Hobbit - Desolation of Smaug Bags $31M on First Day at U.S. Box Office

“Desolation of Smaug” on $75M pace. “Frozen” eyes $25M and 2nd after “Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas” starts slowly

“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” dominated in its debut at the North American box office Friday, rolling up $31 million and putting itself on pace for a three-day total of around $75 million.
While massive, Peter Jackson’s hotly anticipated sequel first-day numbers are slightly behind those put up by the first film in the trilogy, “An Unexpected Journey,” which took in $37 million on its opening Friday and totaled $85 for the weekend.
That one was in 4,045 theaters, but “Desolation of Smaug,” from Warner Bros., New Line and MGM, is on 3,903 screens and facing more formidable competition. First-night audiences gave “Smaug” an “A-” CinemaScore, in line with critics who have been generally positive.
The Friday gross includes $8.8 million from Thursday midnight screenings. “Smaug” is getting a bottom-line boost from around 3,000 3D sites, which along with Imax and high-frame-rate screenings bring ticket upcharges.

Last weekend’s No. 1 movie “Frozen” took in $5.1 million Friday and is looking at a three-day total of around $25 million in its third week of wide release. It was actually a little behind the weekend’s other wide release, “Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas,” after Friday, but the Disney Animation 3D kids film is expected to surge when families turn out on Saturday and Sunday. It’s in 3,716 theaters.
Lionsgate’s “Madea Christmas” brought in $5.7 million from 2,194 locations Friday, putting it on pace for weekend in the $16 million range, on the low end of expectations for the holiday comedy. Perry’s Madea movies have on average opened to $28 million and his last one, 2012’s “Madea’s Witness Protection,” opened to $25 million. “Madea’s Christmas” received an “A-” CinemaScore, so word of mouth may help.
“The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” was fourth on Friday with $4.1 million, and will likely finish the weekend with around $14 million. If that holds up, Jennifer Lawrence’s blockbuster sequel will have brought in nearly $360 million domestically since opening a month ago.



Disney’s “Thor: The Dark World,” Relativity’s Christian Bale drama “Out of the Furnace” and the Vince Vaughn comedy “Delivery Man” followed, and all will wind up at between $2 million and $3 million for the weekend.
Oscar hopefuls “Philomena” and “The Book Thief” were next, with Open Road film’s action thriller “Homefront” rounding out the top ten.
“Hours,” one of the final films of the late Paul Walker, debuted softly on 16 screens with about $16,000. Distributor Pantelion has said it will donate portions of the film’s box office to the actor’s charity Reach Out Worldwide. “Hours” was completed months before the Nov. 30 auto crash that took Walker’s life.

Beyonce cops backlash over X-rated new album

SHE released her latest album by uploading tracks and videos straight to iTunes, claiming she wants to speak 'directly to her fans with no filter'.

And it seems that Beyonce has got her wish.
Within hours, hundreds of fans slammed the star's record for its X-rated lyrics and 'pornographic' videos in which she twerks and dresses scantily.

On social networking sites, the 32-year-old singer was called 'vile' and 'disgusting' for the provocative tracks, including songs titled Blow and Drunk in Love.

Some users questioned whether she was a fit role model to millions of young fans.
The star, who rose to fame in girl band Destiny's Child, has often campaigned for women's rights. But fans said she should now be ashamed of herself for following in the footsteps of Rihanna and Miley Cyrus, who have shocked viewers with their erotic music videos.

Xbox One backwards-compatibility prank breaking consoles

This online prank will destroy your Xbox One console. Do not attempt. Source: supplied Source: Supplied

FAKE instructions showing Xbox One owners how to "hack" their console to play old Xbox 360 games has been leaving consoles bricked and completely useless.

Daily Dot has reported that website 4chan, which also conned soppy iPhone owners earlier this year into thinking the new iOS will make their mobiles waterproof, has returned to wreak havoc among the unsuspecting public this time by posting a way to unlock backwards compatibility to play old games.
The instructions carry Xbox branding and look quite genuine but DO NOT be fooled. This is an evil prank that causes Xbox One consoles to "brick" rendering them utterly useless. And there are no instructions to fix it.
It's understandable that some Xbox One owners would be keen to try this hack out as not being able to play catalogues of old 360 games bought over the years was one of the bugbears of the new console. But even Xbox Live big cheese Larry Hryb has waded in by stating there is no way for backwards compatibility and to stay away from the 4chan instructions.
Not being able to play your old Xbox 360 games on the new Xbox One is one of the crosses we have to bear so we advise ignoring any instructions saying you can, unless it's an official announcement from Microsoft.

Gamer unleashes his fury!

Hell hath no fury like a competitive gamer. Watch this guy unleash the nerdiest attitude you'll ever see. Source: YouTube 

COMPETITIVE gaming is a funny old show where hundreds of video game nuts all huddle around their screens with headsets on vying for glory. It's even funnier when one kid (who's clearly had way too much Red Bull) gets a bit overexcited….

In this video we see the hilarious chest-thumping and screeching of one super intense competitive gamer who gets all up in the face of the opposing team. Bellowing "you'll never beat me" and telling the opposition "to get out" as he slaps his pigeon chest like a video game gangster.
He would have had them quaking, we're sure. When his voice breaks, he'd be a lot more intimidating.
Warning: video does contain swearing. Tell his mum, if you want.

Intense video gamer

 

We miss the days where we'd just wave a fist at someone who placed a sinister banana in our path on Mario Kart.

Boys & Girls are earning Games, X box's, Facebook Credits, Game Time and more online

There is a new growing trend taking place in the younger generation where they are racking up points to buy the tings they want instead of dipping into their parent's pockets.

 

As money for alot of families, single mums and dads is getting tougher to survive to make that dollar stretch further in todays economy and their's X-mas just around the corner kids are looking for ways to make money. One of these ways is boy's and girls are earning points online to buy new X box's, ps3,Wii, console games, Facebook credits, mobile phones, kindles, PC/Laptops & parts, Amazon and Wallmart gift cards and cash! but there is much much more.

But one of the biggest is that game time subscription or buying those game time cards for those online multi player games (MMORPG) like World of Warcraft, TERA where your kids are earning their way to play, learning the cost of money. It's a great way for them to pay their own way to make some extra points or money for what they want to buy. The surprising thing is that it's not just to kids and teenagers doing this single parents are using it too, to earn products they want as well. With X-mas just around the corner it's also giving parents that bit extra to make some cash or buy items online for those presents under the tree.

Obama, tear down this wall of fear!

A few minutes of surfing the Internet quickly reveals a disturbing trend: Americans are becoming increasingly fearful of the one institution that they have held with some degree of contempt since the nation’s founding, and that is their very government.
The cloud now hanging over America’s national mood is more understandable when we consider the escalation of events over the past decade. Somewhere between the clunky bookends of the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001 and Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations of 2013, the United States began to appear less of a democratic superpower and more a repressive kingdom of fear, a neurotic empire of anxiety that trusts nobody, least of all itself.
Despite efforts to blame America’s slow-motion nervous breakdown on the Great Recession of 2008, that diagnosis shoots wide of the mark.  Nevertheless, it can’t be denied that the government’s massive bailout of the bankers and corporations has created a level of political cynicism throughout America - and the world - that lacks historic parallels. At the very least, it rammed home the ugly truth that politicians are more comfortable in bed with corporate lobbyists than in Congress defending the rights of the taxpayers.

Jim DePersia Finds Testicle-Eating Pacu Fish In Cedar Lake, Ill.

Fisherman Jim DePersia thought he found a piranha in the waters of Cedar Lake, Ill., but it was something almost as nutty: A testicle-eating fish called a pacu.

DePersia, 64, hooked the bizarre fish in the lake near his home. One look at its sharp teeth and immediately he thought he'd reeled in the fearsome Amazonian species. It was a big one, weighing nearly seven pounds and measuring about 20 inches in length.
“As I came up and looked at it, I thought I knew my fish and this is a huge monster,” he told CBS Chicago.

The freaky-looking fish was actually a pacu, a cousin of the piranha that has been known to mistake human testicles for tree nuts, a staple of its diet.
In 2011, two men in New Guinea reportedly died from blood loss after a pacu devoured their treasured family jewels, the Metro reported. Pacus are tropical fish so it's likely that DePersia's catch was dumped in the lake by a collector.
DePersia plans to have a ball with his surprise.

Most venomous spider in the world found in supermarket bananas

Consi Taylor was halfway through a banana when she saw a white spot on the skin, which she thought was a patch of mold. That thought is gross enough, but then the "spot" burst open and baby spiders started scurrying across the fruit (and here's where we threw up in our mouths a little). The British woman told the staff at Sainsbury's supermarket about their spider-infested offerings and they gave her a $15 coupon. But when she sent a picture of the spiders to a pest-control company, things got REALLY scary.

Taylor was told that those unwanted little nasties could be Brazilian Wandering Spiders, which have been called the most venomous spiders in the world. According to SKY News, those particular arachnids can be "extremely aggressive" and a bite from them can "trigger loss of muscle control, breathing problems, paralysis and eventual asphyxiation." Sainsbury's not only apologized to the family, but put them up in a hotel and paid for their entire home to be fumigated. So, apples are pretty great this time of year, huh? [Source]

Smog in China now a national security threat! new technology needed...

SMOG is becoming not just a health issue in China - it is also a national security threat.

The South China Morning Post reports that last month visibility in Harbin was so bad that visibility was at just 3 metres.
Experts are concerned that terrorists may choose smoggy days to launch attacks.
Kong Zilong, a senior project engineer with Shenzhen Yichengan Technology, said the security devices that could function in heavy smogs had yet to be invented.
Even infrared imaging is useless because the smog is so thick the particles are blocking light completely.
"According to our experience, as the visibility drops below three metres, even the best camera cannot see beyond a dozen metres," he said.