lostrune2 comments

Rules are rules

Same as when the Russian sports institution cheated by doping their athletes, they're rightly banned for breaking the rules

Both saw revenues jump as they delivered more aircraft to clients. Boeing boosted revenue by 18 percent during the quarter to $19.8 billion, while Airbus posted a 24 percent increase to $17.6 billion.

That's good business for airline manufacturers

The economy has so far defied predictions for a recession, largely because of a remarkably solid job market that has allowed U.S. households to keep spending. That has hopes rising that the Federal Reserve can pull off a “soft landing” for the economy where high inflation falls back to its target without a painful recession.

The Fed also no longer forecasts a recession

"Fed Staff No Longer Predict Recession As Inflation Cools"

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/07/26/fed-staff-no-longer-predict-recession-as-inflation-cools/

The economy has so far defied predictions for a recession, largely because of a remarkably solid job market that has allowed U.S. households to keep spending. That has hopes rising that the Federal Reserve can pull off a “soft landing” for the economy where high inflation falls back to its target without a painful recession.

Likely the last rate hike for awhile

The Fed also no longer forecasts a recession

"Fed Staff No Longer Predict Recession As Inflation Cools"

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/07/26/fed-staff-no-longer-predict-recession-as-inflation-cools/

More should come out and let the government know they exist and have equality

Ledecky led throughout her race Tuesday to win in 15 minutes, 26.27 seconds. The victory was her 15th individual title at the world championships, equaling the mark set by Michael Phelps.

Whenever your name gets mentioned with Michael Phelps is already excellent

When she has a chance to break his record tomorrow, that's even better

Go Phils!

Underdogs pulling their weight in this World Cup

Japan should be ok - the US Fed gonna stop raising interest rates. US inflation unexpectedly dropped a lot faster to 3% - already close to their 2% target

Some people here so insecure being seen in pink, lol

Ya guys should know every year Breast Cancer Awareness Month, many people of all ages and gender do sport pink

The “Barbenheimer” phenomenon may have started out as good-natured competition between two aesthetic opposites, but, as many hoped, both movies benefitted in the end. Internationally, “Barbie” earned $182 million from 69 territories, fueling a $337 million global weekend. “Oppenheimer” did $93.7 million from 78 territories, ranking above “Barbie” in India, for a $174.2 million global total.

Both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” scored well with critics with 90% and 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively, and audiences who gave both films an A CinemaScore. And social media has been awash with reactions and “takes” all weekend – good, bad, problematic and everywhere in between – the kind of organic, event cinema, watercooler debate that no marketing budget can buy.

Due to synergy, both films exceeded expectations by a lot. One couldn't have done that without the other to play off

This is the first time in US box office history that 2 films debuted together one with $150 million and another $80 million. That's a lot of money spread amongst a lot of people

But it wasn't just an US phenomenon - many other countries are into that phenomenon too. That's how the contributions abroad are greater than half the global totals of $337 million and $174 million respectively

Plus, a lot of girls grow up with Barbie, and this is her first live-action film after all these decades. It even outdid the Super Mario Bros movie opening earlier this year (another one based on a plaything property)

It's almost as if barbie & oppenheimer were deliberately hyped up to overshadow Sound of Freedom.

I wonder why Hollywierd is so against a great movie that actually brings worldwide awareness of child trafficking.

"Barbenheimer" is a creation by people in the internet that grew organically. Hollywood media hype didn't even think of it

'Barbenheimer': How 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer' became a meme and a moment

https://news.yahoo.com/barbenheimer-barbie-oppenheimer-became-meme-221303948.html

People in the internet simply aren't as interested in the other movie

It's bigger than the US men's ratings

Good thing he didn't use a gun

Seems more of these in Japan these days

Hank Steinbrenner doesn't spend like his late father "The Boss" George

All I know is what Wikipedia says:

Yankees 7.1 Billion

Dodgers 4.8 Billion

Sounds like the Yanks are still living pretty large.

That's what the teams are worth, not how they spend

The Yanks are not as free-spending under new owner Hank compared to the old "The Boss"

They still spend a lot of money since they make a lot of money. But not like "The Boss" who often bypassed his own beancounters and go straight to the players and spent whatever it took to sign those he liked (that's why the players --and fans-- loved him, the way he plowed money into player salaries rather than just his own pockets)

His son Hank is not like that - he works within his means and his management team

Saturday afternoon's match in Auckland, New Zealand — which kicked off at 9 p.m. EDT Friday night — averaged 5,261,000 viewers on Fox, making it the second-most watched group stage telecast since Fox started covering it in 2015.

Fox watchers love watching the US women's national team

The strike just means ya guys just gonna get more Reality TV

Fox already fired the first shot

"Fox Unveils Strike-Proof Fall Schedule With Reality-Heavy Plan"

https://deadline.com/2023/07/fox-fall-2023-schedule-1235434478/

woke because nearly the entire movie was “adjusted” to push a woke narrations and a woke culture littered with victimization.

So, a woke movie made a lot of money?

If companies find AI cheaper

They're basing the AI from the voice actor's voices, not from scratch, so of course it'll be cheaper - the voice actors already did most of the work

If the AI is based on pre-existing work, then the original worker has to be compensated and needs their approval to be released

Both movies are vastly outperforming expectations - Barbie and Oppenheimer are getting good critic and audience scores:

90% - https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/barbie

94% - https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/oppenheimer_2023

CinemaScores - both A's!

https://www.cinemascore.com/

In the US, Barbie did $70 million on Friday alone and is expected to do over $150 million weekend, while Oppenheimer did $33 million on Friday and over $80 million weekend

Worldwide, Barbie is heading towards $300 million weekend, while Oppenheimer $166 million weekend

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/oppenheimer-starts-overseas-rollout-christopher-173104862.html

It's become a cultural event

Everything in China could be charged espionage because China has a lot of regular things they want to hide! Lol

You film a protest - espionage!

You take a picture of Uyghur people - espionage!

You post a message about where you've seen their Foreign Minister (who's been missing for weeks) - espionage!

It's like Hong Kong's new Security Law - everything can be charged against the state!

So, Ohtani probably goes to the richest team, which is, as always, the Yankees.

Hank Steinbrenner doesn't spend like his late father "The Boss" George

One doesn't see often that the world's best athlete willingly go to a last-placed team where he won't be surrounded by other world-class athletes to try to help them win

That's partly thanks to no relegation

This is actually the first time Messi scored in a team debut, and it's a late game-winning goal too

A lot of stars were in the stands to see it

Lol, people are just pissed that the USWNT actually wins multiple championships unlike their men's, so they're resorting to using a practice scrimmage to prove a point

Even the dominant US men's basketball team lost a practice game handily to a group of developmental league players. Do ya think they care? As Allen Iverson once ranted: "I mean, listen, we talking about practice." Lol

But it doesn't matter anyway - the US men's soccer national team supports their women getting equal pay. It's their money to decide and share, so it's funny that other people are indignant about it even though it's not those people's money

The deal was effectively clear to go in the U.S. this week, especially after the Supreme Court decided against hearing a last-ditch effort to block the takeover from gamers

Even the US Supreme Court denied the lawsuit

Microsoft could've completed the deal already, but chose not to without the UK CMA approval

The merger has already been approved in 40 countries

It's only a matter of time for the CMA too, the last major holdout

Twitter turned a profit in 2018 ($1.2 Billion) and 2019 ($1.4 Billion)

https://www.statista.com/statistics/274563/annual-net-income-of-twitter/

Covid-19 cratered that in 2020 (minus $1.1 Billion) but the losses decreased sharply by 2021 (minus $0.2 Billion) on the way back to profitability

...but it will be slow, buggy and not as good as on XBox

Only if Sony is stupid enough to once again delay sending Microsoft the Playstation dev kits (like Sony did with Minecraft)

1) Only CoD is required to remain available on Sony consoles for a certain time period. All other Activision titles can be Microsoft console exclusive unless covered by a prior contract.

Xbox chief Spencer's original email to Playstation chief Ryan included all future existing Activision game series to remain on PS until at least 2027, but Ryan got greedy with Call of Duty. So Ryan got Call of Duty for 10 years, but lost the other Activision games

2) Microsoft has no obligation to make the PlayStation version of CoD equal to the Xbox version

Actually, Spencer already promised in US court it'll be on parity "as long as Playstation allows it"

Microsoft has a long history of acquiring, then ruining, other companies.

But if you look at their recent history, their acquisitions are all doing fine - Mojang Studio (Minecraft), LinkedIn, GitHub, Nuance Communications, Zenimax / Bethesda Game Studios

In fact, the recent criticism is the opposite - that MS is too hands-off with their new game studios, that they should crack the whip more to keep them in lean shape and in schedule

Not that Microsoft has ever cared about anything other than profit, however.

Name a gaming company that doesn't

A console company owning a game developer is bad for the consumer.

Sony and Nintendo also have their own game studios. That's the way it's been from the start

In fact, the US court judge actually saw it the other way:

Judge Corley has shown skepticism of the FTC’s arguments against the Activision deal, particularly on Thursday when she stopped the agency’s lead attorney during his closing arguments to ask him to pin down “exactly what is the harm” to consumers.

“Why don’t you sort of be a little bit more precise?” Corley said. She added later: “It’s not the harm to Sony we care about. It’s the harm to the consumer.”

“Before the merger, a consumer wanting to play a Call of Duty console game had to buy a PlayStation or an Xbox,” the court ruling reads. “After the merger, consumers can utilize the cloud to play on the device of choice, including, it is intended, on the Nintendo Switch. Perhaps bad for Sony. But good for Call of Duty gamers and future gamers.”

If Sony had just signed the agreement from the start, everyone would've been spared of all the drama

The only ones who got rich out of this are the lawyers

Alcaraz is 20 years old

The last time Wimbledon had a winner who's not the Big 4 was 20 years ago

It literally took a lifetime

It's already been screened in many parts of the world

First-hand footage of what was going on as it happened

Is it because China whooped the US military in Vietnam and Korea

Russia was Vietnam's main ally, not China. Vietnam and China went to war against each other soon after, and Vietnam whooped China's ass

Korea ended in a stalemate - that's why there's still a North and South Korea. China surprised the Allies by joining with North Korea, but couldn't push the Allies beyond the 38th parallel

China's economy is in trouble:

"‘Recovery is going from bad to worse’: 6 takeaways from China’s economic data"

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3228016/gdp-youth-unemployment-6-takeaways-chinas-economic-data-june

Monthly data also released on Monday indicated faltering private confidence, record high youth unemployment and overhanging risk in property market

"Chinese mega-developer Evergrande discloses $81 billion loss from real estate crisis, overdue reports rose to $340 billion in debt"

https://smaartcompany.com/chinese-developer-evergrande-discloses-81-billion-loss-from-real-estate-crisis/

Developer at the heart of China’s ongoing property crisis lost $81bn in the past two years — more than Google or Microsoft’s entire 2022 profit

"One Reason China Is Willing to Engage Again: Its Troubled Economy"

https://worldnewsera.com/news/entrepreneurs/one-reason-china-is-willing-to-engage-again-its-troubled-economy/

Now the faltering economy appears to have helped prompt a shift in the willingness of senior Chinese officials to engage in diplomatic talks with geopolitical rivals abroad, and to show more openness on economic policy at home. The change in tone is particularly visible in China’s relations with the United States.

In the past month, China has welcomed three senior American officials to Beijing, including John Kerry, President Biden’s climate envoy, who arrived on Sunday, and Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, who held 10 hours of meetings with top Chinese officials. Up to three Chinese ministers are expected to travel to Washington in the coming weeks, as the two countries have begun discussing everything from climate change to military issues.

The Chinese government has also been on a charm offensive directed at domestic and international business leaders. During the China Development Forum in March and continuing through the World Economic Forum last month in Tianjin, Li Qiang, the country’s premier and second-highest official, offered his personal reassurances that China is open for business.

Ya don't seem to know what's going on inside China as well as ya should

China has been whimpering back trying to attract other economic leaders again

Lol, I'll just re-post what I've already posted here:

https://japantoday.com/category/entertainment/philippines-allows-barbie-film-but-wants-controversial-map-blurred1#comment-3738943

Barbenheimer is coming! Barbenheimer is coming!

"The Barbie-Oppenheimer Double Feature Is Really Happening, Data Shows - Nothing says a perfect five hours of cinema like a drama about the creation of the nuclear bomb and a brightly-colored comedy about the world’s most famous doll."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-11/tickets-to-barbie-oppenheimer-double-feature-selling-fast-at-theaters-data-show

Barbenheimer isn’t just a meme. There’s plenty of evidence that people around the globe are making plans to see two of the most-anticipated movies of the summer — which happen to be stark contrasts of each other — on the same day.

A film about the bomb and another about a bombshell don’t make for the most obvious double feature. Nolan’s Oppenheimer is an R-rated, three-hour dramatic epic, while Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is a PG-13 comedy that runs just under two hours. But ever since the announcement that both films would be released on the same day, the pairing has been a big internet joke — manifesting in memes and merchandise.

AMC, the world’s largest movie chain, says more than 20,000 of its AMC Stubs members have already booked Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same day.

UK cinema chain Vue says that as of Tuesday, 19% of people who booked tickets to see Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer also bought tickets for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. 

“We’ve put on as many screenings as possible of both films to accommodate high demand,” says Rob Lea, head of screen content for UK & Ireland at Vue, one of the UK’s largest cinema chains with more than 870 screens.

Alamo Drafthouse, the U.S. cinema chain known for serving dinner and drinks during its films, is seeing demand for “Barbenheimer” in its private events business, which rents out screens for corporate events and private gatherings like birthday parties.

“The requests to hire out spaces for Barbie and Oppenheimer double bills have been coming in for months,” says Nick Isani, private-event sales manager for the East Coast at Alamo Drafthouse. He says there has been a “significant number” of requests to program both films for private events like parties, and that it is unique to receive requests for a double bill on films seemingly so different.

Barbie is tracking to sell more tickets overall, with low-end estimates from Box Office Pro. showing at least a $85 million opening weekend for the pop delight, compared with $45 million for Oppenheimer.

Oh the Barbenheimer memes on the interwebs! Lol

"Barbenheimer Memes Are Blowing Up"

https://www.vulture.com/article/barbenheimer-memes.html

Word is, Ken actually carries the movie, more than Barbie. A lot of girls and women who grew up with Barbie are going to see it

"Wonder Woman" Lynda Carter has put up her itinerary, like so many others:

https://twitter.com/RealLyndaCarter/status/1678398067018698753

My Barbenheimer itinerary:

10 am: brunch

12 pm: meditation

2 pm: Oppenheimer

5 pm: costume change

5:30 pm: nuclear disarmament

6 pm: Barbie

8 pm: karaoke

2 am: bed

Barbenheimer is coming! Barbenheimer is coming!

"The Barbie-Oppenheimer Double Feature Is Really Happening, Data Shows - Nothing says a perfect five hours of cinema like a drama about the creation of the nuclear bomb and a brightly-colored comedy about the world’s most famous doll."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-11/tickets-to-barbie-oppenheimer-double-feature-selling-fast-at-theaters-data-show

Barbenheimer isn’t just a meme. There’s plenty of evidence that people around the globe are making plans to see two of the most-anticipated movies of the summer — which happen to be stark contrasts of each other — on the same day.

A film about the bomb and another about a bombshell don’t make for the most obvious double feature. Nolan’s Oppenheimer is an R-rated, three-hour dramatic epic, while Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is a PG-13 comedy that runs just under two hours. But ever since the announcement that both films would be released on the same day, the pairing has been a big internet joke — manifesting in memes and merchandise.

AMC, the world’s largest movie chain, says more than 20,000 of its AMC Stubs members have already booked Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same day.

UK cinema chain Vue says that as of Tuesday, 19% of people who booked tickets to see Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer also bought tickets for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. 

“We’ve put on as many screenings as possible of both films to accommodate high demand,” says Rob Lea, head of screen content for UK & Ireland at Vue, one of the UK’s largest cinema chains with more than 870 screens.

Alamo Drafthouse, the U.S. cinema chain known for serving dinner and drinks during its films, is seeing demand for “Barbenheimer” in its private events business, which rents out screens for corporate events and private gatherings like birthday parties.

“The requests to hire out spaces for Barbie and Oppenheimer double bills have been coming in for months,” says Nick Isani, private-event sales manager for the East Coast at Alamo Drafthouse. He says there has been a “significant number” of requests to program both films for private events like parties, and that it is unique to receive requests for a double bill on films seemingly so different.

Barbie is tracking to sell more tickets overall, with low-end estimates from Box Office Pro. showing at least a $85 million opening weekend for the pop delight, compared with $45 million for Oppenheimer.

Oh the Barbenheimer memes on the interwebs! Lol

"Barbenheimer Memes Are Blowing Up"

https://www.vulture.com/article/barbenheimer-memes.html

Word is, Ken actually carries the movie, more than Barbie. A lot of girls and women who grew up with Barbie are going to see it

"Wonder Woman" Lynda Carter has put up her itinerary, like so many others:

https://twitter.com/RealLyndaCarter/status/1678398067018698753

My Barbenheimer itinerary:

10 am: brunch

12 pm: meditation

2 pm: Oppenheimer

5 pm: costume change

5:30 pm: nuclear disarmament

6 pm: Barbie

8 pm: karaoke

2 am: bed