- The world now has proof that a film doesn’t need minor
assets like good writing, good acting or a plausible plot to make a sh*t-ton of
money. All it needs are fast cars, hot women and big names in its leading
roles. Those components were enough to propel “Fast & Furious 6” to the top
spot at the box office for the holiday weekend, topping the two previous champs
to claim the No. 1 ranking. “Fast 6” made $98.5 million in its first weekend,
beating out fellow newcomer “The Hangover 3,” along with reigning king “Star
Trek Into Darkness” and “Iron Man 3.” “Hangover 3” notched $42.4 million in its
first weekend to finish second, while “Star Trek” added $38 million for a
two-week total of $146.8 million. The animated and star-studded “Epic” ranked
fourth with $34.2 million in its first weekend of release and that was enough
to push past “Iron Man 3,” which tumbled to fifth with $19.4 million and has
banked $367.5 million through four weeks. “The Great Gatsby” continued its
rapid descent with a sixth-place result that saw it bring in just $13.7 million
and has accrued $114.4 million in three weeks. Underdog story “Mud” jumped to
its highest spot so far, seventh, even as it remained in limited release.
Despite showing in just 712 theaters, the Matthew McConaughey-led indie flick made
$1.9 million and has banked $14.5 million in five weeks. “42” claimed eighth
place with $1.3 million and after seven weeks, its cumulative domestic earnings
stand at $91 million. Ninth place belonged to “The Croods,” which earned $1.2
million and has now made $179.2 million in 10 weeks of work. “Oblivion”
completed the top 10 with $815,000 and its disappointing six-week bank roll
checks in at $87.2 million. “Pain and Gain” (No. 12) and “Tyler Perry Presents
Peeples” (No. 16) both dropped out from last week’s top 10……….
- Score one for injustice in Guatemala, where the nation’s highest court has
overturned a genocide conviction against former dictator Efrain Rios Montt and
reset his trial back to when a dispute broke out a month ago over who should
hear the case. Despised despot Rios Montt, 86, was found guilty on May 10 of
overseeing the killings by the armed forces of at least 1,771 members of the
Maya Ixil population during his 1982-83 rule. The court in his case hit him
with a sentence of 80 years in prison, but this past week, the country's
Constitutional Court ordered that all the proceedings be voided going back to
April 19. That’s the date when one of the presiding judges suspended the trial
because of a dispute with another judge over who should hear it. There is no
date set for the trial to resume, but the mere fact that it will obliterates
(for now, anyhow) what was originally hailed as a landmark for justice in the
Central American nation. It’s the sort of healing a country could use when as
many as 250,000 people were killed in a bloody civil war lasting from 1960 to
1996. Rios Montt presided over an offensive in which soldiers raped, tortured
and killed tens of thousands of Maya villagers suspected of helping Marxist
rebels. They forced thousands more into exile or made them join paramilitary forces fighting the
insurgents. He originally rose to power in a bloodless coup on March 23, 1982,
and ruled for 17 months until he was finally ousted from power in August 1983.
As part of his conviction, the court ordered the government to apologize for
atrocities committed against indigenous people. The decision to restart the
case stems from an appeal by one of Rios Montt's defense lawyers to be
readmitted to the case. The higher court decided that the trial should have
been suspended at that point until the matter could be resolved………
- This isn’t going to end well. Google and Microsoft are
teaming up on
a new YouTube application for Windows Phone and given both companies’ failures
in the smartphone world, the likelihood of a positive result aren’t extremely
high. Their partnership stems from a fight over Microsoft’s unauthorized
YouTube app. The showdown led to Google demanding that Microsoft remove its app
by May 22. Instead, Microsoft issued an update to address some of Google's
concerns. “Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube
for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube’s API terms of service,
including enabling ads, in the coming weeks,” Google said in a statement. Microsoft
has indicated a willingness to include ads in its YouTube Windows Phone
application if Google allows it and provides access to an official API. Any
agreement between the companies is expected to result in Microsoft being compelled
to use publicly available YouTube APIs like the JavaScript and IFrame ones.
Such moves would certainly strip the full app of some functionality, as
Microsoft has previously eschewed those APIs on the grounds that they would
neuter a fully featured YouTube app for Windows Phone. To push its case forward,
Microsoft developed the unauthorized app it has previously released rather than
put out a simple link to a mobile site. All of the drama sparked a
technological pissing match that saw Google enforce and then rescind a block of
its Maps service for Windows Phone users. Should the two tech giants find a way
to work together, it would greatly benefit mutual customers of Microsoft and
Google who simply want to use a Windows Phone with Google's web services………
- What do elected officials do best? Other than make empty
promises, of course. They find ways to take advantage of situations and screw
people over. According to one small-town dweller in the hamlet of East
Montpelier, Vt., that’s exactly what Gov.
Peter Shumlin has done. Jeremy Dodge lives in his humble childhood home in East
Montpelier, but he will soon have to move away from Foster Road. He’s being
dislodged because of a situation that began last year when the town put his
property up for tax sale. At the time, Dodge owed almost $18,000 in back taxes.
Had his property gone up for auction, he could have been homeless in 30 days.
Instead, his neighbor came over and offered to buy him out. That neighbor was
Shumlin. Dodge believed he had caught a break, but it turns out he may have
been a sucker for a too-good-to-be-true offer. “The governor approached me... I
had no offer prior to the tax sale,” Dodge said. He claims he and Shumlin
negotiated the deal themselves and wrote the terms of the deal on a folder. His
house and the 16-acre property it sits on were appraised in 2009 for $233,700.
Shumlin allegedly offered Dodge $32,000, then upped it to $58,000. That seemed
like a decent offer, but the IQ-challenged Dodge now says he did not understand
that he may have gotten a better deal had the house gone to tax sale. "I'm
a slow learner to start with," Dodge said. "I have a hard time
comprehending a lot of things." The case is one where picking a
sympathetic party is difficult, given that Dodge is an ex-con on food stamps
earning less than $8,000 a year
and Shumlin is,
well, a politician. Friends claim Dodge has struggled with mental health issues
since his parents died seven years ago,
after which he inherited their home. They contend he is not mentally capable of
negotiating a complex real estate deal and that the governor had to have known
this. The FBI reportedly came knocking and was investigating the legality of
the deal. The U.S. Attorney for Vermont confirmed the bureau’s involvement, but
said there is no active investigation…….
- Notre Dame fans can breathe a sigh of relief because the
quarterback who was so overwhelmed in the ass-kicking their team absorbed in
the BCS championship game in January will not be under center for the Fighting
Irish this fall. Of course, those expecting that Everett Golson would learn from the defeat and come back better and
more experienced may not be quite as thrilled. Golson has fled the premises in
South Bend and is no longer enrolled at Notre Dame. The school confirmed the
news, but cited federal law and university policy in stating that it would not comment
on the specifics of the case. However, multiple reports have alleged that Golson's
departure is academic-related, perhaps due to some sort of academic violations
on his part. Golson started 11 games for the Fighting Irish last season as a
redshirt freshman, led them to an undefeated regular season and was under
center when they were steamrolled 42-14 by Alabama in the title game. He
completed 187-of-318 passes for 2,405 yards and 12 touchdowns with six
interceptions and also rushed for nearly 300 yards and six scores. Coach Brian
Kelly and his staff were hoping that Golson would improve and elevate their
offense with him, but now he leaves a major void in his wake. The Irish could
hope that former Oklahoma State quarterback Wes Lunt picks their fine
institution of higher learning to transfer to (even though he would have to sit
out this season), but they shouldn’t hold out hope that their former
third-string quarterback, Gunner Kiel, will reconsider he decision to transfer
to Cincinnati last month. Kiel reiterated Sunday that he is committed to coach Tommy Tuberville and
the Bearcats. Notre Dame’s remaining options are senior Tommy Rees (18 career
starts), fourth-year junior Andrew Hendrix and Malik Zaire, a spring enrollee.
Golson could eventually return, but he’s not going to be helping Kelly’s team
win any games this season……..
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