Smurfs Cowboys & Aliens Tie for Box Office Lead The Hollywood Movie 2011 Smurfs Movie Review 2011 Smurfs Cowboys & Aliens tie at box office

'Smurfs,' 'Cowboys & Aliens' tie at box office

Tra-la-la-la-la-la — the animated little blue guys overcome projections, equaling the western / sci-fi mash-up's $36.2-million opening weekend.

In a surprise, “The Smurfs” tie "Cowboys & Aliens" at the box office this weekend.
"Cowboys & Aliens" had the heft of two popular genres going for it.

The film, one of the most expensive movies to be released this year, also boasted two A-list actors in veterans Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig. And it had two Hollywood bigwigs behind the camera — Steven Spielberg as executive producer and "Iron Man's" Jon Favreau as director, who in recent weeks has been exhaustively promoting the movie. And it was received well by the fanboy audience at Comic-Con International in San Diego, where it premiered late last month.

But rather than opening to twice the success, the film had disappointing ticket sales this weekend. In a surprise, "The Smurfs" — a critically panned live-action/computer-animated hybrid movie based on characters that originated more than 50 years ago — grossed far more than pre-release polling had indicated. As a result, on Sunday the studios behind the pictures estimated that each film would collect $36.2 million domestically by weekend's end. Meanwhile, the weekend's other new wide release, the adult romantic comedy "Crazy, Stupid, Love," brought in a decent $19.3 million.

Nikki Rocco, the domestic distribution president for Universal Pictures — which released "Cowboys" — said the film was a "unique action movie with a bold concept and a great pedigree of filmmakers."

"We took a shot with them to bring this movie to market," she explained.

The film's soft opening is no doubt a letdown for Universal as well as the picture's other financial packers, DreamWorks and Relativity Media, who collectively spent about $163 million to produce the movie.

"Cowboys," which is based on a little-read graphic novel about an alien invasion in the Old West, resonated most with an older crowd, as 63% of the audience was over the age of 30. Those who saw the film — 53% of whom were male — gave it an average grade of B, according to market research firm CinemaScore.

The movie performed about as well on its first weekend as "Super 8," one of the only other major studio releases to come out this summer with a largely original concept. That J.J. Abrams-directed film opened to $35.5 million in June and has since grossed $181.2 million worldwide, but its production budget was far less, topping out at about $50 million.

Meanwhile, "The Smurfs," which features a gaggle of diminutive blue cartoon characters, now seems primed to follow in the footsteps of Fox's hugely successful "Alvin and the Chipmunks" series, which also stars live actors alongside animated characters. The most recent film in that franchise, "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," opened to $48.9 million domestically in 2009 and went on to gross $443.1 million worldwide. "The Smurfs" is already off to a better start than two similar films that were released in 2010, "Yogi Bear" and "Marmaduke," both of which opened to less than $17 million.

"I don't know why people underestimated this movie to such a degree. We were always very bullish on it," Sony distribution President Rory Bruer said. "It has a huge following and not just with kids — there's a nostalgia factor and a cool factor that is kind of making the film resonate for us."

Audiences who saw "The Smurfs" this weekend loved it, assigning the PG-rated film an average grade of A-minus. Not surprisingly, the movie — which cost about $110 million to produce — appealed mostly to a family audience, as 65% of the crowd was composed of parents with their children. The film didn't sell an overwhelming number of 3-D tickets, with about 45% of the crowd opting to see the film in the pricier format.

The Smurfs, originally conceived by a Belgian comic-book artist in 1958, rose to popularity stateside when they became the subject of a 1980s Saturday morning cartoon program. To make sure younger audiences were familiar with the older property, Sony teamed up with a handful of marketing partners including McDonald's, Stauffer's, Post and Toys R Us to advertise the movie. (McDonald's featured Smurfs on its Happy Meals worldwide.)

Overseas, the film opened this weekend in seven foreign markets and collected $4.4 million. The movie performed best in Spain, where it grossed $3.9 million, marking the eighth-biggest opening of the year in that nation.

"Crazy, Stupid, Love," in which a middle-aged man played by Steve Carell is taught how to pick up women after his wife leaves him, cost Warner Bros. about $45 million to make. The film, which also stars Ryan Gosling and has received largely positive reviews, was given an average grade of B-plus by those who saw it. The movie appealed most to a largely older crowd, as 71% of the audience was 25 or above.

"There's always a lack of films toward the end of the summer for an older audience," said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. "We always felt like they were waiting for something good to come out — and obviously, they were waiting."

The Smurfs Review: Smurf On Ahead, Nothing To Smurf Here

The Smurfs cartoons were a daily presence in my life growing up. It originally aired from 1981-1989 with 420 episodes and I would watch many of these every day, especially on weekends and summer vacation. Looking back, its no wonder that my parents never watched this with me because of the ubiquitous “La la la lala lalalala,” that I’m sure would drive any adult a little nuts.

The Smurfs are magically transported to New York City via a portal on the day of the Blue Moon festival. Clumsy Smurf (Anton Yelchin) accidentally leads Gargamel and his cat Azrael into the hidden Smurf village wherein chaos ensues after the sorcerer begins to start destroying their homes while trying to capture the tiny little blue men. Clumsy, being Clumsy, gets separated from the rest of the Smurfs causing Papa (Jonathan Winters), Smurfette (Katy Perry), Grouchy (George Lopez), Brainy (Fred Armisen) and Gutsy (Alan Cumming) to go after him. In New York, they meet Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris) and Grace Winslow (Jayma Mays), a young couple expecting their first child. Patrick works for a cosmetic company headed by Odile (Sofia Vergara), and recently has a trial promotion as the Vice President of marketing. If he can please Odile then he gets to keep the job. Of course that isn’t easy with the Smurfs involved. They are well meaning little blue creatures but incredibly out of place in this modern world. Still as they try to find their way back home and stop Gargamel from capturing them and stealing their Smurf essence, audiences are imparted with some important lessons.

The 2011 film doesn’t quite pack the same entertainment punch as cartoon did my five-year-old self saw it back in the day, but if you are in that age group now and watched it this opening weekend you probably enjoyed yourself. I’ll admit that the physical comedy of the movie were the parts where I laughed with the five, seven, and ten year olds who were in the theater with me. Hank Azaria, who plays Gargamel the dimwitted sorcerer hunting for Smurfs, took the brunt of the falls, hits, tosses, and crashes. Azaria did a spot on job in his portrayal of Gargamel’s demeanor and movement, but I just couldn’t get over the voice. Of course there was no way it could be the same, but it just kept reminding me that it was Azaria playing Gargamel, not really Gargamel come to life. That being said, I’m biased and I’m sure the kids enjoyed it.

Harris and Mays gave decent performances, but to be honest I kept feeling like I was watching an episode of Glee and soon the two actors would burst into spontaneous singing. Mays plays Emma Pillsbury on the hit show and Harris guested as Bryan Ryan (he won an Emmy for outstanding guest actor in a comedy series for this role).

The voice acting caught me by surprise, as I had no idea that Lopez was playing Grouchy, which was quite fitting. My favorite had to be Cumming as Gutsy because for one I couldn’t recognize his voice and secondly, he had the best lines.

Still my favorite character in the entire film has to be Azrael the cat. It was the best comic relief and had the funniest expressions. Kudos to the voice actor, CGI team, and the animal trainer!

Bottom line – parents, your kids will enjoy it and children of the eighties I say stick to the cartoons.

Pictures Courtesy of Sony Pictures Animation

La la: Smurfs movie slammed, goes #1 w/Neil Patrick Harris, Katy Perry

Updated to include more detail regarding critical Smurfs reviews

La la la la la la, the Smurfs Movie is tied for #1 at the box office despite the vast majority of professional reviews being negative, most of which have ranged from the “so bad it’s kind of watchable” to “so bad it’s terrible” kind of critical disdain. So what saved the movie? Two things: one is the real-world presence Neil Patrick Harris. That’s right, the former child actor one seemingly destined to be forever known as Doogie Howser has quietly transformed himself into one of our better actors in his adulthood. The other is the virtual presence of Katy Perry, the voice of Smurfette, who breathes an appropriate amount of ladyness into the lone female Smurf. And that’s a good thing, because the male Smurfs in the movie are just plain annoying.

But if there’s something which works about this movie, it’s probably that viewers can hang in there vicariously through NPH as he finds the Smurf characters to be as annoying as the audience does. It’s a tough day when characters which in their original incarnations were such caricatures that they had stereotypical names more obvious than that of the Seven Dwarfs, and yet these characters have somehow managed to dissolve further into caricature (past the threshold of no return) in their movie incarnations. Oh well. But Neil and Katy to the rescue, because other than that, there’s not much here. Then again, the Smurfs movie benefits from the same scenario as the Transformers movies: parents who want to see the movie just to revisit characters from their own childhood, and kids who are eager to see any kid-oriented movie their parents are willing to take them to. And even after parents and kids alike figured out that the first Transformers movie wasn’t very good, they went back and saw two ever-worsening sequels. Perhaps that’s why the Smurfs movie sequels are already en route; this kind of nostalgia-based double whammy doesn’t need to be good in order to be seen.

Then again,there’s the fact that the primary competition at the box office is called Cowboys and Aliens. That’s the kind of name the studios assign to a movie that’s so bad they know it’s going to bomb and so they give it a ridiculous hail-mary of a name (see Sucker Punch) in the hopes of luring in some folks based on the tacky name alone. An odd move for this particular movie, seeing as how it stars quality actors like Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, who are usually box office money just by showing up. And on top of that, Cowboys and Aliens has a much higher critical approval rating than its blue-themed rival. Just imagine if they’d instead called it Cowboys and Smurfs.

Smurfs, Cowboys & Aliens Tie for Box Office Lead

It was a strong weekend for unusual creatures this weekend: The Smurfs tied with Cowboys & Aliens for first at the box office. Both films earned $36.2 million.

Cowboys & Aliens Trailer

Despite the deadlock, Cowboys & Aliens comes out as a loser. Considering the star power involved and the budget ($163 million), expectations were high for the Jon Favreu-directed thriller. Instead, it barely made half of what the top superhero-based flicks of the summer took home in their first weekend.

A look at the top five:

1. The Smurfs: $36.2 million
2. Cowboys & Aliens: $36.2 million
3. Captain America: The First Avenger: $24.9 million
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: $21.9 million
5. Crazy, Stupid Love: $19.3 million

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Saratoga County property transactions published August 2011 Future of the Islanders hangs in the balance of Aug &Devil Dish August

Future of the Islanders hangs in the balance of Aug. 1 vote

This is what the new Nassau Coliseum could look like if voters in Nassau County vote "yes" on Monday to a proposed referendum that would see a $350-million redevelopment for a new arena and $50-million for a minor league baseball stadium at nearby Mitchel Field.

From the rendering, you can't see inside the arena, but I would imagine there's plenty of elbow room on the concourses, no leaky roof or broken down chairs that have seen the days of Trottier, Nystrom, Gillies, Smith, and Potvin.

August 1 represents the end of the rope that New York Islanders owner Charles Wang has been clinging to trying to get a new arena built. Wang says he's lost $230 million in the 11 years he's owned the Islanders and with the continued losses has tried numerous times to find a way to build a new home.

A majority "no" vote on Monday would mean Wang either looking elsewhere -- Queens, Brooklyn or outside of New York -- or the potential that he's done losing money and putting the team up for sale.

The most recent idea, the Lighthouse Project, was a grandiose plan that featured condominiums, restaurants, shopping, and hotels was approved -- after a scaling down --through all the levels of Nassau County politics, but stalled over a zoning issue with the Town of Hempstead.

In May, Wang and Nassau County executive Ed Mangano unveiled the latest plan emphasizing job creation revenue creation for the budget-strapped county who's recent unemployment rate was 6.9-percent.

There's been plenty of debate from both sides. The side that's anti-taxpayers paying for stadiums and the side that sees what the true loss of the Islanders would mean to the community.

The New York Post's Larry Brooks isn't a fan of taxpayers paying for stadiums for billionaires and believes that a "no" vote tomorrow doesn't necessarily kill the idea of the Islanders staying in New York:

Wang was willing to spend an enormous amount of his own money not only to build Lighthouse, but to campaign for it. He is not, however, willing to spend $350 million of his own money to build a new arena.

He doesn't explain why. He just wants the county to build it for him.

If you think that paying for a new coliseum yourself is the only way to keep the Islanders here, and if you believe that's a worthy investment, then by all means cast your vote that way in the referendum.

Just as long as you're aware that there almost certainly are going to be other options to keep the Islanders where they belong, in New York, if the referendum goes down, even if not necessarily in Nassau County.

George Vecsey of the New York Times wonders in these tough economic times if an arena project is worth it when there are cuts in so many other places:

The Islanders molder, like a suburban house whose owners cannot afford the upkeep. Wang tried to link the residual affection for a vanished team with a grandiose $3.8 billion Lighthouse project for an arena and urban center with housing and transportation. Now he just wants Nassau to pass a bond to build a new arena, and he promises to pay the cost over-runs. Wise heads are telling him to post a performance bond.

Normally, I am on the side of public projects. I'm all for high-speed railroads and repairing the infrastructure, but not so sure about an arena for a hockey team.

This proposal reminds me of how New York City lobbied to host the 2012 Summer Olympics based on building an all-purpose stadium on the West Side of Manhattan. The Olympic powers rejected it, rightfully so. All the evidence tells me that big-box arenas and stadiums are often a mom-and-pop proposition for jobs and create dead spaces, just like Nassau Coliseum.

According to the plan Mangano and Wang presented in May, the $400-million being asked from taxpayers will be paid back trough revenue-sharing over a 30-year lease. According to an independent economic developer, $1.2-billion will be generated in gross revenue over the term. There will be $350-million of that going towards construction costs and $433-million to paying off debt, which leaves $403-million going back to taxpayers. Approximately, 1.5-percent of every dollar generated will go back to residents of Nassau County.

Nick Giglia of Let There Be Lighthouse weighs everything in the balance and most importantly, just what the cost would be:

This referendum must not be considered against a now-dead development proposal; it must be weighed against the cost of doing nothing.

Independent reviews have cut through the scare tactics and presented us with a stark choice. For example, the Office of Legislative and Budget Review pegs the cost of a new arena at a maximum of $13.80 per household per year.

The cost of doing nothing and losing the Islanders and Nassau Coliseum? $16 per household per year, with $243 million and 2,660 jobs projected to disappear from the Nassau County economy should the team move and the arena be shuttered. When presented with that choice, how can you choose nothing over something?

The Islanders and the county caught a break being able to schedule the vote on a Monday in the middle of summer with voters in vacation mode and an expectant turnout not as close to what it would be had it been planned for Election Day in November.

So it's up to Nassau County voters on Monday to decide if they're better off with a revenue-generating arena for the next 30 years or let Nassau Coliseum's main tenant leave, thereby losing millions in potential tax revenues and more importantly, jobs.

Saratoga County property transactions published August 1, 2011

These property transactions were filed with the Saratoga County Clerk’s Office from July 22 to
July 29. Property transactions list seller, buyer and transfer tax. Specific addresses are supplied when available. The following are listed by town in the form of seller, buyer and purchase price.

Ballston
• Thomas E. and Charles T. Lowe sold property at 388 Goode St. to Thomas J. and Darcy Benuscak for $105,000.
• Gertrude Dechants sold property at 72 Mclean St. to Edward. T. and Molly M. Stammel for $160,000.
• Richard A. and Linda J. DeCrescente sold property at 13 Vienna Court to Jeffrey T. and Danielle L. Vaughan for $349,000.

Clifton Park
• Kevin and Tina Fountain sold property to David C. and Mina Sun for $725,000.
• Masullo Brothers Builders Inc. sold property at 2 Legends Way to Matthew C. and Kristen M. Weber for $422,125.

Forex – EUR/USD Weekly Outlook: August 1- 5

Forexpros – The euro ended the week almost unchanged against the broadly weaker U.S. dollar on Friday, as renewed concerns over sovereign debt contagion in the euro zone hit the single currency, while disappointing economic data and uncertainty over a deal on raising the U.S. debt ceiling hampered the greenback.

EUR/USD hit 1.4535 on Wednesday, the pair’s highest since July 5; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.4397 by close of trade on Friday, edging up 0.07% over the week.

The pair is likely to find support at 1.4228, Friday’s low and a six-day low and resistance at 1.4535, Friday’s high.

Sentiment on the euro weakened on Friday, amid fears over sovereign debt contagion, after Spain’s Aa2 rating was placed on review for possible downgrade by Moody’s and the country’s prime minister called early elections.

Elsewhere, the Commerce Department said that the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of just 1.3% in the second quarter, falling short of expectations for growth of 1.7%. First quarter growth was revised sharply lower to 0.4%, down from 1.9%.

Meanwhile, with only days to go before an August 2 deadline to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, Congressional leaders and the White House had not reached a consensus that would avert a downgrade or default on the nation’s debt.

On Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama urged divided Republicans and Democrats to reach an agreement.

In the week ahead, the dollar looks likely to remain under pressure as investors await progress on a deal to raise the debt ceiling, while Friday’s non-farm payrolls will also be in focus.

Meanwhile, a post-policy meeting press conference by European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will be closely watched for insights into the region’s sovereign debt crisis and further signs of tightening by the bank.

Ahead of the coming week, Forex Pros has compiled a list of these and other significant events likely to affect the markets.

Monday, August 1

The euro zone is to publish official data on the unemployment rate, an important indicator of economic health.

In the U.S., the Institute of Supply Management is to publish data on manufacturing activity. Meanwhile, markets in Canada are to remain closed for a national holiday. Also Monday, markets in Australia are to remain closed for a bank holiday.

Tuesday, August 2

The U.S. is to publish official data on personal consumption expenditures and personal spending, which is linked to consumer inflation.

Wednesday, August 3

The euro zone is to publish official data on retail sales, the primary gauge of consumer spending, which accounts for the majority of overall economic activity.

Later in the day, payroll processing firm ADP is publish a report on U.S. non-farm payrolls, which leads government data by two days. In addition, the Institute of Supply Management is to publish data on service sector growth, a leading indicator of economic health. The U.S. is also to publish data on factory orders and crude oil inventories.

Thursday, August 4

In the euro zone, Germany is to produce official data on factory orders, a leading indicator of production. Later in the day, the ECB is to announce its benchmark interest rate. The announcement will be followed with a closely watched press conference to outline the factors affecting the decision.

Also Thursday, the U.S. is to publish government data on initial jobless claims, a leading indicator of economic health.

Friday, August 5

In the euro zone, Germany is to release official data on industrial production, a leading indicator of economic health.

The U.S. is to round up the week with government data on non-farm payrolls, as well as data on average hourly earnings and the unemployment rate.



• Christopher E. Culnan sold property at 8 Lexington Court to Nancy Keelen for $175,000.

Devil Dish: August 1

I have no idea what to expect.

On Thursday, with little warning, and to the surprise of even those who were screaming for his removal, Bob Bradley was fired as head coach of the U.S. men’s soccer team.

On Friday, the squad already had a new coach in Jürgen Klinsmann, who is famous as both a striker for the German national team and as the coach who lead the Deutschland to a third-place finish in the 2006 World Cup.

By Saturday, columnists across the country were furiously trying to analyze the switch.

It’s tough to gauge Klinsmann. As a player, he had an up and down career, but for the most part excelled, winning the World Cup with Germany in 1990.

As a coach, he’s only had two jobs. He led Germany for just two years before stepping down. And he was removed from his position as coach at Bayern Munich halfway through the 2008-09 season.

I’ve heard people say the U.S. team will be way better, and I’ve heard the opposite. I’ve heard a compelling argument that nothing will change.

I usually have a strong opinion about anything US soccer, but now, I’m at a loss.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

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Types of Profile Pictures tips for good Facebook profile picture Using Your Face to Dig Deeper

Facebook Know-how

Lara Solomon is the founder of Mocks, mobile phone socks , founder of Social Rabbit - your guide in the world of social media and author of 'Brand New Day – the Highs & Lows of Starting a Small Business'. Lara's business LaRoo was the winner of the NSW Telstra Micro-Business Award in 2008.

A couple of weeks ago I looked at what makes a good Facebook page welcome tab, so I thought I would follow that up by looking at the profile picture.

Your page profile picture is the image on the left side of your page and always stays there no matter which tab your visitors click on.

Facts on the profile picture:

• The space you have available is 540 pixels long by 180 pixels wide (of you aren’t sure what this is Facebook will automatically resize what you load up).
• You can change it as often as you like.
• The thumbnail for your page (that’s the little picture that appears next to your page posts in peoples’ newsfeeds and on the wall) is made from your profile picture.
• Every profile picture you upload automatically goes into a photo album called “profile pictures”.

Tips for a good picture:

• Make it eye-catching.
• Simple and clear is better than packing lots in – people shouldn’t need to squint to read things or see what it is in the image.
• Make it relevant, that means if your page is about a product include the product, if your page is about a service-based business show relevant happy customers or the service in action.
• Include your logo so that people know when they first visit that they have the right page – particularly relevant if you don’t have a welcome tab.
• If you include a phone number also include the area code, visitors might not realise you are in a different state to them.
• Make sure it matches the rest of your business’ branding, eg. if your business colours are red and pink, don’t use blue and green, etc.
• If you have a product-based business use it as a place to showcase your products and change it regularly so that people see the range you have. This worked really well on my Mocks page, and when we changed the picture people would ask, “Where do I buy that design?”
• If you have the photos tab showing on your page after you load up a new profile picture go and add a description – this is particularly relevant if you are promoting a product because you can add a link to where it can be bought.
• Get topical, eg. Christmas is around the corner, get a festive picture for the season.

I see some profile pictures that are really wasting what is prime real estate in the Facebook world, because your profile picture becomes your thumbnail and that’s what people see when they search – it’s all about first impressions and making it easy for people to find you. Have a really good look at yours; does it tell someone at a glance what you are all about or are they screwing their eyes up trying to read it?

Lara Solomon is the founder of Mocks, mobile phone socks , founder of Social Rabbit - your guide in the world of social media author of 'Brand New Day – the Highs & Lows of Starting a Small Business'. Lara's business LaRoo was the winner of the NSW Telstra Micro-Business Award in 2008.

Using Your Face to Dig Deeper

As Internet giants Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. race to expand their facial-recognition abilities, new research shows how powerful, and potentially detrimental to privacy, these tools have become.

Armed with nothing but a snapshot, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh successfully identified about one-third of the people they tested, using a powerful facial-recognition technology recently acquired by Google.

Prof. Alessandro Acquisti, the study's author, also found that about 27% of the time, using data gleaned from Facebook profiles of the subjects he identified, he could correctly predict the first five digits of their Social Security numbers.

The research demonstrates the potentially intrusive power of a facial-recognition technology, when combined with publicly available personal data. The study was funded largely by a grant from the National Science Foundation, with smaller sums from Carnegie Mellon and the U.S. Army.

Paul Ohm, a law professor at University of Colorado Law School, who has read Prof. Acquisti's paper, said it shows how easy it is becoming to "re-identify" people from bits of supposedly anonymous information. "This paper really establishes that re-identification is much easier than experts think it's going to be," he said.

For his study, Prof. Acquisti used a webcam to take pictures of student volunteers, then used off-the-shelf facial-recognition software to match the students' faces with those in publicly available Facebook photos. "We call it the democratization of surveillance," he said.

The professor said the study also shows how Facebook, with its 750 million users, whose names and profile photos are automatically public, is becoming a de facto identity-verification service.

A Facebook spokesman said that Facebook profiles don't always contain pictures of people's faces. Users can choose whether "to upload a profile picture, what that picture is of, when to delete that picture," he said.

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt discussed his concerns about Facebook at the D: All Things Digital conference in June.

Facebook is "the first generally available way of disambiguating identity," he said. "Historically, on the Internet such a fundamental service wouldn't be owned by a single company. …I think the industry would benefit from an alternative to that."

Google has been racing to create a rival social-networking service. In June, it launched Google+ to compete with Facebook. In July, Google acquired Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition, or PittPatt, the facial-recognition technology that was used in the Carnegie Mellon study.

Facebook rolled out its facial-recognition service world-wide in June. The service lets people automatically identify photos of their friends. Facebook users who don't want to be automatically identified in photos must change their privacy settings.

A Google spokesman said the company won't introduce facial-recognition technology "to our apps or product features" without putting strong privacy protections in place. At the D conference, Mr. Schmidt said Google had withdrawn a facial-recognition service for mobile phones that it considered too intrusive.

The race to acquire facial-recognition technology reflects the technology's sharp improvement in recent years. The number of matching photos that were incorrectly rejected by state-of-the-art recognition technology declined to 0.29% in 2010 from 79% in 1993, according to a study by the National Institutes of Standards and Technology.

"It's certainly not science fiction anymore," said Peter N. Belhumeur, professor of computer science at Columbia University.

One big reason for the leap forward: the wide availability of photos that people have uploaded to the Internet through social-networking sites. Previously, publicly available pictures of individuals were mostly limited to driver's-license photos, school portraits or criminal mug shots, all of which were difficult to obtain.

In the Carnegie Mellon study, 93 students agreed to be photographed using a web camera attached to a laptop. The shots were immediately uploaded to a cloud computer and compared with a database of 261,262 publicly available photos downloaded from Carnegie Mellon students' Facebook profiles.

In less than three seconds, the system found 10 possible matching photos in the Facebook database. The students confirmed their face was among the top results more than 30% of the time.

Prof. Acquisti said the research "suggests that the identity of about one-third of subjects walking by the campus building may be inferred in a few seconds combining social-network data, cloud computing and an inexpensive webcam."

He then tried to discover whether he could predict sensitive information from the Facebook profile of individuals he had identified. He exploited the fact that, after 1987, the Social Security Administration started assigning Social Security numbers in a way that inadvertently made it easier to predict them based on the person's birthdate

Drawing from knowledge of the Social Security numbering system used in a previous experiment, Prof. Acquisti was able to predict the first five digits of the subject's nine-digit Social Security numbers 27% of the time, with just four attempts. "The chain of inferences comes from one single piece of anonymous information—somebody's face."

The last four digits of the number also are predictable: In a 2009 paper, Prof. Acquisti showed that he could predict an entire Social Security number with fewer than 1,000 attempts for close to 10% of people born after 1988.

In June, the Social Security agency launched a new "randomized" numbering system, which will make such predictions more difficult for future generations. An agency spokesman said that even under the old system "there is no foolproof method for predicting a person's Social Security number."

As a demonstration of his latest project, Prof. Acquisti also built a mobile-phone app that takes pictures of people and overlays on the picture a prediction of the subject's name and Social Security number. He said he won't release the app, but that he wanted to showcase the power of the data that can be generated from a single photo.

12 Types of Profile Pictures

It’s the first thing you see on somebody’s profile – the profile picture. With people changing their profile pictures more often every year, you have to wonder, what kind of pictures are people putting up? In years of facebook-ing [read: Facebook Stalking] I have found there are 12 types of profile pictures that you are bound to run into in a quick browse of your own network:

The Relationship Picture

About the same level as going Facebook Official (FBO), the relationship picture is you telling the entire facebook community “Yeah, I’m taken.” Occasionally graduates into the even cutsier “Just Married” picture.

The Mac Picture

You typically see this photo when someone first gets a MacBook. It’s the Andy Warhol photo, or the photo with someone being pinched in the background, or mirrored on the other half. Otherwise known as the “iPicture.”

The Self Take

Also known as the i-look-too-good-right-now-to-not-have-anyone-taking-a-photo-of-me shot. Often seen as “the mirror shot,” where the flash or the camera covers the photo takers face, but their Jersey Shore level six pack is still crystal clear. We could also call this the “myspace shot.”

The I Love My Friends! Photo

This is most common with girls – most often seen in a large group making it impossible to tell whose profile you are actually looking at. Usually comes with a caption like “<3 forever!” or “me and my best girls!” Otherwise known as the “Where’s Waldo” picture.

The I Love My Friends But I Love Myself More! Photo

This is the photo of the girl who crops everyone else out of the group photo. Also known as the “ignore the half of a face on the top corner of the picture and redirect your focus on me” picture.

The Artsy Photo

This one can come in a tree, with a guitar, or in a field – but it always has one thing in common, the user isn’t smiling. And most often they’re not looking at the camera. Often known as the “abstract angle and weird lighting” picture.

The Cartoon Picture

And then there’s the picture that isn’t actually you. People put them up because they really love the cartoon character, or because it reminds them of them. Also known as the “No, really, what do you look like?” picture.

The Childhood Picture

Whether it’s when they were a baby, or as a toddler wearing some type of odd clothing, this one is a classic. Typically accompanied by the comment “omg you WERE so cute, lol!” Otherwise known as the “I wish he had grown out of that haircut” picture.

The Business Picture

This picture sticks to the original informative purpose of the profile picture. It’s the virtual version of telling your network, you’re on facebook, but you have a life outside of it. Also known as the “You know what I look like, what more do you want?” picture.

The Tourist Picture

Typically seen right after someone goes on vacation – usually in front of a notable landmark like the Eiffel tower or the pyramids. Also known as the “I’m worldly and having fun, jealous?” picture.

The How Great Are My Genes Picture

The successor to the “Just Married” shot, this picture is often seen of the adorable newborn sleeping in a blanket or curled up in someone’s arms. Also known as the “He looks just like me…right?!” picture.

The My Pet is Cuter Than Yours Picture

This is the picture of your dog, cat, or parrot catching a Frisbee, sleeping or just generally being cute. Also known as the “So have you just not shaved in a while…?” picture

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Harry Potter Stirrup Queens Harry Potter Birthday Celebration Contests and Programme 2011 Happy Birthday Harry Potter Happy Birthday J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter Stirrup Queens Harry Potter Birthday Celebration Contests and Programme 2011

'); JK Rowling may be a muggle, but her ability to write 7 page-turning Harry Potter novels is that of a wizard. At only 46 years old, she's one of the richest women in the world. Get all the details at Astrology.com! Happybirthday, JK Rowlin

Harry Potter turns 31 today. He was luckily born the same year as my brother, which is also a nice round year on the calendar, so it’s easy to keep his age straight (thank you, Ms. Rowling). Which means that the great battle took place in June of 1997.

I wonder if he had a birthday party that year. I mean, despite the good that came from that, his world was also shattered with all the loss; with what he witnessed. I wonder if he felt like digging into some chocolate cake a few weeks after that fight.

Which made me think about where I was on Harry Potter’s birthday back in 1997; what was happening in my life as he was recovering from battling Voldemort.

I was living in Massachusetts, working at a camp where I taught art. I lived in a co-op for free in exchange for being the handywoman/point person. My grandfather died, and I was heartbroken. I stopped weeding our co-op’s garden and the strawberries overtook the plot of land. I had just completed my translation project for graduate school. I had a crush on a boy named Pete, but we would have been terrible together, so we didn’t date. I babysat a lot. Dave Matthew’s video for “Crash” seemed to always be playing when I turned on MTV. I ate vegetable sandwiches pretty much for every single meal that summer so I must have also had three on his birthday.

A really ordinary life. You juxtapose that with the birthday Harry Potter must have been having. Were people lining up to give him presents, grateful for all that he did for them? Was Ms.Weasley holding up her hand and saying, “I know it’s your birthday, Harry, but my heart just isn’t capable of whipping up a cake and streamers for you just now

Click Full Post.............

Hindi Movie-Thank you Part 1 Thank You 2011 Bollywood romantic comedy film Slapstick comedy with intermittent humour Small glimpse of the Movie2011

Hindi Movie - Thank you Part 1

Small glimpse of the Movie

Thank You (Hindi: थैंक यू) is a 2011 Bollywood romantic comedy film directed by Anees Bazmee and produced by UTV Motion Pictures. It features Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Sonam Kapoor, Suniel Shetty, Irrfan Khan, Celina Jaitley and Rimi Sen. The film was released on April 8, 2011. Thank You is about three married men trying to have some fun outside their marriage. Akshay Kumar plays a detective who specializes in extra-marital relationships. Most of the scenes in this film were shot in Vancouver and Toronto, Canada and Bangkok. Other Bollywood films which have focused around a similar concept are Masti, No Entry, Shaadi No. 1 and to a certain extent, Do Knot Disturb.

With Universal, Comcast hopes to make a big splash in movies

By Bob Fernandez

Inquirer Staff Writer

NEW YORK - As big banner ads in Times Square last week hyped Universal's hoped-for blockbuster Cowboys & Aliens, the movie studio's parent company, NBCUniversal, held a screening of the western sci-fi thriller at its private theater near Rockefeller Center.

There were wine and soda and hors d'oeuvres trays, and company officials billed the event as a thank-you for about two dozen reporters who cover

Hindi Movie - Thank you Part 1

NBCU. There was another message for the gathered media - that the famed Universal Pictures movie studio that had fallen on hard times in recent years is on a hot streak under its new owner, Comcast Corp.

With a surprising run of hits since April, Universal has moved to third in U.S. market share of box-office receipts this year after, as one insider called it, "a really bad run" in 2009 and ranking sixth of the eight largest U.S. studios for 2010.

A committed management team is responsible for these recent hit movies and several projects in the Universal pipeline that are being closely watched by Hollywood insiders as potential heavy hitters - among them, an animated version of the Dr. Seuss story The Lorax and Battleship, based on the Hasbro game, both set for release in 2012.

"They have reestablished their prominence as a movie house that can produce broad, crowd-pleasing entertainment," said Craig Detweiler, director of the Center for Entertainment, Media and Culture at Pepperdine University.

"It's a hit-driven business, so it is always impossible to predict. It's always a gamble. And you have to have patience for your bets to pay off."

Comcast, the Philadelphia cable company, acquired the Hollywood movie studio through its megadeal for NBCUniversal, the owner of cable channels and the NBC TV network. When the deal closed in January, many observers assumed that Comcast would not be interested in a sixth-ranked movie studio.

But Comcast said it was devoted to the film business and wooed Hollywood. In early May, Comcast chief executive officer Brian Roberts publicly courted film great Steven Spielberg with a fund-raising dinner in Philadelphia for Spielberg's Shoah Foundation, which records the memories of Holocaust survivors. Roberts has said he hopes he can persuade Spielberg to return to Universal.

A month later, Comcast agreed to pay $1 billion for a 50 percent stake in the Universal theme park in Florida - a business closely tied to films and Spielberg - that it did not already own.

The swift turnaround at Universal, though, cannot be attributed solely to the cable company.

Facing deepening financial losses under General Electric Co. in 2009, a new leadership team of Adam Fogelson, Donna Langley, and Rick Finkelstein was appointed to head Universal's moviemaking operation. This year's crop of movies, which includes one clunker, The Dilemma, is the first of their projects.

The movie operation reports to Ron Meyer, the president and chief operating officer of Universal Studios, which includes the movie business and the theme parks. Meyer's employment contract at Universal, set to expire in 2012, was recently extended to late 2015.

Some analysts say Universal's problems stemmed in part from GE's insistence on profit growth, forcing Universal to take big risks on movie projects with the hopes of earning big profits to replace revenue lost through lower DVD sales.

The new management team has tightened decision-making around movie projects. A movie has to satisfy three criteria before it receives an OK: Can it be great? Does it have an identifiable audience? Is there a rational business plan attached to the project? Meaning: Do potential profits exceed potential losses based on the past experiences with films of a similar genre?

Perhaps the most surprising of Universal's hit films this year has been Bridesmaids, an R-rated woman-centric comedy that has tallied $240 million in global sales since mid-May, easily covering production costs of $32.5 million.

Also profitable has been the fifth installment of the Fast and Furious movies. It has generated $603 million worldwide since late April - after costing about $125 million to produce. Realizing there was more horsepower in the franchise, Universal was quick to slate a sixth Fast and Furious. It is scheduled for release in 2013.

Then there's Cowboys & Aliens, starring Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig. It cost $163 million to produce. Universal has only a 25 percent financial stake, which will limit its exposure to either a flop or a blockbuster.

Connected with two of the biggest names in Hollywood, Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard, the two-hour movie opened Friday to mixed reviews. Universal's partners are DreamWorks and Paramount.

The movie's story line is one of evil aliens mining for gold out West and a cowboy determined to avenge the death of his wife - at the hands of those aliens. There are gunplay, humor, Indians, special effects, and a Hollywood-style happy ending. The studio hopes for an opening weekend with receipts around $40 million.

New corporate owners have regularly fallen in love with Hollywood studios, only to be disenchanted when profits did not materialize or they found movie audiences too fickle for their liking.

So far Hollywood has been pleasantly surprised with Comcast, but time will tell how committed the cable company is to the movie business, Detweiler said.

"Comcast has given a clear signal to the talent in Hollywood that Universal is an attractive place to bring your project," he said. "And in a town like Hollywood, built on relationships, that is an important message to communicate."

More from Thank You

Trailer

Photogallery Official Websi

Slapstick comedy with intermittent humour

Story: Bobby Deol, Suniel Shetty and Irrfan Khan are a trio of philandering husbands who don't think twice before being unfaithful to their wives, Sonam Kapoor, Celina Jaitley and Rimmi Sen. Enter marriage therapist, Akshay Kumar, who is determined to teach them a lesson and bring them back to the happy family fold.

Best Reader's Review

its a really very entertaining movie i saw after very long time. one must watch it as it ...Read moreits a really very entertaining movie i saw after very long time. one must watch it as it will make u laugh loudly .and askhay kumar rockas again . watch out guys. rohit shetty (GOLMAL 1, 2, 3) (mumbai)

Movie Review : Anees Bazmee seems to be re-visiting familiar terrain with his new film. Thank You is heavily inspired by his earlier comic caper, No Entry, where Salman Khan had the onerous task of curing a motley group of errant husbands from their chronic infidelity. This time, it is Akshay Kumar who wields the baton -- or is it the flute -- to underscore the sanctity of the institution of marriage. Is this a case of playing safe for the director who has recently burned his hands at the box office or is it a drought of story ideas that seems to be Bollywood's biggest scourge?

Repetition notwithstanding, Thank You ends up as timepass fare, although it isn't as rollicking as No Entry. The first half of the film seems to be an exercise in nothingness and has you fidgeting in your seat as you try to look for the rare laughs in a script that is supposed to be funny. The bit-on-the-side sequences of the three husbands are hardly hilarious nor does the fuming wives club set the screen ablaze with hysteria. It is only in the second half that the film acquires form and substance and has you grinning at certain goof-ups. Akshay Kumar's elaborate plans to set the three marriages straight provides scope for actors like Irrfan Khan and Suneil Shetty to kick up a bit of fun, although Bobby Deol has hardly any humour tailored into his role. By and large, he remains dour and angry as he begins to suspect his sweet wife Sonam of adultery. The girls, on their part, mostly remain cosmetic with Sonam looking terribly out of sync, Rimmi not being allowed to play her feisty self and Celina being forced to do the disappearing act for a large part of the film.

So what's funny about Thank You? It's the guys who reiterate the worn-out cliche that fidelity isn't an intrinsic part of male physiology. Add to this the high production values -- glitzy locales, jazzy styling -- and Pritam's pop numbers and you have a film that can be an average weekend getaway. Nothing more, not even Mallika Sherawat's item number.

Click Full Post.............

Thank You 2011 Bollywood romantic comedy film Slapstick comedy with intermittent humour Small glimpse of the Movie Hindi Movie-Thank you Part 1

Hindi Movie - Thank you Part 1

Small glimpse of the Movie:

Thank You (Hindi: थैंक यू) is a 2011 Bollywood romantic comedy film directed by Anees Bazmee and produced by UTV Motion Pictures. It features Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Sonam Kapoor, Suniel Shetty, Irrfan Khan, Celina Jaitley and Rimi Sen. The film was released on April 8, 2011. Thank You is about three married men trying to have some fun outside their marriage. Akshay Kumar plays a detective who specializes in extra-marital relationships. Most of the scenes in this film were shot in Vancouver and Toronto, Canada and Bangkok. Other Bollywood films which have focused around a similar concept are Masti, No Entry, Shaadi No. 1 and to a certain extent, Do Knot Disturb.

With Universal, Comcast hopes to make a big splash in movies

By Bob Fernandez

Inquirer Staff Writer

NEW YORK - As big banner ads in Times Square last week hyped Universal's hoped-for blockbuster Cowboys & Aliens, the movie studio's parent company, NBCUniversal, held a screening of the western sci-fi thriller at its private theater near Rockefeller Center.

There were wine and soda and hors d'oeuvres trays, and company officials billed the event as a thank-you for about two dozen reporters who cover

Hindi Movie - Thank you Part 1

NBCU. There was another message for the gathered media - that the famed Universal Pictures movie studio that had fallen on hard times in recent years is on a hot streak under its new owner, Comcast Corp.

With a surprising run of hits since April, Universal has moved to third in U.S. market share of box-office receipts this year after, as one insider called it, "a really bad run" in 2009 and ranking sixth of the eight largest U.S. studios for 2010.

A committed management team is responsible for these recent hit movies and several projects in the Universal pipeline that are being closely watched by Hollywood insiders as potential heavy hitters - among them, an animated version of the Dr. Seuss story The Lorax and Battleship, based on the Hasbro game, both set for release in 2012.

"They have reestablished their prominence as a movie house that can produce broad, crowd-pleasing entertainment," said Craig Detweiler, director of the Center for Entertainment, Media and Culture at Pepperdine University.

"It's a hit-driven business, so it is always impossible to predict. It's always a gamble. And you have to have patience for your bets to pay off."

Comcast, the Philadelphia cable company, acquired the Hollywood movie studio through its megadeal for NBCUniversal, the owner of cable channels and the NBC TV network. When the deal closed in January, many observers assumed that Comcast would not be interested in a sixth-ranked movie studio.

But Comcast said it was devoted to the film business and wooed Hollywood. In early May, Comcast chief executive officer Brian Roberts publicly courted film great Steven Spielberg with a fund-raising dinner in Philadelphia for Spielberg's Shoah Foundation, which records the memories of Holocaust survivors. Roberts has said he hopes he can persuade Spielberg to return to Universal.

A month later, Comcast agreed to pay $1 billion for a 50 percent stake in the Universal theme park in Florida - a business closely tied to films and Spielberg - that it did not already own.

The swift turnaround at Universal, though, cannot be attributed solely to the cable company.

Facing deepening financial losses under General Electric Co. in 2009, a new leadership team of Adam Fogelson, Donna Langley, and Rick Finkelstein was appointed to head Universal's moviemaking operation. This year's crop of movies, which includes one clunker, The Dilemma, is the first of their projects.

The movie operation reports to Ron Meyer, the president and chief operating officer of Universal Studios, which includes the movie business and the theme parks. Meyer's employment contract at Universal, set to expire in 2012, was recently extended to late 2015.

Some analysts say Universal's problems stemmed in part from GE's insistence on profit growth, forcing Universal to take big risks on movie projects with the hopes of earning big profits to replace revenue lost through lower DVD sales.

The new management team has tightened decision-making around movie projects. A movie has to satisfy three criteria before it receives an OK: Can it be great? Does it have an identifiable audience? Is there a rational business plan attached to the project? Meaning: Do potential profits exceed potential losses based on the past experiences with films of a similar genre?

Perhaps the most surprising of Universal's hit films this year has been Bridesmaids, an R-rated woman-centric comedy that has tallied $240 million in global sales since mid-May, easily covering production costs of $32.5 million.

Also profitable has been the fifth installment of the Fast and Furious movies. It has generated $603 million worldwide since late April - after costing about $125 million to produce. Realizing there was more horsepower in the franchise, Universal was quick to slate a sixth Fast and Furious. It is scheduled for release in 2013.

Then there's Cowboys & Aliens, starring Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig. It cost $163 million to produce. Universal has only a 25 percent financial stake, which will limit its exposure to either a flop or a blockbuster.

Connected with two of the biggest names in Hollywood, Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard, the two-hour movie opened Friday to mixed reviews. Universal's partners are DreamWorks and Paramount.

The movie's story line is one of evil aliens mining for gold out West and a cowboy determined to avenge the death of his wife - at the hands of those aliens. There are gunplay, humor, Indians, special effects, and a Hollywood-style happy ending. The studio hopes for an opening weekend with receipts around $40 million.

New corporate owners have regularly fallen in love with Hollywood studios, only to be disenchanted when profits did not materialize or they found movie audiences too fickle for their liking.

So far Hollywood has been pleasantly surprised with Comcast, but time will tell how committed the cable company is to the movie business, Detweiler said.

"Comcast has given a clear signal to the talent in Hollywood that Universal is an attractive place to bring your project," he said. "And in a town like Hollywood, built on relationships, that is an important message to communicate."

More from Thank You

Trailer

Photogallery Official Websi

Slapstick comedy with intermittent humour

Story: Bobby Deol, Suniel Shetty and Irrfan Khan are a trio of philandering husbands who don't think twice before being unfaithful to their wives, Sonam Kapoor, Celina Jaitley and Rimmi Sen. Enter marriage therapist, Akshay Kumar, who is determined to teach them a lesson and bring them back to the happy family fold.

---

Best Reader's Review

its a really very entertaining movie i saw after very long time. one must watch it as it ...Read moreits a really very entertaining movie i saw after very long time. one must watch it as it will make u laugh loudly .and askhay kumar rockas again . watch out guys. rohit shetty (GOLMAL 1, 2, 3) (mumbai)

Movie Review : Anees Bazmee seems to be re-visiting familiar terrain with his new film. Thank You is heavily inspired by his earlier comic caper, No Entry, where Salman Khan had the onerous task of curing a motley group of errant husbands from their chronic infidelity. This time, it is Akshay Kumar who wields the baton -- or is it the flute -- to underscore the sanctity of the institution of marriage. Is this a case of playing safe for the director who has recently burned his hands at the box office or is it a drought of story ideas that seems to be Bollywood's biggest scourge?

Repetition notwithstanding, Thank You ends up as timepass fare, although it isn't as rollicking as No Entry. The first half of the film seems to be an exercise in nothingness and has you fidgeting in your seat as you try to look for the rare laughs in a script that is supposed to be funny. The bit-on-the-side sequences of the three husbands are hardly hilarious nor does the fuming wives club set the screen ablaze with hysteria. It is only in the second half that the film acquires form and substance and has you grinning at certain goof-ups. Akshay Kumar's elaborate plans to set the three marriages straight provides scope for actors like Irrfan Khan and Suneil Shetty to kick up a bit of fun, although Bobby Deol has hardly any humour tailored into his role. By and large, he remains dour and angry as he begins to suspect his sweet wife Sonam of adultery. The girls, on their part, mostly remain cosmetic with Sonam looking terribly out of sync, Rimmi not being allowed to play her feisty self and Celina being forced to do the disappearing act for a large part of the film.

So what's funny about Thank You? It's the guys who reiterate the worn-out cliche that fidelity isn't an intrinsic part of male physiology. Add to this the high production values -- glitzy locales, jazzy styling -- and Pritam's pop numbers and you have a film that can be an average weekend getaway. Nothing more, not even Mallika Sherawat's item number.

Click Full Post.............

iase International Association of Special Education www.iase.org 2011

• 

  

International Association
of Special Education

What is the IASE?

Founded in 1989, the IASE is an organization of professionals who are dedicated to improving the quality of life and service delivery for all individuals identified as having special needs. Members include teachers, teacher trainers, professors, speech clinicians, psychologists, health care providers, social workers, counselors, family members and those associated with related disciplines.

Aims of the IASE

• To promote professional exchange among special educators all over the world.

• To develop special education as a discipline and profession.

• To encourage international cooperation and collaborative international research.

• To promote continuing education of its members by organizing conferences in different countries around the world.

• To foster international communication in special education through the Journal of the International Association of Special Education.
  

Conference News
The 12th Biennial Conference will be held in Windhoek, Namibia JULY 10 – 14, 2011. See the IASE Conference section for details and the Call for Proposals.

Volunteer Service Project

The IASE has established a Volunteer Service Committee to facilitate the identification of special educational needs in developing countries and connect a volunteer resource person who is an IASE member. There is a shortage of expertise in special education in many developing countries and the IASE has many members with vast special educational experience who can provide volunteer assistance during their retirement, sabbatical year or summer holidays.

Fastener & Adhesives Exhibitions makes horsepower at the National Motorcycle Museum

Fastening & Adhesives Exhibitions at the National Motorcycle Museum will showcasing mechanical fasteners and adhesives

Posted via Industry Today. Are you into it? Follow us on Twitter @IndustryToday

Design engineers, production professionals and senior manufacturing managers who want to put things together better will be at the highly popular National Motorcycle Museum adjacent to the NEC on 20th October this year.

Why? Because they will be attending the FAST & IASE Exhibitions, the UK's only dedicated shows showcasing mechanical fasteners and adhesives respectively. Easy access to the venue (it's right outside the NEC) plus free parking and a complimentary hot bacon roll and a brew for early starters combine with an eclectic portfolio of exhibitors to deliver an unrivalled time/reward mix for manufacturing professionals who want to put things together better.

To be amongst the first to see, discuss and evaluate everything new (methods, products and practices) in fastening and assembly, simply go to the exhibition websites and pre-register now! Entry to both exhibitions is free. One registration provides a badge valid for both events

Contact Information

Mark Newby
Fastening & Assembly Solutions
Sanderum House
The Sanderum Centre
Oakley Road
Chinnor, Oxfordshire
OX39 4TW

Click Full Post.............

Amole Gupte's Stanley Ka Dabba wins award at Giffoni Film Festival www.stanleykadabba.com IIM-B student turns dabbawala wife helps in venture

MUMBAO: It isn’t often that a film, specially an Indian film wins a humanitarian award at an international film festival. That’s exactly what Amole Gupte’s Stanley Ka Dabba has done. It has just won the special ActionAid award at the Giffoni Film Festival - the world’s largest children’s film festival where the jury this year comprised 3,300 kids and youngsters from 51 countries.

There were 145 films in the festival this year.

ActionAid is a world organization campaigning for a hunger-free world. It provides food to thousands of communities across the word.

In Stanley Ka Dabba, the theme of food for children was predominant and projected with bridled poignancy. Citing the reason for giving the award to Gupte’s film the ActionAid jury commented, “It’s not always easy to make people understand the connection between poverty and injustice so we found Stanley’s Tiffin Box (Stanley Ka Dabba) a fantastic tool to speak out about discrimination and the need to go ahead with the struggle against hunger. With this award we want to pay a tribute to Amole Gupte’s work, who linked the movie project with a special work with children, the real protagonists of the film and for the efforts spent to promote children’s rights and adolescents in India.”

Gupte feels it’s a triumph for cinema on children in India and for his work with and for children. Gupte, who was closely involved with another important Hindi film about children Taare Zameen Par, feels more of the A-listers in Bollywood need to support children’s films.

Gupte tells Businessofcinema.com, "When I see someone like Salman Khan pitching in for a children’s film like Chillar Party, my heart swells with pride. More power to the Aamirs and Salmans of showbiz. They can make a difference to how children’s film’s are perceived."

New children's films are fun for adults as well

By Radhika Bhirani New Delhi, July 25 (IANS) Think of children's movies and animated characters come to mind. But all that appears to be changing. With projects like "Chillar Party" and "Stanley Ka Dabba", filmmakers are attempting to change the definition of the genre through light-hearted yet mature content, packaged to appeal to a wider family audience. But some feel that children's films should be only for their entertainment. "It's important to create a balance with a film that cuts through every kind of audience - children and adults. A film about children can be for the children and be entertaining for a family too," Shikha Kapur, senior vice president and head (marketing), UTV Motion Pictures, told IANS. A lot depends on the marketing of a film too. "A film, most often, finds its target audience on its own through word-of-mouth publicity. It's the marketing which makes a difference. The marketing mix of 'Chillar Party' was like a typical Bollywood masala film. Hence, it appealed to a lot more people than just children," added Kapur. In the last decade, filmmakers tried to lure kids with animation projects like "My Friend Ganesha", "Bal Ganesh", "Hanuman", "Hanuman Returns" and "Ghatothkach". But more recently, filmmakers have attempted to sell issue-based movies with children as protagonists, as kids' films. For instance, UTV Spotboy and Salman Khan's co-production "Chillar Party", a story about a gang of innocent children who stand up against a politician and save a street dog's life, tugged at many hearts. While children enjoyed it for its fun moments, adults liked it too for its message on the class differences in Indian society. The film also had a commercial flavour thanks to Salman's association, Ranbir Kapoor's 'tapori' item number "Tai tai phish" and multiple brand tie-ups - which helped it in drawing a wider audience. Earlier releases like "Taare Zameen Par", "Stanley Ka Dabba", "Kachha Limboo", or even Kannada movie "Hejjegalu" that won the national award for best children's film, had an underlying message tucked under the innocence and playfulness of children. Aamir Khan's "Taare Zameen Par" deals with a dyslexic child, "Stanley Ka Dabba" takes a sensitive look at teacher-student relationship and "Kachcha Limboo" narrates the story of a 13-year-old caught in a transitional phase of adolescence. "Hejjegalu" is about a young girl, who fights poverty and an irresponsible father to become a role model to other children. However, there is a school of thought that stresses on "just for kids" films without a serious sub-plot. Actress Nandita Das, chairperson of Children's Film Society, India (CFSI), feels there is a need to make films just for kids. "The producers, of course, want as many eyeballs they can get. But how can the same story and sensibility be for a six-year-old and a 60-year-old? I do think there is a need to make films specially for children to cater to their needs and aspirations," Nandita told IANS. In her review for "Stanley Ka Dabba", film critic Shubha Shetty-Saha, also supported light films for children. "While child labour is a pressing and immediate issue, a child need not be burdened with such an issue, while watching a film made for him or her. Even if they want to, they can't do anything about it. Why can't a children's movie be just that, without tagging a social issue along with it?" she wrote. But how would one define an ideal children's film? "A film that connects with the spirit of hope, curiosity, adventure and imagination that children instinctively have. A film that is neither preachy nor frothy and shallow. A film that can subtly equip children to understand the world they live in, but with lightness, optimism and joy," said Nandita. Though India is one of the largest film-producing nations in the world, filmmakers have hardly attempted to make children-centric films. In the past, films like "Masoom", "Boot Polish", "Safed Haathi", "Anjali" and "Makdee" have been made to cater to the kids, but they have "never been a priority", said Nandita. To combat the problem, CFSI was launched in 1955. The aim was to produce, exhibit and distribute entertaining and enriching content for children. But it suffered from a lack of marketing budget. However, it has new plans now, she said. "We at CFSI are trying to see how we can market our films, both through conventional methods and by thinking out of the box. You will soon hear about some really good films that we have been working on in the last two years," said Nandita, who took over as CFSI chief in 2009. Either it is fun film for children or the issue-based; the best part is that efforts are being made to make children films, which was a far cry a few years back.

IIM-B student turns dabbawala, wife helps in venture

BANGALORE: This is not Stanley ka Dabba, but the dabba of a young Bangalore entrepreneur. You wouldn't associate a humble tiffin service with a student of the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. But if you are a Mumbaikar getting dabbas, then you would have tasted Dinesh ka dabba.

Dinesh Yadav, 35, a second-year PGP student at IIM-B, started his enterprise on Mira Road, Mumbai, in June. Lunch and dinner are provided in and around the road in tiffin boxes by their delivery boys. Lunch is also sent through Mumbai Dabbawalas to any part of the city, preferably on the western line of Mumbai.

What motivated him? It was during his summer internship in Bangalore when he was stuck in hostel with no mess that Dinesh realized the potential of running a dabba centre with home-cooked food. "There's a lot of demand for hygienic, home-cooked food that is not overpriced.

I had done an informal survey before jumping into it," said the NIT-Bhopal alumnus.

Dinesh handles the strategy, marketing and online support for the business from IIM-B campus, while his wife Rekha handles the operation in Mumbai.

With two cooks, two persons for delivery and another helper, Rekha looks after the cooking.

"I maintain the website. The queries come to me here. Everybody has a specific need when it comes to food and it varies with each meal. I consolidate that and send the final order to my wife. I wanted her to focus only on one area," he says.

Ask how he manages studies and work, he says, "If you are interested in something, anything is possible. Since I am in second year now, I have only two classes a day and lots of time to manage the business."

Dinesh's one-month-old business caters to 35 customers now. "There's a kind of confidence you get from being in a place like IIM. I understand consumer behaviour, pricing and other business management skills through my lessons.

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