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Gary Cogill's Movie Reviews
 Posted 11/6/2009 5:08:00 PM
The Men Who Stare At Goats is a major disappointment considering the all-star cast and book on which gave the movie birth. Based on Jon Ronson's book about secret military experiments using psychics, George Clooney plays the odd soldier with a gift and Ewan McGregor plays the curious journalist.
Ninety percent of this movie is as stale as week-old bread with only a few bright spots here and there. Grant Heslov directs the yawner that looks on the surface like a Coen brothers movie without the Coen brothers. Prepare to be bored. Men Who Stare At Goats is rated R for language and just doesn't work.
Man sells T-shirt ad space for $90K
Posted 11/6/2009 3:20:00 PM
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - A T-shirt a day has kept unemployment at bay for an American man who is making about $85,000 a year by selling advertising space on his torso. Jason Sadler, 26, a former marketing professional from Florida, founded his own company, www.iwearyourshirt.com, in 2008 with the idea to wear a T-shirt supplied by any company and then use social media tools to promote the firm.
For his human billboard service, Sadler charges the "face value" of the day so January 1 costs $1, while December 31 costs $365. Sadler said this may not sound like a lot but it adds up to $66,795 a year if he sells out every day, which he did this year. He also sells monthly sponsorships for $1,500, adding another $18,000 to his income.
"I walk around, take photos, wear the shirt all day ... I blog about those photos, I ...
U.S. Economy: Unemployment Jumps to 10.2%
Posted 11/6/2009 3:15:00 PM
Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The unemployment rate in the U.S. jumped to 10.2 percent in October, the highest level since 1983, casting a pall over the prospects for a sustained recovery and risking further erosion of President Barack Obama’s popularity.
Payrolls fell by 190,000 last month, more than forecast by economists, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. The jobless rate rose from 9.8 percent in September. Factory payrolls dropped by the most in four months, and the average workweek held at a record low.
Treasury two-year notes rose on bets the Federal Reserve is more likely to maintain its pledge to keep interest rates near zero. The figures prompted Obama, who signed a bill today extending jobless benefits, to promise fresh measures to help put some of the 15.7 million unemployed Americans back to work.
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7-11 Wine Coming Soon
Posted 11/6/2009 3:10:00 PM
What goes well with Slim Jims and Slurpees? 7-Eleven wine, naturally. The convenience store chain announced Tuesday it is getting into the value wine business, releasing two low-priced proprietary wines in the United States and Japan.
Sold under the Yosemite Road label, the California wines, a chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon, will retail for about $3.99, a price-point that has been doing well despite -- or perhaps because of -- the economic doldrums.
"The consumer is really pinched as far as discretionary income. We're seeing a lot of success in products that really resonate on a value basis," said Kevin Elliott, senior vice president of merchandising and logistics of Dallas-based 7-Eleven, Inc.
Capital Metro board OKs January fare hikes
Posted 11/5/2009 3:20:00 PM
The Capital Metro board voted Wednesday to move to January a bus and rail fare hike that had been scheduled for August and to increase most of those fares by more than had been previously approved.
The fare increase is expected to generate $2.3 million during the transit agency's current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. That would allow the agency to spend federal stimulus money on additional siding tracks for its commuter rail line near Lakeline Mall and on rerouting a troublesome curve in the track near downtown. The agency had been intending to spend $2.6 million in stimulus funds on operating costs this year.
Capital Metro had set aside $3.1 million for the two rail projects, estimated to cost $6.5 million. After Wednesday's move, the agency will still be $1.1 million short, but officials say they hope that construction bids follow a recent trend and come in below ...
Study: Kissing Boosts Women's Immunity
Posted 11/5/2009 3:18:00 PM
(MYFOX NATIONAL) - Ladies, kissing may be good for your health. The Telegraph reports that kissing may have developed as a way for a woman to build immunity from a virus called cytomegalovirus, which is present in saliva. The virus can cause blindness and other defects in newborn babies if the mother contracts it during her pregnancy.
According to Dr. Colin Hendrie of the University of Leeds, who published a report in the journal Medical Hypotheses, kissing is a way for the man to pass the virus on to the woman to give her time to build an immunity to it before she gets pregnant and gives birth. Hendrie said kissing the same partner for six months offers the best protection.
"Female inoculation with a specific male's cytomegalovirus is most efficiently achieved through mouth-to-mouth contact and saliva exchange, particularly where the flow of saliva is from the male to the ...
Casino Denies Man $166M Jackpot
Posted 11/5/2009 3:15:00 PM
TAMPA (CBS) Florida gambler Bill Seebeck was sure he'd hit the jackpot -- literally. He says the slot machine he was playing flashed a winning sum of more than $166 million. Seebeck told CBS affiliate WFTV "I was screaming, I was like up and around screaming."
But the casino says Seebeck's good fortune was a mistake -- a machine malfunction -- and is refusing to pay.
Can you say "call my lawyer?"
Seebeck, a Daytona Beach, Fla., resident, says he'd been gambling at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tampa, playing for a half hour on the Bally Ultimate Party Spin Slot machine. At $4 a game he'd dropped about eighty bucks before the lights started flashing and bells started ringing. The display flashed an unbelievable winning number: $166,666,666.65.
Woman Sues Facebook for Privacy Violations
Posted 11/5/2009 3:10:00 PM
Worried about your privacy online? So is a woman from Texas, who's suing Facebook and Blockbuster for posting too much information about her on the Web. Cathryn Harris found out after the fact that Facebook added a note every time she rented a movie from Blockbuster — a note that contained her full name and the name of the movie she was renting.
"I wasn't renting any movies that I'm ashamed of, but what if I had been? It's nobody's business," Harris told MyFoxDFW. "They need to follow the laws and respect their customers' privacy and not try to go behind the curtain."
The 25-year-old homemaker from Dallas County, Texas, said she made the discovery last year when she rented the 1985 adventure film "The Jewel of the Nile," starring Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito. She said an alert appeared on her Facebook profile detailing the transaction.
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Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader under some heat
Posted 11/4/2009 3:44:00 PM
The comments have been overwhelmingly negative on the story about the white Dallas Cowboys cheerleader who dressed up as black rapper Lil' Wayne. Not negative toward her but toward me and the newspaper for running the story in the first place.
I've read all 410 comments now. I didn't actually do the calculations, but it appears that the consensus is at least 20 to 1 in favor of the cheerleader.
The commenters generally concluded that she was just having fun and no offense was intended. "It's Halloween. She was dressing up. What's the big deal?" That summarizes the typical message.
But commenters also brought up other interesting issues. Is it OK for black people to dress up in white make up? I couldn't count how many times people brought up the movie "White Chick," which featured black men dressed up as the title characters. What about other races dressing up ...
Judge orders kid to surrender his Wii
Posted 11/4/2009 3:20:00 PM
Forget 'scared straight' -- if you want to keep troubled youth on the right track, you've got to hit 'em where it hurts.
According to The Winnipeg Sun, that's the thinking of judge Marvin Garfinkle, who opted to grant a troublesome 12-year-old boy bail on condition that he surrenders his beloved Nintendo Wii to the court.
"He is pledging as a security, akin to a cash deposit, his Nintendo Wii," Garfinkle told the paper. "And if he doesn't comply, he loses it."
By "comply," the judge means "keeping the peace, appearing for court dates, living with his grandmother and participating in a bail management program." Failure to uphold any of those duties will result in forfeiture of the console.
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