Filmed in Hermann, Mo. Horror Movie 'Ratline' Released on DVD

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RATLINE – The DVD Review

August 12, 2011
by Tom Stockman
wearemoviegeeks.com
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Drug dealers, serial killers, Satan worshippers and immortal Nazis are some of the ingredients of the bloody stew that is RATLINE, a tough, well-made shocker from St. Louis-based regional filmmaker Eric Stanze. RATLINE is not a “boo!” sort of horror flick. It’s not about stalkers in dark corners or monsters under the bed. It’s about the evil that men often do, if not necessarily in real life, then certainly within really nasty horror flicks like RATLINE. It;s an angry, humorless film filled with sex and gore, but writer/director Stanze is not one of these independent filmmakers who;s simply in love with his own nihilism. He’s working from his own smart script that attempts to say something important about the murderous energies at loose in society. RATLINE is not without flaws, but it’s an aggressively low budget piece of horror weirdness that defies expectations and is remarkably accomplished.

A ratline is a wartime term describing a system of escape routes for Nazis and RATLINE takes a long time getting to that definition. The film opens with the aftermath of a drug deal gone sour with bad blonde sisters Crystal and Kim (Emily Haack and Alex Del Monacco ) on the run from a pile of corpses with a pile of cash. They hide out in in Hermann, Missouri where they are taken in by their innocent, naive friend Penny (Sarah Wofford). A parallel plot briefly seems to follow a Satan-worshipping couple on the prowl for a human sacrifice. The two abduct a mysterious drifter named Frank (Jason Christ) who quickly and bloodily dispatches the pair in a scene featuring the first of the film;s several decapitations. Frank arrives in Hermann where he confronts Penny’s uncle about a Nazi flag in the old man’s possession that has superhuman powers. It turns out Frank is actually a Nazi villain who has stopped aging and is looking to reactivate an evil experiment left over from the waning days of the Third Reich.

RATLINE is a powerful narrative, told so directly and strongly that an audience mostly in the mood for a good old exploitation film may be rocked back on its psychic heels. It begins with a bang then lets the story and the mystery build at a deliberate pace while the direction never lets us out from under real dramatic tension. It takes its time getting to where it needs to go but Stanze has a good ear for dialogue and nuance. And there is evil in this movie. RATLINE makes great location work in the Missouri town of Hermann. It’s a charming and vibrant historic town, where tourists descend on its wineries, especially in the Fall (when it appears that RATLINE was shot there), but Stanze makes it look ruinous and malevolent. Especially effective is his use of an enormous background graveyard. The location doesn’t play into the plot but it shades the tranquil burg as a creepy corner of the earth, a metaphor for the surface and buried lives of the town. Stanze smartly bypasses his low budget by illustrating the Nazi back story in the form of an unearthed 16mm ‘educational’ film and it’s in this extended sequence that RATLINE best transcends its low budget. The scratchy, splicy B&W footage of gruesome experiments, atrocities and magic is as horrifying as the deepest level of hell and is reminiscent of the similarly demented Nazi flashback sequence in Jack Curtis’ 1964 cult item THE FLESH EATERS.

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RATLINE  (trailer)
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Ratline, directed by Eric Stanze (Deadwood Park, Scrapbook) and written by Stanze and Jason Christ, stars Emily Haack (Scrapbook, Savage Harvest 2: October Blood), Jason Christ (Deadwood Park, The Undertow), Sarah Swofford (Sugar Creek), Amanda Pemberton (alt-model “Apnea”), Alex Del Monacco (Playboy video and pin-up model), and DJ Vivona (Ice from the Sun, China White Serpentine). The film is produced by Jeremy Wallace, Eric Stanze, Jason Christ, and Jessie Seitz.

Synopsis
In a flash of blood-drenched violence, Crystal Brewer's life has taken an unexpected turn. On the run from the law for her part in a gruesome drug money heist gone wrong, she has become seduced into a seedy underworld of death and betrayal. Escaping into the night with her half-sister, Kim, Crystal seeks refuge in a small Midwestern town to make sense of her life-threatening ordeal. However, any plans for solace are soon derailed when she crosses paths with Frank Logan, a mysterious stranger with a bloody history of his own.

An ex-Nazi, who escaped battle-ravaged Europe after the war, Logan worked in the SS Paranormal Division, conducting experiments in the occult. Logan believes exposure to supernatural forces has rendered him immortal.

A diabolical plan has been set in motion to re-open the supernatural floodgate that was first explored by the SS during World War II. Crystal unwittingly becomes a key ingredient in Logan's plan.

Until now, this ex-Nazi believed that he had all the time in the world to pursue his devious agenda. Due to recent discoveries, however, he now knows that his lifespan is normal, and that his time on Earth is growing short. His was a story of evil. Now it is a story of mortality.

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Norton Wine: Approaching 200th Birthday some of the best red wine made in United States

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Considering Norton an Age Worthy Wine

June 17, 2011
by Joe Pollack  
palatepress.com
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Norton is the state grape of Missouri, which may sound a little odd for a grape that was first cultivated by Dr. Daniel Norborne Norton of Richmond, Va., in the 1820s. Just short of its 200th birthday, the dark, small berry produces some of the best red wine made in the United States. A dry, rich, deeply hued red, it is probably best compared to a Syrah, and it is also responsible for some excellent, well-aged port-style wines as well.

Not only good, but good for you, as the ads used to say. The grape has high concentrations of resveratrol, an excellent anti-oxidant. For an indigenous American grape, norton has some strange characteristics. It’s neither a labrusca (concord, scuppernong), nor a vinifera (cabernet sauvignon, merlot), but a Vitis aestivalis. That means it does not have the “foxy” flavor that so many of its American relatives display.

Norton has been grown commercially since at least 1830, and its wine has been produced in Hermann, Mo., and at various Virginia sites ever since. In 1873, a Norton from Hermann won a world championship at an international wine fair held in Vienna. Unfortunately, no one remembers the vintage date. The vines, which are resistant to phylloxera and other diseases, might have been among those shipped to California, and to France, in the 1870s, where they helped re-establish the grape industry.

The Missouri wine industry, practically obliterated by Prohibition, started a comeback around the middle of the last century, and the Nortons produced at Stone Hill, Mount Pleasant, St. James, and other pioneer wineries helped lead the way for an industry that has grown to more than 100 wineries across the state.

At the same time, Virginia wineries took an interest in the grape that often went by the names of Virginia seedling and cynthiana. Dennis Horton began making it in his winery near Charlottesville, and had the advantage of rhyme when he talked of Horton’s Norton. Another Virginia winery, Chrysalis, has some major plantings, and the grape is grown in Texas, too.

I’ve tasted the Horton version; it displays excellent fruit but it seems a touch lighter than the Missouri version. It might have been a difference because of a vintage variation, or because of a winemaker’s decision.

Stone Hill Winery (Hermann, Mo.) specializes in Norton, and Dave Johnson, the winemaker since 1978, probably has tasted more Norton than almost anyone. He is also an MC at an annual Stone Hill springtime event, a public tasting of ten years of Nortons, wines made from the grapes picked a half-year earlier to those with considerable age. The date also marks the release of the newest Norton to go on sale. In the most recent, we tasted the 2001 through 2010 wines, including a barrel sample of 2009 and the newly released 2008. The winery has been doing this more than 20 years and I have taken part in almost all of them. I think it is a rather courageous move, offering wines that have been aged in the winery’s cellar rather than expecting consumers to do their own aging.

So just how long should a Norton age? How long can it age?

Talking to three experienced winemakers with lots of time around the barrel, it was a little surprising to hear such unanimity.

Tony Kooyumjian, owner-winemaker at Augusta and Montelle wineries in Augusta, Mo., is a former airline pilot who has won many awards with his wines, and Hank Johnson, owner of Chaumette Winery in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., along with Dave Johnson, shared their thoughts, but were surprisingly unanimous in their thinking. The Johnsons, by the way, are not related.

Stone Hill Winey Cross winner of Best Norton and Best Dry Red from last year’s Missouri Wine Competition.

All three agreed that about 15 years, even under optimum conditions, is about as far as one can go in finding Nortons that still are enjoyable, and while Tony noted he has drunk some twenty year old Nortons that were excellent, he added. “They’re an exception.” They also pointed out that a general change in winemaking style with Norton over the last 10-15 years has given them longer lives. A lower pH, they agree, has given them more stability.

And all thought that well made Nortons improved slowly in bottle for the first five years, then jumped ahead and reached their peak in the next three or four. Hank suggested that a little less tannin benefited some of the Nortons.

I have been drinking Nortons for a long time, too, and I am very fond of the wines. With some good ones, I have blown away wine snobs who decried the grape’s ability to make world class wines. But all the expert commentary, from me, from winery owners, from winemakers, from connoisseurs, is well-meaning speculation, perhaps improved by the sheer numbers of Nortons we have tasted. All vintages are different, all terroir is different, all storage conditions are different, and all palates differ.

I think we can agree, however, on the fact that Norton can be a great red wine, needs 8-10 years of bottle age to reach its peak, holds that level for 4-5 more years, then loses it.

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Rare Depression Era Color Photos Release by Library Congress

Steal of a deal: the Grand Grocery Company in Lincoln, Nebraska, 1942.

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 Distributing surplus commodities in St Johns, Arizona, October 1940

 Servicing an A-20 bomber. Langley Field, Virginia, July 1942

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In the bleak light of the Depression: Rare colour photographs of the era that defined a generation

By Daily Mail Reporter
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May 19, 2011
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It was an era that defined a generation. The Great Depression marked the bitter and abrupt end to the post-World War 1 bubble that left America giddy with promise in the 1920s. Near the end of the 1930s the country was beginning to recover from the crash, but many in small towns and rural areas were still poverty-stricken. These rare photographs are some of the few documenting those iconic years in colour. The photographs and captions are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color. The images, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, shed a bleak new light on a world now gone with the wind.

 Farmers planting corn along a river in north-eastern Tennessee, May 1940.

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, boys hauling crates of peaches from the orchard to the shipping shed in Delta County, Colorado, September 1940

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Chinese Porn Beats Avatar Box Office Record 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy

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3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy beats opening day box office record set by Avatar

A PIONEERING 3D erotic comedy has taken the Hong Kong box office by storm.

"People have always thought that you need 3D for this kind of content."

Next stop, the world.
The Cantonese-language production 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy had earned 17 million Hong Kong dollars ($2.2 million) as of Tuesday since opening last week, according to figures provided by producer Stephen Shiu.
That's nearly seven times the total take so far for Hollywood thriller Scream 4, which has earned $HK2.5 million ($320,000).
Sex and Zen — a remake of a 1991 Hong Kong movie by the same name — features full nudity and camouflaged lovemaking scenes but does not show actual sexual intercourse.
The movie, which stars Japanese porn stars Hara Saori and Suo Yukiko and Hong Kong actress Vonnie Liu, tells the story of a sexually frustrated scholar in ancient China who loses himself in the harem of a duke he befriends.
The film brought in $HK2.78 million ($360,000) on its opening day last Thursday, eclipsing the previous first-day record set by James Cameron's 2009 3D sci-fi epic Avatar, which earned $HK2.63 million ($340,000) on its first day.
Shiu, whose father Stephen Shiu Sr served as executive producer on the original Sex and Zen, said he believes he has capitalised on a huge desire for 3D erotic movies.
"We met people's expectations. People have always thought that you need 3D technology for this kind of content. So people were very curious," he said.
Sex and Zen bills itself as the world's first 3D erotic film, although Shiu acknowledges that a South Korean production — last year's Natali — hit the market before his release did.
However, Shiu's movie is still a pioneering attempt at using new 3D technology in theatrical releases of erotic films, given that the market in the West is now largely dominated by DVD releases.
The movie's Hong Kong performance has also been boosted by an influx of mainland Chinese viewers, whom Shiu estimates accounted for up to half of the business at some theatres.
Although former British colony Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, it still maintains a separate political system — and film regulatory regime.
While Hong Kong has a film ratings system, mainland China doesn't, which effectively rules out erotic content.
Sex and Zen received a restricted rating in Hong Kong, allowing only audiences aged 18 and older to see the film.
It's not the first time mainland viewers have traveled to Hong Kong to evade censorship by Chinese authorities. Many mainlanders crossed over to watch the uncut version of Oscar-winning Taiwanese director Ang Lee's sexually explicit 2007 spy thriller Lust, Caution.
Hong Kong theatre operators have also sought to cash in on the novelty factor by staging women-only screenings.
Sex and Zen has also been released in about a dozen theatres in Chinese communities in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, but Shiu didn't have box office results.
The movie is scheduled to be released in South Korea on May 12, and in France, Italy and India in June. Shiu is also targeting a May release for Singapore, although the filmmakers are still working with local censors on the final cut.

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'Born To Be Wild' 3D Jumps Off Screen MOVIE REVIEW On Location VIDEO

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Release Date: 8 April 2011
Genre: Documentary
Cast: Morgan Freeman, Birute Galdikas, Daphne Sheldrick
Director: David Lickley
Writer: Drew Fellman
MPAA: N/A
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

Plot:
Born to be Wild 3D is an inspired story of love, dedication and the remarkable bond between humans and animals. This film documents orphaned orangutans and elephants and the extraordinary people who rescue and raise them—saving endangered species one life at a time. Stunningly captured in IMAX 3D, Born to be Wild 3D is a heartwarming adventure transporting moviegoers into the lush rainforests of Borneo with world-renowned primatologist Dr. Birute Galdikas, and across the rugged Kenyan savannah with celebrated elephant authority Dame Daphne Sheldrick, as they and their team rescue, rehabilitate and return these incredible animals back to the wild.


Narrated by Academy-Award® winner Morgan Freeman, Born to be Wild 3D is directed by David Lickley and written and produced by Drew Fellman. This Warner Bros. film is produced and distributed by IMAX Corporation and will open April 8, 2011 exclusively in IMAX theatres.

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'Born to Be Wild' jumps off screen in 3-D IMAX format

  BY JOE WILLIAMS • Post-Dispatch Film Critic
post-dispatch.com  
April 8, 2011
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"Born to be Wild" is a good nature film — and a technical achievement.
You can see this short 3-D documentary only in the digital IMAX format, but it's worth seeking out, especially if you've been burned by the bad, dark 3-D imagery in cartoons and fantasy flicks. The technology in "Born to Be Wild" is so immersive, the story is almost incidental.
Fortunately, we get the bonus of cute baby animals and inspirational humans. Soothing narrator Morgan Freeman introduces us to two remarkable women who run preserves for orphaned animals. Daphne Sheldrick finds and feeds Kenyan elephants whose parents have been killed by poachers. Birute Galdikas shelters baby orangutans in Borneo, where their rainforest habitat has been replaced by palm- and rubber-tree plantations.


The message of the movie is that these animals belong in the wild, and both stories end with bittersweet scenes. A longer movie might tell us how the humans feel about their work. But the love that flows in both directions speaks for itself.

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"Born to be Wild"
Three stars (out of four) • Rating G • Run time 40 minutes • Content Nothing objectionable • Where St. Louis Mills

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'Source Code' Smart, Original Sci-Fi Thriller: At the Movies April 15, 2011

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'Source Code' a smart, original sci-fi thriller

By Tom Charity, Special to CNN

April 1, 2011

(CNN) -- Prepare to be blown away -- again and again and again.
Yes, "Source Code" is that good. But it's also true in a literal sense: Being repeatedly blown away is part of the mission facing a disoriented and increasingly distressed U.S. Army officer named Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) as he tries to find the terrorist who planted a bomb on a Chicago commuter train.
This is a most unusual suicide mission. For one thing, the bomb already went off, but Stevens is sent to relive the experience through a process that blurs the lines between ESP, time travel and quantum theory.
By tapping into the lingering short-term memory cells of one of the bomber's victims, scientists are able to "place" Stevens in the man's head -- and more than that, in his shoes -- for the eight minutes leading up to the blast. At the moment of death, Stevens re-emerges into what he thinks of as the real world, only to be sent back into the train with another eight minutes to fish out the killer.
The science is pure fantasy, the mother of McGuffins, but director Duncan Jones does his level best to keep us as off balance as his hero, whose grasp of the here and now seems to have been fried some time before the movie begins. At first he assumes he's in a training exercise, the Rolls Royce of role-playing simulations.
Yet it's too real, and too painful, for that. Each time he goes back into the train, the past becomes as malleable as the present -- except that as the timer ticks down, it always ends the same way.
iReporter interviews the cast
Imagine a cross between "Groundhog Day" and "Murder on the Orient Express" and you're halfway there. Stevens has to negotiate his way through a set pattern of external events, including the conversation of the woman sitting across from him (Michelle Monaghan), and the progress of the conductor, while he tries to build up a mental dossier on each suspicious passenger in the crowded commuter car.
But Bill Murray wasn't blown to smithereens every eight minutes, and Ben Ripley's ingenious script isn't really a whodunit. That's the least satisfying aspect of the story, and only Stevens' disorientation excuses his poor deductive skills.
If you think of the film as a kind of recurring nightmare in the paranoid style of Philip K. Dick you're nearer the mark. Stevens' superiors (Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright) try to keep him focused on their real world objectives, but he will keep drifting -- his fleeting connections with the doomed passengers somehow seem more important.
iReport: 4 out of 5 for "Source Code"
As authoritative an exercise in fractured storytelling as Christopher Nolan's "Memento," "Source Code" represents a real advance for Jones, whose only previous film was the micro-budget sci-fi "Moon."
Impressive as that was on a technical level, "Moon" felt as emotionally remote as its marooned hero. "Source Code" is an altogether richer and more accessible experience -- the existential popcorn flick that Gyllenhaal's "Donnie Darko" director Richard Kelly hasn't quite been able to pull off.
iReport: Moviegoers react after seeing the film

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Hermann Mo News Adds ESPN Sports to Web Site

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In our efforts to bring Hermann, Missouri  and our World Wide Viewers more news options in ONE SINGLE NEWS SITE, we are pleased to offer the following ESPN3 gadget to our site.  You will find it's permanent location in the RIGHT HAND COLUMN of this site.


This ESPN3 gadget offers recent breaking sport stories (Mouse over the right hand side of the gadget to scroll thru the stories and then just click onto a story to link-up with it.  You can also click on "Watch Live Streaming Sports Online - ESPN3" at the TOP of the gadget and Watch full live streaming sporting events online on ESPN3, including football, baseball, cricket, soccer, and basketball events. 

We hope you enjoy this new feature on HermannMoNews.blogspot.com
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Angry Birds Game Facebook App Coming Soon More Features

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Angry Birds to Fly into Facebook?

March 12, 2011

After accumulating $42 million from investors, Angry Birds developer Rovio has some big plans for the game.

Y STEPHANIE STOUFFER
Anchor: Jennifer Meckles

The world’s no. 1 selling app is getting even bigger. Angry Birds hit the jackpot with its first shot at fundraising -- $42 million from investors. The game’s developer, Rovio, announced the massive investment this week -- and its big plans to go social and become a brand name. 

Now known as a major player in the mobile gaming industry, Rovio is hoping to fly into social networking -- and land success on Facebook. Friends will be able to play Angry Birds with each other online. Rovio’s "Mighty Eagle" Peter Vesterbacka hinted to Wired UK back in January that it’s putting a new spin on the Facebook version.

“There will be completely new aspects to it that just haven't been experienced on any other platform … The pigs will have a more prominent role.”

And he went on to reveal even bigger plans for the company...

“We're building an integrated entertainment franchise where merchandising, games, movies, TV, cartoons and comics all come together … Like Disney 2.0.”

GamesBeat is calling this mobile gaming nirvana, citing mobile phone users still amount to five times the number of Facebook users.

“The deal shows that at least one mobile game company is able to attract marquee investors and a valuation ... that social game companies attracted in their run-up to the big time. At some point, the industry will flip, with Facebook becoming the smaller part and mobile becoming the bigger part.”

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'lol' Today's 'Cool' or 'OK' No longer Hip but Hard to Shake

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To LOL, or not LOL? That is the question

MARTHA IRVINE | AP National Writer 
Sunday, March 6, 2011
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CHICAGO -- There was a time when LOL - "laughing out loud" - was so simple.
If I thought something in a casual online conversation was funny, I typed it. If I wanted to let someone know I was kidding in an e-mail or an instant message, same.
I might even have felt a little cool, using inside lingo that, at one time, was exclusive to the online world. (You know I am not the only one who thought so.)
Today, though, I am sensing a shift, even in my own thoughts, about LOL. Certainly, it is as ubiquitous as ever. Just search for it on Twitter or Facebook to see how often people use it. Not exactly deep and meaningful stuff, mind you, but there sure is a lot of it.
Perhaps that is why, at least in some circles, LOL has lost its cachet. And at its worst, it is making people a little cranky.
It is overused and meaningless, they say. It "epitomizes lazy, and makes people a liar" says Seth Ginsburg, a 29-year-old New Yorker. "Are they really laughing out loud?"
Comedian Demetri Martin has joked that he uses "LTMQ - laughing to myself quietly."
"It's more honest," he says.
I laugh every time I hear that joke - out loud, no less - because I too have this internal debate: I tell myself that I will type LOL only if I'm really "LOL-ing."
But I fail, regularly. It is just too easy to type (two keys, one finger or a thumb, if it is a cell phone), too convenient a response.
Sure, there are LOL haters out there, seemingly more all the time. But for better or worse, this modern-day acronym has become ingrained in our lexicon and, for some, has evolved in meaning.
"It's brevity at its finest, and it gets a point across," says 25-year-old Arzi Rachman, another New Yorker.
Try as some might, LOL will not be easily shaken.
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The origins of this three-letter acronym, in its current form, are not easy to pin down. Most likely, it was a gamer or hacker who first used LOL (or "lol") on an electronic message board, probably sometime in the 1980s.
Its use became more common on early Internet services such as CompuServe and Netcom. By the mid-1990s, when even more people joined America Online, the term LOL hit the mainstream in chat rooms and in instant messaging.
It morphed, as well. If you thought something was really, really funny, for instance, you might type ROFL - "rolling on the floor laughing" - or LMAO - "laughing my (you know what) off."
By 2004, fatigue was setting in. LOL was added to the "List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness," updated each year at Lake Superior State University in Michigan.
Regardless, LOL went forth and multiplied and has since seeped into spoken language.
"At times, I do say LOL," says Rachman, a college student, "usually to accentuate sarcasm, or something along those lines."
Of course, when speaking of text conversations, one cannot forget the sideways smiley - :-) - which you might call LOL's older cousin.
Scott Fahlman, a research professor in the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon University, often gets credit for first suggesting that emoticon nearly 30 years ago. His fellow academics quickly embraced it and ushered in its everyday online use.
The sideways smiley has gotten bashed too -- it's been called the equivalent of "i's" dotted with hearts.
But asked if he has ever used LOL, Fahlman will tell you, "Nope." He draws the line.
"It sort of strikes me as kind of - this is going to sound sexist - a teenage girl thing," he says, "a high school thing."
But is that really true? Does the use of LOL really fall along generational lines? Was the implication that some of us are too old to use LOL?
"One of the things that's pretty clear - whether LOL is in or passe - it depends on your social circle," says Naomi Baron, a linguist at American University who wrote the book "Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World."
As more people of all ages forge online lives, those social circles may be less divided by generation, though not completely.
In surveying college students about their use of online or texted terms, for example, Baron has noticed a difference in the way they use LOL. For them, it is often used as a simple acknowledgment that may have nothing to do with laughter. Instead, LOL might mean "oh," ''got it," ''heard you" or "really?"
That use might bother some people; Baron also has colleagues who scold her when she does not correct students who greet her with a "hey!"
But she says that kind of evolution in language happens all the time. Sometimes, it's for practical reasons or convenience. Other times, it simply is a style or trend.
In the 18th and early 19th centuries in England, Baron notes, it was commonplace to sign a letter using "Yr Hum Serv," an abbreviation for "Your Humble Servant."
"Everybody knew what that meant," she says. "It was just convention."
Today, it is happening on Twitter with "hash tags" - the number symbol. Originally meant to mark terms or events that users may search for, people have started using hash tags to highlight the equivalent of a funny or snarky side comment. That use has since transferred to Facebook, where hash tags do not even apply.
"It's all part of marking your territory," Baron says. "People mark it linguistically. They mark it by dress. They mark it by how many earrings they have in their ears - you name it."
All of that makes sense to Ben Huh, who heads the Seattle-based company that oversees popular humor websites such as "I Can Has Cheezburger?" and "FAIL Blog." His sites allow users to share funny videos and photos, which he and his staff call "LOLs" or "lolz."
"I don't actually remember the first time I started using this lingo because it seemed to me that it was just part of life," says Huh, who is 33. "I didn't adopt the use of Internet cultural languages. I just grew up with it."
So for him, using LOL feels as natural as saying "OK," or "cool." He also could not care less whether a person who uses LOL really is laughing out loud.
"It's like the suburban dad who wants to put his hat on backward," he says, "versus the kid who puts a hat on backward because that's just what they do."
It is not necessarily a matter of age, he says, but whether it is really just who you are.
I have decided that LOL is me, sometimes.
Just like I do not send text messages to my mother, because they never would see the light of day, I probably would not use LOL with my boss or an acquaintance or any number of people who kvetched about LOL when I told them I was writing a story about it.
They are more likely to see the buttoned-up purist in me who avoids cliches "like the plague," as one of my college professors once encouraged me to do.
But then there is the me who has the urge to wear my pajamas to the coffee shop on a lazy Sunday morning.
She uses LOL, and wishes the world would lighten up, just a little.
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Online:
I Can Has Cheezburger? http://icanhascheezburger.com/
Fahlman's original smiley proposal: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sef/Orig-Smiley.htm
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Martha Irvine is an AP national writer. She can be reached at mirvine@ap.org

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'Adjustment Bureau' Matt Damon at his Best # 2 Box Office $ 20.9 million VIDEO REVIEW

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Matt Damon paces riveting 'Adjustment Bureau'

BY CALVIN WILSON St. Louis Post-Dispatch
March 3, 2011
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David Norris (Matt Damon) has what it takes to make it big in politics. His speeches elicit rapt attention not only for what he has to say, but for the way he says it. But unlike some politicians, Norris is no cynical manipulator; he really wants to make a difference in people's lives.
Problem is, aside from his career, his life is meaningless. But that changes when he meets Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt). A dancer for a hip New York company, she's as committed to being a success as he is. Yet, when they're together, nothing else seems to matter.
Do David and Elise share the same destiny? Not necessarily. They've attracted the attention of ominous men in hats who may or may not be angels but who go about their business with bureaucratic precision. Their latest action item: tearing the couple apart.
"The Adjustment Bureau" is an exhilarating balancing act, at once a science-fiction romp, a paranoid thriller and a philosophical treatise. It's the directorial debut of George Nolfi, who adapted the script from a story by Philip K. Dick, the mind behind "Blade Runner" and "Minority Report."

As the flabbergasted David, Damon — who starred in the Nolfi-scripted films "Ocean's Twelve" and "The Bourne Ultimatum" — turns in one of his best and most charismatic performances. And Blunt, best known for playing a snotty fashion fanatic in "The Devil Wears Prada," is thoroughly appealing as the smitten Elise.
Suspenseful, romantic and wryly funny, "The Adjustment Bureau" is the kind of film that reaffirms one's faith in Hollywood.

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'Rango' Johnny Depp Rope in Top Spot Box Office $ 38m opening

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Mar 6,2011 Depp's `Rango' corrals $38M opening at box office By DERRIK J. LANG AP Entertainment Writer

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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- "Rango" has lassoed the top spot at the box office.

The animated Paramount film featuring Johnny Depp as the voice of a Wild West chameleon sheriff rode into town with a $38 million debut, according to studio estimates released Sunday.

"Rango," which was directed by "Pirates of the Caribbean" film franchise maestro Gore Verbinski, is the first animated feature from Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects studio founded by George Lucas in 1975.

"The draw for audiences was certainly Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski, but when you look at the reviews, it was 88 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a level that Pixar operates at," said Don Harris, Paramount's executive vice president for distribution. "This is a film that has a shot at being nominated for Academy Awards this time next year."

Universal's mind-bending thriller "The Adjustment Bureau," starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, debuted in the No. 2 spot with $20.9 million. CBS Films' fantasy tale "Beastly" with Alex Pettyfer and Vanessa Hudgens opened at No. 3 with $10.1 million, rounding out the weekend's top three films. It was another down weekend for Hollywood, with grosses coming in less than the corresponding weekend last year.

"Comparisons to a year ago are tough considering that's when 'Alice in Wonderland' opened with $116.1 million," said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian, referring to the Tim Burton film. "We're not even in that realm this year, so this is our second down weekend in a row. We've only had one up weekend at the box office versus a year ago. There's this malaise overtaking the marketplace."

The raunchy Warner Bros. comedy "Hall Pass" stayed committed in its second weekend in the No. 4 position with $9 million. The 3-D animated Walt Disney romance "Gnomeo and Juliet" also kept that loving feeling going in its fourth weekend with $6.9 million in the No. 5 spot, despite an animated showdown against "Rango," which was not released in 3-D.

"The King's Speech," the royal chronicle from the Weinstein Co. that ruled last week's Academy Awards with 12 wins, maintained the No. 7 place this weekend with $6.5 million. Dergarabedian noted that audiences who wanted to see the Oscar front-runner starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush likely rushed to see the film before the Academy Awards telecast.

The weekend's other wide release, Relativity Media's throwback comedy "Take Me Home Tonight" starring Topher Grace and Anna Faris, only took home $3.5 million in the No. 11 spot. The box-office war will heat up with another barrage of movies opening next weekend, which includes the sci-fi saga "Battle: Los Angeles" and the PG-13 fairytale "Red Riding Hood."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to 

Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Rango," $38 million.

2. "The Adjustment Bureau," $20.9 million.

3. "Beastly," $10.1 million

4. "Hall Pass," $9 million.

5. "Gnomeo and Juliet," $6.9 million.

6. "Unknown," $6.6 million.

7. "The King's Speech," $6.5 million.

8. "Just Go With It," $6.5 million.

9. "I Am Number Four," $5.7 million.

10. "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never," $4.3 million.

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Online:

http://www.hollywood.com/boxoffice 

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Meet Mr 'Most Typical' Human Face Revealed National Geographic

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Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

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National Geographic Reveals 'Most Typical' Human Face

March 6, 2011

BY KRISTEN BRODY
Anchor: Salem Solomon

You're watching multisource world video news analysis from Newsy.

The most common face on the planet... there’s a high school superlative you didn’t think about winning. After a yearlong study of global demographics, National Geographic has revealed the world’s most typical human being.


“Researchers conclude that a 28-year-old Han Chinese man is the most typical person on the planet. There are nine million of them. The picture is a composite of 200,000 faces. This part of the series on the human race called Population Seven Billion.”
(Video Source: WMAR)

Fox News calls the magazine’s latest project, Population Seven Billion, a quote- “ambitious effort,” and offers a little more detail on the results.
“They determined that the most typical person is Chinese, as 19% of humanity is, and speaks Mandarin -- as 13% of people do.”


However, the anchors over at Philadelphia’s WTXF aren’t impressed.


“Changing face?  What did they composite all of the faces in the world to come up with one face? I don’t know. It’s weird. National Geographic is doing that? Ya, guess they gotta sell more magazines. They gotta come up with something better than that.”


The Wall Street Journal says National Geographic’s findings make sense when looking at the bigger picture.


“The need to keep so many young men occupied and satisfied helps explain China’s stunning economic development over the past few decades.”


But NatGeo went further than identifying the most typical person’s gender, race, and nationality -- the study also suggests this person is right-handed, has a cell phone, but does not have a bank account.
(Video Source: Youtube)



But as Phoenix ABC affiliate KNXV reports, Mr. Han Chinese will be overthrown within our lifetimes.


“They’re saying that in 20 years the most typical person is going to reside in India. So, it’s gonna change. Very interesting. So he has a very popular face? Yes.”


If you’re curious about how typical YOU are in the world today, check out this link. Click Here to Read More.

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Android Takes Smartphone Lead Available on More Phones # 1 Cell Phone

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Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

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Nielsen Study Shows Android's Rapid Climb

March 5, 2011

New data from Nielsen shows Android OS slightly ahead of Blackberry and iOS, and while it's still close Android's comeback is impressive.

BY: STUART DOWNING 

ANCHOR: ANA COMPAIN-ROMERO

You're watching multisource tech video news analysis from Newsy.

New data from Nielsen shows it’s hard to tell who’s winning the U.S. smartphone war. At first glance, it looks like Google’s Android.

Nielsen released the data on its blog, saying...

“When it comes to consumer marketshare by operating system, Android (29%) appears to be pulling ahead of RIM Blackberry (27%) and Apple iOS (27%)”

But ComputerWorld explains there’s a catch: Android is simply available on more phones.

“Thats because RIM is the only maker of its BlackBerry devices and Apple is the only maker of iPhones, while the Android OS is used by several manufacturers.”

A blogger on Gather notes taking the lead is impressive, but this is truly a “come from behind” victory.

“While [Android’s] numbers may not seem dominating, remember that Android was at around 5 percent of the market just a year ago.”

According to The Nielsen data,  long-time king Blackberry’s has officially been dethroned. A blogger at TG Daily suggests it’s due to the smartphones becoming less work and more play.

“...Companies would buy Blackberry phones in bulk, sometimes hundreds or even thousands at a time. No one really expected enterprise customers to start switching over, en masse, to the new consumer platforms of Android and iOS, but that's exactly what it happening.”

Android’s rise highlights the concerns of an Apple-Google duopoly. In February, Nokia partnered with Microsoft instead of Google specifically to avoid giving Google too much power. The Wall Street Journal notes phone makers around the world have tough decisions ahead of them.

“It’s going to be something to look at this year as Google continues to gain marketshare, how the carriers and device makers deal with that and do they slow it down or... I don’t know ... it’s definitely a growing force and the carriers may want to change the way they deal with it going forward. It remains to be seen.”

Long term trends show while Android is on the rise and Blackberry is falling behind, iPhone’s marketshare held it’s ground. So is there any stopping the Android army? Tell us what you think in our comments section.


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iTunes User Friendly in the Works unlimited repeatable downloads on Multiple Devices ?

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Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

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Repeated iTunes Downloads on Multiple Devices?

March 4, 2011

iTunes may be allowing unlimited repeatable downloads in order for consumers to pay for a song once, but access it on all their web music devices.

BY MOLLY BOLAND

You're watching multisource entertainment video news analysis from Newsy.

While techies obsess over details about Apple’s new iPad 2, iTunes is also grabbing some headlines.

“...Apple is in talks with record companies to make it easier for iTunes customers to access music they bought across multiple devices and to give users a permanent back up. That means we will be able the get back songs even if the original downloads are lost or damaged...” (KSDK)

According to a Bloomberg report, Apple is looking into making digital music access more flexible.

“Apple and the record labels are eager to maintain demand for digital downloading amid rising popularity for Internet services such as Pandora Media Inc., which don’t sell tracks and instead let users stream songs from the Web, whatever the device.”
“A deal would provide iTunes customers with a permanent backup of music purchases … The service also would allow downloads to iPad, iPod and iPhone devices linked to the same iTunes account...”

You would also be able to download to any device without paying a second time. Sound convenient? TG Daily writes -- an idea like this should have been in the works for a while now and called the current iTunes system for keeping track of your music...

“...needlessly cumbersome, and now Apple seems to feel the same way.”

The record companies rumored to be involved include Universal, Sony, Warner Music Group, and EMI. PCWorld heard the rumors but doubts the record labels would be so willing to cooperate.

“The big question is what kind of incentives Apple could offer the major recording labels to go ahead with the company's scheme. The music labels have been wary of Apple in the past, and may be reluctant to give up even more control of their product to consumers.”

iTunes currently accounts for almost 70 percent of all digital downloads, so some are wondering -- why fix it if it isn’t broken? Some analysts are saying it’s an effort to keep up with live streaming opportunities and make up for a decrease in sales in other areas.

“The problem for Apple and the labels right now is that music shoppers aren’t gobbling up enough digital downloads to offset the decline in CD sales. ... It remains to be seen if this sort of flexibility will be enough [to] ween cheapskate music lovers … off of free services like Pandora and Slacker.” (Laptop Magazine)

A writer from Time’s Techland has another theory -- Apple is trying to corner more of the online music market.

“If Apple extends this re-downloading feature to iTunes-purchased tracks but doesn't let you upload tracks you've purchased elsewhere to its servers, people may ultimately decide that it's just easier to buy music solely from iTunes.”

If the big deals do fall into place, Apple fans can expect an announcement by mid-2011. (SOC)
 

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