U.S. Climate Data Compromised by Sensors' Proximity to Heat Sources, Critics Say
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By Joseph Abrams-Foxnews.com
A critical cog in the machinery that drives the theory of global warming is a small white box not too far from where you live. Inside the box sits a thermometer that tracks the local temperature, which in turn becomes part of a data trail for the monitoring of climate change on Earth.
But there's a problem: Nearly every single weather station the U.S. government uses to measure the country's surface temperature may be compromised. Sensors that are supposed to be in empty clearings are instead exposed to crackling electronics and other unlikely sources of heat, from exhaust pipes and trash-burning barrels to chimneys and human graves.
The National Climate Data Center (NCDC) uses this massive network of sensors to determine daily highs and lows at the 1,219 weather stations in its Historical Climatology Network (HCN). The network has existed since 1892, but only in the last decade has it come under intense scrutiny to determine whether the figures it measures can be trusted.
For the past three years, a group of zealous laymen has visited and photographed nearly every one of the weather stations to determine whether they have been placed properly. And what they found is a stunning disregard for the government's own rules: 90 percent of the sensors are too close to potential sources of heat to pass muster, including some very odd sources indeed:
• A sensor in Redding, Calif., is housed in a box that also contains a halogen light bulb, which could emit warmth directly onto the gauge.
• A sensor in Hanksville, Utah, sits directly atop a gravestone, which is not only macabre but also soaks up the sun's heat and radiates it back to the thermometer at night.
• A sensor in Marysville, Calif., sits in a parking lot at a fire station right next to an air conditioner exhaust, a cell phone tower and a barbecue grill.
• A sensor in Tahoe City, Calif., sits near a paved tennis court and is right next to a "burn barrel" that incinerates garbage.
• A sensor in Hopkinsville, Ky., is sheltered from the wind by an adjoining house and sits above an asphalt driveway.
• Dozens of sensors are located at airports and sewage treatment plants, which produce "heat islands" from their sprawling seas of asphalt and heavy emissions.
"So far we've surveyed 1,062 of them," said Anthony Watts, a meteorologist who began the tracking effort in 2007. "We found that 90 percent of them don't meet [the government's] old, simple rule called the '100-foot rule' for keeping thermometers 100 feet or more from biasing influence. Ninety percent of them failed that, and we've got documentation."
Watts, who has posted pictures of the sensors on his Web site, SurfaceStations.org, says he believes that the location of the sensors renders their recorded temperatures inaccurate, which in turn brings some of the data behind global warming theory into question.
"It's asinine to think that this wouldn't have some kind of an effect," Watts told FoxNews.com.
But climate scientists who analyze the data say that they are able to account and adjust for the faulty locations by comparing warming trends they spot at bad sites to trends they see at good ones.
"If you use only the sites that currently have good siting versus those that have not-so-good siting, when you look at the adjusted data basically you get the same trend," said Jay Lawrimore, chief of the climate monitoring branch at NCDC.
Lawrimore admitted that Watts' volunteers had discovered real problems with sensor siting, but he said that even when those sites' heat readings were adjusted down, they still showed a steady overall rise in temperatures.
"The ultimate conclusion, the bottom line is that there really isn't evidence that the trends have a bias based on the current siting," he said.
And surface station data is only a small subset of information confirming the warming of the climate, Lawrimore said.
Changes in air temperature, water temperature, glacier melt, plant flowering, tree growth and species migration, among many others, show the same worldwide trend -- a 0.7 degree Celsius jump (1.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in the past century.
"There's a certain amount of uncertainty in the calculation of trends, but not to the extent that we don't know the climate is warming," he said.
Watts readily agrees that temperatures are on the rise worldwide, but he believes the magnitude of the increase is in question, and he says his research puts the 1.2-degree global figure in doubt.
But a team of three climatologists has completed a study of Watts' data on HCN siting and found the warming trend to be confirmed.
In fact, the three NCDC scientists, Matthew Menne, Claude Williams and Michael Palecki, say they found that instrument updates in the 1980s have created a cooling bias, and that adjusted and cleaned up data from even the bad sites is "extremely well aligned" with measurements from instruments that meet the "highest standards for climate monitoring."
"We find no evidence that the [contiguous U.S.] temperature trends are inflated due to poor station siting," reads the study, which is set to be published in a forthcoming volume of the "Journal of Geophysics Research -- Atmospheres."
"It's all objective analysis based on statistics," said Matthew Menne, the lead author of the study.
But Menne's study was conducted using information on only 43 percent of the weather stations. Watts, who has now compiled information on 80 percent of the stations and cleaned up his old information, contends that a more complete data set would furnish different results, and he plans to conduct a study of his own under the aegis of Roger Pielke Sr., a research scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
A better test of the network's data is on the horizon. In the past eight years, the NOAA has established a hi-tech system that sends information via satellite and abides by all of its own rules for siting. Each sensor is ideally placed in open areas far from other structures, a fact that pleases both government scientists and longstanding critics like Watts.
"I'm convinced that the new system, the Climate Reference Network, will provide a reasonably accurate set of readings," Watts said.
But data has only begun to be collected from CRN, a regional network of just 114 climate sensors that went fully online in 2008. It will take at least a decade, and as many as 30 years, until the information it collects becomes statistically significant.
In the meantime, and for many years past, the challenged data from NCDC has been providing information for a number of top climate research centers, including the U.N.'s International Panel on Climate Change, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and the Hadley Climate Research Unit, headed until recently by Phil Jones, who resigned in the wake of the climate-gate scandal.
With mounting pressure on climate research facilities, scientists at the NCDC hope that their data won't be discounted because of the troubling images Watts has compiled.
"These photos show a current snapshot of these stations," said Menne. "We wouldn't want to dismiss 100 years of climate records based on a photograph from the year 2009."
By Adam Baldwin from BigHollywood.Breitbart.com
‘Racist!’, the political epithet, has rapidly lost credibility and political sting recently thanks to clumsy overuse by grievance-mongering thugs. The slur is a tactical viewpoint discrimination launched as a means to stifle intellectual diversity, rational discussion, and to shame people that diverge from race-hustling orthodoxy.
Tragically, such rhetorical abuse damages the appropriate use of the term – and leaves actual victims of “traditional” racism with a neutered descriptor that is quickly beginning to make the accuser sound like a whining name-caller. The sad irony is that abusers harm the very people they claim to be defending, most often for selfish political and financial profit.
Of course, follow the money…
Thomas Sowell:
Being a race hustler is a very lucrative business for people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. But such people can extort money and power from white business and political leaders precisely because it is easier to pay off a relative handful of noise makers than to be bothered fighting them. But tens of millions of blacks cannot duplicate what a small band of extortionists do.
Chasing a will o’ the wisp like reparations cannot produce what blacks most want — respect, including the self-respect that comes ultimately from one’s own achievements. This is something that whites could not give blacks if they wanted to.
That fading race-business model is likely depressing its intolerant participants’ financial outlook.
Time-out to play Spot the ‘Racists!’ (*NSFW*): Click the following link to the video...
A true classic, no?
Moral-crusaders on self-congratulatory, highly profitable missions exploit and perpetuate the ‘soft bigotry of low expectations’. They are now desperate to keep their minority mascots in political servitude to one political party’s destructive ideology, i.e., dependence.
Ironically, Candidate Obama’s denunciation and public divorce from his long-time racist pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, played a pivotal role in accelerating the loss of race-hustler credibility in the current American zeitgeist; this cultural good fortune – secured for now by new/alternative media success — is likely to continue its progressive course into the foreseeable future.
Addressing his former pastor’s failures and “mistake” in his famous March, 2008 campaign ‘Race Speech,’ President Obama characterized our nation’s “racial divisions” as being in a “stalemate.” He asserted a firm conviction “rooted in [his] faith in God and [his] faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds.”
Later, elected president, Mr. Obama acknowledged his careless rush to judgment – which some deemed as reflexive reverse racism — that the Cambridge, MA Police “acted stupidly.” The president manned up and provided leadership at a healing “Beer Summit.” Ben Franklin, no stranger to beer, would’ve likely approved this gesture.
Rhetorically speaking, thank God that from now on when thought-terminating clichés such as “racist!,” “sexist!,” “bigot!,” “xenophobe!,” “homophobe!,” “hypocrite!,” “chicken-hawk!,” “Uncle Tom!,” “white supremacist!” etc. are hastily concocted (Max Blumenthal call your office), Americans are no longer intimidated by these divisive, intellectually-stifling smears.
Fearless rhetorical engagement in the modern cultural/political arena of ideas is a good and necessary component of our vigorous and successful Republic.
With principled firmness, a solid rejoinder to race-hustler-ridiculousness: “What hard evidence do you have other than clumsy guilt-by-association character assassination, and/or sins-of-the-father attacks and innuendo?”
Too often Modern Liberal arguments amount to nothing more than self-anointed moral rulings that certain people don’t at all have standing on various issues, especially race. These rulings are never ideologically neutral but, rather, are the notorious political weaponry of Saul Alinsky.
Once exclusively reserved for very effective use against unarmed conservatives, Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” is now self-defeating his radical ideological progeny. Now those are ‘chickens come home to roost’ that can benefit America!
Ridicule is, according to Alinsky, man’s most potent weapon.
Highly effective also is Andrew Breitbart’s approach of keeping the pressure on by freezing the target and making them live up to their own book of rules:
It’s time to hit back at these people — that these people keep calling you a racist… Instead of slinking into the corner and crying or saying ‘I don’t like that,’ you walk straight towards them and confront them; and they’re bullies, they’re just bullies and bullies crumble when you hit them back.
Unity is overrated… Saddle up. Let’s Roll!
Behar and Maher laugh about Cheney's Heart Attack: Like a Field Trip, No Class!
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How much longer must these people have their own shows?
by Steven Crowder
The era of Reagan is over.
No, I don’t say that in the same way that RINO’s say it in an attempt to move towards the center and line their Brooks Brothers’ pockets. I say it in that the political landscape today has changed drastically and we need to do more than look to one transcendent figure as the leader of the conservative movement. Future generations will be won on the cultural front, and never through “politics.” Politicians are boring, plus they smell funny.
Say what you want about leftists; Sure they act a little crazy, wear pointy shoes and spit when they talk, but they are incredibly effective with planting cultural seeds. Avatar, plants a seed. Family Guy, plants a seed. SNL plants a seed. All of Comedy Central plants seeds. On the flip side, the sad fact of the matter is that conservatives have planted little to nothing in the cultural landscape.
Listen, you will never win the young masses through politics or a politician. The only way to win them over is through taking an active role in the culture. This is displayed by the fact that anytime a conservative steps foot into that arena leftists go insane (a kind of “Paula Abdul’s not taking her meds again” insane). One needs look no further than CPAC. The heavy-hitters weren’t the GOP politicians, but people like Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter and Andrew Breitbart. Notice how agitated the mainstream media has become. Lefties are hoping that we’ve given up on Hollywood and mass media as a whole.
See, conservatives don’t flick the jab, which is why in the 15th round (election time) we find ourselves down on the scorecard and try to crank out a haymaker by finding some supernatural Reagan-like savior in a Sarah Palin or Scott Brown. The problem is that conservatives are fighting like Max Baer when we should be fighting like Cassius Clay.
Ronald Reagan worked in a generation brought up with traditional principles able to observe conservatism at work. Having also observed liberalism at work first-hand, and through critical thinking they decided to overwhelmingly revert back to conservatism.
The problem is that not only has this generation never seen TRUE conservatism at work, but they’ve been raised in a world of situational ethics. When you’ve been weaned on the teat of subjective morality, logic begins to play a smaller and smaller role as facts become subjective. Since we haven’t been planting the necessary cultural seeds with a younger generation, we can’t expect them to follow the logical path of conservatism.
Folks don’t expect politicians to ever step up to this plate either. The D.C. crowd often considers it “beneath them” to address mass media because in doing so they acknowledge that they watch it. After all, we all know that they don’t partake in such indulgences.
Case in Point; Barack Obama. Barack Obama the politician was never elected. Barack Obama the celebrity, on the other hand, was ushered in successfully by the Hollywood elite. It was never the Washington machine that made Obama merchandise the “it” fashion item of the season, but people like The Black-Eyed Peas, Scarlett Johanssen, P. Diddy, GreenDay, Steven Spielberg, Tina Fey, Seth McFarlane… Well I think you get the point.
My question to you is: if offered the power of Hollywood/the entertainment industry or Washington D.C. which would you choose?
I think that if you choose Washington you should seriously consider a CAT scan.
Should you decide to get one, I hear Sean Penn knows a guy.
They were so noble when they were out of power, Such dramatic, poetic language against the nuclear option, were is that passion now?
In an alarming finding, the Rasmussen Report found only 21% of Americans believe the Democrat-controlled U.S. government has the consent of the governed. Amazingly, this view is held by only 32% of Democrats.
Spurred by the unjust Wall Street Bailout, this crisis of consent is exacerbated by an Obama Administration and its Democratic Congress’ insistence on ramming through a government-run health care scheme in defiance of the sovereign American people’s emphatic opposition.
Now, having already pre-determined its outcome, the Obama Administration will hold a health care summit. The summit’s goal is to persuade the public that the Republican minority is “forcing” the Democrats’ heavy-handed tactics to foist this abominable bill upon Americans.
The truth is otherwise: it is the public and centrist Democrats who have to date stopped this radical proposal, which will raise the cost and lower the quality of Americans’ health care.
Consequently, with due respect for the President and ultimate respect for the American people, the Republican leadership has no choice. It must NOT accept the administration’s disingenuous summit invitation to “negotiate.”
To accept would abet a deceit upon the people; and violate the principle that transparency in government exists to reveal the truth and promote the public’s confidence in their representative institutions, not to foster misperceptions and subvert the public’s confidence in their representative institutions.
Fortunately, a solution exists: an election.
As in other times of great national debate, Democrats must let the competing views of health care – government-run, bureaucrat-centered medicine versus free-market, patient- centered wellness – be submitted to the American people for their sovereign consideration and determination this November.
Nothing could do more to promote Americans’ health care; and restore the public’s confidence they are being governed with their consent
So Red Eye fan Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics and Political Science, emailed me this weekend to tell me about a paper he wrote, due out today in the scientific journal Social PsychologyQuarterly.
It’s entitled “Why liberals and atheists are more intelligent.”
Already I hate it.
See, according to Satoshi, humans are “evolutionarily designed to be conservative and religious, and it is unnatural for them to be liberal and atheists.” But he found that smarter people are more likely to go against their evolutionary design and become liberals and atheists. That kind of rebelliousness doesn’t show up in the rest of us dumb folk, apparently.
A conservative himself, Satoshi says he doesn’t like these findings, but as a scientist he has to publish them. Good for him. Of course, the findings will be trumpeted far and wide by the left – just as it would have been by the right – if the results were different.
Which is poo-hicky. I can safely say that I am smarter than most lefties – so smart, in fact, that I can use words like “poo-hicky” and get away with it.
And here’s why. Satoshi’s is really suggesting that smart people are more likely to experiment, take risks and question the status quo. This makes sense. But this link between intelligence and rebellion is only temporary.
It happens that I was once a pimply-faced liberal, a perfectly normal state of rebellion for a typical attention-seeking teenager. But, after awhile, I started rejecting the easy romance of leftism, as hard reality started hitting me in the face. So,while it takes brains to question the natural state of things, you need even more brains to later question the questioning. Smart people question their parents, but then smarter people realize that after a brief intellectual vacation, their parents were right all along (unless mom or dad is a Baldwin).
Bottom line: braininess isn’t reflected in rebellion against common sense. Instead, it’s rebellion against rebellion that is the proof of highest intelligence of all.That – and an acceptance that unicorns rule and griffins suck.
And if you disagree with me, you’re probably a racist leprechaun who eats babies.
By Brittany Ghiroli / MLB.com
02/22/10 12:10 PM EST
SARASOTA, Fla. -- Matt Wieters' locker is nestled in the front left corner of the Orioles' clubhouse, and most mornings, the 23-year-old is accompanied by a member of the media, a revolving carousel of faces all wanting to know the same things.
Now that he's not a rookie, what will Wieters do? Can the 6-foot-5 switch-hitting catcher build on last season's strong second half? Or, perhaps most importantly, can he take control of the O's young arms?
The questions come so often already, Wieters has jokingly mentioned posting some generic responses above his locker. But this spring's curiosity pales with its predecessor. Last year, Wieters was a can't-miss prospect whose pending Major League arrival caused frenzy like nothing president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail had ever seen. Baltimore even announced its decision to call up Wieters three days early, an unprecedented move for the franchise.
"The expectations were through the moon," said MacPhail, who has worked in baseball front offices for more than 20 years. "As much as we like to temper expectations, that was really a one-way freight train that got out of control."
This spring, the anticipation has dissipated and with it, so has most of the circus.
Now, it's time for Act II. And Wieters, who will enter his first full Major League season, has no problem assuming a starring role.
"You don't have to be [overly] vocal to be able to go up to a guy and just talk to him about how his bullpen went," Wieters said. "The good thing about last year is a lot of the guys [in the rotation], I caught in the Minor Leagues. And now, we can sort of take a step further and really get into some pitching conversations."
Polite and quiet almost to a fault, Wieters said he is "definitely" willing to assume more of a leadership role behind the plate. What the former Georgia Tech standout won't do is try to change who he is.
"I don't know if he's approaching [this spring] any differently," manager Dave Trembley said. "Because of the way Matt is, I don't think he will change the way he approaches anything. It would just appear that he's just a lot more relaxed and confident. He knows he's the catcher."
So does everyone inside the Orioles' locker room.
Wieters, the fifth overall selection in the 2007 First-Year Player Draft, is used to widespread acclaim. The switch-hitter was regarded as the best position player in his Draft year, and after signability concerns dropped him a few picks, the Orioles picked him and eventually rewarded him with a contract worth $6 million. After splitting the '08 season between high Class A and Double-A, the Wieters Watch began and didn't subside until he made his Major League debut May 29, 2009.
"No matter how good you are, until you've played in the big leagues and been able to do something, you don't know if you can really," said Moeller, Wieters' lockermate who has spent parts of 10 seasons in the big leagues. "There's that little bit [of doubt] in your head that says 'What if it doesn't? What if it is a bigger difference than I thought?' And he's gotten through that with flying colors."
Wieters batted .259 with a .316 on-base percentage and a .407 slugging mark before the All-Star break, and improved to a .301 average, a .351 OBP and a .415 slugging percentage after the intermission.
Some of his struggles were due to an inevitable learning curve, just as his late-season success can likely be attributed to Wieters getting more comfortable. He batted .362 with three home runs and 14 RBIs in September, and the Orioles began batting him in the No. 3 slot during the final few weeks of the season.
"It's definitely a lot of unexpected stuff that you have to learn, and your eyes are definitely wide open just trying to see what all's going on out there," Wieters said. "This year, I can come in knowing a little bit more what to expect. You still have a ton to learn, but you sort of have an idea what's going on."
Armed with in-game experience, Wieters will enter the season determined to make it through the 162-game grind. He spent this winter focused on adding back the 10 pounds of muscle lost throughout the course of last season, and Wieters is now an imposing 232. His wife, Maria, helped him steer clear of junk food and Wieters' diet now includes plenty of fish and rice. He knows he will get fatigued at some point this season, but the hope is maintaining his muscle mass and overhauling his nutrition will delay that.
Wieters will be the batterymate for a projected rotation of Kevin Millwood, Jeremy Guthrie, Brad Bergesen, Brian Matusz and Chris Tillman, the latter three all under 25 with similar experience levels as Wieters.
"He's come up with a nice group," MacPhail. "And the fact that they sort of came together, I think had the positive impact of distributing the burden a little bit amongst them."
With MacPhail making it clear that the organization is out of the rebuilding phase, the Orioles will rely heavily on the expected improvement of their young players. And perhaps no one will be counted on more than Wieters.
"I hope [he continues to get better]," said Moeller, who has assumed a mentoring role to the young phenom. "They're expecting him to. He's expecting him to. And if he doesn't, he's got me totally fooled.
"He knows what's he doing, and he knows what he's capable of."
VANCOUVER, B.C. — As Ryan Miller walked around town with his family the past few nights he heard his share of trash talk, or at least what passes for trash talk in this country
After all, this is Canada, where trash talk comes with an apology. Call it recyclable trash talk. Green trash talk.
"It was just stuff like, 'Hey, there's the American goalie Ryan Miller,' " Miller said. "And then they would just say things like, 'Go Canada,' or 'Go Canada, go.' That's all you get up here."
Not exactly Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
"They're very polite up here," Miller said. "They respect the game."
For 60 minutes on Sunday afternoon, the best Canadian hockey players strafed Miller.
They made lies out of all the pregame talk that they were thinking too much, passing too much, shucking and jiving, when they should have been shooting and scoring.
They flew at Miller like the all-stars they are. They played inexorably straight-ahead, hockey the way Canadians expect Canadians to play.
They threw slap shots and wrist shots at Miller. They threw bodies and continued to come at him in red-sweatered waves. But Miller was better than red.
"He stood on his head, again," U.S. forward Patrick Kane said after the 5-3 upset win that advanced to his team to the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Canada has to play Germany on Tuesday in a qualification game.
Blame it on Miller. He was white hot. And in a hockey tournament as balanced as this, brilliant goaltending can take a team all the way to gold.
"He's the man to watch," forward David Backes said. "He steals games. He's a difference-maker. And he lived up to both of those names tonight."
Canada Hockey Place was a shooting gallery and the steadfast Miller was the target. He should have been given a blindfold and a cigarette before the game.
Even then, he probably would have stopped anything that came at him. He made 42 saves, few of them routine.
Miller was brilliant and his teammates were emboldened by that brilliance.
"He was awesome," U.S. forward Ryan Malone said. "We had a couple of lapses in there, but because of Ryan, we bent, but we didn't break.
"You don't want to leave him out there undressed too many times, but we do know that he's back there and like all good goaltenders do, he gives us confidence to be able to go out and make plays."
Twice early in the game, Patrick Marleau got loose in front of Miller and was stoned. Joe Thornton's redirected shot thumped Miller in the chest late in the first period when Canada threw 18 shots at Miller and he stopped 17 of them.
In the last five minutes, when the puck always seemed to be in the United States' end, Miller made the difference.
"I knew they were going to bring pucks at the net and I tried to keep my game very simple," Miller said. "I made my reads simple. If I start bouncing all over the ice, I'm not very efficient."
On Canada's home ice, with the entire country trying to will its team to gold, Miller postponed the dream. The Canadians tied the score at 2-2 in the second period and the fans briefly taunted him, calling "Mil-ler, Mil-ler." It only took a couple of saves for him to mute them.
"We were just playing against the boys in the red uniforms and not the entire country," Miller said. "And we were able to check our emotions."
The United States took just 23 shots. But its forechecking created just enough Canadian turnovers that led to just enough scoring opportunities.
Forty-one seconds into the game, Brian Rafalski, who scored twice in the first period, beat Canada's Martin Brodeur on a slap shot from the point.
Ahead 4-2, Miller allowed a power-play goal from Sidney Crosby with 3:09 to go, then deftly fought off the final Canadian swarm.
"We knew they were going to rally," said Jamie Langenbrunner, whose early third-period power-play goal gave the U.S. a two-goal lead. "They turned the press on, but Ryan Miller turned them away."
Salon.com writer Max Blumenthal(pictured right) who recently wrote on his blog that James O'Keefe, the man responsible for the undercover video that embarrassed ACORN, was a racist that attended meetings with white supremacists.( here Salon.com) Salon.com recently retracted the article, however not completely and we here at TheBarnesEyeView are still waiting for the other falsehoods to be retracted. Well it appears that they did not move fast enough for Andrew Brietbart of BigGoverment.com who had a bit of a run in with Mr. Blumenthal who then proceeded to deny that he ever called O'Keefe a racist. That is until Larry O'Connor confronted him when Breitbart was finished. Kudos to both of these gentlemen for holding the Mainstream Media accountable for their bias, falsehoods, and personal attacks. You can view the entire altercation on the video below. Enjoy!
Source: Deadline Hollywood
In possibly one of the biggest superhero movie shockers since the last one--when was the Spider-Man reboot, three weeks ago?--Deadline Hollywood is now reporting that The Dark Knight and Batman Begins director Christopher Nolan has been assigned the potentially thankless task of being the latest filmmaker assigned by Warner Bros. to try to save the "Superman" franchise, in this case in a mentoring capacity to figure out the best way to proceed.
Director Bryan Singer helmed the last installment Superman Returns three and a half years ago, which grossed $391 million worldwide, but wasn't seen as a hit due to its reported $270 million production budget. (Remember that the studio doesn't get 100% of those theatrical grosses.)
This latest news seems to come out of two recent developments, the restructuring of Warner's relationship with DC Comics into a new company called DC Entertainment, headed by Diane Nelson, and the looming deadline of the estates of Superman creators Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster gaining back the entire copyright for the character in 2013. During a court hearing about the rights to Superman, Warners chairman Alan Horn said that he hoped to make another film for 2012 at the earliest but that no script was currently in development.
Some may remember that before Bryan Singer came on board, various versions of the Man of Steel were floundering in development, including one version starring Nicolas Cage to be directed by Tim Burton based on a screenplay by Kevin Smith. Even J.J. Abrams took a crack at writing a Superman screenplay with both Brett Ratner and McG attached to direct his version at one point.
It's unclear how far Nolan's role as a mentor might stretch and whether he'll just be offering some suggestions on the direction, or will be actively involved in picking the director, writers and casting for the reboot, as it's still very early in what is already being labeled "Superman 3.0."
The following was posted by Rusty Weiss at Newsbusters.org
By Rusty Weiss (Bio
Archive)
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 00:01 ET
How does one prepare for an upcoming appearance by Seth MacFarlane of Family Guy fame? If you're Bill Maher, you follow up the Family Guy/Sarah Palin/Down Syndrome attack by doing an 'exclusive rant' for the Huffington Post which includes - you guessed it - a joke about Sarah Palin's son, Trig.
"...while we were off, Sarah Palin agreed to do commentary at Fox News. Which is actually very similar to her day job - talking to a baby with Down Syndrome."
Video can be found here:
Huffingtonpost
Some artwork has been making its way around the web that seems to be concept art from the new Martin Campbell directed Green Lantern movie. Overall if this is the real deal this artwork looks really good, especially Killowag who seems to have the same look as Ethan Van Sciver's amazing artwork on the character. I am not quite sure how I feel about the Sinestro look however, in my opinion that should be tweeked a bit to bring it more in line with the comics. I guess we will just have to wait to see what the finished product looks like. Until then enjoy the pics.
The following was written by Steven Crowder on BigHollywood.Brietbart.com in my opinion he hits he nail right on the hypocritical head.
By Steven Crowder
Now I hate to be “that guy” who fact-checks jokes and so… I’m not going to be. Let’s be honest though, Bill Maher doesn’t really write jokes these days. He’s instead decided to sermonize on the perils of right-wing Americans through his self-described brand of “political incorrectness.” Of course, the irony is that Bill Maher is the walking, talking, epitome of modern-day political correctness, but shhh… Don’t tell him that. He might get upset. You don’t want to see him upset. I hear that he’s been doing curls.
Let’s examine some of his “politically incorrect” shenanigans from Maher’s latest HBO special, “… But I’m not wrong,” shall we?
Set Up: Early on, he comments on how he loves the South because they are “politically incorrect.” Throughout the remaining hour he continually accuses the South of being racist and dumb along with confessing his hatred for any area of the country that is not a bustling metropolis. Confused?
Spoiler Alert: It doesn’t start making any more sense as we continue.
Bill Maher then talks about his adoration for “Bill Clinton” and playfully says “I love this guy,” when referring to John Edwards. Coming from a guy who drills porn stars to convince himself that the idea of traditional relationships is out-dated… Is this really a surprise? He’s the real life “Alfie”… If Alfie were unattractive and void of boyish charm.
On George Bush: Eleven minutes into it, Bill Maher pulls out the “blame Bush” card to much applause. He’s treading new politically incorrect territory here, as displayed by him revisiting this theme throughout the rest of the evening.
Note: Bill Maher’s smirk reflects that he genuinely believes he’s the first man to call George W. Bush a “retard.” Quick, someone get him a Russell Brand DVD or any Green Day interview ever recorded.
Double Note: The smirk returns when Bill Maher recycles his “I dropped the Bible that I was using to masturbate into my gun,” line. He really likes that line…. I mean, REALLY likes that line. Even the audience groans as he repeats it for the umpteenth time.
On Stupid Americans: Bill Maher digs his heels in deeper and defends his claim that America is stupid.
“You’re like my dog. Dumb as a post, but you make me laugh.”
He does explain that when he says stupid, what he REALLY wants to address is America’s misplaced sense of patriotism. He attacks conservatives who “act” like they support the troops: “We treat our troops the way Michael Vick treats dogs.”
He goes on to say that if we really supported them, we’d withdraw them from battle completely. I silently thank God that Bill Maher has never served… Despite what his pseudo-combat shirt would tell you.
Note: Someone tell Bill Maher that 3:1 of our armed forces backed McCain over Barack Obama. ’twas 4:1 for Bush over Kerry.
On Religion: This is where Maher really gets “politically incorrect.” The comedian displays his fuzzy pair by going after Christians. I know, I know, he’s taking his life into his hands. It’s not like Lenny Bruce did it. It isn’t even as though Bill Hicks did it more proficiently. Bill Maher is truly the first man to cross these boundaries and enlighten the American public on the scourge of silly evangelicals, and the country thanks him for it.
To be fair, he does take a couple of potshots at Islam, but I would estimate that the anti-Christian material vs. all other religions combined would be somewhere around 3:1. Also, while he downplays the threat of actual terrorism, he pulls no punches in displaying the historical harm caused by Christians.
Of course Bill Maher pokes fun at Palin and sexually repressed Christians. If only the rest of us could be so enlightened as Maher and sustain ourselves on nothing but a diet of psychotropic drugs and porn-star sex with “ho’s,” the world would be a much better place.
One notices when watching Maher for an hour and a half, that he is the most self-absorbed stand-up comedian you’ll ever see. I don’t say that in the sense that his material revolves around personal experiences or stories (as with most comics), but in the fact that he constantly tells his audience about what a great show he’s giving them. He’s always aware that he’s performing, and he constantly wants his audience to know that they’re lucky enough to be able to witness it.
The most striking part of Bill’s performance however, is when he makes the public plea for people to be forgiving of him should he ever joke about Obama. A joke about Obama is not a “joke about all black people” he cries. See, the thing is that Bill Maher doesn’t want to die by his own sword. He has openly decried all detractors of Obama as racist tea-baggers, but wants to be free to make his own ethnically charged jokes.
In Bill Maher’s world opposition to this administration’s policies = racist.
Crafting jokes about how Obama needs to “black it up a little more”… Now that’s just good TV.
No wonder Sean Penn likes him.
Trailer: The Crazies
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Don't know what to think about this yet but I am always up for a good zombie flick, Romero's original was not that good but I will give this a chance.
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