James Franco is a blonde douchebag now. - Which apparently is how Kanye prefers Kim. Penis, too, probably. - The Minx In The Red Wet Dress is Valeria Orsini - Selena Gomez‘s Teen Choice Awards speech was a little weird. - Ariana
Tuesday, 12 August 2014
Sorry PS4: Xbox One grabs Rise of the
Bad news, PlayStation gamers: if you were hoping to play Rise of the Tomb Raider then you'll need to pick up an Xbox One, too, since it's confirmed today that the game will be exclusive to the console. Set to arrive in holiday 2015, the new installment in the long-running series will see Lara Croft return to the sort of tombs that she explored in the earliest games. However, PS4 owners are already angry.
According to Microsoft, Rise of the Tomb Raider will be set in multiple locations with a variety of hostile environments to explore. The bigger battle developer Crystal Dynamics faces, though, is explaining why it jumped into bed with Xbox.
According to head of studio Darrell Gallagher, the decision was down to the degree of support Microsoft was promising to give, and the potential that could have on driving sales of the new title.
"We know they will get behind this game more than any support we have had from them in the past," Gallagher says, describing the exclusive as "a step to really forging the Tomb Raider brand as one of the biggest in gaming."
However, he also insists that it doesn't mean the studio is abandoning PlayStation or PC. Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is due December on both, he points out, while Tomb Raider: The Definitive Edition is already available on the PS4.
There's plenty of time to go before Rise of the Tomb Raider actually arrives, so details on gameplay are scant. Still, it's a much-loved franchise, and attention - along with heated argument over platform exclusives - is likely to be significant until the holiday season next year.
According to Microsoft, Rise of the Tomb Raider will be set in multiple locations with a variety of hostile environments to explore. The bigger battle developer Crystal Dynamics faces, though, is explaining why it jumped into bed with Xbox.
According to head of studio Darrell Gallagher, the decision was down to the degree of support Microsoft was promising to give, and the potential that could have on driving sales of the new title.
However, he also insists that it doesn't mean the studio is abandoning PlayStation or PC. Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is due December on both, he points out, while Tomb Raider: The Definitive Edition is already available on the PS4.
There's plenty of time to go before Rise of the Tomb Raider actually arrives, so details on gameplay are scant. Still, it's a much-loved franchise, and attention - along with heated argument over platform exclusives - is likely to be significant until the holiday season next year.
Meerut to Muzaffarnagar: was India's last urban riot
The pattern of Hindu-Muslim riots following the tumult in Gujarat in 2002 suggests that the new sites of communal violence are now deliberately chosen so as to evade the withering scrutiny of national media, particularly 24x7 TV news channels.
The masterminds of such communal violence have shifted their activities from bustling cities to decaying towns and their rural
Think of the major sites of communal disturbances over the last 12 years, beginning from 2003, the year after the riots. Mau in Uttar Pradesh, Gopalgarh in Rajasthan, Kokrajhar in Assam, Bettiah in Bihar, villages around the west UP towns of Muzaffarnagar, Kanth, Saharanpur and Meerut, to even Mewat, merely miles away from the millennium city of Gurgaon.
All these pockets of conflict lie outside the hub of national media, which are headquartered in Delhi or Mumbai and boast fulltime
This shifting of the site of communal violence is a sharp riposte to those who expounded, in commemorative TV programmes and print editions marking the 10th year of the Gujarat riots, the sheer implausibility of triggering mayhem in the age of mass media.
Describing Gujarat 2002 as the country’s first ‘televised riots’, it was claimed that the coverage spawned revulsion against the Gujarat government’s perceived partisan approach to tackling violence. Regardless of the advantages that accrued to the BJP in Gujarat, 2002 still remains a blot on its history, as dark as 1984 is for the Congress.
It is to offset the disadvantages arising from the national media’s coverage of mass violence that its masterminds have thought it prudent to shift to creaky towns and their sleepy peripheries.
Muzaffarnagar or Moradabad or Saharanpur may just be hours from Delhi, but because journalists are not embedded in the local milieu, with no clue of either festering communal problems or of the deliberate fanning of tension, they often arrive at such places long after the violence has erupted and devastated.
There are no images of murderous mobs on the rampage to telecast, no shocking justifications of violence to record, as had been the case with the coverage of the riots in Gujarat.
Call it the power of moving images, but an expression of mob fury captured live has a more telling impact than a victim describing it in his or her disconsolate voice.
The masterminds of such communal violence have shifted their activities from bustling cities to decaying towns and their rural
Think of the major sites of communal disturbances over the last 12 years, beginning from 2003, the year after the riots. Mau in Uttar Pradesh, Gopalgarh in Rajasthan, Kokrajhar in Assam, Bettiah in Bihar, villages around the west UP towns of Muzaffarnagar, Kanth, Saharanpur and Meerut, to even Mewat, merely miles away from the millennium city of Gurgaon.
All these pockets of conflict lie outside the hub of national media, which are headquartered in Delhi or Mumbai and boast fulltime
This shifting of the site of communal violence is a sharp riposte to those who expounded, in commemorative TV programmes and print editions marking the 10th year of the Gujarat riots, the sheer implausibility of triggering mayhem in the age of mass media.
It is to offset the disadvantages arising from the national media’s coverage of mass violence that its masterminds have thought it prudent to shift to creaky towns and their sleepy peripheries.
Muzaffarnagar or Moradabad or Saharanpur may just be hours from Delhi, but because journalists are not embedded in the local milieu, with no clue of either festering communal problems or of the deliberate fanning of tension, they often arrive at such places long after the violence has erupted and devastated.
There are no images of murderous mobs on the rampage to telecast, no shocking justifications of violence to record, as had been the case with the coverage of the riots in Gujarat.
Call it the power of moving images, but an expression of mob fury captured live has a more telling impact than a victim describing it in his or her disconsolate voice.
Monday, 28 July 2014
Things You Never Knew About Tomatoes
Could there be anything more perfect than a ripe tomato, freshly picked, still warm from the sun? Tomatoes are one of those special foods that make our hearts flutter. With the arrival of tomato season, we'll be eating tomatoes in just about everything, from salads and pastas to BLTs and yes, on their own, with a sprinkling of salt.
Like anything we're really passionate about, we want to learn everything there is to know about tomatoes. Most people probably know that tomatoes are actually a fruit, but that's just the beginning of the long list of interesting facts we've found out.
Here are 11 things you probably don't know about tomatoes.
People used to believe tomatoes were poisonous.
In the 1700s, some Europeans feared the tomato because aristocrats were getting sick and dying after eating them. The tomato even earned the nickname the "poisonous apple." The problem wasn't the tomatoes, however, but the pewter plates on which the tomatoes were served. Because of tomatoes' high acidity, the fruit would leach lead from the plates, which resulted in many deaths from lead poisoning, falsely attributed to tomatoes. Luckily people eventually came to their senses and figured out the lead was to blame -- not the tomatoes.
Tomatoes do not belong in the refrigerator.
The cold air in the fridge stops the tomato from ripening, and ripening is what gives tomatoes more flavor. The cold temperature will also alter the texture of the tomato, breaking down the membranes inside the fruit walls and turning it mealy. Word to the wise: keep your tomatoes out on the counter if you want them to taste good and retain their wonderful texture.
Like anything we're really passionate about, we want to learn everything there is to know about tomatoes. Most people probably know that tomatoes are actually a fruit, but that's just the beginning of the long list of interesting facts we've found out.
Here are 11 things you probably don't know about tomatoes.
People used to believe tomatoes were poisonous.
In the 1700s, some Europeans feared the tomato because aristocrats were getting sick and dying after eating them. The tomato even earned the nickname the "poisonous apple." The problem wasn't the tomatoes, however, but the pewter plates on which the tomatoes were served. Because of tomatoes' high acidity, the fruit would leach lead from the plates, which resulted in many deaths from lead poisoning, falsely attributed to tomatoes. Luckily people eventually came to their senses and figured out the lead was to blame -- not the tomatoes.
Tomatoes do not belong in the refrigerator.
The cold air in the fridge stops the tomato from ripening, and ripening is what gives tomatoes more flavor. The cold temperature will also alter the texture of the tomato, breaking down the membranes inside the fruit walls and turning it mealy. Word to the wise: keep your tomatoes out on the counter if you want them to taste good and retain their wonderful texture.
Jessica Simpson Shares Photo Of Baby Ace Growing Fascinated With An Ottoman
On Sunday, July 27, Jessica Simpson shared the following photo of her adorable son Ace, playing with both CaCee Cobb's son Rocco and what appears to be a most enchanting ottoman.
At 13 months, Ace did an impressive job of standing up to play with the fascinating beaded material.
As People notes, Cobb and Simpson have formed a friendship between their children in recent months that has at least once been called a "baby bromance."
Simpson, who married Eric Johnson earlier this month, has turned her Instagram into a lovely family album, featuring her babies and also other babies. Here she is with a particularly cute one named Wyatt.
At 13 months, Ace did an impressive job of standing up to play with the fascinating beaded material.
Simpson, who married Eric Johnson earlier this month, has turned her Instagram into a lovely family album, featuring her babies and also other babies. Here she is with a particularly cute one named Wyatt.
Sunday, 27 July 2014
Three killed as Israel renews strikes on Gaza after Hamas rocket attack
The Israeli army said on Sunday it is resuming its raids on Gaza by land, sea and air after Hamas continued firing rockets, ending a unilateral 12-hour humanitarian truce.
"Following Hamas' incessant rocket fire throughout the humanitarian window, which was agreed upon for the welfare of the civilian population in Gaza, the IDF will now resume its aerial, naval and ground activity in the Gaza Strip," an army statement said.
"Due to flagrant violations of humanitarian remission by Hamas, the IDF is now resuming offensive activities," army spokesman Peter Lerner wrote on Twitter.
Three Palestinians were killed in shelling on Sunday, medics said.
Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said two men were killed in shelling near the border in central Gaza, while a third was killed near Khan Yunis in the south.
Israel's cabinet "approved the UN request regarding a humanitarian ceasefire to run until midnight (2100 GMT) Sunday", an Israeli government official told AFP on condition of anonymity late on Saturday.
However Hamas responded in a statement that "no humanitarian ceasefire is valid without Israeli tanks withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and without residents being able to return to their homes and ambulances carrying bodies being able to freely move around in Gaza".
Israeli soldiers of the 155mm artillery cannons unit fire towards the Gaza Strip from their position near Israel's border with the coastal Palestinian enclave. (AFP photo)
Late Saturday the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for rocket attacks on southern Israel and Tel Aviv immediately after the expiry of an initial 12-hour ceasefire both sides had abided by.
The attacks, which set air-raid sirens wailing throughout the country, were confirmed by the Israeli army.
Overall about 20 rockets were fired at southern Israel between late Saturday and Sunday morning.
The Iron Dome missile interception defences knocked some rockets out of the sky, and no casualties were reported.
Israeli artillery responded by opening fire in the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip, on positions from where the rockets were launched, an army spokeswoman told AFP.
"Following Hamas' incessant rocket fire throughout the humanitarian window, which was agreed upon for the welfare of the civilian population in Gaza, the IDF will now resume its aerial, naval and ground activity in the Gaza Strip," an army statement said.
"Due to flagrant violations of humanitarian remission by Hamas, the IDF is now resuming offensive activities," army spokesman Peter Lerner wrote on Twitter.
Three Palestinians were killed in shelling on Sunday, medics said.
Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said two men were killed in shelling near the border in central Gaza, while a third was killed near Khan Yunis in the south.
However Hamas responded in a statement that "no humanitarian ceasefire is valid without Israeli tanks withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and without residents being able to return to their homes and ambulances carrying bodies being able to freely move around in Gaza".
Israeli soldiers of the 155mm artillery cannons unit fire towards the Gaza Strip from their position near Israel's border with the coastal Palestinian enclave. (AFP photo)
Late Saturday the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for rocket attacks on southern Israel and Tel Aviv immediately after the expiry of an initial 12-hour ceasefire both sides had abided by.
The attacks, which set air-raid sirens wailing throughout the country, were confirmed by the Israeli army.
Overall about 20 rockets were fired at southern Israel between late Saturday and Sunday morning.
The Iron Dome missile interception defences knocked some rockets out of the sky, and no casualties were reported.
Israeli artillery responded by opening fire in the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip, on positions from where the rockets were launched, an army spokeswoman told AFP.
Salman Khan's Kick biggest opener of 2014, earns Rs. 53 crore in two days
Riding high on expectations, Salman Khan-Nazawuddin Siddiqui-Randeep Hooda-Jacqueline Fernandes-starrer Kick has emerged the biggest opener of the year.
The film also has Jacqueline Fernandes, Randeep Hooda and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in important roles.
With the film just a few days away, here's another poster from the Salman Khan-starrer that releases on July 25.
Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandes grooves to Mika's voice in the first song, Jumme Ki Raat, of Sajid Nadiadwala's Kick that was released on June 20. The film is set ...
The dialogues hint Dhoom-style adventure where the bad guy is more than happy to be chased and called a baddie. Like: "Aap Devil ke peeche, Devil aapke peche. Too much ...
Salman Khan's Kick also stars Randeep Hooda and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
Salman's mask will certainly remind you of Hrithik Roshan-starrer Krrish. Also, the shot where he stands atop a building has been seen in several films.
Kick is directed and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala under the banner of Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment.
The screenplay of the film is done by Chetan Bhagat and Sajid Nadiadwala himself.
Kick trailer garnered almost 8 million hits in 6 days.
Kick is the remake of the 2009 Telugu language film of same name directed by Surender Reddy.
Arbaaz Khan was blown away after watching the trailer of Kick and predicts that the film will turn out to be his superstar brother Salman Khan's biggest hit.
As per trade analyst Taran Adarsh, Sajid Nadiadwala's directorial debut has collected Rs. 26.4 crore on the day of its release (early estimates).
Kick surpasses the day one box office figure for Salman Khan's earlier release Jai Ho that made Rs. 17 crore on one day. Riding on good word-of-mouth and mixed reviews, the film picked up further on Saturday, collecting Rs. 27.15 crore at the ticket windows.
The film also has Jacqueline Fernandes, Randeep Hooda and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in important roles.
With the film just a few days away, here's another poster from the Salman Khan-starrer that releases on July 25.
Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandes grooves to Mika's voice in the first song, Jumme Ki Raat, of Sajid Nadiadwala's Kick that was released on June 20. The film is set ...
The dialogues hint Dhoom-style adventure where the bad guy is more than happy to be chased and called a baddie. Like: "Aap Devil ke peeche, Devil aapke peche. Too much ...
Salman Khan's Kick also stars Randeep Hooda and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
Kick is directed and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala under the banner of Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment.
The screenplay of the film is done by Chetan Bhagat and Sajid Nadiadwala himself.
Kick trailer garnered almost 8 million hits in 6 days.
Kick is the remake of the 2009 Telugu language film of same name directed by Surender Reddy.
Arbaaz Khan was blown away after watching the trailer of Kick and predicts that the film will turn out to be his superstar brother Salman Khan's biggest hit.
As per trade analyst Taran Adarsh, Sajid Nadiadwala's directorial debut has collected Rs. 26.4 crore on the day of its release (early estimates).
Kick surpasses the day one box office figure for Salman Khan's earlier release Jai Ho that made Rs. 17 crore on one day. Riding on good word-of-mouth and mixed reviews, the film picked up further on Saturday, collecting Rs. 27.15 crore at the ticket windows.
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