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Robin Soderling Drops Rafael Nadal From French Open Favorites

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May 20, 2015

Robin Soderling Drops Rafael Nadal From French Open Favorites

Rafael Nadal’s tennis slump continues, but he didn’t drop out of his number seven slot on the rankings chart although friend and fellow Spaniard David Ferrer is hot on his trail. Much talk has been given about him still being considered a favorite at the 2015 French Open aka Roland Garros, but former world number four Robin Soderling seems to think his time has ended in that slot.

Nadal has endured one of his toughest clay-court campaigns to date, winning just one title from six events on the surface in 2015 as his ranking has fallen to seventh.

The only man to beat Nadal at Roland Garros, Soderling said the nine-time champion in Paris has been overtaken in the favourite stakes by Novak Djokovic – who is still aiming to break his drought in the France major.

Djokovic has won the past five Masters-tier tournaments he has contested, including wins in Rome and Monte Carlo which have taken his season record to 35-2.

“I think this is the first year where he’s not the number one favourite,” Soderling, a two-time finalist at Roland Garros, said.

“Looking back at the start of this year and also last year, Novak played unbelievable and he played a little bit better than Raf.

“He [Djokovic] beat him in Monte Carlo, but again I know how it is as a player coming back to a place where you really feel comfortable, where you’ve always played well. It can make you play so much better.

“So it’s going to be tough, but this year I see Novak as the number one favourite.”

His Djokovic tip echoes that of Jim Courier, who claimed Nadal has become “mortal” on clay.

Soderling, 30, has been inactive on the ATP World Tour since 2011, after battling mononucleosis.

The Swede remains an active figure on the circuit, however, as tournament director of the Stockholm Open.

Soderling said he felt Roger Federer was the best player he faced in his career, which he has insisted is not yet over.

“For me, to play against Roger was always the most difficult, because, after I played him six or seven times, I realised I never played a good match against Roger. Why is that? I lost all the matches,” Soderling said.

“Even when I played against Rafa and Novak, sometimes I won, sometimes I lost, but I could still, even after a loss, I could feel like ‘I played a good match today’.

“But against Roger I never played well. I started to think about it and I realised, that’s because he’s making me play bad, he’s mixing up his game so much. He was a really tough player for me.”

2015 National League MLB Week 6: Astros Hot Streak Continues

Peter Tebin

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May 20, 2015

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2015 National League MLB Week 6: Astros Hot Streak Continues

The 2015 Major League Baseball season continues to move along as the American League action starts to heat up. It seems like Déjà vu as the Houston Astros continue to be the hottest team in the division despite failing to have any prime time players.

The Astros are 7-3 over their last 10 games while moving their record to 25-13 on the season. When we look at their success we can understand why so many experts have written them off as their best player is only five and half foot tall or so while the rotation lacks a top tier starter.

That being said the team has come together to play some of the best baseball the team has ever played. Their 25 and 13 record is the best start in franchise history that included some big time stars such as Nolan Ryan, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio and Roger Clemens.

Now we will take a look at each of the divisions and how they played around the American League.

East Division: We aren’t quite sure how this division will play out as we leaned to the Baltimore Orioles early but their pitching has been terrible at times while their hitting has been quiet to start the season. The loss of Andrew Miller and Nelson Cruz has caught up to them early in the 2015 campaign.

This past week the Rays got off to a hot start taking three of four against the New York Yankees before losing two of three against the Minnesota Twins. The Rays who many experts put at the bottom of the division continue to pitch to start the season. The Rays allowed eight runs in the teams four wins.

On the bottom of the division sit the Toronto Blue Jays who picked up just one win in seven contests last week. That game came on Tuesday as the bats came alive for 10 runs in the teams 10-2 win over the Orioles. The teams struggles this season has been their pitching and it showed as the team allowed 37 runs in those seven games.

Central Division: Much like the Central Division in the National League, the American League Central Division is shaping up to be a four team race to the finish. The Kansas City Royals still sit atop at 24-14 followed by the Detroit Tigers at 23-15, Minnesota Twins 21-17 and Chicago White Sox at 17-17. The final team in the division is the Cleveland Indians who are just 14-22 after there first 36 games despite being a favorite for some experts entering the season.

Last week the Twins went on a hot streak and this week it was the White Sox turn. The White Sox picked up five wins in a six game stretch including five straight after losing their contest on Monday against the Milwaukee Brewers. The hot stretch has a lot to do with Avisail Garvia and his recent play. Garcia has picked up hits in five straight games including four multi-hit games.

The Twins, Tigers and Royals all played to a 6-4 record over their past 10 games. The Tigers pitching might have been the biggest surprise of late despite not having Justin Verlander, Ricky Porcello or Max Scherzer in the rotation. The Tigers posted a four and two record allowing just 17 runs in three games.

West Division: Each week we all sit back and wonder when will the Houston Astros take a step back in the American League West division. In the end it wasn’t last week as the Astros sit at 25-13 and six games above the Los Angeles Angels who sit in second place. The Seattle Mariners sit behind them at 17-20 followed by the Texas Rangers and Oakland A’s.

This is another disappointing division as we all predicted the Mariners and A’s would be competing at a much higher level. That being said the teams have combined to win 30 of their first 46 games while being out scored by a combined 17 runs. That wasn’t the case last year as the A’s were one of the best teams in all of baseball based on run differential.

Before we take a look at the success of the Astros last week we wanted to take a much deeper look in how bad the A’s have been. The A’s were 1-5 for the week losing two of three to the Boston Red Sox before being swept by the White Sox over the weekend. In that stretch the A’s pitching staff allowed at least four runs in four of six contests. The team has also struggled to score runs scoring less than four runs in those same four contests.

Flipping from the worst team in the league to the top team in the Astros seems hard to imagine on paper. That being said the Astros won five of six this past week including splitting a two game series with the San Francisco Giants before sweeping the Blue Jays over the weekend.

Now that we have taken a look at each of the divisions around Major League Baseball we can take a look at a few individuals. Here is our list of top individual performers over the sixth week of the season in the American League.

Brad Miller, Seattle Mariners: Miller took home the American League Player of the Week award last week. The Mariners infielder picked up hits in six straight games including three multi hit games. Overall Miller picked up nine hits in 21 hits including three doubles, four home runs and five runs driven in.

Mike Wright, Baltimore Orioles: While Wright only made one start this week it was his major league debut on Sunday. The Orioles starter who was making what many believed to be a spot start overwhelmed in his debut. Wright pitched 7.1 innings striking out six with just four hits and zero earned runs. Along with the strong outing, Wright also picked up his first career strikeout in the first against Mike Trout.

2015 National League MLB Week 6: Nationals & Bryce Harper Red Hot Winners

Peter Tebin

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May 20, 2015

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2015 National League MLB Week 6: Nationals & Bryce Harper Red Hot Winners

The weekend has come to an end as another week of the 2015 Major League Baseball season is in the books. Here is a quick overview of each division in the National League. The trends continued to point to the same direction as we have seen over the past few weeks as the top teams in each division continue dominating.

One of those teams is the Washington Nationals who has been red hot of late winning eight of their last 10 games. In that stretch the Nationals have been able to play themselves within a half game of the New York Mets of first place in the East.

This past week the Nationals posted a 5-2 record including taking two of three against the Diamondbacks in Arizona. The team then continued their travel out west making their way to San Diego for a four game series. The Nationals would fall 8-3 in game one before taking the final three games.

Now we will take a look at each of the divisions and how they played around the National League.

East Division: As we take a look at the NL East the division is separated by less than seven games as the Mets still hold a slight lead over the Nationals heading into Monday night’s game. Following the Nationals sit the Atlanta Braves who are 3.5 games out, the Miami Marlins who are six games out and the Philadelphia Phillies who are 6.5 games out.

That being said the Nationals and Phillies have been the hotter teams of late. While the Nationals posted a 5-2 record last week the Phillies are the only other team over the five hundred mark in their last 10 games. In that stretch the Phillies lost the first two games to open up the week before winning their last five games.

That included the final two games against the Pittsburgh Pirates before sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks over the weekend. As you look at these two teams they are both doing it with their pitching. The Phillies allowed less than three runs in four of those seven contests last week while the Nationals allowed only six runs to the Padres over the weekend.

Central Division: Moving over to the Central Division it is playing out to be a four team division as the St. Louis Cardinals still sit atop the division with the best record in the National League. Just behind the Cardinals are the Chicago Cubs who have been red hot of late winning seven of their past 10 games. Rounding out the rest of the division is the Cincinnati Reds at 18-20, Pittsburgh Pirates at 18-20 and the Milwaukee Brewers at 13-25.

The Cubs made a big push this past week winning six of their seven contests during the week. That included a four game sweep over the Mets before taking two of three from the Pirates. Much of their success has come from their pitching including offseason acquisition Jon Lester who picked up two wins in both of his starts while throwing 13 innings allowing just four earned runs.

While the Cubs made a big push to take over the top spot in the division the Cardinals put together one of their worst weeks of the season. After taking two of three from the Celveland Indians, the team only managed to take two of three from the Tigers. In that series the Cardinals managed to score only eight runs in three games.

West Division: The final division in the National league we will take a look at is the National League West. The West is still in our opinion the top division in the NL but the bottom two teams have struggled while the Padres also fell under the five hundred mark after losing three straight.

At the top of the division stills sits the Los Angeles Dodgers who continue to find production from a wide range of players including Joc Pederson, Adrian Gonzalez, Alex Guerrero, Scott Van Slyke and Yasmani Grandal. Overall the team continued to play above the five hundred mark winning four of seven including two of three against the Miami Marlins and a split of the four game series against the Rockies.

While the Dodgers continued to play well, the Padres might be the biggest disappoint in all of baseball. After an offseason that saw the team add a handful of impact players the team has struggled at points. Those struggles continued this week as they managed to win just two of six games including three straight over the weekend against the Nationals.

The San Francisco Giants currently sit between the Giants and the Padres while the Arizona Diamondbacks sit in fourth followed by the Colorado Rockies.

Now that we have taken a look at each of the divisions around Major League Baseball we can take a look at a few individuals. Here is our list of top individual performers over the sixth week of the season in the National League.

Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals: Harper continues to be one of the hottest players in all of baseball. After an incredible stretch last week, Harper picked up hits in six of the teams seven contests this week. That included four multi hit games along with six of seven games with a run scored. Three of his hits this past week left the yard rising his season total to 14 home runs.

Jon Lester, Chicago Cubs: The Cubs handed Lester a monster contract this offseason to be the teams ace. That is exactly what he did this week picking up both of his wins while the Cubs turned in six wins over a seven game course.

Brandon Belt, San Francisco Giants: Belt has been hot of late raising his season batting average up to .321 on the season. That included a big weekend picking up nine hits in 14 at bats with eight runs scored two doubles, three home runs and seven runs driven in.

Aaron Hernandez Already Taking Part In Prison Life

Jackie Warner

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May 20, 2015

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Aaron Hernandez Already Taking Part In Prison Life

Former New England Patriots football player, Aaron Hernandez is already adapting quickly to prison life as many assumed he would, and CNN is reporting that he’s been part of a prison fight where he played the part of a lookout. He already was in trouble for allegedly fighting with a detainee at the Bristol County jail not long before his murder trial.

Hernandez was sentenced to life without parole and is doing his time at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Mass. He is appealing his conviction for the June 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd.

Hernandez allegedly agreed to be the lookout for another inmate who went into another prisoner’s cell at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center.

Those two inmates got into a fight Monday, the source says, believed to be gang-related.

All three men are being disciplined over the incident, including the former professional football player, who was put in a special management section.

Christopher Fallon, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Correction, declined to comment, saying regulations forbid divulging information of that kind about inmates.

Hernandez has also been charged with an earlier double-murder in the Boston area and could learn his trial date Thursday. Currently, the Patriots are dealing with their own controversy after the Wells Report was released resulting in quarterback Tom Brady being suspended for four games and the team being fined one million dollars. They would love to not have Aaron Hernandez’s antics reminding people that he was once part of their organization.

Blackhawks & Ducks Tie It Up: 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs Game 3

Shane Lambert

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May 20, 2015

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Blackhawks & Ducks Tie It Up: 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs Game 3

The seventeenth longest game in NHL history was played on Tuesday night in Anaheim. The Anaheim Ducks, hosting the Chicago Blackhawks in game two of the western conference finals, came up on the losing end. In short, the result ties the Anaheim/Chicago Stanley Cup Playoff series at one game each as the series now shifts over to Chicago.

For the longer story the game, although it ended up being a defensive battle, actually started out with some punch. Chicago opened the scoring with a couple of first period powerplay goals, one by Marian Hossa and another by ‘headstrong’ Andrew Shaw. Anaheim would answer back in the first as Andrew Cogliano deflected one by Corey Crawford to end the period at 2-1. There was not much scoring for the remainder of the game however Corey Perry did tally his eighth goal of the post-season at 17:30 of the second to tie the game at two.

The game would remain tied at two for quite a long time afterwards. The third period, a blank for offense, was followed by another blank in the first overtime. However in the second period, for a short time, there appeared to be a game-winning goal.

Shaw, having already scored in the opening frame, hopped a few inches in his skates and directed, with his head, an aloft puck over the shoulder of Frederik Andersen, Anaheim’s goaltender. Shaw then began to celebrate shortly thereafter however the referees disallowed the goal: apparently head butting is only for soccer and professional wrestling as opposed to NHL hockey.

The game would continue until late in the third overtime session when Marcus Kruger scored just his second goal of the post-season, one that sent the Anaheim contingent home unhappy after such an investment of time. At a total of 56 minutes and 12 seconds of overtime, the game sits between two games from the nineties in terms of length, both of them involving the Edmonton Oilers. On April 27th, 1999 Joe Nieuwendyk of the Dallas Stars scored at 57:34 of overtime to end Edmonton’s season in a first round sweep. On May 15th, 1990 Petr Klima scored for Edmonton at 55:13 of overtime in game one of the Stanley Cup finals.

The Chicago/Anaheim series will resume on Thursday from Chicago with a start time of 8pm ET. Anaheim, having surrendered home-ice advantage, will now need to answer back on the road at some point if they are going to win the 2015 western conference finals.

Delayed Again: Will There Still be a Spot for Oculus Rift When it Ships?

Tech News

Marius Manuella

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May 19, 2015

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Delayed Again: Will There Still be a Spot for Oculus Rift When it Ships?

Oculus Rift has been with us since 2012, filling gamers and niche app developers with anticipation of what can be possible with the refined Oculus Rift Consumer Edition. DK2 and its apps from indie developers have already produced stunning results and gamers are already salivating. It’s one thing to pretend to hold a gun in front of a screen and running around in a virtual environment but still seeing reality in the periphery. Oculus Rift actually immerses the player in its virtual world seeing nothing else but that world with every turn of the head. The DK2 resolution is still low but the results are impressive. The consumer version promises lighter hardware, less vertigo, higher resolution and more realism (depending on the app and developer). However, it was announced that the consumer edition won’t be out until 2016 or at least will be available for pre-order on the holidays. With the Oculus Rift delayed yet again, does this mean the future of Virtual Reality is looking bleak or will it be more advanced than we expected?

What might be bleak is Oculus Rift’s future amidst competition. The future of virtual reality is looking good thanks to current technology. During the 90s and early 2000s, we dabbled with virtual reality and felt awed to enter blocky polygonal worlds in a rate of a few frames per second using headsets that weighed a ton. The technology promised inroads to gaming, education and other applications and even spawned a couple of outlandish movies, Virtuosity and The Lawnmower Man. Then the dotcom bubble came and the hardware wasn’t really there yet. VR was put aside for a while to focus our attention to the growing internet and mobile market. Now, with gaming rigs and consoles churning out more pixels per inch than ever, it was high time for virtual reality to come out of the closet. Oculus makers Oculus VR thought, the era of wireframes and blocky renders have been over for some time now. It’ time for the player to see the world as his avatar does. The Oculus Rift unfortunately opened the floodgates to a new generation of headsets for a forgotten overhyped technology.

Aside from the Oculus Rift, other companies saw the potential for enhanced VR and set out to develop their own headsets. There’s HTC in cooperation with Valve for the HTC Vive, SONY’s Project Morpheus, Samsung Gear VR and the surprising and anticipated player, Microsoft with Windows Holographic and Hololens.

The HTC Vive already has a higher resolution (1080×1200 at 90-frames per second) than the Oculus Rift DK2 and is promised to be released November 2015. With Valve behind the project, the HTC Vive has the potential to take a big bite into the Oculus’ potential market share. Another market cruncher is SONY’s Project Morpheus. Although it’s set for release in the first half of 2016, it can cut into Oculus Market share not only because of its much higher resolution (1920×1080 at 120 frames per second) but it will work in tandem with the PlayStation which already has a large user base. There’s also the Samsung Gear VR which Oculus VR actually helped develop. Samsung Gear VR is already out and works in tandem with the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. Unknown to the industry until last January, Microsoft was already in development of the Windows Holographic System and its headset the Hololens. The Hololens works differently from other VR headsets because it promises augmented reality. It’s also not as confining as VR headsets since the surroundings will not only be visible but truly augmented. Its demos were full of potential not just for gaming and generated quite a buzz in the industry. It’s a work in progress which Oculus VR shouldn’t worry about until its release when geeks and fans finally get to try out their Iron Man fantasies.

No doubt the Oculus Rift Consumer Edition still has a crack at the gaming market. It’s probable high price and hefty system requirements could affect its mainstream sales though. But if its performance is better than the DK2, price won’t be much of a problem to hardcore gamers. Also, what Oculus VR has going for it is that even though the competition has been developing their own systems for some time or even before the Oculus Rift, their post-Rift announcements brands them as me-too products. As they say, nothing beats the original. With Oculus Rift and its competition, Virtual Reality is back and better than ever.

Update: Oculus has been sending out invites to the press for a special event on June 11 in San Francisco with a simple line of “Step into the Rift” letting many of us with the questions above know that they’re still going to make it work. Above is the invite which depicts a piece of hardware not seen with theirs. It looks like they’re ready to give us a peek at what they’re working on.

Is the backlash against Facebook’s free internet service valid?

Tech News

David Silvester

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May 19, 2015

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Is the backlash against Facebook’s free internet service valid?

The founder and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg has recently faced a public onslaught culminating in an open letter from 65 advocacy organisations spanning 31 countries in response to a project called Internet.org.

Internet.org is an initiative that was set up by Facebook with the aim of providing Internet access to communities around the world that would not normally be able to afford such access.

Whilst the access is free it is not comprehensive and instead only provides users with access to a restricted portion of the Internet and the traffic created runs through Facebook owned proxy servers so that these restrictions can be maintained. There are currently a handful of sites that are available for use on the free Internet platform but Facebook are open to suggestions and new services and websites can be submitted for inclusion.

Of course Facebook is one of the sites that is available for use via the Internet.org project and perhaps that is part of the reason why it has received negative press as it shows an ulterior motive from Facebook but in addition there are many useful sites that are made freely available by the project including Wikipedia which is a huge resource of online information in itself.

The argument from protestor’s centres around net neutrality and the fact that the Internet – in terms at least of the information that it contains – should be free and by introducing a platform where only some of it is available it paves the way for bias to be introduced and would potentially see information retrieval being controlled in a negative way.

In addition to the issues that arrive with the restrictions in place there are also some concerns about the privacy of users who browse the internet via the project due to the fact that it does not use the same protocols for secure communications. In addition to this the fact that all of the traffic passes through servers owned by Facebook – a fact that doesn’t bode well in the eyes of those involved in the open letter against the project.

From Facebook’s point of view and certainly from Mark Zuckerberg’s point of view the ideas and believes behind the project are being misinterpreted – Mark protests that the project is in place to help people in countries with limited Internet access and to enable the people within those countries to achieve greater things through the power of the Internet and the resources that it can provide to them in terms of knowledge and communication.

Facebook say that they have plans to expand the project and the sites that are available and say that they have no interest in actively restricting Internet access for anyone but it is simply a matter of limited funds that dictates how many sites are made available under the project.

I can appreciate both sides of the argument – of course it is extremely important to maintain a freedom of information on the Internet as that is an intrinsic part of the World Wide Web and what makes it unlike any other resource available in the world. Having said that, it does seem futile arguing against the provision of limited Internet access when the alternative is no Internet access at all – surely no Internet access is worse than limited access.

In addition, whilst Facebook may well have some ulterior motives can we really blame them? They are in business to make money after all so it is understandable that they will have to have some form of vested Interest in the project. Although they are providing some good in the form of Internet access to those that could not normally have any at all – once again this small effort is surely better than no effort and it is certainly a lot more than other companies are doing to help those who have no Internet access. In fact perhaps the organisations that are protesting the venture could come up with and implement a better solution themselves.

Regardless of your standpoint on the matter of net neutrality and the morality of this project I am very much of the opinion that sometimes in life we have to withstand necessary evils in favour of the greater good and this project would fall into that category only in the worst case scenario.

Ryan Reynolds THE VOICES an easy cult film favorite: Movie Review

MTTG Staff

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May 19, 2015

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Ryan Reynolds THE VOICES an easy cult film favorite: Movie Review

The Voices (2015) is a strange comedy/horror/thriller starring comedian Ryan Reynolds as a seemingly happy guy who works 9-5 at a bathtub factory. The women in the office find Jerry oddly attractive and his offbeat humor cute, but he could stand to find a few friends. After seeing his court-appointed psychiatrist (because Jerry has a profoundly disturbing past), Jerry decides he’s going to pursue his office crush. Things take an extremely dark turn for Jerry when the girl stands him up for a date.

That’s not the strangest thing about Jerry. Jerry gets guidance from his evil, foul mouth cat. He also gets advice from his sweeter, slow talking dog. He has to make the choice of whether he will stick to striving for normalcy or indulging in murder.

When I saw the quirky, bloody and dark trailer for this film I knew I had to go out and rent it right away! While I was still prepared for it to be a dark comedy, I was not prepared for how dark it would be. Ryan Reynolds does an amazing job as the unhinged Jerry. There’s something sweet and likable about Jerry even after you know he is out there slaughtering people. He’s presented in a very human manner, which he is after all, even though he does monstrous things! I wanted to take him out for a cup of coffee because he just seemed to need a friend even though I knew he would most likely end up cutting my head off and putting in the fridge.

You see the world through Jerry’s mostly happy-go-lucky way of life. His apartment is perfect, his office is a chipper place to work even though it’s a bathtub factory and his pets actually talk to him! You don’t realize the film is through Jerry’s point of view until the director skillfully gives you just a little glimpse in to what Jerry’s life rally looks like. It’s pretty frighteningly real. It’s clear that the director was more interested in bringing home how mentally ill Jerry was rather than just displaying him as this murderous monster. It certainly doesn’t excuse any of Jerry’s terrible deeds, but it does create a better understanding of what lead to his mental break.

Colors like pink and tan are seen often in Jerry’s world because that’s obviously the colors of happiness and contentment for him. At one point he’s shown to have a pink toilet. For God’s sake, what man has a pink toilet? Jerry’s house is originally seen in pristine condition; a sign immediately that something is wrong.

My favorite aspect of the film is the talking animals. From the listing on IMBD, Ryan Reynolds actually did the voices of the cat and dog. The cat is a dirty talking mean little thing that pushes Jerry further and further to commit terrible crimes. While his dog is the more reasonable one who tries to convince Jerry to do the right thing. Reynolds voice over as the two completely different characters is very well done and impressive. The cat is the devil sitting on Jerry’s shoulder and the dog is the Angel. The inventions of the two characters felt like some sort of a sick homage to The Son of Sam killer, I thought it was a nice touch.

What’s so unexpected about the film is the complete and utter darkness of it. Sure, in the beginning Jerry feels like a guy who’s just slightly misguided, but by the 20 minute mark of the film you realize that Jerry is just bat-shit crazy and extremely dangerous. He carries on conversations with heads in his fridge! One moment Jerry is happy-go-lucky at work, next he’s drinking and crying in the dark of his house while in his underwear. As the film grows darker, comedy can still be experienced throughout it which leaves you in an awkward position. Should you be laughing or should you be disturbed?

If you’re slightly twisted like most horror fans, then the answer is a little bit of both. The supporting cast is pretty much that, supporting. Anna Kendrick is her normal sickly, sweet self. Although there were a few very disturbing moments with her character, the rest of her role was pretty much like any of her other roles…slightly annoying. Gemma Arterton is pretty electrifying as the main talking head in his fridge. It’s such a restrictive role that her personality and facial expressions are all Arterton has to work with and she did it really well!

The only thing that didn’t really work for me were the end credits. I know it was trying to add to the overall surrealism of the film, but it just came across strange which is saying much for an already very bizarre film.

If you like twisted dark comedies such as American Psycho as I do, you’ll enjoy this. While it’s dark, it’s not nearly as dark as American Psycho. You can breathe a little easier knowing there that there are genuine Laugh-out-loud moment in between your slaughter. There’s also a fairly sweet love story involved, go figure!

Like with American Psycho, it surprised me greatly that the director is a female (Marjane Satrapi) proving women can do horror too and do it well! This is one movie dark comedy fans have to watch. Give it time, I think people will consider this a cult classic for years to come.

The Voices Movie Trailer

FEAR THE WALKING DEAD: Latest Details & What To Expect

TV News

MTTG Staff

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May 19, 2015

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FEAR THE WALKING DEAD: Latest Details & What To Expect

We know how long the wait it seems from when The Walking Dead goes off the air and then returns in October so AMC is smart enough to give us our fix of zombie/human drama excitement. When word first came of this, I was a little nervous, but after seeing what a killer job came from the Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul, I’m onboard and can’t wait to spill some of the latest details and what you can expect from this spin-off!

Fear the Walking Dead’s show’s show runner Dave Erickson revealed some pretty interesting details about the upcoming summer drama, and it’s making me wish summer would get here so much quicker.

AMC is taking a huge gamble because adding Fear The Walking Dead to their line-up will give them a zombie drama on every quarter of the year. That means huge rating potentials for them. Erickson said that the series is a “parallel story rather than a prequel.” This was a bit of a disappointment to me as it was also revealed that the show will not cover the origin of the outbreak. FTWD will cover the early days of the outbreak; the days where Sheriff Rick was in a coma.

Usually reveals like this don’t bother me. However, I feel like most fans are going to want some look in to what created the zombies. Since we’re already exploring the early days of the outbreak, why not go for the gold? Creator Robert Kirkman said he will never explore the origin of the outbreak in the comic books. Erickson confirmed that even though he tried to pitch the idea, Kirkman shut him down. It may not be the popular choice to explain the origin of a story, but it’s a creatively brilliant one. If something like a zombie outbreak really did happen, it’s totally believable that among all the chaos you would never find out how it all started.

Erickson made very obvious that at the heart of the story is about humanity even in the darkest of times. With the story starting at the very beginning of the outbreak, you get to see one newly blended family as they try to survive and stay connected during the dawn of a new terror. They not only have to survive the virus, they also have to survive each other.

I’ve heard many people complain about The Walking Dead being too much of a soap opera and it makes me cringe every time. The zombie genre always felt like the most boring horror genre there was because it was the same thing over and over again. Kill the zombies, survive the zombies. Zombie movies really don’t have much depth to offer other than blood and guts. They don’t have much time for depth and they’re just giving the audience what they want, blood violence.

Although The Walking Dead is far from perfect, it does give a more realistic look in to what the days after the initial apocalypse would look like. Our human struggles wouldn’t go away. The seven deadly sins would certainly still exist and people wouldn’t be able to hide their true colors for long.

Erickson was asked if there would be any sort of cross over with The Walking Dead where characters from TWD would be seen in the early days. He said he never really thought about that. Really? A crossover character never came up in any creative meetings or script writing? I find that hard to believe. Crossovers are almost always discussed when it comes to spin off shows so why not now?

The series is expected to have a five or six season arc, that is if the audience wants to see anything past 1 season. FTWD will take place in Los Angeles. I’m not sure if that’s to give the show a bigger scope, but hopefully things won’t get too complicated and messy. Erickson said the show is not simply the same story placed in another city. It really will have it’s own theme. Erickson even hinted at the fact that there may be other spin offs to come, each one with their own theme. Hopefully, they won’t drown this series in spin offs like they’ve done so many other great shows. CSI anyone?

Just yesterday, Ruben Blades has joined as cast regular for the show which already has been promised two full seasons. He’ll be playing Daniel, the father of Mercedes Mason’s character.

Set in Los Angeles (and shot in Vancouver and LA), Fear The Walking Dead focuses on new characters and storylines. In addition to Mason, Blades joins previously announced cast Cliff Curtis, Kim Dickens, Frank Dillane and Alycia Debnam Carey. Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, Greg Nicotero and David Alpert from The Walking Dead are executive producing for AMC Studios. Dave Erickson, who co-created and co-wrote the pilot with Kirkman, is an executive producer and showrunner. Adam Davidson directed the pilot episode.

Strangely, there’s not been a more expansive trailer released even though the debut date is this summer. Thankfully, there’s a great first look video at the start of production on Fear the Walking Dead below. There’s also no debut date even though the summer is right around the corner. Hopefully we’ll see episode 1 soon. Walking Dead fans need their fix!

Fear the Walking Dead Production Begins First Look

French Open 2015 Betting Odds: Djokovic Now Favorite Over Nadal & Federer

Jackie Warner

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May 18, 2015

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French Open 2015 Betting Odds: Djokovic Now Favorite Over Nadal & Federer

Just weeks ago Rafael Nadal was still considered every betting odds top favorite for the 2015 French Open, and even Roger Federer stated this this past weekend at the 2015 Rome Open, but things have changed as dramatically as Rafa’s tennis slump. Novak Djokovic has pushed his way to the top of everything, and that includes now being considered the top favorite betting odd for the Roland Garros.

Even Andy Murray‘s odds have plummeted after his command of the clay courts this season winning two back to back clay titles. He wisely pulled out of the Rome Open to rest up for the French Open similar to what Djokovic did by pulling out of the Madrid Open weeks ago. These two mean business and while our own Shane Lambert has given many reason why Nadal can still win the French Open, the odds aren’t with him any longer.

This could be the year Novak Djokovic hears the roar of the Roland Garros crowd as he lifts La Coupe des Mousquetaires. The prestigious slam award (translated as “The Musketeers’ Trophy”) presented to the men’s singles champion of the French Open is the only piece of hardware that’s eluded the world’s No. 1 ranked player.

However, with Djokovic swatting away all comers this year with four out of five titles in the Masters series and only two losses this season while perennial French favorite and clay wizard Rafael Nadal underperforming of late, the 27-year-old Serb might finally complete his career slam.

Six days before the French begins, Djokovic is a 4/7 favorite over nine-time winner and defending champion Nadal at 9/5, followed by Andy Murray at 7/1 and Roger Federer at 15/1, according to Sportsbook.ag.

Based off his performances in the buildup to the French, Djokovic could be in the best position of his already stellar career to unseat Nadal.

Djokovic cruised to a 6-4 6-3 victory over rival and No. 2 Federer in the Rome Masters final Sunday in a performance that’s been called “clinical” and “dominate.” It was Djokovic’s third win in his last four meetings with Federer.

“I was able to find my way through,” Djokovic said after the match. “Roger put a lot of pressure on my service game at 4-4, but I managed to respond well, to gain those break points, move him around the court, and then I played a couple of great points that gave me the set. When you’re a set up, the momentum is shifting to your side and you start to feel better.”

It was Djokovic’s second title of the year on clay, a feat he’s accomplished on the surface only one other time in 2011 when he won three out of the ATP’s four slams. The French was the only exception that year, but his recent overall success, especially against Nadal, has made him the favorite at Roland Garros.

Djokovic has claimed five of his last six matches against Nadal since 2013, with the 2014 French final the only letdown. He most recently swept the Spaniard in straights sets on clay in Monte Carlo last month.

Slowed once again by nagging injuries, Nadal plummeted to a 10-year low No. 7 world ranking after falling to Murray in the Madrid finals earlier this month. Yet his success on clay and at the French against Djokovic and the five others ahead of him in the singles rankings are reason enough to believe he can secure a 10th-career title.

The 28-year-old Nadal has thwarted Djokovic in both of their matchups in the French finals (2012 and 2014), and he’s beat Murray six out of the seven times they’ve met on clay, including twice at the French. Furthermore, Federer has never managed to oust Nadal at the French, and has two wins in 15 career matches on clay against Nadal.

Early Odds

Novak Djokovic 4/7

Rafael Nadal 9/5

Andy Murray 7/1

Roger Federer 15/1

Kei Nishikori 18/1

Stan Wawrinka 25/1

David Ferrer 40/1

Tomas Berdych 40/1

Gael Monfils 50/1

Grigor Dimitrov

Novak Djokovic Rome Open Interview

How will the cloud change personal computers?

Tech News

David Silvester

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May 18, 2015

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How will the cloud change personal computers?

Over the last couple of years we have seen the adoption of cloud computing within the business sector and we have seen it change the computing landscape drastically.

The cloud has allowed businesses to take a much more flexible approach to IT and has seen infrastructure move away from the office and into managed environments within data centres.

The cloud has also seen far greater connectivity in businesses that operated across multiple locations and has also seen the advent of the home worker – no longer confining staff to a traditional office environment but rather allowing the same level of work and input to be carried out independent of the physical location of each employee.

As average broadband speeds are increasing and software defined computing technologies are being further developed it’s easy to track the route that enterprise IT is taking and will likely see almost zero equipment being stored or managed on site but rather with everything moving to the cloud and being accessed remotely either with streamed delivery to the end user or via a remote desktop interface.

But what about personal computing?

Personal computing and how it is being effected and changed by the cloud is slightly less clear. At the moment we are seeing many services moving to an online model of delivery – Microsoft office is an obvious one where we have seen the traditional retail package almost completely disappear to be replaced by a subscription based service whereby desktop publishing applications can be delivered over the Internet or even used exclusively online.

At the moment though the adoption of cloud computing within the retail sector is a little sketchy and rather than being a collaborative effort services are being provided to the consumer on much more of an ad-hoc basis. Companies such as Adobe, Microsoft, Google and many others are providing consumer services backed by the cloud but there is little collaboration or continuity between those services.

Unlike the enterprise there is still no centralised or accepted way of delivering services to the consumer via the cloud but we can assume that there is one coming and it will be something similar to what we have in the enterprise already but perhaps will evolve slightly.

Chrome book: Synchronisation with the cloud

Google’s chrome book is probably one of the devices that comes nearest to a fully featured cloud delivery model at the moment. The Chrome book acts like any other laptop for the most part but once you are signed in with your Google account you are connected to all of your services including email, document storage and calendars wherever you are.

This synchronisation between your local device and your personal cloud is definitely the way in which the technology is moving. We can see similar delivery models available in the enterprise, especially from Citrix who provide a product called Xenapp which allows for the streaming of entire applications over an Internet link.

Putting this technology into the context of the personal computer would mean streaming not just your email and documents but also the applications that they run on – for example if you wanted to read a letter that you have written on another device you could simply stream a copy of Microsoft Word to your device and then read the letter using that application. In fact this feature is available already from Microsoft for use with devices that don’t currently have the office applications installed but it could be used for all applications from word processing to graphics apps such as Adobe Photoshop.

With this ability of streaming apps would also come a revolution in the way we purchase these applications and would mean that rather than being steered away from programs such as Adobe Photoshop because of their high price tag we could simply rent applications as we need them and have them streamed to our device in real time instantly ready for use and then later disposal.

Of course the personal computing landscape is even more complicated than this simplified picture – in reality users tend to work from many different devices and from different locations and this includes not only desktop and mobile devices but also third party hardware such as Internet café computers.

Moving a step on from streaming applications and synchronisation with your personal cloud it is possible that these technologies will be further developed and we will see streaming of the entire operating system become available.

There is already a company in the enterprise IT landscape that offer a solution similar to this – Unidesk software allows the operating system to be segmented into its various elements – core operating layer, applications and data – and then streamed independently to each user space within the system. It is likely that the personal computer will move towards a similar approach allowing the entire data and application layers to be segmented and delivered or an individual basis and independent of the device that we happen to be connecting from. This would make it possible to visit an Internet café, jump on a computer and then after signing in have our personalised environment available on that device complete with data and the applications that we were subscribed to.

Celebrity Gossip Roundup: JLo Phone Time For Mariah & Beyonce Bails With Jay Z

The Curvy Girl Diva

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May 18, 2015

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Celebrity Gossip Roundup: JLo Phone Time For Mariah & Beyonce Bails With Jay Z

It’s Monday, and this weekend had the celebs doing everything from snubbing Mariah Carey with smartphones, Miley Cyrus being the Happy Hippie and Jay Z and Beyonce bail on Baltimore.

Chinx Drugz Shot and Killed in Queens

A member of French Montana’s (I will save my thoughts on him for another time) crew, Chinx Drugz (Lionel Pickens) died over the weekend at the hands of a drive by in his home borough in New York. The 31 year old was shot several times while sitting in his Porche in Briarwood after preforming at Club Red Wolf in Brooklyn. He and his passenger Antar Alziadi had just tried to get into a hookah bar that was closed.

Police report that at least seven bullets pierced the front and rear driver windows. According to a witness working at the Dunkin Donuts where the car rolled to a stop after the shooting said that Chinx body was lifeless as it lay in the seat.

No information has been released as to the reason for the shooting.

Mariah Carey’s Performance at Billboard Music Awards Gets Mixed Reviews

One of the most heavenly voices to ever grace any stage performed at the Billboard Music Awards Sunday and there were some mixed reviews about how it went. Mariah Carey made a bit of a comeback to the stage but not everyone was there for her performance of her classic “Vision of Love” and her new song, “Infinity.”

In true Mariah Carey fashion there was some drama before the show, like the producers not knowing where she was for practice drama. Yep Mimi didn’t show up for her final rehearsal but when you are a diva and legend like her, do you really need to?

Before last night, it had been 17 years since she last performed on the BBMA stage but for a vet like Mariah, that meant nothing.

During her performance she did her thing but you know the media always has to bring up shit to start mess between stars. The story circulating right now is that while Carey performed, Jennifer Lopez threw tons of shade her way by burying her head in her phone the entire time Carey was performed. Check out the full video of it below:

People are making it out to be a big deal like she dissed her because she didn’t want to give her any shine I guess but honestly, who isn’t on there phone when they are at a concert, awards ceremony, or even church? It is the thing to do and for people to point that out is just…reaching.

Miley Cyrus Advocates for LGBT Community Via Happy Hippie Foundation

When you are a big super star like Miley Cyrus, you become more known for your antics and crazy behavior than your music sometimes. And Lord forbid that you actually do something worthwhile, then you’ll really get some criticism.

Well, it looks like Cyrus has taken a break from coming in like a wreaking ball to lend her voice and influence to a worthy cause that is close to her heart. She recently launched The Happy Hippie Foundation, a “non-profit organization dedicated to rallying young people to fight the injustices faced by homeless youth, LGBT youth, and other vulnerable populations.”

The series involves a collection of Backyard Sessions curated via music videos featuring Cyrus and other prominent artists who believe in and support Happy Hippie’s mission.

All funds raised go to supporting LGBT youth who many times not only find themselves isolated from the world, but homeless and on the streets.

“Pointless judgment and its effects are unfortunately something that is way to common. All humans have valid feelings and rights! I want to use my voice as a megaphone to young people everywhere and encourage human evolution.”

There are more than 1.6 million youth that don’t have a safe place to call home and of that number, 40% identify as LGBT. Check out one oh songs she’s recorded with Ariana Grande for her foundation below:

Good for you Miley.

Jay Z and Beyoncé Bail Out Baltimore Protestors

If you don’t love the Carters by now, you need to really just get with the program. Stop the hating, stop the criticizing and know that they are more than just the millions of dollars they openly collect.

It has been reported that Beyoncé and Jay Z wired tens of thousands of dollars in minutes at the behest of famed writer Dream Hampton to bail out protestors during the Baltimore riots. According to Hampton too, the Carters helped to grow the whole Black Lives Matter organization by donating a whole bunch of money to during everything that was going on in Ferguson.

It is so interesting and I have to say this about them because I am indeed a fan. They apparently wanted to keep quiet about their contributions for some reason, which, to me, is a stark contrast to their openness to put their wealth on display. Nonetheless, it is good to hear that they are giving back to the black community and it is in a big way.

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