2009 January

NBC Fills Superbowl Ads, Says No To PETA

Posted by administrator in Entertainment (Thursday January 29, 2009 at 8:17 am)

NBC says no to a sexy PETA ad that was slotted to air during the Super Bowl. The ad touting the benefits of a vegetarian diet was too racy for the network..

Seattle – NBC says no to a sexy PETA ad that was slotted to air during the Super Bowl. The ad touting the benefits of a vegetarian diet was too racy for the network.

The ad depicts attractive models enjoying their veggies, a lot. A tag line at the end of the ad reads, “Studies show vegetarians have better sex. Go veg.” NBC claims the level of sexuality in the ad is too much for their standards.

NBC’s advertising department informed PETA they would have to edit the ad if they wished it to run, but PETA refused. A few of the edits would have included removing footage of models rubbing vegetable such as pumpkin and asparagus on the breasts and pelvic regions, as well as using vegetables in ways suggestive of sexual intercourse.

It is rumored the ad was created to purposely exceed network decency rules. PETA maintains the ad was made to be appealing to Super Bowl fans and not as a publicity stunt.

The network has still managed to sell plenty of ad spots for the big game.

All the advertisements for the game on Sunday sold “at prices above $2.4 million, a large number of them as high as $3 million,” said Dick Ebersol, chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics.

“Considering the state of the economy in the United States, we couldn’t be any more thrilled with where we are,” he told reporters in a conference call.

As many as 100-million Americans will be watching the superbowl.

American Idol Contestants Fail To Impress In Jacksonville

Posted by administrator in Entertainment (Wednesday January 28, 2009 at 3:28 pm)

American Idol's ratings recovered last night after seeing ratings go down last Tuesday during the popular Presidential inauguration festivities.

Toronto – American Idol’s ratings recovered last night after seeing ratings go down last Tuesday during the popular Presidential inauguration festivities.

Some say that last night’s episode of American Idol, based in Jacksonville, Florida, was the best episode ever. Over the years, strange events have transpired as bizarre contestants hit the stage for auditions, but last night was extra bizarre, as the judges joined the contestants in exhibiting very strange behavior.

Judges Paula and Kara pretended to kiss, while Randy found himself with a female guest on his lap. More lap madness occurred as Simon let Paula sit on his for a minute. Paula became distressed when she felt that she was not getting enough attention. She actually left the audition chamber and had to be escorted back in by one of the contestants.

As far as the actual auditions last night were concerned, 16 contestants received the coveted invitation to Hollywood week. Two singers who stood out from the mediocre crowd were Ann Marie Boskovitch, who sang a lovely version of Cobie Caillat’s ‘Bubbly’, and T.K Hash, who performed a soulful version of ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon.

An American Idol audition recap would not be complete without a rundown of the more ‘interesting’ candidates of the night. Two who stood out for their unusual performances were Naomi Sykes, who fancied herself an equivalent to Mariah Carey, and physics student George Ramirez, who wore an enormous beard and had trouble deciding if he liked music better than physics.

Next week: Hollywood, Week One.

Network Says No to Racy PETA Ad

Posted by administrator in Entertainment (Wednesday January 28, 2009 at 12:16 pm)

NBC says no to peta ad during super bowl

Toronto – PETA has always been an organization that takes itself too far and its recent commercial bid has proven yet again the stretches and lengths they will go to. In an era where sex sells, everybody and their mama are talking about sex on talk shows, and sitcoms to dramas are ripe with innuendo and double entendres PETA has managed to make a commercial that even made executives of this day and age blush. Whether you agree with PETA’s ‘no meat’ missive or not I think it would be hard to argue NBC’s stance that a sexual encounter with a vegetable is not that appealing.

PETA’s commercial titled ‘Vegie Love’ is actually just that: a woman caressing, fondling, and otherwise engaging in amorous activities with various vegetables. Not even in the porn industry folks. There were network suggested cuts involved in this commercial short that would make Ron Jeremy faint with embarrassment. One such suggested cut segment that NBC wanted out of the spot was “screwing herself with broccoli”. Honestly even during the Superbowl that is just too much. Wasn’t Janet Jackson’s breast racy enough? No wonder NBC wants to avoid further scandal.

Childhood Cancer Survivors Skip Breast Screenings

Posted by administrator in Health (Wednesday January 28, 2009 at 7:05 am)

Those women who had cancer as a child and the treatment involved chest radiation treatments, are recommended by doctors to start having regular mammogram screenings at 25 years of age or 8 years after their last chest radiation treatment. However, it has been found that nearly half of these women are not following this recommendation.

Toronto – Those women who had cancer as a child and the treatment involved chest radiation treatments, are recommended by doctors to start having regular mammogram screenings at 25 years of age or 8 years after their last chest radiation treatment. However, it has been found that nearly half of these women are not following this recommendation.

These women are at a higher risk of getting breast cancer however doctors say that the majority will never have it. Between 12 and 20 percent though, will get breast cancer by the age of 45 so it is very important that they have their regular screenings to detect it as soon as possible.

There were a total of 551 women with childhood cancer who were included in this study. Out of the 551 women, 55 percent said they have had a mammogram in the past two years, those under 40 years old show 47 percent as never having a mammogram since their radiation treatments ended, and those between 40 and 50 years old show only 53 percent having regular mammograms.

There may be several reasons why these women do not follow through with mammogram screenings. The majority of the women included in the study had their treatments in the 70’s and 80’s and not as much was known then about cancer that we know now. Also, many doctors who had a child with cancer and radiation treatments usually do not see them survive.

It is recommended to tell your doctor if you had cancer as a child and get regular screenings, especially if breast cancer runs in your family.

Many Women Have Mastectomies Out Of Fear

Posted by administrator in Health (Monday January 26, 2009 at 7:19 am)

Scientists have developed several risk factors that will predict who would benefit from preventive mastectomy.

The number of women choosing to have preventive mastectomies has doubled since 1998 and 2003, reports AHN.

According to researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Cancer Center, many of these women are having mastectomies because of their own fears — not because of a doctors recommendation.

“We’ve always known contralateral breast cancer risk is not the same for all women and it is unnecessary to perform preventive mastectomies routinely,” Dr. Kelly Hunt, a professor at M.D. Anderson, said in a statement. “As we begin to clarify the specific risk factors, the number of women undergoing [preventive mastectomies] may decrease and those with a low to moderate-risk may be more open to less extreme options for risk reduction, such as hormonal therapy and newer agents for prevention of breast cancer.”

To begin to classify such risk factors, researchers reviewed the cases of 542 women with breast cancer only in one breast who received CPM to remove the second breast at M. D. Anderson from January 2000 to April 2007. Out of this group, 435 patients had no abnormal pathology identified in the opposite breast, 25 patients had contralateral breast cancer identified at surgery, and 82 patients had abnormal cells (atypical ductal hyperplasia, atypical lobular hyperplasia and lobular carcinoma in situ) that indicate a moderate to high-risk for breast cancer development in the contralateral breast found at the time of surgery.

Further analysis of the patients with contralateral breast cancer revealed that a five-year Gail risk of 1.67 percent or greater; an invasive lobular histology; and multiple tumors in the original breast were all strong predictors for contralateral breast cancer. Patient race, estrogen receptor status and progesterone receptor status were not associated with increased risk.

“We went from having very little information on the benefit of this procedure for individual patients to identifying three independent and significant risk factors,” Hunt said. “Each provides valuable insight into how likely a woman is to develop the disease in her other breast and enables physicians to make an educated recommendation if a patient will potentially benefit from CPM.”

The study will be published in the March 1, 2009 issue of Cancer.

Apple Macintosh Murns 25

Posted by administrator in Technology (Sunday January 25, 2009 at 11:57 am)

Everyone from college students to businessmen to computer engineers is celebrating the 25th birthday of Appleâ€™s Mac computers. In fact, it was January 24, 1984 that saw the very first Macintosh computers going on sale

25 years later, not only do people still know and use this companyâ€™s products, but they still remember seeing the first advertisements for the computer and remember the old-school rainbow-like emblem introducing Apple computers to the world.

Since this time, the computers this company produces have gotten thinner, lighter, and more advanced. These computers are said to be among the fastest and most advanced in the world. With everything from advanced film editing software to its camera and very design, Macs, as the computers are called, have created legions of dedicated fans.
Since the birth of Appleâ€™s Mac, the company has become more andmore known not only for its advanced computers but also for its MP3 players and smartphone: iPods and iPhone. In fact, in the first fiscal quarter of the year, these two products were said to have sold as much as ten times more than Appleâ€™s computers. Thus, many people not only believe that Apple will continue to thrive but that the companyâ€™s direction will change throughout the years to include a diverse array of gadgets that will make day to day life that much more efficient.

Obama Reverses Abortion Decision

Posted by administrator in Health, US (Friday January 23, 2009 at 7:34 pm)

President Barrack Obama has reversed the decision to stop funding groups that promote abortion or refer abortion for those who are seeking out that option.

President Barrack Obama has reversed the decision to stop funding groups that promote abortion or refer abortion for those who are seeking out that option. This decision is being praised by many saying that the reversal will save many womens lives. However, others say that this is only going to allow even more abortions to take place.

President George W. Bush, while serving his term in office, had banned this practice saying that he did not believe that taxpayers money should be used to promote abortion. The reversal has been going back and forth for many presidents terms.

Many people were surprised at this decision made by President Obama as he has said earlier that he was hoping to limit the number of abortions even further. However, this recent decision completely contradicts his previous statements. He claims that he is in support of the woman’s right to choose but that he believes people need to become more educated and knowledgeable of ways to prevent pregnancies so that abortions become less over time.

Population Act International, one of the groups who will be receiving funding, has praised President Obama for this decision saying that it will help lower unintended pregnancies and lower high pregnancy risks that can potentially be fatal to some.

President Obama has been aggressively working to sign into action or change decisions previously made things that he believes will help our economy and society.

Underworld Prequel Hits Theatres

Posted by administrator in Entertainment (Friday January 23, 2009 at 6:43 pm)

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

This story not only chronicles the love gone awry between Sonja, Viktorâ€™s daughter and heir to the vampire council, and Lucian, a Lycan whoâ€™s enslaved by Viktor and leader of his pack; it gives us the history needed to know the whyâ€™s and the howâ€™s from the first two movies.

Lucien, as we learned from Underworld: Evolution, was Viktorâ€™s favorite Lycan. We find out how Lucien came into being and just why he is Viktorâ€™s favorite; but I wonâ€™t spoil that for you. As far as the favoritism goes, Lucien receives the majority of Viktorâ€™s attention until the Death Dealer found out not only were Lucien and his beloved Sonja committing fornication (which was a huge no-no) but Lucien nearly caused the precious princess to be killed, until he risked his own neck to save hers. Thus began the war that evidently has been raging between the two races, causing curse after curse on each bloodline.

If youâ€™ve seen the other two movies, then you know what the outcome of that was. If not, then go watch the other two movies. With Rise of the Lycans, however, I find it intriguing to finally be able to appreciate the lineage of my favorite vampire, Selene, after whom my daughter is named.

American Idol Recap: Louisville

Posted by administrator in Entertainment (Friday January 23, 2009 at 1:38 pm)

American Idol meets Louisville Kentucky. Sounds good right? As we see with our first Mariah audition, maybe not.

We begin with Tiffany Shedd, a peroxide blonde with an earth shattering version of Mariah Careyâ€™s â€œHeroâ€. Simon astounds us with calling her a donkey. I guess heâ€™s fulfilled his animal references for this season; remember the bush baby from season 7?

We have a history lesson with contest Mark Mudd who sings â€œWhite Lighteningâ€. Heâ€™s sent packing with his ancestors. However, here Paula disappoints. Mr. Mudd was showing her some southern hospitality by telling her to â€œbe carefulâ€ which Paula deems as a threat, which was oh so tacky on Paulaâ€™s part.

Matt Giraud, whoâ€™s a dueling piano player, is told to watch Simon on Idol. Evidently he needs to grow an ego the size of Texas. Heâ€™s sent through to Hollywood with these very instructions from Simon himself.

Finally, we see the best contestant of the night. Ross Plavsic taught himself to sing using physics. Evidently, he miscalculated somewhere, but he is by far, the most hilarious contestent we meet in Kentucky. He has a scratchy throat; Paula asks if he needs a drink. Mistake! Mr. Physics takes her offer literally and drinks right from Paulaâ€™s straw!

Ten contestant are granted golden tickets in day one and only nine more on day two. My favorite from both days was one Leneshe Young. She sang a song she wrote herself and impressed all three judges. This is one girl to watch.

YouTube to Let Big Media Bring Its Own Ads

Posted by administrator in Business, Technology (Friday January 23, 2009 at 1:11 pm)

Google is a very well known company. They own the web site YouTube. When YouTube posts Google videos on their website, Google will give its media companies a percentage of their advertising revenues. This is very good news for Googleâ€™s media companies because it means that they will be making more money.

With the daily increase of advertisements across the internet, many internet giants try to benefit from advertising their website for advertisement revenue. This revenue can be either allocated by linking to affiliate sites or by getting commissions from any purchase done through that advertisement. Google is considered the biggest internet advertising giant with a daily net profit of $2.1 million.

Recent unnamed sources at Youtube, a major internet video sharing database, stated that big media companies will be given a cut of the advertisement revenue from Google if their videos are published, regardless of the identity of the publisher. TechCrunch, a technology blog, also reported that Google will expand its program, where it allows big media companies to advertise their videos, by the end of the first quarter. This deal came as a solver of many problems since Youtube had a long and contentious relationship with big media companies and some, like Viacom, have actually sued Youtube for letting people host unauthorized copyrighted content on its site. This deal will definitely benefit both Youtube and the big media companies as they are offered an olive branch for posting their copyrighted content like many other media companies, like CBS, that already sell advertisements for videos hosted on their channels as well as videos singled out by YouTube’s Content ID system that recognizes copyrighted content.

This advertising program is part of a larger effort done by Google to control content posted on YouTube in an attempt to turn YouTube, the webâ€™s number 1 video site, into the â€œcash cowâ€ that many once expected it would become after acknowledging that Google was struggling with difficulty to earn significant revenue from YouTube. Giving big media companies the capability of selling their own advertising, for videos that they post as well as others, on a site visited daily by millions, will surely aid them to improve profit for their produced content. And of course, this deal will also benefits Google that will be getting a share of these advertising revenues.

This program was also accompanied by the announcement made on Wednesday by YouTube which stated that it will be expanding its click-to-buy program to viewers in Spain, Germany and Netherlands after previously offering it to U.S. and U.K. only. This program uses embedded transparent overlays in the videos directly linking to its media partners in order to buy the product rather than just posting Amazon links on the bottom of the video page.

EON

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