Sarcastically Yours

17 Reasons Why Those Hoping For A Recession In 2012 Just Got Their Wish : If you were hoping for a recession in 2012, then you are going to be very happy with the numbers you are about to see.  The U.S. economy is heading downhill just in time for the 2012 election.  Retail sales have fallen for three months in a row for the first time since 2008, manufacturing activity is dropping like a rock, sales of new homes are declining again, consumer confidence has moved significantly lower and a depressingly small percentage of businesses anticipate hiring more workers in the coming months.  Even though the Federal Reserve has been wildly pumping money into the financial system and even though the federal government has been injecting gigantic piles of borrowed cash into the economy, we still haven't seen an economic recovery.  In fact, we appear to be on the verge of yet another major downturn.  In California the other night, Barack Obama told supporters that " we tr...

FCC Tells Verizon It Can't Force You To Pay $20 For Tethering Anymore [Verizon] : The FCC and Verizon put an ongoing dispute to rest today when the carrier agreed to allow is customers to use tethering apps with its data plans. You're damn right! Until now, Verizon worked with Google to block tethering apps from being downloaded to Android devices from Google Play. The company instead demanded that customers who wanted to tether pay a $20 per month fee—including users who had a capped data plans. Turns out this isn't just asinine, it violates an FCC regulation , which requires Verizon "to allow customers to freely use the devices and applications of their choosing." Verizon also accepted a $1.25 million fine. Booya Verizon. Booya. [ FCC via GIgaOm via Ars Technica ] More »

Purple Guys Rule... : A son of Titan, not a teen titan... Those of you that have seen " The Avengers " remember the post credits... Particularly the first one with the big guy with the purple skin. Many people wondered who that was, and I'm sure Google got a lot of people looking up the word " Thanos " over the last few months. But for those of you that haven't seen the film ( are there any? ), Marvel has now released the first post credit online for your entertainment. And to sell a boat load of these . I expect we'll be seeing more of him over the next couple years, particularly 2014. And once he's defeated who else will we see fill the void? Too bad they cancelled that " Thanos: Son of Titan " mini-series...

US imposes new sanctions on Iran : US President Barack Obama orders new sanctions against Iran's oil and financial sectors, amid continuing concern over its nuclear programme.

Courtney Cocks best role ever. ~~~ 'G.I. Joe 2' Director in Talks to Helm 'Masters of the Universe' : Jon M. Chu is currently overseeing production on Justin Bieber's concert tour and supervising the conversion of "Retaliation" into 3D for Paramount Pictures. read more

Interesting list. ~~~ The 50 Biggest Fast-Food Joints in America : Truly, we are a diverse nation

The source, Latino Review, isn't spot on (totally missed on the the Black Panther thing, thank God) but the fact that test footage was done and that the director was trotted out to Comic Con means it is happening, just not sure on the when.  I don't think Marvel will push to have 3 movies in one year. ~~~ Ant-Man might be in theaters as soon as 2014 : For some reason, and despite the test footage Edgar Wright presented at Comic Con, it still feels (to me, at least) like Ant-Man is still only rumored to be happening. But that feeling is finally shifting now that it's possible that the movie might start shooting as soon as Thor 2: The Dark World is done. Production on that begins next month, which is but a day away, so it's actually true! Ant-Man is coming! I'm finally convinced! No idea why it took so long! The news comes from Latino Review , which has been so accurate about its Marvel news that Marvel actually threatens them . According to the site, Wright...

Didn't see it all, but the mannerisms are there. ~~~ Young Tom Waits's shtick presages Heath Ledger's Joker : This 1979 clip of a young Tom Waits being interviewed on Australian TV by Don Lane demonstrates just how similar Waits's shtick (especially back in those days) resembled Heath Ledger's Joker character. Scroll to about 1:40 for the fun. Tom Waits interview by Don Lane, Australia 1979 with Paradise Alley clip! ( via Kottke )

Masked Mexican thief hits cinemas showing Batman : MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Prosecutors in northern Mexico say a man wearing a ski mask and carrying a gun robbed two theaters showing the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises."...

<em>Harry Potter</em> Producer Cringes at Films' Early Visual Effects : British film producer David Heyman says the visual effects in the early Harry Potter films make him shudder.

Jurors Selected by the Close of <em>Apple v. Samsung</em>, Day One : After a grueling day of being grilled by both Judge Koh and lawyers representing Apple and Samsung, a jury of nine individuals was finally selected and sworn in. The jury will determine the outcomes of the tech giants' heated intellectual property case.

Democrats add gay marriage to party platform : National Democrats on Sunday approved the drafting of pro-gay marriage language into their platform at this year’s Democratic National Convention, according to a Democratic source. The news was first reported by the Washington Blade . Read full article >>

Basically look for a severe double dip coming very soon. ~~~ What garbage can tell us about the direction of the economy — in 1 chart : It turns out that what we throw out or, more accurately, how much we throw out, tells us a lot about the general economic direction of the country. At least, that is, according to calculations by economist Michael McDonough , who has produced an absolutely fascinating chart that shows the remarkable correlation between carloads of waste (as calculated by the American Association of Railroads) and the U.S. gross domestic product. Read full article >>

PIMCO's Gross prophesies death of equities in August outlook : NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bill Gross, the co-founder and co-chief investment officer of bond giant PIMCO, says it is time to write the obituary for stock investing as we know it.

Hulu Plus Just Made Apple TV a Million Times Better [Video] : Hulu Plus is on Apple TV now. Hulu just confirmed to us and in an official blog post that its streaming service is now available on Apple's set-top box. It's actually a pretty big deal. More »

Chinese Army Fights a Wasp Colony in the Most Awesome Way Possible [Video] : The wasps had already killed a man and stung dozens of others. But, located out of reach high atop a tree surrounded by rugged terrain, the massive colony was impervious to attack by the villagers of Jiangjin Tsz Wan Yuen Tsuen, China. The situation became so dire that the Army had to intervene— with flamethrowers . [ The Awesomer ] More »

Samsung Exec Finds "Fighting Over Rectangles" Unreasonable [Blockquote] : There are many, many accusations being tossed back and forth between Apple and Samsung. There have been for months, there will continue to be. But perhaps none of them has perfectly distilled the fight that the two megacorps are having quite like Samsung's Chief Product Officer Kevin Packingham did in an interview today with Wired . More »

A Tale of Two Parks. Al Lutz's Disneyland Update, MiceAge.com :

Anonymous says FML : Today, I was walking to the movie theatre with my boyfriend, when three guys muscled over and told us to hand over our phones. My boyfriend didn't waste any time pushing past me and running like hell, leaving me in tears and almost having a panic attack. FML

Epic Bus Confrontation WIN :

Hi, Mom! :

Romney wraps up tour on sour note : US presidential candidate Mitt Romney ends his overseas tour in Poland, as frustrations between his campaign and journalists boil over.

The only thing he's guilty of here is speaking the truth.  Culture does explain a country's prosperity. ~~~ Palestinians slam 'racist' Romney : US presidential candidate Mitt Romney is accused of racism after he suggested "culture" could explain the Palestinians' economic inferiority to Israel.

Courtney Love Tells Lana Del Rey That 'Heart-Shaped Box' Is About Her Vagina : Last week in Sydney Australia Lana Del Rey gave a delicate rendition of Nirvana's 1993 hit "Heart-Shaped Box" stripping the track of Kurt Cobain's grit in favor of a lighter version Today Courtney Love reached out to Del Rey on Twitter to give her an unsolicited rock history lesson Though the...

Billboard Comparing Obama to Colorado Shooting Suspect Called 'Abhorrent' : The Idaho display asks why “everyone freaks out” when James Holmes kills 12 people, but the world gives the president the Nobel Peace Prize after he “kills thousands with foreign policy.” read more

Tom Cruise and Suri: Scientology's Heartbreaking Double Standard? : Ex-Scientologists tell THR that unlike others in the church, he doesn't need to "disconnect" from his child or Katie Holmes due to PR fears; says one: "I've seen internal memos about Katie." read more

How to get expelled from the Olympics : Je les tous Defonce Coréens, allez vous tous Bruler, bande de trisos "I'll smash the Koreans, you'll burn, you band of mongoloids." — Swiss soccer player Michel Morganella, on Twitter, earlier today. Morgenella is on his way home. Swiss Olympic Team Expels Player for Racist Tweet [AP]

Are you a god? Scroll down to get it. ~~~ Meet Robin Shelby, Slimer actress in Ghostbusters 2, current web series star : A while back, I came across some old footage from the set of Ghostbusters 2 , a movie that is one of my favorite movies of all time. (And a movie that I will defend to the death.) The scene they were working on didn't feature any of the famous actors, it was all about Slimer, the focused, non-terminal repeating phantasm who also served as an unofficial tribute to the late John Belushi. Inside of Slimer was a young woman named Robin Shelby, who brought the Class 5 full roaming vapor to life. That footage has since been taken down, but I got to have a chat with Shelby about her work on Ghostbusters 2 as well as what she's up to now. So, you puppeteered Slimer in Ghostbusters 2. How far into your career were you when you snagged that job? I had worked on the film Willow prior to getting cast in GB2 . I was the troll that was at the top of a brid...

A message for the media from an Aurora shooting survivor: "Give victims and survivors their space" : "Student, writer, and self-identifying geek" A.J. Focht, writing on a Suicide Girls blog, talks about the experience of surviving the recent mass shooting at "The Dark Knight Rises" premiere at an Aurora, CO movie theater— and, how a friend and fellow survivor was hounded by content-hungry television producers: With only a small charge left in her phone one of the members of my group thought it best to send out a blanket distress beacon via Twitter so she could conserve her battery to call her parents and a ride home. Caitlin tweeted from her account @dingos8myTARDIS informing her family and friends of the chaos and that she was physically alright. Her tweets were some of the first online, and within the hour BBC, CNN, and others were broadcasting her messages on the news. The hundreds of media outlets that contacted her throughout the night were u...

Holding hands with strangers (video) : [ Video Link ] Andrew Hales of LAHWF ("Losing All Hope Was Freedom", a Fight Club reference) walks around in public trying to get strangers to hold his hand. Below, part two (via Joe Sabia ) .

Ralphisms: great Wiggum moments : "Ralphisms" by alasdairdavidstewart . (via Laughing Squid )

Pot legalization is on the ballot in three US states. What happens when one state says yes to weed? : This November, voters in three US states—Colorado, Washington, and Oregon—will be able to vote on ballot measures that would legalize marijuana, period. Not just for medicinal purposes, but for recreational purposes, too. At Rolling Stone , a smart blog post by Julian Brookes on what happens when the first state says "yes" to weed. When that happens, expect one of two things – either: the federal government, in deference to democratic principles, will decline to enforce its ban on marijuana, creating space for the state to be a "laboratory of democracy," working out its new policy by trial and error, learning as it goes, creating a trove of hard-earned lessons to guide the states that (inevitably) will follow; or: the federal government will bide its time and then come down hard, busting growers and retailers, seizing land and property (or, just as effec...

Official: Redesigned 2013 Kia Forte sedan makes web debut : Filed under: Budget , Sedan , Kia , Design/Style Kia has released proper photos of the coming 2013 Forte /Cerato and hints at the details to be found under the attractive new sheetmetal. As Kia tells us, this new Forte is plainly longer, lower and wider than the current model, and its longer wheelbase will provide more interior room, although we don't know how it compares to the current model or the competition. This isn't just a new look. The 2013 Forte has an entirely new bodyshell structure and LED lamps all around. A revised engine lineup promises "class-leading fuel economy." We should know more soon enough. For now there's a press release posted below to accompany the images released so far. Continue reading Redesigned 2013 Kia Forte sedan makes web debut

A Tale That Grew In The Telling... : Them Baggin's is multiplying... We all heard the possibility of Peter Jackson turning his Hobbit duology into a trilogy... And now it's official. Via " The Hobbit " Facebook page the director made the announcement today: "So, without further ado and on behalf of New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Wingnut Films, and the entire cast and crew of “The Hobbit” films, I’d like to announce that two films will become three." Go check out the entire post to see more of what Jackson had to say. Now we have to wonder what will the third film be called? Or will they just call it " There And Back Again Part 1 & Part 2 " maybe? Now when it's all over, fans of " The Lord of the Rings " will have two trilogies to fire up on the Blu-Ray by 2015. But until then, it looks like Warner Bros. will own December for the next three years, which is their intent. Th...

MCU2TV... : Excelsiorvision... Nikki Finke 's website has a nice little rumor ... I don't link to Deadline anymore (if you want it, you can google it), but they had a small blurb about what Marvel Television 's plans are in the future. While a series like the Guillermo del Toro produced " Hulk " series is not set in the MCU , the Superhero Studio and the ABC Network are working on a series that will be set in the movie universe: read that it'll be canon. No word yet on what it'll be about other than it won't be about the characters in the film, but will be in the universe of the film. So it could be about everyday people dealing with a world with super powered heroes, or a special unit of S.H.I.E.L.D. perhaps? There has been talk of a rumored animated series, but it was nowhere near being green lit. Then again, this sounds barely out of that realm as well. All we know it that they're looking for a writer for the show. May I...

More reasons why this movie should not be made. ~~~ Suit filed over 'Expendables 2' stuntman's death : LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The parents of a stuntman killed while working on the film "The Expendables 2" filed a wrongful death lawsuit Thursday against the makers of the action film....

Sandy Weill Calls for the Return of Glass-Steagall : On CNBC's Squawk Box, the 79-year-old former chairman and CEO of Citigroup calls for a breakup of "too big to fail" banks.

Why Gold Will Surpass $2,250 per Ounce : As major miners defer major projects, the gold price must correct higher.

The funny thing is how the big bro administration that has been unfriendly with many of the strongest traditional allies like Poland and Israel has decided to be friendly once the Republican nominee went to visit them. ~~~ US to station forces in Poland for first time : Washington (AFP) July 25, 2012 The Pentagon said Wednesday it plans to send a US air force detachment to Poland to support fighter jets and transport planes, marking the first time that US soldiers have been stationed there. The announcement was made at the end of talks between US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his Polish counterpart Tomasz Siemoniak. The detachment "will arrive this fall to support quarterly F-16

The Hobbit III: The Search for Peter Jackson's Paycheck ~~~ Rumors of Third <em>Hobbit</em> Movie Confirmed : The rumors have been confirmed. The two-movie plan for The Hobbit has been changed, uh, mid-stream. Make room in your movie-going schedule and expectations for a Hobbit trilogy.

The NBA owners want a payday for these global championships. ~~~ U.S. NBA Stars Start What May Be Their Last Run For Gold : Team USA's march toward gold in men's basketball is made against a bittersweet backdrop: This may be the last time we see NBA players in the Games. SPOILER WARNING

Iran bolsters retaliation capability in Persian Gulf, experts say : Iran is rapidly gaining new capabilities to strike at U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf, amassing an arsenal of sophisticated anti-ship missiles while expanding its fleet of fast-attack boats and submarines, U.S. and Middle Eastern analysts say. Read full article >>

Microsoft's Lost Decade : Kurt Eichenwald has written a lengthy article about Microsoft's slow decline over the past 10 years, cataloging their missteps and showing how consistent, poor decision-making from management crippled the tech titan in several important industries. "By the dawn of the millennium, the hallways at Microsoft were no longer home to barefoot programmers in Hawaiian shirts working through nights and weekends toward a common goal of excellence; instead, life behind the thick corporate walls had become staid and brutish. Fiefdoms had taken root, and a mastery of internal politics emerged as key to career success. In those years Microsoft had stepped up its efforts to cripple competitors, but—because of a series of astonishingly foolish management decisions—the competitors being crippled were often co-workers at Microsoft, instead of other companies. Staffers were rewarded not just for doing well but for making sure that their colleagues failed. As a resu...

Mark Zuckerberg's Big Facebook Mistake : Hugh Pickens writes "Nathan Vardi writes in Forbes that in the last two months, Mark Zuckerberg has had a rude introduction to the capital markets. With Facebook's stock in free-fall, down more than 40% from its IPO price, Zuckerberg has a big problem. 'Zuckerberg did not want to deal with the pressures of being a public company. Like many entrepreneurs these days he viewed the capital markets with suspicion,' writes Vardi. 'So Zuckerberg made a fateful decision, he decided to keep Facebook a privately-held company for much longer than other success stories like Google or Amazon.' But waiting eight years to conduct an IPO has turned out to be an impossible problem to manage. The bankers at Morgan Stanley applied all the lessons of the last 15 years and priced the IPO at $38, which was very aggressive, in an attempt to avoid leaving any money on the table and the embarrassment that a huge IPO pop would represent. With...

Web Giants Form US Internet Lobby Group : judgecorp writes "Google, Facebook, eBay and Amazon have apparently set up the Internet Association to lobby the US government on issues relating to online business. From the article: 'The Internet Association, which will open its doors in September, will act as a unified voice for major Internet companies, said President Michael Beckerman, a former adviser to the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee.'" Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Looming Postal Service default shakes mailers' confidence : WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Postal Service is set this week to default on a giant payment, the latest blow illustrating Congress' slow progress toward fixing the agency's deep financial woes and one that could damage some customers' confidence.

Facebook's value slides by $10 billion; outlook unclear : (Reuters) - Investors wiped $10 billion off the value of Facebook Inc on Friday, taking the recently listed shares to a new low, after the social network offered no forecast and analysts said mobile investments would put future earnings under pressure.

The Next iPhone Won't Be the iPhone 5 [Iphone 5] : Can you taste it? That's an unreleased iPhone in your mouth—so close that we've all got a good sense of what it'll look like and do . More »

Report: Apple iPhone and iPad Mini Announcement Will Be September 12 [Apple] : iMore is reporting that Apple will announce the new iPhone and an iPad Mini on September 12, for release on the 21st. We'll update with more information as it's available. More »

Microsoft Confirms Surface Will Ship Alongside Windows 8 on October 26th [Windows] : Supersite for Windows is reporting that Microsoft has confirmed that the Surface is due to start shipping on October 26th, alongside Windows 8 . More »

Tiny Satellite To Scrawl Morse Code Messages Across the Night Sky [Space] : Inside an unmanned craft now headed towards the International Space Station sit several smallish, cube-shaped satellites. Soon, one of them will be writing Morse code messages across the sky. More »

You've Got to Be Crafty to Take Down the Empire With this LEGO Star Wars Chess Set [Daily Desired] : This whole rebellion business could have been handled with much more savvy than just blowing up home planets and Deathstars. Both sides could have sat down to a friendly no-holds-barred, all-or-nothing chess match with the fate of the galaxy on the line like civilized people. More »

Habit Burger opening 4 more O.C. restaurants : The Habit Burger Grill, which has five Orange County locations, is planning four more restaurants across the county. The next one will open in mid-September in Huntington Beach at the former Tommy Pastrami site on Beach Boulevard. The location, near...

Alvarez accepts ruling ending 4th term bid : SANTA ANA – A Santa Ana councilwoman said Saturday that she will accept without appeal a judge's decision that would deny her the ability to seek a fourth term. Councilwoman Claudia Alvarez said she was looking for an objective decision on the...

How ironic.  By protesters getting violent over the way Anaheim is run, the council was unable to finish the meeting and rule on two issues that could have been put on the fall ballots.  One would have changed the elections to be area specific and the other to require public votes on big development plans. ~~~ Protests prevent votes; official calls it 'big win' : ANAHEIM – As protesters clashed with police and the vandalism escalated outside City Hall on Tuesday, council members decided in the interest of safety to end the meeting early – effectively nullifying the chances for two ballot measures. Both...

Connector between 605 and 405 freeways to close for construction : The southbound 605 ramp will be shut down for two weeks starting Monday as part of the $277-million West County Connector project. Alternative routes on city streets are offered. In what could be a mini-version of "Carmegeddon," which shut down a major Westside freeway last summer, a busy connector on the southbound 605 Freeway between Long Beach and Seal Beach will close for two weeks starting Monday because of construction.

I think most of the criticism is from comparing D3 to WoW. ~~~ Diablo 3's long-term planning failures : This is a weekly column from freelancer Rowan Kaiser, which focuses on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity. The more I read about, think about, and play Diablo 3 at high levels, the more baffled I am by some of developer Blizzard Entertainment's decisions. An examination of the design of Diablo 3 , when combined with the company's public statements on the project, indicate confusion over the goals of Diablo 3 , as if there was no conceptual development of Diablo 3 as an overall experience. Not having been present when decisions were made, I can't speak to the reasons behind Blizzard's choices. But however they were made, those choices have manifested in distinct, negative ways - which should have been easily predicted, yet oddly weren't. Gallery: Diablo 3 (10/21/1...

Police: Titans player dies in apparent suicide : Police say a Tennessee Titans player has died of an apparent suicide.

Riding With Strangers WIN :

Photoshop Level: Infinity :

Ebola confirmed in Uganda capital : Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni calls on people to avoid physical contact, as the deadly Ebola virus spreads to the capital, Kampala.

Egypt president meets Hamas PM : Egypt's President Mohammed Mursi discusses "solutions" to the blockade of Gaza at talks with the head of the Hamas-led government, Ismail Haniya.

FAIL Nation: Chest Bump FAIL :