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The champions: Top 5 European leagues

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top 5 european leagues 2015 imagestop 5 european leagues 2015 imagesAll the major domestic leagues in Europe have concluded and we now have clear winners and losers of the season. Here’s a very brief summary of who trumped whom to etch their name in the history books.

The English top division was dominated by Chelsea throughout the season. Jose Mourinho’s men had no equals as the former champions Manchester City stumbled a lot in the second half of the season. Arsenal picked up form quite late, while Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United had a lot of ups and downs. The West Londoners have now amassed five league titles, three of which have been won in the reign of their Portuguese boss. Roman Abrahimovic would expect his club to challenge for their second Champions League trophy.

The Spanish league was a two horse race between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Los Blancos were in front for the major part of the first half of this campaign while Barca dominated in the second half. The Catalan giant are on course to win the treble, having already sealed the Copa del Rey and La Liga. In his impressive debut season, Luis Enrique has spearheaded Barca to their 23rd league title. After a trophyless season, Carlo Ancelotti was sacked by Real Madrid, one year after winning the much awaited La Decima.

Bayern Munich won their third successive league title, their second under Pep Guardiola. The Bavarian giants finished ten points ahead of their closest rivals Wolfsburg and the gap between these two sides was much bigger before Bayern ensured the Bundesliga title. The German giants won the title for record 25th time. Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp also deserves a lot of plaudits for his achievements over the years at the club. He is now set to take a break and move on from Borussia Dortmund after a disastrous season in the German league.

Juventus were crowned the kings of Italy for the fourth consecutive time. It was Juventus’ 31st league title in the Italian top division. The Old Lady finished seventeen points ahead of their closest rivals AS Roma. Allegri was greeted with rotten eggs and abuses in his starting days at the club, but now the Italian is on a brink of immortality in his debut season with Juventus. Unprecedentedly they are now in a position to match the feat achieved (European treble) by Inter Milan in 2010 under Jose Mourinho.

PSG’s start of the 2014/15 campaign wasn’t ideal by any means. Yet Laurent Blanc’s men finished the season on a high and retained the Ligue 1 title. Lyon posed some serious threat to their title challenge but they gave up in the later stages and finished eight points behind them on French league table. It was Parisians’ fifth French league victory, also their third successive one. The Paris Saint Germain hierarchy would be hoping to bring in more quality players in the summer transfer window in order to challenge for the coveted Champions League trophy.

Can Luis Enrique Match Pep Guardiola With Barcelona?

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luis enrique with pep guardiola barcelona soccer 2015 imagesLuis Enrique has extended his contract at Barcelona for two more years which will keep him at Camp Nou till 2017. In his debut season at the helm of the five-time European champions, Luis Enrique has achieved what most coaches crave for, throughout their tenure. The Spaniard spearheaded the Catalan giants to their second historic European treble.

At the commencement of the 2014/15 season, no one expected Barca to finish the season on such a high note. Tata Martino’s successor was expected to take some time to settle in at Camp Nou but Enrique was no stranger to the club and its philosophy. The new signings Ivan Rakitic and Luis Suarez added more quality to the truly exceptional strike force of the Blaugrana giants. Some reports regarding a rift between the Barcelona boss and Lionel Messi surfaced at the start of this year. It was anticipated that either of the two most important people at Barcelona will leave at the end of the campaign. Yet now the storm seems to have passed and celebrations have taken over.

Pep Guardiola is the most successful coach in the history of the club. The Bayern Munich boss won a host of trophies in his short stint at his beloved club. But can Luis Enrique bring back those days of domination in both La Liga and Europe? His start couldn’t have been better and his current squad is more than capable of replicating similar success. The La Liga champions can’t buy any players in this summer transfer window because of a ban on their transfer activities until January 2016. The club legend Xavi has decided to move on to his next destination – the Qatari club Al-Sadd. Although, Dani Alves has renewed his contract until 2017 thereby trashing the rumors linking him to PSG and Manchester United.

can luis enrique have same success as pep guardiola 2015Barca’s attacking trio bagged a total of whopping 122 goals in all competitions and that too their Uruguayan forward didn’t debut until late October. MNS (Messi, Neymar and Suarez) are being compared with the most lethal strike partnerships in the history of the game and they can certainly continue to break records in the coming season. Luis Enrique’s team plays a more attractive and attacking brand of football compared to a few years ago. They’ll always attract players of finest quality once the ban is over and they can certainly challenge on all fronts in the 2015/16 campaign.

Although Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona is amongst the best soccer teams the world has ever seen. They are ranked alongside the great Real Madrid, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Brazilian sides. Lionel Messi and co. achieved greatness during Guardiola’s term and have their names immortalized alongside the greats of the game. It’ll be a very big achievement for the Spanish coach if he manages to replicate success at par, if not more, than that of Barca 2008 – 2012 .

As far as Messi goes, he’ll definitely attain greater heights and by the time he hangs up his boots, he’ll be spoken of in same breath as Pele and Maradona. Earlier this week, Ronald Koeman said, “For me, Messi is the best player of the past 50 years. There is talk of Pelé, Cruyff, Messi, Maradona … for me no one has been as decisive [as Messi]. He’s the greatest player of all time.”

WE ARE STILL HERE Trailer Has Many Horror Cliches

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we are still movie trailer 2015We Are Still Here is a gory, scream filled film with the most classic horror theme of all: the haunted house. An older couple, Paul and Anne, move to a an awkwardly quiet New England countryside to start a new life for themselves. Their son was killed in a car crash and they’re trying to find a way to heal.

Sadly, there’s no way for that to happen as the family soon becomes prey for evil, vengeful and murderous spirits that have been dwelling in their home. The house demands a sacrifice every thirty years and this couple is just in time to experience a horrific haunting that’s bound to claim their lives. It’s not long before the couple discovers the town they thought was so peaceful and serene is hiding a horrible secret. Anne and Paul must get over their grief quick to fight against both the living and the dead. The evil spirits in their home threaten to pull their souls and the souls of their dead son in to hell for eternity.

Just from hearing the plot line, I was not impressed. This story has been done a million times and frankly, I’m not hopeful this film has anything new to offer the genre. The first half of the trailer didn’t give me much faith in the film either. The film has the proper gloomy, horror haze to it, but the acting felt terrible. I can respect if it’s an independent film, but that’s no excuse for poor acting. I’ve seen better acting at a high school play to be honest.

The trailer said the film is produced by the producers of The House of The Devil and Starry Eyes, both films of which for me was a huge let down. It was at that point I pretty  much made my mind up about the film. This is going to be another painfully slow, run-of-the-mill haunted house film.

we are still here movie images 2015Towards the end of the trailer we finally get to see what makes this film a horror film. We see burnt evil spirits in the basement, people getting sucked through the stairs, sucked through walls, and evil spirits charging the house. The special effects are the only thing that would make me watch this movie. The creepy images I’m seeing are pretty scary and look like a lot of time and expertise went in to the graphics.

This movie reminds me of The House of The Devil in its potential. However, we have to hope that unlike many other horror films the most intense scenes are not in the last few minutes of the movie. That’s a big pet peeve of mine and it would be a shame if this film fell victim to it.

It apparently has many cliches sprinkled through out. The young girl slowly descending in to a dark basement? Yeah, that hasn’t been done a million-and-one times. This movie seems like it would make a great Saturday night watch when you’re struggling to find something on Netflix. Like The House of The Devil and Starry Eyes (both on Netflix) I’m not counting on this to be a horror gem, but you never know!

We Are Still Here Movie Trailer

The Internet Is Free Except For Those Pesky Ads

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free internet except for the ads 2015The Internet is without a doubt the most comprehensive resource in the entire world with an almost immeasurable amount of content that is growing exponentially every single day – every second in fact.

It’s pretty amazing when you think about it and it’s even more amazing when you consider that in terms of information it is almost exclusively free.

Hundreds of millions of webmasters add to this pool of never ending content every day with enthusiasm and vigour without taking any payment from the viewers of that content and the reason they do this is thanks to advertising and the global advertising networks that make it easy for anyone with a hosting account and a few ideas to make money from advertising without having to really know anything about the logistics.

Of course not everyone partakes in this practice – Wikipedia are very well known for completely avoiding advertising even though there is no doubt they could make a very considerable fortune from doing so. Other sites and quite the opposite and revel in the opportunity to make advertising revenue – in fact some websites have as many as 50 advertising calls on a single page load.

There is a new wave of services now that aim to block these ads for the end users, installed on the end user’s PC these services intercept the advertising calls for each website that the user visits and block them from being displayed at all. It is very easy to see why people use these services because on some advert-heavy websites it’s actually hard to read the content on the site because of all the adverts but it does pose a problem that threatens the foundations of the Internet.

The problem is that if everyone starts blocking adverts then the webmasters will not make any money – sure service providers and retailers will continue to make money but the providers of all the free information on the internet will not and they will then be forced to either stop providing that information or to start charging for it.

Perhaps a more innovative solution is required – with the help of some big data analytics perhaps we could have a micro payments type of system but an autonomous one – as you browse the internet every page that you visit calculates your average worth as a visitor to that page and you have the option to see the adverts or pay that amount; this would keep the webmasters and the advertisers happy whilst keeping the option for a free Internet open to all users.

The cost that accumulates from these micro payments could be considered just another service charge similar to that of the Internet charge itself.

Maybe this idea would work, maybe it would not but the alternative will probably end up involving webmasters detecting when you are blocking ads and either blocking you from the site all together or charging you to visit the site without ads.

Most Inspiring Soccer Players

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Most Inspiring soccer players images 2015Inspiration can come in many forms. You can inspire people to better themselves, you can inspire people to resolve a conflict and you can inspire people just by doing what you do best. There are many figures within football who are inspirational in these regards and we’re taking a look at five of the most inspirational ones in no particular order.

diego simeone most inspiring soccer players 2015Diego Simeone

With the duopoly of La Liga with Real Madrid and Barcelona winning most of the honors, Diego Simeone came in as manager of Atletico and completely transformed the club.

With his aggressive and passionate style instilled in his players, embodying the work ethic of the working class man, the Argentine did the unthinkable as he guided Los Colchoneros to the league title in 2014 and even reached the Champions League final.

It’s also poetically ironic how a few years ago, Real Madrid kept beating Atletico with their fans holding a sign, stating that they wanted a rival. As it stands at the time of writing, Real Madrid have only beaten Atletico once in their last eight encounters.

Atletico have also won at least one trophy in every season Simeone has managed the club since he joined in December 2011 – quite an inspirational feat.

xavi most inspiring soccer players 2015Xavi

This Barcelona superstar proved that size doesn’t matter. A few years ago, many would have laughed if you said small players could succeed in the sport of football but Xavi was one of the few players to destroy that myth and to great effect.

Not only will he go down as one of the greatest Barcelona players of all time but he is probably the best Spaniard of all time, given his contributions to La Roja over the years.

Truly a once in a lifetime midfielder is Xavi Hernandez.

jorge luis pinto most inspiring soccer players 2015Jorge Luis Pinto

Jorge Luis Pinto probably pulled off a bigger shock than when Germany beat Brazil 7-1.

The Colombian manager guided Central American minnows Costa Rica to a sensational quarterfinal finish in the 2014 World Cup.

What’s even more remarkable is the group they were initially in. Paired alongside England, Uruguay and Italy, many would have bet their mortgage that El Ticos would finish bottom in the group but remarkably, Pinto guided them to top their group.

Through hard work and team spirit, Costa Rica eventually bowed out to Holland on penalties in the quarterfinals which is nothing to be ashamed of.

And in the process, Pinto must have inspired dozens of other managers who now believe they can upset the odds in huge tournaments in the future.

bill shankly most inspiring soccer players 2015Bill Shankly

The Liverpool manager famous for this iconic quote:

“Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I’m very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.”

Shankly is probably one of the best football managers of all time as he transformed the fortunes of Liverpool, making them a real powerhouse in world football.

The inspiration for many a manager, Liverpool fans would certainly be hoping for him to manage their team in the present day.

Didier Drogba to leave ChelseaDidier Drogba

Didier Drogba is not only an icon in the Ivory Coast for being one of the best footballers in the world along with his charity foundations – he’s also helped stopped a civil war.

In 2005, Drogba picked up a microphone and on his knees live on television, begged the Ivory Coast rebels and the government to put down their weapons and engage in a ceasefire.

It worked, only elevating Drogba’s status further not only in his country but in Africa and the world as well. Truly one of the most inspirational figures in world football.

Can Stan Wawrinka Continue His Winning Ways?

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stan wawrinka wins french open 2015Stanislas Wawrinka emerged from the shadows of the top four players on the ATP Tour to claim his first French Open title at Roland Garros on the 7th June 2015.  It came as a shock to the world of tennis, mainly due to the fact that Wawrinka was playing world number one, Novak Djokovic in the final.

Installed as favourite for the tournament from the outset, Djokovic looked in awesome form when despatching Andy Murray in a deciding set in the semi-finals.  The Serbian could have been forgiven for thinking that the hard work had been done, when looking at his opponent in the final, Stanislas Wawrinka.

With little pedigree in the French Open, the best result Wawrinka had achieved in the past was a quarter-final place 2013.  Prior to that, the fourth round was his best result and last season, the Swiss was dumped out in the first round.  However, Wawrinka seems to have the ability to win a Grand Slam tournament out of the blue.  Take the Australian Open of 2014, Wawrinka had previously only reached the quarter-final once, never threatening to make it to the final, let alone win the event.  Then, following a quarter-final defeat of Djokovic, Wawrinka went on to defeat Tomas Berdych in the semi-final and Rafael Nadal in the final.

One would suggest that Wawrinka is working his way to the top of men’s tennis but at the age of 30, is it too late to break in to the elite and can he handle the pressure that such a breakthrough would bring?

Wawrinka is only one of a handful of players on the ATP Tour who has made it to the quarter-final stage of every Grand Slam event.  Furthermore, the current world number four is in a group of just three players, who have defeated the big four in a Grand Slam match.  That’s wins over Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray in the world’s biggest tournaments.

Therefore, it’s clear that Wawrinka has the ability to mix it with the very best players in the world and can do so when it matters most.  The Swiss has now won two of the last six Grand Slam tournaments, which is as good a record as Djokovic and a better record than Federer, Nadal and Murray.  Furthermore, Wawrinka spent more time ranked inside the top four on the ATP Tour over the course of the last year than Andy Murray.

can stan wawrinka continue his winning ways Following Wawrinka’s victory at the 2014 Australian Open, he failed miserably at the French Open, losing in the first round.  Prior to that tournament, Wawrinka was at the top of the ‘Race to London’ standings and perhaps the pressure of being in the limelight got to him, as he bowed out of both the Madrid Masters and Italian Open in the early rounds.  This does not bode well with a fast turn around from the French open to Wimbledon, as the media will be looking for Wawrinka and talking up his chances prior to the tournament.

Some players operate better by being under the radar and perhaps this is where Wawrinka likes to be.  Discussing his French Open triumph, the Swiss commented on how he is not as good as the big four but is strong enough to win some of the big titles.  In fact, Wawrinka went one step further than that and said that he does not want to be compared to them.  On the face of it, this is a surprising statement, especially considering the goal of every professional tennis player is surely to get to the very top of the game.  That being said, perhaps Wawrinka knows and understands, that his best chance of winning the major titles is by lurking in the shadows.  Quietly making progress through the rounds, while the main focus is on the big four.

This is all well and good but the fact of the matter is, the spotlight is going to come upon any player who is capable of winning two Grand Slam titles and the fear is, Wawrinka does not want this pressure.  As mentioned above, Wawrinka lost in the first round of the next Grand Slam tournament after his triumph at the 2014 Australian Open and a similar performance at Wimbledon in 2015, will raise big question marks over his ability to cope with the pressure of being at the top.

There is no doubt, as proven in the 2015 French Open, that Wawrinka has the ability to defeat the best players in the biggest tournaments.  However, a question mark remains as to whether he can sustain this kind of form over a long period of time and handle the pressure of being classed alongside the likes of Djokovic, Nadal and Murray.

 

Why is the tech niche so slow to pick up & use its own technology?

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tech niche slow to pick up its own technology 2015When you think about the most talked about concepts in tech at the moment you will probably think of cloud computing and big data – everyone in the tech niche is talking about these two things at the moment and in particular how they can help the enterprise in terms of both functionality and business progression.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the idea of harnessing powerful computers that are housed within a data center and typically adopted by the enterprise under a leasing or rental basis. The key concept behind cloud computing as far as the enterprise is concerned is in the fact that the infrastructure is largely software defined and can be scaled up seamlessly making the entire system fare more flexible and cost effective.

The big advantage that cloud computing offers to the enterprise, aside from cost and efficiency, is the fact that it can be accessed from any location and almost any device – the cloud is taking IT away from the traditional on premise model and moving it to a centrally stored and always connected environment.

This new way of working really came as an answer to a real world problem and in order to meet the changing demands of the enterprise in terms of how businesses and employees worked and the fact that business is now more frequently done whilst on the move and from locations all over the world rather than just at a fixed office location.

Big data and analytics

Big data is the concept of being able to handle extremely large datasets and also being able to extrapolate useful information from that data using advanced analytics and machine learning techniques.

Big data has really come about as a result of computers now being powerful enough to find the answers to almost any question so long as there is data available that pertains to that question.

The advantage of this technology to the enterprise is that every aspect of the business can be constantly analysed and improved. There is no getting away from the truth when it comes to business data – if an area of the business is underperforming then grab all of the data and the computer will tell you what is wrong.

tech industry slow to use its own tech 2015Slow take up of cloud computing and big data in the technology sector

These two technologies have a vast array of potential uses and benefits for businesses of all sizes but one of the most striking advantages is the flexibility that the technologies allow – cloud computing in terms of working environment and big data analytics in terms of ensuring the implementation of effective systems.

Cloud computing in particular should really be seeing a move away from the typical office environment into more distributed working scenarios where employees and management don’t necessarily need to be based in the same office but rather can work from anywhere in the world. Cloud computing means than in terms of IT everyone can work in exactly the same way as if they were sitting in the same office – we can have the same level of collaboration, monitoring and centralised management.

The advantages of working in this way are almost endless but the main one centres around flexibility – within this type of working environment it doesn’t matter where you are in the world you can still work and this is very fitting in a world where international business is almost a standard practice. What’s more this way of working means that staff can be recruited from anywhere in the world, physical location no longer being a barrier.

These advantages are extremely well suited to the tech niche where many job roles do not require a physical location – such as system administration, programming, digital design and data analysis – and more so with these specialist job roles the wider the recruitment net the better.

Some may argue that distributed working environments make it harder to manage staff and their productivity but this is really where big data and analytics come into play – there is no longer a need to have a manager standing over the shoulder of an employee to make sure the work is getting done as this information can be made immediately apparent by analysing employee input and business data on an ongoing basis – with this information productivity can easily be measured and monitored.

Despite all of this it strikes me as strange that whilst influencers are all pushing these new technologies and how they can be so beneficial to the enterprise their take up is actually very lacking in the technology niche itself.

The majority of tech recruiters still seem to be pushing almost exclusively office based positions and there are very few location independent roles being promoted within tech.

Perhaps it is time that the tech niche started using these technologies internally and producing real world case studies of their effectiveness and in turn this may help their adoption within the wider enterprise.

Celebrity Gossip Roundup: Bieber Does Dylan, Swift Justice & Eminem Love

Bieber Dylan Taylor Swift Eminem 2015 Celeb Gossip Images

This week’s celebrity gossip includes the fact that in a recent Rolling Stones interview Justin Bieber’s manager stated that Bieber is the Bob Dylan of his generation, an assessment the nation wholeheartedly disagrees with. The justification behind this odd statement is that Bieber has reinvented himself and made people angry, just like Bob Dylan did during the height of his fame. We know the world is doomed when Bieber is favorably being compared to a legend like Bob Dylan.

justin bieber like bob dylan music 2015 gossipTaylor Swift showed the world how generous she is by sending $15,000 to a volunteer firefighter in Texas after he pulled his severely injured wife and son out of a fiery car crash. Taylor made the donation to the family as part of a GoFundMe campaign a friend of the family started to cover the family’s medical bills incurred after the accident.

taylor swift helps firefighter 2015 gossipIn a surprise move, former Saved By The Bell cutie Lark Voorhies quietly got married in April. The news of the marriage broke this week and Voorhies’ rep confirmed it to the press. Proving that even celebrities can find the love of their life on social media is the fact that Voorhies married her husband after having met him on Facebook last year. Which should give hope to singles praying Facebook brings them their true love. Several members of Lark’s inner circle, including family members, are telling the media that they’re concerned she’s at risk. They’ve told her to seek an annulment … but Lark’s not having it. She says she already knows about his criminal past and feels he’s changed.

lark voorhies marries secretly 2015 gossipPeople magazine recently found out that Carrie Underwood was terrified of what she would have to deal with when she became a mother. Happily, Underwood admitted that though she was terrified she is enjoying being a mother to her newborn baby boy. She stated that her son is a more laid back baby than she had anticipated.

carrie underwood pregnancy worries 2015 gossipBradley Cooper is pursing a lawsuit against the tabloids in France after one of the country’s tabloid magazines, in his mind, violated his right to privacy by reporting on his relationship with Irina Shayk. The owner of the tabloid magazine fired back stating that he didn’t understand why Bradley Cooper was suing his magazine.

bradley cooper suing french magazine 2015 gossipRaven Symone has enjoyed her guest stints as co-host of The View so much she has joined the cast, which has been a revolving door of gossiping women lately. On an episode of The View that aired earlier in the week Whoopi Goldberg announced Raven Symone was now a regular co-host on the show. In response Symone has thanked both ABC and Disney for giving her the chance to try something new.

raven symone on the view co host 2015 gossipHolly Madison is finally admitting to the world that living at the Playboy Mansion was not the exciting experience many of her fans believed it was. In her new book Madison confesses that after she moved into the mansion she was emotionally abused. She said that she was treated poorly the whole time she lived there and when she made the decision to move out Hefner tried to get her to stay by offering her a large sum of money she would inherit when he passed away. Madison confessed that this offended her and caused her to feel sorry for Hefner. Once a dirty old man, always a dirty old man.

holly madison book dishes playboy mansion sad life 2015 gossipKim Kardashian is throwing a hissy fit after it was reported she is pregnant with a baby boy. Using her Twitter account Kardashian stated that no one could report that she was having a boy because she hasn’t divulged the gender of her baby to anyone. She then said nothing was confirmed if it hadn’t been said by her. I think we should be more worried about the fact that this spoiled brat disguised as an adult is even having another child, not that the world might already know the gender of the baby.

kim kardashian angry for baby boy story 2015 gossipIn other Kardashian news Khloe is denying that she has had liposuction in the past. She said she found this idea disgusting but at the same time takes it as a complement, which proves she doesn’t have two brain cells to rub together. Sending tweets while she was reportedly at the gym is somehow supposed to justify why people are swearing she had liposuction.

khloe kardashian claims no liposuction 2015 gossipIn news that probably doesn’t inspire sympathy Charlie Sheen recently dealt with a bout of food poisoning which required treatment from a hospital. Probably the only reason this made the gossip mill is because it is the first time Charlie Sheen has gone to the hospital for something unrelated to either drugs or alcohol. Are pigs flying yet?

charlie sheen sick with food poisoning 2015 gossipSinger Keisha is dealing with her own controversy as she has recently accused Sony of throwing her together with Dr. Luke in what allegedly became an abusive situation between the two. Kesha is now suing Dr. Luke for both verbal abuse and sexual assault. The charges stem from the period of time where the two had entered into a partnership. She claims executives at Sony knew Dr. Luke was mistreating her but did nothing about it. She is blasting them for having done nothing to correct his behavior towards her. According to lawyers representing Kesha Dr. Luke and Sony have been trying to ruin her career. No word from Sony on any official reaction to or statement about this.

kesha problems with dr luke 2015 gossipEd Sheerhan is singing the praises of Eminem this week, saying that the rapper helped Sheeran to stop stuttering. He made this confession in a recent speech at a NYC benefit gala held for the American Institute of Stuttering. No doubt Eminem could use the praise as he has had a lot of bad press over the years.

ed sheeran eminem love 2015 gossipOver the weekend the Pittsburgh Gay Pride Parade was supposed to include a performance by Iggy Azalea but her invitation to the parade was rescinded. Petitions were started to get her excluded from the parade and they seem to have worked. Apparently there is a record of Azalea having said something offensive in the past concerning gays and lesbians. Azalea released a statement apologizing to her fans for her bigoted words and frowned upon actions.

iggy azalea out of pittsburgh gay pride 2015 gossip

That’s it for this week’s celebrity gossip, with the usual cast of characters.

 

CREEP Trailer Not A Selling Point

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creep weak trailer not selling point 2015Found footage films are all the rage these days so, it’s safe for you to expect at least a few of these to pop up a year on the big screen. “Creep” is an independent film directed by Patrick Brice that seems to make a great service announcement for why you should never, ever take a professional job off of Craigslist.

Why do people even still use that creepy website?

The trailer starts with a videographer answering a Craigslist ad for a one-day job that takes place in a very remote mountain town. Now, this is a horror movie cliche’ that makes me instantly give this movie the side-eye. What intelligent person would accept a Craigslist ad to meet someone out in the mountains for a video shoot? That makes absolutely no sense what-so-ever. With people literally being murdered because of Craigslist, wouldn’t the ad be a huge DANGER alert!

creep movie images 2015

The man tells the videographer once he gets to his creepy home in the middle of no where he’s hired him to make a video of him for his unborn son because he is dying of terminal brain cancer. As the videographer films the man though out the day, the man’s actions get more and more unnerving. Even though throughout the trailer quotes from reviews pop up from sources like Time magazine calling the film “disturbing” and “twisted,” the scariest thing the “creep” does in the entire trailer is pop out of corners and scream at the guy. That might make the guy a horrible prankster, but a disturbing creep?

In the middle of the trailer, the main character receives the classic and totally predictable phone call that he must “get out of house right now.” We’ve never seen that forshadowing card played before right?

After the pair down a drink things escalate further. The videographer finds what seems like a really cheap, grotesque gorilla mask in the top of the man’s closet. For some reason, it really seems to scare him. There is just nothing scary about this cheap Halloween mask, but apparently the director wants you to think so.

Within no time, you see images of the “creep” popping out of corners and scaring the videographer with the cheap mask. Sure, a guy chasing you around in a Gorilla mask when you’re trapped in a house in the middle of nowhere is pretty creepy, but the bigger question is how the hell did you get yourself in that situation?

Soon we see the crazy dude chasing the man with an ax and through dark places around the house. There’s more of the man jumping out of dark corners and screaming. The whole thing feels like a big joke at least from the trailer. The movie comes from the producers of Sinister, Paranormal Activity and The Purge so I’d like to believe they wouldn’t throw their money behind pure crap…although The Purge had no redeeming qualities at all. That being said, this might be a film that has to be seen in its entirety to be taken seriously because the trailer just doesn’t make it look good.

This film hits theaters July 14th.

creep movie poster images 2015

Is the US Still First in Technology?

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is us still first in technology 2015 imagesWe see it in movies, whether it’s the Terminator franchise, Iron Man, the Minority Report, Transcendence, Mission Impossible— America seems to have all the good stuff. Could it still be the case since movies and TV shows rarely show how technologically advanced other countries are, except probably for Japan. It’s very important for a country to be in the technological forefront, primarily for security reasons, whether it be for defense or offense. Second is for economic reasons. America has lately gone through several economic lows and this could be reflective of, or could later result to a lack of technological advancement.

Some examples of US technological hiccups include the stalled space program where the US seems to no longer be able to send its astronauts to the International Space Station without hitching a ride in Russia and the fact that no one’s been on the moon in decades; the questionable F-35 program wherein it’s been criticized with regards to safety and performance issues; and multiple hacking incidents involving foreign and domestic sources. Either unhackable America is hacked by its own citizens or North Korea may have discovered that starving its technologically inclined citizens might actually make them smarter. These technological fails give the impression of a technologically weak America, an impression that countries like Russia and China can take advantage of.

China has made great inroads when it comes to technology, building on technology shared, bought and brought into the country. It might even be more advanced with regards to IT allowing them to allegedly hack into US military secrets thus emboldening its own military to directly challenge US interests. We can scoff all we want at China’s F-35 rip-off but what if they got all the kinks out? Speaking of the F-35, the plane couldn’t have been made without some Israeli tech. Air Power Australia even downplayed the plane’s role as a long-range strike fighter.

China now plans to put a man on the moon; a move that could supplant the United States’ technological edge and with China’s current territorial thinking, could give China exclusive rights to parts of the moon. Even if the move was already done, it’s in America’s interest to counter or beat China to wherever it wants to go just like Kennedy did when the US first put a man on the moon. Conspiracy theorists even challenge whether the US actually performed the feat.

oculus keeps us on top of technology 2015But we’re not saying China’s about to overtake the US in technological superiority. In most lists of the most technologically advanced nations on Earth, that title remains with Japan. Japan already has a maglev bullet train that has broken the sound barrier, human-looking androids and agile bi-pedal robots. Japan has the highest budget when it comes to research and development as opposed to the United States which dropped its own R&D budget below 12%. Japan however, keeps many of its advancements for local use.

Despite that disturbing budget news, the US is still second to Japan in most lists when it comes to technological superiority. The US continues to shape the world’s technological landscape through the efforts of various companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Google and through various entrepreneurs through the new crowd-funding landscape. With many brilliant creative minds, the US is not about to lose its technological edge anytime soon. And unlike Japan, US advances go beyond its borders. Military advances are shared with its closest allies while advances in IT are readily disseminated globally. We could say that the US remains first outside Asia.

Other countries on the advanced list include England, which is at par with the United States when it comes to technology. Australia is noted for its focus on biotechnology, food and mining industries. Finland, home of Nokia is noted for its communications and developments in the fields of physics and the environment. Singapore which has an advanced architecture, transportation infrastructure and has one of the world’s fastest internet access along with South Korea which has three times the bandwidth of the United States and is home to Apple’s rival, Samsung which has already beaten Japan’s Sony in terms of technology. South Korea is already at par with Japan when it comes to automotive and appliance technologies. Israel, a close ally of the United States, spends most of its R&D budget on security (theoretically enabling them to build a countrywide wall to keep zombies out), enabling them to build state of the art unmanned aircraft, a highly efficient intelligence network and a working electric car infrastructure. India has also become one of the technologically advanced nations in the world. Many IT jobs have been outsourced or imported from India and the country has made plenty of inroads on defense and space programs. And finally there’s China which has become Asia’s newest superpower and depending on who we ask has surpassed Japan’s economy. China has made great strides when it comes to manufacturing, military and information technologies. Most of the world’s gadgets and other goods are manufactured in China because of cheaper materials and labor.

In this new very connected world, news now travels fast, far and wide and with news come thoughts and impressions on whatever is the latest buzz especially when politics is involved. It gets worse when politics is involved in tech mistakes and failures and false impressions about the country’s technological prowess spread like wildfire. But that spread alone, how connected everyone is, how easily people are tracked, how something searched for out of curiosity quickly becomes an advertisement is a testament of how technologically advanced the United States is. Speaking of politics, what should be put into question is how that advancement is put into use.

Latest Soccer Deals & Premier League Boots Players

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We take a look at this week’s football aka soccer in US news as a lot has happened from new signings to managerial appointments to Premier League players getting released.

swansea city signs andre ayew soccer 2015Swansea signs Andre Ayew

Ayew on a free transfer is one extremely astute bit of business by Gary Monk. The Ghanaian is a regular international, has Champions League experience and was one of the French side’s best players over the years.

It certainly is telling how the new Premier League deal is helping all the clubs outside the top six attract huge names as there is also talk of Alan Pardew’s Crystal Palace side potentially getting PSG’s Yohan Cabaye which would set up a great reunion between the former Newcastle employees.

As for Swansea, a signing like Ayew – if followed by a couple of others – could give them the edge required to challenge teams like Spurs, Southampton and Liverpool to enter the top six, something they missed out on this past season by just six points.

As it is though, Monk is working wonders for a side that was promoted just back in 2011 as Swansea recently broke their highest points total in the Premier League this past season.

Steve McClaren Close Up 2015Newcastle appoint Steve McClaren; West Ham appoint Slaven Bilic

Both clubs have made interesting appointments.

While McClaren failed with England, notably failing to get them qualified for Euro 2008, his club record is pretty good winning the Eredivisie with FC Twente while he overachieved with Middlesbrough before taking over the England job.

His experience in Holland could even see Newcastle going from a French influence to a Dutch influence with the club already having the likes of Daryl Janmaat, Tim Krul and Vurnon Anita.

As for Bilic, he is an enthusiastic and charismatic manager who had success with the Croatian national team but failed to do anything of note at club level. However, Hammers fans can definitely expect better football with him at the helm compared to former Sam Allardyce.

abou diaby released from premier league soccer 2015Premier League releases players

With clubs releasing players who are out of contract, there have certainly been some interesting departures this year.

With Arsenal, the most notable departure will be Abou Diaby. The Frenchman who is so talented but has also been so injury prone since suffering a broken leg in 2006, has only made 16 league appearances in the last four seasons. That’s four appearances per season on average and the former Auxerre midfielder didn’t feature at all in the Premier League this past season.

Because of manager, Arsene Wenger’s faith in his players, many expected Diaby to get a new pay-as-you-play contract but it looks like Diaby will now have to start anew somewhere else.

For Chelsea, Didier Drogba is the notable departure, departing Stamford Bridge for a second time in three years. While he wasn’t as effective considering he’s 37-years-old, he still did well to chip in with seven goals as Chelsea won the league for the first time in five years.

For Liverpool, Steven Gerrard will be leaving as expected to the LA Galaxy while Glen Johnson – who had been at the club since 2009 – is another big name who will be departing.

Lastly, Micah Richards, James Milner (Liverpool) and John Guidetti are the notable names to leave the Etihad for Manchester City.

Andre Iguodala: Warriors MVP After Riding Bench All Season: NBA Finals

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andre iguodala caressing steph curry neck golden state warriors mvp images 2015After playing a close game through three quarters, the Golden State Warriors pulled away with ease in the fourth, defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers 104-91 to take a commanding 3-2 lead in the 2015 NBA Finals. The MVP for the Warriors so far? No, not regular season MVP Steph Curry. Instead, it’s former All-Star Andre Iguodala.

One of the benefits of being the best and deepest team in the NBA is having a bunch of talent to put in while the starters take a break. That was Iguodala’s role for the Warriors this entire season. Obviously a pretty humble guy, Iguodala had no qualms when approached by head coach Steve Kerr before the season asking if he would be okay with coming off the bench.

There’s no way that was easy for Iggy to say yes to; but he put the team first and played the role of 6th man for the Warriors in 2015, something he hadn’t done in his 10 professional seasons. Well, 95 games later, Iguodala found himself in the starting lineup once again—this time in the NBA Finals.

andre iguodala mvp golden state warriors nba finals 2015Andrew Bogut just wasn’t working out, and the Cavaliers were able to control the pace through the majority of the first three games. Kerr knew a change needed to be made, and he had the perfect player to call upon.

Iguodala was the ideal player to start in place of Bogut to ensure a small lineup the Cavs couldn’t handle. As a result, the Warriors began to really control the tempo of the games; and they were able to play their high-powered, fast-pace offense instead of being forced to slow things down and score in halfcourt situations.

However, Iguodala’s contributions on offense (22 points and eight rebounds in Game 4; 14 and eight in Game 5) actually took a backseat to his defense against LeBron James, dropping The King’s efficiency rating significantly just by stepping on the court.

“I think he likes the challenge of his matchup,” said Curry after the game.

That’s an understatement. I think Andre Iguodala just likes being out the first round of the playoffs. He’s not getting any younger, so winning an NBA Championship now would be his long-time dream come true just in time.