Marvel Shareholders Approve Disney Merger | Marvel.com News | Marvel.com

Marvel Shareholders Approve Disney Merger | Marvel.com News | Marvel.com: "Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: MVL), a global character-based entertainment and licensing company founded in 1939, announced that at a special meeting held this morning, Marvel stockholders approved the adoption of the Agreement and Plan of Merger entered into by Marvel and The Walt Disney Company ('Disney'), which provides for a merger in which Marvel will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Disney.� Marvel anticipates that the merger, which, based on the closing price of Disney's common stock on December 30, 2009, has an estimated value of approximately $4.3 billion, will be completed today after the close of the market."

Library of Congress Picks 25 Films to Preserve -- Including 'Thriller' | The Wrap

Library of Congress Picks 25 Films to Preserve -- Including 'Thriller' | The Wrap: "“The Incredible Shrinking Man,” Bette Davis “Jezebel” and Sidney Sidney Lumet’s “Dog Day Afternoon” are among the latest list of 25 films the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry intends to preserve.
The list was announced Wednesday in Washington.

While 23 of the films are conventional films, one is Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video and another is “Hot Dogs for Gaughin,” a student film at New York University and starring Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman and directed by Martin Brest."

State of the Art - The 5th Annual Pogie Awards for the Year’s Best Tech Ideas - NYTimes.com

State of the Art - The 5th Annual Pogie Awards for the Year’s Best Tech Ideas - NYTimes.com

An Appraisal - Fine Lines, Great Depths - David Levine’s Character Sketches - NYTimes.com

An Appraisal - Fine Lines, Great Depths - David Levine’s Character Sketches - NYTimes.com: "Tributes to David Levine, who died on Tuesday at 83, have been mulling over his place among today’s cartoonists and caricaturists. Fair enough. But his genius was really that he wasn’t like anybody else."

First Look at Blio, Ray Kurzweil's Tablet-Friendly Ebook Format - Blio - Gizmodo

First Look at Blio, Ray Kurzweil's Tablet-Friendly Ebook Format - Blio - Gizmodo: "Blio, officially debuting next week at CES, lets you read your ebooks as they're intended to look on paper. Clearly, Kurzweil is signaling his choice of tablets over e-ink, and his first shots are definitely persuasive.

With apps planned soon for the iPhone and PCs, Blio's cross-platform functionality makes it a natural fit for something like the Apple iSlate, which along with other tablet devices should be perfect for reading cookbooks, children's books, and any other illustrated tome. It marks a natural evolution away from the current stock of ebook readers, which are bound by the drab black and white of e-ink."

AppleInsider | Former Google China president reveals details on Apple's tablet

AppleInsider | Former Google China president reveals details on Apple's tablet: "The ex-president of Google China has revealed on his microblog supposed details on Apple's forthcoming tablet: 10.1-inch screen with webcam, 'awesome UI.'

Kaifu Lee, former president of Google China, someone with supposed close ties to Apple, has revealed several details about Apple's tablet on his microblog (translation from Gadget Mix):

'The Apple Tablet looks like a bigger iPhone that sports an awesome UI packed in a beautiful 10.1-inch screen. The tablet combines the functions of both netbook and kindle, an ebook reader. It has virtual keyboard for text entry and a webcam for video conferencing.'"

I'm ready for it!

How Are We Going To Say “2010″? A Website Comes Just In The Nick Of Time.

How Are We Going To Say “2010″? A Website Comes Just In The Nick Of Time.: "Newsflash: Tomorrow is the last day of 2009. That means we’re moving into the first new decade of the 2000s. And we have a decision to make.

Say “2009″ outloud. Chances are you’re saying “two thousand and nine.” But if you think about it, that’s weird. Say “1909″ outloud. Chances are you’re saying “nineteen-oh-nine.” It makes some sense, since we weren’t going to pronounce “2000″ as “twenty hundred,” but for whatever reason, going forward, we never moved to something like “twenty-oh-one” for “2001″ and so forth. A new website is urging us to do just that for the next decade."

I've been on this bandwagon since twenty-hundred!

23 Shows That Changed Television - The Daily Beast

23 Shows That Changed Television - The Daily Beast: "Bug-eating wannabe millionaires, plane-crash survivors, and Simon Cowell—VIEW OUR GALLERY of the decade's most influential TV shows.

In the past 10 years, truck-size high-definition sets and handheld iPhone screens changed the way that people watch television. Reality programming supplanted scripted dramas and comedies, cable rose up to compete with broadcast, and Hollywood struggled (and continues to struggle) to reinvent itself in an era of Hulu, illegal downloads, and shrinking revenues."

Top Ten Religion & Science Stories of 2009 | ReligionDispatches

Top Ten Religion & Science Stories of 2009 | ReligionDispatches: "While fundamentalists continue to deny evolution and the validity of scientific thought, and some scientists continue to deny the validity of religion, the Year of Darwin held some notable examples of peaceful co-existence."

New York Review Caricaturist Dies: David Levine Dead at 83

New York Review Caricaturist Dies: David Levine Dead at 83: "David Levine, an artist whose witty caricatures illustrated The New York Review of Books for more than 40 years, has died. He was 83."

I always enjoyed his work. There have been a lot of copiers but he was the original.

News flash: the book isn't dead – yet - The Globe and Mail

News flash: the book isn't dead – yet - The Globe and Mail: "2009 could be remembered in publishing circles as the Year of the Vampire, and not just because of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight books for young readers – outstanding sellers in one of the few genres that grew over the year. The real demon of the book world is a pasty little device whose name begins with K, as in “Kapow!” and which now threatens to suck the remaining lifeblood out of traditional publishers already weakened by recession.

But that's their problem. For readers, 2009 was a year of miracles that brought massive price cuts on popular titles, and unprecedented choices in how to consume them. It was not the year the book died – not yet. It was the year “long-form content” finally threw off its cellulose shackles in lieu of dozens of intriguing new forms – in cyberspace, and even on cellphones."

Most Innovative Web Site Designs Of All Time: Inspiration And Ideas From Elite Designers (PHOTOS)

Most Innovative Web Site Designs Of All Time: Inspiration And Ideas From Elite Designers (PHOTOS)

Some very interesting websites here... check them out.

Blio: Kurzweil Reinvents the Book | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

Blio: Kurzweil Reinvents the Book | Gadget Lab | Wired.com: "Ray Kurzweil, who thought up pretty much everything, ever, has entered the e-book fray. Due to debut at CES in Las Vegas next week, Kurzweil’s Blio comes from a completely different angle than the current e-ink readers.

Blio is not a device. Rather, it is a “platform” which could run on any device, but would be most obviously at home on a tablet. The software will be free and available for phones, netbooks and so on."

Very interesting approach--I assume it will work on my Apple iSlate??!

Television Review - 'Scenes From a Parish' - Test of Faith for a Congregation in Lawrence, Mass. - NYTimes.com

Television Review - 'Scenes From a Parish' - Test of Faith for a Congregation in Lawrence, Mass. - NYTimes.com: "The tagline used to promote the film, “‘Love thy neighbor’ just got a whole lot harder,” might conjure images of shouting matches between old-guard parishioners and newcomers, but there are none.

Instead there are occasional, relatively benign comments from lifelong parishioners that indicate discomfort with the immigrants and the changes they have brought — the same sorts of remarks that established populations have been making about newcomers, and older people have been making about younger ones, for generations.

Sparks do not fly, and tempers do not flare. The heart of Mr. Rutenbeck’s film is really in the charitable efforts that the longtime parishioners pursue despite their reservations. Those efforts mostly involve food: distributing grocery bags to poor residents and, ultimately, building the Cor Unum Meal Center, which opened in 2006 and serves free meals to the city’s hungry."

TMZ Admits It Was Duped by a Fake John Kennedy Photo - NYTimes.com

TMZ Admits It Was Duped by a Fake John Kennedy Photo - NYTimes.com: "Hours after the popular celebrity news Web site published a photo that it said “appears to show John F. Kennedy on a boat filled with naked women,” one of its corporate siblings, The Smoking Gun, revealed that TMZ had been duped.

The photo that TMZ called exclusive was, it turned out, featured in a Playboy magazine photo spread in 1967, four years after Mr. Kennedy was assassinated. The Smoking Gun called it a “colossal screw-up” by TMZ."

Yeah, I thought this looked too weird to be true. What a riot that TMZ and their experts fell for it!