Monday News Bucket

9 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on October 15, 2007 at 7:18 am

   to explain away declining movie ticket sales: AdAge

   Industry expectations for “The Heartbreak Kid,” the date movie that re-teamed him with the Farrelly brothers (the duo who made him a megastar in “There’s Something About Mary”), called for a $20 million to $25 million opening for the film. Instead, “Kid,” which cost north of $60 million to make, managed only $14 million in the U.S. and Canada — heartbreaking, indeed.

   But there’s more. Total industry ticket sales were only $80 million for the Oct. 5 weekend the film opened, a whopping 27% below the same weekend the year before, according to research firm Media by Numbers. That’s the industry’s worst performance for an October weekend since 1999. Overall, domestic receipts are down 6% from last fall.

   Blame the Master Chief.

   Glued to joysticks

   Many film executives are convinced audiences stayed home to play Microsoft’s carpal-tunnel classic, “Halo 3,” which went on sale on Sept. 26. The game sold an astonishing $170 million worth of copies on its first day, before going on to sell well over $300 million.

   Couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the astonishing cost of movie tickets, now could it?

   • 

     Isis on October 15, 2007 at 10:49 am

     Or the price of gas? Or the utter boredom with Hollywood formula movies? I bet though, the computer/Internet/video game generation just can’t tear themselves away from the Box.

     I’m at the age where friends have kids, 8, 10 yr old kids, and when I’m visiting, I can be sure the computer is on, or the video game is on, and the parent(s) have to get the kid away from the game for dinner or chores, just like the struggle my parents went through with me and my siblings as we watched TV.

     So, since so many Americans now live in exurbia and suburbia, movie theaters located deep into giant parking lots of far-off malls where the swampland was cheap, it takes a lot of effort to get to the big screen. The small screen is just fine . . . Saves on carbon emissions from gas, no? But then, the electricity . . . trace it’s carbon burden . . . Etc. Etc.

2. 

   CabinGirl on October 15, 2007 at 7:25 am

   with open arms and legs: womensenews

   The group, formed by a sex workers’ alliance based here, called the British Columbia Coalition of Experiential Women, will incorporate next month and is already setting the groundwork to open the co-op brothel.

   Members have begun scouting for a location and are enlisting the backing of local businesses, police and labor organizations.

   Faced with the task of cleaning up the city to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver authorities said they are open to the idea.

   “We would be willing to explore anything that . . . would be helping the situation of sex trade workers, and make it safer for them and make it better for the community,” said Vancouver police spokesperson Howard Chow. He noted one requirement: “It has to be something that is lawful.”

3. 

   ask on October 15, 2007 at 10:02 am

   Sweden top for welcoming migrants

   A study of how Europe integrates immigrants has exposed wide variations in the welcome foreign workers receive.

   The European Union-backed research found Sweden doing the most to help migrants settle – and Latvia the least.

   Overall, EU nations are only doing half as much as they could, said researchers acting for a consortium of 25 organisations across Europe.

   […]

   It measures policies to integrate an estimated 21 million migrants across 25 EU member states by using 140 indicators including:

       * Immigrants’ rights in the workplace

       * The opportunities for permanent settlement

       * Permission for family to join them

       * Laws to combat racism and prejudice

   The five states with the largest immigrant populations – the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy and France all ranked in the top half of the table, with Italy coming out best.

   Between them, these five are thought to be home to at least half of all the migrants across the continent.

   But overall, the study found that only Sweden scored highly enough to be classed as a nation entirely favourable to promoting integration.

   While many other states had policies the study said were laudable, each in turn appeared to fall down on at least one key area.

4. 

   BrendaStewart on October 15, 2007 at 10:20 am

   well, holy cow, what is a man to do…;o)

   This adm is in such disarray it is hard to find anything right about them, at all…

5. 

   BrendaStewart on October 15, 2007 at 10:23 am

   Good Morning all.  I haven’t much time to spend here today but just wanted to say hi and drop in for the coffee…;o)  Geez, I am gonna have to retire to find time to do what I love most and that is spend time here with you all.  CG, you do a heart good by your posting…hugs to all…

6. 

   dada on October 15, 2007 at 11:35 am

   unfortunately, it’s not about the ‘unitary powers’ that have been seized by chimpy and his organ grinder cheney.

   l have taken some liberties with the editing for your amusement:

   MOSCOW – The

   Russian

   government under

   Vladimir Putin

   George W. Bush has amassed so much central authority that the power-grab may undermine

   Moscow’s

   the United State’s commitment to democracy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday.

   “In any country, if you don’t have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development,” Rice told reporters after meeting with human-rights activists.

   “I think there is too much concentration of power in the

   Kremlin

   White House.

   I have told the Russians that. Everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary. There are clearly questions about the independence of the electronic media and there are, I think, questions about the strength of the

   Duma

   congress,” said Rice, referring to the

   Russian parliament

   House and Senate.

   […]

   Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday received a chilly reception from Putin and senior Russian officials on U.S. proposals for cooperating on a missile defense system in Eastern Europe that Russia vehemently opposes.

   […]

   Earlier, Rice said she hoped the efforts of rights activists would promote universal values of “the rights of individuals to liberty and freedom, the right to worship as you please, and the right to assembly, the right to not have to deal with the arbitrary power of the state.”

   […]

   Alexander Brod, head of the Moscow Human Rights Bureau, said the discussions touched on “authoritarianism and the crisis of human rights.” He said he disagreed with “the opinion that we had a flourishing democracy in the 1990s and that we have a setback now.”

   “Not all is ideal in America, either. We see protests against the war in Iraq and violations of human rights on the part of security services and violations of human rights in countering terrorism,” Brod said.

   Vladimir Lukin, the government-appointed human rights ombudsman, was quoted by Interfax as saying he told Rice that human rights should be discussed in a dialogue rather lecturing in a “doomsday” style.

   link

   ‘doomsday‘ is all BushCo™ know how to do.  lf these people were any more inept someone would have to dress them in the morning.

   irony is well and truly dead, or living in exile.

   lTMF’sA

   

7. 

   dada on October 15, 2007 at 11:37 am

   or who knew congressional pork bellies were such a great investment?

   apparently Richard Martinson and his Redmond, Wa. company, Guardian Marine International did.  for an investment of $46,027 they realized a return of $17,650,000…for boats nobody wanted…not bad!

   $4.5 million for a boat that nobody wanted

   Tucked away on Seattle’s Portage Bay, a sleek, 85-foot speedboat sat idle for years — save for an annual jaunt to maintain its engine.

   The Navy paid $4.5 million to build the boat. But months before the hull ever touched water, the Navy gave the boat to the University of Washington. The school never found a use for it, either.

   Why would the Navy waste taxpayer dollars on a boat that nobody wanted?

   Blame it on Sen. Patty Murray and Congressmen Norm Dicks and Brian Baird. All three exercised their political muscle to slip language into a 2002 spending bill to force the Navy to buy the boat from Edmonds shipbuilder Guardian Marine International.

   Year after year, the Washington lawmakers did favors for the tiny company, inserting four “earmarks” into different bills to force the Navy and Coast Guard to buy boats they didn’t ask for — $17.65 million in all. None of the boats was used as Congress intended.

   The congressional trio say they were helping Guardian Marine because it had a great product. But each has also received generous campaign donations from the company’s three executives, its sole employees: $14,277 to Baird, $15,000 to Murray, and $16,750 to Dicks.

   […]

   Jack Abramoff, the once-powerful lobbyist convicted of influence peddling, called the process “the favor factory.”

   […]

   lots more at the seattle times

   call your broker today.

   lTMF’sA

   

8. 

   CabinGirl on October 15, 2007 at 1:44 pm

   seems it really might give you a brain tumor, despite previous assurances to the contrary.

   Quelle surprise.