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A lot of virtual training happens in video game-like environments, where soldiers see combat through the eyes of a superhero character. But if the Army is going to train its troops through gaming, officials say the characters in the virtual world should perform more like actual soldiers. That is one part of the reasoning behind a new idea the Army has to create avatars for every soldier. These digital representations would accompany service members throughout their training and allow them to see, through simulation, how their skills, or lack thereof, would play in life and death situations. The influence of...

The Walt Disney Co. will build a theme-park “land” based on the movie “Avatar” in Disney’s Animal Kingdom as the first step in a broader licensing deal that will lead to similar attractions in Disney parks worldwide. The deal announced Tuesday gives Disney exclusive theme-park rights to use elements from the 2009 blockbuster and from sequels due out in 2014 and 2015. “Avatar,” which was directed by James Cameron and grossed nearly $2.8 billion in worldwide box-office receipts, is widely considered one of the most valuable intellectual properties not already tied up by a theme park. Disney said it plans...

There are too many of us already, and we must not let our numbers grow even further beyond what Earth's resources can provide. If we want to keep/improve our current standard of living, those who are able should take precautions. A few of the more extreme ideas (i.e. killing off "unnecessary" members of a population), while theoretically efficient, seem elitist and unnecessarily drastic and cruel from a human standpoint. Then there are people who believe in the ideal that either nature or an all-powerful being will eventually "balance out" our growing numbers (Eywa?). Yes, people die every day, but lives...

10. 'The Back-up Plan' 9. 'The Bounty Hunter' 8. 'Clash of the Titans' 7. 'Cop Out' 6. (tie) 'The Great Directors' / 'Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel' 5. 'Grown Ups' 4. 'The Last Airbender' 3. 'The Last Song' 2. 'Sex and the City 2' 1. 'Furry Vengeance'

You want the quick version? Don't waste your money. And don't keep reading. But for the few that still care...

Humans have always been fascinated by the idea of space travel. Some even believe that colonizing new planets is man’s best hope for the future. The popular idea is that we’ll eventually need some fresh, unexploited new worlds to inhabit -a real-world Pandora. In an earlier Galaxy post we wrote that Stephen Hawking, world-celebrated expert on the cosmological theories of gravity and black holes who held Issac Newton's Lucasian Chair at Cambridge University until his recent retirement, believes that traveling into space is the only way humans will be able to survive in the long-term, while warning about the potential...

As if Zoe Saldana weren't already every guy's dream girl with her roles in sci-fi flicks "Star Trek" and "Avatar," the sexy actress is turning up the heat as the new underwear model for Calvin Klein.

The Economy: As if the latest measly numbers on our jobless recovery weren't bad enough, along comes the administration to pile disaster upon disaster by slapping a six-month ban on deep-water drilling. When President Obama visited Louisiana on May 1, he talked about the possibility that the oil gushing from BP's Deepwater Horizon well could "jeopardize the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who call this place home." Now the administration's response could jeopardize the livelihoods of tens of thousands more. In a letter sent to Obama on Wednesday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal challenged the president's decision to suspend deepwater drilling...

Oscar-winning filmmaker James Cameron and another Canadian who built submersibles for the director's 1989 thriller "The Abyss" joined talks on Tuesday in Washington on innovative ways of capping the Gulf of Mexico oil spill... Cameron made two documentaries about the wreck of the ocean liner Titanic prior to filming his 1997 blockbuster Hollywood movie "Titanic." He used a small fleet of specially designed remotely operated underwater vehicles and is regarded as an expert in the field.

3-D is a waste of a perfectly good dimension. Hollywood's current crazy stampede toward it is suicidal. It adds nothing essential to the moviegoing experience. For some, it is an annoying distraction. For others, it creates nausea and headaches. It is driven largely to sell expensive projection equipment and add a $5 to $7.50 surcharge on already expensive movie tickets. Its image is noticeably darker than standard 2-D. It is unsuitable for grown-up films of any seriousness. It limits the freedom of directors to make films as they choose. For moviegoers in the PG-13 and R ranges, it only rarely...

FORT DETRICK, Md., April 28, 2010 – In the blockbuster movie “Avatar,” Jake Sully, a former Marine who lost the use of both legs in combat, climbs into a vessel that magically restores his body when he assumes a new, 10-foot-tall avatar identity. A new project being funded through the Advanced Army Medical Technology Initiative promises to bring some of that same technology to real-life wounded warriors to promote their rehabilitation and help to ease their reintegration into society.The Amputee Virtual Environment Support Space project aims to create a virtual world in which military and veteran amputees can swap information...

leftist content in today's new movies plus dvds including AVATAR and V FOR VENDETTA

"Avatar" star Sigourney Weaver traveled to Brazil this month with the film's director, James Cameron, co-star Joel David Moore and an environmental group that's working to halt the construction of a hydroelectric dam in the Amazon. That group and others say the dam will destroy parts of the rain forest and displace its indigenous communities. The Brazilian government says the dam will provide necessary clean energy for the country. "Avatar," now the highest-grossing film of all time, is rich in environmental themes that dovetail with the visit to South America, and with the 40th anniversary of Earth Day – today,...

Sigourney Weaver has launched a blistering attack on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, saying James Cameron didn't win the Oscar for Best Director because he "didn't have breasts." Outspoken "Avatar" star Weaver said she believed Cameron -- who lost out to his ex-wife, "The Hurt Locker" director Kathryn Bigelow -- didn't win because the academy wanted to make history by naming its first ever female Best Director. "Jim didn't have breasts, and I think that was the reason," Weaver told Brazilian news site Folha Online over the weekend. "He should have taken home that Oscar In a...

VOLTA GRANDE DO XINGU, Brazil — They came from the far reaches of the Amazon, traveling in small boats and canoes for up to three days to discuss their fate. James Cameron, the Hollywood titan, stood before them with orange warrior streaks painted on his face, comparing the threats on their lands to a snake eating its prey.

Why do we at Big Hollywood and elsewhere in the conservative blogosphere even care about James Cameron and his stupid eco-dreck cartoon? Or about Tom Hanks’ insights into the nature of American-Japanese relations World War II? Or about the conclusions Matt Damon has drawn about the Iraq war that he’s derived as a result of his years of intense work at being a movie star? Well, at one level, we don’t care. James Cameron is another overpaid Hollywood petty tyrant with twin talents for shooting exciting action set pieces and for overtly and covertly serving up sophomoric lefty clichés. Tom...

Director James Cameron took a swipe at Fox News' Glenn Beck during a recent publicity event for the release of "Avatar" on DVD, according to the Hollywood Reporter: Asked what he thought about Beck during a junket appearance in support of the "Avatar" home-video release, Cameron said: "Glenn Beck is a f---ing asshole. I've met him. He called me the anti-Christ, and not about 'Avatar.' He hadn't even seen 'Avatar' yet. I don't know if he has seen it." Cameron went on to say, "I think, you know what, he may or may not be an asshole, but he certainly...

U.S. yuan critics are like cruel "Avatar" troops: report BEIJING Thu Mar 18, 2010 12:16am EDT BEIJING (Reuters) - First it was environmentalists and indigenous activists; now China's beleaguered financial officials are being compared to the giant, blue-skinned heroes of the mega blockbuster film "Avatar." A commentary in the official China Daily, "Like the Na'vi, we'll decide, thanks," on Thursday blasted the critics of China's currency policy, comparing them to the greedy corporation ripping apart the planet of Pandora in James Cameron's 3-D epic. "The sound and fury in the United States over China's valuation of the yuan reminds me...

Walt Disney's new movie 'Alice in Wonderland' had a wonderful opening weekend at the box office with an estimated $116.3 Million in domestic ticket sales, surpassing Avatar as the 3-D box office champ, and eclipsing Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ for opening weekends during the first quarter of the year ...

I’m glad The Hurt Locker triumphed over Avatar at tonight’s Oscars. Not only is Hurt Locker a far superior film – with standout performances, an intelligent and brilliantly executed script, as well as three dimensional lead characters – it is also a tremendously patriotic film which pays tribute to the courage of American troops serving in Iraq. For all these reasons I named it as one of the top 10 conservative movies of the last decade. The film won six awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow), and Best Original Screenplay. I acknowledge that Hurt Locker has attracted a...

It was an Oscar shocker as Karthryn Bigelow won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Director over James Cameron, and the military film she directed, The Hurt Locker, won the Academy Award for Best Picture instead of Avatar. Not only is this the first time that a woman has won the academy award for Best Director, but this woman beat James Cameron - the man whose last two films, Avatar and Titanic, have grossed more money than any other two films in history. And to top it all off, Kathryn Bigelow happens to be James Cameron's ex-wife ...

NEW YORK - Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's trip down the rabbit hole drew huge crowds, as "Alice in Wonderland" earned a whopping $116.3 million in its opening weekend — a record for a 3-D film. The surprisingly huge total easily surpassed all other films in release and gave Walt Disney Studios an even bigger opening than that of the hugely popular 3-D film "Avatar." It also marked the biggest opening weekend for a non-sequel. "This is just one of those cultural phenomenons that has caught everybody's interest," said Chuck Viane, Disney's president of distribution. "They don't come like this...

A fundraising appeal posted on former Congressman J.D. Hayworth's Hayworth's campaign website today was the latest salvo in the increasingly contentious Republican Senate primary battle in Arizona between Hayworth and Senator John McCain. The ad, which also appeared as the lead banner on the Drudge Report, depicts McCain in blue warpaint, in an apparent nod to Oscar-nominated film "Avatar." Adjacent to the photo, McCain is mocked as "Nominee for Best Conservative Actor." Hayworth, running from McCain's right, has condemned the longtime senator as a "Republican in Name Only."

<p>Best Dressed of the Day: It’s all about the glamour, style and who’s working their chic charm the hardest in Tinseltown.</p> <p>And only Zoe Saldana can make the end of the week this inspiring.</p>

Yeah, yeah, we all know that Avatar's going to get some lovin' at the Oscars, but did you know just how mushy the FAR LEFT is about James Cameron's offensive, cliche-filled, America-bashing, Earth-worshipping money-maker... and WHY?

An unknown Chinese author is planning a $162 million lawsuit after claiming James Cameron plagiarised his story for the blockbuster Avatar. Beijing man Zhou Shaomou claims he wrote a science-fiction novel called Tale Of The Blue Crows in 1997 which bears striking similarities to the plot of Cameron's film, Sky News reports. The book centres around a group of explorers who travel to a distant planet inhabited by blue-skinned beings, he said. "I wrote in my novel that their space journey took them six years but in Cameron’s movie the journey takes them five years nine months and 22 days,"...

Patrick Allitt says that the infuriating but reassuring can-do spirit that once defined the United States is finally dying out. But what will we all do when it’s gone? The first time I went to America, in 1977, I couldn’t believe how cheerful, peppy and purposeful everyone was. The late seventies were bad years by American standards, the Jimmy Carter era of stagflation and malaise, but to someone coming out of Jim Callaghan’s Britain the place seemed almost insanely upbeat. Strangers would greet you enthusiastically, with a ‘How ya doin?’ in New York and a ‘Have you taken Jesus as...

Aaah Avatar. The epic saga of evil colonialists savaging the peaceful indigenous inhabitants of...oh hell, does it really matter? It's white Americans and we should all feel guilty for the brutality wrought upon the Native Americans, Mexicans, and/or slaves. And yes, this includes all white people, even if your ancestors were not here during any of those periods. You're guilty no matter what. You're white. You're automatically a bigot. Or if you don't like the racist approach, you can go with the plundering nature theme. That works just as well. The earth is warming after all. Or is it cooling?...

Last week for the Second time, i got to see Avatar. having been watching the blog sphere lately I have been quite surprised by some of the responses to the movie, Allegations that the movie promotes environmentalism, and liberalism. probably the biggest problem I have heard is that the humans instead of the aliens are the bad guys. A major departure from traditional science fiction orthodoxy that is rare. That, and James Cameron has used his fame to attack and ridicule conservatives and libertarians. my review concentrates on some of the ridiculous remarks made against the movie in the blog...

Howard Hill was the greatest longbow artist of modern times and the man doing all the trick shooting for the old Robin Hood films for Eryl Flynn. Some of his videos are still available and include trick shooting as well as African safari videos. Unlike many trick-shot artists, Hill was using a 90-lb bamboo longbow, and not any sort of a women's/children's bow. He was good enough to shoot skeets with a bow and hit most of them: Notice the three fingers on the string, the shooting glove covering the three fingers (so he doesn't destroy all the blood veins...

When Star Wars first came out, it was a quantum leap beyond anything I had ever seen in a theater before. I ended up watching it 26 times in the theater. I have not had that experience since - until today. In 3D and Imax, I saw Avatar. Yes, I know the liberal "love the trees BS" message people say it has, but it is science fantasy. Sure, the parallels between the indigenous "people" of the planet and the American Indians and simple tribal cultures of planet earth and their various forms of nature worship were thick enough to cut...

JERUSALEM (AP) - Palestinian protesters have added a colorful twist to demonstrations against Israel's separation barrier, painting themselves blue and posing as characters from the hit film "Avatar." The demonstrators also donned long hair and loincloths Friday for the weekly protest against the barrier near the village of Bilin. They equated their struggle to the intergalactic one portrayed in the film. Israel says the barrier is needed for its security. Palestinians consider it a land grab. The protests have become a symbol of opposition. They often end in clashes with Israeli security forces involving stones and tear gas.

Having recently returned from working as a researcher for the Army in Iraq, when I saw James Cameron's new blockbuster movie Avatar, it felt at times as if I was back in theater -- the theater of war. A lot about the depiction of the military was extremely accurate -- their looks, gear, behaviors, and ways of joking around were all disquietingly authentic. It was this sense of authenticity that made a particular aspect of the movie very hard to take (warning -- spoilers follow): There is a scene where the protagonists are firing upon their military brethren -- firing...

Yahoo: A Demonstrator dressed as a figure of the movie ‘Avatar’, shouts slogans against Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah, Friday, Feb. 12, 2010. More here. Associated Press: JERUSALEM (AP) – Palestinian protesters have added a colorful twist to demonstrations against Israel’s separation barrier, painting themselves blue and posing as characters from the hit film “Avatar.” The demonstrators also donned long hair and loincloths Friday for the weekly protest against the barrier near the village of Bilin. They equated their struggle to the intergalactic one portrayed in the film.

James Cameron kids about his blockbuster “Avatar” being “Death Wish for environmentalists” (kind of). But in one of those unique L.A. Times’ interviews only leftists enjoy — the kind where they can spout all the craziness they want without fear of being challenged — Cameron touches on a number of controversies surrounding his Best Picture nominee, including the charge that his anti-military film is anti-military. “Remember, you are bad security types. Very, very bad.” This interview was done over dinner at a Hollywood Cafe. And it shows. [emphasis is mine throughout] “I think there’s something amazingly satisfying when the hammerheads...

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a division of the National Institutes of Health, is giving Dr. Lynn Fiellin, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine, $3.9 million over five years to develop a video game to teach “sex, drug and alcohol negotiation and refusal skills" to children 9-14 years of age. The game will feature “virtual characters or avatars” that are guided by the children playing the game to make decisions about whether to engage in behaviors that put them at risk of being infected with HIV. The game’s effectiveness...

FRIDAY PM/SATURDAY AM UPDATE: So Avatar was done in by a chick flick no less! Despite the monster winter storm on the East Coast, Relativity's sappy military-themed love story Dear John headed to a much bigger than expected $13.8 million opening Friday from 2,969 North American theaters. Which means the movie, a military love story based on the Nicholas Sparks novel and distributed by Sony/Screen Gems, will definitely break Avatar's 7-week reign atop the domestic box office Friday despite higher 3D ticket prices. G.I. Joe's Channing Tatum and Mamma Mia!'s Amanda Seyfried are on course for a $32M weekend compared...

It is difficult to know where to begin when one is considering the insidious nature of the film-award ceremonies. Roughly 82 years in, praising mediocrity and pandering to the white liberal elite are the norm. Still, somehow, this past weekend’s Golden Globes left me feeling particularly distraught and a bit flabbergasted. Among the many issues I had — from the Christina Hendricks weight comments to the absurdly excessive parade, while hundreds of thousands go days without food or water — I feel compelled to elaborate on the focus of the evening’s events. Avatar, a film that examines white guilt in...

It’s Oscar time. Unfortunately — or perhaps fortunately — I haven’t seen anywhere near all of the contenders. For that reason alone, I can’t write an Oscar column. Then throw in the fact that I think the Oscars are one of the most overhyped events in American life. They’re almost as bad as the Grammys were when they were still around. Wait, they still have those? Really? OK, well, the Oscars are still overrated. But I do love movies, and I’m fascinated by what they say about American life. Of course, movies don’t always reflect or articulate what moviegoers are...

Avatar: Cameron’s Utopia Written by Luiz Sérgio Solimeo    Wednesday, 03 February 2010 16:02 Canadian born James Cameron, has certainly outdone himself in his production of Avatar with all of its technical prowess. Cameron’s visual presentation largely compensates for his lack of unique content. His story line is nothing more than part and parcel of the incessant drumbeat we have come to expect from Hollywood: a constant denial of Catholic doctrine and a bizarre Gnostic and egalitarian solution to today’s problems.   One might ask, what is in a name, why did Cameron choose Avatar? The word refers to...

James Cameron's Avatar has sailed past his blockbuster Titanic to become number one on the all-time US domestic box-office chart. Avatar climbed to $US601.1 million ($A678.29 million) domestically on Tuesday, putting it a fraction ahead of the $US600.8 million ($A677.95 million) haul for Titanic. With more than $2 billion worldwide, Cameron's sci-fi sensation shattered the global box-office record of $US1.84 billion ($A2.08 billion) held by Titanic last week. Avatar still has plenty of box-office life left. It passed $US600 million ($A677.05 million) domestically on its 47th day of release. Back in 1998, Titanic was at barely half that amount -...

Click the link, watch the video, realize this Bozo is one heartbeat away from the presidency, and pray for good physical health for President Obama. Think about it, the line is Obama - Biden - Pelosi - Sen. Robert Byrd (93 and very senile) Hillary

“Avatar tells the story of Dances with Wolves in space, in order to advance a director’s already-vast ego, and to advance movie technology further in the wrong direction.” “In the movie, a crippled Marine is patched into the brain of a human-hybrid alien thing from a race called the Na’avi, which is like blue man group meets black people.” “Now if your brain is made of Play-Doh, and you actually have some human emotion left, then Avatar can mold you into like a crying, tree-hugging man-baby.”

Here is video of Vice-President Joe Biden being interviewed today by MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, where she asked him if he and his wife ever got out to the movies, and if he had any favorite picks for the Academy Awards. In his answer, Biden said "Um" a series of times, and then began to try and mention "Avatar" as his favorite but could not think of the name for the life of him! Andrea Mitchell came to his rescue and snuck the name "Avatar" in to help him out! . . . (VIDEO)

The director and two stars of the Oscar-nominated "Avatar" flew to the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower last week for a visit and a special screening of the movie in the ship's hangar bay. Actors Michelle Rodriguez and Stephen Lang signed autographs and posed for photos with the crew, according to a Navy news release. They also toured the guided-missile cruiser Hue City. They were accompanied by director James Cameron, producer Jon Landau and Cameron's brother John, a former Marine and the movie's military consultant. The Eisenhower left Norfolk on Jan. 2 for a six-month deployment to the Middle East....

Avatar Gives Film Fans the Blues By Stephen Jones Epoch Times Staff A luminescent, idyllic world populated by peace-loving aliens may have captivated cinema audiences across the world, but for some the 'immersive' experience of watching the film Avatar has threatened to overshadow their own lives. Hundreds of fans of James Cameron's blockbuster 3-D epic have complained that they feel despair after leaving the cinema that they can never live in a world like the mythical Pandora, in the film. An online discussion board, titled “Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible,” has received...

Conservative critics of the movie "Avatar", have focused so much on the race of the characters of the movie, but have ignored the universal themes of the movie that are applicable to all societies, including America. The movie was about patriots from the Na'vi people, who were determined to defend their culture, heritage, values, language, religion, and territory. They did not want people from an alien culture to come to their country and dominate them. They were a people who rejected an alien culture, and sought to defend their values, and preserve their homogenous culture and possession of all their...

Boxoffice is arguably more straightforward to report than TV ratings. You have this weekly Top 10 list of returns, you compare each movie to the other movies. TV ratings are a murky swamp where one network's hit is another network's flop and context is not just a factor, but often the entire story. Yet one respect in which boxoffice reporting is pretty odd -- emphasizing ticket grosses yet rarely mentioning ticket sales. That would be like always reporting how many ad dollars sold off "Lost" and not mentioning the number of viewers that actually watched the show. With everybody reporting...

Conservatives have been very critical of the Golden Globe-winning film "Avatar" for its mystical melange of trite leftist themes. But what they have missed is that the essential conflict in the story is a battle over property rights. "Avatar," written and directed by James Cameron and set in 2154, is the story of young American Jake Sully, who joins a military mission to the distant moon Pandora, which has a supply of an expensive and almost impossible to obtain mineral (thus its name, "unobtainium"). Living among the tall, blue natives in the form of an "avatar" -- a lab-created body...

James Cameron’s special-effects extravaganza Avatar appears destined to take its place in the record books and in the cultural consciousness of America. For those who have not yet seen the movie the storyline is the same timeless tale of the clash of cultures that you see in such movies as Pocahontas or Dances With Wolves. And while the movie has been criticized by a variety of groups who claim that it is insidiously racist in its infantilization of the native Navi people, I found the story to be both inspiring and heartwarming in a formulaic sort of way. In fact,...