davidagillespie
The Seven Secrets of Highly Effective Studios (That You Might Not Want to Hear)
It’s the end of the summer, which of course means it is time to start the post-game coverage. But what lessons were there to be learned in this year’s summertime slugfest? What truisms were re-learned? Here are seven secrets to running a movie studio that many of you may not want to hear. After all, the truth isn’t always pretty.
1) Underestimate the intelligence of your audience. There’s an old saying that goes “You know how stupid the average guy is? Well, mathematically speaking, half of them are dumber than that.” This is never truer than in sales. And this summer backed that law up in a big way. The year’s biggest hit, by far, is a film that was being made before they could even write a script for it. Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen was made from a treatment that Michael Bay later (post-WGA strike) brought the writers…
I Have Been Abducted By Aliens, Says Japan’s First Lady
Move over Michelle, watch your backs, Carla and Sarah. There’s a new kid on the first lady block, and she looks like upstaging the lot of you.
Miyuki Hatoyama, wife of Japan’s Prime Minister-elect, Yukio Hatoyama, is a lifestyle guru, a macrobiotics enthusiast, an author of cookery books, a retired actress, a divorcee, and a fearless clothes horse for garments of her own creation, including a skirt made from Hawaiian coffee sacks. But there is more, much more. She has travelled to the planet Venus. And she was once abducted by aliens.
How Jessica’s Law Turned Antioch Into A Paedophile Ghetto
They have called it scruffy, cheap and unloved. They have sneered at the wire mesh fences and unmowed lawns and the rusting trucks in almost every driveway. And in time, when the media writes the final chapters of the appalling story of Jaycee Lee Dugard, they may very well conclude that in Antioch, her story was simply an accident waiting to happen.
A staggering 122 registered sex offenders live here, in a small, blue-collar city in northern California that has suddenly found itself at the centre of an international media storm. More than 100 of them – 102, to be precise – live in the compact zip-code area containing the suburb that Jaycee Lee’s alleged kidnapper, Philip Craig Garrido, called home.
Humour Is An Act Of Aggression, Claims German Academic
The ability to make others laugh confers a degree of control which dominant people exploit to show they are in charge, claims Helga Kotthoff of the Frieburg University if Education.
“Those ‘on top’ are freer to make others laugh. They are also freer to be more aggressive and a lot of what is funny is making jokes at someone else’s expense,” she said.
“Displaying humour means taking control of the situation from those higher up the hierarchy and this is risky for people of lower status, which before the 1960s meant women rarely made other people laugh — they couldn’t afford to.
Anti-Gay Attacks On Rise In Iraq
Gay Iraqi men are being murdered in what appears to be a co-ordinated campaign involving militia forces, the group Human Rights Watch says. It says hundreds of gay men have been targeted and killed in Iraq since 2004.
The report says members of the Mehdi Army militia group are spearheading the campaign, but police are also accused – even though homosexuality is legal.
Sarah Palin, ‘The World’s Greatest’
Since most Sarah Palin fetishists think she’s Christ reincarnated with a folksy twang and fertile vagina, it stands to reason that someone would eventually make a Palin video tribute set to the music of R. Kelly. That time is now.
At first glance you’d think that this utterly hilarious compilation, featuring the music of a black man renowned for on-camera golden showers and statutory rape, was a parody made by Keith Olbermann or Bill Maher’s staffs, but it was actually put together and posted to the web this morning by the delusional wingnuts who run the Conservatives4Palin website. Prepare to be mesmerized.
German Jews Want ‘Mein Kampf’ Reprinted
Germany’s Central Council of Jews has taken the unprecedented step of backing a proposal to republish Adolf Hitler’s infamous autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf, which has been strictly outlawed in the country since the end of the Second World War.
However the southern state of Bavaria, which holds the rights to the book, remains strongly opposed to the idea. “We won’t lift the ban as it may play straight into the hands of the far right,” said a spokesman for the Bavarian government. “Prohibition is highly regarded by Jewish groups and we mean to keep it that way,” he said.
Bush’s Shocking Biblical Prophecy Emerges: God Wants to ‘Erase’ Mid-East Enemies
In 2003 while lobbying leaders to put together the Coalition of the Willing, President Bush spoke to France’s President Jacques Chirac. Bush wove a story about how the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East and how they must be defeated.
The story has now been confirmed by Chirac himself in a new book, published in France in March, by journalist Jean Claude Maurice. Chirac is said to have been stupefied and disturbed by Bush’s invocation of Biblical prophesy to justify the war in Iraq and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs”.
Bush’s Shocking Biblical Prophecy Emerges: God Wants to “Erase” Mid-East Enemies “Before a New Age B
In 2003 while lobbying leaders to put together the Coalition of the Willing, President Bush spoke to France’s President Jacques Chirac. Bush wove a story about how the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East and how they must be defeated.
The story has now been confirmed by Chirac himself in a new book, published in France in March, by journalist Jean Claude Maurice. Chirac is said to have been stupefied and disturbed by Bush’s invocation of Biblical prophesy to justify the war in Iraq and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs”.
Ancient Ruins Of Southern Africa
In the heart of southern Africa lies the scattered evidence of a lost civilisation whose people built some 20,000 stone structures. These breathtaking ruins constitute the largest continuous stone settlement ever built on Earth as it stretches over thousands of kilometres from South Africa all the way to Kenya and beyond.These mysterious ancient ruins consist of dwellings, forts, temples roads, irrigation systems and agricultural terraces that cover thousands of square kilometres. It is our estimate that more stone went into building these features than went into building all of the Egyptian pyramids. It is an archaeologist’s dream that will unveil even greater and more mysterious secrets in years to come.
Spinning In The Grave — The Three Biggest Reasons Music Magazines Are Dying.
To the varied signs of the economic collapse we can now add a small but notable subspecies of urbanite: You’ll recognize him (or her) by the ear buds burrowing into his head, the freebie SXSW tote bag slung over his shoulder, and the unintelligible mutterings about “melisma” and “twee-core” crossing his lips. If you see such a person out and about—likely wandering a neighborhood rich with coffee shops or, even better, two-for-one happy hours—remain calm but keep your distance. This is a music journalist, a type never famous for social skills, and he’s in an especially bad mood these days.
Policeman Takes ‘Big Cat’ Video
An off-duty Ministry of Defence police dog handler has taken a video of what he claims is a panther-sized big cat. Pc Swallow said he saw the animal on 30 June while working in the garden at Kildonan Drive, Helensburgh.
He could tell it was not a Labrador, as he first thought, because of the way it was walking, and because its tail was about twice the length that a dog’s would have been.
He said: “My friend’s house is next to the West Highland Line and at one point I looked down and saw what I first thought was a black Labrador on the tracks.It was then I realised that what I was seeing was a big cat and I shouted on my friend to come and have a look. We were stunned.”
Gay Penguins Split In Love Triangle Shock
A much-feted six-year gay relationship between two male penguins at a zoo is over — after one dumped the other for a widowed female called Linda.
Harry has left Pepper for another “more attractive” bird at San Francisco Zoo — sparking outrage across the blogosphere. Bloggers have been quick to accuse Linda of being a “home wrecker” who “lives for her own happiness, no matter who gets hurt.”
Richard Dawkins: Blasphemy Law A Return To Middle Ages
The new blasphemy law will send Ireland back to the middle ages, and is wretched, backward and uncivilised, Prof Richard Dawkins has said.
The scientist and critic of religion has lent his support to a campaign to repeal the law, introduced by Atheist Ireland, a group set up last December, arising from an online discussion forum. The law, which makes the publication or utterance of blasphemous matter a crime punishable by a €25,000 fine, passed through the Oireachtas last week.
In a message read out at Atheist Ireland’s first AGM on Saturday, Prof Dawkins said: “One of the world’s most beautiful and best-loved countries, Ireland has recently become one of the most respected as well: dynamic, go-ahead, modern, civilised – a green and pleasant silicon valley. This preposterous blasphemy law puts all that respect at risk.” He said it would be too kind to call the law a ridiculous anachronism.
Israeli Soldiers Speak Out On Gaza
A group of soldiers who took part in Israel’s assault in Gaza say widespread abuses were committed against civilians under “permissive” rules of engagement.
The troops said they had been urged to fire on any building or person that seemed suspicious and said civilians were sometimes used as human shields.
Breaking the Silence, a campaign group made up of Israeli soldiers, gathered anonymous accounts from 26 soldiers.
Saudi ‘Genie’ Sued For Harassment
A family in Saudi Arabia is taking a “genie” to court, accusing it of theft and harassment, reports say.
They accuse the spirit of threatening them, throwing stones and stealing mobile phones, Al Watan newspaper said.
The family have lived in the same house near the city of Medina for 15 years but say they only recently became aware of the spirit. They have now moved out.
A local court is investigating. In Islamic theology, genies are spirits that can harass or possess humans.
Pilgrims Flock To Tree ‘Showing Image Of Virgin Mary’ In Limerick
It has been 14 years since her last major apparition in Ireland but the Virgin Mary is back and this time in the lowly form of a tree stump in Limerick.
To the dismay of local Catholic church leaders, the freshly severed stump, with its supposed image of Our Lady, is rapidly becoming the focus of pilgrims. The last time that Ireland experienced anything similar was during its last recession in 1985, when a “moving” statue drew tens of thousands to Ballinspittle, Co Cork.
Saddam: ‘I Lied About WMD In Fear Of Iran’
Saddam Hussein allowed the world to believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction because he feared revealing his weakness to Iran, it has emerged.
The former dictator made the revelations in a series of interviews with the FBI during his incarceration before he was hanged in 2006.Hussein also denied any connection to Osama bin Laden and described him as a “zealot”, insisting he had personally never met the al Qaeda leader.
Alaska Governor Palin To Resign
Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has announced she will resign as governor of Alaska on 26 July and not run for re-election. Mrs Palin’s term of office was due to end in 2010.
There has been speculation that Mrs Palin, who is very popular with the Republican Party base, might make a bid for the White House in 2012.
