Figata Online

66th Annual Golden Globes Nomination

2008-12-17T07:22:00.001+07:00

Updated 12/01/2009

BEST MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie - Changeling
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Kristin Scott Thomas - I've Loved You So Long
Kate Winslet - Revolutionary Road

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA
Leonarod DiCaprio - Revolutionary Road
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn - Milk
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

BEST MOTION PICTURE - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Burn After Reading
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Mamma Mia!
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Rebecca Hall - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Sally Hawkins - Happy-Go-Lucky
Frances McDormand - Burn After Reading
Meryl Streep - Mamma Mia!
Emma Thompson - Last Chance Harvey

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Javier Bardem - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Colin Farrell - In Bruges
James Franco - Pineapple Express
Brendan Gleeson - In Bruges
Dustin Hoffman - Last Chance Harvey

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL•E

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany)
Everlasting Moments (Sweden/Denmark)
Gomorrah (Italy)
I've Loved You So Long (France)
Waltz with Bashir (Israel)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Amy Adams - Doubt
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis - Doubt
Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler
Kate Winslet - The Reader

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Tom Cruise - Tropic Thunder
Robert Downey Jr. - Tropic Thunder
Ralph Fiennes - The Duchess
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

BEST DIRECTOR - MOTION PICTURE
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry - The Reader
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon
Sam Mendes - Revolutionary Road

BEST SCREENPLAY - MOTION PICTURE
Simon Beaufoy - Slumdog Millionaire
David Hare - The Reader
Peter Morgan - Frost/Nixon
Eric Roth - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanley - Doubt

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE - MOTION PICTURE
Alexandre Desplate - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Clint Eastwood - Changeling
James Newton Howard - Defiance
A.R. Rahman - Slumdog Millionaire
Hans Zimmer - Frost/Nixon

BEST ORIGINAL SONG - MOTION PICTURE
"Down to Earth" - WALL•E
Music by: Peter Gabriel, Thomas Newman
Lyrics by: Peter Gabriel
"Gran Torino" - Gran Torino
Music by: Clint Eastwood, Jamie Cullum, Kyle Eastwood, Michael Stevens
Lyrics by: Kyle Eastwood, Michael Stevens
"I Thought I Lost You" - Bolt
Music & Lyrics by: Miley Cyrus, Jeffrey Steele
"Once in a Lifetime" - Cadillac Records
"The Wrestler" - The Wrestler

BEST TELEVISION SERIES - DRAMA
"Dexter" (Showtime)
"House" (Fox)
"In Treatment" (HBO)
"Mad Men" (AMC)
"True Blood" (HBO)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES - DRAMA
Sally Field - "Brothers & Sisters"
Mariska Hargitay - "Law & Order: Special Victims"
January Jones - "Mad Men"
Anna Paquin - "True Blood"
Kyra Sedgwick - "The Closer"

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES - DRAMA
Gabriel Byrne - "In Treatment"
Michael C. Hall - "Dexter"
John Hamm - "Mad Men"
Hugh Laurie - "House"
Jonathan Rhys Meyers - "The Tudors"

BEST TELEVISION SERIES - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
"30 Rock" (NBC)
"Californication" (Showtime)
"Entourage" (HBO)
"The Office" (NBC)
"Weeds" (Showtime)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Christian Applegate - "Samantha Who?"
America Ferrera - "Ugly Betty"
Tina Fey - "30 Rock"
Debra Messing - "The Starter Wife"
Mary-Louise Parker - "Weeds"

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Alec Baldwin - "30 Rock"
Steve Carell - "The Office"
Kevin Connolly - "Entourage"
David Duchovny - "Californication"
Tony Shalhoub - "Monk"

BEST MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
"A Raisin in the Sun" (ABC)
"Bernard and Doris" (HBO)
"Cranford" (PBS)
"John Adams" (HBO)
"Recount" (HBO)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Judi Dench - "Cranford"
Catherine Keener - "An American Crime"
Laura Linney - "John Adam"
Shirley MacLaine - "Coco Chanel"
Susan Sarandon - "Bernard and Doris"

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Ralph Fiennes - "Bernard and Doris"
Paul Giamatti - "John Adams"
Kevin Spacey - "Recount"
Keifer Sutherland - "24: Redemption"
Tom Wilkinson - "Recount"

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Eileen Atkins - "Cranford"
Laura Dern - "Recount"
Melissa George - "In Treatment"
Rachel Griffiths - "Brothers & Sisters"
Dianne Wiest - "In Treatment"

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Neil Patrick Harris - "How I Met Your Mother"
Denis Leary - "Recount"
Jeremy Piven - "Entourage"
Blair Underwood - "In Treatment"
Tom Wilkinson - "John Adams"

2008 San Francisco Critics Circle Awards

2008-12-17T07:16:00.000+07:00

Best Picture: Milk
Best Director: Gus Van Sant, “Milk”
Best Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, “Milk”
Best Adapted Screenplay: Peter Morgan, “Frost/Nixon”
Best Actor: TIE: Sean Penn, “Milk”/Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
Best Actress: Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Best Supporting Actress: Marisa Tomei, “The Wrestler”
Best Foreign Language Film: “Let the Right One In”
Best Documentary: “My Winnipeg”
Best Cinematography: Wally Pfister, “The Dark Knight”

2008 Boston Society of Film Critics

2008-12-15T09:01:00.002+07:00

Best Movie Of The Year : Wall-E and Slumdog Millionaire

Best Actor : Sean Penn (Milk) and Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)

Best Actress: Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight
Best Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Director: Gus Van Sant for Milk and Paranoid Park
Best Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black for Milk
Best Cinematography: Christopher Doyle and Rain Kathy Li for Paranoid Park
Best Documentary: Man on Wire
Best Foreign-Language Film: Let the Right One In
Best Animated Film: WALL•E
Best Film Editing: Chris Dickens for Slumdog Millionaire
Best New Filmmaker: Martin McDonagh for In Bruges
Best Ensemble Cast: Tropic Thunder

from /Film

2008 AFI’s Top 10 Movies

2008-12-15T08:58:00.001+07:00

1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2. The Dark Knight
3. Frost/Nixon
4. Frozen River
5. Gran Torino

6. Iron Man
7. Milk
8. WALL-E
9. Wendy and Lucy
10. The Wrestler

from /Film

2008 New York Film Critics Circle Awards

2008-12-11T07:52:00.001+07:00

Best Picture - Milk

Best Director - Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky)

Best Actor - Sean Penn (Milk)

Best Actress - Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky)

Best Supporting Actor - Josh Brolin (Milk)

Best Supporting Actress - Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)

Best Screenplay - Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married)

Best Cinematographer - Anthony Dod Mantle (Slumdog Millionaire)

Best Foreign Film - 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Best Animated Film - WALL-E

Best First Film - Courtney Hunt (Frozen River)

Best Documentary - Man on Wire

2008 LA Film Critics Awards

2008-12-11T07:43:00.003+07:00

Picture: “Wall-E”
Runner-up: “The Dark Knight”

Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Runner-up: Christopher Nolan, “The Dark Knight”

Actor: Sean Penn, “Milk”
Runner-up: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”

Actress: Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Runner-up: Melissa Leo, “Frozen River”

Supporting actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Runner-up: Eddie Marsan, “Happy-Go-Lucky”

Supporting actress: Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and “Elegy”
Runner-up: Viola Davis, “Doubt”

Screenplay: Mike Leigh, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Runner-up: Charlie Kaufman, “Synecdoche, New York”

Foreign-language film: “Still Life”
Runner-up: “The Class”

Documentary: “Man on Wire”
Runner-up: “Waltz With Bashir”

Animation: “Waltz With Bashir”

Cinematography: Yu Lik Wai, “Still Life”
Runner-up: Anthony Dod Mantle, “Slumdog Millionaire”

Production design: Mark Friedberg, “Synecdoche, New York”
Runner-up: Nathan Crowley, “The Dark Knight”

Music/score: A.R. Rahman, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Runner-up: Alexandre Desplat, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

New Generation: Steve McQueen, “Hunger”

Douglas E. Edwards independent/experimental film/video: James Benning, “RR” and “Casting a Glance”

Cool Stuff - Spoiler Graphic Art

2008-12-04T17:11:00.003+07:00

The 100 Greatest Movie Characters by Emipre

2008-11-26T08:11:00.005+07:00

Here's the top 20 :

1. Tyler Durden (Fight Club)
2. Darth Vader (Star Wars epidode 3,4,5,6)
3. The Joker (The Dark Knight)
4. Han Solo (Star Wars episode 4,5,6)
5. Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the lambs)
6. Indiana Jones (Raiders Of The Lost Ark)
7. The Dude (Joyluck Club)
8. Cpt. Jack Sparrow (Pirates Of The Caribbean 1-3)
9. Ellen Ripley (Alien)
10. Vito Corleone (The Godfather)

11. James Bond (Goldfinger)

12. John McClane (Die Hard 1-4)

13. Gollum (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Return of the King)

14. The Terminator (The Terminator)

15. Ferris Bueller (Ferris Bueller's Day Off)

16. Neo (The Matrix)

17. Hans Gruber (Die Hard)

18. Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver)

19. Jules Winnfield (Pulp Fiction)

20. Forrest Gump (Forrest Gump)

See the full list on http://www.empireonline.com/100-greatest-movie-characters/

My Opinion:

1. Keyser Sose (The Ussual Suspect), Freddy Krueger (Nightmare on Elm Street) and Norman Bates (Psycho) should be on top 20

2. R2D2, C3P0 (Star Wars), Sadako (Ringu), Dae-Su Oh (Oldboy), Michael Myers (Halloween), Pikachu (Pokemon), Chucky (Child's Play) and Spock (Star Trek) should be on the list (top 100)

Elf Language

2008-11-18T08:10:00.002+07:00

i found this cool site... check it out

http://www.starchamber.com/paracelsus/elvish/elvish-in-ten-minutes.html

The Art of Wall-E

2008-11-18T07:51:00.002+07:00

Pintu Terlarang A.K.A Forbidden Door Trailer

2008-11-13T07:17:00.002+07:00

thanks to Joko Anwar to let me put this awesome trailer in my blog

USS Enterprise

2008-11-12T16:27:00.000+07:00

Joko Anwar's Pintu Terlarang a.k.a Forbidden Door

2008-11-12T13:15:00.007+07:00

The Most Anticipated Indonesian Movie's in 2009

Synopsis

The life of a successful sculptor is turned upside down when he begins receiving mysterious messages from somebody

who’s asking for his help. When he stumbles upon an illegal TV broadcast which offers snuff, he finds out that the person who’s trying to reach him is a 7 year-old boy who has been kept and abused by a vicious couple. As he digs more, he discovers that his wife might be connected to the whole mystery. Soon, he has to decide to leave the boy to die or to lose everything and everyone he knows.

Cast : Fachry Albar, Marshya Timothy, Aryo Bayu, Tio Pakusadewo, Henidar Amroe, Atiqah Hasiholan

Director : Joko Anwar

Official Blog : http://blog.pintuterlarang.com

SPECTRE

2008-11-10T09:16:00.005+07:00

SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) is a fictional global terrorist organisation featured in the James Bondnovels by Ian Fleming, the films based on those novels, and James Bond video games. Led by evil genius and supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the organisation first formally appeared in the novel Thunderball (1961) and in the movie Dr. No(1962). SPECTRE is unaligned to any nation or political ideology, enabling the later Bond books and Bond films to be regarded as apolitical. SPECTRE began in the novels as a small group of criminals; but became a vast international organisation with its own SPECTRE Island training base in the films.

In Ian Fleming's novels, SPECTRE is a commercial enterprise led by Blofeld. Their membership comprises 18 individuals, three each from the world's six great criminal organizations—the Gestapo, SMERSH, MarshalTito's secret police, the highland Turks, the Mafia, and the Union Corse. Their debut appearance in Thunderball is concerned chiefly with "Plan Omega," a plot to capture two nuclear weapons from NATO for a ransom of 100 million pounds. The organization is next mentioned in The Spy Who Loved Me, when Bond describes investigating their activities in Toronto before the story begins.

The organization's third appearance is in On Her Majesty's Secret Servicewhere Blofeld, hired by an unnamed country or party (though the Soviet Union is implied) is executing a plan to ruin British agriculture. Blofeld, without SPECTRE would appear for the final time in You Only Live Twice.

In the films, the goal of the organization is world domination. To achieve this, the basic strategy of the organization is illustrated by the analogy of the three Siamese fighting fish Blofeld keeps in an aquarium in the film version of From Russia with Love. Blofeld notes that one fish is refraining from fighting two others until their fight is concluded. Then, that cunning fish attacks the weakened victor and kills it easily. Thus SPECTRE's main strategy is to instigate conflict between two powerful enemies, namely the superpowers, hoping that they will exhaust themselves and be vulnerable when SPECTRE finally moves in to seize power.

However, it should be noted that this goal of world domination was only ever stated in You Only Live Twice, and Blofeld does not say that SPECTRE will be the dominant power. He is seen earlier in the film speaking with two unidentified Asian men and it is stated he is working for their government. This is likely either Japan- only because SPECTRE's base in the film is situated in that country, or more likely North Korea or Red China, which had split from the Soviet Union by that time and in the third film were the backers of Goldfinger. SPECTRE's goals in the other films it has appeared in have always been less lofty.

In both the film and the novel Thunderball, the physical headquarters of the organisation are laid in Paris, operating behind the front of an international organization aiding refugees (Firco in the novels; International Brotherhood for the Assistance of Stateless Persons in the films).

Organisational discipline is notoriously draconian with the penalty for disobedience or failure being death. As quoted by Blofeld on several occasions: "This organization does not tolerate failure". Furthermore, to heighten the impact of the executions, Blofeld often chooses to focus attention on an innocent member, making it appear his death is imminent, only to suddenly strike down the actual target when that person is off guard.

Fleming's SPECTRE has elements inspired by mafia syndicates and organized crime rings that were actively hunted by law enforcement in the 1950s. The strict codes of loyalty and silence, and the hard retributions that followed violations, were hallmarks of U.S. gangster rings, Mafia, the Unione Corse, the Chinese Tongs and the Japanese Yakuza and Black Dragon Society.

SPECTRE Leader

SPECTRE is headed up by the supervillain, Ernst Stavro Blofeld who usually appears accompanied by a white Persian cat in the movies, but not in the books. In both the films and the novels, Emilio Largo is the second in command. It is stated in the novel that if something were to happen to Blofeld, Largo would assume command. Largo appears for the first and only time in Thunderballand also in the unofficial James Bond film Never Say Never Again.

In the novels, the numbers of members were initially assigned at random and then rotated by two digits every month to prevent detection. For example, if one was Number 1 this month, he would be Number 3 next month. At the time of Thunderball, the leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, has been assigned "Number 2", while Emilio Largo is assigned "Number 1". In the films the number indicates rank: Blofeld is always referred to as "Number 1" and Emilio Largo, in Thunderball, is "Number 2".

The SPECTRE cabinet had a total of 21 members. Blofeld was the chairman and leader because he founded the organization and Largo was elected by the cabinet to be second in command.

This particular example of numbering is perhaps deliberately borrowed from revolutionary organisations, wherein members exist in cells, and are numerically defined to prevent identification and cross-betrayal of aims. By deliberately drawing attention away from the true leader of the organisation, he is protected by masquerading as a target of lower importance, and the structure of the organisation is also obscured from intelligence services.

from Wikipedia

The Dark Knight - Noir Poster

2008-11-06T13:07:00.002+07:00

I find this cool poster from slashfilm

Superman : Red Son (Part II)

2008-11-06T07:30:00.001+07:00

Supporting Cast

Lex Luthor is a genius American scientist and married to Lois Lane.
Jimmy Olsen is not a photographer for the Daily Planet, but is first a government agent, before becoming head of the Central Intelligence Agency and then Vice President of the United States.
Pete Ross, here named Pyotr Roslov, is one of the illegitimate sons of Stalin and one of Superman's political rivals.
Lana Lang is replaced by Lana Lazarenko, who grew up in the Ukraine (used here as the closest Soviet equivalent to Kansas) along with a young Superman. She becomes a tour guide in a Superman museum.
Bizarro is - along with other villains in Superman's rogues gallery - a being created by Luthor to rival the Soviet Superman. The concept of a Superman-clone being used in a superhuman arms race bears similarities to Nuclear Man from Superman IV: The Quest For Peace.
Captain Marvel villain Dr. Sivana makes a brief appearance as a scientist working for Superman and the Soviets. It is mentioned that he used to work for Lex Luthor before defecting to Russia. However, Captain Marvel does not appear.
The bottled city of Kandor is replaced by Stalingrad, which was shrunk by Brainiac in a joint plan with Lex Luthor to capture Superman. Superman's "one failure" is his inability to return Stalingrad to normal size. His guilt over this haunts him. Brainiac, meanwhile, is apparently reprogrammed into Superman's service.
Superman retains his Fortress of Solitude which is still opened through the use of a giant key. However, it is now located in Siberia and is referred to as "the Winter Palace", a reference to the Russian Winter Palace, vacation home of the Tsars. Located within is a statue of Darkseid, the Titanic, and a Soviet Krypto.
At the beginning of the series, a widowed Martha Kent is seen running a hardware store in Smallville, Kansas. Jonathan Kent is dead. Neither have had any direct contact with Superman.
Superman briefly appears in a disguise similar to Clark Kent. However, this identity is not given a name. Also, Superman's 'real name' (the equivalent of Clark Kent) is never given within the series.
A statue that appears to be the Red Son Universe counterpart of Krypto appears in the (Moscow) Superman Museum and the Fortress of Solitude. Other characters that appear in the form of statues include the villains Parasite, Atomic Skull, Chemo and Satanus. The museum also has a replica of the key to the Golden Age Fortress of Solitude and a statue of Superman's parents holding a Hammer and Sickle, mimicking a statue seen in the mainstream comics' Fortress of Solitude.
Humans who have been forcibly lobotomized and given cybernetic implants as a punishment for certain crimes are known as Superman robots in reference to the genuine robots of DC continuity.
In Red Son Setting, several villains of Superman's rogue's gallery are created and released by Luthor. These include Parasite, Atomic Skull, Livewire, and Doomsday.

DC Heroes

One of Superman's chief allies is Wonder Woman, who is a Soviet "Peace Ambassador" from Themyscira. Her mother, Queen Hippolyta, also makes appearances in the first two installments of the trilogy. Her support for Superman is however based in more than pure idealism; merged completely in camaraderie, Superman is oblivious to her love for him.
Batman appears as the child of parents murdered by Roslov. His anarchical terrorism is a thorn in Superman's side. Batman later inspires an entire team of Batmen. He is smart and resourceful enough to avoid being caught by an all-seing, all hearing regime, and uses his wit to momentarily seize Wonder Woman and Superman. He hides in an abandoned underwater Batcave, and Alfred is still his servant/butler. He is described by Superman as "anarchy in black".
Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) appears as a pilot and vengeful ex-prisoner of war chosen by Luthor for his extraordinary powers of visualisation (developed by fantasizing in captivity) and for having the moral purity (which Luthor lacks) to operate the power ring. He comes to lead a super-powered army of Luthor's devising, the Green Lantern Marine Corps, some members being named after other Green Lanterns (Scott, Rayner, Gardner and Stewart). Jordan's predecessor as Green Lantern of Sector 2814, Abin Sur, also makes a brief appearance as a deceased unnamed alien, whose crashed spacecraft provides Luthor with a power ring and battery.
Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) works as a reporter for the Daily Planet. It is hinted that he is living out a "Clark Kent" double-life (as Queen/Green Arrow) since Lois Luthor says, "...no Pulitzer Prize winning journalist could be as scatter-brained as he acts" much as the original Lois Lane would have said about Clark Kent.
Iris West (wife of the "Silver Age" Flash, Barry Allen) also appears as a photographer at Perry White's retirement party. She makes a reference (familiar to comic book fans) about Barry "always being late" indicating that he is perhaps also active in his super-hero identity.
Two American scientists are named "Palmer" and "Tyler", presumably in reference to scientists/superheroes Ray Palmer (The Atom) and Rex Tyler (Hourman). In Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer: Red Son, The Atom is revealed to be one of the few active American superheroes not created by Luthor, most often used to spy on the Soviets.

Historical figures

Joseph Stalin is a major character, with a close relationship with the young Superman. He is poisoned by his illegitimate son, Captain Roslov.
President Dwight Eisenhower delivers a radio/television broadcast at the start of the story.
John F. Kennedy is President in 1978.
Wonder Woman also mentions that Nixon was assassinated in 1963.
The British socialist politician Tony Benn appears at Superman's Birthday celebration, smoking his trademark pipe.

from Wikipedia

Superman : Red Son (Part I)

2008-11-06T07:26:00.004+07:00

Superman: Red Son is a comic book published by DC Comics that was released under their Elseworlds imprint in April, 2003. Author Mark Millar created the comic with the premise "what if Superman had been raised in the Soviet Union?" It received critical acclaim and was nominated for the 2004 Eisner Award

for best limited series.

The series was told across three large prestige format comic books. It mixes alternate versions of DC super-heroes with alternate-reality versions of real political figures such as Joseph Stalin and John F. Kennedy.

In Red Son, Superman's rocket ship lands on a Ukrainian collective farm rather than in Kansas, an implied reason being a small time difference (a handful of hours) from the original timeline, meaning Earth's rotation placed the Ukraine in the ship's path instead of Kansas. Instead of fighting for "... truth, justice, and the American Way," Superman is described in Soviet radio broadcasts "... as the Champion of the common worker who fights a never-ending battle for Stalin, socialism, and the international expansion of the Warsaw Pact."

His "secret identity" (i.e. the name his adoptive parents gave him) is a state secret.

The series is split into three parts and spans roughly 1950-2000, save for a futuristic epilogue.

Red Son Rising

The first part starts in the 1950s, and sets up the board and the pieces. The world is nearly identical to our own to begin with, but starts diverging rapidly as the Soviet Union unveils its newest asset, Superman, upsetting the Cold War and turning the nuclear arms race into a super-being arms race.

At this point Superman is a newcomer in Stalin's inner circle. He's kind-hearted and just, and also dedicated to the cause of communism. When possible, he spends his time detecting and preventing accidents around the USSR. His opposing number is the American Lex Luthor, a legitimate scientist at the employ of S.T.A.R. Labs and a super-genius who is very well aware of his intellect and has very little regard for lesser minds. He is married to Lois Lane. At the behest of his CIA contact, Agent Olsen, he begins attempts to destroy Superman.

In order to collect genetic material for his first attempt, Luthor causes Sputnik 2 to plummet towards Metropolis. As Luthor predicted, Superman arrives in time to divert its course. In the process, he meets Lois Luthor, and though there is immediate romantic tension between them, they do not pursue their mutual attraction as Lois is married. In a nod to the mainstream continuity, the story makes mention of a best-selling fictional work which depicts Superman and Lois involved in a romance. The satellite is retrieved by the United States government and Luthor uses the traces found on it to create a Bizarro clone of Superman.

Meanwhile, Superman meets Wonder Woman at a diplomatic party. She becomes rather smitten by Superman, but he is forced to leave when he spots Pyotr Roslov, Chief of the NKVD and Stalin's illegitimate son, who is drunk and extremely disgruntled. Pyotr is angry at everything, especially at Superman, whose arrival has rewritten the Soviet Union's power structure, turned his father's attention away from him and putting a stop to his chances of advancement. Having had to shoot a dissident couple before their own son's eyes for printing anti-Superman propaganda, Pyotr snapped and arranged Stalin's poisoning, which in turn has caused him horrible guilt, though not enough to confess. Stalin dies from cyanide poisoning, but Superman initially declines the leadership of the Party.

Meanwhile, Luthor's clone is finished and engages Superman. The duel is inconclusive on its own, but causes an accidental nuclear missile launch at Great Britain. The clone, which has been made too much like Superman, sacrifices himself to save millions, although Superman's visible heroism and the accidental nuclear missile launch coupled with damage in London resulting in high civilian casualties apparently lead to an irrevocable breach in Anglo-American relations. Horrified at the implication that Superman is more intelligent than himself after losing a chess game to the clone, Luthor murders his research staff before leaving S.T.A.R Labs and founding Luthorcorp, dedicating his life to destroying Superman. Lois is nigh-abandoned and longs for Superman. Superman himself tries to put this all out of his mind, but a chance meeting with Lana Lazarenko, his childhood flame, changes things entirely. Seeing the suffering of her and her children, Superman realizes that his powers could be used for a greater good, and assumes leadership of the country in order to transform it into a utopia.

Red Son Ascendant

It is an alternate 1978, and the fictional world of Red Son has diverged greatly from our own. There are no references to Soviet interventions in East Germany (1953), Hungary (1956), Czechoslovakia (1968) or Afghanistan, which implies that Soviet prosperity has spread to its satellites, and mitigated the existence of dissident movements in those societies.

John F. Kennedy is president of the United States, having replaced the tragically slain Richard Nixon, who won the 1960 election but was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, in 1963. Luthor has devised and executed several plans to thwart Superman, none of which have worked. Only the United States and Chile remain independent from the Soviets, and both are on the brink of collapse, while President Kennedy is forced to grant independence to Georgia, and he acknowledges that there have been similar secessionist pressures in Detroit and Texas, riots in California, and even a "communist sympathiser" terrorist attack on the White House. He has also married Marilyn Monroe, and divorced Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy in this world. By contrast, the Superman-led (Global) Soviet Union has grown without resorting to war, and has virtually eliminated poverty, disease and the like, but this has started to infringe on individual liberties, and Superman is fast becoming a Big Brother-like figure. A brain surgery technique that turns dissidents into obedient drones, or "Superman Robots," is in use.

Wonder Woman and Superman have now become a duo, using their superpowers to save lives in addition to their ambassadorial and governing duties. Wonder Woman has fallen for Superman, but he sees her simply as a comrade, and is cheerfully oblivious to her love for him. Lois Luthor succeeds Perry White as the editor-in-chief of a failing Daily Planet, while her estranged husband feverishly works on his obsession.

Luthor plans to shrink Moscow, but this fails when Brainiac, his collaborator, shrinks Stalingrad instead. Superman intervenes and retrieves both Brainiac's central processing unit and the tiny city, putting an end to the Brainiac-Luthor cooperation, although he is unable to restore Stalingrad and its inhabitants to their proper size. This becomes his one failure and a source of great guilt.

Luthor's second plan involves Batman, who is revealed as the boy orphaned by Pyotr early in the story, now a grown man and the head of an anarchist terrorist network that sees the abundance forced upon the people by Superman's system as little more than oppression. Their persistent success in avoiding capture is a thorn in Superman's side. Batman joins forces with Lexcorp and with his parents' killer, Pyotr, now head of the KGB and consumed by jealousy of Superman, to attempt a coup. They capture Wonder Woman and use her as bait for Superman, hoping to sap his powers with rays that imitate the light of Superman's native sun. The plan works, but Wonder Woman breaks free and rescues Superman, although the process (which requires severing her golden lasso) seriously injures her, snapping something inside her and causing her hair to turn instantly white. Batman commits suicide to avoid capture, but not before revealing to Superman that Pyotr had a role in the plot. Pyotr is then turned into a Superman Robot.

As the part ends, Luthor's third plan begins, when Luthor is given a mysterious green lantern found in an alien ship that crashed at Roswell. Batman has become a martyr for his cause, Brainiac is reprogrammed into Superman's aide, and the construction of a version of the Fortress of Solitude, here located in Siberia and referred to as "the Winter Palace", begins. The stage is set for the finale.

Red Son Setting

It is the year 2001, and the Global Soviet Union encompasses all countries except for Chile and the divided remnants of the United States of America, which underwent a disastrous civil war in 1986, after which an unnamed sixteen states seceded from the union. Within the Soviet sphere of influence there is no crime, no poverty, no unemployment, and no choice. The "Superman Robot" operation is a common punishment for dissent. Superman is committed to "winning the argument" with the US, and repeatedly refuses Brainiac's suggestions of an invasion. His sole failure remains Stalingrad, which is ravaged by a green microscopic organism bearing resemblance to a Sheep louse.

Luthor runs for, and wins, the American presidency, with Jimmy Olsen as his running-mate. He has succeeded a President "Friedman", whose misrule resulted in food riots and tanks on New York's First Avenue. Whether or not this is the late economist Milton Friedman is unclear. Using his scientific expertise, massive economic capital and dictatorial powers, he returns prosperity to his country, overcoming the secession that had sundered the United States fifteen years beforehand. He remains as asocial as ever, though, and this is only a part of a larger plan to provoke Superman into invading America so that he can be destroyed, as Lois Luthor and Lucy Lane Olsen concur in the deserted offices of the long-closed Daily Planet in Metropolis. Luthor confronts Superman in the Siberian Winter Palace. In a seemingly anticlimactic moment, Brainiac yanks Luthor deep into the recesses of the Fortress to be surgically turned into yet another Superman Robot. Superman agrees that his hand has been forced, and prepares to attack.

Superman takes on the East Coast, confronting and defeating the Green Lantern Marine Corps, which is led by Colonel Hal Jordan, and featuring Privates Scott, Stewart, Rayner, and Gardner. He defeats the Amazon forces commanded by a highly disillusioned Wonder Woman, and a collection of "super-menaces" that Luthor has put together over the years. Brainiac's spaceship cuts the U.S. Pacific fleet to pieces, and the two superbeings meet at the White House, where Lois Luthor waits with the last weapon, a small note written by Lex that manages to break the Comrade of Steel's resolve. It reads, "Why don't you just put the whole WORLD in a BOTTLE, Superman?"

Superman orders Brainiac to end the invasion, but the robot reveals that he is not as reprogrammed as everyone thought, attacking Superman with green radiation that may be analogous to green kryptonite, given its effects on this Superman, while boasting that "eventually the entire universe" will "hum to his battery". He is shut down by Luthor, who evaded surgery (by undisclosed means) during the invasion, and is destroyed by Superman. This triggers a fail-safe self-destruct (though it is lightly implied that Luthor had planned for this to happen) and as the singularities powering Brainiac's ship threaten to explode, Superman rockets it into outer space, where it blows up. The Earth is saved, but Superman is thought to have been caught in an explosion which is said to have a kill radius of 15,000,000 miles (24,000,000 km).

The epilogue follows. The Soviet Union falls into chaos, and is transformed by the Batmen. Lex Luthor goes on to integrate many of Superman's ideas into the new philosophy of "Luthorism" and form a "Global United States". This becomes the defining moment for mankind's future as it enters an unprecedented age of peace and stability. A benevolent world government is formed and maintained, and Luthor presides over a string of scientific achievements, including the cure of all known disease, and colonisation of the solar system. Lex Luthor lives for over two thousand years. At his funeral it is revealed that Superman survived and is apparently immortal, although this is unknown to Lois, who has outlived her husband.

Now permanently retired from public view, he goes on to describe Luthor's descendants, culminating in Jor-L, "whose intellect exceeded that of even his beloved ancestor." Billions of years in the future, it is revealed that Earth is being torn apart by tidal stresses from its sun (which has become a red giant). Jor-L and Lara send their infant son rocketing back into the past. The final panels of the comic book depict the landing of Kal-L's timeship in a Ukrainian collective in 1938, effectively causing a predestination paradox.

Continue....

Obama sweeps to victory as first black president

2008-11-05T13:00:00.002+07:00

Hopefully this guy can make America a better country!

from Yahoo

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama swept to victory as the nation's first black president Tuesday night in an electoral college landslide that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself. "Change has come," he declared to a huge throng of cheering supporters.

The son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, the Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his historic triumph by defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in a string of wins in hard-fought battleground states — Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Iowa and more.

On a night for Democrats to savor, they not only elected Obama the nation's 44th president but padded their majorities in the House and Senate, and come January will control both the White House and Congress for the first time since 1994.

Obama's election capped a meteoric rise — from mere state senator to president-elect in four years.

In his first speech as victor, Obama catalogued the challenges ahead. "The greatest of a lifetime," he said, "two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century."

He added, "There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president, and we know that government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face."

McCain called his former rival to concede defeat — and the end of his own 10-year quest for the White House. "The American people have spoken, and spoken clearly," McCain told disappointed supporters in Arizona.

President Bush added his congratulations from the White House.

In his speech, Obama invoked the words of Lincoln and echoed John F. Kennedy.

"So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder," he said.

He and his running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, will take their oaths of office as president and vice president on Jan. 20, 2009.

Obama will move into the Oval Office as leader of a country that is almost certainly in recession, and fighting two long wars, one in Iraq, the other in Afghanistan.

The popular vote was close — 51.3 percent to 47.5 percent with 73 percent of all U.S. precincts counted — but not the count in the Electoral College, where it mattered most.

There, Obama's audacious decision to contest McCain in states that hadn't gone Democratic in years paid rich dividends.

Obama has said his first order of presidential business will be to tackle the economy. He has also pledged to withdraw most U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months.

Theory of Time travel

2008-11-05T08:52:00.006+07:00

Temporal Mechanics Primer

Space-Time, Entropy, and the Arrow of Time

In 1905, Albert Einstein proposed a theory that unified mass, energy, motion through space, the relativity of time, and formed a new mathematical concept called spacetime. All objects in the universe move through spacial dimensions while time passes, but the rate at which time passes is relative to the velocity that you are traveling. We humans experience three dimensions on a daily basis (our frame of reference), and within our frame of reference, time "flows" at a rate of 1 second per second. Observers from a different frame of reference will see our frame moving faster or slower than theirs, but they will still measure time in their frame at 1 second per second.

Some physicists have hypothesized that the reason time "flows" is because of a property of matter called entropy defined in the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Entropy is the measurement of how energy will disperse in a given system, such that energy will always move from a higher state to a lower equilibrium state. It is proposed that the entire universe is "unwinding" from its initial high energy state (the "Big Bang") creating the dimension of "time" as the universe expands.

In physics, the mathematics behind the known laws of space-time are symmetric; in other words, the formulas are the same for an object moving forward in the time as an object moving backwards in time. Knowing an object's current position and velocity lets you determine where an object was (backwards in time) and where an object is going (forwards in time).

However, we humans do not perceive time flowing in both directions. For us, the arrow of time points "forward". We have a memory of where we have been, but no perception of what we are going to do; we can only perceive the probability of events that will occur as derived from our current conditions.

Cause and Effect

In the direction of forward flowing time, an action (cause) will have a predictable outcome (effect) according to the laws of physics, where the cause always precedes effect.

Paradox

If alteration of a sequence of events (via time travel) were to occur where an effect no longer had a cause, the situation would result in a paradox. Perhaps the most common thought experiment is the grandfather paradox, where a time traveler goes back in time and inadvertently causes the death of his own grandfather (effect) before his father's birth. If his father were never born, then the traveler himself would never be born, and thus he could never go back in time, and thus never cause the death of his grandparent. If the grandfather is not dead, then he has a child, who has a child who becomes the time traveler, and the cycle loops.

The results of encountering a paradox are unknown. Science fiction writers envision temporal paradoxes having catastrophic effects, ranging from violent explosions to "winking out of existence".

Principle of Self-Consistency

It is assumed that if time-travel were possible in the future, then statistically someone is traveling into their past (our present) with the intent to change it, yet somehow, paradoxes are not being observed (in the present). The Principle of Self-Consistency states that the probability of events that result in a paradox is zero.

This essentially states that logical paradoxes that result from time traveling are self-correcting, such that a time traveler cannot alter history in such a way that would be inconsistent with the reasons for time traveling in the first place. Either the traveler is prevented from making their intended change to the past through an unexpected sequence of events, or any change made to the past was always meant to happen and is incorporated in the history of the time traveler.

The self-consistency principle is often controversial due to the implications that the time traveler has no free will while traveling in the past, yet does have free will when in the present and future.

Mechanics of Time Travel

Fixed Time Theory

In a universe with a single timeline, all events that occur at every point in history (past, present and future) must not only be self-consistent, but immutable. A time traveler moving in the past is simply acting out a role; they cannot change anything that would alter the chain of events that eventually lead to their decision to go back in time. Every action that occurs was predestined to occur.

Multiple Universe Theory

The Multiple Universe theory allows that every probable outcome of any event spawns a new universe with its own timeline, and that a time traveler simply moves up and down the timelines, taking different branches along the way. A time traveler moves from the present back in time to undo a great injustice. They succeed and return to the present, however, are they really returning to "their" present?

Multiverser Theory

Contrary to the Fixed Time Theory, the Multiverser theory states that the universe's timeline acts more like a record head on a VCR; jumping forward in time allows all events in the universe to play out as if the traveler were not there, and jumping backwards "overwrites" any events that occurred in between. The theory allows for free will in every timeline, and multiple timeline rewrites are allowed to occur, but all events in every timeline adjustment must be causally self-consistent or a "time loop" will occur.

from Herowiki

Vagina Dentata

2008-11-05T08:03:00.001+07:00

Vagina dentata is Latin for toothed vagina. Various cultures have folk tales about women with toothed vaginas, frequently told as cautionary tales warning of the dangers of sex with strange women.

The vagina dentata appears in the myths of several cultures. Erich Neumann relays one such myth in which “A fish inhabits the vagina of the Terrible Mother; the hero is the man who overcomes the Terrible Mother, breaks the teeth out of her vagina, and so makes her into a woman.”

The myth appears for example in the second of the three sequences of founding Maori myths, where the hero, Māui, has to enter the goddess of night and death Hinenuitepo through her toothed vagina to try and pluck her heart, in an attempt to make mankind immortal. He fails and becomes the first man to die.

The legend also appears in the mythology of the Chaco and Guiana tribes. In some versions, the hero leaves one tooth.

In his book, The Wimp Factor, Stephen J. Ducat expresses the view that these myths express the threat sexual intercourse poses for men who, although entering triumphantly, always leave diminished. The myth is also popularized in the movie Teeth, starring Jess Weixler.

Sin City

2008-11-04T10:24:00.002+07:00

Sin City is the title for a series of comics by Frank Miller, told in a film noir-like style (now known as Neo noir). The first story originally appeared in Dark Horse's Fifth Anniversary Special (April, 1991), and continued in Dark Horse Presents #51-62 from May 1991 to June 1992, under the title of Sin City, serialized in thirteen parts. Several other stories of variable lengths have followed. All stories take place in Basin City, with frequent recurring characters and intertwining stories.

Story

Basin City, almost universally referred to by the nickname Sin City, is a fictional town in the American west. The climate is hot and arid, although Sacred Oaks is characterized as being heavily wooded. A major river runs through the city, which has an extensive waterfront. Usually twice a year, a major downpour comes, and (in That Yellow Bastard) the city gets heavy snowfall in the winter. In the comics, Basin City has a surreal, pan-American feel. Desert lizards and palm trees are common, while tar pits, desert areas, mountain ranges and flat farmland make up the landscape around the city.

The Basin City Police are more or less along the lines of paramilitary or SWAT, as they have to deal with incredibly high crime rates among criminals and civilians alike, which is why they have access to what most would consider "heavy weaponry" and full body armor. Those who make up the force have been described as commonly being lazy, cowardly and/or corrupt. Only a handful of the cops are honest, though frequently the wealthy of the city bribe the corrupt members of the police into performing their duty (usually as a result of some crime being committed against a member of their family).

During the California Gold Rush, the Roark family "imported" a large number of attractive women to keep the miners happy, making a fortune and turning a struggling mining camp into a thriving, bustling city. Over the years, as the Roark family migrated into other areas of business and power, these women ended up forming the district of Old Town, the prostitute quarter of the city where they rule with absolute authority. In addition, the people charged with governing the city, most of them from the Roark line, remained in power for generations, running it as they saw fit.

As the various yarns progress, the audience gradually becomes familiar with key locations in and around Basin City.

The Projects, the run-down and poor side of Sin City, is a tangle of high-rise apartments where crime runs rampant. Its inhabitants have apparently evolved their own independent society with almost no legal contact with the outside world. Marv was born in the Projects and they make Dwight sick.
The Docks, a collection of wharfs and warehouses that are local to the Projects. Hartigan and Roark Junior have their first confrontation here in That Yellow Bastard, and Marv drives a stolen police car off one of the piers at the beginning of The Hard Goodbye.
Kadie's Club Pecos, a strip club/bar where Nancy Callahan and Shellie work, and Dwight McCarthy and Marv hang out. Though filled almost solely with drunk and violent men, Kadie's bar is one of the safest areas in Sin City. Marv, who possesses an extraordinarily high sense of chivalry, protects the female employees of Kadie's from any violence that makes its way inside.
Roark Family Farm (a.k.a. "The Farm") is located at North Cross and Lennox and shows up in several stories, including The Hard Goodbye, That Yellow Bastard, The Babe Wore Red and Hell and Back. It was also home to Kevin, a serial killer with ties to the Roark family. Marv burns down one of the buildings, and the Farm is abandoned sometime after the initial Sin City storyline.
Old Town is the red-light district and is off limits to the police, unless they're 'shopping'. This is where the city's population of prostitutes reside; it recently came under the control of the twins Goldie and Wendy. Though perfectly willing to engage in almost any sexual act for the right price, the women of Old Town show no mercy to those who "break the rules" and back up their independence with lethal force.
Sacred Oaks, home to the rich and powerful of Basin City. This suburb lies outside the city proper, a half an hour drive uphill. A university of some sort is also located there, and the entire area is patrolled by armed employees of its wealthy inhabitants.
Basin City Central Train Station, which has a direct connection to Phoenix.
The Santa Yolanda Tar Pits, an abandoned amusement park of sorts outside the city, where several tar pits are located and dinosaur bones were excavated at some time. After a 'big-budget dinosaur movie' (probably a reference to Jurassic Park) caused a sensation, the county put up concrete statues of dinosaurs there to draw crowds. However, after an old lady fell through a railing into one of the pits and had a heart attack, the place was shut down indefinitely. They are frequently used as a place to dump things that people don't want found; high-schoolers also tend to sneak in there a lot. This is where Delia tells Phil to drive in Wrong Turn and where Dwight takes the corpses of Jackie Boy and his friends in The Big Fat Kill. Frank Miller has admitted the main reason the Tar Pits exist is as an excuse to draw the dinosaur statues.

Character

Because a large majority of the residents of Basin City are criminals, there are several organizations and cartels central to the stories who are vying for monopoly over the various criminal enterprises in the city. Listed below are crime syndicates, gangs and other low-lifes who figure heavily in the Sin City mythos.

The Basin City Police Department: So deep do corruption and criminality run in Basin City that even their police officers qualify as a gang of paid thugs, turning a blind eye to the affairs of those too poor to pay them off. Few among them are considered incorruptible; even the honest officers are unable (or unwilling) to curtail the criminal actions of the dishonest ones. Notable characters in the series who are police include Detective John Hartigan, his partner Bob, Lieutenants Jack Rafferty and Mort, Commissioner Liebowitz, and Officers Manson and Bundy from Hell and Back.
The Roark family: A dynasty of corrupt landowners and politicians whose influence over Basin City has stretched as far back as the days of the Old West. Famous Roarks of this generation include a Senator, a Cardinal, an Attorney General, and Roark Junior, 'That Yellow Bastard'.
The Girls of Old Town: Populating the region of Basin City known as Old Town are a group of women in the world's oldest profession, having made a truce with the cops to allow them to govern and police themselves. As of A Dame To Kill For, they were led by the twins, Goldie and Wendy.
Wallenquist Organization: A powerful crime syndicate led by Herr Wallenquist, a mysterious crimelord with a broad range of criminal enterprises to his name. Interestingly, though one of the city's two "normal" criminal organizations, the Wallenquist management seems to be the most peaceful and forgiving of the various leaders.
The Magliozzi Crime Family: The undisputed heads of the local Cosa Nostra, the Magliozzi family seems to be the purest example of "true" Mafia lifestyle. While they appear in only one story, it is hinted that the Mafia influence in Basin City's underworld is a lot larger than just their family.

Other groups that have been seen or mentioned in the comics include:

Tong gangsters: Mentioned, but not seen as of A Dame To Kill For. Miho's life was saved by Dwight when he secretly protected her during a fight with several Tong gangsters in a dark alleyway.
White slavers: Mentioned, but not seen as of A Dame To Kill For. Led by a man named Manuel, whose brothers were also involved. Were "taken care of" by Dwight prior to the events of A Dame To Kill For.
Irish mercenaries: Seen during The Big Fat Kill, most of them are evidently former IRA terrorists, as evidenced by one of the mercenaries referencing his glee at blowing up a pub (British pubs were often targeted by the IRA). All are killed by Dwight and Miho.

from Wikipedia

Star Trek on Heroes

2008-11-03T09:19:00.010+07:00

Genesis

When Hiro first discovers his powers at Yamagato, he states that he will be able to bend space and teleport. Ando comments that it's like the transporter on Star Trek. Hiro tells Ando, "I broke the space-time continuum!", a phrase made popular in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series. Ando comments that Hiro's "powers beyond any mere mortal" are like Spock's. He then suggests that Hiro use his Vulcan death grip when he is dragged back to his desk by his boss.

Later, after getting bounced from a karaoke bar for teleporting into the women's bathroom, Hiro expresses his desire to be different as "I wanna boldly go where no man has gone before". This is from the opening monologue of Star Trek, and was eventually revealed to be a quote from Zefram Cochrane's speech at the opening of the Warp 5 Complex. Later, Ando sarcastically says to Hiro, "Beam us up, Scotty!".

Don't Look Back

Hiro shows Ando 9th Wonders!, Issue #14, which depicts the conversation in which Hiro tells Ando he wants to "boldly go where no man has gone before."

Later, Hiro again compares his teleportation ability to Star Trek's transporters while speaking to the NYPD detectives investigating the murder of Isaac Mendez in the future. The detective thinks it's funny, since he's seen all the Star Trek television series and doesn't recall seeing Hiro in any of them. Hiro then offers the detective the Vulcan salute.

Fallout

Hiro repeats his Vulcan salute when he meets Isaac in Midland at the Burnt Toast Diner.

Distractions

Kaito Nakamura's limo's license plate reads, "NCC-1701". This is the service number for the USS Enterprise. (Incidentally, George Takei was an original cast member of Star Trek.)

Run!

Hope calls Hiro "Sulu" just before she punches him in the face. Later, Hiro gives Steve Gustavson the Vulcan salute and says, "I come in peace."

Unexpected

Hiro and Ando part ways with the Vulcan salute.

How to Stop an Exploding Man

Ando reminds Hiro that his whole life he talked about his favorite stories of heroes he wanted to be, Star Trek being part of those heroes.

One of Us, One of Them

Dr. Zimmerman, who claims to have "made" Tracy Strauss, shares his name with the scientist who made The Doctor in Star Trek: Voyager.

The Cast

Kimberly Arland (Ngozi Badu) has a supporting role in Star Trek XI.
Erick Avari (Chandra Suresh) appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Enterprise.
Michael Reilly Burke (LVPD detective) had recurring roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Enterprise.
Joanna Cassidy (Victoria Pratt) portrayed T'Les in Star Trek: Enterprise.
Josh Clark (Sheriff Davidson) appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and played Lt. Joe Carey on Star Trek: Voyager.
Eliza Coleman (Woman in car crash) did stunt work for Star Trek: Nemesis and Star Trek: Insurrection.
Mark Colson (Mr. Zern) appeared in Star Trek: Voyager.
Thomas Dekker (Zach) appeared in Star Trek Generations and two episodes of Star Trek: Voyager.
Colby French (Hank) appeared on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Tami-Adrian George (Coach Randolph) played "Kesha" in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Brad Greenquist (Kaito's assistant) appeared in four different roles on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Enterprise.
Ronald Guttman (Dr. Zimmerman) portrayed "Gathorel Labin" in Star Trek: Voyager.
Mark Harelik (Howard Lemay) portrayed "Kashyk" in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager.
Adam Harrington (Paramedic) played a scientist on Star Trek: Enterprise.
Dominic Keating (Will) played "Lt. Malcolm Reed" on all four seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise.
Ken Lally (The German) played a security officer on Star Trek: Enterprise.
Maurice LaMarche (the voice of Sylar before Zachary Quinto was cast) did voice acting for the Star Trek; Star Fleet Command: Orion Pirates video game.
Tina Lifford (Paulette Hawkins) appeared on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Bart McCarthy (Mr. Claremont) appeared in an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and provided the voice for a character in the video game Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
Malcolm McDowell (Mr. Linderman) played Tolian Soran in Star Trek Generations.
Brian Morri (Mr. Crane) played an Enolian guard on Star Trek: Enterprise.
Nichelle Nichols (Nana) played "Uhura" in the original Star Trek TV series and the first seven films, and continues to provide voices for related media.
Chris Oliver (cooking show host) provided food designs for all nine Star Trek motion pictures.
John Prosky (Micah's principal) appeared on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager.
Ian Quinn (Officer Ramsford) was a stunt performer in Star Trek: Insurrection.
Zachary Quinto (Sylar) portrays "Spock" in Star Trek XI.
John Rhys-Davies (Sword Saint narrator) portrayed "Leonardo da Vinci" in Star Trek: Voyager.
Cristine Rose (Angela Petrelli) played a Klingon in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Rick Scarry (Los Angeles bartender) appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation as "Jarth".
George Takei (Kaito Nakamura) played "Hikaru Sulu" on Star Trek and in the first seven films, and voiced several characters on Star Trek: The Animated Series.
Beth Toussaint, Jack Coleman's wife, played Tasha Yar's sister in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Dan Warner (Skinny cop) appeared as a cop on Star Trek: Enterprise.
Clay Wilcox (Gun seller) appeared on Star Trek: Enterprise.
D. Elliot Woods (SWAT officer) had roles in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek: Enterprise.

from Heroeswiki

Superman Lives (1998 - Cancel)

2008-10-31T14:55:00.006+07:00

Kevin Smith pitched to Jon Peters his story outline in August 1996, in which Peters gave him permission to write a screenplay. However, Peters presented Smith with three rules, such as wanting Superman to wear an all-black suit, feeling the more traditional suit was "too faggy"; not wanting to see Superman fly, saying that Superman would "look like an overgrown Boy Scout." (In order to deal with this, Smith wrote Superman flying as "a red-and-blue blur in flight, creating a sonic boom every time he flew."); and have Superman fight a giant spider in the third act. Smith accepted the terms, realizing that he was being hired to execute a pre-ordained idea. Peters and Warner Bros. forced Smith to write a scene involving Brainiac fighting polar bears at the Fortress of Solitude, and Peters wanted Brainiac to give Lex Luthor a space dog, stating "Chewie's cuddly, man. You could make a toy out of him, so you've got to give me a dog."Smith claims this was because of the recent re-release of the original Star Wars trilogy, and claims that Peters wanted Brainiac's robot assistant L-Ron to be voiced by Dwight Ewell, calling him, "a gay R2-D2 with attitude." Peters was able to recycle his giant spider idea in Wild Wild West (1999), a film he produced.

Smith's draft (titled Superman Lives) had Brainiac sending Doomsday to kill Superman, as well as blocking out the sun to make Superman powerless, as Superman is fueled by sunlight. Brainiac teams with Lex Luthor, but Superman is resurrected by a Kryptonian robot, The Eradicator. Brainiac wishes to possess The Eradicator and its technology. Powerless, the resurrected Superman is sheathed in armor formed from The Eradicator itself until his powers return, courtesy of sunbeams, and defeats Brainiac. Smith's casting choices included Ben Affleck as Clark Kent / Superman, Linda Fiorentino as Lois Lane, Jack Nicholson as Lex Luthor, Famke Janssen as Mercy, John Mahoney as Perry White, David Hyde Pierce as The Eradicator, Jason Lee as Brainiac and Jason Mewes as Jimmy Olsen.

Robert Rodriguez was offered the chance to direct, but turned down the offer due to his commitment on The Faculty (1998), despite liking Smith's script. Smith originally suggested Tim Burton to direct his script, and Burton signed on with a pay or play contract of $5 million and the studio set the theatrical release date in the summer of 1998, the 60th anniversary of the character's debut in Action Comics. Nicolas Cage, a comic book fan, signed on as Superman with a $20 million pay or play contract, feeling he could "re-conceive the character." Peters felt Cage could "convince audiences he [Superman] came from outer space." Burton stated it would be "the first time you would believe that nobody could recognize Clark Kent as Superman, he [Cage] could physically change his persona."Kevin Spacey was approached for the role of Lex Luthor, while Tim Allen claimed he was in talks for Brainiac (a role heavily considered for Jim Carrey). Courteney Cox was reported as a casting possibility for Lois Lane, while Smith confirmed Chris Rock was set for Jimmy Olsen. Michael Keaton confirmed his involvement, but when asked if he would be reprising his role as Batman (as he had done in Burton's Batman and Batman Returns), he would only reply, "Not exactly." Industrial Light & Magic was set for work on special effects.

It was announced in April 1997 that filming would begin early-1998. That June, Superman Lives entered pre-production, with an art department employed under production designer Rick Heinrichs. Burton decided to hire Wesley Strick to completely rewrite Smith's script. In return, Smith was overtly disappointed: "The studio was happy with what I was doing. Then Tim Burton got involved, and when he signed his pay-or-play deal, he turned around and said he wanted to do his version of Superman. So who is Warner Bros. going back to? The guy who made Clerks, or the guy who made them half a billion dollars on Batman?" When Strick read Smith's script, he was annoyed with the fact that "Superman was accompanied/shadowed by someone/something called The Eradicator." He also felt that "Brainiac's evil plot of launching a disk in space to block out the sun and make Superman powerless was reminiscent of an episode of The Simpsons, with Mr. Burns doing the Brainiac role." However, after reading The Death and Return of Superman, Strick claimed he understood some of the elements of Smith's script. Strick's rewrite featured Superman questioning his existence and abilities, thinking of himself to be an outsider on Earth. Superman is threatened by Brainiac and Lex Luthor, who later amalgamate into "Lexiac," described by Strick as "a schizo/scary mega-villain."Superman is later resurrected by the power of 'K', a natural force representing the spirit of Krypton, as Superman defeats Lexiac.

Art designer Sylvain Despretz claimed the art department was assigned to create something that had little or nothing to do with the Superman comic book. Despretz also claimed that Peters "would bring kids in, who would rate the drawings on the wall as if they were evaluating the toy possibilities. It was basically a toy show!" Peters saw a cover of National Geographic, containing a picture of a skull, going to art department workers, telling them he wanted the design for Brainiac's space ship to have the same image. Burton gave Despretz a concept drawing for Brainiac, which Despretz claims was "a cone with a round ball on top, and something that looked like a emaciated skull inside. Imagine you take Merlin's hat, and you stick a fish bowl on top, with a skull in it." Concept artist Rolf Mohr claimed he designed a suit for The Eradicator for a supposed scene when he turns into a flying vehicle.

Burton chose Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as his primary filming location for Metropolis, while sound stages were reserved but start dates for filming were pushed back. A minor piece of the Krypton set was constructed but then destroyed, and Cage had even attended a costume fitting.The studio was considering changing the title Superman Lives back to Superman Reborn. The film's escalating budget (which went from $100 million to $190 million) forced Warner Bros. to ultimately put the film on hold in April 1998, and Burton left to direct Sleepy Hollow. At this point in production, $30 million was spent, with nothing to show for it. To this day, Burton has depicted the experience of Superman Lives as one of the worst experiences in his life, citing various differences with Peters and the studio, stating, "I basically wasted a year. A year is a long time to be working with somebody that you don't really want to be working with

from Wikipedia

Goggle V

2008-10-31T08:15:00.011+07:00

Dai Sentai Goggle V (大戦隊ゴーグルファイブ Dai Sentai Gōguru Faibu), translated into English as Great Squadron Goggle V, is a Japanese tokusatsu television series. It was the sixth installment in Toei Company's Super Sentai series of tokusatsu television dramas. It aired on TV Asahi from February 6, 1982 to January 21, 1983, with a total of 50 episodes. It was the most-watched Super Sentai series in Japan as of 2006.

It got the highest ratings of all sentai (at least up to 1988), but is least popular among Japanese fans(as opposed to Japanese children). Cf. Ultraman Taro, another series unpopular with fans though popular with children. 50episodes Dr. Hongou, founder of the Future Science Laboratory, confirms that Deathdark has begun its nefarious activities at Wolfborg Castle in Germany. Attacked by Deathdark, he is saved by Akama Ken'ichi and returns to Japan, where he has the Comboyputer select five people, including Akama, to become the Great Task Force Goggle V. The team succeeds in their first mission against Shell Mozoo and the giant robot Fankong. After numerous defeats, Fuehrer Taboo revives Grand Marshal Deathmark from a long sleep. To reorganize Deathdark, Deathmark sentences Doctors Zazoriya and Igaana to death. Deathdark creates seemingly indestructible Super Synthetic Beasts, but the team copes with this by devising the Goggle Golden Spear attack. In the end, Deathmark discovers the super energy 'Hightron', which they use to create their final weapon, the Dark Cannon. At the same time, Deathdark discovers the location of Goggle V's base and destroys it. Deathmark sends the Hightron-powered Cheetah and Bear Mozoo / Kongs after the team, but they, like their lesser Mozoo and Kong predecessors fail, even though Deathgiller pilots Bear Kong himself. Dr. Hongou builds the team a new base, from which they set off to break into Deathtopia and defeat Taboo, who reveals and enlarges himself at last, with the eye-poking EarthSword Electron Galactic missile move.

Heroes

Akama Ken'ichi/Goggle Red

World class explorer and mountain climber. By saving Dr. Hongou from Deathdark's Madaramen, he came to realize what peril the world was in. His forehead jewel is the ruby, symbolizing Atlantis. Armed with the Red Ruby Whip and the Red Rope.

Kuroda Kanpei/ Goggle Black

President of the chess club at Touto University. Specializes in strategy. Normally a janitor of Kourakuen Stadium. His forehead jewel is the emerald, symbolizing Asia. Armed with the Black Clubs, Black Emerald Nunchakus, Dynamite Clubs, the Black Shadow technique, and the Black Wind Wheel Whirlwind technique.

Aoyama Saburou/ Goggle Blue

Ice hockey player and would-be inventor. His forehead jewel is the sapphire, symbolizing Egypt. Armed with the Blue Ring, Blue Sapphire Jet Ring, the Ring Waist Break technique, and the Blue Jet Dash technique.

Kijima Futoshi/ Goggle Yellow

Works at a zoo. His forehead jewel is the opal, symbolizing Mu (Lemuria). Armed with the Yellow Ball, Lightning Light Ball, Yellow Opal Megaton Ball, Yellow Hammer, Yellow Holedigging technique, and the Yellow Mole Strike technique.

Momozono Miki/ Goggle Pink

Gymnast who works as an announcer at Kourakuen Stadium. Her forehead jewel is the diamond, symbolizing the Mayans and Incas. Armed with the Pink Ribbon, Pink Diamond Baton, Pink Mirror, Pink Ribbon Bind technique, and the Pink Heart Hypnosis technique.

Arsenal

The team has many combination attacks, such as the Lightning Ropes, the Dynamite Clubs, the Ring Spin Typhoons, the Lightning Light Balls, the Ribbon Sparks, the Goggle Victory Flash, the Goggle Bomber, the Sabre Attack, and the Goggle Golden Spear. All are armed wih Goggle Sabres.

Mecha

Gogglecaesar
flying fortress, launches from a pad beneath Kourakuen Stadium (amusement park featuring Toei heroes)
launches three components of Goggle Robo from numbered drawers

Goggle Jet (Red) + Tank (Blue and Black) + Dump (Yellow and Pink) = Gogglerobo
armed with Earth Sword (Electron Galaxy Cut), Goggle Hand, hand Missile, Goggle Flash beam, and Goggle Spin top.

from Supersentai

Clone Wars

2008-10-31T07:55:00.001+07:00

The conflicts leading up to the Clone Wars begin 32 years before the events of A New Hope and during the second half of the film The Phantom Menace. The Trade Federation, a major galactic trade organization under the control of the Neimoidians, blockades the small planet Naboo and demands the capitulation of the world by its queen, Padmé Amidala, who refuses their demands and requests help from the Galactic Republic, the main governing body of the galaxy. The Republic responds by sending two Jedi ambassadors, Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi to oversee the situation and negotiate with the Trade Federation. The Federation, wary of the Jedi and secretly taking orders from Darth Sidious, attempt to murder the Jedi, who escape to Naboo just as the Federation begins a full-scale invasion. Following a brief occupation, the Trade Federation are defeated by an alliance of the Naboo Royal Guard and the indigenous Gungan Tribes, with the help of the Jedi.^[4]

Following these events, Jedi Master Dooku resigns from the Jedi Order and returns to his homeworld of Serenno, taking on his hereditary title of Count.^[5] Unfortunately, the Jedi Council are unaware that Dooku has fallen under the control of Sith master Darth Sidious, who begins organizing a separatist coalition of planets and civilizations with the intention of seceding from the Republic. During this time, the Separatists begin forming their own armies, which primarily consist of battle droids constructed by the Trade Federation and their allies.

Ten years later, following the attempted assassination of Senator Padmé Amidala, Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker's investigation puts them on the trail of Jango Fett, an intergalactic bounty hunter. Tracking him to the world of Kamino, Obi-Wan discovers that the Kaminoans have used samples of Fett's DNA to clone a vast army of soldiers, called Clone Troopers. The order for the soldiers was submitted to the Kaminoans by Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas (Who had been killed before making the order). Meanwhile, the Republic soon faces internal opposition as several thousand worlds publicly secede from the Galactic Republic and form the Confederacy of Independent Systems, or CIS. The Republic Senate deliberates the Military Creation Act, which calls for the formation of an army to serve the Republic in keeping order across Republic Star Systems and preventing further secession. As deliberations stall, Shadow Senator for Naboo, Jar Jar Binks proposes (after suggestion from Chancellor Palpatine) that the Chancellor be granted emergency powers in order to resolve the issue of the Clone Army awaiting approval on Kamino and take decisive action to put down the rebellion. This is greeted by applause from the majority of the Senate Chamber, and Chancellor Palpatine describes it as a 'purely temporary measure'.

The Clone Army of the Republic first saw battle engaging the Separatist forces on Geonosis, which had been discovered and reported by Obi-Wan Kenobi prior to his capture. The forces were commanded by Master Yoda. The Battle of Geonosis marks the end of Attack of the Clones and the beginning of the Clone War.

During the in-universe time period between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, conflict between the Republic and the Separatists increases and expands, which is chronicled in an extensive Multimedia campaign.

Three years after the Battle of Geonosis, the Confederacy attempts to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine from the Republic capital world of Coruscant under the command of the cyborg General Grievous. The Chancellor is rescued and Confederacy leader Count Dooku killed, thanks to the efforts of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker.

At this point in the Clone Wars timeline, the Outer Rim Sieges are in full swing, as well as numerous other battles across the galaxy. The Jedi are considered battle commanders, far outranking clones in terms of battle prowess, and are spread thin across the galaxy. One of the key battles of the Outer Rim Sieges is the Battle of Utapau, depicted in Revenge of the Sith; during the battle, Obi-Wan strikes a crippling blow to the Confederacy by killing one of their most prominent leaders, General Grievous. However, the entire Battle of Utapau is a diversionary tactic, intended to remove Obi-Wan Kenobi from Anakin Skywalker's immediate circle of influence in order for Chancellor Palpatine to draw Anakin towards the dark side of the Force.

Left behind by Obi-Wan on Coruscant, Anakin discovers that Palpatine is also Darth Sidious, Sith leader of the Confederacy. He informs Mace Windu, who promptly comes with a posse of Jedi Knights to detain the corrupt Chancellor. A furious duel ensues in Palpatine's personal chambers, until only Windu and Palpatine are left standing. Skywalker arrives at the Chancellor's quarters to find Palpatine at the mercy of Windu's lightsaber. Anakin, promised by Palpatine enough power to save his wife Padmé from death, cuts Windu's lightsaber hand off, allowing Palpatine to kill Windu. Palpatine/Sidious takes Anakin as his new Sith Apprentice, after losing Dooku, and gives him the Sith name Darth Vader. Anakin has now completely fallen under the sway of the Dark Side.

Utilizing the attack by Mace Windu as a pretext, Palpatine issues Order 66, a pre-arranged military command ordering all Clone Troopers to execute their Jedi commanders. Darth Vader leads the raid on the Jedi Temple with the 501st Clone Trooper Legion and kills all the Jedi in the Temple, including Jedi younglings living in the Temple. The handful of survivors of the Great Jedi Purge include Yoda and Obi-Wan.

With the extermination of the Jedi complete, Palpatine marks an end to the Galactic Republic, naming himself ruler of the Galactic Empire. During this time, Emperor Palpatine dispatches Vader to Mustafar to kill the rest of the Separatist leaders. With the elimination of the Confederacy leadership, Palpatine (as Darth Sidious) orders all battle droids to be shut down immediately, effectively ending the war.

From Wikipedia

Psycho

2008-10-30T08:30:00.006+07:00

Plot

The movie opens in Phoenix, Arizona, where discreet lovers Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and Sam Loomis (John Gavin) want to marry, but cannot, as Sam is in debt and must also pay heavy alimony to his ex-wife. Unhappy and desperate to improve their situation, Marion steals $40,000 in cash from her office and drives to California, where Sam lives. All the while, Marion is nervous and apprehensive, and drives well into the night, eventually parking alongside the road to sleep.

She is awakened by a concerned highway police officer, who warns her that it is dangerous to sleep in a car and tells her in the future to find a motel. However, Marion's agitation and desperation to leave arouses his suspicions. The officer looks at her license and registration, taking note of the plate number. He allows her to go on, but follows her, which agitates Marion further. Realizing that he now knows her plate number, is suspicious of her, and that she can be tracked by the authorities when the money is reported stolen, she trades her 1956 Ford Mainline (and pays an additional $700) for a 1957 Ford Custom 300 before continuing to California. However, the same officer has been watching the exchange from across the street and gotten her new plate number. Marion leaves, worrying that the car trader will express suspicions of his own to the officer.

Marion becomes fatigued from stress and driving in heavy rain and decides to find a proper place to stay for the night, fearing a reprise of the incident with the patrolman. She turns off the main road without realizing it, and arrives at the Bates Motel, a twelve-cabin lodging, rather out-of-the-way with no other guests at present. The young, boyishly handsome and innocent-seeming owner, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), explains to her that business has decreased dramatically since the new road bypassed the motel. Norman does what little work is left, and also looks after his mother in a sinister-looking house on top of a nearby hill. Marion checks in under an assumed name, though she unwittingly gives her real name to him later.

It is still raining, Marion is very tired, and the nearest diner is ten miles away, so Norman suggests that she have dinner at his house. However, from her room, Marion overhears a heated argument between Norman and his mother, who seems to suspect that his meal with Marion is part of a sordid affair. The two eat in the office instead, where Norman keeps several stuffed birds (his hobby is taxidermy). While eating, they have a gentle conversation at first, but Norman loses his temper after she delicately suggests he gets help in looking after his disturbed mother. Norman recovers from his brief outburst and admits that he would like to leave, but can't abandon his mother. He compares his life to a trap and observes that this aptly describes most people. Feeling that the theft of the money has also got her into a trap, Marion resolves to drive back to Phoenix in the morning. She undresses in her room next door while Norman watches through a peephole in the wall of his office.

Resolving to make amends to her employer, Marion makes a few calculations based on how much the escapade has cost her. She then takes a shower. Suddenly, a human figure enters the bathroom — shadowy through the shower curtain — and brutally stabs Marion to death. She dies shortly after grabbing the curtain, which collapses. Norman is horrified when he finds the bloody corpse, but he pulls himself together and wraps it in the shower curtain. He cleans up the room, then places the body and all of Marion's possessions (including the stolen money which is still hidden in a newspaper) into the trunk of her car before pushing it into a swamp, eliminating any incriminating evidence.

Shortly afterward, Marion's lover Sam is contacted almost simultaneously by Marion's worried sister Lila (Vera Miles) and by a private detective, Milton Arbogast (Martin Balsam), hired by Marion's employer to find her and recover the money himself, as her employer does not want police involvement. Arbogast suspects that either of them could know Marion's whereabouts. However, he traces the missing woman to the Bates Motel and questions Norman, who lies poorly. Arbogast wants to speak to Bates's mother but the young man vehemently forbids it. Arbogast then calls Marion's sister from a public phone, and tells her that he is not satisfied with what he has been told. He sneaks into the old house to question Mrs. Bates, but is pushed backwards down a flight of stairs and stabbed to death.

Lila and Sam become concerned when Arbogast does not report again and decide to alert the local police. Deputy Sheriff Al Chambers (John McIntire) is puzzled that Arbogast has claimed to have seen Norman's mother, as she has been buried for the past ten years, having (apparently) poisoned herself and her lover with strychnine. Meanwhile, the Bates' house resonates with a conversation as Norman confronts his mother, urging her to go into hiding in the fruit cellar, as people are already searching for Marion and will eventually search for Arbogast as well. She rejects the suggestion, angrily mentioning the previous occasion when Norman convinced her to stay down there for a long time. She then orders Norman to leave the room. He refuses, picks her up against her will and carries her downstairs to the fruit cellar, with her yelling "Put me down! I can walk on my own!"

Sam and Lila decide to check into the Bates Motel, posing as a married couple. Norman assigns them to a cabin away from Marion's room. They sneak in anyway to investigate, and find that the shower curtain is missing. Lila looks into the toilet and sees a small scrap of paper caught at the edge. The sum of $40,000 is written on it, confirming that Marion had been there. Lila then sneaks into the house with the intention of talking to Norman's mother, while Sam distracts the young man. Sam suggests to Norman that he has killed Marion to get his hands on her stolen money. They argue until Norman realizes that Lila is not present. Furious and panicked, he knocks Sam unconscious and races to the house. Seeing him come through a window, Lila hides from him in the fruit cellar, where she discovers that Mrs. Bates is a semi-preserved mummified corpse. At that moment, Norman (wearing his mother's clothes and a wig) enters, screaming and holding a knife. However, Sam has regained consciousness and arrives just in time to save Lila. He rips Norman's wig and dress during their struggle.

At the end of the film, a forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Fred Richmond (Simon Oakland), explains to Lila, Sam, and the authorities that Bates's mother, though dead, lives on in Norman's psyche. Dr. Richmond explains that while growing up, Norman lived alone with his mother, as if they were the only two people in the world. ("A boy's best friend is his mother," Norman had told Marion early in the film.) Yet when his mother found a lover, Norman became jealous and murdered them both. He was so dominated by his mother while she lived, and so guilt-ridden for murdering her ten years earlier, that he tried to erase the crime from his mind by bringing his mother back to life. Physically, this was done by stealing her corpse ("a weighted coffin was buried," according to Richmond) and preserving his mother's body using his taxidermy skills. This process also created a dual personality in Norman; he incorporated the persona of his mother as a separate part of his psyche. When he is being his "Mother", he acts as he believes she would, talks as she would, and even dresses as she would, in an attempt to erase her absence and with it, his guilt. Because Norman was very jealous of his mother while she lived, he imagined that Mother would be equally jealous of any woman to whom he might be attracted, to the point of murdering them. Norman's psychosis protects him from (consciously) knowing about the crimes the mother figure commits, and it also prevents him from consciously knowing that his mother is long dead. Besides Marion and Arbogast, the sheriff recalls that the disappearances of two other young women in the area have gone unresolved.

The last scene shows Norman Bates seated in a cell. His mind is now completely dominated by the persona of his mother. We hear "her" internal voice as a voice-over. She blames Norman, and plans on demonstrating to the authorities that it was Norman who did the crimes, whereas she is utterly harmless. She knows that people must be observing her, and will show them what kind of a person she is. As a fly crawls on Norman's hand, Mother continues, "I'm not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching. They'll see, they'll know, and they'll say, 'Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly'". We see "Mother" give a smile of satisfaction, which shows through Norman's demented stare. (A double exposure shot of Norman's face over a bleached skull.) The film's final shot is of Marion's car being recovered from the swamp.

Awards

Psycho was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Janet Leigh), Direction (Alfred Hitchcock), Black and White Cinematography (John Russell), and Black and White Art Direction-set decoration (Joseph Hurley, Robert Clatworthy; George Milo). It did not win any Academy Awards, though Leigh did win a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, and Perkins tied for best actor in an award from the International Board of Motion Picture Reviewers. Stefano was nominated for two writing awards by Edgar Allan Poe Awards and the Writers Guild of America, East; he won the former only. Hitchcock was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures by the Directors Guild of America. In 1992, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.

"No other murder mystery in the history of the movies has inspired such merchandising."^[5] Any number of items emblazoned with Bates Motel, stills, lobby cards, and highly valuable posters are available for purchase. In 1992, it was adapted scene-for-scene into three comic books by the Innovative Corporation.^[5] It appeared on a number of lists by websites, TV channels, magazines, and books including the following:

Its shower scene was featured as #4 on the list of Bravo Network's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.^[28]
The finale was ranked #4 on Premiere's list of "The 25 Most Shocking Moments in Movie History."^[29]
#11 in Entertainment Weekly's book titled The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time.^[1]

American Film Institute recognition

1998 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #18
2001 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills #1
2003 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains:
- Norman Bates - Villain #2
2005 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes:
- "A boy's best friend is his mother," #56
2005 AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores #4
2007 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #14

From Wikipedia

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

2008-10-30T08:01:00.003+07:00

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is a 1978 comedy film directed by John De Bello and starring David Miller. The film is a spoof of B-movies. Made on a budget of less than USD$100,000, the story involves tomatoes becoming sentient by unknown means and revolting against humanity. Writing credits were shared by John De Bello, Costa Dillon, and Stephen Peace. The concept of Killer Tomatoes was created by Dillon.

Plot

The film opens with a scroll dictating that, when Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds (1963) was released, audiences laughed at the notion of birds revolting against humanity, but when an attack perpetrated by birds occurred in 1975, no one laughed. This is followed by a pre-credits sequence of a tomato rising out of a woman's garbage disposal unit. Her puzzlement turns into terror as the tomato draws her into a corner. Following the credits, we see the police investigating her death. One officer discovers that the red substance she is covered with is not blood, but tomato juice.

A series of attacks perpetrated by tomatoes occur (including a man dying by drinking tomato juice made from a killer tomato and a sequence where the tomatoes attack innocent swimmers, in a parody of Jaws). While the President's press secretary Jim Richardson tries to convince the public that there is no credible threat, the president puts together a team of specialists to stop the tomatoes led by a man named Mason Dixon. Dixon's team includes Sam Smith, an African-American disguise expert who is seen at various points dressed as, among other things, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and even Adolf Hitler; Navy diver Greg Colburn; Russian Olympic swimmer Gretta Attenbaum; and parachute-toting Wilbur Finletter.

Smith is sent out to infiltrate the tomatoes, eventually blowing his cover when he asks if anyone could "pass the ketchup." Colburn and Gretta are sent to sectors, and Finletter stays with Mason. Meanwhile, the president sends Richardson to the fictitious ad agency 'Mind Makers', where executive Ted Swan spends huge amounts of money to develop virtually worthless ploys including a bumper sticker with 'STP' for "Stop Tomato Plants' on it. It is revealed that a human is also plotting to stop Dixon when a masked assassin attempts to shoot him, but misses. A senate subcommittee meeting is held where one secret pamphlet is leaked to a newspaper editor who sends Lois Fairchild on the story. While she tails Finletter, he mistakes her to be a spy and trashes a hotel room attempting to kill her. He then chases the assassin as the masked man fails again to kill Dixon, but loses him.

Gretta is killed and further regression has led leaders to bring in tanks and soldiers to the west coast in a battle that leaves the American forces in shambles. Dixon, walking among the rubble, sees a trail of tomato juice and decides to investigate. He ends up being chased by a killer tomato to an apartment where a oblivious child is listening to the radio. The tomato is about to kill Dixon but suddenly flies out the window. Dixon peers out to see if it has died when he spots the assassin hijacking his car. He chases the assassin until he is knocked out when it is revealed that Richardson is behind the tomatoes. He is about to reveal his secret of control when Finletter charges in and runs him through. Dixon, picking up some strewn records, realizes that both times the tomatoes left him the new hit song "Puberty Love" had been on the radio. He orders Finletter to gather all remaining people and bring them to the stadium, which is soon attacked by the tomatoes.

The tomatoes are cornered in a stadium. "Puberty Love" is played over the loudspeaker, causing the tomatoes to shrink and allowing the various people at the stadium to squash them by stomping on them repeatedly. Fairchild, meanwhile, is cornered by a giant tomato wearing earmuffs. Dixon saves her by showing the tomato the sheet music to "Puberty Love." He professes his love to her, in song. The film ends by showing a carrot that rises from the Earth and says "All right, you guys. They're gone."

Critics

The film was poorly received by critics, garnering 27% positive reviews on RottenTomatoes.com

From Wikipedia

Cult Film

2008-10-30T07:52:00.002+07:00

A cult film is a movie that attracts a devoted group of followers or obsessive fans, despite having failed on their initial releases. The term also describes films that have remained popular over a long period of time amongst a small group of followers. In many cases, cult films may have failed to achieve mainstream success on original release although this is definitely not always the case. Whilst they may only have a short cinema release cult films often enjoy ongoing popularity due to myriad VHS, LaserDisc and DVD releases. In some cases, these films tend to enjoy long runs on video, thus being issued in video "runs" with more copies than other movies. The box office bomb Office Space (1999) managed to financially redeem itself when word-of-mouth made it a popular video rental. Harold and Maude (1971) was not successful financially at the time of its original release in 1971, but has since nevertheless earned a huge cult following and has become successful following its video and DVD releases. This has also happened with The Big Lebowski (1998), among others. Many cult films were independently made and were not expected by their creators to have much mainstream success. Carnival of Souls (1962), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Pink Flamingos (1972), Basket Case (1982), The Evil Dead (1981) and its sequels and Eraserhead (1977) have all been commonly acknowledged as having become cult films. Sometimes the audience response to a cult film is somewhat different from what was intended by the film makers. Many films that become cult contain unusual elements. Cult films usually offer something different or innovative in comparison to more mainstream films but cult films can also be popular across a wide audience.

A film can be both a major studio release and a cult film, particularly if despite its affiliation with a major studio, it failed to achieve broad success on either the theatrical or home video markets but was championed by a small number of dedicated film fanatics who seek out lesser-known offerings, which can also be said about Freddy Got Fingered. It is also true that the content of certain films (such as dark subjects, alienation, transgressive content, or other controversial subject matter) can also decide whether or not a film is a "cult film", regardless of the film's budget or studio affiliations. An example may be Paul Verhoeven's big budgeted, highly sexualized Showgirls (1995), initially intended to be a drama film about the rise of a Las Vegas stripper, that flopped both critically and commercially. Today, it is a favorite of homosexual audiences and audiences in general have considered it to be a comedy thanks to frequent midnight madness. According to activist writer Naomi Klein, ironic enjoyment of the film initially arose among those with the video before MGM, the films chief marketer, capitalized on the idea. MGM noticed the video was performing all right, since "trendy twenty-somethings were throwing Showgirls irony parties, laughing sardonically at the implausibly poor screenplay and shrieking with horror at the aerobic sexual encounters."

Some cult films garner overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and perform well at the box office, but nevertheless are still considered 'cult'. One example of this is Stanley Kubrick's vision of a grim and disturbing, ultra-violent future in A Clockwork Orange (1971), which won several major film awards and was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture. Another example may be Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946), which was popular on home video while being widely regarded as a flop upon its initial release. Sometimes cult films can be revolutionary for their era, thus becoming far more successful later on, namely Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940).

Example movie:

Carnival of Souls (1962)
Easy Rider (1969)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Death Race 2000 (1975)
Taxi Driver (1976)
The Warriors (1979)
Evil Dead (1981)
Blade Runner (1982)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Fight Club (1999).

From Wikipedia

B Movie

2008-10-30T07:37:00.008+07:00

A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture conceived neither as an arthouse film nor as pornography. In its original usage, during the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature. Although the U.S. production of movies intended as second features largely ceased by the end of the 1950s, the term B movie continued to be used in the broader sense it maintains today. In its post–Golden Age usage, there is ambiguity on both sides of the definition: on the one hand, many B movies display a high degree of craft and aesthetic ingenuity; on the other, the primary interest of many inexpensive exploitation films is prurient. In some cases, both are true.

In either usage, most B movies represent a particular genre—the Western was a Golden Age B movie staple, while low-budget science-fiction and horror films became more popular in the 1950s. Early B movies were often part of series in which the star repeatedly played the same character. Almost always shorter than the top-billed films they were paired with, many had running times of 70 minutes or less. The term connoted a general perception that B movies were inferior to the more handsomely budgeted headliners; individual B films were often ignored by critics. Latter-day B movies still sometimes inspire multiple sequels, but series are less common. As the average running time of top-of-the-line films increased, so did that of B pictures. In its current usage, the term has two primary and somewhat contradictory connotations: it may signal an opinion that a certain movie is (a) a genre film with minimal artistic ambitions or (b) a lively, energetic film uninhibited by the constraints imposed on more expensive projects and unburdened by the conventions of putatively "serious" independent film. The term is also now used loosely to refer to some higher budgeted, mainstream films with exploitation-style content, usually in genres traditionally associated with the B movie.

From their beginnings to the present day, B movies have provided opportunities both for those coming up in the profession and others whose careers are waning. Celebrated filmmakers such as Anthony Mann and Jonathan Demme learned their craft in B movies. B movies are where actors such as John Wayne and Jack Nicholson became established, and the Bs have also provided work for former A movie actors, such as Vincent Price and Karen Black. Some actors, such as Béla Lugosi and Pam Grier, worked in B movies for most of their careers.

From Wikipedia

4Bia Connection

2008-10-29T11:47:00.002+07:00

4bia or Phobia is a 2008 Thai Thai horror film in four parts, directed by Youngyooth Thongkonthun, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Parkpoom Wongpoom, and Paween Purikitpanya.

The Connection:

- Story 3 ("In the Middle"). One of the teenagers' name is Ter.
- Story 4 ("Last Flight"). Ter is mentioned as the brother of Pim's colleague and fellow stewardess, Tui (not seen in movie) who could not accompany the flight as her brother had drowned.
- Story 1 ("Happiness"). The girl with the broken leg is seen reading the online news about the Princess's death.
- Story 2 ("Tit for Tat"). The image we see of the curse is the image of the girl with the broken leg who had died with her eyes open.

List of characters in Watchmen - The Crimebusters era

2008-10-29T09:03:00.003+07:00

The following individuals form the primary cast of characters for the Watchmen series. They came together only briefly as "The Crimebusters", a failed attempt in 1966 by Captain Metropolis to form a successor group to "The Minutemen". The Crimebusters concept is inspired primarily by the Justice League.

The Comedian

The Comedian was a member of the Crimebusters and of the Minutemen. He has a highly cynical and nihilistic outlook on life and believes that most individuals are powerless to affect geo-political realities. The Comedian is often motivated by his own desires and is inclined to be autonomous, only aligning himself with others if their motives are similar to his own. A possible sadist, the Comedian often engages in violent activities and became a government agent during the Vietnam War. Near the end of his service in Vietnam, he was attacked and injured by a Vietnamese woman who was pregnant with an unborn child (who is strongly suggested, but not definitively revealed, to be his). Angered when the Comedian stated his intention to leave her behind when he returned to the United States, she slashed his face with a piece of a broken glass bottle. In retaliation the Comedian murdered her (and thus the unborn child) with a single gunshot, an event which was witnessed by Dr. Manhattan. The Comedian's injury healed badly and left him with a large scar across his right cheek, from the corner of his mouth to the outer corner of his right eye.

When they were both members of the Minutemen, the Comedian sexually assaulted Sally Jupiter, the original Silk Spectre. Later he had an apparently brief affair with her during which he fathered a child, Laurie, the second Silk Spectre.

Initially, his "morally correct" actions when fighting crime are contrasted against his abrupt and cruel personality, which portray him as a person lacking empathy for others. However, his actions upon his discovery of Ozymandias' "Alien Island" suggest that the Comedian is not merely a selfish egotist.

Rorschach independently discovers that Edward Blake was The Comedian's secret identity.

According to Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan (Chapter 2: Absent Friends), Blake is not exactly a utilitarian or a nihilist but one who could see the strings and viewed the world as a stage or a joke. Rorschach writes: "But there is no shelter. And the future is bearing down like an express train. Blake understood. Treated it like a joke, but he understood. He saw the cracks in society. Saw the little men in masks trying to hold it together. He saw the true face of the twentieth century and chose to become a reflection, a parody of it. No one else saw the joke, so he was lonely."

The character of the Comedian is loosely based on the original Peacemaker.

Rorschach

An extreme example of moral absolutism, Rorschach (Walter Kovacs) is uncompromising in his answer to evil: it must be punished, whatever the cost - though he admits in his journal to simply "do what we have to do." However, he says that there is no meaning or moral absolutes imposed from beyond, that they are all created in the minds of the individual. His staunch opposition to crime is equaled by his total lack of empathy for criminals, whom he treats as non-human; his disdain for conventional law, government, and the police causes him to become a vigilante, as, in his belief, the law does not do enough to combat crime. He shows little reverence for "conventional morality", willing to take drastic measures to achieve his goals, such as the torture or even the execution of criminals. His "law and order" attitude, coupled with his readership of The New Frontiersman, make clear he values strongly-held and expressed views of society; however, the punishment of crime is the only thing relevant to his personal crusade, and is thus the only thing he expresses. Rorschach is determined not to spend his life as a bystander, thus, like Batman, crime has driven him to become a crusader.

In Rorschach's case, it was the murder of Kitty Genovese (and the inaction of her neighbors) that inspired him to fight crime. Kovacs fashioned a mask out of a section of a dress he chooses to believe belonged to Genovese, its unique shifting white and black pattern originating from a special material created by Dr. Manhattan. The clear division between black and white in the mask mirrors Rorschach's absolutist outlook: things are either right or wrong, black or white; there is no middle ground, no "grey area". However, he was just another masked adventurer, content to leave punishment to the legal system, until one of his investigations led him to discover the brutal murder of an innocent girl. The girl was butchered and fed to two German shepherds by her kidnapper. This heinous act sent Rorschach into a rage; no longer satisfied with merely stopping crimes, Rorschach decided that he would also discern the punishment, where once he was content to simply leave perpetrators of crimes bound and gagged for the police to find. This event is described as the point where Walter Kovacs died, and Rorschach was born. Laws no longer mattered to Rorschach, and he was the only masked adventurer to continue to operate without government sanction after the ratification of the Keene Act. His stance toward the Keene Act was epitomized in his killing of a notorious serial rapist: he subsequently deposited the body in front of a police station with a note attached to it, saying "NEVER!"

The character of Rorschach is primarily inspired by The Question and Mr. A, both characters created by Steve Ditko.

Ozymandias

Although an intellectual elitist who believes in utilitarianism and is willing to murder millions of innocents in the attempt to preserve the lives of billions more, Ozymandias seems to be the most outwardly "good" member of the Watchmen cast. Like Rorschach he believes himself to be exempt from the limitations of conventional behavioral norms and puts himself beyond that of normal human experience. His behavior and self-belief suggest that he may be a megalomaniac or have a messiah complex, while his idolization of Alexander the Great leaves him with something of a "chip on his shoulder." Not even his philanthropy, inventions, or huge, multi-million dollar business ventures can sate his desires for greatness. This viewpoint enables him to have an apparently callous disregard for the lives of "ordinary" people (though he later confides to Dr. Manhattan about his responsibility to shoulder the terrible guilt). If Dr. Manhattan is seen as God, then Ozymandias can easily be seen as the apollonian aspect of Nietzsche's philosophy.

Ozymandias retired from superheroism several years before the Keene Act to start building his "empire"; very successful businesses thanks to his intelligence, whose income would be used to fund his plans.

The character of Ozymandias is inspired by Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt.

Doctor Manhattan

After an accident as a scientist, Jon Osterman was transformed into something non-human, and the only character in Watchmen with superhuman powers (except for possibly those characters whose psychic ability is alluded to). Throughout the series, he becomes increasingly detached from humanity as a whole. As the story progresses, he disavows any interest in human affairs and rejects the validity of any notion of morality. For example he gradually abandons clothes. His ability to see the world outside of time leads him to embrace determinism. Doctor Manhattan is identified as something of a God-figure as Watchmen progresses; after dying and resurrecting himself, he gains near omniscient knowledge and almost omnipotent powers, and in his final scene walks on water and leaves to create human life somewhere else. For all his god-like power, he is as flawed and human as the rest, having difficulties with relationships. He personifies intellect over emotion. Because of his aloofness and somewhat nihilist philosophy, he is vilified by several characters throughout Watchmen. He represents Nietzsche's übermensch in the sense that his actions are completely beyond good and evil, in contrast with Rorschach whose actions are completely driven by the concepts of good and evil (which Ozymandias opined, in an interview, "to be an intellectual limitation").

The character of Doctor Manhattan is primarily inspired by Captain Atom, but there are also clear similarities^{[original research?]} between Manhattan and the Silver Age Superman, as well as the Spectre.

Silk Spectre II

A reluctant hero, Laurel (Laurie) Juspeczyk was pushed toward the vocation by her mother, the first Silk Spectre, who had been a successful crime fighter prior to her daughter's birth. Somewhat reluctantly, she ends up in a relationship with Doctor Manhattan. During the story she becomes increasingly upset with Manhattan's detachment from humanity, and after their break-up, Dr. Manhattan leaves Earth. In the end, she plays a pivotal role in making Manhattan realize the value of human life. She also became romantically involved with Dan Dreiberg, the second Nite Owl.

The character of Silk Spectre (Laurie) is inspired not only by Nightshade, but also by Black Canary and Phantom Lady.

Nite Owl II

Something of a recluse, Dan Dreiberg's strong interest in ornithology manifests itself in some of his inventions, which relate to owls in some way. Detached from his parents, he struggles to find purpose with his life, thus glamorizing the notion of being a costumed crimefighter. He admits to idolizing the exploits of the original Nite Owl and also being quite taken with childhood notions of nobility and adventure. However, he does not have a resolute purpose, such as that of Rorschach, and is quite contingent, often relying on others to tell him what to do rather than following his own desires. Dreiberg seems out of all the heroes to represent the everyman, the pragmatist driven by a waxing and waning standard of ethics that seeks ultimate good but is willing to compromise on specifics. Additionally, his crimefighting pursuits reflect most clearly the ineffectiveness of the costumed heroes of his world, as he spends immense amounts of funding to craft vehicles and specialized garments ready for missile warfare, sub-zero temperatures, radar invisibility, etc. to catch what he dismisses as "hookers" and "purse snatchers". But when he, Silk Spectre, and Rorschach (especially he and Rorschach) begin uncovering the mastermind behind recent events, all his inventions suddenly become integral to their pursuit. He also becomes romantically involved with Laurie Juspeczyk, the second Silk Spectre.

The character of Nite Owl (Dan Dreiberg) is inspired primarily by Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle.

From Wikipedia

List of characters in Watchmen - The Minutemen era

2008-10-29T08:59:00.002+07:00

The Minutemen were a group of superheroes that was formed in 1939, before the events of Watchmen, and disbanded ten years later. The Minutemen concept is inspired primarily by the Justice Society.

Nite Owl I

Hollis Mason was a policeman who became a "masked adventurer" after being inspired by the New York Gazette's article on Hooded Justice. After years of serving on The Minutemen, he wrote a book called Under the Hood, which exposed much about the Minutemen, most notably the attempted rape of Sally Jupiter (Silk Spectre I) by The Comedian. After the dissolution of The Minutemen and the rise of Doctor Manhattan, he elected to retire and work on old cars, passing his mantle on to a fan, Dan Dreiberg, who would become Nite Owl II. Later, on Halloween, 1985, during the riot that broke out after Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II freed Rorschach from prison, a violent street gang under the influence of stimulants attacked Mason in his home, and beat him to death in one of the most gruesome scenes in the novel. The character of Nite Owl Hollis Mason) is largely inspired by the original Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett.

Silk Spectre I

Sally Juspeczyk was an ex-waitress and burlesque dancer before becoming a crimefighter on the advice of her agent, and future husband, Laurence Schexnayder. Silk Spectre I was indecently assaulted by The Comedian, but the attack was ended upon Hooded Justice's intervention. An emotionally turbulent second encounter with the Comedian resulted in the birth of her daughter, Laurel, who would become Silk Spectre II. Silk Spectre I was involved in a tumultuous marriage with Schexnayder, which subsequently ended in divorce. Both her appearance in a Tijuana bible and her career as a burlesque dancer suggest she welcomes male attention while her printed interview suggests a seriously low self esteem in that she admits she suspects she brought on the Comedian's assault. She later retires to a rest home in California . The character of Silk Spectre (Sally) is inspired largely by Black Canary and Phantom Lady, as opposed to the Charlton character Nightshade.

Captain Metropolis

Nelson Gardner, an ex-Marine Lieutenant, was one of the more active proponents of The Minutemen group; he suggested that a collaboration of forces would be the most effective way to fight crime. "Social ills" motivate him to fight crime. However, what he defines as a "social ill", for example anti-war demonstrations, promiscuity, and "Black Unrest" show that his motivations for changing the world are selfish, or at least conservative, rather than pro bono publico, although he insists that this isn't true. In 1974, he is decapitated in a car accident according to Rorschach's diary.

He was also involved in a homosexual relationship with Hooded Justice, thus necessitating a need for Sally Jupiter (Silk Spectre I) and Hooded Justice's very public (but sham) relationship as a cover story to avoid any public suspicion of a relationship which would surely damage the image of The Minutemen.

Hooded Justice

An extremely large, imposing figure, Hooded Justice, whose real identity is not revealed in Watchmen but who some claim is ex-circus strongman Rolf Müller, was the first of the costumed vigilantes. His brutality towards criminals rivaled that of Rorschach. It is implied that he was in fact a homosexual. Hooded Justice interferes with The Comedian’s attempt to rape Silk Spectre I, punching The Comedian. Sally Jupiter, or Silk Spectre I, posed as his girlfriend, but this was a sham relationship set-up to avoid anti-homosexual sentiments against The Minutemen. The exchange between Hooded Justice and The Comedian puts a different slant on Hooded Justice's motives for becoming a costumed adventurer, than pure public spirit.

Hooded Justice vanished when The Minutemen were questioned by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and was never seen again. There is speculation that he was killed by The Comedian, the results of the grudge that The Comedian held against him for interfering with his rape of Sally Jupiter.

Mothman

Something of a minor character, Byron Lewis was one of the costumed adventurers that appeared after the appearance of Hooded Justice. Lewis used special wings to glide in the air while battling crime. Lewis was frightened by the idea of the second World War. Lewis was one of the four Minutemen to remain on the team even after the deaths of Dollar Bill and the Silhouette, the Comedian's removal and the Silk Spectre's retirement.

Lewis was investigated by HUAC, and had difficulty clearing his name due to several left-wing friends. The pressure from these investigations is considered to have precipitated his alcoholism and the subsequent mental health problems that eventually consigned him to a sanatorium. He is not a main focus of the storyline, but appears in flashbacks, at one point reduced in his later years to fragile sanity, unnerving the second Silk Spectre. He is regarded fondly by most of the Minutemen, and the first Nite Owl sends the second to visit him, uncostumed, on his behalf. The character of Mothman seems to be very loosely based on Hawkman and take his background story from the actual Mothman.

Dollar Bill

Dollar Bill was originally a star college athlete from Kansas who was actually employed as an in-house super-hero by one of the major, but unnamed, national banks. While attempting to stop a raid upon one of his employer's banks, his cloak became entangled in the bank's revolving door and he was shot dead at point blank range before he could free it. In "Under the Hood", Hollis Mason's tell-all book, he described Dollar Bill as an honest, friendly young man, and rues the stupidity of capes because of this. Interestingly enough, Dollar Bill's clear commercial motivations (public identity, hired by a bank) are never commented on by his peers or the subsequent generation of vigilantes who all seem to regard him as a worthy hero - even Rorschach, who condemns Ozymandias for his commercialization, laments Dollar Bill's untimely death.

In the movie The Specials, the character of U.S. Bill was originally called Dollar Bill. However, DC would not allow the use of the name for a superhero character.

Silhouette

Ursula Zandt became a crimefighter in 1939, and subsequently joined the Minutemen. In 1946 she was expelled from the group when it was publicly revealed that she was a lesbian; six weeks later she and her lover were killed by an adversary seeking revenge. A Jew who left Austria due to the rise of Nazism, she caused Sally Jupiter annoyance by referring to her Polish origins; Jupiter often denied her upbringing in Poland. Along with Mothman, she is one of the Minutemen about whom little is known.

From Wikipedia

Watchmen

2008-10-29T08:50:00.005+07:00

Watchmen is a twelve-issue comic book limited series created by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins. The series was published by DC Comics in single issue during 1986 and 1987, and has been subsequently reprinted in collected form.
Watchmen received a Hugo Award in the Other Forms category in 1988

The Plot
In October 1985, New York City police are investigating the murder of Edward Blake. With the police having no leads, costumed vigilante Rorschach decides to probe further. Discovering Blake to be the face behind the Comedian, a costumed hero employed by the United States government, Rorschach believes he has discovered a plot to eliminate costumed adventurers and sets about warning four of his retired comrades, Dan Dreiberg (formerly Nite Owl), the super-powered and emotionally detached Doctor Manhattan and his lover Laurie Juspeczyk (the second Silk Spectre), and Adrian Veidt (once the hero Ozymandias and now the world's richest man).

After Blake's funeral, Doctor Manhattan is accused on national television of being a carcinogenic threat to friends and colleagues. When the U.S. government takes the accusations seriously, Manhattan instead exiles himself to Mars. In doing so he throws humanity into political turmoil, with the Soviet Union invading Afghanistan to capitalize on perceived American weakness. Rorschach's paranoid beliefs appear vindicated when Adrian Veidt narrowly survives an assassination attempt, and Rorschach himself is framed for murder and arrested.

Jaded with her relationship and no longer kept on retainer by the government, Juspeczyk stays with Dan Dreiberg. Dreiberg and Juspeczyk don their costumes as they grow closer together. With Dreiberg starting to believe some aspects of Rorschach's conspiracy theory, the pair take it upon themselves to free him from prison. Doctor Manhattan, after analyzing his own personal history, places the fate of his involvement with human affairs in Laurie's hands. He teleports her to Mars to make the case for emotional investment. During the course of the argument, Juspeczyk is forced to come to terms with the fact that Blake was her biological father, the discovery of which re-engages Doctor Manhattan's interest in humanity.

On Earth, Nite Owl and Rorschach continue to uncover the conspiracy surrounding the death of the Comedian. They discover evidence that their former comrade Adrian Veidt may be behind the plan. Confronting Veidt at his Antarctic retreat, the pair discover the far-reaching implications of the multiple mysteries. Veidt explains his underlying plan is to save humanity from impending nuclear war between the United States and Soviet Union by faking an alien invasion in New York City, which he hopes will unite the nations against a perceived common enemy. Finding his logic callous and abhorrent, Dreiberg and Rorschach attempt to stop him but discover that Veidt has already enacted his plan.

When Doctor Manhattan and Laurie arrive back to Earth, they are confronted by mass destruction and wide scale death in New York City. Doctor Manhattan notices his abilities are limited by tachyons emanating from the Antarctic, and the pair teleport there. They discover Veidt's involvement and confront him. Veidt shows everyone news broadcasts confirming the cessation of global hostilities, leading almost all present to agree that concealing the truth from the public is in the best interests of the world. Rorschach refuses to compromise and leaves, intent on revealing the truth. As he is making his way back, he is confronted by Manhattan. Rorschach tells Mahattan to kill him, and he is vaporized by the super-powered being. Dreiberg and Juspeczyk go into hiding under new identities, while Veidt asks Manhattan if he did the right thing in the end. Manhattan responds with "Nothing ever ends" before leaving Earth.

From Wikipedia

Norman Bates

2008-10-27T07:30:00.004+07:00

Portrayed by Anthony Perkins (Psycho, 1960)

Fictional character created by writer Robert Bloch as the central character in his novel Psycho. The character is based on real-life serial killer Ed Gein.
The characterization of Bates in the novel and the movie differ in some key areas. In the novel, Bates is in his mid-to-late 40s, short, overweight, homely, and more overtly unstable. In the movie, he is in his early-to-mid-20s, tall, slender, and handsome. Reportedly, when working on the film, Hitchcock decided that he wanted audiences to be able to sympathize with Bates and genuinely like the character, so he made him more of a "boy next door." In the novel, Norman becomes Mother after getting drunk and passing out; in the movie, he consumes no alcohol before switching personalities.

Both the novel and Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film adaptation explain that Bates suffers severe emotional abuse as a child at the hands of his mother, Norma, who preaches to him that women and sex are evil. The two of them live alone together in an unhealthy state of emotional dependence after the death of Bates's father. When Bates is a teenager, his mother takes a lover, thereby making him insanely jealous. Bates then murders both of them with strychnine and preserves his mother's corpse. Bates develops dissociative identity disorder, assuming his mother's personality, repressing her death as a way to escape the guilt of murdering her. He inherits his mother's house, where he keeps her corpse, and the family motel in Fairvale, California.

Bloch sums up Bates' multiple personalities in his stylistic form of puns: As "Norman" Bates, the little boy, he is dominated by his mother, and has to do whatever she tells him. As "Norma" Bates, he dresses in her clothes, mimics her voice, and kills anyone who threatens to come between her and her "Norman," especially attractive young women. As "Normal" Bates, he is a (barely) functioning adult who runs the business of the motel and keeps peace between the other two personalities.

Norman is finally arrested after he murders a young woman named Mary Crane (called Marion Crane in the film) and Milton Arbogast, a private investigator sent to look for her. Bates is declared insane and sent to an institution, where the "mother" personality completely takes hold; he completely becomes his mother.

Bates dies in Bloch's 1982 sequel to his novel.

Taken from Wikipedia

Romeo and Juliet

2008-10-27T07:27:00.000+07:00

Romeo
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

Juliet
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene V

King Kong Roar

2008-10-27T07:21:00.000+07:00

King Kong's (2005) roar is a lion's roar played backwards at half speed

Kakushi-toride no san-akunin (Akira Kurosawa) in Star Wars movie

2008-10-25T16:13:00.003+07:00

C-3PO and R2-D2 are derived from the characters of Matakishi and Taihei, two farmers/ne'er-do-wells Mifune's character, a samurai general, conscripted to help ferry his princess out of enemy territory. Two characters in the Japanese film were split to produce four in "Star Wars": aspects of Toshirô Mifune's samurai character became Ben Kenobi and Han Solo; and aspects of the Princess's character became Luke and Leia.

The Crew of USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

2008-10-25T16:02:00.001+07:00

Role	Position	Rank
James T. Kirk	Commanding officer of the Starship Enterprise.	Captain
Spock	Science officer and second-in-command	Lieutenant Commander/Commander
Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy	Chief medical officer	Lieutenant Commander
Montgomery "Scotty" Scott	Chief Engineer and third-in-command	Lieutenant Commander
Nyota Uhura	Communications officer	Lieutenant
Hikaru Sulu	Helmsman	Lieutenant
Pavel Andreievich Chekov	Navigator	Ensign
Janice Rand	Captain's yeoman	Yeoman
Christine Chapel	Head nurse	Lieutenant

Wall-E = Apple

2008-10-25T15:35:00.002+07:00

When WALL-E is fully charged by the sun, he makes the same "boot up" sound that most of Apple's Macintosh computers have made since circa 1996.
WALL-E watches his favorite movie every night on the screen of an iPod
The villainous Autopilot's voice is provided by Apple's text-to-speech system, MacinTalk
EVE's sleek design as an evolution of WALL-E's parallels the sleek iMac design having evolved from the boxy, beige Apple IIe.
Steve Jobs, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Apple Computer, was CEO of Pixar until its acquisition by Disney in 2005, and as a shareholder and member of the Disney Board of Directors is still actively involved with the company.

The Sound of Lightsaber

2008-10-25T15:27:00.003+07:00

The sound of lightsaber in Star Wars was created by mixing the humming sound of TV set - tuned between channels - with the sound of an old 35mm projector.

Zecharia Sitchin

2008-10-24T15:54:00.001+07:00

Sitchin was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, and was raised in Palestine. He acquired some knowledge of modern and ancient Hebrew, other Semitic and European languages, the Old Testament, and the history and archeology of the Near East. Sitchin graduated from the London School of Economics, University of London, majoring in economic history. A journalist and editor in Israel for many years, he now lives and writes in New York City. His books have been widely translated, converted to braille for the blind, and featured on radio and television.

According to Sitchin's interpretation of Sumerian cosmology, there is a undiscovered planet which follows a long, elliptical orbit, reaching the inner solar system roughly every 3,600 years. This planet is called Nibiru (the planet associated with Marduk in Babylonian cosmology). According to Sitchin, Nibiru collided catastrophically with Tiamat, another supposed planet located by Sitchin between Mars and Jupiter. This collision supposedly formed the planet Earth, the asteroid belt, and the comets. Tiamat, as outlined in the Enûma Elish, is a goddess. According to Sitchin, however, Tiamat was what is now known as Earth. When struck by one of planet Nibiru's moons, Tiamat split in two. On a second pass Nibiru itself struck the broken fragments and one half of Tiamat became the asteroid belt. The second half, struck again by one of Nibiru's moons, was pushed into a new orbit and became today's planet Earth.

This scenario is hard to reconcile with the Earth's current small orbital eccentricity of only 0.0167. Sitchin's supporters maintain that it would explain Earth's peculiar early geography due to cleaving from the celestial collision, i.e., solid continents on one side and a giant ocean on the other. While this is consistent with the giant impact hypothesis for the origin of the moon, that event is estimated to have occurred 4.5 billion years ago.

The scenario outlined by Sitchin, with Nibiru returning to the inner solar system regularly every 3,600 years, implies an orbit with a semi-major axis of 235 Astronomical Units, extending from the asteroid belt to twelve times farther beyond the sun than Pluto. "Elementary perturbation theory indicates that, under the most favorable circumstances of avoiding close encounters with other planets, no body with such an eccentric orbit would keep the same period for two consecutive passages. Within twelve orbits the object would be either ejected or converted to a short period object. Thus, the search for a trans-Plutonian planet by T.C. Van Flandern of the U.S. Naval Observatory, which Sitchin uses to bolster his thesis, is no support at all."^[3]^[4]

Sitchin's theory "posits that, from an equal start, the Nefilim evolved on Nibiru 45 million years ahead of comparable development on Earth with its decidedly more favorable environment. Such an outcome is unlikely, to say the least, since Nibiru would spend over 99% of its time beyond Pluto. Sitchin's explanation that heat from radioactive decay and a thick atmosphere keep Nibiru warm is absurd and does not address the problem of darkness in deep space. Also unexplained is how the Nefilim, who evolved long after Nibiru arrived, knew what happened when Nibiru first entered the solar system."^[5]

According to Sitchin, Nibiru was the home of a technologically advanced human-like extraterrestrial race called the Anunnaki in Sumerian myth, who Sitchin states are called the Nephilim in the Bible. He claims they first arrived on Earth probably 450,000 years ago, looking for minerals, especially gold, which they found and mined in Africa. These "gods" were the rank and file workers of the colonial expedition to Earth from planet Nibiru. Sitchin believes the Anunnaki genetically engineered Homo sapiens as slave creatures to work their gold mines by crossing extraterrestrial genes with those of Homo erectus. Sitchin claims ancient inscriptions report that human civilization in Sumer of Mesopotamia was set up under the guidance of these "gods", and human kingship was inaugurated to provide intermediaries between mankind and the Anunnaki. Sitchin believes that fallout from nuclear weapons used during a war between factions of the extraterrestrials is the "evil wind" that destroyed Ur around 2000 BC (Sitchin claims the exact year is 2024 BC), described in the Lament for Ur.^[6] Sitchin claims that his research coincides with many biblical texts, and that biblical texts come originally from Sumerian writings.

Taken deom Wikipedia

Nibiru

2008-10-24T15:51:00.004+07:00

In recent years, the work of Zecharia Sitchin has garnered much attention among ufologists, ancient astronaut theorists and conspiracy theorists. He claims to have uncovered, through his own retranslations of Sumerian texts, evidence that the human race was visited by a group of extraterrestrials from a distant planet in our own Solar System. Part of his theory lies in an astronomical interpretation of the Babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish, in which he replaces the names of gods with hypothetical planets. However, since the principal evidence for Sitchin's claims lies in his own personally derived etymologies and not on any scholarly agreed interpretations (including scholars among the Sumerians themselves), his theories remain at most pseudoscience to the vast majority, if not the totality, of academics.

^[1]

Sitchin's theory proposes the planets Tiamat and Nibiru. Tiamat supposedly existed between Mars and Jupiter. He postulated that it was a thriving world in a much differently shaped solar system, with jungles and oceans, whose orbit was disrupted by the arrival of a large planet or very small star (less than twenty times the size of Jupiter) which passed through the solar system between 65 million and four billion years ago. The new orbits caused Tiamat to collide with one of the moons of this object, which is known as Nibiru. The debris from this collision are thought by the theory's proponents to have variously formed the asteroid belt, the moon, and the current incarnation of the planet Earth.

Beginning in 1995, websites such as ZetaTalk have identified Nibiru or "Planet X" as a large brown dwarf currently within our planetary system, soon to pass relatively close to Earth. Sitchin disagrees with the timing of passage.^[2]

To the Babylonians, Nibiru was the celestial body or region sometimes associated with the god Marduk. The word is Akkadian and the meaning is uncertain. Because of this, the hypothetical planet Nibiru is sometimes also referred to as Marduk. Sitchin hypothesizes it as a planet in a highly elliptic orbit around the Sun, with a perihelion passage some 3,600 years ago and assumed orbital period of about 3,750 years; he also claims it was the home of a technologically advanced human-like alien race, the Anunnaki, who visited Earth in search of gold.

Taken from Wikipedia

Di Balik Minuman Isotonik

2008-10-24T14:59:00.002+07:00

Oleh Lusiana Indriasari

Minuman isotonik semakin gencar menyerbu pasaran. Melalui iklan, produk ini dicitrakan mampu mengganti cairan tubuh yang hilang dalam waktu singkat. Di balik kesan kesegarannya, minuman isotonik dapat berbahaya apabila dikonsumsi sembarangan.

Sebuah iklan minuman isotonik di televisi mengatakan, ion di dalam isotonik mampu menjaga kelembapan kulit dan tubuh lebih baik daripada air biasa. Iklan lain menyebutkan, kehilangan dua persen cairan tubuh akan menurunkan stamina dan konsentrasi.

Dosen pada Departemen Ilmu dan Teknologi Pangan Institut Pertanian Bogor, Fransiska Rungkat Zakaria, mengatakan, iklan produk isotonik sebagian menyesatkan masyarakat.

Di iklan, seolah-olah isotonik bisa diminum siapa saja dan dalam kondisi apa saja. Padahal, Fransiska mengingatkan, isotonik tidak bisa dikonsumsi sembarangan karena minuman ini mengandung garam natrium (NaCl).

”Coba perhatikan labelnya, pasti ada kandungan Na dan Cl nya,” tutur Fransiska. Ia menambahkan, minuman isotonik itu tidak lain adalah larutan garam. Oleh produsennya, larutan itu kemudian diberi tambahan zat lain, seperti vitamin.

Ion yang disebut-sebut sangat bermanfaat bagi tubuh sebenarnya juga tidak hanya terkandung pada isotonik. Setiap garam yang dilarutkan dalam air, kata Fransiska, pasti akan berubah menjadi ion Na dan ion Cl. ”Jadi, ion yang terkandung dalam sayur lodeh dengan ion dalam isotonik itu sama saja,” tutur Fransiska.

Karena berisi garam, isotonik tidak boleh diminum sembarangan. Apabila berlebihan, kadar garam dalam tubuh akan menyebabkan tekanan darah tinggi atau hipertensi. ”Bila sudah kena hipertensi, tinggal menunggu saja bagian tubuh mana yang jebol duluan,” kata Fransiska.

Dari makanan

Apabila tubuh kita berkeringat, natrium dan klorida yang terkandung dalam cairan tubuh ikut keluar melalui pori-pori kulit. Jika kedua zat itu tidak digantikan, sel-sel tubuh kita lama-lama akan rusak dan mati.

Persoalannya, dari manakah zat natrium dan klorida itu diperoleh? Apakah harus dari minuman isotonik? Jawabannya, tidak.

Menurut Fransiska, makanan yang kita konsumsi sehari-hari sudah cukup untuk menggantikan natrium dan klorida yang keluar bersama keringat. ”Setiap kali masak, kita selalu menggunakan garam. Itu sudah cukup untuk mengganti garam yang keluar dari tubuh. Bahkan berlebih,” papar Fransiska.

Ia mengingatkan, dalam kondisi normal, tubuh orang dewasa hanya memerlukan 2,3 gram natrium per hari, sedangkan klorida hanya 50-100 mg. Pada anak-anak, kebutuhan dua zat itu lebih sedikit dibandingkan dengan orang dewasa.

Apabila kita memasak tanpa garam, kebutuhan natrium dan klorida juga sudah bisa dipenuhi dari bahan makanan. Ia mencontohkan, 1 ons daging merah mengandung 70 mg natrium, sementara setiap 10 ons nasi mengandung 10 mg natrium.

Bahan makanan lain, seperti telur, daging ayam, kacang-kacangan, buah, dan sayur, juga mengandung natrium. ”Karena itu, pada kondisi normal, kita tidak perlu lagi mengganti cairan tubuh dengan isotonik,” kata Fransiska.

Fransiska mengingatkan, isotonik lebih cocok dikonsumsi atlet yang menggeluti olahraga berat. Pada atlet olahraga berat, kebutuhan sodium memang lebih tinggi dari orang biasa, yaitu 5-7 gram per hari.

Meski begitu, sebaiknya dihitung lebih dulu apakah natrium dan klorida yang dibutuhkan atlet bersangkutan sudah cukup didapat dari makanan yang dikonsumsi. Bila masih kurang, boleh saja ditambah dengan isotonik.

Di negara maju, kata Fransiska, ada lembaga yang meneliti dan menghitung berapa jumlah natrium pada makanan yang dikonsumsi atlet. Hasilnya, menu makanan yang dihidangkan tiga kali sehari itu sudah mengandung 6 gram natrium.

Mengecoh

Meski isotonik tidak boleh dikonsumsi sembarangan, beberapa iklan produk isotonik justru memakai model orang biasa (bukan atlet) sebagai konsumen isotonik. Minuman isotonik itu juga ditenggak pada kondisi biasa saja, seperti terjebak macet yang tidak selalu identik dengan keluarnya ion-ion tubuh secara berlebihan. Bahkan disebutkan, tanpa menyebut kondisinya, isotonik lebih baik dari air biasa.

Menurut Fransiska, iklan semacam itu sangat menyesatkan masyarakat. Produsen boleh saja menarik pembeli dengan iklan yang kreatif, tetapi dalam iklan juga harus dicantumkan informasi yang jelas, bukan informasi menyesatkan.

Produsen seharusnya juga mencantumkan peringatan minuman itu mengandung garam. Agar konsumen bisa mengambil keputusan terbaik, harus disebutkan pula berapa jumlah garam yang dibutuhkan manusia per harinya.

”Memang produsen akan ribut. Kalau label itu diberlakukan, produk mereka tidak akan laku. Meski demikian, jangan karena kepentingan ekonomi, kesehatan masyarakat dipertaruhkan,” kata Fransiska. Jadi, meski kelihatannya menyegarkan, hati-hati bila ingin mengonsumsi isotonik.

Taken from Kompas

The Godfather Family Tree (II)

2008-10-24T13:52:00.003+07:00

Taken from thegodfathertrilogy

The Godfather Family Tree (I)

2008-10-24T13:46:00.005+07:00

The Family

Vito Corleone — Father; Don from 1931 to 1946 & 1948 to 1950
Carmella Corleone — Mother.
Santino 'Sonny' Corleone — Eldest son; Underboss to Don Vito acting Don from 1946 to 1948.
- Kathryn & Francesca Corleone — Sonny's daughters, born in 1937.
- Frank Corleone — Sonny's elder son, born in 1940.
- Santino Corleone Jr. — Sonny's younger son, born in 1945
Frederico 'Fredo' Corleone — Middle son.
Michael Corleone — Youngest son; Don from 1950 - 1980.
- Anthony Corleone — Son of Michael Corleone.
- Mary Corleone — Daughter of Michael Corleone;
Constanzia 'Connie' Corleone-Rizzi — Daughter.
- Victor Rizzi — Connie's elder son, born in 1949.
- Michael Francis Rizzi — Connie's younger son, born in 1954;
Tom Hagen — Adopted son; Consigliere to Vito and Michael acting Don from 1958 to 1959.
- Frank Hagen — Elder son of Tom Hagen
- Andrew Hagen — Younger son of Tom Hagen,
- Unnamed Hagen daughters — Youngest children of Tom Hagen
Kay Adams — Wife of Michael Corleone.
Vincent Mancini-Corleone — Illegitimate son of Sonny Corleone Don from 1980 to present.
Johnny Fontane — Godson to Vito Corleone.

The Dons

Vito Corleone: 1919 - 1946
Sonny Corleone: (Acting Don) 1946 - 1948
Vito Corleone: 1948 - 1950
Michael Corleone: (Acting Don) 1950 - 1955
Michael Corleone: 1955 - 1958
Tom Hagen: (Acting Don) 1958 - 1959
Michael Corleone: 1959 - 1980
Vincent Mancini-Corleone: 1980 - 2005

The Underbosses

Sonny Corleone: 1946 - 1948
Fredo Corleone: 1955 - 1959
Al Neri: 1959 - 1980

The Consiglieres

Genco Abbandando: 1931 - 1945
Tom Hagen: 1945 - 1950, 1955-1964
Vito Corleone: 1950 - 1955
B.J. Harrison: 1964 - 1980

The Capos

Peter Clemenza 1931 - 1957
Salvatore Tessio 1931 - 1955
Sonny Corleone 1936 - 1946
Rocco Lampone 1955 - 1959
Al Neri 1955 - 1959
Frank Pentangeli 1957 - 1959

The Soldiers

Al Neri 1945 - 1955 Soldier in Clemenza Crew
Rocco Lampone 1945 - 1955 Soldier in Clemenza Crew
Willie Cicci Unk. - 1959
Paulie Gatto Unk. - 1945
Luca Brasi Unk. - 1945 Soldier in Clemenza Crew
Frank Pentangeli Unk. - 1957

Taken from Wikipedia

My beloved wife and daughter

2008-10-24T13:24:00.001+07:00

Marcus Aurelius - Gladiator

2008-10-24T10:37:00.002+07:00

Your faults as a son is my failure as a father

The 8 Things I’m Sick Of Seeing In Movies

2008-10-24T10:25:00.001+07:00

Cliches… Formulas… whatever terminology you like to call them by, there are certain repeated patterns in films that we’ve all seen a thousands times. Some of those Formulas are fine. For example, the mom who loves her kids… that’s not a stretch and we expect it in normal life, so we expect no less in a movie. However, there are other formulas in films that would have you and I believe they are the norm in real life… when they really aren’t. These can be fine too and not irritate us… but then there are these cliches that I really get sick off and wish more films would avoid.

So now I present to you, in no particular order, the 8 things I’m sick of seeing in movies:

1 - The current boyfriend/husband of the main character’s would be love interest is a total jerk

THE CLICHE: You know what I’m talking about. The “hero” of the film loves a girl, but the girl has a boyfriend. Already you know there is a 97% chance that this boyfriend will end up being a total dick. He yells at her, demeans her, doesn’t respect her. You can’t imagine why on earth she’s with him in the first place… but whatever the reason it doesn’t matter, because you know she’s going to end up with the hero in the end anyway when she finally sees the jerk in question for what he is, and leaves him for the hero.

THE REALITY: Yeah, that girl you dig… well her boyfriend 9 times out of 10 is better looking, funnier, smarter, richer and all round a better person that you… loser.

2 - If a fight breaks out in a bar/restaurnt, EVERYONE will jump in

THE CLICHE: Almost without exception, if two people start fighting in a bar or restaurant in a movie, everyone else will join in. Hell, they’ll start swinging at each other for no good reason other than the fact that a couple of other guys seem to be doing. Chalk it up to bar peer pressure I guess.

THE REALITY: I’ve seen my fair share of fights break out at clubs/bars. Not once have I ever seen it get beyond a couple of people before the bouncers end up kicking their drunk asses than throwing them the hell out

3 - No spunk after the hump

THE CLICHE: Ok, I don’t mean to sound vulgar or anything (I usually leave that to Doug) but we’ve all seen this a hundred times in movies and we all collectively say under our breath “yeah right”. A couple at some sort of public function or fancy dinner quickly ducks behind a wall, or into another room for a quicky. They go at it practically fully clothed and when they’re “done” they just take a couple of deep breaths, run their fingers through their hair and then return to join the other guests as if nothing happened.

THE REALITY: Sex makes a mess… I’ll just leave it at that.

4 - Terrorists are always considerate enough to have large built in digital count down clocks in their explosives so the hero can know exactly how much time he/she has left

NO FUTHER EXPLANATION NEEDED

5 - Shot in the shoulder? No problem!

THE CLICHE: Usually in action flicks, the hero will take a bullet. But fortunately it didn’t hit his face, or his heart. Usually it’s the shoulder or leg or something like that. When this happens, the hero grimaces for a few moments, then the goes on fighting.

THE REALITY: Guess what. When you’re shot in the leg, you don’t walk anymore. You don’t walk with a limp, or just slowed down… you don’t walk PERIOD. Got shot in the shoulder? Yeah, you can’t throw punches anymore. Every time you even think about breathing you scream like a little girl.

6 - Everyone everywhere knows Morse Code

7 - I know you’re about to say something important, but let me interrupt you with unrelated information that will unwittingly douse what you were about to say

THE CLICHE: Son is out to dinner with his parents and has built up the courage to tell them that he’s gay. He says “Mom, Dad… I want you to know I love you, and that’s why I’ve decided to tell you this very important thing about myself and my life…” The dad suddenly cuts in “Before you go on Nick, have I told you how much I hate fags recently?” Son then changes topics and pretends like the news he was about to give was about a car or something else. This is also done with girl trying to tell boyfriend she’s pregnant. Boy trying to tell girl pal he loves her. The combinations are endless.

THE REALITY: The human race are a bunch of inconsiderate animals… but generally I’ve always found when I say “I’ve got something important to say” and then start telling them what it is… no one has ever suddenly cut me off to mention something totally unrelated.

8 - Delayed information equals certain death

THE CLICHE: Two people are talking in a perfectly good spot when person “A” says to person “B”: “I’ve got to tell you something that will alter the destiny of the human race”. Person “B” is obviously intrigued and asks what this information is. Then, for NO GOOD REASON person “A” says something like: “Not here… meet me later at this other place”. Sure enough, you know that person “A” will be killed before he can ever tell his secret.

THE REALITY: Someone says they know something important… then I’m getting them to tell me right then and there.

Taken from themovieblog

Lost Connection

2008-10-24T09:38:00.005+07:00

Dedicate to Lost fans

Taken from Lostpedia

List of evolved humans

2008-10-24T08:52:00.006+07:00

Dedicate to Heroes fans

Taken from Heroes-wiki

Name	Ability	Location	Sources
A Acerra, Felipe (deceased)	Phasing	180 Normandie St.	The List, The Map
Agent	Electromagnetism	Unknown	Walls, Part 1
Agent	Enhanced speed	Unknown	Walls, Part 1
Andrews, Charlie (deceased)	Enhanced memory	Midland, TX	The List, Seven Minutes to Midnight
Aswan, Abu	Levitation	1428 Sabah, N Ave. Cairo, Egypt	The List, The Map, History of a Secret
Au Co (deceased)	Plant growth	Au Co, Vietnam	War Buddies, Part 4
B Bahn, Lukas	Evolved human detection	Washington, DC	Assignment tracker map
Bailey, Bridget (deceased)	Clairsentience	London	BBC Two Suresh Emails, Heroes Evolutions
Bennet, Claire	Rapid cell regeneration	Odessa, TX, Costa Verde, CA	Genesis
Berman, David	Unknown	New York, NY	The List
Betty (Candice Willmer, Michelle) (deceased)	Illusion	Clayton, NY	The List, Company Man, Betty, Part 1
Bevington, Byron	Precognition	Marshfield, VT	The List, The Map
Bishop, Bob (deceased)	Alchemy	Unknown	Four Months Later...
Bishop, Elle	Lightning	Unknown	Fight or Flight
Brooks, Felicia (deceased)	Disintegration touch	Hartsdale, NY	Donna's Big Date, Part 2
Burton, Penkala	Unknown	12 Marshy Lane, Albert Lea, MN	The List, The Map
Buzzetti, Daniel	Unknown	Greely, CO	The List
C Canfield, Stephen (deceased)	Gravitational manipulation	Unknown	Angels and Monsters
Cavanaugh, Frank (deceased)	Unknown	Unknown	The List, The Map
Chobham, Tracy	Teleportation	4 Pear Lane, Frostburg, MD	The List, The Map
"Crane boy"	Unknown	Boise, ID	Five Years Gone
"The Constrictor" (deceased)	Constriction	Los Angeles, CA	Going Postal, Part 1
"The Croatian"	Weather control	Unknown	Faces, Part 1
Cushing, Leonard (deceased)	Acid secretion	Mesa, AZ, Las Vegas, NV	Trust Issues, Part 1
D Datre, Nicholas (deceased)	Unknown	Unknown	The List
David (deceased)	Unknown	Chicago, IL	Turning Point
Davis, Brian (deceased)	Telekinesis	New York, NY	Six Months Ago
Dawson, Monica	Adoptive muscle memory	New Orleans, LA	The Kindness of Strangers
DeMille, Echo	Sound manipulation	Los Angeles, CA	A Nifty Trick
Dowland, Arthur	Unknown	Unknown	The Map
Drucker, Richard (deceased)	Electronic communication	Holland, Argentina, and Paro, Bhutan	The Last Shangri-La, Heroes Evolutions
Dumont, Julien (deceased)	Cloning	Hartsdale, NY	Root and Branch, Part 1
Dunlap, Donna (deceased)	Telescopic vision	Baltimore, MD, Hartsdale, NY	Donna's Big Date, Part 1
E Ellis, Sarah (Eden McCain) (deceased)	Persuasion	Utah, Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY	Don't Look Back
Evan	Cloning	Port Arlesburgh	Revolutionary War, Part 1
F Ferguson, Robert	Size alteration	Alexandria, LA	Assignment tracker map
Finder, Rebecca	Unknown	Unknown	The Map
Fletcher, Harry ¹ (deceased)	Unknown	New York, NY	The List, The Map
Flint	Pyrokinesis	Unknown	The Second Coming
Franklin, Benjamin (deceased)	Electrical absorption	Philadelphia, PA	A Lesson in Electricity
Fusor's accomplice (deceased)	Dehydration	France	Golden Handshake, Part 2
G Garcia, Manuel (deceased)	Teleportation	Levittown, NY	Faces, Part 1
The German (deceased)	Magnetism	New York, NY	Assignment Tracker 2.0
Gitelman, Hana (deceased)	Digital communication	Israel and Missoula, MT	Wireless, Part 1, Unexpected
Gordon, Meredith	Pyrokinesis	Kermit, TX	The Fix
Gramble, Paula ¹ (deceased)	Unknown	Monteith, IA	The List
Gray, Gabriel (Sylar)	Intuitive aptitude (See also: power theft)	New York, NY	One Giant Leap
Green, Pam ²	Unknown	Unknown	The List, The Map
Grigsby, Howard	Luminescence	Peach Pit, GA	Blindsided
Guyanan Local	Unidentified	Guyana	The Kill Squad, Part 3
Guillame (deceased)	Bliss and horror	Haiti	It Takes a Village, Part 1
H The Haitian	Mental manipulation	Haiti and Odessa, TX	One Giant Leap
Halebi, Amid ³	Induced radioactivity	Los Angeles, CA	The List, The Map
Harding, Paul (deceased)	Hair manipulation	Washington, DC	Assignment tracker map
Hawkins, D.L. (deceased)	Phasing	Las Vegas, NV	The List, Hiros
Hawkins, Paulette (deceased)	Ability augmentation	Las Vegas, NV	The Kill Squad, Part 3
Herrera, Alejandro (deceased)	Alejandro's ability	Dominican Republic	Maya y Alejandro, Lizards
Herrera, Maya	Poison emission	Dominican Republic	Maya y Alejandro, Lizards
Hovsepian, Curtis	Unknown	Grant Pass, OR	The List
I Iyer, Sanjog	Dream manipulation	Chennai, India	Seven Minutes to Midnight
K Karina, Bianca (deceased)	Lung adaptation	Hartsdale, NY	Root and Branch, Part 1
Khufu (deceased)	Levitation	Egypt	History of a Secret
Khufu's kin (deceased)	Levitation	Egypt	History of a Secret
Kimball, Ethan (deceased)	Unknown	Unknown	The List
L LaCarte, Elena	Unknown	Unknown	The Map
Landers, Joe (deceased)	Unknown	Unknown	The Map ³
Landers, Sue	Unknown	Unknown	The List
Lewis, Brendan (deceased)	Plant mimicry	Silver River, WV	The Kill Squad, Part 1
Linderman, Daniel (deceased)	Healing	Las Vegas, NV	War Buddies, Part 2
"Liquid man"	Water mimicry	Odessa, Ukraine	Team Building Exercise
Logan, Connie (deceased)	Appearance alteration	Hartsdale, NY	Faces, Part 1
M Maarten	Pyrokinesis	Odessa, Ukraine	Team Building Exercise
Manhattan target	Nerve gas emission	New York, NY	Faces, Part 1
Marcus	Crumpling	Arizona	Normal Lives
Mellouk, Samir	Phasing	Paris, France	Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration, Part 1
Mendez, Isaac (deceased)	Precognition	New York, NY	The List, Genesis
Menzies, Noel (deceased)	Unknown	Unknown	The List
Michael (deceased)	Laser emission	Southern CA	Doyle
Middle school boy	Deoxygenation	Santa Cruz, CA	Five Years Gone
Millbrook, Daphne	Super speed	Paris, France	Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration, Part 1
Monroe, Adam	Rapid cell regeneration	England, Japan	Lizards
Murphy, Jess (deceased)	Unknown	Unknown	The List
Murphy, Jesse (deceased)	Sound manipulation	New York, NY	The Butterfly Effect
N Nakamura, Hiro	Space-time manipulation	Tokyo, Japan	The List, Genesis
Neuenberg, Matt (deceased)	Enhanced memory	St. Louis, MO	The Man with Too Much Brains
P Parkman, Matt	Telepathy	Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY	The List, Don't Look Back
Parkman, Maury	Telepathy	Philadelphia, PA	Fight or Flight
Petrelli, Angela	Precognitive dreaming	New York, NY	The Second Coming
Petrelli, Nathan	Flight (synthetic)	New York, NY	The List, Genesis
Petrelli, Peter	Empathic mimicry	New York, NY	Genesis
Pham, Teresa Hue	Unknown	Shreveport, LA	The List
Pinkham, Leonie (deceased)	Unknown	Unknown	The List
Piper	Elasticity	Unknown	Different and the Same
R Rains, Claude	Invisibility	New York, NY	Godsend
Redhouse, Sparrow	Unknown	Albuquerque, NM	The List, String Theory
Rosen, West	Flight	Costa Verde, CA	Four Months Later...
Rossling, Albert (deceased)	Weather manipulation	San Diego, CA	Assignment tracker map
S Sanders, Micah	Technopathy	Las Vegas, NV	Nothing to Hide
Sanders, Niki (deceased)	Super strength (synthetic)	Las Vegas, NV	The List, Five Years Gone
Shell, Sebastian (deceased)	Object displacemeet	Beijing, China	Assignment tracker map
Smither, Dale (deceased)	Enhanced hearing	Bozeman, MT	Unexpected
Soo Hoo, Adam	Unknown	Kailua, HI	The List
Sprague, Theodore (deceased)	Induced radioactivity	Los Angeles, CA	Nothing to Hide
Strauss, Tracy	Freezing (synthetic)	Washington, DC	The Second Coming
T Tavara, Linda (deceased)	Aura absorption	Unknown	The List, War Buddies, Part 7
Taylor, Zane (deceased)	Melting	Virginia Beach, VA	Run!
Teenage patient	Electrical absorption	New York, NY	Blackout, Part 1
Traveler	Omnilingualism	Unknown	The Last Shangri-La
Usutu	Precognition	Botswana, Africa	Assignment tracker map
V Valcan, Michelle⁵	Unknown	Unknown	The Map
Valcek, Michelle⁵	Unknown	Saginaw, MI	The List
Vela, Diego⁶ (deceased)	Unknown	Unknown	The List
Ventris, Norman (deceased)	Unknown	Unknown	The List
W Walker, Ida May (deceased)	Mediumship	Unknown	Moonlight Serenade
Walker, James (deceased)	Unknown	Los Angeles, CA	Don't Look Back
Walker, Molly	Clairvoyance	Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY	Five Years Gone
Washington, Benjamin(Knox)	Enhanced strength	Los Angeles, CA	The Second Coming

Quentin Tarantino

2008-10-24T07:22:00.004+07:00

Date of Birth : 27 March 1963, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Birth Name : Quentin Jerome Tarantino
Nickname : QT

In January of 1992 a film titled Reservoir Dogs (1992) hit the Sundance Film festival. The writer-director was a first-timer by the name of Quentin Tarantino. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend in the England, UK and the cult film circuit.

Two years later he followed up 'Dogs' with the film Pulp Fiction (1994). 'Pulp' premiered at the Cannes film festival, where it won the coveted 'Palme D'Or' the virtual equal of the Best Picture at the Academy Awards. At the 1995 Academy Awards, 'Pulp' was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, also for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, among others. Tarantino and writing partner Roger Avary came away with the award only for Best Original Screenplay. In 1995, Tarantino directed one fourth of the Anthology Four Rooms (1995) with friends and fellow auteurs Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, and Allison Anders. That film was released on December 25th in the United States to very weak reviews. This is mainly due to the heavy cutting of the first two segments and the introduction which make much of the plotline unintelligible, and creates a complete mess out of the second segment, directed by Alexandre Rockwell. The best two segments of the film are Robert Rodriguez's and Tarantino's. Tarantino's next film was From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), a crime/vampire film which he wrote and co-starred with George Clooney. The film did fairly well theatrically.

Early Life

Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of Connie Zastoupil (née McHugh), a health care executive and nurse, and Tony Tarantino, an actor and amateur musician born in Queens, New York. Tarantino's father is part Italian American and his mother had part Cherokee Native American ancestry. Dropping out of Narbonne High School in Harbor City, California at the age of 16, he went on to learn acting at the James Best Theatre Company. This proved to be influential in his movie-making career. At the age of 22, he landed a job at the Manhattan Beach Video Archives, a now defunct video rental store in Manhattan Beach, California where he and fellow movie buffs like Roger Avary spent all day discussing and recommending films to customers such as actor Danny Strong.

Film Career

After Tarantino met Lawrence Bender at a Hollywood party, Bender encouraged Tarantino to write a screenplay. In January 1992 Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs hit the Sundance Film festival. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend in the UK and the cult film circuit. Reservoir Dogs was a dialogue-driven heist movie that set the tone for his later films. Tarantino wrote the script in three and a half weeks and Bender forwarded it to director Monte Hellman. Hellman helped Tarantino to secure funding from Richard Gladstein at Live Entertainment (which later became Artisan). Harvey Keitel read the script and also contributed to funding, took a co-producer role, and a part in the movie.
Tarantino's screenplay True Romance was optioned and eventually released in 1993. The second script that Tarantino sold was Natural Born Killers, which was revised by Dave Veloz, Richard Rutowski and director Oliver Stone. Tarantino was given story credit, and wished the film well. Following the success of Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino was approached by Hollywood and offered numerous projects, including Speed and Men in Black. He instead retreated to Amsterdam to work on his script for Pulp Fiction.

After Pulp Fiction he directed episode four of Four Rooms, "The Man from Hollywood", a tribute to the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode that starred Steve McQueen. Four Rooms was a collaborative effort with filmmakers Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, and Robert Rodriguez. The film was very poorly received by critics and audiences. He also starred in and wrote the script for Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn, which saw mixed reviews from the critics yet led to two sequels, for which Tarantino and Rodriguez would only serve as executive producers.

Tarantino's third feature film was Jackie Brown (1997), an adaptation of Rum Punch, a novel by Elmore Leonard. A homage to blaxploitation films, it starred Pam Grier, who starred in many of that genre's films of the 1970s. He had then planned to make the war film provisionally titled Inglorious Bastards, but postponed it to write and direct Kill Bill (released as two films, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2), a highly stylized "revenge flick" in the cinematic traditions of Wuxia (Chinese martial arts), Jidaigeki (Japanese period cinema), Spaghetti Westerns and Italian horror or giallo. It was based on a character (The Bride) and a plot that he and Kill Bill's lead actress, Uma Thurman, had developed during the making of Pulp Fiction. In 2004, Tarantino returned to Cannes where he served as President of the Jury. Kill Bill was not in competition, but it did screen on the final night in its original 3-hour-plus version.

The next project would be Grindhouse, which he co-directed with Rodriguez. Released in theaters on April 6, 2007, Tarantino's contribution to the Grindhouse project was titled Death Proof. It began as a take on 1970s slasher films, but evolved dramatically as the project unfolded. Ticket sales performed significantly below box office analysts' expectations despite mostly positive critic reviews.

Among his current producing credits are the horror flick Hostel (which included numerous references to his own Pulp Fiction), the adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Killshot (for which Tarantino had once written a script) and Hell Ride (written & directed by Kill Bill star Larry Bishop). Tarantino is credited as "Special Guest Director" for his work directing the car sequence between Clive Owen and Benicio del Toro of Robert Rodriguez's 2005 neo-noir film Sin City.

Tarantino has been quoted as saying "When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, 'no, I went to films

Awards

Pulp Fiction won the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the 1994 Cannes film festival. That film earned Tarantino and Roger Avary Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, and was also nominated for Best Picture.

In 2005 Quentin Tarantino won the Icon of the Decade award at the Sony Ericsson Empire Awards.

On August 15, 2007, Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo presented Tarantino with a lifetime achievement award at the Malacañang Palace in Manila.

Filmography

Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Jackie Brown (1997)
Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003)
Kill Bill Volume 2 (2004)
Death Proof (2007)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Taken from imdb and wikipedia

D-Day

2008-10-24T07:12:00.005+07:00

The Normandy Landings were the first operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, also known as Operation Neptune and Operation Overlord, during World War II. D-Day for the operation, postponed 24 hours, became June 6, 1944, H-Hour was 6:30 am. The assault was conducted in two phases: an air assault landing of American and British airborne divisions shortly after midnight, and an amphibious landing of Allied infantry and armoured divisions on the coast of France commencing at 06:30 British Double Summer Time.

It required the transport of soldiers and materiel from the United Kingdom by troop carrying aircraft and ships, the assault landings, air support, naval interdiction of the English Channel and naval fire-support. There were also subsidiary operations to distract the Kriegsmarine and prevent its interference in the landing areas.^[1]

The operation was the largest single-day invasion of all time, with over 130,000 troops landed on June 6, 1944. 195,700 Allied naval and merchant navy personnel were involved.^[2] The landings took place along a stretch of the Normandy coast divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.

Heroes

British Second Army

6th Airborne Division was delivered by parachute and glider to the east of the River Orne to protect the left flank. The division contained 7,900 men, including one Canadian battalion.^[4]^{[page # needed]}
1st Special Service Brigade comprising No. 3, No. 4, No. 6 and No. 45 (RM) Commandos landed at Ouistreham in Queen Red sector (leftmost). No.4 Commando were augmented by 1 and 8 Troop (both French) of No. 10 (Inter Allied) Commando.
I Corps, 3rd Infantry Division and the 27th Armoured Brigade on Sword Beach, from Ouistreham to Lion-sur-Mer.
No. 41 (RM) Commando (part of 4th Special Service Brigade) landed on the far West of Sword Beach.^[5]
3rd Canadian Infantry Division, 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade and No.48 (RM) Commando on Juno Beach, from Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer to Courseulles-sur-Mer.^[4]
No. 46 (RM) Commando (part of 4th Special Service Brigade) at Juno to scale the cliffs on the left side of the Orne River estuary and destroy a battery. (Battery fire proved negligible so No.46 were kept off-shore as a floating reserve and landed on D+1).
XXX Corps, 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division and 8th Armoured Brigade, consisting of 25,000 men landing on Gold Beach,^[6] from Courseulles to Arromanches.
No. 47 (RM) Commando (part of 4th Special Service Brigade) on the West flank of Gold beach.
79th Armoured Division operated specialist armour ("Hobart's Funnies") for mine-clearing, recovery and assault tasks. These were distributed around the Anglo-Canadian beaches.

Overall, the 2nd Army contingent consisted of 83,115 troops (61,715 of them British).^[4] In addition to the British and Canadian combat units, two troops of No. 10 Commando were employed, manned by Frenchmen, and eight Australian officers were attached to the British forces as observers.^[7] The nominally British air and naval support units included a large number of crew from Allied nations, including several RAF squadrons manned almost exclusively by foreign flight crew.

US First Army

V Corps, 1st Infantry Division and 29th Infantry Division making up 34,250 troops for Omaha Beach, from Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes to Vierville-sur-Mer.^[4]^[8]
2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions at Pointe du Hoc (The 5th diverted to Omaha).^[8]
VII Corps, 4th Infantry Division and the 359th RCT of the 90th Infantry Division comprising of 23,250 men landing on Utah Beach, around Pouppeville and La Madeleine.^[8]
101st Airborne Division by parachute around Vierville to support Utah Beach landings.^[8]
82nd Airborne Division by parachute around Sainte-Mère-Église, protecting the right flank. They had originally been tasked with dropping further west, in the middle part of the Cotentin, allowing the sea-landing forces to their east easier access across the peninsula, and preventing the Germans from reinforcing the north part of the peninsula. The plans were later changed to move them much closer to the beachhead, as at the last minute the German 91st Air Landing Division was determined to be in the area.^[9]^[8]

In total, the First Army contingent totalled approximately 73,000 men, including 15,500 from the airborne divisions.

Villains

Atlantic Wall

Standing in the way of the Allies was the English Channel, a crossing which had eluded the Spanish Armada and Napoleon Bonaparte's Navy. Compounding the invasion efforts was the extensive Atlantic Wall, ordered by Hitler in his Directive 51. Believing that any forthcoming landings would be timed for high tide (this caused the landings to be timed for low tide), Rommel had the entire wall fortified with tank top turrets and extensive barbed wire, and laid a million mines to deter landing craft. The sector which was attacked was guarded by four divisions.

Divisional Areas

716th Infantry Division (Static) defended the Eastern end of the landing zones, including most of the British and Canadian beaches. This division, as well as the 709th, included Germans who were not considered fit for active duty on the Eastern Front, usually for medical reasons, and soldiers of various other nationalities (from conquered countries, often drafted by force) and former Soviet prisoners-of-war who had agreed to fight for the Germans rather than endure the harsh conditions of German POW camps (among them so called hiwis). These "volunteers" were concentrated in "Ost-Bataillonen" (East Battalions) that were of dubious loyalty.
352nd Infantry Division was a well-trained and equipped formation defending the area between approximately Bayeux and Carentan, including Omaha beach. The division had been formed in November 1943 with the help of cadres from the disbanded 321st Division, which had been destroyed in the Soviet Union that same year. The 352nd had many troops who had seen action on the eastern front and on the 6th, had been carrying out anti-invasion exercises.
91st Air Landing Division (Luftlande – air transported) (Generalmajor Wilhelm Falley), comprising the 1057th Infantry Regiment and 1058th Infantry Regiment. This was a regular infantry division, trained, and equipped to be transported by air (i.e. transportable artillery, few heavy support weapons) located in the interior of the Cotentin Peninsula, including the drop zones of the American parachute landings. The attached 6th Parachute Regiment (Oberstleutnant Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte) had been rebuilt as a part of the 2nd Parachute Division stationed in Brittany.
709th Infantry Division (Static) (Generalleutnant Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben), comprising the 729th Infantry Regiment, 739th Infantry Regiment (both with four battalions, but the 729th 4th and the 739th 1st and 4th being Ost, these two regiments had no regimental support companies either), and 919th Infantry Regiment. This coastal defense division protected the eastern, and northern (including Cherbourg) coast of the Cotentin Peninsula, including the Utah beach landing zone. Like the 716th, this division comprised a number of "Ost" units who were provided with German leadership to manage them.

Adjacent Divisional Areas

Other divisions occupied the areas around the landing zones, including:

243rd Infantry Division (Static) (Generalleutnant Heinz Hellmich), comprising the 920th Infantry Regiment (two battalions), 921st Infantry Regiment, and 922nd Infantry Regiment. This coastal defense division protected the western coast of the Cotentin Peninsula.
711th Infantry Division (Static), comprising the 731th Infantry Regiment, and 744th Infantry Regiment. This division defended the western part of the Pays de Caux.
30th Mobile Brigade (Oberstleutnant Freiherr von und zu Aufsess), comprising three bicycle battalions.

Armoured reserves

Rommel's defensive measures were also frustrated by a dispute over armoured doctrine. In addition to his two army groups, von Rundstedt also commanded the headquarters of Panzer Group West under General Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg (usually referred to as von Geyr). This formation was nominally an administrative HQ for von Rundstedt's armoured and mobile formations, but it was later to be renamed Fifth Panzer Army and brought into the line in Normandy. Von Geyr and Rommel disagreed over the deployment and use of the vital Panzer divisions.

Rommel recognised that the Allies would possess air superiority and would be able to harass his movements from the air. He therefore proposed that the armoured formations be deployed close to the invasion beaches. In his words, it was better to have one Panzer division facing the invaders on the first day, than three Panzer divisions three days later when the Allies would already have established a firm beachhead. Von Geyr argued for the standard doctrine that the Panzer formations should be concentrated in a central position around Paris and Rouen, and deployed en masse against the main Allied beachhead when this had been identified.

The argument was eventually brought before Hitler for arbitration. He characteristically imposed an unworkable compromise solution. Only three Panzer divisions were given to Rommel, too few to cover all the threatened sectors. The remainder, nominally under Von Geyr's control, were actually designated as being in "OKW Reserve". Only three of these were deployed close enough to intervene immediately against any invasion of Northern France, the other four were dispersed in southern France and the Netherlands. Hitler reserved to himself the authority to move the divisions in OKW Reserve, or commit them to action. On June 6, many Panzer division commanders were unable to move because Hitler had not given the necessary authorisation, and his staff refused to wake him upon news of the invasion.

The 21st Panzer Division (Generalmajor Edgar Feuchtinger) was deployed near Caen as a mobile striking force as part of the Army Group B reserve. However, Rommel placed it so close to the coastal defenses that, under standing orders in case of invasion, several of its infantry and anti-aircraft units would come under the orders of the fortress divisions on the coast, reducing the effective strength of the division.

The other mechanized divisions capable of intervening in Normandy were retained under the direct control of the German Armed Forces HQ (OKW) and were initially denied to Rommel.

Taken from wikipedia

Forrest Gump - Forrest Gump

2008-10-23T14:12:00.002+07:00

Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.

Class Number to Word

2008-10-23T14:07:00.003+07:00

Class untuk konversi angka menjadi huruf (english/indonesia) dengan menggunakan VB.Net

Public Class ClassNumToWord

'Up To 999,999,999,999,999

'English
Private sPWord1Digit_Eng As String = "| ONE| TWO| THREE| FOUR| FIVE| SIX| SEVEN| EIGHT| NINE"
Private sPWord2DigitFrom10To19_Eng As String = "| TEN| ELEVEN| TWELVE| THIRTEEN| FOURTEEN| FIFTEEN | SIXTEEN| SEVENTEEN| EIGHTEEN| NINETEEN"
Private sPWord2DigitFrom20To99_Eng As String = "|| TWENTY| THIRTY| FOURTY| FIFTY| SIXTY| SEVENTY| EIGHTY| NINETY"

'Indonesian
Private sPWordFrom1To11_Ind As String = "| SATU| DUA| TIGA| EMPAT| LIMA| ENAM| TUJUH| DELAPAN| SEMBILAN"

Public Function Wording(ByVal sValue As String) As String

Dim result As String = ""
Dim iValue As Int64 = Convert.ToInt64(sValue)

If iValue > 999999999999999 Then

result = "OVERFLOW"

Else

Dim aPWord1Digit_Eng() As String = sPWord1Digit_Eng.Split("|")

If iValue >= 0 And iValue <= 9 Then

result = aPWord1Digit_Eng(iValue).ToString

ElseIf iValue > 9 And iValue <= 99 Then

result = sWord2Digit(sValue)

ElseIf iValue > 99 And iValue <= 999 Then

result = sWord3Digit(sValue)

ElseIf iValue > 999 And iValue <= 9999 Then

Dim sValue3Digit As String = Mid(sValue, 2, 3)

result = aPWord1Digit_Eng(Convert.ToInt16(Mid(sValue, 1, 1))).ToString & " THOUSAND" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit))

ElseIf iValue > 9999 And iValue <= 99999 Then

Dim sValue2Digit As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 2)
Dim sValue3Digit As String = Mid(sValue, 3, 3)

result = sWord2Digit(sValue2Digit) & " THOUSAND" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit))

ElseIf iValue > 99999 And iValue <= 999999 Then

Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 4, 3)

result = sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit1) & " THOUSAND" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2))

ElseIf iValue > 999999 And iValue <= 9999999 Then

Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 2, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 5, 3)

result = aPWord1Digit_Eng(Convert.ToInt16(Mid(sValue, 1, 1))).ToString & " MILLION" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit1 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit1) & " THOUSAND") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2))

ElseIf iValue > 9999999 And iValue <= 99999999 Then

Dim sValue2Digit As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 2)
Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 3, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 6, 3)

result = sWord2Digit(sValue2Digit) & " MILLION" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit1 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit1) & " THOUSAND") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2))

ElseIf iValue > 99999999 And iValue <= 999999999 Then

Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 4, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit3 As String = Mid(sValue, 7, 3)

result = sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit1) & " MILLION" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2) & " THOUSAND") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit3 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit3))

ElseIf iValue > 999999999 And iValue <= 9999999999 Then

Dim sValue2Digit As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 2)
Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 2, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 5, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit3 As String = Mid(sValue, 8, 3)

result = aPWord1Digit_Eng(Convert.ToInt16(Mid(sValue, 1, 1))).ToString & " BILLION" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2) & " MILLION") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2) & " THOUSAND") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit3 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit3))

ElseIf iValue > 9999999999 And iValue <= 99999999999 Then

Dim sValue2Digit As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 2)
Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 3, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 6, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit3 As String = Mid(sValue, 9, 3)

result = sWord2Digit(sValue2Digit) & " BILLION" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2) & " MILLION") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2) & " THOUSAND") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit3 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit3))

ElseIf iValue > 99999999999 And iValue <= 999999999999 Then

Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 4, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit3 As String = Mid(sValue, 7, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit4 As String = Mid(sValue, 10, 3)

result = sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit1) & " BILLION" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2) & " MILLION") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit3 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit3) & " THOUSAND") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit4 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit4))

ElseIf iValue > 999999999999 And iValue <= 9999999999999 Then

Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 2, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 5, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit3 As String = Mid(sValue, 8, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit4 As String = Mid(sValue, 11, 3)

result = aPWord1Digit_Eng(Convert.ToInt16(Mid(sValue, 1, 1))).ToString & " TRILLION" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit1 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit1) & " BILLION") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2) & " MILLION") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit3 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit3) & " THOUSAND") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit4 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit4))

ElseIf iValue > 9999999999999 And iValue <= 99999999999999 Then

Dim sValue2Digit As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 2)
Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 3, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 6, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit3 As String = Mid(sValue, 9, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit4 As String = Mid(sValue, 12, 3)

result = sWord2Digit(sValue2Digit) & " TRILLION" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit1 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit1) & " BILLION") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2) & " MILLION") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit3 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit3) & " THOUSAND") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit4 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit4))

ElseIf iValue > 99999999999999 And iValue <= 999999999999999 Then

Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 4, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit3 As String = Mid(sValue, 7, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit4 As String = Mid(sValue, 10, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit5 As String = Mid(sValue, 13, 3)

result = sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit1) & " TRILLION" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2) & " BILLION") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit3 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit3) & " MILLION") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit4 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit4) & " THOUSAND") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit5 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit5))

End If

End If

Return result

End Function

Public Function Wording(ByVal sValue As String, ByVal bIndonesian As Boolean) As String

Dim result As String = ""

If bIndonesian = False Then

result = Wording(sValue)

Else

Dim iValue As Int64 = Convert.ToInt64(sValue)

If iValue > 999999999999999 Then

result = "OVERFLOW"

Else

Dim aPWordFrom1To11_Ind() As String = sPWordFrom1To11_Ind.Split("|")

If iValue >= 0 And iValue <= 9 Then

result = aPWordFrom1To11_Ind(iValue).ToString

ElseIf iValue > 9 And iValue <= 99 Then

result = sWord2Digit(sValue, True)

ElseIf iValue > 99 And iValue <= 999 Then

result = sWord3Digit(sValue, True)

ElseIf iValue > 999 And iValue <= 9999 Then

result = sWord4Digit(sValue)

ElseIf iValue > 9999 And iValue <= 99999 Then

Dim sValue2Digit As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 2)
Dim sValue3Digit As String = Mid(sValue, 3, 3)

result = sWord2Digit(sValue2Digit, True) & " RIBU" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit, True))

ElseIf iValue > 99999 And iValue <= 999999 Then

Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 4, 3)

result = sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit1, True) & " RIBU" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2, True))

ElseIf iValue > 999999 And iValue <= 9999999 Then

Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 2, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 5, 3)

result = aPWordFrom1To11_Ind(Convert.ToInt16(Mid(sValue, 1, 1))).ToString & " JUTA" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit1 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit1, True) & " RIBU") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2, True))

ElseIf iValue > 9999999 And iValue <= 99999999 Then

Dim sValue2Digit As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 2)
Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 3, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 6, 3)

result = sWord2Digit(sValue2Digit, True) & " JUTA" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit1 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit1, True) & " RIBU") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2, True))

ElseIf iValue > 99999999 And iValue <= 999999999 Then

Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 4, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit3 As String = Mid(sValue, 7, 3)

result = sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit1, True) & " JUTA" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2, True) & " RIBU") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit3 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit3, True))

ElseIf iValue > 999999999 And iValue <= 9999999999 Then

Dim sValue2Digit As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 2)
Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 2, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 5, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit3 As String = Mid(sValue, 8, 3)

result = aPWordFrom1To11_Ind(Convert.ToInt16(Mid(sValue, 1, 1))).ToString & " MILIYAR" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2, True) & " JUTA") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2, True) & " RIBU") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit3 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit3, True))

ElseIf iValue > 9999999999 And iValue <= 99999999999 Then

Dim sValue2Digit As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 2)
Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 3, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 6, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit3 As String = Mid(sValue, 9, 3)

result = sWord2Digit(sValue2Digit, True) & " MILIYAR" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2, True) & " JUTA") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2, True) & " RIBU") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit3 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit3, True))

ElseIf iValue > 99999999999 And iValue <= 999999999999 Then

Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 4, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit3 As String = Mid(sValue, 7, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit4 As String = Mid(sValue, 10, 3)

result = sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit1, True) & " MILIYAR" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2, True) & " JUTA") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit3 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit3, True) & " RIBU") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit4 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit4, True))

ElseIf iValue > 999999999999 And iValue <= 9999999999999 Then

Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 2, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 5, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit3 As String = Mid(sValue, 8, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit4 As String = Mid(sValue, 11, 3)

result = aPWordFrom1To11_Ind(Convert.ToInt16(Mid(sValue, 1, 1))).ToString & " TRILIYUN" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit1 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit1, True) & " MILIYAR") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2, True) & " JUTA") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit3 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit3, True) & " RIBU") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit4 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit4, True))

ElseIf iValue > 9999999999999 And iValue <= 99999999999999 Then

Dim sValue2Digit As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 2)
Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 3, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 6, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit3 As String = Mid(sValue, 9, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit4 As String = Mid(sValue, 12, 3)

result = sWord2Digit(sValue2Digit, True) & " TRILIYUN" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit1 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit1, True) & " MILIYAR") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2, True) & " JUTA") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit3 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit3, True) & " RIBU") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit4 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit4, True))

ElseIf iValue > 99999999999999 And iValue <= 999999999999999 Then

Dim sValue3Digit1 As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit2 As String = Mid(sValue, 4, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit3 As String = Mid(sValue, 7, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit4 As String = Mid(sValue, 10, 3)
Dim sValue3Digit5 As String = Mid(sValue, 13, 3)

result = sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit1, True) & " TRILIYUN" & _
IIf(sValue3Digit2 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit2, True) & " MILIYAR") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit3 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit3, True) & " JUTA") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit4 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit4, True) & " RIBU") & _
IIf(sValue3Digit5 = "000", "", sWord3Digit(sValue3Digit5, True))

End If

End If

End If

Return result

End Function

Private Function sWord3Digit(ByVal sValue As String) As String

Dim result As String = ""
Dim aPWord1Digit_Eng() As String = sPWord1Digit_Eng.Split("|")
Dim sValueLast2Digit As String = Mid(sValue, 2, 2)

result = aPWord1Digit_Eng(Convert.ToInt16(Mid(sValue, 1, 1))).ToString & _
IIf(Mid(sValue, 1, 2) = "00" Or Mid(sValue, 1, 1) = "0", "", " HUNDRED") & _
sWord2Digit(sValueLast2Digit)

Return result

End Function

Private Function sWord2Digit(ByVal sValue As String) As String

Dim result As String = ""
Dim aPWord1Digit_Eng() As String = sPWord1Digit_Eng.Split("|")
Dim iValue As Int64 = Convert.ToInt64(sValue)

If iValue > 9 And iValue <= 19 Then

Dim aPWord2Digit10To19_Eng() As String = sPWord2DigitFrom10To19_Eng.Split("|")
result = aPWord2Digit10To19_Eng(iValue - 9).ToString

Else

Dim aPWord2Digit20To99_Eng() As String = sPWord2DigitFrom20To99_Eng.Split("|")
result = aPWord2Digit20To99_Eng(Convert.ToInt16(Mid(sValue, 1, 1))).ToString & _
aPWord1Digit_Eng(Convert.ToInt16(Mid(sValue, 2, 1))).ToString

End If

Return result

End Function

Private Function sWord2Digit(ByVal sValue As String, ByVal bIndonesian As Boolean) As String

Dim result As String = ""

If bIndonesian = True Then

Dim aPWordFrom1To11_Ind() As String = sPWordFrom1To11_Ind.Split("|")
Dim iValue As Int64 = Convert.ToInt64(sValue)

If iValue = 10 Then

result = " SEPULUH"

ElseIf iValue = 11 Then

result = " SEBELAS"

ElseIf iValue > 11 And iValue <= 19 Then

result = aPWordFrom1To11_Ind(Convert.ToInt16(Mid(sValue, 2, 1))) & " BELAS"

Else

result = aPWordFrom1To11_Ind(Convert.ToInt16(Mid(sValue, 1, 1))) & _
IIf(Mid(sValue, 1, 1) = "0", "", " PULUH") & _
aPWordFrom1To11_Ind(Convert.ToInt16(Mid(sValue, 2, 1)))

End If

End If

Return result

End Function

Private Function sWord3Digit(ByVal sValue As String, ByVal bIndonesian As Boolean) As String

Dim result As String = ""

If bIndonesian = True Then

Dim aPWordFrom1To11_Ind() As String = sPWordFrom1To11_Ind.Split("|")
Dim sValueFirstDigit As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 1)
Dim sValueLast2Digit As String = Mid(sValue, 2, 2)

If sValueFirstDigit = "1" Then

result = " SERATUS" & sWord2Digit(sValueLast2Digit, True)

Else

Dim iValueFirstDigit As Int16 = Convert.ToInt16(sValueFirstDigit)

result = aPWordFrom1To11_Ind(iValueFirstDigit) & _
IIf(Mid(sValue, 1, 2) = "00" Or Mid(sValue, 1, 1) = "0", "", " RATUS") & _
sWord2Digit(sValueLast2Digit, True)

End If

End If

Return result

End Function

Private Function sWord4Digit(ByVal sValue As String) As String

Dim result As String = ""
Dim aPWordFrom1To11_Ind() As String = sPWordFrom1To11_Ind.Split("|")
Dim sValueFirstDigit As String = Mid(sValue, 1, 1)
Dim sValueLast3Digit As String = Mid(sValue, 2, 3)

If sValueFirstDigit = "1" Then

result = " SERIBU" & sWord3Digit(sValueLast3Digit, True)

Else

Dim iValueFirstDigit As Int16 = Convert.ToInt16(sValueFirstDigit)

result = aPWordFrom1To11_Ind(iValueFirstDigit) & _
IIf(Mid(sValue, 1, 3) = "000" Or Mid(sValue, 1, 2) = "00" Or Mid(sValue, 1, 1) = "0", "", " RIBU") & _
sWord3Digit(sValueLast3Digit, True)

End If

Return result

End Function

End Class

Kesalahan ketika Pake HP

2008-10-23T09:45:00.002+07:00

Meskipun teknologi memudahkan aktifitas manusia, namun WHO menyimpulkan penggunaan ponsel secara terus menerus selama 5-18 tahun atau lebih, dapat menimbulkan resiko lebih tinggi terkena serangan kanker darah (leukemia) atau kanker pankreas. Seorang yang sering terkena radiasi ponsel, cepat atau lambat, dapat mengalami efek detrimental pada otak

Riset medis di Amerika Serikat menunjukan, laki - laki yang menggunakan ponsel lebih dari 4 jam sehari mengalami penurunan jumlah sel mani sebesar 40 % dibanding laku - laki yang pemakaian ponsel nya lebih rendah. Ada 6 faktor perilaku yang ternyata secara medis berpengaruh kepada si pengguna ponsel :

Mengantungkan ponsel di leher atau pinggang

Hal ini memang sudah menjadi kebiasaan yang dilakukan oleh kebanyakan orang karena terasa lebih praktis. Namun fakta medis berbicara lain. Menyimpan ponsel di sekitar area leher berbahaya bagi penderita arrhythmia atau gangguan irama jantung. Fungsi jantung menjadi tidak sempurna akibat pengaruh radiasi dari ponsel yang menggantung di sekitar dada.

Solusi : Simpan ponsel di dalam tas, dompet atau sarung dengan cara di genggam, bukan diikat pada pinggang atau digantungkan di leher.

Langsung menempelkan ponsel di telinga ketika hubungan belum tersambung

Umumnya, begitu memencet nomor yang ingin dituju, pengguna langsung menempelkan ponsel di telinga untuk mendengarkan apakah ada nada sambung. Padahal percakapan belum dimulai sedetikpun.

Solusi : ketika hubungan telepon belum tersambung, radiasi akan bertambah kuat. Beri selang beberapa waktu, sekitar 5 detik untuk kemudian mendengarkan apakah sudah tersambung.

Menempelkan ponsel ditelinga ketika menelpon

Kelemahan suara yang dihasilkan sebuah ponsel bisa jadi alasan kenapa banyak orang yang tidak memberi jarak antara telinga dan ponsel yang akan digunakan.

Solusi : Memberi jarak antara telinga dan ponsel kamu, Pilih operator dan ponsel yang mampu memberikan jaringan dan sinyal yang baik.

Melakukan percakapan terlalu lama

Tarif murah yang diberikan operator seperti memberi jalan Tol bagi user untuk tak bosan bicara ber jam - jam. Padahal jika ponsel mulai terasa panas, kamu tahu bahwa ada sesuatu yang tidak beres.

Solusi : Gunakan handsfree untuk mengurangi radiasi. Jika harus terpaksa menelpon dalam jangka waktu lama, letakan ponsel secara bergantian di kiri dan kanan telinga setiap 1-2 menit.

Bicara sambil mojok di sudut tembok, dan berbisisk - bisik saat menerima telepon

Menelpon dengan bersembunyi disudut ruangan lebih membahayakan kesehatan. Dalam kondisi umum, penutupan sinyal sudut ruangan dapat menyebabkan daya radiasi ponsel pada sudut tertentu bertambah besar.

Solusi : Usahakan untuk mencari ruangan terbuka untuk berkomunikasi via ponsel. Jangan menggunakan ponsel untuk bergosip

Menelpon sambil mondar - mandir

Tanpa kita sadari, sejumlah orang suka berjalan - jalan ketika menelpon. Padahal menggerakan ponsel ketika menelpon menyebabkan ketidak stabilan sinyal yang diterima. Kalau sudah begitu, terjadi perubahan daya tinggi dalam waktu singkat yang tidak diperlukan.

Solusi : Cari posisi yang nyaman. Berhenti dan diam ketika menelpon, karena menelpon hanya membutuhkan suara dan ponsel sebagai perantaranya. Membuat kebiasaan baru : tidak menjadi orang yang terlalu sibuk untuk sekedar bertelepon. Tidak menerima telepon sama sekali jika anda sedang melakukan perjalanan (pergerakan)

Take from anonymous source