I always thought there was such a thing as a sweet tooth. You know, that love of the taste of sugary foods. Most of us have probably heard about that tooth from the very beginning. Some scientists are working on changing that perception, though.
They’ve been researching this topic, and they think that people aren’t really addicted to the sweet taste of sugary foods. The researchers are discovering that the brain senses the yummy calories from the sugar and in response it releases hormones that make us feel happy. The people studying this question say it has very little to do with actual taste, and they’re proving it on mice with no “sweetness” taste buds. The mice still love sweets even though they supposedly cannot taste the actual sugar.
Of course, the researchers are also working on how to use this information to “turn off” the sweet tooth. Blasphemy! Outrageous! First some scientists think they’ve found a cure for chocoholism and now they want to take away my sweet tooth! I just don’t know what the world is coming to when everyone is trying to take away my few pleasures in life. What about you? Do want to keep your sweet tooth?
I often wonder what studios look for in their hired guns. Case in point: Jeff Wadlow, director of the tolerable Cry_Wolf and the miserable Never Back Down, who, according to The Hollywood Reporter, has been tapped to direct The Tomb for Summit Entertainment. The Tomb is billed as a prison-escape movie with a MacGyver-like protagonist who uses smarts and ingenious devices to escape from a high-security prison that he himself designed. Summit hopes to make the action-packed film into a franchise cash cow.
I’ve seen both of Wadlow’s movies (the first of which, Cry_Wolf, was made with the money he won in the Chrysler Million Dollar Film Competition), and his m.o. seems clear: slick, blandly good-looking, montage-heavy genre flicks. So in some ways it makes sense for Summit to pin its franchise hopes on him: when you’re gambling on a movie, inoffensive competence behind the camera may be your safest bet. Like any cinephile, I wish studios would be a bit more adventurous (and thus cringe whenever a bold move — putting Ang Lee in charge of Hulk, for example — backfires at the box office), but as a business decision it’s perfectly rational.
No matter how we might try and stop it, Nyko’s wireless Wii nunchuk adapter / abomination ceaselessly advances upon the unsuspecting American consumer, stopping at nothing to ruin the delicate aesthetics of the Wii controllers and pump us full of even more unnecessary RF. The adapter and its receiver have just hit the FCC, and our nation’s government has managed to use every ounce of photographic skill at its disposal to render these mutant hunks of plastic in as flattering a light as possible — just look at that stained blue backdrop. Seriously, is anyone going to drop $20 on this thing? Isn’t that money better spent on games? Explain yourself in comments, in ten words or less.
Variety reports that Paul Bettany’s Legion has just added a whole crowd of actors, including the star power of Dennis Quaid, Kate Walsh, and Tyrese Gibson. They will be headlining a cast that includes Jon Tenney, Charles S. Dutton, Lucas Black, Adrianne Palicki, Kevin Durand and Willa Holland. They’ve signed on just in time, as the movie is about to start shooting in New Mexico.
Legion is a thriller that stars Bettany as the archangel Michael, who is all that stands between mankind and an apocalypse after God has lost faith in humanity. But the Almighty apparently hasn’t lost all hope — a child is on the way who is the second coming of Christ, and a group of strangers who recognize the fact must band together to save it. It is director Scott Stewart’s first feature film, from a script he co-wrote with Peter Schink.
I am quite intrigued by the movie, as I am a sucker for any kind of Biblical thriller. The problem is that they are almost always terrible. (Though I will always give props to The Prophecy for proving that the Devil does, in fact, wear a mullet.) The combination of Paul Bettany and Dennis Quaid gives me some hope though, since they generally pick good scripts. We’ll see if this is one of them.
Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone in a new historic flick With Jodhaa Akbar’s box office success, the flavor of the season is historic movies. Firoz Nadiawala is all set to produce a historic movie. Firoz has sighned Vinay Shukla as the director for his film and has approached Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone to play the main leads in his film. Deepika Padukone is all set […]
Remember back in October when I posted about the independent movie, King Corn? The movie wasn’t in wide release when we first mentioned it, and so a number of you expressed interest in seeing it, but weren’t able to find a screening anywhere. It’s gotten wider distribution over the last six months, but for those of you who haven’t been able to find the time or place to see it, I’ve got partially good news for you. A twenty minute clip of the film is now available on AOL video site, which means that I can embed that chunk of the movie here, for your viewing pleasure.
Future fashion from the past This is a fun video that Etienne Mineur predicted I would love! It presents a selection of Fashion designers ideas from the 30’s, for instance the very visionary electric belt adapts itself to the body. The woman of tomorrow will move in an atmosphere that is scientifically kept at the right temperature! Apparently, the man of the future will wear both a telephone and a radio! Can we make this dream finally possible?
An electric belt will adapt the body to climatic changes and a dress that consists of a transparent net will probably catch the men!
A wedding dress made of glass, a dress adaptable for morning, afternoon or evenings and an electric headlight to help find an honest man!
Finally, this awesome outfit for the man of the future who will be fitted with a telephone, radio, and containers for coins, keys and candies!
It may have won approval from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and NAVTEQ shareholders alike, but it looks like the EU’s European Commission needs a bit more time to think over Nokia’s acquisition of the company, and it’s now launched an “in-depth” probe into the matter. According to Reuters, the Commission said that the “proposed merger raises serious doubts with regards to … competition concerns,” although it was quick to add that the decision to open the inquiry does not prejudge the result of the probe. Among other things, the probe will apparently attempt to asses whether whether the purchase would affect the cost of maps for other companies providing navigation services on cellphones. If all of this has a familiar ring, it should, because it wasn’t all that long ago that the EU launched a similar probe into TomTom’s similar acquisition of map-maker Tele Atlas.
Amrita Rao finds love in Jal singer Farhan Saeed The cupid has finally able to struck Amrita Rao, with her mom accompanying her everywhere she goes the cupid had a tough time targetting her. But all said and done Amrita Rao is going around with her new man, and he is none other than Farhan Saeed. Farhan Saeed is the lead vocalist of Pakistani […]
Was YouTube really worth $1.65 billion to Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) when the world’s largest search company bought it a few years ago? By today’s standards, that now seems like a bargain. Consider Yahoo! Inc.’s (NASDAQ: YHOO) impending purchase by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Microsoft’s “small” stake in Facebook that values the social networking site at $15 billion.
YouTube is probably one of the most-used sites I see from friends and family these days. Hours upon hours can be wasted navigating through all the content there, and now that YouTube has launched its YouTube Insight tracking tool, the equivalent of viewership tracking is now available to those who upload videos to the site.
Imagine being able to see details like when, where and how often your videos are being viewed. Previously only available to advertisers at YouTube, all YouTube video uploaders can now see this kind of information. To those who think web surfing time may be eating into television-viewing time, this should provide more detail on whether this is actually happening. Nielsen, eat your heart out.
Professionals and amateurs alike will now be able to test the popularity of different kinds of content at different parts of the days across different parts of each country to make the content as customized as possible. This is what Google is famous for — relevancy. No blanket ads here — the company wants its YouTube users to become more successful, which in turns makes it more successful. Rack up another content relevancy win for Google here.
I often wonder what studios look for in their hired guns. Case in point: 
Was YouTube really worth $1.65 billion to 
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