Upgrade your browser!
Skip to Content
Sign-In
Community
Exp Leader Board
Don't have an account? Create one and start earning XP!
Video:
Because Spiked and its server has become so damn unpredictable and crazy - we decided NOT to post the Weekly gallery today (Friday) Hopefully once this place gets a bit more stable and error free, we can upload more content and slap the gallery together. Thanks to all the Humorists who are sticking around through this horrible time.
Monkeys have been found to be fans of heavy metal music after scientists in America found it calmed them down. When a group of cottontop tamarins were played a variety of tunes, from classical to jazz, only songs by thrash metal outfit Metallica made them react. But rather than making them agitated or aggressive, the heavy tracks had a soothing effect, Psychology Professor Charles Snowdon, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found. Dr Snowdon, who teamed up with National Symphony Orchestra cellist David Teie, also played the monkeys tunes composed specifically for them. Although they enjoyed Metallica, they were much more interested in these pieces. A melody based on the short calls of scared monkeys led to anxiety levels soaring, while one based on long calls the creatures make when they are happy had a calming effect. The pair also found monkeys use tone and pitch to express emotions. Dr Snowdon told the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters: "My talking does not necessarily tell you about my emotional state. "When I add extra elements, change the tone of voice, the rhythm, pitch or speed, that is where the emotional content is contained. "Monkeys interpret rising and falling tones differently than humans. Oddly, their only response to several samples of human music was a calming response to the heavy-metal band Metallica." He said human babies are also able to interpret tone and pitch. "We use legato - long tones - with babies to calm them. We use staccato to order them to stop," he said. "Approval has a rising tone, and soothing has a decreasing tone. We add musical features to speech so it will influence the affective state of a baby. If you bark out 'PLAY WITH IT' a baby will freeze." Source
LOS ANGELES - The Walt Disney Co. is buying Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing such characters as Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse and WALL-E. Under the deal, which was announced Monday and is expected to close by the end of the year, Disney will acquire the rights to 5,000 Marvel characters. Many of them, including the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, were co-created by the comic book legend Stan Lee. Disney CEO Robert Iger said Marvel’s comic books, TV shows, movies and video games amounted to “a treasure trove of content.” Iger said the deal would bring benefits like the ones Disney got from buying “Toy Story” creator Pixar Animation Studios Inc. for $7.4 billion in stock in 2006. “The acquisition of Marvel offers us a similar opportunity to advance our strategy,” Iger said, and “to build a business that is stronger than the sum of its parts.” For Marvel, Iger said being in the Disney camp would mean better global distribution and better relationships with retailers to sell its products. Another storied comic book maker, DC Comics, has been under the wings of a major studio since 1969, when Warner Bros. bought the home of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Marvel Chairman Mort Handel called Disney “a perfect home for our great collection of characters.” One point of the deal is to help Disney appeal to young men who have flocked to theaters to see Marvel superheroes such as Iron Man in recent years. That contrasts with Disney’s recent successes among young women with such fare as “Hannah Montana” and the Jonas Brothers. Marvel television shows also already account for 20 hours per week of programming on Disney’s recently rebranded, boy-focused cable network, Disney XD, and that looks likely to increase, Iger said. The shows are “right in the wheelhouse for boys,” he said. However, analyst David Joyce of Miller Tabak & Co. noted that that the $4 billion offer was at “full price.” Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash, plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own. That values each Marvel share at $50 based on Friday’s closing stock prices. Marvel shares shot up $9.91, or 26 percent, to $48.56 in midday trading Monday. Disney shares fell 82 cents, or 3 percent, to $26.02. Disney said the boards of both companies have approved the transaction, but it will require an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders. Although it began producing its own movies, starting with “Iron Man” last year, Marvel has several deals with other movie studios that Disney said it will honor and re-examine upon expiration. For example, “Spider-Man 4,” set for release in 2011, is being made with Sony Corp.’s Columbia Pictures; “Iron Man 2” will be distributed by Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures next year; and the upcoming “X-Men Origins: Magneto” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2,” both due in 2011, are to be distributed by News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox. Iger said Pixar also had third-party licensing agreements that eventually expired, allowing the companies to move forward together. Marvel earned a net profit of $206 million in its last fiscal year, up 47 percent from a year earlier, on revenue of $676 million. Disney said the acquisition will hurt its earnings per share by a mid-single digit percentage in fiscal 2010 but be positive in 2012. That is partly because the company will issue 59 million new shares and partly because of the timing of Marvel releases such as “Thor” and “The First Avenger: Captain America” in 2011. Source
Just got back from watching Halloween II. I really liked the first one/the remake (shut up) but this one... I don't know yet. Edit: Ok the movie was ridiculous. Bad ridiculous.
