- When is an Oscar-worthy performance by one of the best
actors of a generation not enough to make a splash at the box office? This
weekend, it turns out. Despite much hype, positive reviews and Oscar buzz for
Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Wolf of Wall Street” turned in a thoroughly
disappointing effort and finished behind four returning films at the weekend
box office. “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” remained in first for a third
straight weekend, banking $29.9 million for an overall domestic total of $190.4
million. That was enough to outlast “Frozen,” which chilled its way to $28.8
million and second place, bumping its domestic total to $248.4 million through
six weeks. “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” was solid and steady in its
second weekend, adding $20.2 million to its bank roll for a cumulative total of
$83.7 million against a $50 million budget. Fourth place went to “American
Hustle,” which had a workmanlike $19.6 million weekend and has amassed $60
million in three weeks. “Wolf” could do no better than fifth in its debut
weekend with $18.5 million and considering its $100 million budget, that simply
isn't good enough. “Saving Mr. Banks,” another movie with raving reviews
aplenty, was sixth after banking $14 million to pass the break-even point with
$37.8 million in overall earnings. “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” was one of
the films standing between “Wolf” and the title of most disappointing new
release, churning out a paltry $13 million that leaves it a solid $77 million
from breaking even against its $90 million budget. “The Hunger Games: Catching
Fire” snagged eighth place with $10.2 million and has banked a whopping $391.1
million in six weeks. The winner, it turns out, of the biggest bomb of the
weekend was the Keanu Reeves-led “47 Ronin,” which cost $200 million to make
and brought in…..$9.9 million? That can't be right….but it is. Wow. That
is….awful. “Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas” took the final spot in the top 10
with $7.4 million and has earned $43.7 million overall. Newcomer “Grudge Match”
could do no better than No. 11 and “Walking With Dinosaurs” (No. 12) lost its
spot from last weekend’s top 10……..
- South, keep doing what you’re doing….as long as you’re cool with
holding down the title of America’s Stroke Belt. Yes, an alarming one-third of
adults in the United States have high blood pressure and therefore a higher
risk of strokes, but in the southeastern part of the country the rate is well
over half, according to a new study. The research, led by Dr. Uchechukwu K. A.
Sampson, an assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical
Center, found that little is being done to address the problem. The
southeastern portion of the U.S. had grits/butter/shrimp/more butter-ed its way
to the Stroke Belt title and the accompanying high rates of cardiovascular
disease, but being aware of the problem has done nothing to alleviate it,
Sampson and his colleagues found. "The rates have not changed,"
Sampson said. "The number of people who do not know that they have high
blood pressure is the same.” He noted that this is true in spite of the fact
that the U.S. has had treatment guidelines for high blood pressure since 1977. High
blood pressure is an established cause of death from cardiovascular disease and
accounts for up to 7.5 million deaths worldwide each year, inspiring the
researchers to examine a large database with recent information on men and
women in southern states covering the years 2002 to 2009. They zeroed in on
69,000 white and black adults with similarly low income and education levels -
to eliminate poverty as a factor – and probed other possible causes for blood
pressure issues. They discovered that 57 percent of the study participants had
high blood pressure, with blacks nearly twice as likely as whites to be suffering
from the disease. The racial difference was most pronounced among women, with a
rate of 64 percent among black
women and 52 percent among white women. Obesity was at the heart of it all (pun
intended), as the most severely obese had more than four times the risk of high
blood pressure compared to normal weight men and women. Amazingly, a large
portion of participants were unaware that they had high blood pressure despite
being overweight, thereby proving that cluelessness among the masses might be
the bigger problem here……….
- Cleveland, your status as America’s most-accursed sports
city lives on. Even when C-Town seems to strike it rich or take a quality
gamble with huge upside, that gamble inevitably blows up in its face. As an
example, take the case of troubled Cleveland Cavaliers center Andrew Bynum –
literally, take him. The Cavs would love it after they suspended the enigmatic
big man indefinitely Saturday for
conduct detrimental to the team. The team is now actively shopping Bynum and
has until Jan. 7 to decide if it will guarantee his contract for the rest of
the season. It seemed like a good risk when the Cavs inked Bynum to a two-year,
$24 million deal with the Cavs last summer with only $6 million in guaranteed
money. The 25-year-old former All-Star has top-level talent, but terrible knees
that forced him to miss all of last season. Bringing him in on a team-friendly
contract appeared to be a win-win for the Cavs….assuming Bynum didn’t start
acting up or reviving his old habits of double-parking in handicapped spaces
and trying to decapitate opponents he had 12 inches and 125 pounds on. It isn't
clear what specific circumstances led to the suspension, but Bynum has seen fewer
minutes and touches of late and is reportedly not on board with the team’s plan
of developing young players and building for the future. He was banned on
Saturday and did not travel with the team to Boston for that afternoon’s game
against the Celtics. "It's a terrible situation internally with our
team," All-Star guard Kyrie Irving said. "It's something we have to
get over." Cavs coach Mike Brown refused to disclose any details regarding
the suspension but expressed concern for his players. "I'm worried about
the guys in the locker room," Brown said prior to Saturday afternoon's
game. "It's simple as that. In our business, there are a lot of ups and a
lot of downs throughout the season.” The Cavs, currently 10-20, aren't exactly
going to make or miss the playoffs based on the performance of a center playing
20 minutes a game and averaging 8.6 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting just
42 percent from the floor, but he’s become another headache for a team and city
that don’t need one……..
- Where is your optimism, city of Folsom, California? You
play a prominent role in one of music icon Johnny Cash’s most iconic
performances and now, you have a long-lost city (and potential tourist magnet)
resurfacing on account of record-low water levels. Sure, the low-water
situation in Folsom
Lake, at one-fifth of its total capacity, is a problem that has sparked
restrictions on landscape watering. That’s a minor issue amidst the uproar over
the driest year in more than 100 years of record keeping, especially when a
late-19th century mining village called Mormon Island has re-emerged after
years beneath the water. The village was located at the foot of what would
become Folsom Lake but when the industry that sustained Mormon Island went
away, the American River was dammed and the new lake was allowed to swallow the
island up. Clearly, the powers that were back then never imagined a year of
extreme drought that would produce a dropping water line that would spit the
muddy rubble of the village back onto the growing shoreline. Amateur
archaeologists are using the opportunity to explore and losers with metal
detectors are scoring the shoreline around the lake in the hopes of finding
precious metals buried in the dirt. Instead of coming to the area to ski or
snowboard, outdoor enthusiasts are turning into explorers and coming the beach.
Temperatures in the 70s are making such activities a lot more fun, even if
Sacramento County is playing the role of worrywart and asking its residents to
search for ways they can lower their water use by 20 percent. Couldn’t an
amazing find of long-lost gold make everyone feel better? Grab the metal
detector…….
- Someone is looking to play Middle Eastern, non-Christian
Santa a few days too late, eh Saudi Arabia? The oil-rich kingdom in the middle
of all of the region’s madness is giving the Lebanese army $3 billion in aid,
Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman said on Sunday. Suleiman dubbed it the
largest grant ever to the country's armed forces and in a televised address,
the president said some of the money was likely to be spent on weapons from
France. Lebanon’s army could use the cash, as it is one of the few institutions
isolated from the country’s sectarian strife but is also ill-equipped to deal
with internal militant groups, especially the Shi'ite Muslim guerrilla and
political movement Hezbollah. The motive for Saudi Arabia’s gift could well be
strengthening the army against Hezbollah, as the Saudis are a Sunni Muslim
kingdom and Hezbollah is the most effective and powerful armed group in Lebanon
and funded by the regional Shi'ite power Iran. So yes, two foreign nations are
fighting a proxy war using Lebanon’s warring factions as pawns. "The king
of the brotherly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is offering this generous and
appreciated aid of $3 billion to the Lebanese army to strengthen its
capabilities," Suleiman said. French President Francois Hollande, conveniently
on a visit to Saudi Arabia where he met King Abdullah, happily noted that his
country would sell weapons to the Lebanese army if it was asked to do so. "France
has equipped the Lebanese army for a while up until recently and we will
readily answer any solicitation ... If demands are made to us we will satisfy
them,” Hollande said. All of this comes as Lebanon continues to rebuild after
its own 15-year civil war, a process slowed by the different factions
constantly battling to undermine one another and gain control………
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