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Fri, 01 Apr 2011 04:50:31 GMT

127 Hours

by Vadim Rizov



James Franco took the stage at the Kodak Theater with an iPhone, which he used to tweet his way through the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday night. (Two people taped him additionally.) Jokes about apps were made. Franco had only joined Twitter on February 20, but now he was taking the Oscars to a whole other uncomfortable level of hyper-technological referentiality, documented on every single platform available. The ever self-aware multi-hyphenate actor/writer/performance artist-the most successful self-aggrandizer since Vincent Gallo"s rise-piled on the ironies by being nominated for a role in a film about a man who thinks technology will save him. It doesn"t.

Danny Boyle may well be one of the most overrated big-name directors working today, constantly cutting between anything and everything like a frenetic coke fiend unaware of context. And yet, 127 Hours is easily his most rewarding movie since 2004"s undervalued Millions, which was a genuinely sweet movie about urchins getting in over their head after lucking into a big pile of stolen cash. Part of what made Millions so adorable was the way it gestured toward the larger world by inviting the audience to donate money for water wells in Africa, what the children dream of doing their money. A random event catalyzes awareness of the larger world, which happens again in the spelunking tragedy flick. As far as gory movies go, this is pretty heartwarming. Posted by: ahillis      Read more     Source

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 13:34:14 GMT

Creative and Cool Lemon Squeezers

Rosendahl Lemon Squeezer: With a simple twist, this lemon squeezer can serve juice directly from the fruit.

Mysqueeze Citrus Squeezer: Roland Kreiter designed this citrus squeezer that can be used directly in your hand.

Tonfisk Lemon Squeezer: Designed by Susanna Hoikkala & Jenni Ojala, the Tonfisk lemon squeezer is a ceramic bowl that features a raised ridge on which to grind your lemon.

Catcher: It"s designed to remove any unwanted fruit pulp using a soft rubber cup underneath the reaming head.

Squeeze-Me: Its designed by Jaime & M Antoniades. All you need to do is to put the lemon inside the squeeze-me and then squeeze it; lemon juice comes out at the end.

Industrial-Strength Lemon Squeezer: Designed by Edward Horsford, it uses the traditional way to get juice.

Lekue Lemon Squeezer: All you need to do is just cut your lemon in half, place the half into the squeezer and squeeze.

Stainless Lemon Squeezer: Designed by S F Gerald; its made of welded stainless steel and it"s 7 inches height overall.

Juicy Salif: It"s designed by Philippe Starck for Alessi.

Pandora Design"s Squeezer: A cool looking design.

Citrus Squeezer: Slice a lemon in half and rotate it against the juicer"s metal top and the plastic funnel filters out the seeds before the pulp rich juice is collected in the glass container.

Soft Lemon Squeezer: It does a good job of separating the seeds from the juice.

Vincon Lemon Presser: An interesting design shaped lemon squeezer.

Twist + Cap: "Twist + Cap" by DaeKyung Ahn, G Fusari and N Reddall has a soft cap that can be rolled over the fruit to keep it fresh after extracting the required amount of juice. Posted by: Venus      Read more     Source

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:57:47 GMT

OPI Justin Bieber Step 2 the Beat of my Heart

You may or may not have "Bieber Fever" as they say....but this nail polish is downright cute enough to give it to you!

Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber Step 2 the Beat of my Heart features pink and purple heart shaped glitter in clear base with fine, widely spaced multi-colored glitter.

Does it sound over the top?

Well, despite the description and what you see in the bottle above, it"s actually very delicately cute.
The polish achieves this effect since the nail bed is mainly the clear base with the fine glitter. To get the larger heart shaped glitter on each nail, I simply picked up a few from the bottle on the brush and pressed down slightly on the nail slowly before moving the brush off the nail.

This shade and all the others in the collection feature their new Perfect Stroke brush, which does deposit the perfect amount of nail polish each time. The polishes had excellent shine and wear, resisting chipping.

Each bottle also features a small little neck tag with a mini Justin Bieber"s photo card (another plus if you"re a big fan)! Some other standout shades in the collection were: My Lifesaver, Me + Blue and One Less Lonely Glitter. - RLB

You can check out all the shades here online. Posted by: Palacinka Beauty      Read more     Source

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:48:58 GMT

We have found the bieber's weakness!

So Justin Bieber was on the set of his return to CSI yesterday (They stopped trying about four years ago, if you"re wondering) when he was rushed to the hospital following an allergic reaction to something from the scene. Wow, I can"t believe they use real Holy Water on the set of CSI! Gotta love their commitment to realism. According to Life & Style magaz "He was having trouble breathing due to an allergic reaction," a source close to the singer claimed to the mag. "His doctor met him there. He stayed at the hospital about 30 minutes and was discharged." SOURCE Thankfully, we were able to get our hands on a transcript from the incident. Here"s what really happened....

Production Assistant: Hey, Justi-
Justin: MY NAME IS BEELZEBIEBER. YOU WILL NEVER FORGET IT.
PA: Oh Jesus.... Alright, Beelzebieber. Anyway, do you need anything? Another virgin soul? More water?
Justin: BRING ME YOUR MOTHER"S BEATING HEART.
PA: .... Water then? Here, have some water....
Justin: WHAT? NO- GAAAAAAAAH! IT BURNS! Posted by: Popbytes      Read more     Source

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:43:14 GMT

Freeware speeds up your Dropbox

Dropbox Shell Tools is a neat little freeware download which installs a right mouse click option to copy or move files instantly to your Dropbox folder from within Windows Explorer. That means you don’t have to faff about opening Dropbox and copy/pasting files the long winded way.

Which makes the tool totally useful, valuable, fab, sassy and neat. This is one of those tiny utilities that you really must install if you’re a Dropbox (aff) fan, and once it’s installed you’ll probably never want to remove it from your life.

 Dropbox Shell Tools is a shell extension to speed up copy or move files to your Dropbox folder.

Tags: dropbox, freeware, dropbox+shell+tools Share and Enjoy:

Posted by: Redferret      Read more     Source

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 17:03:39 GMT

We Really Are Living In The Future

There is little doubt that as time marches on, the sheer amount of impressive
technology that each of us has access to will grow exponentially. After all it
was only 20 years ago that the thought of home computing was a novel and futuristic
concept, whereas today, the thought of not having immediate access to some kind of
computer is a scary and disconcerting one.

Technology has gotten to the point where all of those fantastic visions of the future we grew up with have come true in some form or another. We currently are living in the sci-fi future so frequently imagined in the past.

(thanks Yan) Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 03:19:20 GMT

Peppercotton Swarovski and Mesh Necklaces

Who knew that nylon tubing could make for such cool accessories?? Last year everyone was raging about double-duty beauty products, well it seems that the new thing is double-duty accessories and Peppercotton definitely fits that bill. Their layer-able necklaces/wrap bracelets are handmade out of loose Swarovski and vintage crystals cased in nylon mesh tubing (they look like crystal ropes!), and can be worn a multitude of ways. The coolest part though is that depending on how you style the pieces, they can take on a totally different look because the patterns are gradiated (ie the colors go from, for example, clear to a yellow/green pattern). With 40" there"s a lot to play with and each piece has a unique mix of crystals so no two pieces are the same. There are a ton of gradations to choose from going from subtle to bold shifts if you"re like me and are of the mentality that "more is more" and like contrasted, piled on looks when you dress-up.

I really like the slinky sexy-ness of the necklaces....wish I had gotten one in time for New Years!

Peppercotton"s pieces are $250 and up; contact studio@peppercotton.com or stop by Maryam Nassir Zadeh if you"re in the NYC-area to check them out. Posted by: Ms. Jewel Snob      Read more     Source

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 03:36:39 GMT

Anemone richardsonii

Anemone richardsonii is the only yellow-flowered species found in northern climates. The occurrence map from the USDA PLANTS database is somewhat deceptive, as it shows Alaska and most of Canada. While accurate, it isn"t as precise as the distribution map for Anemone richardsonii from the Flora of North America, which demonstrates far more clearly that this is a species of northern climates. In addition to northern North America, yellow thimbleweed or yellow anemone is also native to Greenland and parts of Eurasia.

Found in somewhat open areas (FNA notes: thickets, moist woods, meadows, slopes; 20-2200 m), the plant in today"s photograph was growing in a wet seep area at lower elevations of Pink Mountain in northeastern British Columbia. The population of 75 or so plants was the only one we noticed during the 4-5 days I was there. Another botanical description of the species is available from the Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and many more images from E-Flora British Columbia.

Its specific epithet, richardsonii, is in honour of Scotland-born surgeon-naturalist Sir John Richardson--a fascinating and accomplished person. In addition to seemingly having every fifth species of plant in northern Canada named after him (well, that"s a bit of an exaggeration, but there are many), as an icthyologist he described 43 genera and over 200 species of fish. He was the surgeon-naturalist on the first two of Franklin"s expeditions to the northern reaches of North America; when Franklin"s third (ill-fated) expedition did not return, he traveled by canoe from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario to the mouth of Mackenzie River--a distance of 3800 km / 2350 miles as the crow flies--in 3 months. In 1848. At age 60. Yet more impressive, in order to see the Arctic spring bird migration in 1827 on the Saskatchewan River, he walked from Great Slave Lake to Fort Carlton (where he was to meet his assistant, Drummond). This was a distance of over 1450km / 900 miles. He made the journey in 50 days. From December 25 to February 12. Read more: C. Stuart Houston"s account of Sir John Richardson in Arctic Profiles (PDF). Posted by: Daniel Mosquin      Read more     Source

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 12:02:40 GMT

Cinema Jukebox Edition

by Vadim Rizov



One of the incidental pleasures of watching even a mediocre movie is experiencing the way a specific song is used. As long as they"re not the bland sonic equivalent to wallpaper for montages (e.g. the breathy singer-songwriter blandness of Morning Glory, or any peppy pop-punk shopping sequence), most movies make a token stab at rewiring the associations of a given song. Here are 10 of my favorite examples from the past year, with any film-length scoring (like Shutter Island"s primer on 20th-century chromatic classical music, or the ever-popular BRAAAAAAAHM of Inception) disqualified: Posted by: ahillis      Read more     Source

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 13:10:37 GMT

Splitsville for Hurley-Nayar

Reacting to the reports that she cheated on her hubby with cricket star Shane Warne, Liz Hurley has revealed that she had separated from her Indian tycoon husband Arun Nayar "a few months ago".

A Sunday tabloid published pictures of the model and sportsman sharing a series of steamy clinches and claimed Hurley had spent two nights with the womanising Australian, 41, in his London hotel suite this week.

"Not a great day. For the record, my husband Arun & I separated a few months ago. Our close family & friends were aware of this," the Daily Mail quoted Liz as tweeting.

But she didn"t make any reference to her relationship with Warne - who she has been exchanging flirty tweets with since the summer - or spell out exactly when she split from Nayar.

The News of the World claims to have captured on video the pair embracing and kissing outside restaurant Sake No Hana earlier this week.

"They were so passionate they looked like honeymooners. It was electric," a source is quoted in the paper today as saying.

The paper said: "Hurley and Warne roared with laughter and chatted like old friends during the lively meal in a first-floor room. And at 1am they were spotted going down the escalator to the lobby area.

"While they waited for their coats to be brought to them Hurley reportedly pulled Warne towards her into a darkened doorway, cupped his face with her hands and leaned in to lock lips.

"After releasing from their clinch they gazed into each other"s eyes and smiled adoringly," the paper reported.

They were also said to have flirted again in front of Liz"s ex fiance Hugh Grant during the meal on Wednesday night.

Hurley and Warne were reportedly spotted exchanging more lingering kisses after popping out of the cricketer"s luxury 1,750 pound-a-night suite at the Bentley Hotel in South Kensington - less than one mile from Hurley"s London home.

On their second night together, they were locked away in the same suite for more than 11 hours, the paper said. They were also seen smooching and kissing again during a meal on Thursday at San Lorenzo in Chelsea.

A witness told the paper, "They looked completely smitten and blissfully happy together."

Tags: Elizabeth hurley, Shane Warne, Shane Warne, Arun Nayar, Shane Warne, Friends, Shane Warne, Husband Posted by: Melissa      Read more     Source

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:02:31 GMT

Once You Go Black

by Steve Dollar

"The only performance that makes it, that makes it all the way, is the one that achieves madness." - Mick Jagger, Performance

Everybody"s Lucifer had it right. The swivel-hipped satyr could as easily been giving stage notes to Nina Sayers, Natalie Portman"s bedeviled ballerina, as she struggles to embrace the psyche-splintering demands of her performance in Swan Lake-which includes a dual role as the Black Swan, the Jungian alter-ego of the title figure, and the thematic engine of Darren Aronofsky"s film of the same name. The dynamics were a bit different in Performance, the 1968 Donald Cammell/Nicolas Roeg film in which Jagger"s hermetic rock god Turner plays mind games with a mob enforcer (James Fox) on the run, who has tumbled into his Dionysian lair. There, sexy druggy things ensue, before someone dies and Turner may or may not have become a doppelgangster.

Seeing as Performance hit screens in 1970, when audiences were as likely to be stoned or munching blotter acid as they were popcorn, its hallucinatory style-synonymous with Roeg-is practically inchoate compared to Aronofsky"s carefully attenuated orchestration of Nina"s mental meltdown in Black Swan. That"s one of the new film"s strengths, even as he taps into the cinema of insanity, doubles, shattered mirrors, bent psychologies, and edgy sexuality that includes films like Persona and Mulholland Dr., not to mention freaked-out classics of mental disintegration like Repulsion, and the thriller continuum that runs from Hitchcock to Cronenberg. Aronofsky keeps an impressively tight focus on the core of his story before it gradually spins toward a tripped-out climax that rates as the most exhilarating screen moment of the year. Posted by: ahillis      Read more     Source