March 20, 2013

Poor Ashley...

March 19, 2013

MAN

Animation created in Flash and After Effects looking at mans relationship with the natural world.

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March 19, 2013

Thumbs replacing guns in movie posters...

"Real tough guys don't need guns, they just need a positive, can-do attitude," according to "Thumbs & Ammo," a blog featuring user-submitted photoshopped versions of famous movie scenes with a slight twist--the gun has been turned into a "thumbs-up."

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/slideshow/thumbs-ammo-18763000

http://thumbsandammo.blogspot.com/

March 15, 2013

A Landscape of Lies: the gangster film that taxed the taxman

It could be a great movie-making satire, along the lines of Argo, or Mel Brooks' The Producers. The pitch: a team of amateur crooks concoct a bogus movie to squeeze millions in tax relief from the government. They claim it cost £20m to make; they get around £3m back. Sorted. Until the taxman asks to see the film. So the crooks hastily dupe some C-list actors into cobbling together a cheap gangster flick. The twist? Said flick turns out to be pretty good. It even wins an award.

You'd pay to see that wouldn't you? Especially if it was "based on actual events" – which this is. Last month, a gang led by actor/producer Aoife Madden became the first people convicted of defrauding the British Film Commission's tax-relief scheme. They falsely claimed to have backing from a Jordanian company to make the ironically titled A Landscape of Lies (we'd change that in our version: too obvious).

When the scam was detected, Madden hastily made the movie for £84,000, with unknowns and TV actors, including Loose Women presenter Andrea McLean and Gianni from EastEnders. The result is a "gritty" (ie cheesy and generic) crime thriller set in "a seedy world of power, lies and betrayal". It won a Silver Ace at last year's Las Vegas Film Festival. (In our movie version it would sweep the Oscars.)

According to the Times, the story is "an intriguing insight into the corruption in Britain's film industry" – the assumption being many movies are elaborate tax scams, draining millions from the public purse. But if anything, it proves the opposite. It's easy to apply for tax relief: but at the end of the shoot, there's a rigorous auditing process to check the money has been properly spent. That's the bit the gang overlooked. Wonder if they'd sell the rights to their story? Anyone got Ben Affleck's email?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/shortcuts/2013/mar/13/landscape-of-lies-gangster-film-tax

So even when the Brits set out to make a "bad" film, it's still sorta good...

March 13, 2013

Icicle removal in Russia

March 12, 2013

Not much news in a place like Wales, is there?

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Tables-stacked-differently-Llwchwr-council/story-18365075-detail/story.html#axzz2NETdVYpP

March 12, 2013

Smuggling in South Florida ranges from the dangerous to the bizarre

Drug smuggling seems so passé.

Recent cases of illegal trade in South Florida suggest a more diverse menu of commodities is emerging that answer unusual market demands. The rogue state of Iran is one customer; Chinese rhinoceros horn cup drinkers are another.

And as with bygone cocaine-running days, the southeast coast of Florida still offers fertile incubation for black market traders, who, court filings indicate, operate out of U.S. post offices and Miami warehouses.

"You have to think about the fact that this is a major, major port of entry and a port of exit," said Eduardo Gamarra, professor of international relations at Florida International University. His current research focuses on narcotics deals on Hispaniola.

Toss into the mix that residents here have contacts all over Latin America and the world. "We have a very transient society," Gamarra said. Plus, "Florida doesn't really produce anything — most of our economy is really services."

Services such as, say, Airbus A300 delivery.

Prosecutors say ex-airplane mechanic Diocenyr Ribamar Barbosa-Santos, 52, tried to send seven of them to Iran from China. The Fort Worth man, originally from Brazil, brokered the busted $136.5 million deal from an undisclosed proprietary establishment in Broward County. He didn't know he was meeting with an undercover agent there.

That case is unresolved, but Barbosa-Santos bonded out of jail and is living in an apartment with his sister in Hallandale Beach while his Fort Lauderdale lawyer tries to mitigate the sting of allegedly violating Iranian trade sanctions...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-smuggling-planes-20130310,0,875932.story

March 8, 2013

Ruling Adds Another Chapter to Unsolved Italian Jet Crash

ROME — Itavia Flight 870 was entering the final leg of a routine domestic trip from Bologna to Palermo, Sicily, one clear summer evening when it suddenly plunged into the Tyrrhenian Sea near the small island of Ustica, killing all 81 people aboard.

Mechanical failure was ruled out early on, and almost 33 years later, the causes that led to the crash on June 27, 1980, are still a topic of passionate debate in Italy, fueled by three decades of inquiry boards, parliamentary commissions, countless expert reports and one of the longest judicial inquiries in recent Italian history. But despite all that, no formal charges have ever been filed in connection with the crash.

The crash, known as the Ustica affair, has produced legions of conspiracy theories here, the way the Kennedy assassination — or, on a lesser scale, the crash of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island in 1996 — have in the United States. But in the Ustica affair, the case for a cover-up is far stronger.

Last week, when Italy’s highest court ruled that the country’s Defense and Transportation Ministries had to compensate the families of some of the victims, the court implicitly acknowledged the most widely accepted theory behind the crash: That a missile fired by a warplane had hit the twin-engine McDonnell Douglas DC-9 of Itavia, a now-defunct domestic Italian airline. But the court did not say where that missile came from...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/world/europe/ruling-adds-another-chapter-to-unsolved-italian-jet-crash.html?_r=0

A month old, but I missed this the first time around...I wonder if the Italian gov't will take another look at the Bologna train station massacre as well...

March 5, 2013

Fox Sports trying to grab bigger share of your cable bill, then beat ESPN for your dollar

When they hit the stage of a Manhattan hotel ballroom Tuesday to reveal details of their longshot plan to take on ESPN with Fox Sports 1, an all-sports channel debuting in August, one item Fox suits won’t cover is the price you’ll pay for their competitive journey.

Rupert Murdoch’s Foxies have spent nearly three years shelling out major moolah, acquiring TV rights to college football and basketball, and renewing deals with the NFL, Major League Baseball, NASCAR and UFC at big-ticket prices. They paid extra for the right to air certain games and events on FS1. Add all the production costs of a start-up venture and we’re talking serious coin.

The costs will eventually trickle down to you in the form of increased cable bills. You will feign anger. Then you will pay. You always do. The suits know you are a loyal soldier in their Army of Sports Zombies. You will be paying for something we don’t need — another sports channel.

FS1 will occupy the channel space currently held by Fox’s Speed channel, which is available in 87 million homes. The cable operators pay Fox 22 cents per subscriber per month for carriage rights to “Speed.” With the array of sports programming, both live events, yak shows, and probably a sports news operation on FS1, the Foxies will be looking for more — a lot more — per subscriber than they receive for Speed.

Put it this way: ESPN is in more than 100 million homes and gets $5.13 per subscriber per month. Fox will likely come out of the box asking cable operators to pay 90 cents to $1 per subscriber per month for FS1. Fox could charge more if it flips its “Fuel TV” into Fox Sports 2. The Foxies will be waiting major moons to glom ESPN-like dough. The faculty at Bristol Clown Community has a 30-year head start on Fox’s new entry.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/raissman-murdoch-suits-gambling-out-fox-espn-article-1.1279503

SPEED was actually quite excellent before they made the decision to get really NASCAR-heavy with their coverage (WRC, you are sorely missed)...

Ironically, were it not for Fox's stellar coverage of soccer (a market ESPN pretty much conceded to them a decade ago), ESPN would still be in the dark ages...

March 5, 2013

Striking Iberia workers protest against job cuts

MADRID/LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of workers facing pay and job cuts at loss-making Spanish airline Iberia on Monday staged a second wave of protests that could ground nearly 1,300 flights this week.

Iberia, part of International Airlines Group , is battling competition from low-cost airlines and high-speed trains as well as a deep recession in Spain, where one in four workers is without a job.

The strikes are a blow to Spain's tourist-dependent economy as it gears up for the spring and summer season. Tourism contributes about 11 percent to the country's economy.

Last week Iberia, Europe's biggest carrier to Latin America, said it would push ahead with plans to cut 3,800 jobs, or nearly one fifth of its staff, despite union opposition.

Workers marched from nearby Iberia offices to arrive at Terminal 4 at Madrid's Barajas airport at midday on Monday. Police had told protesters to stay in the arrivals area of the terminal, but they spread out across the airport.

"There were 10,000 of us this morning...On the motorway we made a line longer than 2 kilometers, it was incredible," said Diego Rejon, an Iberia maintenance worker.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-04/business/sns-rt-us-iberia-strikebre9220hb-20130304_1_spanish-airline-iberia-workers-protest-protest-against-job-cuts

Labour union UGT estimated 8,000 workers had taken part in the protest. The police were not immediately available for comment.

There was no violence, unlike the first round of strikes, which began on February 18, when union members clashed with police. The final demonstrations are planned for March 18 to 22.