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A bustiere (alternately bustier) is an article of clothing for women, which is form-fitting and is traditionally worn as lingerie. It looks somewhat like a Basque, but a bustiere is shorter. It reaches down only to the ribs or the waist and has a different function: its primary purpose is to push up the bust by tightening against the upper midriff and forcing the breasts to move up, while gently shaping the waist. Modern bustiers are often made with mesh panels rather than boning. The bustier is a multi-purpose garment and doubles as a push-up bra for inner wear and as a camisole for outer wear. The bustier can also be worn as a half-slip under diaphanous upper garments if a bold display of the midriff is not desired.

Nowadays, a woman might wear a bustier as an undergarment/push-up bra under a low-backed dress.
The bustier when worn very tightly can also be used in erotic asphyxiation during physically exertive sex, especially when used with plastic wrap and wadded

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The music video for the song “Nobody” by Korean pop group the Wonder Girls was named “Video of the Year” by a U.S.-based music website.

In an online poll for 80 videos conducted by Musiqtone.com until Sunday, the video for the English version of “Nobody” received 1,249,080 votes or 37 percent of the total to claim the top position.
Wonder Girls Wonder Girls

The runner-up, “Automatic” by German band Tokio Hotel, garnered 400,000 fewer votes for 24 percent of the total.

Musiqtone.com provides news and multimedia content about albums and music videos in the U.S. The Wonder Girls were one of the nominees for the website’s “Artist of the Month” last September.

Heavy voting by Korean netizens may be the reason “Nobody” shot to the top. The poll allowed individuals to vote up to 50 times a day.

The Wonder Girls made their U.S. debut last fall with the English version of “Nobody,” which became the first song ever by a Korean artist to enter the Billboard Hot 100 in October when it ranked 76th.

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Want to bond with a new group of people? You could cover all your clothing in glue, or, if you’re on a budget, you could just laugh with them. If you’ve ever been the only person in a group who didn’t get a joke, you probably already know that laughter is critically important to successful social interactions. Scientists have found that mutual laughter helps people feel at ease around each other, and laughing when others are laughing makes those others more likely to accept you into their group. If you have a extremely loud or a very annoying laugh and it is embarrassing to you to laugh, don’t worry: everyone has different laughs. Just try not to annoy others.

What’s more, research suggests that laughter really may be the best medicine; laughter provides a vigorous workout to tighten your tummy and strengthen your heart, and regular laughing may boost your immune system. Fortunately, just about everybody can laugh. Just in case you need some pointers, though, you’ve come to the right place.

steps

1
Think of something you find funny. Not surprisingly, the easiest way to laugh is to think of something that you personally find very amusing. It seems a no-brainer, but it can be useful for those occasions where everybody but you is laughing at a joke. Why would you want to laugh just because others are laughing? Laughing along with one or more people shows you how to have to amuse yourself.

2
Smile. If you do want to fake… er, create a laugh, start with a smile. Scientists have found that genuine laughter is almost accompanied by the contraction of about 15 facial muscles, most of which are the same you use when you smile. Remember to smile with your eyes as well as your mouth. Smiling not only is a part of the natural laugh reflex; it can actually put you in a better mood and make you more apt to laugh.

3
Laugh at the appropriate time. Genuine laughs almost always begin at the end of a phrase or sentence. That is, they do not interrupt spoken phrases, but rather punctuate speech when the speaker would normally pause to breathe or start a new thought. You have probably noticed that stand-up comedians, for instance, pause at certain times during or after their jokes. These are spaces for laughter, and if a comedian had the lung capacity and the audacity to deliver a two-minute monologue without ever pausing, it’s quite possible no one would laugh, regardless of how funny the routine was.

4
Match your vowels. A typical laugh consists of short vocalizations, each with the same vowel sound. So, for example, “ha ha ha” will sound like a normal laugh, as will “bo ho ho,” but “ha ho ha” just sounds weird. And kind of scary.

5
Time your vocalizations. Research shows that the individual vocalizations that make up a “natural” laugh are about 210 milliseconds apart. The precision of that statistic is useless, because it varies around four per second, and comedians have made fun of limits in the machine gun tempo.

6
Feel it in your belly. You’ve got your timing and vowels right, but if you just say “ha ha ha” people are liable to think that you are either stuttering or mocking them. If this is not your desired effect, remember that sustained or frequent laughter is a proven way to strengthen and tone your abdominal muscles. The reason, of course, is that a good laugh uses those muscles to rather forcefully expel short bursts of air. Practice this by doing your best belly laugh—it doesn’t necessarily need to be loud—for one minute. You will feel the burn. You may want to be seated if you try this, however, as laughter is characterized by irregular breathing and is actually similar to gasping for air.

7
Taper your laugh. The typical laugh starts relatively loud and then tapers gradually off. While this isn’t always the case, laughs that increase in volume or that stop abruptly are generally suspicious. And remember, laughing is showing people that you’re happy. So, have fun with it and don’t worry about what people think of your laugh. Everyone has their own unique laugh, and everyone will love to hear yours!

warnings

* While scientists believe that laughter has a whole host of health benefits, it’s not recommended for some people, such as those who have recently had certain surgeries or those with certain medical conditions. Sometimes people laugh at sneezes or hiccups; however after surgery either can causes severe groans; which may seem funny to the innocent bystander but not to the one groaning: ” `Hic’ , awnh-aaaawnh-aah-awh!”.
* Always follow the advice of your medical professional, and if you ever experience pain or discomfort while laughing, especially if the discomfort persists after you have stopped laughing, consult your doctor immediately.
* As is the case with other forms of body language, it’s difficult to fake laughter, and if you’re unconvincing, people may suspect there’s something phony about you.
* Too much “laughter” may cause people to believe that you have serious mental problems.

Anonymous, Ben Rubenstein, Sondra C, Imperatrix

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The Black Heron, Egretta ardesiaca, also known as the Black Egret, is an African heron. It is a medium-sized (42.5–66 cm in height), black-plumaged heron with yellow legs and feet. It is found south of the Sahara Desert, including Madagascar, and prefers shallow open waters, such as the edges of freshwater lakes and ponds. It may also be found in marshes, river edges, rice fields, and seasonally flooded grasslands. In coastal areas, it may be found feeding along tidal rivers and creeks, alkaline lakes, and tidal flats. Its breeding range is between Senegal and Sudan and to the south. It is found mainly on the eastern half of the continent.
Black Herons canopy feeding

The Black Heron has an interesting hunting method called canopy feeding — it uses its wings like an umbrella, and uses the shade it creates to attract fish. This technique was well documented on episode 5 of the BBC’s The Life of Birds. Some Black Herons feed solitarily, while others feed in groups of up to 50 individuals, 200 being the highest number reported. The Black Heron feeds by day but especially prefers the time around sunset. It roosts communally at night, and coastal flocks roost at high tide. The primary food of the Black Heron is small fish, but it will also eat aquatic insects, crustaceans and amphibians.

The nest of the Black Heron is constructed of twigs placed over water in trees, bushes, and reed beds, forming a solid structure. The heron nests at the beginning of the rainy season, in single or mixed-species colonies that may number in the hundreds. The eggs are dark blue and the clutch is two to four eggs.

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How to Forgive and Release the Pain
janerobinson Member
By Jane Robinson

Forgiveness…can you hear the haunting organ music when forgiveness is mentioned? Forgiveness elicits a wrinkled brow and a sinking feeling in many of us. How can we possibly forgive someone who has wronged us? If we forgive, do we have to rekindle a relationship with someone from the past? Does this person deserve our charity? Furthermore, if we do forgive those who have wronged us, how can we honestly feel a release from the anger, hurt, disappointment, grief, wound to our self-value, animosity, teeth-grinding and jaw-clenching rage that we hold inside? Can we truly let go of the grudge? Is it possible to be able to forgive and forget? Even if we should forgive, why would we want to?

We want to forgive to free our lives and cut the tie that binds us and our lives to the transgressor. To forgive does not mean you have to become friends with the person who hurt you. Instead, forgiveness can be the agent that frees you to move on and lighten your energy. Many spiritual teachers point out that we form a strong bond to the people we feel injured us. This bond holds us captive until we forgive–only forgiveness cuts the binding tie.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Instructions

1.
Step 1

Look at circumstances in our own lives and yield to this understanding: People who are malicious, untrustworthy, emotionally disconnected, or incapable of caring actually “know not what they do.” This recognition does not excuse the person, but it helps us to release our inner struggle with the notion that this individual could have done something different. The person was not spiritually or emotionally evolved enough to handle it differently. This knowing, at the soul level, is where we release the bondage and pain of our injuries.
2.
Step 2

Write a letter to the people you feel have hurt you. In this letter, let them know what they did to hurt you, why it hurt you, and how disappointed or angry you are due to the transgression. Once you are in touch with the pain, you might ask why they did what they did to you and how they would respond now to your pain. The writing of this letter allows you to gain insight and perspective, whether the infraction was intentional or unintentional. You do not mail the letter to the person. It is a tool to assist you in releasing your pain and beginning to forgive. You may gain understanding that people, sometimes, are not evolved emotionally and may have been doing their best at the time. While their behavior is not acceptable, this bit of information may help you free the weight that is keeping you down and sinking in your pain.
3.
Step 3

Reply to yourself with a letter from that person. This is your chance for them to say to you, “I’m sorry for hurting you,” and perhaps to salve your wound. During this part of the healing, the sting will lessen. Would you like for the person to say, “I was wrong to treat you this way”? If so, write this response. Do not suppress your emotions when writing this letter. This is a great opportunity for you to allow a sigh of real relief in the forgiveness process.
4.
Step 4

Use visualization. Another effective forgiveness process is to imagine a gold frame surrounding the face of anyone with whom you would like to
forgive. See them inside the frame and visualize the frame and their
image transforming to gold dust. Blow the gold dust out into the
universe and watch it dissipate into the air and trickle out into space. This beautiful exercise helps you break down the negative energy
and transform it for healing. One additional and interesting forgiveness process is a balloon release image. Place everyone you are ready to forgive in an open field together and tie a balloon to each one. As you work with forgiving each individual, visualize the person floating up to the sky and out into eternity as your pain and grief float away with each person you release.
5.
Step 5

Release the anger from your body. One final forgiveness process is through channeling the anger, pain and frustration into Mother Earth and experiencing a transformation of energy. See the negative energy as an orange light traveling through your body, through the spine and chakras, then down and out of the bottoms of your feet into the earth. Observe the energy as it transforms into a rainbow of light energy, lifting from the earth and expanding out into the universe. Try variations of this process and the visualizations. Sometimes you may allow this rainbow of light to travel up and around the body, and reenter through the crown chakra on the top of the head and then leave the body through the heart chakra in small, heart-shaped rainbows or solid pastel hearts, sending love and light out to the world.
6.
Step 6

Continue working with these processes until thinking of the
person who hurt you no longer stings or causes tension. When you
reach a point of forgiveness, you feel detached and indifferent in
relationship to the event or person connected to the internal strife
you formerly experienced. This detachment may come and go at
first, until you finally forgive and no longer feel pain when you think
of the event or individual. Make this a pleasant–not dreaded–process.

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How to Forgive, Forget and Let Go
sandraray Contributor
By Sandra Ray
eHow Contributing Writer

Forgive, Forget and Let Go

Forgiveness is one of those concepts that most people have difficulty grasping. While we all have a mental image of what forgiveness “should” look like when others forgive us, knowing how to forgive ourselves or someone else isn’t as easy to understand.

When someone else causes us emotional harm, whether unintentional or intentional, learning to let go of this pain can be one of the most difficult transitions we go through. Social workers in the prison system work with families on the process of forgiveness to help ease the transition between incarceration and life on the outside. Similar to restorative justice programs which involve the victim of a crime and the offender, these prison programs seek to develop an understanding of the offenders act(s) and come to terms with the eventual return to society.

The families involved tend to view forgiveness as an admission that the past is completely forgotten and life can return to normal as if nothing happened. As you can imagine, this effort at denying the behavior has a negative effect.

Carrying emotional pain, anger, anxiety, and other distressing thoughts about a situation or someone often is easier for us than beginning the forgiveness process. Cognitive-behavioral therapists often stress positive thoughts since it can be easier to invest more time in negative thoughts and redirect energy toward positive change. The more we concentrate our emotional energy on carrying a grudge and not forgiving someone, the more likely we are to become anxious, depressed and negative about the general situation.

Since it is often easy to think of forgiveness in terms of forgetting, we need to examine how we forget. Human memory does not work like computer memory. There is no way to reformat the past. Instead, we look at situations through different lenses. Psychologists often refer to these lenses as perspective. Reality of our situation is how we view it at the time that the impression or memory was formed.

Forgetting a past hurt refers to relearning the circumstances surround the situation, reprocess it through a fresh perspective, and move toward forgiveness. When we look at the outcome of what happened, we can either become bitter and angry or view the end result as an opportunity for personal growth and change.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging
Instructions
Things You’ll Need:

* Motivation for new change
* Willingness to process painful emotions and find a new conclusion
* A neutral third party–a therapist, counselor, or empathetic friend–to evaluate whether or not the process is constructive
* Time–forgiveness is a process

1.
Step 1

The first and most important step is allowing yourself permission to forgive. When we focus more on the consequences of not forgiving ourselves, we shift the focus to ourselves and how we can move beyond the past hurt and blame. The situation becomes less about the person who wronged you and more about how you are able to heal and develop a sense of peace.
2.
Step 2

Forgiving someone else first involves recognizing that forgiving is not giving that person absolution for a previous wrong. Forgiveness is often confused with absolution since the terms are used almost interchangeably in most religions. What if the person who wronged you is not living? What if the person is someone who caused you extreme embarrassement during school 20 or 30 years ago? These people are not available to you to discuss the situation, nor do they have to be. Letting go of emotional pain does not mean that nothing happened; it means that you no longer want to be controlled by it.
3.
Step 3

Recognize that forgiveness is not denial. Whatever caused the pain was a real incident. Denying that it happened and calling it forgiveness means that it is too painful to work through the emotions. There is no timeline on forgiveness. Some steps take longer to get through, and it is acceptable to work through some of it and set it aside for a period of time. Part of forgiveness is understanding that whether or not someone takes responsibility for it (and may even demonstrate remorse), does not control whether or not you intend to continue investing emotional pain and distress each time you revisit what happened.
4.
Step 4

Understand that not everyone who forgives reconciles with the person who caused the pain. There are relationships that are toxic and even physically dangerous. While it is possible to forgive the past and move beyond it, it may also mean that the person who was involved no longer can play an active role in your life. If a person or situation is not safe, it may be best not to reconcile the relationship and then work on forgiveness at a time when you are emotionally healthy and physically safe.
5.
Step 5

Make a conscious decision to forgive someone. Even if they never apologize for what happened, determine within yourself that it is fine to proceed without this apology. Apologies should not be about permission to us to forgive someone. Apologies should be offered as an effort of true remorse and acknowledgement that taking personal responsibility for the situation is important. Even without that apology, make up your mind to forgive, forget, and eventually let go.

Tips & Warnings

*
It is possible to forgive and still hold others accountable for their actions.
*
Find a support group if you need one. Places to look include churches, non-profit organizations and even employee assistance programs.
*
Not everyone who apologizes is remorseful. Even if someone apologizes, they may only be “going through the motions” in an effort to manipulate you.
*
Don’t feel pressured to forgive before you are ready. Everyone sets their own timeline when it comes to healing from an old wound.

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jill carrigan & wendy schumaker were hired as ” automated man ” to produce a series of educational videos for my company.

stuart winter is the money man funding this ” automated man ” nightmare, listed on their website as woohoo entertainment llc

jill carrigan was given our company credit card ( visa ) to complete the movie project

jill carrigan was given a brand new panasonic movie camera, a dealer license plate & dirty harry’s inspector star 2211 to complete the movie project

jill carrigan agreed to complete the movie project & was paid a fee of $ 2000.

jill carrigan, wendy schumaker and stuart winter are the owners of ” automated man ”

jill carrigan announced 90 days after payment an additional $ 5500. would be required.

jill carrigan has no contract, no project provisions, no contract for such a demand. the demand is another in a series of thuggish behaviour demands

jill carrigan, wendy schumaker & stuart winter were told to cancel the movie project, and to return the credit card and props.

fia card services was told to cancel the credit card issued to jill carrigan ( visa )

jill carrigan subsequently called fia card services and had a second card issued and sent to her in venice ca without our authorization or permission ( amex 8518 )

new red flags rules for issuing credit cards with an address discrepancy were ignored by fia card services and the bank of america, complaint pending with ken lewis, bank of america CEO ( many banks are ignoring the red flag rules )

in an ironic twist to this story, the red flag rules was the topic of the training video by which the ” automated man ” trio committed this fraud.

this crime is called identity theft account takeover and one of several new identity theft crimes credit card companies have to deal with

fia card services explained that the crossover ( visa to amex back to visa ) allowed jill carrigan to charge an additional $ 8000. on the fraudulently obtained credit card even with our instruction to cancel the credit card and remove authorization for jill carrigan

despite jill carrigan’s promise to pay for these charges, no payment has been made

wendy schumaker ( alexander keith ) and jill carrigan live together in venice, ca

stuart winter also lives in venice, ca.

the automated man trio has been using our camera for additional video work, including an automated man series of video starring stuart winter himself

we have had the lapd make a civil standby at the carrigan-schumaker ( keith ) residence to recover the credit cards, the movie camera, the dirty harry inspector star ( 2211 ) & the dealer plate

jill carrigan told the lapd she does not have any of these items

jill carrigan subsequently sent us the dirty harry ( 2211 ) inspector star via certified mail

the credit card debt of $ 8000. remains unpaid.

the movie is unfinished ( poor sound quality ) & the panasonic movie camera remains missing

the dealer plate has been reported stolen

the automated man project will give jill carrigan, wendy schumaker ( alex keith ) & stuart winter access to hundreds if not thousands of customer credit cards on a subscription basis, great product, but slippery thug management that steals.

jill carrigan states she longs for ” success & freedom ” we remind jill carrigan ” success & freedom can NEVER be based on stealing”

our primary goal in revealing ” automated man ” is to recover our stolen camera, dealer plate and our funds

our secondary goal is to reveal automated man, automated mom and its owners as a fraud and thiefs that steal. we hope to warn the public from providing any non-public confidential information to the automated man trio, jill carrigan, wendy schumaker ( alex keith ) & stuart winter. can you imagine hiring an accountant connected to identity theft & fraud ??

our research reveals that jill carrigan has committed other significant fraud, including reporting artisan creative, jaime daugherty as her employer for 6 years on her resume. jaime reported to us that jill carrigan is a fraud & that in 2003 she was employed for less than 90 days and fired for poor customer service skills and aggressive behaviour

jill carrigan has been known to act inappropriately in public places with fits of rage and a slurry of foul inappropriate language. we have witnessed such acts in living color.

jill carrigan also uses the alias of ” beth ” and performs a variety of adult services on craiglist to supplement her ” automated man ” project.

jill carrigan’s father is tom carrigan of tampa florida, an award winning CPA and we have asked for his assistance to no avail.

jill carrigan’s mother, tina carrigan of philly pa was a service provider of phone service and has subsequently stolen $ 800. for services never performed. ( the apple on this tree falls straight, like mother, like daughter ). tina carrigan markets herself as a life coach. wendy schumaker ( alex keith ) is her partner in a business called ” chaos control coaching ”

wendy schumaker ( alex keith ) uses the alias of alex keith, b movie actress known for provocative scenes and slutty on-screen behaviour in films such as animal instinct. wendy schumaker ( alex keith ) is believed to be holding the stolen movie camera and the stolen dealer plate. wendy schumaker ( alex keith ) suffers from a variety of ailments and rarely leaves the broadway avenue ” automated man ” headquarters.

stuart winter is a wannabe referee of some sort & also an accountant. stuart winter is the money and apparatus behind ” automated man ” stuart winter may not survive much longer. stuart winter is suffering from terminal cancer. jill carrigan describes him as the ever-ready bunny who just will not die. stuart winter has benefited from remarkable treatment from the mayo clinic. stuart winter has two sons being raised my his lovely ex-wife.

please adhere to our warning about this ” automated man ” trio

thuggish behaviour, identity theft and incomplete promises
is the ” automated man ” legacy.

stay far away from the ” automated man ” trio.

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Obsidian is the name given to several fictional characters in the various Transformers universes.
Beast Machines
Obsidian Vehicon
Sub-group Basic Vehicle
Function Aerial Combat
Rank 6
Motto “Megatron is Cybertron. To defend one is to defend the other.”
“Walking is for suckers.” (Beast Wars Returns)
Alternate Modes Cybertronian Tiltrotor (Resembling a V-22 Osprey)
Series Beast Machines
English voice actor Paul Dobson

Oddly Obsidian’s tech specs have little or nothing to do with the character as seen on the show, instead being described as a simple drone-general attaché.

His biography indicates that he provide air support for Vehicon Tank-Drones, but oddly portrayed him as made to be a fairly mindless air-attack unit by Megatron, which contradicted his show history as a Cybertronian General.

The appearance of Obsidian is based on concept art provided to Hasbro by Draxhall Jump.
[edit] Animated series

Obsidian is a legendary Cybertronian General who scored countless victories alongside his consort Strika. According to the Maximals in the episode “Sparkwar” they fought a thousand wars and won them all. The two were captured by Megatron, along with the entire population of Cybertron, who then eventually placed their sparks in Vehicon bodies. Obsidian became a helicopter, leading the aerial forces in place of the fallen Jetstorm.

They first appeared in the episode “Sparkwar Part 1″, where they immediately made an impact. Pretending to be dim and fairly weak, a’la Tankor, the two lured the Maximals into a trap, cutting off their every option with countless numbers of new Vehicon Drones. Cornering them underground, the Maximals only escaped due to Botanica’s intervention.

Unlike the previous generation of Vehicon generals (Tankor, Jetstorm and Thrust), both Obsidian and Strika weren’t given alternate personalities. They remained who they had always been. However, their prime directive was the protection of Cybertron, and they had been programmed to perceive Megatron and Cybertron as one and the same. To defend one was to defend the other. Unlike the previous Generals, Obsidian was willing to take the responsibilities of his own failures, making him perhaps the most honest of the Vehicon Generals. Obsidian and Strika were the first vehicons to address Megatron as “Lord Megatron”

Obsidian proved himself to be a tactical genius on the battlefield, given his past history as a supreme general. Despite his military brilliance, he was at a loss when without a certain directive. When Megatron was seemingly destroyed, he and Strika joined the Maximals, since their options had become limited. This alliance would turn out brief though, for when Megatron returned in the body of a Diagnostic Drone, Obsidian and Strika immediately return to his side.

In the final battle with the Maximals, Obsidian and Strika were tricked into standing on an antigravity unit by Cheetor, who launched the pair into space, where neither were affected by the reformatting of Cybertron.

According to an F.A.Q. on Bob Skir’s web site there was a scene with Obsidian and Strika cut from the final episode. “Obsidian and Strika had a MAGNIFICENT scene in which they return to Cybertron and decline an offer to be reformatted themselves (partly because they feel unworthy because of their role helping Megatron, and party because I wanted them to remain “pure” when I brought them back in the next series… which (as of this writing) I haven’t been invited onto yet. Sadly, their finale got cut for time.”
[edit] Fun Publications

Obsidian and Strika appeared together in the story Wreckers: Finale Part 2 by the Transformers Collectors Club in 2007. During the invasion of Cybertron the Quintessons believed the orbital defenses were deactivated, but thanks to Obsidian and Strika, some of them were brought back online and used against a Quintesson ship.
Toys

* Beast Machines Basic Obsidian (2000)

Although the Hasbro toy of Obsidian wasn’t colored like the character in the animated series, when released in Japan’s Beast Wars Returns toy line it was recolored to match the show.
The Transformers: Universe character of Rotorbolt was a redeco of Obsidian as a Predacon, but although prototypes of this figure was made, it was never released.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise
Obsidian RiD Obsidian.JPG
RiD Obsidian Toy
Decepticon
Sub-group Basic Vehicles
Function Helicopter
Alternate Modes Cybertronian Tiltrotor
Series Transformers: Robots in Disguise

Due to the RiD universe not being remotely connected to the original series, Beast War and Beast Machines universe, and the fact that this Obsidian did not appear in the TV show or in any other fiction, nor did he receive any sort of biography from Hasbro; it can only be presumed that he was a completely different character.
Toys

* Robots in Disguise Obsidian (2002)

A redeco of the original Beast Machines toy of the same name, a character called Obsidian was released as a Decepticon in the RiD toyline.

Transformers: Universe
Obsidian Decepticon
Sub-group Basic Vehicles
Function Aerial Combat
Rank 9
Partner Tankor
Motto “Control the air and you control the battle. Control the mind, you control the war.”
Alternate Modes Cybertronian Tiltrotor
Series Transformers: Universe
Tankor and Obsidian bring Blackarachnia to Tarantulas in the Transformers: Universe comics.

Once again a Decepticon, he is released with Tankor. However, this was an alternate universe version rather than the actually Obsidian from Beast Machines.

His bio indicated he that similar to the real Obsidian, had previously been a great general, captured and turned into a Vehicon by Megatron. Unlike the Obsidian from Beast Machines however, this Obsidian secretly plotted to overthrow his master. Lacking Strika in this universe and recognizing his own shortcomings, he teamed up with Tankor, who had not regained his Rhinox memories. Together they overthrew Megatron, taking control of Cybertron for themselves. Recognizing his leadership abilities, Unicron plucked him (along with Tankor) from his universe and made him one of his troops.
Obsidian and Strika appear in a flashback in the Cybertron comics.
3H Enterprises

In the comics, he said that he was from the reality where Unicron conquered Cybertron.

wikipedia

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Ryan “Nigahiga” Higa and Sean “The Fluffy Bunny” Fujiyoshi

Background information
Born 6 June 1990 (1990-06-06) (age 19) (Ryan)[citation needed]
8 December 1990 (1990-12-08) (age 19) (Sean)[citation needed]
Hilo, Hawaii
Other name(s) Nigahiga
Nationality Asian-American[citation needed]
Internet activity
Web alias(es) nigahiga
Period active July 20, 2006–present
Host service(s) YouTube
Genre(s) Comedy
Notable work(s) “How to be” series
Advertisement spoofs series
“Movies in Minutes” series
“Skitzo” series
Ninja Melk
Ryan and Sean’s Not So Excellent Adventure
Official site nigahiga’s YouTube channel

Ryan Higa and Sean Fujiyoshi are Japanese-American comedians from Hilo, Hawaii. They are known for their YouTube comedy videos, which have been viewed over 250 million times.[1] Their YouTube channel nigahiga is currently the most subscribed of all time.[2]
Contents
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* 1 Background
o 1.1 Content
o 1.2 Popularity
* 2 Copyright Violations
* 3 Ryan and Sean’s Not So Excellent Adventure
* 4 References
* 5 External links

Background
Content

Ryan and Sean started posting YouTube videos of themselves lip synching to songs in mid 2006 while attending Waiakea High School.[3] They quickly expanded beyond songs, with a variety of other comedic pieces. The duo continued to gain popularity, releasing a series of “how-to” guides such as How to be Ninja, How to be Gangster, How to be Emo and How to be Nerd that became their most popular releases to date.

Recently, their video content has shifted towards spoofs of real commercial products and movies. Some spoofed products include the ShamWOOHOO! (after the ShamWow!), ChildrensBop, and Hook on Fonik along with The Portobello Mushroom Burger. Their Movies in Minutes videos summarize and spoof movies such as Harry Potter, Twilight, Transformers, Titanic, Saw and New Moon.

Occasional guest appearances are made by Tim Enos (who plays the role of Helga Fawntanilla), Ryan Villaruel, Kyle Chun, Mason Turner and Tarynn Nago (Ryan’s girlfriend), collectively known as the “Yabo Crew”.[4]
Popularity

Ryan and Sean’s YouTube channel, nigahiga, was created on July 20, 2006. By July 2008 it had over 300,000 subscribers, making it one of the site’s most subscribed channels.[5] By November 2008, their videos had been viewed over 150 million times.[6]

On May 10, 2009, Nigahiga passed the one million subscriber mark and ranked as YouTube’s second most subscribed channel, just short of Fred’s 1.2 million subscribers. On August 20, 2009, Ryan and Sean overtook Fred to become the most subscribed YouTube channel of all time.[7]
Copyright Violations
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On Christmas Eve of 2008, Ryan and Sean’s two most popular videos, How to be Gangster and How to be Emo, were removed due to copyright violations.[8] On January 21, 2009, nigahiga’s account was temporarily suspended and was told to remove more copyrighted videos. Because of this, nigahiga’s lip synching videos were all removed (with the exception of You’re Beautiful, which was audio swapped[9]), and so were most of his videos that include copyrighted music. As of now, all the music that is being played in nigahiga’s videos is music Ryan composed himself. How to be Gangster and How to be Emo were put back on nigahiga’s channel in late August 2009, only to be removed a few days later, along with How to be Ninja. Ryan and Sean used to have over 90 videos, but due to copyright incidents, their video number has dropped down currently to 51.[10]
Ryan and Sean’s Not So Excellent Adventure
In 2008, Los Angeles producer Derek Zemrak offered to help them create their first feature-length film. The resulting film, Ryan and Sean’s Not So Excellent Adventure, was directed by Richard Van Vleet and released on November 14, 2008.[11][12] It was shown in sold out theaters in Hawaii and California.[6] The DVD was released on July 14, 2009 in the USA.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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WILL tablet computers save the newspaper industry?

Apple is expected to release its highly anticipated tablet computer, dubbed iTablet or iSlate by some, later this month.

Like every Apple product, it will most likely look cool and people will line up for days to buy it, but the big question on my mind is: Will the device, and others like it, have the power to revive a rapidly decaying newspaper and publishing industry?

It is no secret the newspaper industry, as a whole, took a huge hit in 2009. Most were forced to lay off staff and others shut their doors. Besides a massive recession, publishers were having trouble adapting traditional page layouts, with their power to draw readers in and give them something they weren’t looking for, to the Internet. Even some of the best designed papers in the world had home pages that featured small photos, small headlines and even smaller text on their home pages.

Some newer media sites have recently popped up on the web, giving us a glimpse of what publishing 2.0 may look like. Flypmedia.com is one site that I love, as it combines written words with audio, video and interactive information graphics in a format similar to a magazine that you can “flyp” through.

Another exciting site is Vook.com.

Vook combines the traditional written word with videos for each chapter. The company offers two versions, an online platform and a mobile version available on Apple iTunes store. I downloaded a recent bestseller and was amazed at how easy it was to read on my iPod Touch and loved the bonus video content. The best part was, instead of $25 at the bookstore, it was only $6.99, which made it an instant impulse buy.

Now enters Apple’s new tablet computer. Since company officials are masters at keeping everything secret until their products are released, little is actually known for sure about the device.

Some of the bigger tech sources on the web suggest that it will have about a 25-centimetre screen and a touch interface similar to the wildly popular iPhone/iPod Touch. It will also have book reader abilities like Kindle, but with all the photography, graphics and multimedia the web can provide.

If you’re in the publishing business, you have to think this is going to be a game changer — the prospect of your readers once again sitting back and flipping through your nicely designed page with large photos and video, plus the ability to interact with your readers in new ways.

An added bonus: the high costs of printing and distribution will be reduced to almost zero.

Newspapers that were struggling to make money with their online product will now be able to harness the power of Apple’s iTunes store and sell monthly subscriptions there. It also allows papers to reach readers outside each business’s traditional boundaries of provinces and state lines.

If your content is good, people will buy it.

JEFF HARPER

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Check out Awesome GIMP/Photoshop brushes, useful for your Web Design. Exclusively at Obsidian Dawn

All High Resolution

The brushes listed within these pages may be used in Photoshop (versions 7, CS, CS2, CS3, CS4), Photoshop Elements (versions 2 – 7), and GIMP (version 2.2.6 to present).

Accompanying each of the sets, you will also find an image pack. This is a ZIP file of the JPGs used to make the brush set. This is what you’ll want to download if you’re a Paint Shop Pro (PSP) user, or use any other graphics program that’s not listed here. You can use those images to make brushes in your program of choice.

You may browse through them using the categories on the left. The categories are explained below.

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Ataraxia (ἀταραξία “tranquillity”) is a Greek term used by Pyrrho and Epicurus for a lucid state, characterized by freedom from worry or any other preoccupation.

For the Epicureans, ataraxia was synonymous with the only true happiness possible for a person. It signifies the state of robust tranquility that derives from eschewing faith in an afterlife, not fearing the gods because they are distant and unconcerned with us, avoiding politics and vexatious people, surrounding oneself with trustworthy and affectionate friends and, most importantly, being an affectionate, virtuous person, worthy of trust.

For the Pyrrhonians, owing to one’s inability to say which sense impressions are true and which ones are false, it is the quietude that arises from suspending judgment on dogmatic beliefs or anything non-evident and continuing to inquire. The experience was said to have fallen on the painter Apelles who was trying to paint the foamy saliva of a horse. He was so unsuccessful that, in a rage, he gave up and threw the sponge he was cleaning his brushes with at the medium, thus producing the effect of the horse’s foam.[1]

The Stoics, too, sought mental tranquility, and saw ataraxia as something to be desired and often made use of the term, but for them the analogous state, attained by the Stoic sage, was apatheia or absence of passion.[2]

This is the disorder that character Slevin Cabrera claims on “Lucky Number Slevin”

ataraxic people perform these similar symptoms :

Not taking things too seriously. Avoid complexity. And always think they can handle anything.
Complexity is one of the major things that they avoid in life. They cherish simplicity more than anything else.

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Moscow’s medical workers discovered a magnificent gift of a sixteen-year-old girl Natalya Demkina from Saransk. The girl possesses “dual vision”. She is capable of discerning a person’s internal organs without using X-ray or ultrasound.

BREAKING NEWS
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Natasha has already disproved several medical diagnoses and has not made any mistakes. A series of medical experiments conducted in one of the clinics provide substantial and undeniable proofs of the girls’ unique abilities.

“Growing up, my daughter was just an ordinary child,” states Natasha’s mother Tatyana Vladimirovna. “Perhaps, she just a bit more mature than other kids her age. Natasha started to talk when she was only 6 months old. At 1, she could already recite Pushkin and Nekrasov by heart. By 3, Natasha mastered the alphabet and learned to operate a snowmobile,” continues her mother. “Since early childhood, Natasha has been resistant to cold temperatures. She practically walked around naked till winter. She once walked barefoot in the snow after sauna [Rus. banya] Overall, she was just a normal kid. Never was she able to see through humans!”

The Demkins family remains puzzled as to the origin of their daughter’s gift. Perhaps, Natasha’s latest surgery has triggered such “vision improvement”. Natasha’s appendix has been removed. However, by the time she was scheduled to be sent home from the hospital, she could hardly move. Ultrasound revealed that doctors forgot to remove sanitary cotton tampons from the girl’s intestines. Natasha was once again hospitalized and operated for the second time. In a month after that incident, the teenager was able to surprise her mother with her unique quality. “I see a crimped tube similar to our vacuum cleaner inside of you. I also see two beans and a tomato that resembles a bulls’ heart,” states the girl. Back then, she was not aware of medical terminology and could not provide a proper name for a heart, a liver, a kidney, or intestines. She simply compared what she saw to fruits and vegetables.

Medical workers of children’s hospital №1 decided to conduct several experiments in order to gain some insight into the girl’s gift. Natasha was shown a woman with a whole bunch of illnesses. The girl managed to list every single one of them. Further ultrasound examination simply proved her final diagnosis.

Natasha is capable of distinguishing even the tiniest pathology on a molecular level in the deepest corners of a human body, which are usually left undetected by regular ultrasound. “It’s like having double vision. I can switch from one to the other in no time if I need to know a person’s health problem,” says the teenager. “I see an entire human organism. It is difficult to explain how I determine specific illnesses. There are certain impulses that I feel from the damaged organs. The secondary vision works only in daytime and is asleep at night.”

Natasha began her studies at a multi-disciplined academy at the Moscow’s State University of Ogarev in order to learn more about organism’s phenomenal qualities. There she specializes in medicine. “Being able to use medical terminology, I will be able to state the final diagnosis more accurately. I have to know and understand what I see. This will definitely ease my work with people who come for consultations,” states Natasha.

In the meantime, the amount of people willing to attend the girls’ consultations increases day after day. News about her wonderful gift has quickly spread around their district. Today, the Demkins family accepts about twenty phone calls a day with cries for help.

“We even have people standing in line right before our door,” says Natasha. “I cannot turn them down. I do not accept any monetary rewards either. That is why I am often exhausted by the end of the day. Some people do not even thank me…”

Doctors themselves often pay visits to the girl. Several times Natasha disproved their final diagnoses. “There was once a lady who had been diagnosed with cancer. I looked at her and did not notice anything like it, just a small cyst. The woman however stated that she had just been diagnosed with cancer.” Secondary examination however revealed that Natasha had been right.

“I would like to get into Moscow’s medical academy of Sechenov. However, I do not think that I will be able to pay for my studies- 70,000 rubles annually. Not even my gift can help me in these matters,” says Natasha.

Natasha is right. Despite a number of experiments and thorough medical examinations, the girl’s gift still needs to be backed up by scientific evidences and facts. Today, the girl hopes that scientists will notice her and conduct all the necessary experiments. “I have nothing to hide,” says Natasha. “Let them experiment with me. Perhaps, they will be able to explain the nature of my secondary vision. Then I guess I will have a chance to study at the most prestigious medical school.”
Source: PV-Gazeta

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Kate A. Tomeny has extensive web design experience using HTML, CSS, Dreamweaver and the Adobe suite

Kate A. Tomeny

Cambridge Who’s Who offers an online networking platform where members can establish new business relationships and achieve career advancement within their company, industry or profession.
BATON ROUGE, LA, January 18, 2010 /Cambridge Who’s Who/ –Kate A. Tomeny, Senior Web Designer for Technology Engineers, Inc., has been recognized by Cambridge Who’s Who for demonstrating dedication, leadership and excellence in web development and design.

Kate A. Tomeny is a web development and design specialist for Technology Engineers, Inc., a design company that provides technology management including web, database and application development services. She is a team leader and graphic designer responsible for the creative design of all web development projects. She has extensive web design experience using HTML, CSS, and several software programs, including Dreamweaver and the Adobe suite. Her background in graphic design and advertising gives her the ability to create attractive, visually appealing and functional designs that enhance her clients’ brand image over the web and provide their users with intuitive easy-to-use sites. Kate is also a key project leader who coordinates meetings, keeping all project participants on task, and ensuring a consistent design throughout the project.

Ms. Tomeny’s family background in web design and her interest in information technology motivated her to pursue a career in the industry. She considers developing web-based applications for the Louisiana Economic Development Project to be the highlight of her career and attributes her success to her education and determination. Ms. Tomeny holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts and Science from Louisiana State University’s College of Arts and Science.

For additional information about Technology Engineers, Inc., please visit http://www.technologyengineers.com.

About Cambridge Who’s Who
Cambridge Who’s Who is an exclusive membership organization that recognizes and empowers executives, professionals and entrepreneurs throughout the world. From healthcare to law, engineering to finance, manufacturing to education, every major industry is represented by its 500,000 active members.

Cambridge Who’s Who membership provides individuals with a valuable third party endorsement of their accomplishments and gives them the tools needed to brand themselves and their businesses effectively. In addition to publishing biographies in print and electronic form, Cambridge Who’s Who offers an online networking platform where members can establish new business relationships and achieve career advancement within their company, industry or profession.

http://www.technologyengineers.com

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EXCLUSIVE: PART 2 of the HERO COMPLEX INTERVIEW

This is the second part of my interview with Oscar-winning director James Cameron, who is (finally) bringing the world his years-in-the-making sci-fi epic “Avatar.” Today he explains why the film might be rightly considered “Dances with Wolves” in space and he shares his opinion of recent special-effects blockbusters — he thought “Star Trek” absolutely rocked but “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” well, uh, not so much. He also teaches me a new word.

(READ PART 1)

At Play in the Fields of the Lord GB: With this movie, it feels like a classic going-native film, if that doesn’t sound too flippant. In the half-hour of footage I saw I was reminded at certain points of “Farewell to the King,” “A Man Called Horse” and “At Play in the Fields of the Lord.”

JC: Yeah, yeah, “At Play in the Fields of the Lord” was among the videos that I used as a reference. Yeah, absolutely. Tom Berenger did some real interesting stuff in that film.

GB: There’s also maybe some heritage linking it to “Dances With Wolves,” considering your story here of a battered military man who finds something pure in an endangered tribal culture.

JC: Yes, exactly, it is very much like that. You see the same theme in “At Play in the Fields of the Lord” and also “The Emerald Forest,” which maybe thematically isn’t that connected but it did have that clash of civilizations or of cultures. That was another reference point for me. There was some beautiful stuff in that film. I just gathered all this stuff in and then you look at it through the lens of science fiction and it comes out looking very different but is still recognizable in a universal story way. It’s almost comfortable for the audience – “I know what kind of tale this is.” They’re not just sitting there scratching their heads, they’re enjoying it and being taken along. And we still have turns and surprises in it, too, things you don’t see coming. But the idea that you feel like you are in a classic story, a story that could have been shaped by Rudyard Kipling or Edgar Rice Burroughs.

GB: Or Joseph Conrad…?

Emerald Forest JC: Yes, exactly. And I think returning to classic tales is a powerful thing. Look, right now is a special time because we can basically do anything we imagine. I mean you have to work hard at it, and you’ve got to have the technique and you have to be willing to throw money at the problem. Sometimes you have to be a little bold and go out on a limb. But if you can imagine it, you can do it. That’s why we’re seeing this renaissance of visual imagination. It’s just a growth. Films look better now than they’ve ever looked. Sometimes they get a little lost in it though. I’ll go to a “Transformers” film for the fun of seeing the spectacle but, personally, my soul craves a little more story, a little more meat on the bone and characters and that sort of thing. Look, I think it’s about finding a balance between story and all of this gimmickry. I think I veer toward classicism, being solidly rooted in the classic stuff. I mean really old-school science fiction. This is a movie I would have loved to have seen when I was a 14-year-old kid in 1968.

GB: Well, certainly, that’s why it’s reassuring for anyone to see movies like “Star Trek” and “Up,” which might be my two favorite films this year, because both are examples of technology and craft achieving the fantastic but in service of great storytelling.

JC: Right, “Star Trek” — look at that. That is a great example of a complete reinvention. Really, it’s beautifully done, really. Bravo. And I loved the first season of “Star Trek” back in 1965 or 1966 or whenever it was, it grabbed me as a kid, but I drifted away from it over time. And this was such a great way to see it come back as re-imagined. What fun.

GB: In the footage I saw it seemed to me that you were able to present nuanced emotion in the faces of the alien tribe and the human avatars who walk among them. That’s vital, isn’t it? I mean we’ve seen movies where computer-created or computer-augmented visages seemed wooden or dead-faced.

Dances with Wolves poster JC: That was the biggest challenge of the film. No matter how much art and technology we threw at this thing, if it wasn’t in the eyes of the characters – if you didn’t see a soul there – it would just be a big clanking machine. And I think that’s what people were responding to with … well I don’t want to throw a particular movie under the bus here, but let’s just say we’ve seen examples of motion-capture not quite getting it. It’s called the uncanny valley. We’ve seen movies never quite get out of the uncanny valley. That’s a reference to a negative effect that is created when something approaches human [in appearance] but isn’t quite there, it creates this creepiness. Our goal right from the get-go is that we had to get over the uncanny valley. These characters have to be real, they have to be alive. And what the actors do has to come through 100%. We didn’t want to get in and come back and muck around with a lot of key-framing where we would be animating over what the actors did. Our goal was a pure translation of the actors’ performance, at least as much as the physiology of that character allowed. The actors can’t act the tail, the actors can’t ears, so there is a layer of animation on top of what they are doing. But if I showed you the reference video track of what [lead actors] Zoe [Saldana] and Sam [Worthington] did, I think you’d be astonished at how closely it maps to the final performance that you see. I think it’s one-to-one. You know, and, we expected that maybe we’d get to 90%, maybe 95%, but I don’t think we dreamed that we’d get to 100%. But we did. There’s absolutely no diminishment.

GB: That’s pretty confident talk! I talked to your producing partner Jon Landau and he said that you guys were referring to the work here as emotion-capture, as opposed to motion-capture. It’s a catchy phrase if you guys can live up to it.

JC: We spent the first year and a half of the film – before we were truly green-lit, but we were well-funded— developing the facial performance capture system and the pipeline that would see it through to completion. We even did an end-to-end test where we captured scenes and took them out to the final photo-real record just so we understood the process. And it’s a tribute to how much Weta Digital down in New Zealand has been able to evolve the state of the art beyond their own expectations at the beginning of the film. In fact we’re seeing a difference now between some of the first stuff they turned in a year ago and what we’re getting now. What we’re getting now is actually better.

GB: Your reputation is as a perfectionist, does that mean you need to re-do some early stuff?

JC: No I don’t think you’ll ever feel the diminishment as you go through the movie. But we’ll see a scene that was an earlier scene in process and they look great, but a newer stuff is stunning. And that stuff we haven’t even showed anyone yet. We’re just getting it in now. I’m about to head over to a Weta review right now, I’ll probably spend the next four hours in there reviewing stuff, and I look forward to it every day. When we unpack these shots, sometimes our jaws just drop at the verisimilitude to the actors. And that’s what thrills me most. I’m kind of over all the design stuff. That was the first two years. I’m kind of used to that stuff now, the floating mountains and thousand-foot trees. But when I see Sam Worthington captured exactly at a critical-performance moment — that still gets me.

– Geoff Boucher

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Written by BRYAN Q. MILLER
Art by LEE GARBETT & TREVOR SCOTT
Cover by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau
The conclusion to “Batgirl Rising” begins here with part one of the four-part “Flood” storyline! A string of bizarre, technology-based “suicides” gets the attention of both Batgirl and Oracle, but for very different reasons. And the two heroes will soon realize that they’re the real targets of a nefarious madman Hell-bent on revenge…

Artgerm

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Amazon is putting out a new Firefox add-on called AmazonAssist that lets people doing web searches to find related products on the Amazon.com website at the same time. Once installed, AmazonAssist shows up in a panel at the bottom of the web browser window, and presents Amazon.com products that match a person’s search terms. Amazon is putting out this new search tool at at a time when Google and Microsoft Bing are beefing up their ecommerce profile with new shopping features.

According to Amazon, the AmazonAssist tool is “compatible with major search engines and shopping websites” and “pulls the latest pricing, review ratings, availability and other product information from Amazon.com in real time.” Here’s more from the FAQ page. One important note: AmazonAssist collects information from websites you visit “in order to improve your search experience.”

Amazon is rolling out the new tool at a time when Google and Microsoft are positioning themselves more and more like shopping portals. Google now offers merchants Google Product Search, Google Listing Ads, and Google Sitelinks, while Microsoft has the Bing Cashback program.

Eric Engleman

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James Cameron’s science-fiction sensation “Avatar” remained on top of the domestic box office for the seventh-straight weekend, pulling in $31.3 million to raise its total to $595.8 million.

Worldwide, “Avatar” has topped $2 billion, a record that surpasses the $1.84 billion of Cameron’s “Titanic,” which had been the No. 1 modern blockbuster.

“Avatar” also is about to pass the domestic record of $600.8 million held by “Titanic.”

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com are:

1. “Avatar,” Fox, $31,280,029, 3,074 locations, $10,176 average, $595,752,416, seven weeks.

2. “Edge of Darkness,” Warner Bros., $17,214,384, 3,066 locations, $5,615 average, $17,214,384, one week.

3. “When in Rome,” Disney, $12,350,041, 2,456 locations, $5,029 average, $12,350,041, one week.

abc news

by the end of the 7th week, ‘Avatar’ had beat Titanic in over-seas and world gross.
8th weekend, sales dropped to second to Dear John – a ladies night movie for Superbowl Sunday!!!

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iPad

Apple unveiled the product that almost everyone in the publishing industry has been eagerly waiting for: the iPad.

The iPad is essentially a portable entertainment device for reading (books, blogs, magazines, newspapers), watching (tv shows, movies and videos), displaying (photos, recipes) and playing (casual games). The good news is that the iPad as a color screen with a touch screen interface similar to the iPhone/iPod Touch. It also has Wi-Fi capabilities, which makes it easy to download new content and applications.

One thing the iPad does that the Kindle and other e-readers can’t match (yet) is that it presents pages in color, which opens up all kinds of possibilities, especially for magazines, graphic novels and yes, manga. So I put a call out to some manga publishers and creators for their take on the iPad and how it may affect their plans for digital publishing. Here’s what they had to say.

VIZ MEDIA

Gonzalo Ferreyra”Here at VIZ we’re all buzzing with excitement about the iPad, both because many of us want to get our hands on one but also because of the tremendous possibilities it opens up for digital publishing of illustrated books. It appears that the long-standing challenges posed by questions of resolution, sizing, and color have disappeared. This certainly appears to be the device that will allow users to carry a library of manga around with them everywhere.”

“That said, as for our plans, keep in mind that given our relationship to Japanese licensors any strategy we develop must by definition be global… this poses additional challenges that need to be fully addressed before we can think of actively participating in what is, no doubt, an extremely cool new technology.”

– Gonzalo Ferreyra, Vice President, Sales & Marketing

To provide some context for what Ferreyra is saying, most manga publishers (VIZ included) have licensing deals with Japanese publishers to publish certain series (e.g. Naruto) and make them available to only certain countries. The amount that they pay to the Japanese publishers/licensors is based on the exclusive rights to publish the stories within certain countries (which explains why even the online version of Rin-Ne is blocked to certain IP addresses/countries). So if iPad versions of certain titles were made available through Apple’s iBooks store, how would this issue of country-specific licensing rights be handled?

DIGITAL MANGA PUBLISHING

Michelle Mauk”Digital Manga Publishing strives to push the barriers of transmission of manga, whether it be in book format, in eReader format (as evidenced by the eManga reader), and in digital format (on the Kindle and through the uClick and Kindle apps).”

“We’ll ride the wave accordingly. The digital market is still emerging and fluctuating, so we’re kind of along for the ride to see where it will go and in which direction. In terms of our publishing projects, considering we have already been working on acquiring digital rights for titles to put on eManga, the Kindle and iPhone, it won’t really change the publishing projects or plans we’ve already been working on, but will definitely add a further platform to introduce a lot of titles that maybe the average reader wouldn’t have normally considered.”

“The iPad is obviously going to be a boon for full color projects-which could always be a potential direction in the future. It does hold high promise for future incarnations of what we’ll see in the e-book market, and it’s definitely going to be a push to get a lot of publishers thinking beyond the regular piece of paper-and seeing books and the future of books, in a whole new light. That’s where we think the iPad is most exciting-it’s in the possibilities of how we’re going to see books presented beyond the physical form.”

– Michelle Mauk, Slave to the Digital Revolution (a.k.a. Graphics and Marketing Manager)

TOKYOPOP

Tokyopop logo “The potential of the iPad is huge. We feel the comic-reading experience is going to be truly awesome.”

– Marco Pavia, Associate Publisher

YAOI PRESS

Yamila Abraham”I’m not as hopeful about the iPad as I was this morning. The iTunes store just rejected Zesty, our tamest graphic novel, without citing a reason. We thought this could be a bright spot for us akin to our sales on Amazon Kindle, but we’re very discouraged right now.”
-Yamila Abraham, Publisher

Abraham’s comment brings up a disturbing predicament — with Apple controlling the iBooks marketplace, will they opt to not sell ‘adult’ material through their iBooks storefront? Kindle versions of Yaoi Press manga and novels are bestsellers on Amazon’s manga list — but with iBooks possibly opting to not carry boys love and adult manga titles, what does this mean for publishers of adult titles?

While you ponder that thought, here are a few comments from some online comics creators. First, Maximo Lorenzo, creator of OHKO: One Hit Knock-Out, a recent winner in the Zuda online comics competition and Bombos vs. Everything, published by TokyoPop.

“If comic publishers don’t take advantage of the possibilities for anthology magazines and subscriptions on the iPad, I’ll gnash my teeth in frustration. People have had such a hard time with launching new comics magazines because of our magazine distribution system here in the US.”

One Hit Knock Out”What’s so great about an iPad anthology magazine? A reader could pay 24-30 bucks yearly for their favorite comics series and get to sample 12-20 more series with it. This gives readers a chance to try new things and give new series a chance. It’ll also drive competition between creators within an anthology that should inspire creators to work harder, while lesser known artists’ work will share an audience with the more popular series. Readers will be able to vote for their favorite series, so publishers can see what works without the expense of shipping and the burden of returns of unsold books.”

“An iPad comics anthology magazine also offers opportunities to offer downloadable extras to subscribers. Readers can download character bios, bonus minigames, creator blogs, wall papers for the iPad, exclusive trailers as well as download the latest chapter right away, anywhere, anytime. While it’s no replacement for a printed paper magazine, it can provide an opportunity for new talent to show their stuff before committing to a print version. So I see this as a huge benefit to creators. The only thing I really DON’T want to see is animated/SFX motion comics. It works against the medium, please don’t do that.”

– Maximo Lorenzo, creator of One Hit Knockout and Bombos vs. Everything

(NOTE: Given that Flash is not supported in this version of iPad, the prospect of animated/motion comics as a part of an iPad manga publishing launch seems unlikely at this time)

Meanwhile, Scott Yoshinaga, one of the co-creators of webcomic Nemu-Nemu, and an unabashed Apple enthusiast had this to say:

Nemu Nemu 3″If you read the blogs of anyone that actually had hands on with the iPad yesterday, you know how each had their own opinions of the device before the hands on. It’s what they said or wrote after the hands on that really caught my attention. Almost all of them said it’s something you have to touch and experience to really understand. They also mentioned how fast it was!”

“Whether you know it or not, the iPad is preparing you for the future of computing. The iPhone and iPad do something that I didn’t even notice at first. It obscures the entire file system from you. The user experience is so well thought out that you don’t even bother to worry about where your files are stored, unlike in a regular computer. We spend less time worrying about files and more time using the device.”

– Scott Yoshinaga, co-creator of Nemu-Nemu

Given that I haven’t actually got my paws on an iPad yet, I figure it’s best to leave the commentary about its advantages / disadvantages to the pros. For example, author and user experience designer Luke Wroblewski summed things up very succinctly in his blog. Here are a few choice excerpts that might be of interest to manga publishers and creators:

“The iPad is not a laptop nor is it a smart phone. It is a couch device, a bedroom device (don’t read that the wrong way), and a kitchen device (swivel it to cook from a recipe you find online). In all these places, a laptop always felt wrong. The iPad is optimized for media consumption: surfing the Web, reading blogs/news/books, watching TV shows, playing casual games, listening to music, managing personal productivity (calendar, contacts) and looking at photos. Expecting it to provide the creation capabilities of a laptop is the wrong frame of reference.”

“Instead, think of it a digital version of your leisure time activities – reading, chatting, light gaming, surfing, etc. The majority of these are consumption oriented – not creation oriented.”

Wroblewski also goes on to point out that having three separate stores for applications (App Store), music and video (iTunes) and books (iBooks) has potential for some confusion for consumers.

“The creation of a third store for media, iBooks, creates some confusion between the App Store, the iTunes Store, and iBooks. Where does one go for what? Are audio books in the iTunes store or in iBooks? Does the Amazon Kindle application go in the App Store or in iBooks? Will my iBooks show up in iTunes or the iPod on the iPhone and the iPad?”

Wroblewski also points out that the lack of support for Flash in the initial release of the iPad will present problems for readers who are used to the full-multimedia experience they enjoy when they surf the web through their computers. He also hints at some of the reasons why Flash isn’t supported by the iPad at this time.

“Not supporting Flash leaves many holes on Web pages where videos and interactive elements currently exist. That could create a sub-par Web surfing experience. But hopefully this is something a software upgrade could fix? But there are both technical and political issues at play here.

With a starting price of $499, the iPad is not as expensive as prognosticators had originally thought (most guesstimated that the iPad might be in the $1,000 range). But given that the baseline model has only 16 GB of memory and Wi-Fi without 3G network capability – most hardcore users will opt for more amped-up versions which will cost upwards to $829.00. So early adopters, get ready to open your wallets and wince a little.

There are more round-ups of commentary from across the comics industry – all are worth checking out:

* Yotsuba and the iPad Publishers Weekly – The Beat
Heidi McDonald asks, “The iPad is here, now what?”
* Newsarama
Vaneta Rogers gets comments from a variety of mainly print comics publishers and creators.
* Paperless Comics
Brigid Alverson sums up some reaction from the webcomics community

But for otaku, perhaps the best bottom line of the pluses and minuses came from Yotsuba (as appropriated by the funny folks at Japanator.com.) Check out the strip and get a giggle at this slightly NSFW gag.

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