zune HD at this point, MKM Partners analyst Tero Kuittinen said, because the software that launched with the Zune is too underwhelming to drive momentum for the gadget.
Kuittinen questioned why Twitter and Facebook apps were not immediately available for the Zune HD upon launch, because practically every smartphone today supports this type of software. He added that Microsoft failed to communicate to the public, via marketing and media, what exactly the Zune HD would do other than play music and video. This added up to a poorly executed launch, he said.
“To get the maximum impact you have to have the software services the moment you’re ready,” Kuittinen said. “When you start bringing it out later it dilutes the impact.”
“We’re getting close to Christmas now, so if you don’t start now telling consumers what the device can do, it’s going to be kind of late to give them Twitter app in November,” Kuittinen added.
What, then, should Microsoft do? Lower the price, suggests Kuittinen, who believes the price difference between the iPod Touch and the Zune is not a strong enough selling point. Microsoft is selling the 16GB Zune HD player for $220 and the 32 GB version for $290.
Apple’s iPod Touch comes in three models: $200 for 8GB, $300 for the 32GB and $400 for a 64GB model.
The iPod Nano, by contrast, costs $180 for a 16GB version, making it — price-wise — another possible competitor to the Zune HD.
“What exactly do they have to lose at this point?” Kuittinen said. “Why not just go to $130 or $140? They’re going to lose money anyway.”
Via: Rawstory.com
Obama speech disrupter a health industry darling
Cross-Posted at Facing South.
During President Obama’s address on health insurance reform to a joint session of Congress last night, he observed that some people have been spreading bad information about his proposal — and that contrary to what’s been said it would not cover illegal immigrants.
At that point the president was interrupted by Rep. Addison Graves “Joe” Wilson (right), a Republican from South Carolina.
“You lie!” Wilson shouted from the crowd.
Obama paused for a moment before continuing his address as Wilson’s colleagues looked on in shock following the breach of protocol.
Whether because of his outspokenness or in spite of it, Wilson is a major recipient of contributions from the health care industry.
In fact, over his entire congressional career, health professionals represent Wilson’s top industry contributors, donating a total of $244,196 to his campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics OpenSecrets.org database. He received another $86,150 from pharmaceutical companies, $73,050 from insurance companies and $68,000 from hospitals and nursing homes.
Among Wilson’s top contributors are the American Hospital Association, a lobby group that represents the interests of hospitals and health networks, and the American Medical Association, which represents physicians.
During a post-speech interview with CNN’s Larry King, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wilson should apologize, calling his behavior “totally disrespectful.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told the New York Times that Wilson’s behavior was “not appropriate.”
Wilson’s office later issued an apology for the outburst:
“This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the president’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. While I disagree with the president’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility.”
It was not the first time Wilson — attorney, U.S. Army vet and former aide to U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond — has raised eyebrows by shouting at political opponents.
Seven years ago this month, the then-freshman Wilson appeared on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” with five-term Congressman Bob Filner (D-Calif.) to discuss whether to go to war in Iraq, action that Filner opposed but Wilson supported. In the course of the discussion, Filner noted that the U.S. supplied weapons to Saddam Hussein’s regime during the Iran-Iraq War — a fact revealed by the investigation into the Iran-Contra Affair, which discovered the Reagan administration secretly sold weapons to Iran, then under an arms embargo, to win support for freeing U.S. hostages in Lebanon and to fund the Nicaraguan contras, a counterrevolutionary rebel force that was fighting the country’s government.
But Filner’s statement incensed Wilson, as the Washington Post reported at the time:
“That is wrong. That’s made up,” Wilson fired back. “I can’t believe you would say something like that.”
When Filner calmly held his ground, advising Wilson to read newspaper reports and other documentation, the Republican erupted: “This hatred of America by some people is just outrageous. And you need to get over that.”
As moderator Connie Brod sat by helplessly, Filner challenged: “Hatred of America? . . . Are you accusing me?”
“Yes!” Wilson shouted. For good measure, over the next minute Wilson accused Filner of harboring “hatred of America” four more times, of being “hateful” three times and of being “viscerally anti-American” once. Filner responded, “This is not worth replying to,” and Brod finally regained control of the discussion by taking viewer phone calls.
