- How dominant has “The Avengers” been at the box office so
far? Dominant enough to lose 50 percent from its opening weekend total and
still curb stomp every movie in sight. In its second weekend, the superhero
epic made $103.1 million, boosting its two-week domestic total to $373.2
million. That’s nearly as much as “The Hunger Games” has made in eight weeks,
by comparison. “Dark Shadows” debuted in second place with $28.8 million and
for the Johnny Depp-fronted film, that was a solid total. The disastrously bad
“Think
Like a Man” was third with $6.3 million and has earned $82 million through one
month in theaters. “Hunger Games” was fourth with $4.4 million as its second
month in theaters came to a close. “The Lucky One” ranked fifth with a
lackluster $4 million weekend and has raked in $54 million through four weeks.
“The Pirates! Band of Misfits” clay-mationed its way to a sixth-place finish,
earning $3.2 million for a cumulative total of $23.1 million. Seventh place
belonged to “The Five-Year Engagement,” close behind with $3.1 million and
$24.3 million through three weeks. Making a huge jump from 16th place to eighth
was “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” which went from 27 theaters last weekend
to 178 this time around and made $2.7 million as a result for a two-week total
of $3.7 million in limited release. “Chimpanzee” hung tight in ninth place once
again, adding $1.6 million to its overall tally for a four-week ban roll of
$25.5 million. Newcomer “Girl in Progress” snared the No. 10 spot and made $1.4
million, while “The Raven” (No. 11), “Safe” (No. 12) and “The Three Stooges”
all fell out from last weekend’s top 10…………
- Yes! We have ‘em on the run, North America. Well,
figuratively speaking because snakes don’t have legs or feet and can't run, but
you get the point. Those fanged, sometimes-poisonous creatures that slither
along the ground and inspire lyrics for Guns N’ Roses songs are a real threat
to public safety (and fake movie archaeologists played by Harrison Ford) and any
time a species of snake is on the verge of extinction, let’s agree to count
that as a positive. In this case, the slithery reptile in question is the eastern
diamondback rattlesnake, North America's largest venomous snake. That’s right,
venomous and large. The good folks at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are
considering adding the reptile to the Endangered Species List to restrict its
hunting, killing and sale. "We are going to do our best to keep these
beautiful animals on the planet with us," said Dan Everson, Deputy Field
Supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service in Alabama. Clearly, Deputy
Field Supervisor Everson isn't bright enough to be creeped out by ginormous,
venomous snakes. This past week, the USFW approved further study on the
declining numbers of the snake species and will spend 12 months doing
scientific surveys and accepting public comments to determine if the
rattlesnake qualifies for endangered status. The impetus for the studies came
last year when environmental groups filed a petition claiming the snake had
vanished from Louisiana, was endangered in North Carolina and becoming harder
to find in South Carolina, Mississippi and Alabama. What kind of habitat does the
eastern
diamondback rattlesnake prefer? A long leaf pine forest habitat, that’s what.
This type of environment used to stretch across the southeastern U.S., but is
now down to about 3 million acres. Contrary to what the snake huggers out there
want to think, that is also good news because in case they forgot, 99 percent
of snake bites come from rattlesnakes. Yes, only 12 deaths per year are
reported from snake bites, but that’s 12 too many………..
- Times are tough for many types of people, even those rich
enough to have a nearly $2 million
yacht. How tough? Tough enough that Robert Figueredo of Miami now faces serious
charges for sinking that aforementioned $2 million yacht in an insurance scam.
Detectives from the Florida Department of Financial Services Division of
Insurance Fraud arrested Figueredo after a three-year investigation that began
d in 2009 after the 80-foot yacht “Star One” was reported stolen from Key
Biscayne. Later that same week, the $1.86 million yacht was discovered scuttled
in the Bahamas. Figueredo put his plan into motion by giving sworn statement to
the insurance company that he had no knowledge of the theft, and he was
completely unaware of who had taken the "Star One." However, his
scheme began to fall apart after his ex-girlfriend reported that he had bragged
to her that he had sunk the boat deliberately. As always, never tattoo the name
of a girl on your body and never brag to one about your yacht-related insurance
scam because odds are your relationship will end at some point and when it
does, you do not want her name inked on your body or the knowledge of your scam
in her mind. Investigators did more digging and Figueredo was charged with
first-degree grand theft and booked into the Miami-Dade County Jail. He faces
up to 30 years in prison if convicted and if you ask one of those who
investigated him, his fraud is no small matter. “There is no such thing as a
victimless crime,” said Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater. “Those
who reap the spoils of perpetuating fraud victimize every Florida consumer.
Those who cheat their fellow Floridians out of their hard-earned dollars will
be captured and put behind bars.” So much for sympathy…………
- Paranoia is running high in Venezuela. In other words,
nothing has changed. Despot Hugo Chavez is still in power, still battling
cancer and still suspicious of everyone who doesn’t automatically agree with
him. His paranoia is spreading to those around him and anyone who doubts that
need only look at a state TV host's
allegation that a newspaper crossword puzzle may have had a hidden call for a
plot to kill Chavez's elder brother. Those claims have drawn scathing
criticisms and mockery from government critics and even some Chavez supporters.
Intelligence agents with their own healthy case of paranoia-mania questioned
the author of the puzzle after state TV presenter Miguel Perez Pirela pointed
out that Wednesday's crossword contained the word "ASESINEN," or
kill, intersecting with the name of Chavez's brother, "ADAN." Stoking
the conspiracy theory further, he noted
they were below the word "RAFAGAS," meaning either gusts of wind or
bursts of gunfire. Put all of these coincidences together and clearly, someone
is encouraging someone to assassinate the dictator’s brother. Never mind
that for this to work, people would actually have to do crossword puzzles. What,
the clue for No. 7 down is “automatic rifle” and the location of the silencer
is the answer for No. 14 across? Neptali
Segovia, an English teacher who has prepared crossword puzzles for the
newspaper Ultimas Noticias for 17 years, is the alleged mastermind of the plot.
He insisted it was nonsense to think there was a hidden code in the puzzle and
went voluntarily to be questioned Thursday after intelligence agents showed up
at the paper asking about him. "I went because I'm the first one
interested in having all this cleared up. I have nothing to hide," Segovia
said. Even Chavez supporters like poet Nestor Francia mocked the whole
crossword conspiracy and suggested that the government is using it to divert
attention from other issues, like rampant violent crime and 24 percent
inflation. Oh, and Chavez is running for re-election in October against state
governor Henrique Caprile and has repeatedly cautioned that his opponents could
try to provoke violence or destabilize the country if defeated. Just
Hugo being Hugo……….
- How very soccer of you, soccer. In a country that is
bidding to host soccer's 2020 European Championship and the 2020 Olympics, the
natural assumption would be that fans, organizers and government officials
would want to do everything possible to enhance their chances at winning one or
both bids. Of course, this is soccer and so none of that is true. Instead,
hundreds of fans stormed the field and clashed with police after the Turkish
league championship in Ankara. A typically soccer-like 0-0 tie gave Galatasaray
the title over rival Fenerbahce and that made Fenerbahce fans angry – really
angry. So did they throw lit road flares at players, attempt to burn the
stadium down or lob bags of their own blood and urine at Galatasaray fans. Yes
and no. Fenerbahce fans’ first move was to break plastic chairs and hurl them
at police, then chase that opening act with the throwing of lit road flares at
the officers as they tried to protect the players at Fenerbahce's Sukru
Saracoglu Stadium. Police eventually retaliated with pepper spray to disperse
the fans and evacuated the stadium as players fled to locker rooms. The mayhem
extended across the entire country, as a man wearing a Galatasaray jersey was
stabbed in the abdomen in an attack by Fenerbahce fans and rioters, er, fans
turned over two police vehicles and set them on fire in Istanbul's Kadikoy
district. Overturned dumpsters, shattered shop windows and thrown rocks were
the norm. Still, none of that madness could match the sight of fans at the
league championship rioting and tossing chairs and other objects at a corridor
leading to the locker rooms. Local media outlets reported that some Fenerbahce
fans also fought with police outside the stadium and chucked stones at a police
vehicle with a water cannon. One can only imagine how fired up the
International Olympic Committee and European Championship officials must be at
the prospect of having Turkey host very prestigious international sporting
events………..
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