| Golden Treasure Caps off Record Year
Cage can attest to that. National Treasure: Book of Secrets spent another weekend at number one, banking $35.6 million between Friday and Sunday—plus another $13.7 million on Christmas Day—to bring its two-week total to $124 million. The adventure flick also had the third-biggest Xmas showing ever, behind only Meet the Fockers ($19.5 million) and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($14 million). Alvin and the Chipmunks and I Am Legend accounted for another $30 million and $27.5 million in receipts, respectively, leaving Smith's sci-fi tour de force just a few days shy of the $200 million mark. A resurgent Charlie Wilson's War remained in fourth place with $11.8 million, up 21.9 percent from last week, despite mixed reviews. But critics be darned—the film was nominated for five Golden Globes and perhaps people want to see for themselves what a lighthearted dramatization about what amounted to the U.S.
The fabulous Baker boys
When they were all in elementary school, they'd go watch him wrestle and even roll around on the mat with him. Randy would show them moves; talk to them; encourage them; be an idol; be an example. By the time Ryan and Billy entered middle school, their garage was converted into a mini wrestling room, where they'd take turns waling on each other. Tyler would come over, too, along with others who eventually became Bellmont teammates. "We went through a lot of bloody noses," Billy said. "One of us would get mad and we'd start going." It will be Ryan who will be going after this year, since he's the lone senior. But that won't diminish the number of Bakers. Oh, no. "It's awesome," Tyler says, pointing out that brothers Landon (eighth grade) and Brett (fifth grade) have their futures already laid out.
Risky space repair relies on Canadian gadgets
Think of climbing up on your expensive new plasma TV to change a lightbulb in the ceiling, and that's roughly what a spacewalker will do with our sophisticated space hardware this morning. Four key pieces of Canadian robotics have combined to build a makeshift extension ladder, 400 kilometres above the Earth. It's an odd use for multi-million-dollar robotics, but without this, NASA would be staring helplessly at a damaged solar array, just out of reach. .
TheStar.com | GTA | Toronto tourism takes $50M hit with loss of race
One of the most important things we can do is to have a diverse calendar with events that appeal to all markets. It's one of the major events we have, along with things like the film festival, Caribana and Pride Day." Asked if the race would be hard to replace from a tourism standpoint, Ross replied, "Definitely. In a short period of time it would be a challenge. But I think the community would come together to do whatever's possible to be sure something replaces it." Ross said there could be layoffs, possibly among workers who install seats alongside the race course and such. But Pantalone said with Toronto in a building boom, many will likely find other work if the 2008 race is cancelled. "We don't have a full-time staff of construction workers at the Ex," he explained.
What the heck is the difference among all those Canon ELPHs anyway?
As I mentioned in my last post, I'm a big fan of Canon's Digital ELPH series, but I can't tell you how many times friends have called me from Best Buy in a state of confusion about which one to buy. It's no wonder. Stop into any electronics store today and you'll find a slew of ELPH models and they all look pretty similar to the untrained eye. So here's a quick primer on what's what, broken down by resolution (since for better or for worse, that's how most people seem to shop for cameras). For comparison's sake, I included current pricing from Amazon.com. 12.1 Megapixels Canon PowerShot SD950 IS ($340) - released August 2007: This is Canon's current top-of-the-line model (successor to last year's SD900 which you'll still find in some stores). It sports a sleek, rugged titanium body, 3.7x optical zoom lens (36- to 133mm), an Optical Image Stabilizer, Canon's latest face-detection autofocus technology, in-camera red-eye correction, and like all the current ELPHs, uses Canon's top-end DIGIC III image processor.
Sophisticated Legal Search Tool Muscles In
Both are due out in the first half of 2008. Additionally, the company licenses its search technology to enterprises for use in KM and other applications. SEARCH FINGERPRINTING The signature characteristic of the Collexis search engine is what it calls "Fingerprinting." Collexis creates a thesaurus (or what might be called a search vocabulary) for each database. Using that vocabulary, it creates a "Fingerprint" of each unique document within the database -- a profile of key concepts contained within the document and their weight. When conducting a basic search, this "Fingerprinting" helps ensure a high degree of relevance in the search results. Collexis ranks the weight of concepts within documents on a number of variables, with specific terms weighted higher than general terms, for example, or words in a title given greater weight than words in the text.
Ledger remembered by Spirit winner Cate
Moments of the ceremony were a tribute to Ledger, who died of an accidental prescription drug overdose on January 22 at his Manhattan apartment. One of six actors playing incarnations of Bob Dylan in director Todd Haynes' I'm Not There, Ledger was remembered as "probably one of the most beautiful independent spirits of all" by Cate Blanchett, winner of the supporting-actress prize for portraying Dylan in his transition from folk icon to electric rocker, a role that also earned her an Oscar nomination. "We all loved him so dearly," Haynes said of Ledger, recalling that the actor had started making music videos and intended to go into directing himself. "I have no doubt he would have made an astounding director." Ledger was a Spirit Award best-actor nominee two years ago for Brokeback Mountain, the best picture winner.
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