- It has been pimped by its studio as a modern retelling of
the story of Jesus, drawn legions of fan boys to theaters for midnight showings
and now, blown away the rest of the field for a superhero-worthy win in its
opening weekend at the box office. “Man of Steel” brought in more than
every other movie in theaters combined for the weekend, banking $113 million in
its debut. Fellow newcomer “This is the End” ranked second in its debut with
$20.5 million, though its budget was nearly $200 million less than that of “Man
of Steel.” Third place belonged to “Now You See Me” with $10.3 million and
after three weeks, Morgan Freeman’s latest film has earned $80 million
domestically. “Fast & Furious 6” claimed fourth place with a $9.4 million
weekend to raise its overall earning to $219.5 million in four weeks of work.
Last week’s top earner, “The Purge,” slipped all the way to fifth and saw its
earnings tumble 76 percent in an $8.2 million effort. Through two weeks, the
scare flick has amassed $51.8 million in domestic earnings. The latest Vince
Vaughn-Owen Wilson goofball comedy, “The Internship,” slotted sixth for the
weekend and upped its bank roll to $30.9 million with an additional $7 million
in earnings. “Epic” landed in seventh place with $6 million and has accrued
$95.4 million thus far, while “Star Trek Into Darkness” managed $5.7 million to
rank eighth and has brought in $210.4 million to date. “After Earth Sony”
continued its precipitous fall as its earnings declined 65 percent and its
tally of $3.8 million edged its meager cumulative total for $54.2 million after
three weeks. “Iron Man 3” rounded out the top 10 with $2.9 million and has
brought in $399.6 million after seven weeks. “The Hangover Part III” (No. 11)
and “The Great Gatsby” (No. 12) fell out from last weekend’s top 10………
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Ten cents sparked an invaluable
riot in São
Paulo late last week as the good folks of the Free Fare Movement rose up
against a bus fare increase from 3.00 BRL ($1.40) to 3.20 BRL ($1.50). Nearly
5,000 angry Brazilians gathered in front of the Municipal Theater as part of
continued protests against the fare hike, the fourth such demonstration since
June 6 in response to the increase that was put into effect four days earlier.
Protestors showed up to raise hell and police responded with a predictable
overreaction full of excessive force, including pepper spray, rubber bullets
and tear gas. The riot turned contentious quickly and reports in the aftermath
of the incident put the number of arrests at 235. Both sides were quick to
accuse the other of being at fault for the clash, with rioters accusing The Man
of police brutality during the demonstration and Governor Geraldo Alckmin
referring to rioters as “vandals.” Mayor Fernando Haddad also chimed in on the
clash, although his words may have carried more weight if he were actually in São
Paulo and not on an “official” trip to Paris. The Free Fare Movement has been
using a Facebook page to organize its gatherings and demonstrations
have followed in other Brazilian state capitals that are also protesting
fare increases for public transportation. The issue has gained national and
even international attention, but so far the state and city governments of the
region have remained adamant that they will maintain fare increase. One other
group that might have a beef with São Paulo police is journalists who covered
the protests and can be seen suffering abuse and attacks from riot police in
video footage posted on YouTube. At least no one went completely and
inexplicably overboard on this one……..
- Chicago Cubs third baseman Ian Stewart may not have had a
racist or homophobic Twitter meltdown, but his words on the popular
microblogging site are going to cost him all the same. Stewart, who has been
biding his time at Triple-A Iowa after a rehab stint for a left quad injury turned into an extended
minor league stint because the team didn’t have a need for him at the
big-league level, has been suspended 10 games without pay for violating
the loyalty cause in his contract, according to a team official. According to
the team, the suspension is in response to Stewart’s Twitter on Monday about
his status within the organization. He was having a Twitter exchange with fans late
Monday and was asked whether he would return to the Cubs soon. He snarkily
responded, “Probably never.” He expounded by suggesting that the team had
soured on him and did not want him around. "I said that be because the
cubs are done With me....there (sic) going to let me Rott (sic) in AAA all
season and then non tender me after,” Stewart wrote. "I meant they might
as Well release since I have no shot of a call up....let me Sign
elsewhere." Part of his theory about his longer-than-expected
Triple-A stint is that he believes Cubs manager Dale Sveum doesn't like him and he
makes the decisions on who is called up.
"I was all on board bringing him back and giving him another chance to
prove what he could do at the big league level and with the Cubs, and obviously it didn't work out,"
Sveum said in response to those claims. Ironically, Stewart re-signed with the
team this offseason after hitting just .201 last season while hitting five
homers and driving in 17 runs while playing in only 55 games because of a wrist injury. Calling him
up this season seems unwise given that he is s hitting .168 with five homers and 20 RBIs in Triple-A and Cubs
president of baseball operations Theo Epstein suggested last week that the two
sides are talking about working out a way for Stewart to leave the team while
giving the Cubs salary relief. Just don’t expect Stewart to quit and walk away
from the remainder of his one-year, $2 million deal. "why would I quit?
I'm making 2 mill in AAA like u would give that up by quitting,” Stewart told
his Twitter followers…….
- Google is going Loon-y. To bring Internet access to the über-rural
New Zealand farming community of Geraldine, the tech titan is installing odd-looking
red spheres slightly bigger than a volleyball, attached to the end of a short
collar, to the roofs of homes in the town located in the interior of the South
Island of New Zealand. The devices, part of Project Loon, are custom-designed
to communicate with a similar antenna that would be floating by in the
stratosphere, inside a solar-powered balloon located over 60,000 feet above sea
level. The project’s name is Google’s concession that the idea is more than a
little crazy. If it works, thousands of high-pressure balloons circling the
earth could provide Internet access to some of the Earth’s most-isolated
communities. At a press conference in Christchurch, some 85 miles from
Geraldine, Google announced the project with New Zealand Prime Minister John
Key on hand. Fifty beta testers in Christchurch within the 12-mile range of the
balloons will be part of the project as well. Project Loon began two years ago
as part of Google’s high-risk research arm, Google X. Rich DeVaul, an expert in
wearable technology, emigrated from Apple and was essentially being put in
charge of bat-sh*t crazy ideas that just might work. Offering reliable Internet
access using balloons seemed sufficiently crazy and yet, the idea progressed. Using
the concept of “variable buoyancy”—steering the balloons by tweaking altitude
to find wind currents whooshing in the right direction – DeVaul was able to keep
his idea afloat. “My colleagues had to believe I wasn’t completely on crack,
which took a little bit of convincing,” he explained. After a series of trial
runs in California’s Central Valley, Project Loon earned status as a
full-fledged Google X project. DeVaul passed management of the project over to search
engineer Mike Cassidy. Cassidy collaborated with Raven Aerostar, the company
that makes weather balloons for NASA, and that combination produced the spheres
now being tested in New Zealand…….
- School board meetings are typically either extremely
boring and nondescript or über-contentious. The most recent gathering of the
Saugus (Calif.) Union School Board on Thursday fell into the latter category after
board member Stephen Winkler was confronted with allegations that he is a Nazi.
You read that right: Dude was accused of being a Nazi. "I am not a
Nazi," Winkler said in his defense. He faced the claims of Third Reich
fandom because a YouTube user account created in 2007 named "Stephen
Winkler" "favorited" a video of the anthem of the Third Reich.
That same user commented, "It's my favorite song, I play it all day long,
everyday." The same account favorited several other Nazi videos, but
Winkler insisted the same thing that every public figure who says or does
something regrettable on the Internet insists – that he had been hacked. That
argument didn’t sway his four colleagues on the board, who voted unanimously to
censure him. Board member Dave Bryce asked Winkler if he's ever filed a police
report over being hacked and Winkler responded with a half-baked story of user
negligence and law enforcement laziness. "I'm guilty of being very
negligent with the Internet," Winkler said. "I went to the sheriff's
station and there was no deputy to take a report.” He was then asked why he
didn’t change his password or close the account and in a seemingly
contradictory statement, he then claimed he “wasn't aware this was going
on." The YouTube shenanigans weren't the only matters Winkler was
questioned about during the forum. He admitted to posting a tweet in which he
said, "A spirit of national socialism is encouraged by an effete core of
impudent snobs, who characterize themselves as teachers of Saugus Union."
Yes, he called the teachers in his district socialists. When angry parents
joined the chorus of voices demanding that he resign, he cited an unexpected
source of support for refusing. "Tonight, I received quite specific orders
from the Lord Jehovah to continue his battle right until the end," Winkler
added. "If you think is God on your side, you have not been up against the
parents of the Saugus district," parent Jackie McDougal chastised Winkler.
Board members are also exploring the possibility that Winkler lied about his
address on several legal documents and doesn't even live in the Saugus district
as a possible second avenue to force him off the board……….
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