Pricey Object Of SAP's Desire

By Arindam Nag // A DOW JONES NEWSWIRES COLUMN LONDON (Dow Jones)--Bidding for Business Objects is one of the more audacious moves in SAP's history as the German software company takes the fight closer to main U.S. rival Oracle. But the timing looks odd, and the EUR4.8 billion that SAP is paying for the French supplier of business-intelligence software is high. The German company has agreed a bid worth a punchy 28X forward earnings for a company with a faltering growth outlook, underlined by weak third-quarter earnings below the analyst consensus. Underlying revenue growth was barely 5% at Business Objects. And SAP says it wants to...
via feedsspy - business news - fight

Anita Roddick dies at 64

"Please don't write my obituary! I don't want to be defined by being the founder of The Body Shop, and I don't want to be defined as a woman suffering from hepatitis C. There's more to my life than that" (more)

FEEDSspy

I think this feed aggregator have a good future because it is analysing each word in news-feed.
Possible it's not betta, and it's only delta. But i like.
enjoy!

Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight. Don't stop Rock Opera.

Linkin Park returned to the recording studios in 2006 to work on new material. To produce the album, the band chose popular producer Rick Rubin. Despite initially stating the album would debut sometime in 2006, the album was pushed off to 2007. The band had recorded thirty to fifty songs in August of 2006, when Shinoda stated the album was halfway completed. Bennington later added that the new album would stray away from their previous nu metal sound. Warner Bros. Records officially announced that the band’s third studio album, entitled Minutes to Midnight, would be released on May 15, 2007 in the United States. After spending fourteen months working on the album, the band opted to further refine their album by removing five of the original seventeen tracks. Minutes to Midnight sold over 600,000 copies in its first week, making it one of the most successful debut week albums in recent years. The album also captured the top spot on the Billboard Charts.

The album's first single, "What I've Done" was released on April 2, and later premiered on MTV and Fuse within the same week. The single was acclaimed by listeners, reaching the Billboard Hot 100 days after its debut, and later was the top-ranked song on the Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks and Mainstream Rock Tracks charts. Bleed It Out was confirmed to be the second single from Minutes to Midnight, and will be released August 20, 2007.

Linkin Park performed at Live Earth Japan on July 7, 2007. The band is currently touring on their fourth Projekt Revolution tour. (W)

I bought it today.

i love them, and you love them

After Homer accidentally pollutes the town's water supply, Springfield is encased in a gigantic dome by the EPA and the Simpsons family are declared fugitives.

Have you guessed about what i'll be seeing now?
The Simpsons Movie ;))) of course (IMDB)

New friends

I have two new friends Lora and Masha. They are very nice :)

Disney-MGM became Disney's Hollywood

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Disney-MGM Studios is changing its name to Disney's Hollywood Studios, starting January 2008.

"The new name reflects how the park has grown from representing the golden age of movies to a celebration of the new entertainment that today's Hollywood has to offer — in music, television, movies and theater," said Walt Disney World Resort president Meg Crofton in a statement.

"As a park all about entertainment, Disney's Hollywood Studios will deliver like never before. Now we can say that Hollywood is literally our middle name," Crofton wrote.

The park opened May 1, 1989. (via Y!)

New blog about all movies: reviews everyday

It's interesting new site with movies reveiws
The first review is about Pan's Labyrinth

Plot

The narrator (Edward Norton) is a nameless automobile company employee who travels to accident sites for the purposes of calculating whether or not to issue product recalls based on the likely cost of lawsuits that would be incurred otherwise. His doctor refuses to write a prescription for his insomnia, and instead recommends that he visits a support group for testicular cancer sufferers to appreciate real suffering. The narrator attends the group and is able to find catharsis, sleeping soundly without a problem.

During a flight for a business trip, the narrator meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a flamboyant soap salesman. When the narrator arrives home, he finds that his apartment has been destroyed by an explosion. He calls Tyler and meets him at a bar, where Tyler permits the narrator to stay at his place. Leaving the bar, Tyler asks the narrator to hit him. The narrator reluctantly complies, and the two end up enjoying a fist fight. The narrator moves in with Tyler at an abandoned house, and they continue fighting outside the bar, attracting a crowd and eventually establishing a 'fight club' in the basement. Eventually more clubs spring up around the country.

Meanwhile, the narrator's routine is again disrupted when he notices another person faking these illnesses (like himself), Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), whose presence at his support groups again disrupts his ability to sleep. Marla overdoses on Xanax and is rescued by Tyler Durden. The two begin a sexual relationship, and Tyler forbids the narrator from talking to Marla about him.

Eventually, Tyler's fight club becomes "Project Mayhem," which commits acts of anti-corporate vandalism in the city. The fight clubs become a network for Project Mayhem, and the narrator is left out of Tyler's activities with the project, feeling disillusioned and disturbed about their actions. Tyler and the narrator have an argument and Tyler disappears from the narrator's life.

When a member of Project Mayhem, Bob (Meat Loaf), dies on a mission, the narrator decides to take action to shut down the project. He tries to trace Tyler's steps, traveling all over the country and feeling a sense of déjà vu wherever he travels. Puzzled, he calls Marla Singer, and asks her to say his name. When she responds "Tyler Durden," he realizes the truth; Tyler is an alter ego of his own split personality. Tyler appears in his room and explains that he is in control of the narrator's body whenever he is asleep. The narrator falls unconscious, and he wakes to find phone calls made during his blackout. He tracks Tyler's plans to the downtown headquarters of major credit card companies, which Tyler plans to destroy to collapse the consumerist financial system. The narrator, attempting to disarm the explosives in the building basement, is confronted by Tyler, knocked unconscious, and taken to the upper floor of another building to witness the impending destruction.

The narrator, held by Tyler at gunpoint, realizes that, sharing the same body with Tyler, he really holds the gun. He finds himself holding the gun and fires it into his mouth, shooting through the cheek without killing himself. The illusion of Tyler collapses, with an exit wound to the back of his head. Members of Project Mayhem, who still see the narrator as Tyler, bring Marla Singer to him and leave them alone, despite being shocked by his wound. Marla, who was warned to leave the city by the narrator, concernedly asks what happened. The narrator explains that he shot himself and tells her, "You met me at a very strange time in my life." They watch as the buildings explode in a collapsing skyline outside the windows, standing side-by-side and holding hands.

Casting

Producer Ross Bell met with actor Russell Crowe as a candidate to portray Tyler Durden, while at the same time producer Art Linson, later brought on board, was negotiating with Brad Pitt for the same role. Due to Linson's seniority, Pitt was cast over Crowe. Pitt, who sought a new project after the failure of his previous film, Meet Joe Black (1998), was hired with a salary of $17.5 million by the studio, who believed that Fight Club would be more commercially successful with a major star. Fincher also sought to cast Edward Norton as the narrator based on the actor's performance in The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), though the studio desired a "sexier marquee name" like Matt Damon to improve the film's visibility. Sean Penn was another candidate for the role of the narrator. Norton had also been approached by other studios for leading roles in films like The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Man on the Moon (1999). Norton temporarily pursued Runaway Jury (2003), but the project fell apart. Fox offered Norton a salary of $2.5 million to lure him away from the other projects. Before Norton could accept, he owed Paramount Pictures a film. To be legally released to film Fight Club, Norton signed a new contract with Paramount for a lesser salary, eventually and unwillingly being cast in The Italian Job (2003). In January 1998, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton officially joined the project to portray Tyler Durden and the nameless narrator, respectively.

Actresses Courtney Love and Winona Ryder were considered to portray Marla Singer. The studio desired to cast Reese Witherspoon, but Fincher considered the actress too young. Ultimately, Helena Bonham Carter was cast into the role based on her performance in The Wings of the Dove (1997).

Norton and Pitt took lessons in boxing, taekwondo, and grappling to prepare for their roles. The actors also took soapmaking classes from boutique company owner Auntie Godmother. For his role, Pitt voluntarily visited a dentist to have pieces of his front teeth chipped off, and the teeth were restored after filming concluded.

i need vacation

I am assembled on Hawaii, and i found 3 related blogs about tourism, Extreme tourism | shock your life, Tour to Paradise | One-way tickets, Around the World | Seven feet under the keel.

Enjoy!

Development

In 1996, a galley proof of Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club was sent by a 20th Century Fox book scout to creative executive Kevin McCormick. A studio reader wrote coverage for the book that discouraged a film adaptation of the material, but McCormick passed the proof on to producers Lawrence Bender and Art Linson. Bender and Linson rejected it, and producers Josh Donen and Ross Bell expressed interest in the project. They arranged unpaid screen readings with actors to determine the length of a script from the book, which initially lasted 6 hours. After cutting out sections to reduce the running time and recording the dialogue, Bell sent the book on tape to Laura Ziskin, head of the division Fox 2000. After hearing the tape, she purchased the rights to Fight Club for $10,000.

To adapt the story into a screenplay, Ziskin initially considered hiring Buck Henry. Ziskin thought that Fight Club was similar to The Graduate, which had been adapted by Henry. A new screenwriter, Jim Uhls, began lobbying Donen and Bell to be hired to write the adapted screenplay, and the producers chose Uhls over Henry. Bell began seeking directors, of which he had four in mind: Peter Jackson, Bryan Singer, Danny Boyle, and David Fincher. Bell, considering Jackson the best choice, contacted the director, but Jackson was too busy filming The Frighteners (1996) in New Zealand. Singer received the book, but did not read it. Boyle met Bell and read the book, but he pursued another project. Fincher was approached, and the director expressed interest in Fight Club. Fincher, though, was hesitant to work with the studio again after the failure of Alien³ (1992). The director met with Ziskin and studio head Bill Mechanic, restoring his relationship with the studio. Mechanic and Ziskin initially planned to finance the film with a $23 million budget. In August 1997, Twentieth Century Fox announced that Fincher would helm the film adaptation of the novel.

Fight Club is...

Fight Club is a 1999 feature film adaptation of the 1996 novel Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, adapted by Jim Uhls and directed by David Fincher. Fight Club explores themes of psychological emasculation in modern white-collar society, with Edward Norton playing a disillusioned everyman who meets a woman similar to him (Helena Bonham Carter) and a soap salesman (Brad Pitt) who embodies his repressed masculinity. The two men establish a club for men to engage in fist fights, and later, shenanigans and radical revolutionary acts.

(via W)