The Year of the Superhero

Super-heroes have not been so cool since the so-called “Golden Age” of comic books in the 1940s. Not long ago, they could be dismissed as “kids’ stuff”, but 2006 was a vintage year for super-heroes. Perhaps, just like in World War II, the problems of the world have reached the stage where it would seem to require people with superhuman abilities to save the day.
Let’s look at some of the super-hero milestones of 2006:

SPIDER-MAN UNMASKED

For 45 years, almost nobody – apart from comic-book readers and movie audiences – has known that Spider-Man is actually young newspaper photographer and science genius Peter Parker. Secret identities have been a major facet of super-heroes ever since Superman first disguised himself as Clark Kent (and even earlier, with heroes like the Scarlet Pimpernel). In 2006, however, Spider-Man revealed his identity to the world. In this day and age, masked vigilantes aren’t as cool as they used to be.

The unmasking was part of Marvel Comics’ series Civil War, in which – after an insane super-villain kills hundreds of innocents – the US Government orders all super-powered people (good or bad) to register their details, including their true identities. This results in a rather violent clash of opinions, as some heroes agree that it’s all for the best, while others see it as a violation of their civil liberties. Spider-Man’s revelation is one of the many twists of the series, which aims to remodel Marvel’s super-heroes (including Captain America, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four) for the future.

INFINITE CRISIS

DC Comics had their own super-series with this violent, convoluted, but visually stunning series, which also shook up the world of their heroes. Many characters died, including Superboy, Superman and Lois Lane. (Well… sort of. Long story.)

HEROES

One of the few new hit shows in the US this year was this NBC super-hero show without tights, masks, or cackling villains who use lines like “Say your prayers, you costumed fool – nyah-hah-hah-hah!” Just as Lost turned people into science fiction fans, Heroes is converting people who probably thought that comics were for geeks. It does not, however, deny its comic-book influences.

WHO WANTS TO BE A SUPERHERO?

Yes, it seems that reality TV has lost the plot when it tackles something as removed from reality as super-heroes. But while it can’t seriously be termed “reality TV”, we can still applaud this Sci-Fi Channel series, in which Marvel Comics’ legendary founder Stan Lee takes on a role similar to Donald Trump in The Apprentice, choosing which aspiring comic-book nerd gets to be a super-hero (with their comic-book, if not powers). While reality TV has constantly shown the benefits of selfishness and cunning, Who Wants to be a Superhero? awards the comic-book qualities of kindness, chivalry and general heroism.

SUPERMAN RETURNS

Box-office, while disappointing, actually wasn’t so bad. Critics loved it. The first comic-book super-hero was back on the big screen.

Mark Juddery is a meditation student of

Alexander Set to Conquer DVD PLayers All Over the Known World

The latest Hollywood blockbuster historical epic has just hit our movie screens. Fans of spectacular swords and sandals extravanganzas like “Gladiator” and “Troy” will be clamoring to see “Alexander”, the latest work by legendary director Oliver Stone.

“Alexander” stars Hollywood man of the moment Colin Farrell as Alexander the Great, the 4th century Macedonian king and military genius who conquered the entire known world by the age of 25. Angelina Jolie plays his mother, and Val Kilmer his father, while love interest duties are fulfilled by Rosario Dawson as Alexander’s Persian princess wife Roxanne. Jared Leto plays Alexander’s influential childhood friend Hephaistion, whose brief love affair with Alexander is portrayed in a subtle, suggestive way. The film also features respected veteran actors Anthony Hopkins and Christopher Plummer.

The scale of the story is truly epic, following the story of Alexander’s rise from ruler of tiny Macedonia, to conquer the might of the Persian Empire, then Egypt and ultimately India. His conquest shaped the destiny of the Western world for centuries to come by spreading Greek culture throughout the known world and paving the way for the expansion of the Roman Empire.

Stunning cinematography, magnificent locations and spectacular visual effects are probably the real stars. The film was shot in locations in Morocco, Thailand and the UK, and the sweeping landscapes and computer enhanced battle scenes are truly breathtaking, even for contemporary audiences jaded by a constant barrage of cinematic miraculousness. At almost three hours, this extravagant marathon of a film places itself decisively within the grand Hollywood epic tradition.

Critics’ reaction to the film has been underwhelming, to say the very least. Most are describing it more or less as a triumph of style over substance, as critics will tend to do with a major release of this type. However, audiences who love good entertainment will be the final judge.

Find out more at this link2lifestyle.info/ movie site.

Sufi Fanning is the Author at link2lifestyle.info link2lifestyle.info

Norwegian Language – Overview From A Translating Agency

The languages spoken in the Scandinavian countries have developed from Old Norse, the language of the Vikings. The common background and evolution of Swedish, Danish and Norwegian account for their almost identical grammar and similar vocabulary. Due to their isolation, Icelandic and Faroese (the other two languages belonging to the Scandinavian group), are no longer mutually intelligible with Norwegian.

Norwegian language spoken nowadays is very similar to its ancestor, West Norse, a language that flourished on Norway’s territory between the ninth and the fourteenth century.

At the beginning of the 1000s, Christianity started to spread in Norway, bringing along the Latin alphabet which substituted the old runes. The Norwegian alphabet has twenty-nine letters and it contains certain characters that are to be found only in the other Scandinavian languages (å, ø, æ).

The death of King Håkon the 5th in 1319 and the imminent demise of the Norwegian royal family facilitated Norway’s administrative take over by Sweden and eventually led to the Kalmar Union, that brought together Norway, Sweden and Denmark to form a single, more powerful kingdom. Sweden soon opted out of the Union and Norway remained under Danish rule. Subsequently, Danish language was declared the official language of the kingdom. Norway separated from Denmark in 1814 and in the next twenty years Norwegian substituted Danish in schools.

The 1850’s saw Norway striving for cultural and administrative independence. In this period several Norwegian linguists led by Ivar Aasen started to promote the idea of a unique, autonomous language that should be built on the grounds of all the Norwegian dialects spoken within the country at that time. This initiative led to the creation of Landsmål, an artificial language which was not spoken by the great mass of the population. Landsmål was later renamed Nynorsk and it still coexists with Bokmål, the written and most widespread language in Norway.

All the attempts to unify Nynorsk and Bokmål into one comprehensive language have failed. In 2002 the project of creating Samnorsk was abandoned for good. Nowadays almost 85% of the Norwegian population uses Bokmål, 8% use just Nynorsk and the remaining 7% use both. Bokmål is used in most media and in the official and intellectual circles while Nynorsk is spoken mostly in the rural areas of Western Norway.

Norwegian, in both its forms, is spoken by almost five million people who inhabit mainly Norway, but also Denmark, Sweden, Germany and the US.

Ioana Mihailas works for Lingo24 lingo24.com/ Translating Services, a company with an established track record in providing high quality lingo24.com/language/Norwegian_translation_services.html English to Norwegian translations

Basic Steps to Playing Blackjack

Whether you’re playing blackjack online or you’re under the roof of one of a beautiful casinos in Las Vegas or Monte Carlo, the good news about blackjack is that the rules are not only universal, they’re also universally easy to understand. In fact, a kid of eight can easily master the skills necessary for winning blackjack. Better yet, blackjack is very fun to play, so it’s rare that you’ll find yourself bored when playing this game.

The Primary Objective of the Game

In poker, the primary objective would have to be something vague such as “getting the best hand possible”. But when it comes to blackjack, the objective of the game is simple: the cards with an equivalent value to 21 or the one nearest to it wins. Simple to understand, isn’t it?

Who is Higher and Who’s Lower?

In poker, you have to familiarize yourself with what a flush looks like and what a full house compromises, then remember which one is higher. In blackjack, however, there are no card combinations to memorize. In fact, all you have to do is compute what the value of your cards is and if you still need to improve on it or stick with what you have.

The counting system for blackjack is just like how it is with Lucky 9, only it’s a wee bit – emphasizing the wee here – more complicated. Cards numbering two to ten are counted as they are. Face cards – that would be the royal couple, the king and queen, and of course, the third wheel, the jack – are equivalent to ten while the ace can be calculated as one or eleven. You alone shall be able to determine whether your cards would be better off with an ace worth one point or eleven.

Who Wins and Who Doesn’t?

In poker, people who believe that their cards are not that strong or up to par with their competitors’ immediately choose to fold or give up. In blackjack, while there’s no such thing as folding, there is such as thing as an immediate game loss – this is what happens when your cards are busted. Cards are busted when the value totals something more than twenty-one.

If you have busted cards, you lose right away or have to wait for the next round to play.

Betting

Before you can play blackjack, you must always place your bet on the table first.

Lastly, if your first two cards are identical, you can divide them and play them separately.

Roger Wembley writes for

Machinima – Gaming and Flimmaking Converge

This word is a combination of the terms ‘machine’ and ‘cinema’ and it was created to describe an intriguing artistic form developed by computer gamers that also happen to be a new form of “modder”. For years, modders have been adapting the structure of computer games – usually a first person “shooters” – to build new “levels.” Most of these games are broken into sequences; what modders have been doing is devising their own level or “maps” that are, in essence, additional game content, presenting the player with new obstacles and new interactions with the villains.

With machinima, these technicians have taken the process several steps further. They have dismantled the game’s apparatus completely and utilized it to build movies, TV shows and other creative video presentations. The video material is driven by the game’s 3D engines and, of necessity, features many of the characters within it. These characters, however, can be provided with a voice overdub and manipulated in their on-screen movements so that their game persona is completely altered.

Endless Possibility

One machinima created from the Interplanetary shoot-out Halo has been converted into a talk show with weekly segments. The special effects are harnessed to create new actions for the characters and their personalities are defined by the voice-over, as provided by the amateur film maker who has assembled the pieces of this video art. Action sequences can be created that are completely different from anything in the game; it’s the characters, the backgrounds, and the inventory of potential movements that remain the same.

To a perverse, creative mind the possibilities are endless. Rather than creating a small bolt-on addition to the game, they have utilized the game’s artwork and technology for completely original productions. The product can then be edited to videotape for a conventional film or, more commonly, distributed digitally. The practice eliminates the need for expensive animation machines and studios for potential movie makers. You can be a backyard film maker and simply upload your completed project for tens of thousands of viewers. If it’s well done, the recognition will be quick and meaningful. To those who remember the early days of the web when it was ruled by anarchists, this practice must be a touch of nostalgia.

Machinima: Find It!

The art form has progressed to the point where there is an annual festival that shows films created with the technology. Emmy winning animators are experimenting with the technology and producing products worthy of presentation- and awards – at film festivals. Others have produced music videos using game characters instead of musicians for the video sequences.

Describing Machinima can be difficult, and seeing it for yourself is the best way to understand it. There is a website dedicated to the format at machinima.com which has many of the better and well known productions available for download. There is also a lot of commentary on the state of the art, so to speak, along with production promotions. There is an entire set of “game channels,” consisting of machinima productions originating from a single game. In recognition of machinima as a legitimate emerging art form, there are also two national advertisers on the home page. Ads for voice actors and announcement of film premiers – it has all the trappings of a rapidly maturing niche in the film industry.

Madison Lockwood is a customer relations associate for ApolloHosting.com. She brings years of experience as a small business consultant to helping prospective clients understand the ways in which a website may benefit them both personally and professionally. Apollo Hosting provides

Love Old Issues of the Uncanny X-men

My Say:

Before you start reading, this article is discussing why I love old issues of the Uncanny X-men. And why you should also appreciate and love them as well – Like myself.

My interests in X-men comics started since I was a kid, I practically grew up glued to my television set whenever the X-men cartoon came on. I am assuming you have at least a little interest in the X-men, since you’re reading this now =)
Alright, you got me! I am really old school. No doubt, the newer issues have better paper quality, graphics, etc. But those were not the reasons why you love the X-men right? It is the plot, the characters and the many adventures that really got you hooked didn’t they?

I encouraged some of my friends to start reading and now they also love old issues of the Uncanny X-men. Before you doubt what I am saying, I am asking you to TRY reading at least a few pages. There are so many reasons I can give to encourage you to buy the older copies of the X-men comics. The bottom line is that it’s definitely worth your time!!

A good start is to get the “Marvel Masterworks the Uncanny X-men Volume 1”, which is a collection of 8 old issues from May 1975 onwards. And I think it’s great. But if you are unsure whether you might like it, I suggest that you buy one issue to try it out first.

Brief History of the Uncanny X-men:

The Uncanny X-men was first published in September 1963. In issue #142, the X-men were officially titled as the Uncanny X-men. They were formerly known as “The X-men” in year 1963. There have been many spin offs ever since their new title was a hit.

Why love old issues of the Uncanny X-men? If you’re:

an X-men fan — I am sure you are or going to be
a fan of the animated X-men series (1992-1997)
if you are a sucker for great adventures — I am

Side Note:
I just want to proudly mention that I own a handful of old comics printed from 1987 onwards. I do not have a large collection at the moment, but slowly working towards that now (cash has always been an issue). All contributions are accepted!

Ha-ha… =)

About the Author:
Valerie Pooh is a huge X-men fan and she has a just-marvel-x-men.com/ezine” target=”_blank website that talks all about the X-men. She is also a guest writer for About.com writing articles related to the X-men.

Copyright 2007 – Valerie Pooh. All Rights Reserved.

Learn To Win At Poker — Secret Pro Tips

One can play poker for fun. Like most forms of gambling, poker is a great form of entertainment and most people will spend a little money on their hobby. The thrill of the occasional win makes up for the small loss in money in the long run. These people feel no desire to learn to win at poker — they have their day jobs and other interests that they prefer.

On the other hand, there are those who want to make a living out of poker, to never have to work in a sterile office again and cater to every whim of the boss. These type of people will learn to win at poker but they are further divided into two camps — those who ignore everything they have learned and rely on luck, and those who heed good advice, apply it with discipline and consistency, and make a nice profitable income from it.

If you want to learn to win at poker successfully, you must be disciplined! Here, I will share a few tips that the pros use that can help improve your game.

Know your odds. This is perhaps the single biggest tip that I can give you. If you play blindly and “hope” for better cards, you will definitely lose money, I guarantee it. Without understanding the percentage chances of you or your opponent getting a specific hand, you may well be having false hope of winning and risking money when you should fold. Alternatively, you may fold when you have a killer hand a.k.a. “the nuts” and your opponents have little chance of beating you. To learn to win at poker, you need some basic understand of poker odds which can be easily learned with a poker system or a half decent poker book — see below.

Bluff only when you are sure that noone can tell you are bluffing. If you blink a lot when bluffing — wear some shades. If your cheeks flush and go red, you may not have a future in table gambling and could just stick to internet gambling. If you want to learn to win at poker, you should also learn not only to hide your own tells, but learn how to recognize the tells of others. Body language experts will tell you that it is almost impossible to hide your intentions and playing poker is no exception to this rule.

These are just two secret pro tips that will transform your game if you are not already using them. Over time, you will wish to employ these tips plus others until you form your own strategy or system. All profitable strategies are different but they all share some common fundamentals, regardless of origin.

Does your poker strategy remind you of the stock market crash? Discover the breakthrough strategies an underground poker pro uses to earn over $1200.00 per night effortlessly at online poker. To learn more, click here: sngpokerpro.info learn to win at poker.

The Weather Man (DVD) Review

Ignored by the Academy Awards, The Weather Man struck a chord with certain critics and audience members. Pirates Of The Caribbean director Gore Verbinski took the reins of this film which attempts to imitate American Beauty (1999) in its probing dissection of the emptiness of the American pop culture and its emphasis on materialism, fame, and artificially constructed measures of “success”. Writer Steve Conrad creates a world in which the title character lives in utter emotional depression despite having all the outward “success indicators” society craves. Oftentimes funny, The Weather Man is nevertheless a disappointment. The dialogue is often strained, and one leaves with the impression that the film tried too hard to exhibit the symbolism and depth of an American classic. It’s ironic, because the very societal acclaim it seems to condemn leads to its own downfall when the film tries to create memorable one-liners and symbolism that just don’t work…

The Weather Man follows the life of local Chicago weather man Dave Spritz (Nicolas Cage) who lives an ideal life by traditional American standards of success. His salary is in the mid-six figures. He only works two hours a day, and his job requires no thought. He can be right; he can be wrong. It doesn’t really matter. Meanwhile, he’s been short-listed as a prime candidate for the most desirable weather man job in the world, lead weather guy for Hello America, a nationally syndicated mourning show on one of the major networks. By most people’s standard, Dave has it made. But reality is a totally different picture.

In Dave’s world, he’s constantly haunted by his own father’s success and his desire to live up to expectations and gain fatherly approval. Robert Spritzel (Michael Caine) is a celebrated American author who won the Pulitzer Prize at age 33, a man respected by almost everyone in the world. But Dave’s inability to meet his father’s high expectations strains their relationship. In the meantime, Dave and his wife Noreen (Hope Davis) have recently divorced, his daughter Shelly (Gemmenne de la Pena) has taken up smoking and is enduring the pains of teenage adolescence, and his son Michael is the target of a child-molesting counselor. Throw in a bout of a depression due to lack of a substantive life purpose and Dave is really living the American nightmare. But the Hello America job gives Dave a reason for pause as he debates what course his life should take…

Snubbed by critics, I’ll have to agree that The Weather Man is not the film it held the promise of being. It simply tries too hard to provide deep meaning where a little less flair will do the job. The dialogue is a perfect example. It oftentimes seems that the writers were trying to reverse engineer a sort of memorable dialogue situation similar to the famous “quarter-pounder with cheese” exchange from Pulp Fiction. The result is an awkward and tiresome display of such lines as What is that?… It’s a frosty… What’s a frosty? Why would they hit you with a frosty? The audience is left with the feeling that it’s supposed to be captivated by such linguistics, but the result is the exact opposite. Nevertheless, the film is saved by a number of hilarious scenes such as Dave’s pathetic attempt at a spontaneous moment when he pelts his ex-wife with a snowball, the innumerable moments when Dave is bludgeoned with fast food, and one exchange of dialogue which does work when Robert defines the term “camel toe” for his son. Overall, The Weather Man is a decent night’s entertainment, and the film is not completely without value despite its feeble attempt to follow in the footsteps of American Beauty. One just expects more from veteran actors like Cage and Caine…

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a

Think Before You Ink? You Won’t Regret It! How To Get A Great Tattoo You Won’t Regret!

This article is really a result of a growing trend that I have witnessed for cover up tattoos. It seems like ever day I see someone looking for a new custom tattoo design to cover up some old in k they had done. Getting rid of an old tattoo that you no longer like is not so easy. Your only two options are painful and expensive laser removal or a cover up design. Unfortunately most people can not afford the laser removal and honestly most cover up tattoos are big, black, and can even draw more attention to itself.

So honestly the best option is to think before you ink. This is going to become our new motto. Unfortunately there are tons of people out there that do not think before getting a tattoo and later end up regretting them.

Top 5 reasons people state for wanting to get rid of a tattoo:

1. Got the tattoo while out with friends drunk.
2. I was young when I got it.
3. It really was not the design I wanted.
4. It is too common and doesn’t speak to me anymore.
5. The symbol is wrong or I did not know what it stood for.

These are so common that we have come across people that are getting cover up tattoos for all of the above reasons. Recently with the growing trend of Japanese Kanji tattoos many people are paying good money for these only to find later they don’t mean what they were originally told. Also they often don’t translate well. For example getting something like “Bling” or “Pimp” translated to Japanese just does not work. There is no kanji for these words.

It is vitally important that you spend some time coming up with an original tattoo idea. Do some research on the symbolism behind the tattoo design and think about what you want it to say. Then have a professional tattoo artist do the design for you. Take the time to look at the design maybe mull over it for a few days. You can even have a tattoo artists do the work with a sharpie first and spend some time thinking about it.

Tattoos are expensive and custom tattoo can cost even more. However the artwork will be original and unique and it will speak to you more then some flash design off the wall in your local tattoo shop. Actually if you think of it custom tattoos can be a big savings. It is more expensive to get a cover up done or go through laser removal. So spend some time thinking about your tattoo and do some research on the design. It is way better then regretting the design for the rest of your life.

For more information on tattoos check out the following resources. For
designmytattoos.com Custom tattoo design Design My Tattoos. For a complete tattoo resource check out
tattoodirectory.info Tattoo Directory: tattoo resources and
great celebrity tattoo galleries. To read this article and other great
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articles check out the Tattoo Directory