I bet if Hasbro gave him a license to do it, this dude would make a fortune mass-producing this getup.
Ordinarily I'm automatically inclined to disregard this kind of statement as extreme alarmism (like how I never take any "climate experts" from the United Nations seriously). But given the number of banks and more than a few of those being larger ones that have gone down in just the past year, I do have to think this is something that merits serious credence.
But hey: if worse comes to worst, I guess the Federal Reserve only has to inject another five trillion dollars or so into the economy and thinks will be fixed. Right? Right?!?
Well, ever since the third and final installment The Return of the King came out more than a half-decade ago, there've been whispers on the wind about Jackson adapting The Hobbit as well, as a prequel film. And for those of us who've been paying attention, it's been a very crazy ride toward no assurance that this would be happening at all (conflicts with the Tolkien estate, Jackson's dispute with New Line, etc.)... which makes me hope all the more that it's gonna go down this way.
GeekTyrant reported last week that The Hobbit will be THREE movies, with Guillermo del Toro directing the first two chapters and Peter Jackson helming the third. In and of itself that's hella kewl... though I have to wonder how there could possibly be enough material from The Hobbit novel to justify three films (and it might be stretching it too much across two, but in Jackson and del Toro will I trust).
And now GeekTyrant is also passing along word that all three movies will be shot in stereoscopic 3-D.
Whoa.
Smaug the Dragon. In 3-D.
That fries my retinas just thinking about how utterly insanely overwhelmingly spectacular that might be.If the report is true, dare we also hope for IMAX?
(Nah, that would be way too much more crazy eye candy than we possibly deserve.)
Throw in Howard Shore returning to score this, and this might be the definitive movie trilogy of the next decade, just as The Lord of the Rings has been for this one. Now all we need is for Peter Jackson to do a six-film movie adaptation of The Silmarillion and the trifecta will be complete! :-)
Prosecutors say he took advantage of a warranty program by guessing the serial numbers of iPods still under warranty and claiming they were broken.Actually rather clever. I have to admire him for coming up with such a plan, even though it was obviously the wrong direction to direct such creativity toward.The company sent him 9,000 new ones over a year and a half.
Investigators say he turned around and sold those on the Internet.
Schnatter used the leftover dough to start up Papa John's Pizza. Everyone knows how huge a success that turned out to be, how John Schnatter has become a multi-millionaire from that initial investment.
And yet, John Schnatter still needed something to be happy. He wanted to be reunited with his favorite muscle car. So Schnatter went on a nationwide quest to hunt it down.
Last week, with some help from car enthusiast website Jalopnik.com, Schnatter's dream came true. The Camaro was in the ownership of Jeff Robinson of Flatwoods, Kentucky (not far from the headquarters of Papa John's in Louisville). And Robinson is now $250,000 richer after transferring the title of the car over to Schnatter.
Here's John Schnatter with the Camaro in 1983, and Schnatter with it today...
After getting his Camaro back, Schnatter said...
"The Camaro represents what I gave up to start Papa John's. Words cannot capture the emotions I am feeling in getting back that part of my history. I didn't have much back then, but for my business dreams to come true, I had to part with the one true asset I had to my name, and even then, there were no promises of success. I never gave up hope that someday I would get that car back. The foundation of Papa John's was built on my decision to sell the Camaro, and while it may not appear to be a huge sacrifice to some, it represents my roots in this business. And, perhaps it can serve as proof to others that hard decisions today can pay off for you later, if you're willing to believe in what you are doing. I'm extremely grateful for the success of Papa John's, and really wanted this critical piece of our history back."What an awesome story! And methinks there's a lot of good lesson here about success, having faith in one's self and having hope that no matter how hard the sacrifice, it will be worth it in the end. It certainly did for John Schnatter. So it can be for anybody.
I'm either losing my interest in Star Wars (probably not) or just incredibly lazy when it comes to checking out new television (more likely). Whatever it is, at long last I'm getting to see Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the CGI-animated series on Cartoon Network set between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.And against what I assumed would be my reaction, I must profess that I am very pleasantly surprised and delighted at this show. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is some of the saga's finest storytelling. The action and dialogue is vintage classic Star Wars, and in many ways hearkens back to the tone of the original trilogy. I've only watched a few episodes so far, and I'm told that what I've seen isn't even the best of the series: that better yet is still coming for me to behold.
So if you're a Star Wars fan too and have been wondering about The Clone Wars series: I'll stake my reputation as a true fan (maybe too true, LOL!) on telling y'all that this is something that you should look into. And I'll definitely be buying the complete Season 1 DVD set when it comes out soon.
If it were not for his last name and his family, Ted Kennedy would have gone nowhere. The choices that he made as a person and that he continued to make would have been too grave a taint.
And then, to have held the same elected position since 1962 is way too much. I've known of some people who had been in office for just as long and even longer, but I'm hard pressed to think of any that came to think of their post as something they were entitled to. Ted Kennedy did however, and it thoroughly corrupted his character as a supposed public servant.
The only other thing that I can add is that I sincerely hope he made peace with God before passing away. I don't think that's impossible for anyone.
Yes, I'm up way early (or is that way late?) awaiting a new song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. But can ya blame me? Especially since Weird Al has bestowed upon us a better summer than we deserve with his "Internet Leaks" collection. A short while ago the fourth and final song from the set was released: "Ringtone". It's a Queen-style anthem celebrating/condemning cellular phone ringtones (duh!). And as always, it's uproariously funny! Can this Al guy make a song about anything or what?Here's the video for "Ringtone" on YouTube, directed by Josh Faure-Brac and Dustin McLean of Current TV's SuperNews. And on the video's page you can find links where you can purchase the "Ringtone" song or the "Ringtone" video from various online outlets like iTunes. Or you can purchase both and put more coin in Al's pocket (as sound an investment as anything these days).
And if you haven't purchased any of the "Internet Leaks" collection yet (though Lord only knows why) you can buy the whole shebang at iTunes with one lump sum. Or, perish in flames.
It's your choice. But not really.
So the very next day when I punched inZhang, a worker in a motorcycle factory in China, was no doubt thinking of Johnny Cash's 1976 hit single when he embarked upon his scheme to steal a motorcycle by smuggling one part at a time home with him. "I don't have that much money, so I came up with the idea of taking the parts home and assembling them on my own," he said.
With my big lunchbox and with help from my friends
I left that day with a lunch box full of gears
Now, I never considered myself a thief
GM wouldn't miss just one little piece
Especially if I strung it out over several years.-- "One Piece At A Time"
Johnny Cash
(written by Wayne Kemp)
It took him five years but he was able to pull it off. And then he was pulled over as soon as he hit the road for lack of driver's license and title to the bike. Zhang was fined, put on probation and had to return the motorcycle to the factory (and presumably fired).
(It also reminds me of that episode of M*A*S*H where Radar is trying to mail a jeep back home one piece at at time :-)
I heared you people behaved yourselves pretty well while I was gone. For that you can buy a candy bar and pretend I got it for you :-P
Probably some fresh and new stuff when I resume next week :-)
Haven't been able to find it on YouTube yet, so for the time being you'll have to watch it in Quicktime format. Which may be for the best anyway, since Quicktime is much more high-res.
Avatar certainly looks good. So far as what the story is supposed to be about, I'm not quite jazzed about it. Yet, anyway. But hey, I've been pleasantly surprised about a movie before, maybe this one will too.
Avatar opens this coming December 18th.
Archaeologists working on the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea are saying that a cave discovered there in 1961 may have been a take-out barbecue diner used around twelve thousand years ago. Except that instead of beef or pork, those ancient Cypriots were feasting on small hippopotamuses... and the human's appetite may have helped drive the species into extinction.Thousands of prehistoric hippo bones found in Cyprus are adding to a growing debate on the possible role of humans in the extinction of larger animals 12,000 years ago.I wonder what kind of sauce they used on those hippo ribs.First discovered by an 11-year-old boy in 1961, a tiny rock-shelter crammed with hippo remains radically rewrote archaeological accounts of when this east Mediterranean island was first visited by humans.
It has fired speculation of being the first takeaway diner used by humans to cook and possibly dispatch meat. It also adds to growing speculation, controversial in some quarters, that humans could have eaten some animals to extinction.
In Cyprus, where islanders' love of the barbecue is alive and well to this day, it would have been the pygmy hippo, or "Phanourios minutus," an endemic species resembling a large pig which apparently vanished around the same time people appeared on the island...
Novak embodied and epitomized everything that it's supposed to mean to be a reporter: working hard, cultivating sources, and never taking anything at face value. A lot of people are calling him a "conservative" commentator. I don't know if that could really be said about Novak. He was the kind of journalist who, better than most, separated his politics from his profession. But when he had to weigh in on the issues he did it on his own terms. As Novak once observed: "Always love your country — but never trust your government!"
And it goes without saying: Robert Novak was a damned brilliant writer.
And then today comes word that Don Hewitt has died at age 86 from pancreatic cancer.
Hewitt's place in television history would have been secured for any number of things: the first nationwide satellite news broadcast, producing and directing the presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon, and a bunch more during his more than half a century at CBS.
But it was his idea for a new format of television journalism that Hewitt will be most remembered for. As he wrote in his autobiography "The formula is simple, and it's reduced to four words every kid in the world knows: Tell me a story. It's that easy." In 1968 60 Minutes premiered. It has been the most acclaimed, the most respected and at times the most feared television news program ever since.
Thoughts and prayers going out to the families of both men.
Years ago there was a local television station called WGGT Channel 48, broadcasting from Greensboro. This was back when unaffiliated stations were extremely independent in their programming and such. Well, WGGT might have been one of the last to have what many people will fondly remember as a "horror host": a home-grown character who presented various scary movies and sci-fi flicks on Saturday afternoons.
Except that WGGT did things a little different. It's "horror" host was a goofy redneck named Billy Bobb, and his show was called Billy Bobb's Action Theatre.
And believe it or not, someone somewhere has a trove of old recordings of Billy Bobb from WGGT and is now putting them on YouTube.
Here's a set of promos for Billy Bobb's Action Theatre...
And here are some commercials featuring Billy Bobb for area businesses...
I wonder whatever happened to Billy Bobb's puppet sidekick Junior Prankster. Probably moldering away forgotten in a sock drawer somewhere.
What else can be said but "Too Funny!" :-)
