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ddevices · 2 years

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2022 attacks! A reading list for August to follow "Shields Up"

In 2022, cybersecurity will be a crucial requirement for all who do not want to be a victim by a cyberattack, and suffering the consequences that are hard to deal with. Furthermore to the war which is raging across Europe ( Ukraine) continuing the cyber war also doesn't show any signs of slowing at the time when there were more than. 4.95 billion at the time of the beginning of 2022. This amounts to 62.5 percent of the world's population ( estimates indicate that it will grow by about 4 percent by 2021, and 7.3 percent in 2020).

In the past the team at Cloudflare have made announcements of new products, services, and initiatives that show how we've succeeded in blocking or reducing the threat the risk of cyberattacks, while continuously increasing our strategies in the course of time, with a range of cyberattacks, large and minor. Cloudflare has a track record of preventing the 124 billion cyber-attacks that occur every day. The more we can tackle cyber-attacks, we are able to stop these attacks. Also, the easier it becomes to identify and tackle new threats. It's also easy for customers to overlook the fact that we are there to safeguard them.

Since 2022 we've enlisted several new customers, as they've been being targeted in the past. This is something we've witnessed in our previous years ( Wikimedia/Wikipedia and Eurovision are two instances of many and in the past year we have the Fortune Global 500 company example which we've written about). Recently, we investigated and wrote a report on an SMS scam that was phishing.

Cloudflare offers service to more than 20% of the websites that are accessible on the internet. Cloudflare provides services to more than 20 percent of also many millions of Internet websites and users who make use of our global network, which encompasses more than 300 towns (recently the last time we visited was Guam) also is a important aspect. For example, in Q1'22 Cloudflare prevented more than 117 million cyber-attacks per day (much more than previous quarters).

As August gets closer and people all over Europe and the Northern Hemisphere are enjoying the holidays and summer We can create an extensive reading list that is also an overview of cyber-attacks. It also offers an update on 2022's ever-present threat to this field.

Conflict and Cyberwar The number of attacks is increasing

The first step is to provide some background. There are a variety of attacks, but they've been increasing. For some information regarding DDoS-related attacks, during 2022's second quarter , attacks at the application layer were increasing by 72 percent Year-over-year (Year year on Year) and network layer DDoS attacks increased by 109% Year-on-Year.

The US government offered "warnings" back in March when the conflict in Ukraine started, to all inside the country, but also Allies and Partners to recognize the necessity to "enhance cybersecurity". The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) established"Shelds Up" which is a Shields Up initiative because they were of the opinion it was likely that "Russia's invasion of Ukraine could impact organizations both within and beyond the region". There are warnings issued for the UK and Japan along with other nations, also issues warnings.

In any case there are two first and more general reading lists for attack:

It protects you from the following: Free Cloudflare services to aid you in increasing the security of your network ( ) As the war erupted and the government issued warnings, we came up with this free Cloudflare services cyber-preparation amount in an article. If you're an established IT professional or a new webmaster, you'll find an array of web-based APIs, applications as well as apps that provide DDoS defense and mitigation for groups or even for your personal device (from phones up to routers). If this is appealing to you, it's a good idea to announce collaboration to simplify the process of the implementation of Zero Trust to IT Security teams and IT could also be helpful CrowdStrike's security for endpoints works to Cloudflare's Zero Trust Services.

The Ukraine also as other countries. What can be done to ensure that groups that are vulnerable remain on the web ( ) This blog article is dedicated to marking the anniversary of the 8th year celebration of Project Galileo. Project Galileo, which has aid in human rights journalism as well as non-profit public interest organizations or groups. We examine the changes that have occurred over the last year, and include the numerous organizations affiliated with Ukraine which were part of the program (many in the event of being attacked) throughout the time after the war started. From July 2021 through June 2022, our network has stopped the average of 57.9 million cyberattacks every day. This is represents an increase by 10% over the previous year's total of 18. billion cyberattacks.

In the case of attacks techniques used by Galileo secure organizations The majority (28 percent) of mitigation queries were classified as "HTTP Anomaly", with 20 percent of mitigated requests being classified as SQL attack or SQLi (to exploit databases) and over 13 percent of the requests being attempts to exploit specific CVEs (publicly disclosed security vulnerabilities) There is more information about these and also the Spring4Shell vulnerability as well as the Log4j and an Atlassian one.

Without delay, here's a full list of attacks and readings we'll highlight in blog posts that will cover four major topics:

1. DDoS attacks and solutions

One of the most formidable botnets networks to be discovered, Mantis.

Cloudflare limits 26 million requests per second attack on DDoS ( ) Distributed DDoS (DDoS) is the primary source of attacks by state agencies which we've been battling for years in identifying and reducing the threat. No matter which country initiates these attacks, the bots can be found all around the globe, throughout all over the world. In this blog post, you'll see an example of the magnitude of these attacks and how powerful can be could have (in this case the attack was targeted at an account of a user using the Cloudflare Free plan). We've named the strongest botnet that we've seen up at this point, Mantis.

We also make clear that even though most of attacks are minor, e.g. cyber vandalism, the smallest attacks can cause a catastrophic impact on those who do not secured Internet properties.

DDoS attacks for 2022's second Quarter ( ) We've previously discussed our findings that show the percentage of attacks on applications (72 percent) and the network layer (109 percent) attacks have grown each year. In the lattercase, attacks that had 100 Gbps or more increased by 8 percent in QoQ. In addition, attacks that lasted more than 3 hours were up by 12 percent. This is the place where you'll also observe interesting patterns, like the possibility the Broadcast Media companies in Ukraine were the most targeted during the 2nd quarter 2022 DDoS attacks. In actuality, all of the companies the top five targeted areas are publishing, online/internet media and broadcasting.

Cloudflare customers who sign up to the Free plan can now opt to also be alerted about DDoS attacks immediately () DDoS is an attack. DDoS an attack on your computer designed to disrupt the operation of your business online. It can be used by any Internet website, computer or network (whether it is heavily based upon VoIP servers or gaming servers based on UDP and HTTP servers). Additionally, our free plan will now be receiving real-time alerts about HTTP DDoS threats , which were automatically identified and countered by our.

One of the benefits of the use of Cloudflare is the fact that our tools and services can help safeguard the site you're using and also improve the efficiency of your website. This is the advice of our professional, Omer Yoachimik three top strategies to take advantage of the advantages of a Cloudflare free account (and enhance your settings in the event of a DDoS attacks):

Installation of Cloudflare on your website:

Connect your website to Cloudflare and make sure that all traffic flows through Cloudflare. Secure your server's point of origin to permit only traffic through Cloudflare's servers..

Leverage Cloudflare's security tools for no cost

Protection against DDoS is activated by default. However, when it's mandatory, you can also alter the protection to block if you have rules that use an alternative default value.

Security level This feature automatically issues challenges to requests from IP addresses with a poor reputations for IP. You should make sure that you set it to medium. set to medium at the minimum.

Stop harmful bots Cloudflare's free bot protection will allow you to block simple bots (from cloud ASNs) and headless browsers by offering the highly computationally expensive contest.

The guidelines of firewalls You are able to design at minimum five unique firewall guidelines that will block or even block the flow of web traffic you don't want to receive.

Managed Ruleset Alongside your own custom rule you must activate Cloudflare's Managed Rules for Free to safeguard against large and powerful vulnerabilities

Upload your files to cloud storage

You can cache the majority of your site's content via your Cloudflare network. The lower the number of requests to your website, the bettereven if it's unintentional traffic.

2. Application level attacks & WAF

Application security view of Cloudflare () Do you know that approximately 8.5% of Cloudflare web traffic has been cut? We discuss this in the general trend of the application's March 2022 blog post. In total, ~2.5 million requests per second are processed through our worldwide network. The requests never reach our caches or servers that generate these, which means that the bandwidth of our customers as well as the power of our compute is used only to ensure the integrity of traffic.

It is possible to also learn the main sources of mitigation for traffic are. Layer 7 DDoS and Custom WAF (Web Application Firewall) rules are just a few of the reasons why they are the most frequently used attacks. A fascinating aspect is that, as of this moment around 38 percent HTTP traffic we are observing is processed by automated (right that's less than 31%, and you can observe the current trends in the Radar) and the previous mentioned (about Galileo) SQLi is the most frequently utilized attack method for API endpoints.

WAF is available for everyone safeguarding the web from major vulnerabilities ( ) This blog article makes an important announcement that coincides to Cloudflare goal to "help build a better Internet" and also gives a certain amount of security, despite free of charge (something which also help us be more efficient in stopping and limiting the impact of attacks). Since March, we've provided our Cloudflare WAF Managed Ruleset that is used for all zones, and available for free. In this context, it's obvious that there has also increased attention to the security concern from the perspective of customers, which is affects CIOs as well as security professionals. We discussed this when we announced in December that the paid-for plans would with all have access to Page Shield features (last month we also made Page Shield malicious code alerts more efficient. Another example is how we spot Magecart-style hacks that have targeted major corporations such as British Airways and Ticketmaster as in addition to Ticketmaster which has resulted in substantial GDPR fines for both.

3. Phishing (Area 1)

Why is this the rationale behind us purchasing the area 1 ( ) Phishing is the primary way to attack businesses. According to CISA that 90 percent of cyberattacks begin with it. Andin an upcoming report, published by the FBI has mentioned"the Business Email Compromise as the $33 billion problem that businesses are facing.

In February, that was then that it was discovered that Cloudflare was in negotiations to purchase Area 1 Security to help companies fight against advanced attacks on email and the phishing. The blog post HTML1explains the facts that "Area 1's team has built exceptional cloud-native technology to protect businesses from email-based security threats". This is the reason the expertise and technology have included in our network to provide our customers the best Zero Trust security platform available. The mechanism of an elaborate phishing scam and the measures we took to prevent from this ( ) The message? It could be a sophisticated attack that attacks employees and system. On August 8, 2022, Twilio announced that they'd been targeted for hacking by an SMS Phishing attack. We've seen attacks with similar characteristics also targeted at Cloudflare employees. Cloudflare. We will provide an overview of the method by which we stopped the attack. It could have penetrated numerous organizations that use Cloudflare One's Cloudflare One products, and physical keys that were used to protect the network. Additionally, we discuss how other organizations can achieve the same. The security of Cloudflare was compromised. Cloudflare systems was affected.

Cloudforce One Cloudforce One Cloudforce One threat intelligence team was able to dissect the threat and helped in finding the person responsible.

introduces browser isolation for emails in order to guard against the latest threat of phishing ( ) Why do we continue open links we know appear to be infected with malware? It seems that it's simpler to avoid this than most people think ("human mistakes are made by humans"). This article we'll discuss the ways that organizations today are unable to achieve a Zero Trust security posture without secure email, apps that users' trust, and threats actors benefit from the trust that comes with it.

In our effort to integrate Area 1 into our broader Zero Trust product line, Cloudflare Gateway customers can enable Remote Browser Isolation for emails. We've now provided unrivaled protection against the latest multi-channel email-based threats. While we're at it we could also learn how to switch your email provider using Cloudflare Area 1.

In relation to possible taking over accounts We discussed in March 2021, the best way to stop account takeovers through your own app (on the phishing aspect that we had as a customer, at the time , in the section 1).

In the last calendar year this is our study regarding how passwords are secured(and the issue of reusing passwords) It's now a technical. A brand new password-related protocol, known as OPAQUE ( we have added an updated version of the protocol on January 20 and 2022) that could help in the security of secrets, which our researchers are extremely enthusiastic about.

4. Other risks such as Malware/Ransomware, and other malware

What is Cloudflare's Security is Zero Trust? ( ) Security is more crucial than ever before as a component of an ecosystem and is the most efficient in stopping or preventing attacks. In this blog post that we wrote for the Cloudflare One Week blog, we will describe the way this ecosystem, that is part of Our Zero Trust services, could offer protection against malware, ransomware, command and control, shadow IT and other Internet dangers across every protocol and port.

The year 2020 was the time we announced Cloudflare Gateway that focuses on the detection and prevention of malware directly to cloudflare's Cloudflare edge. Recently, we also included our brand-new introduced CASP product (to provide tools for workplace security and allow for the personalized access to sensitive data and to secure it).

Anatomy of a Targeted Ransomware Attack ( ) What would a ransomware-related attack appear to be for the victim?

"Imagine your most important systems suddenly cease to function. Then someone demanded a ransom in order to restore your systems again. Then, someone initiates an DDoS on you, and demands a payment to stop it. This is what happens in the realm of ransomware, and DDoS that is ransom. . "

Ransomware attacks continue to increase and there's no signs of slowing any time in the near future. It was like this one year ago when this blog post was first published. The rate of increase has been increasing by 105% over the past year, according to the Senate Committee March 2022 report. Ransomware's nature is changing. This article will explain how that ransom-driven DDoS (RDDoS) attack function and the way Cloudflare was able to integrate and protect customers of the Fortune 500 customer from a targeted attack. The Gateway which is equipped with an antivirus we have discussed previously can assist in achieving this.

We also prove that with ransomware as a service ( RaaS) models, it's much more simple for new attackers to gain access to these models today ("RaaS is basically it's the title of a franchise which allows criminals to buy ransomware directly from malware creators"). We also offer general guidelines to help you and your company keep your personal information secure. Are you reluctant to click the link? Here's the URL:

Be sure to use 2FA in all areas, but particularly in remote access devices. This is in which Cloudflare Access can be a huge help.

Create Backups, which are redundant with information and systems essential to your company's operations both on and offsite

Stop and track dangerous domains with Cloudflare Gateway + AV

Sandbox web browsing activity by using Cloudflare RBI to isolate threats within the browser

Analyzing threats using security tools like the Cloudflare Security Center ( ) We are launching our brand new portal for investigation of threats, Investigate, which is located in the Cloudflare Security Center. Cloudflare Security Center, that allows customers to query directly our intelligence to streamline security workflows as well as improve feedback loops.

It's possible because of the fact that we've got an expansive and global view of the worldas we're able to safeguard thousands of Internet properties from attacks (the free plans help us in gaining that perspective). Additionally, the data we collect from these attacks aids us to build our machine-learning models, and improves the effectiveness of our applications and network security tools.

We've made to use Cloudflare's services in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia ( ) There's been an increase in wiper cyber-attacks (intended to harm the computer it infects) and in the blog post along with other articles we discuss how the malware known as wiper came to light within Ukraine (it was capable of shutting down the government as well as the bank that was important to) We could successfully implement zero Trust's products to ensure that our clients were safe. The protections are available to a range of Ukrainian firms as part of our Project Galileo that is experiencing an extremely busy year. The protections were put immediately available to all users. The last couple of days this satellite provider Viasat is affected. hit.

Zaraz workers are employed in order to make sure that tools from third parties are fast and safe ( ) Cloudflare confirmed that they would buy Zaraz on the 20th of December 2021 to enable cloud loading for third-party apps. Does it sound like nothing has anything to have to do with security? Think again (this is a reference to the secure environment that I've previously discussed). In addition, here you will discover how Zaraz will make your site safer (and faster) by delegating scripts from third-party providers.

This helps you be protected from attacks and issues. Which? From the tampering of code to losing control over the data which is then transferred to third-party businesses. One of my coworkers Yo'av Mosche outlines the benefits of this technique: "the third-party script can intentionally or unintentionally (due to being hacked) collect information it shouldn't collect, like credit card numbers, Personal Identifiers Information (PIIs), etc.". It's recommended to avoid these.

The first step in introducing Cloudforce One - our brand new threat operations team and research ( ) Learn more about our new threat operations team Researchers and threat operations: Cloudforce One. While this team will publish research, it's not its primary goal. Its main goal is to stop the actors who pose a threat. It's all about defending against the multitude of dangers that need minimal or no involvement.

Wrap up

The phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" doesn't seem to not apply to the ever-changing Internet business in which cyber-attacks are also growing. If your services or business aren't sufficiently protected from attacks hackers (human or bots) will likely to discover your company earlier than later (maybe you already are).

As a final thought for a final note, we'll reference a famous quote that's often frequently used in movies, books or even in the real world: "You keep knocking on the devil's door long enough and sooner or later someone's going to answer you". Although we've been endorsed by various organisations when there are attacks but it's not the most dangerous solution to stop and reducing. We often don't realize that security measures are in place.

DIGITAL DEVICES LTD

Long before Apple set an average consumers mindset to replacing their handheld gadgets in two years, Digital Devices Ltd believed in Moore's law that computing will double every two years. With our heritage from the days of IBM Personal Computer XT, our founders have gone through the technology advancements of the 1990s and 2000s realizing that technology is an instrumental part of any business's success. With such a fast pace industry, an IT department can never be equipped with the tools and training needed to maintain their competitive edge. Hence, Digital Devices has put together a team of engineers and vendor partners to keep up with the latest industry trends and recommend clients on various solutions and options available to them. From forming close relationships with networking and storage vendors like Juniper, SolarWinds and VMWare to high-performance computing by HPE or AWS Cloud solutions, Digital Devices Limited offers the latest technology solutions to fit the ever-growing needs of the industry.

Our experts can guide you through the specifications and build cost efficiencies while providing high end, state-of-the-art customer services. We research and analyses market and its current demand and supply chain by offering wide range of bulk supplies of products like AKG C414 XLII, Shireen Cables DC-1021, Shireen Cables DC-2021, Dell p2419h monitor, Dell U2419H, Dell P2719H, Dell P2219H, Lenovo 62A9GAT1UK, LG 65UH5F-H and Complete IT Infrastructure products and services.

#Shireen Cables DC-1021 #Digital Devices Ltd #technology solutions #VMWare #SolarWinds #Juniper

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boopathi021 · 2 years

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Ethereum miners make a multi-million dollar bet on delayed updates

Major bitcoin mining companies and mining equipment manufacturers are increasing their investments in ethereum mining despite the imminent second network switch to proof-of-stake (POS).

Public bitcoin miners Hut 8 and Hive are ramping up their capabilities to mine the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Meanwhile, mining equipment manufacturers such as Bitmain and Innosilicon are set to launch new Ethereum miners later this year.

This investment may seem strange, given that the Ethereum system is expected to migrate from proof-of-work (POW) to POS in five months, and because POS mining does not require such advanced machines. The increase in demand could be attributed to expectations that migration will be delayed, according to professionals in the sector.

“We were told mining was going to end four years ago and it’s still going,” said Mark D’Aria, CEO of Bitpro, a New York-based consulting firm focused on brokering and managing Ethereum mining hardware. erc20 token development company “It’s always been a wait-and-see thing: things tend to take longer than everyone expects.” While the London fork in early August brings the network one step closer to Ethereum 2.0, significant updates throughout Ethereum’s six-year history have had a history of multiple delays.

For example, the Constantinople upgrade — a key step toward Ethereum 2.0 — was originally scheduled to launch as early as July 2018; however, a bug in its code delayed its deployment until February 2019, causing further delays for the migration.

mining freeze

Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 3554 introduced something known as the “difficulty bomb”, which adds artificial miners to increase the complexity of mining and makes mining operations less profitable. This period has been called the “Ice Age”. Ethereum developers initially introduced this EIP in 2015, but it has been postponed until December 2021. As the price of ether rises, it may be more difficult to transition the network to proof-of-stake, said Ethan Vera, chief operating officer of Seattle-based mining company Luxor.

check out us : erc20 token development

In addition to technical challenges and asset security issues on Ethereum, potential resistance from the Ethereum mining community could be another factor slowing down the migration to POS.

“Something that hasn’t really been appreciated is how much resistance there is going to be to that move to proof-of-stake,” D’Aria said. “Thinking that they’re just going to flip a switch and shut down billions of dollars of miners is crazy, that’s not going to happen.” Institutional actors

The relatively low power consumption compared to bitcoin miners, combined with the small amounts of heat and noise from ethereum mining equipment, makes it possible to mine ETH on graphics processing units (GPUs) at home, Vera said.

More than 90% of ethereum miners are based on GPUs, which is also common hardware used by gamers, D’Aria said. However, cryptocurrency mining heavyweights are moving to break into the industry and make higher profits than mining bitcoin.

The public cryptocurrency mining company Hive Blockchain claimed that it has become the largest public Ethereum miner in the world with 3,383 gigahashes per second (GH/s), which was 1.3% of the total hashrate of the Ethereum network in that time, according to a Hive financial report dated Oct. 15, 2020.

The Vancouver-based company aims to increase its Ethereum mining hashrate to 5,500 GH/s, which would mean a 62.5% increase compared to that level by the end of this year. Hive in February acquired a 50-megawatt (MW) data center in Canada from One, a provider of GPU data center colocation services.

Another public cryptocurrency mining company, Hut 8, bought specialized Ethereum mining equipment for $30 million from GPU manufacturer Nvidia in May. The company said all of that is expected to be delivered and installed at its Alberta facility by the end of August. It plans to achieve a hashrate of 1,600 GH/s with a power usage of 4MW. drive immediate short-term and long-term revenue growth goals in fiscal 2021, “ the company said .

Unlike bitcoin mining companies like Marathon and Riot, companies like Hut 8 have a mandate to use stranded or underutilized energy and turn it into computing power and reward, according to Vera. erc20 token creator are looking at a bigger picture of how they can capitalize on their computing power,” Vera said, adding: “Crypto is a vertical of the many who would persecute.

faster payments

More powerful ethereum miners are coming onto the market, shortening the payback period on those operations and increasing returns. Specialized Ethereum miners, also called application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), are designed by miner manufacturers like Bitmain specifically for mining, while most GPU mining gear is made by reusing graphics cards originally used for gaming.

Nvidia introduced its first ethereum mining equipment in early 2021, while Bitmain and Innosilicon plan to deliver their latest ethereum mining equipment later this year.

Mining equipment manufacturer iPollo has achieved more than $200 million in pre-order revenue for its latest Ethereum ASIC model, which is due to ship in Q4 2021, said Paul Yao, vice president of global business development at the company. His goal is to increase its output when the company reaches higher capacity and can manufacture year-round equipment in 2022, according to Yao.

The Singapore-based company will set up an office in the United States next year and shift its focus from the Chinese to the North American market. “We are seeing growing demand in that area and in some of the Asian markets.

erc20 token generator

#erc20 token creator #erc20 token development #erc20 genrator

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ravenclaw-reblogs · 3 years

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Ahaha fuuuuck

Oh and also good morning you're so asleep rn

how do you keep finding Remus Lupin's TikTok??

#I've never seen a tiktkk with that many views omfg #62.5 million or something #jfc #wolfstar #sirius black #remus lupin #sirius x remus #the marauders #*dying sirius noises*#dobbys-simp #asks #ravenclaw-reblogs

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allthebrazilianpolitics · 2 years

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Contractor using a shell company has been dominating bids under Bolsonaro

In what's being called "BOLSOLÃO DO ASFALTO" [something like "Bolsonaro's asphalt corruption scandal"] on Brazilian Twitter, the contractor Engefort has won most of the Bolsonaro government's paving bids in different tenders in which it participated alone or in the company of a shell company registered in the name of the brother of its partners.

The construction company, based in Imperatriz, in the Northeastern state of Maranhão, has had their funds skyrocket in the Bolsonaro administration. It is stepping out of its tradition by also obtaining contracts for asphalting far from its base.

So far, the government has set aside around R$ 620 million (~US$ 131.88 million) from its Budget for payments to the company — the total amount already paid to it amounts to R$ 84.6 million (~US$ 17.99 million). Despite the volume, the company is a black box and is silent about its contracts and the shell firm used in bids.

The company's source of funds are contracts with Codevasf (Development Company of the São Francisco and Parnaíba Valleys), a federal state-owned company delivered by Bolsonaro to the 'Centrão' in exchange for political support, and the funds from parliamentary amendments, expanded in schemes of quid pro quo by Congress in the current government. The 'Centrão', which translates as 'Big Center', refers to a group of political parties that do not have a specific ideological orientation (although they're usually conservative, not necessarily ideologically centrist) and aim at ensuring proximity to Brazil's executive government branch in order to guarantee advantages and allow them to distribute privileges through clientelistic networks and cronyism.

Last year, Engefort Construtora e Empreendimentos led the transfers from Codevasf. Also in 2021, it was the second construction company in total volumes committed by the federal government, behind LCM Construção, which accumulated R$ 843 million (~US$ 179.04 million) in reserved funds.

The news outlet Folha de São Paulo obtained this information by analyzing documents from 99 Codevasf paving bids held in 2021 through a type of simplified bidding called electronic bidding, which takes place online.

These tenders are part of a bidding process that began to be used on a large scale under Bolsonaro to unleash billions of dollars in parliamentary amendments, distributed to deputies and senators based on criteria of politics and congressional support. The strategy leaves planning, quality, and inspection in the background, opening room for precarious services, deviations, overpricing, and corruption.

At Codevasf, the tenders involved different types of paving, such as asphalt with CBUQ (Hot Machined Bituminous Concrete), asphalt with TSD (Double Surface Treatment), concrete blocks and cobblestones.

Engefort was the only contractor that participated in all these bids in the Federal District and in the 15 states covered by Codevasf. The contractor won 53 bids, or more than half of the trading sessions. The most expressive performance was in the Southeastern state of Minas Gerais, having won 28 out of 42 bids in the CBUQ asphalt and block modalities. Although the heavy construction sector has more than 200 companies in Minas Gerais, in 10 of the 21 trading sessions for services with concrete blocks, Engefort competed alone and took the contracts.

This is permitted by law in exceptional situations. In several cases, the firm won with practically full price, having given a discount of only 0.01% in relation to the reference values of the trading sessions.

In part of Codevasf's bids, Engefort had the company of a company that Folha discovered to be a front: Del Construtora Ltda., registered in the name of one of the brothers of the partners of the leader Engefort.

One of the cases that most draw attention is the electronic auction that led to the signing of a contract worth R$ 62.5 million (~US$ 13.26 million) for paving in Northern state of Amapá. In this tender, the only two companies participating were Engefort and Del. In the documentation presented by Engefort for the dispute, Carlos Eduardo Del Castilho and Carla Cristiane Del Castilho appear as partners in the company. According to the minutes of the trading session, Del even sent a link to access its documentation, but the folder was empty. If the firm had presented the papers, it would have been possible to verify that the managing partner of Del is Antonio Carlos Del Castilho Júnior, brother of the partners of Engefort. The lack of documentation led to Del being disqualified, and Engefort also won the contract for practically the full price.

Another tender in which the two companies participated, again with the victory of Engefort, was an auction worth R$ 55 million (~US$ 11.67) for paving rural roads in the Northeastern sate of Maranhão. There is no record of Del Construtora's victories in any federal or state competition in Maranhão, according to the official portals consulted by the report.

The practical consequence of using shell companies in a bid is to give the appearance of competition when in fact there is none. The objective is to guarantee the highest possible prices. When using a shell company to make a number in a bid, a contractor may seek to avoid drawing the attention of supervisory bodies, since the lack of competitiveness can give rise to investigations. Another possible use of a shell company is for the presentation of so-called coverage proposals, which are fictitious offers placed throughout the trading sessions according to a combined script, to simulate competition when there is already a previously agreed result at the end of the bids.

In Imperatriz, the main work carried out by the contractor with resources from a contract with Codevasf is less than two years old, has already had to be renovated and has huge holes that put the safety of drivers and residents at risk. The Manoel Ribeiro Avenue, also known as the ring road, was delivered in December 2020 with a length of 2.2 km and a cost of R$ 3.8 million (~US$ 810 million), to serve as a link between a federal highway and neighbourhoods of the city. The ceremony was attended by the president of Codevasf, Marcelo Moreira, and federal deputy Juscelino Filho (from the party União Brasil), who allocated the value of a parliamentary amendment to the work. Four months after the inauguration, the paving already had large holes and deformities. Farmer Francisco Pimentel de Brito, 48, lives by the road and says the work also has drainage problems.

The first attempt of the journalists to contact Del representatives took place at the address indicated in the company's public records, in the village of Lagoa Verde, in Rio de Janeiro, but found that the indicated address does not exist.

The report also called the Del Construtora phone number indicated on the federal government's Transparency Portal. The attendant stated that the call had reached at Engefort. When asked, she replied: "It's on the registration form here for Del, but it is also part of Engefort. They are owned by the same owners, in fact, from the same family. They associated this number with Del. Do you want to talk to Del or to Engefort?" The report asked for the contact of a representative of the companies, but there was never a response.

The management of Engefort and Codevasf did not comment on the findings regarding the lack of competition in the bidding sessions, the use of a shell company, and the precariousness of the recent work on the ring road. At the end of March, the report spoke by phone with the commercial manager of Engefort, Fernando Teles Antunes Neto, who said that he was not aware of any competitions in which Engefort had participated alone, and, regarding Engefort's participation in trading sessions in the company registered in the name of the partners' brother, Antunes Neto said that he had no knowledge and could only respond in relation to Engefort. Then, Antunes Neto asked that new questions be asked by email. Folha sent e-mails to different Engefort e-mail addresses and tried to contact them by phone for several days, without success. On Friday (April 8th, 2022), the report managed to speak by cell phone with the contractor's internal lawyer, but she did not want to comment and refused to promote contact with any representative of the company.

Asked about the facts related to Engefort and Del Construtora, Codevasf responded in a generic way and without dealing with the cases mentioned by Folha. The state-owned company reported that its bids comply with the legislation and requires that bidders also comply with the law.

Source, translated and slightly adapted by the blogger.

#brazil #brazilian politics #politics #corruption #economy #infrastructure #engefort #codevasf #del construtora #translations and summaries #who else kept reading 'codevasf' as 'code vai se f*der'? just me? ok i'll take my L #mod nise da silveira #image description in alt

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The Weekend Warrior Feb. 14, 2020 – SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, FANTASY ISLAND, THE PHOTOGRAPH, DOWNHILL, OLYMPIC DREAMS

It’s Valentine’s Day on Friday and President’s Day on Monday, which means that this weekend is going to be absolutely nuts in terms of getting four new wide releases. Last week’s Birds of Prey did not do even remotely close to where I predicted/projected – almost half!! -- and here I thought all those raves reviews might help, but apparently not. It will still make money with its global release but it’s gonna fall short even of last year’s Shazam! and many have already started questioning whether an R-rating is the way to go with a movie semi-targeted towards younger women. (Warner Bros. has already sent out a mandate to theaters to change the title of the movie to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey. I cannot believe that it took this long for them to figure out what a terrible title they had previously!)

With the four-day weekend, it’s very likely that Paramount Pictures’ SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, will prevail, as it brings the beloved SEGA video game character to the big screen with James Marsdenand Jim Carrey, the latter starring in one of his first big-screen appearances in a while. It should be an easy victor this weekend in a market that could desperately use another strong family film.

For those unfamiliar with SEGA’s flagship video game “mascot,” Sonic has appeared in all sorts of other media including animated series and comic books, so one can say that the character is almost but not quite as well known and popular as Nintendo’s Pokemon, which has had a much wider reach in terms of both games and cartoons.

Of course, it’s impossible not to look at Sonic the Hedgehog and completely ignore the relative success of last year’s Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, which had the added benefits of a popular A-list star in Ryan Reynoldsand a summer release. That opened with $54.4 million and made $144 million domestic and $429.7 million worldwide.

On the other hand, Sonic does have Jim Carrey, who hasn’t been in an American wide release since the 2014 sequel Dumb and Dumber To, which only made about $156 million worldwide. At one point, Carrey was one of the biggest box office stars with multiple $240 million plus domestic blockbusters. Maybe the kids won’t be as invested in Carrey’s Mr. Robotnik, but many parents who grew up with Carrey’s comedies will be happy to see him in such a perfect role.

The Presidents Day weekend allows one extra day for parents with kids needing something to do with them sans school. Even so, the biggest movies on the weekend have been superhero movies, including Black Panther, Deadpool and Fifty Shades of Grey, the latter two definitely not for kids. (Daredeviland Ghost Rider also fared well on the weekend.) In fifth place for the weekend is Warner Bros’ The LEGO Movie, which made $62.5 million over the four-day weekend, but that was in its SECOND WEEKEND! So yeah, lots of money to be had for a family movie even though the biggest opener was Christopher Columbus’ Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (now on Broadway!), which opened with $38.7 million ten years ago.

I have to imagine that Sonic is more popular, and even with the tragic misstep of that first trailer last year which got such a negative reaction to Sonic’s appearance, Paramount delayed the movie and went back to the CG drawing board, there will be enough fans interested to see how he translates to the screen that $40 million over the weekend should be doable even with three other wide releases. I also don’t think reviews will be so bad, so it should be good for $100 million plus.

Mini-Review: For whatever reason, Sonic the Hedgehog is the kind of movie that lazy critics love to dump on, maybe because it’s a kids’ movie or because it’s a movie based on a video game they played as kids, or more likely, a character their kids know from popular cartoons and comic books. It doesn’t help that judgments were mostly cast when the first trailer hit last year and Sonic looked different than what people expected. Regardless, I went into the movie with very low expectations, maybe because I really had no passionate connection to the character despite being generally familiar with some of the games.

We meet Sonic as he’s being chased by robots, and we flash back to him as a kid on a planet where he’s able to zoom around freely, until he’s discovered by predators that are hunting him (it’s never explained why), so his mentor owl gives Sonic gold rings that can take him off-planet. Sonic ends up in a small town called Green Hills where he watches the townsfolk in hiding for years, including a local police officer (James Marsden) and his wife Maddie (Tika Sumpter). The former eventually discovers Sonic after he causes a major power outage that gets the attention of the government and its genius robotics scientist, Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey).

Despite not having much previous connection to Sonic, it’s hard for me not to appreciate this character, because I’ve been known to zip around myself. I also enjoyed Sonic’s haste since who knows when we might see that movie based on one of my favorite comic characters, The Flash. Sonic does a good job capturing the intensity and yes, speed, of having speed powers in quite a masterful way compared to previous attempts, giving me hope that a Flash movie is possible. (Granted, they do rip-off the fun thing Quicksilver does in the recent X-movies by slowing everything around Sonic down to a halt, but it’s still amusing.)

Probably the most genius idea by Sonic’s filmmakers was to convince Jim Carrey to return to the big screen as Dr. Robotnik. He quickly reminds us how hilarious he can be when going as fully into a character as he does this one, and it’s prime Carey vs. the semi-lazy Carrey that made movies in the early ‘00s. Robotnik is a super-genius with no patience for anyone on a lower level of intellect (aka everyone), and Carrey takes that idea to the utmost extreme. (It’s hard not to compare what he’s doing in this movie to what Ewan McGregor does in Birds of Prey and see how Carey does it effortlessly whereas McGregor was clearly trying too hard.)

That’s not to take away from Marsden and Sumpter, Sonic’s other prominent human co-stars, who bring such a warmth and humanity to those characters that you rarely even think that you’re watching them interact with a fully CG-character. (Kudos to Ben Schwartz and what he brings to Sonic as his voice.)

Sure, the plot can be a bit predictable with certain parts clearly geared to kids, but there’s also slew of pop references that display some real talent in the writing of the movie so that it can be watched and enjoyed by people of all ages.

Is it possible that Sonic the Hedgehog is the first thoroughly entertaining movie of the year? Yes, indeedy. (Definitely stay through the first bunch of credits if you are a Sonic fan!)

Rating: 8/10

One of the more interesting releases of the weekend is BLUMHOUSE’S FANTASY ISLAND (Sony Pictures Releasing), which as you can guess is a PG-13 horror version of the popular ‘80s show, starring Michael Peña as Mr. Rouke, the head of a program in which people can pay lots of money to achieve their greatest wishes… with a catch! Since this is Blumhouse, you probably know that the catch involves some sort of horror/thriller premise, and if you’ve seen the trailer, you might get some idea how it works… or not. (I wish I can say more but I’m under embargo!)

The rest of the cast is decent including Maggie Q (from Mission: Impossible 3), Lucy Hale, Portia Doubleday, Michael Rooker, Ryan Hansen, Jimmy O . Yang and more, plus it’s directed by Jeff Wadlow, who last did Blumhouse’s Truth Or Dare (a very bad movie!) and then Kick Ass 2 before that. (He was supposed to direct Sony’s upcoming Bloodshot movie but he left that to do other things, like this.)

Unfortunately, Sony Pictures Releasing (another specialized imprint from the parent company?) seems to have taken a cue from Screen Gems by deciding not to screen the movie for critics until Thursday afternoon (just like with The Grudge!), plus there won’t be ANY Thursday previews for this. It’s a shame since… well, I can’t really tell you if I liked the movie or not since I’m under embargo until Friday. J

Either way, it seems like a strong enough counter to Sonic and Birds of Prey that it should be good for $15 million plus over the four days. Personally, I think it would have opened even bigger if Sony and Blumhouse had shown some balls and screened it for critics in advance, but what do I know? I’ve only written about this stuff for ALMOST TWENTY FUCKING YEARS! (Not sure I’m gonna review the movie but we’ll see.)

I know far less about Universal’s Valentine’s Day offering THE PHOTOGRAPH (Universal), which I guess is a romantic drama that’s targeting African-Americans looking for something to see on the biggest date nights of the year. In fact, we’ve seen some interesting hits on this weekend just by putting “Date” in the movie title, as was the case with Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore’s 50 First Dates ($45.1 million four-day opening) and even Date Movie ($21.8 million), which satirized romantic movies. But the real winner has to be a movie that went all out for Valentine’s Day by actually going with the title Valentine’s Day, which helped it open with $63 million over the four-day weekend ten years ago. ($23.4 million of that was on Valentine’s Day alone!)

Since I won’t see The Photograph until Weds. night, I can only talk about the little bit of marketing I’ve seen and what’s out there. Apparently, this is more in the vein of Valentine’s Day in that it’s a series of intertwined romantic stories, but it has an impressive cast of African-American actors who are on the verge of breaking out such as the great LaKeith Stanfield and amazing Kelvin Harrison Jr., as well as Rob Morgan (from “Daredevil” and Mudbound) and Courtney B. Vance. I’d be neglect if I didn’t mention any of the women involved and having Issa Raefrom the TV show “Insecure” as the primary female lead is something that shouldn’t be ignored. Stanfield isn’t the only connection to Jordan Peele, though, asLil Rel Howery from Get Outis also in this movie as is Peele’s actual wife, Chelsea Peretti!

I actually had to double check to make sure Peele wasn’t one of the film’s producers, but no, this is from Will Packer, a producer who is responsible for so many huge hits among African-Americans that one of these days I won’t underestimate his drawing power, even though all three of his 2019 movies underdelivered, including the comedy Little (co-starring Rae), although did well compared to their lower budgets.

In that sense, The Photograph could be compared to Packer’s Screen Gems comedy About Last Night, which opened with $27.8 million in just over 2,200 theaters in 2014, but that also had the power of proven box office draw Kevin Hartto bring in audiences. I certainly don’t want to be accused of underestimating Packer again, but with such a generic title and premise (and next to no marketing?), I’m just not sure the movie will deliver despite being decent counter-programming for AA audiences. With that in mind, I think the movie will probably make somewhere between $12 and 14 million.

Then there’s DOWNHILL (Searchlight Studios), the new movie from The Way, Way Back directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (who also won the Oscar for cowriting Alexander Payne’s The Descendants), this one being a direct remake of Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund’s 2014 film Force Majeure.

In this version, Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus play a squabbling couple who travel to the alps with their kids, but after barely escaping an avalanche – one in which he runs away leaving his family behind – they start questioning their lives. The film also stars Zach Woods (also from “Veep”), Miranda Otto and Zoe Chao, and though it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival (just like the duo’s previous movie), it did not receive great reviews, as it currently sits at 48% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I don’t think that will matter since like Carey above, Ferrell hasn’t been oversaturating the market with movies in the past couple year, maybe because his last movie, Holmes & Watson, reteaming him with John C. Reilly from Step Brothers bombed with $41 million worldwide after horrifying reviews. Fortunately, Louis-Dreyfus is far more loved thanks to her run on “Seinfeld” and her Emmy-winning run on HBO’s “Veep,” and that should help get people into theaters despite all the competition aboe and below.

Searchlight (no more Fox!!) will be releasing the movie into roughly 1,500 theaters, a moderate release to see how it fares, and the extended holiday weekend (plus the chance of it attracting older moviegoers on Valentine’s Day) should help it make $5 million plus over the extended weekend.

Mini-Review: If you’re reading this review hoping for a play-by-play of how Downhill differs from Ruben Ostlund’s Force Majeure, then you’re bound to be disappointed, because a.) I don’t really remember it, b.) I wasn’t as big a fan of the movie as so many others, and c.) I’m going to assume that a lot of people never got around to seeing it.

In this version, it’s Ferrell and Louis-Dreyfus as Peter and Billie Stanton, and there’s much more focus on their roles as parents and the responsibility that goes with that. Once again, Peter runs off when a controlled avalanche comes their way, but they don’t really talk about it so much even as it hangs over their heads.

Nat Faxon and Jim Rash once again find a manageable way of making “dramedy” out of a situation, making sure not to go for constant visual laughs or the zaniness Ferrell usually goes for. (Granted, we can totally believe him as a careless father/husband who does dumb things.) In fact, Ferrell plays his role fairly toned down, which allows Louis-Dreyfus to shine in what’s, oddly, a quite rare movie appearance. How they deal with the aftermath of the avalanche comes to a head when Pete’s work-buddy Zack (Zach Woods) arrives with a ladyfriend (Zoe Chao) allows the two to go at each other. It doesn’t get quite as intense as Marriage Story, but it’s obvious that they both have reached the point in their marriage where they need a separation.

It is kind of amusing that Miranda Otto almost steals her scenes with the two leads because she’s so funny as a hot-to-trot European guest they keep running into and who sets Billie up with a hot Italian ski trainer. There’s a few other funny characters but it mostly stays on Ferrell and Louis-Dreyfus either alone or together, and that’ll be enough for most people.

Faxon and Rash find interesting ways to play with the basic premise, although Downhill is very much comedy with a lower-case “c,” and like the original movie, it should lead to some interesting conversations.

Rating: 7/10

This week’s Top 10 should look something like this… (bearing in mind that the below are all four-day projections). It’ll be interesting to see if the name change for “Birds of Prey” will make a difference, but look for NEON’s Parasite to make its first foray into the top 10 this weekend after 19 (!!!) weeks in theaters, thanks to its Best Picture win last Sunday.

1. Sonic the Hedgehog (Paramount) - $44 million N/A (up $1.5 million)* 2. Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey (Warner Bros) - $20 million -39% (down $1.5 million)* 3. Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island (Sony) - $15.8 million N/A (up $.3 million)* 4. The Photograph (Universal) - $13.5 million N/A 5. Bad Boys for Life (Sony) - $8 million -35% (up .2 million)* 6. 1917 (Universal) - $7 million -23% 7. Downhill (Searchlight) - $5.6 million N/A (up .2 million)* 8. Parasite (NEON) - $5 million +300% (up .4 million and one place) 9. Dolittle (Universal) - $4.5 million -30% (down .4 million and one place) 10. Jumanji: The Next Level (Sony) - $4.2 million -24%

*UPDATE: A few minor updates based on actual theater counts with Parasite being expanded into 2,000 theaters, the widest its been so far. I feel like most of the new movies will do well, including Downhill (which will be in 2,301 theaters vs. the 1,500 estimated earlier in the week). Anyway, it should be a fairly hearty and robust weekend at the box office.

LIMITED RELEASES

Before we get to the regular limited releases opening Friday, I want to mention two special releases for Weds. night, Trafalgar Releasing is giving a one-night screening of The Doors: Break on Thru - A Celebration of Ray Manzarek, which I haven’t seen but I’m definitely interested in as a fan of the ‘60s group (and Manzarek’s keyboard work). You can get tickets for that here. Also, Kino Lorber is giving one-night release of Emily Taguchi & Jake Lefferman’s doc After Parkland to commemorate the second anniversary of the shootings at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that killed 17 people and began a nationwide student movement for gun control. It’s a fairly sobering and emotional doc, as you can imagine, especially since so little has been done to prevent incidents like this even two years later.

My favorite movie of the weekend is Jeremy Teicher’s OLYMPIC DREAMS ( IFC Films), opening at the IFC Center Friday. It stars Nick Kroll (who you’ll know from “The League,” “Oh, Hello” and other things) and (actual Olympian distance runner) Alexi Pappas, who you may or may not be as familiar with. Pappas plays Penelope, an American competitor in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, who is feeling lonely and unable to connect with others until she meets Kroll’s volunteer dentist, Ezra. While at first, it wouldn’t seem like they would have anything in common, they spend a night hanging out and while some might be expecting something romantic, since this is opening on Valentine’s Day, well I won’t ruin what does or doesn’t happen, k? Either way, it’s a wonderful film co-written by Teichter, Pappas and Kroll, and if that sounds like a familiar formula, then it is indeed the one Richard Linklater used for his sequels to Before Sunrise with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Olympic Dreams isn’t nearly as deep and philosophical (or wordy), but the two actors are so wonderful together, and they actually filmed this in the Athletes Village at the Olympics (the first film to do so) which adds some authenticity to the sweet little movie. (There will be a sneak preview Weds night at the IFC Center with Teicher, Kroll and Pappas all in attendance!)

Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig returns with THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS (Vertical), a star-studded ensemble piece starring Zoe Kazan, Andrea Riseborough, Caleb Landry Jones, Jay Baruchel and Bill Nighy (who appeared in Lone’s previous film Their Finest). This is a New York City story about six strangers whose lives intersect and mingle while trying to find help, hope and love. I know it sounds like the Crash-style movie we’ve seen far too many times before, but I have faith in Ms. Scherfig and hopefully I’ll have a chance to watch it in the next day or two.

I also still haven’t gotten around to watching Kenji Tanagaki’s action-comedy ENTER THE FAT DRAGON (Go WELL USA), starring the always-amazing Donnie Yen as police officer Zhu, who is sent to Japan on a routine police escort of a suspect… who mysteriously dies, forcing Zhu to call upon a former undercover inspector to help solve the murder. I’m assuming the latter is the “Fat Dragon” and Yen didn’t gain 200 lbs. for the part.

Opening at the Quad Cinemaon Friday and in L.A. on Feb. 21 is Dimitri de Clercq’sFrench/Belgian film You Go to My Head (First Run Features) about an architect who finds a young woman lost, alone and in a fog in the Sahara after a mysterious accident, but when he takes her to the hospital, he claims to be her husband. As she gets better, he creates an elaborate life to fill in the life they shared which she can no longer remember. It also sounds perfect for Valentine’s Day, so you have plenty of options!

I didn’t have too much to say about Céline Sciamma’s PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (NEON), because I think I wrote about it last year, and I haven’t seen the movie since the New York Film Festival. Set in the 18thCentury, it’s about a woman painter who travels to a remote island where she’s commissioned to do a painting of a grieving widow, who she ends up falling in love with. I probably should see the movie again as it didn’t really connect with me the first time, but I can totally understand why others love it so much. (Unfortunately, the 7:10 screening on Friday night at the Angelika with a QnA moderated by my pal, Valerie Complex, is already sold out!)

The second documentary in the last year about a man named “Cunningham” (a different one this time) is Mark Bozek’s The Times of Bill Cunningham (Greenwich) about the famed photographer who died in 2016… and whom I know even less about than I did dancer/choreographer Merce Cunningham. Apparently, he was a New York Timesphotographer for four decades and had a long relationship with First Lady Jackie Kennedy, and this doc is even narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker! It also opens at the Angelika and City Cinemas 1, 2 & 3, and maybe L.A.?

Due to the usual conflicts and circumstances, I wasn’t able to see Lisa Barros D'Sa and Glenn Leyburn’s Ordinary Love (Bleecker Street) as planned, but it’s an appropriately-timed romantic drama starring Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville as a middle-aged couple who must deal with her beast cancer diagnosis. I actually am interested in seeing this, especially to see Neeson back in serious drama mode (it’s been a while), so hopefully I’ll have a chance to see this down the road.

Also opening Friday is Tanya Wexler’s Buffaloed (Magnolia), starring Zoey Deutch as Peg Dahl, a young woman living in Buffalo, the debt collection capital of America but hopes to get out of town and into an Ivy League university. When she’s accepted to her top choice but can’t afford the tuition, she gets pulled into the rope of debt collection. Also starring Judy Greer, Germaine Fowler, Noah Reid and Jai Courtney, it will open at New York’s Quad Cinema, the Loz Feliz 3 in L.A., Buffalo’s North Park Theater and more theaters.

Another SXSW 2019 movie is Richard Wong’s Come As You Are (Samuel Goldwyn), starring Gabourey Sidibe, Grant Rosenmeyer, Ravi Patel, Hayden Szeto and Janeane Garofolo. The three guys in the middle play men with disabilities who go on a road trip to a Montreal brothel to get away from their suffocating parents. Sidibe (from Precious) plays their travelling nurse who drives them across the border to help them lose their virginity. This is an English remake of the Belgian Film Hasta La Vista about the real-life adventure of Asta Philpot.

Sara Zandieh’s indie rom-com A Simple Wedding (Blue Fox Entertainment) also opens in theaters and On Demand on Valentine’s Day, this one following an Iranian-American named Nousha (Tara Grammy) whose hopes for a Persian wedding are dashed when she falls for a bisexual artist/DJ named Alex (Christopher O’Shea). She has to make sure her parents don’t realize they’re living together before marriage. The film also stars Shohreh Aghdashloo, Rita Wilson, Maz Jobrani, Peter McKenzie and James Eckhouse.

LOCAL FESTIVALS

Some cool festivals and series in New York are happening this weekend to offer competition for all the choices above.

Let’s begin with the “Winter Showcase” for one of my favorite annual film festivals, the New York Asian Film Festivalsubtitled “Love at First Bite,” since they’re including a special Valentine’s Day screening of the Korean hit Extreme Job followed by a reception including delicious Korean food. The rest of the line-up is probably more appropriate for the rep section as it will including Asian classics like Stephen Chow’s God of Cookery (1996), Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman (1994),Tampopo (1985) on Saturday, as well as Ritesh Batra’s amazing The Lunchbox and more on Sunday.

Up at Film at Lincoln Center, there’s the annual “Neighboring Scenes,” the annual celebration of “New Latin American Cinema,” opening Friday with Joanna Reposi Garibaldi’s Lemebel, a documentary about writer/visual artist Pedro Lemebel and his controversial performances amidst Chilean upheaval. Of course, I’m most interested in the Brazilian offerings, but sadly, there just isn’t enough time in the day/week to see as many of the films in this series I’m curious about including the New York premiere of Ema from Chile’s Pablo Larrain (Neruda, Jackie). Click on the link above and check out that line-up.

Further North (in terms of global geography) but South (in terms of New York City geography) is this year’s “Canada Now” series, taking place at the IFC Center from Thursday through Sunday. It will kick off with Guest of Honor, the new film from Canada’s Atom Egoyan, starring David Thewlis and Laysla De Oliveira as father and music school teacher daughter whose lives become complicated when she’s put in prison for earlier crimes. There are seven other movies in this series, most of them getting their U.S. debuts, so that’s another alternative for what could be a busy movie-going weekend.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Lots of stuff premiering on streaming services this weekend including the British animated sequel A Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon on Netflix, as well as the rom-com sequel To All the Boys: PS I Still Love You, which will premiere on Weds and may end up being the “Netflix and chill” choice for many young people on V-Day. (I honestly never got around to seeing the first movies of either of those yet!)

Over on Hulu, they’re premiering the gender-swapped series loosely based on Nick Horny’s High Fidelity, this one starring Zoe Kravitz, the daughter of Lisa Bonet, who appeared opposite John Cusack in Stephen Frears’ adaptation of Hornby’s book from 2000 that was one of my favorite movies that year! Wait a second, even though Kravitz plays a character named Rob, just like Cusack, is she meant to be the daughter of Cusack and Bonet’s characters in that movie? That would be intense! (But probably not. I’m sure I’ll check it out.)

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

The Metrograph’s Valentine’s Dayweekend offerings include Casablanca (1942), Howard Hawks’ 1944 film To Have and Have Not, the 1932 film Trouble in Paradise, Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind (1956) and another screening of Makoto Shinkai’s animated Your Name. The “To Hong Kong with Love” series continues through the end of February, this weekend screening Yellowing (2016), which I haven’t seen.This weekend, the Welcome To Metrograph: Reduxwill offer two more screenings of Edward Yang’s 4-hour 1991 film A Brighter Summer Day, while Late Nites at Metrograph will screen Nagisa Oshima’s 1978 film Empire of Passion, also which I have never seen! Rounding out the weekend’s Asian offering is the Playtime: Family Matineesoffering of Yoshifumi Kondo’s 1995 animated film Whisper of the Heart, which guess what? I haven’t seen that either! Clearly, I need to try to get to one of the four movies, right?

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE BROOKLYN (NYC)

Tonight’s “Weird Wednesday” is the Susan Sarandon-James Spader romantic drama White Palace (1990). Oddly, the Alamo is CLOSED on Valentine’s Day.. is this true?!? On Sunday is a special “Drew Believers: Drew Barrymore Movie Marathon” with four of Barrymore’s movies in 35mm! (As of this writing, there are a few seats available near the front.) Monday’s “Fist City” is Sam Raimi’s The Quick and The Dead from 1995 and that’s quickly selling out as well. The “Terror Tuesday” is James Gunn’s hilarious Slither and then next week’s “Weird Wednesday” is the 1987 Ken Russell film Gothic.

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Wednesday’s “Afternoon Classic” is the 1961 Oscar-winning musical West Side Story. Weds and Thursday night’s double feature is Robert Altman’s 1971 film McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Sydney Pollack’s 1972 film Jeremiah Johnson, starring Robert Redford. This week’s “Freaky Friday” offering is the classic The Bride of Frankenstein (1935, while Friday’s midnight movie is True Romanceand Saturday’s midnight is 1978’s Mean Dog Blues in 16mm! This weekend continues the “Kiddee Matinee” run with the Alfonso Cuaron-directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Monday’s matinee of David Lynch’s Wild at Heart is already sold out but that night is a Robert Clouse double feature of The Pack(1977) and Darker than Amber (1970). Tuesday’s Grindhouse double feature is 1976’s Sky Riders and 1981’s Force: Five.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Thursday is a “Black Voices” double feature of Car Wash (1976) and Cooley High (1975) with guest including Bill Duke in person. John Sayles and Joe Dante will be on hand Friday night for a “John Sayles: Independent” double feature of Piranha (1978) and The Howling (1981). This weekend is the “HFPA Restoration Summit” including a Saturday afternoon presentation called “Serge Bromberg Presents from the Silent Era” with the Lobster Films founder, while the one and only Jane Fonda will be on-hand Saturday evening to present a 4k restoration of the 1972 film F.T.A., which she produced with Donald Sutherland. Saturday night is a screening of The Black Vampire, the 1953 Argentine adaptation of Fritz Lang’s M, and there’s more classic cinema on Sunday as part of the series.

AERO (LA):

Thursday’s “Antiwar Cinema” matinee is Richard Attenborough’s Oh! What a Lovely War from 1969 with an all-star cast, while that night is a Eugene Levy/Christopher Guest double feature of A Might Windand For Your Consideration. The AERO is ALSO showing Casablancaon Valentine’s Day and then Saturday is another Levy/Guest double feature of Best in Show (2000)and Waiting for Guffman (1996) with Levy doing a discussion between films. John Sayles and Frances McDormand will appear in person for a Sunday afternoon double feature of 1996’s Lone Star and 1999’s Limbo.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

MOMI is going a bit crazy with its Valentine’s offering but it’s a good one…Jane Fonda in 1968’s Barbarella as part of its new 2001-inspired series “See It Big! Outer Space”! (If MOMI wasn’t all the way in Astoria, I’d totally go.) It will play again Sunday with Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972) playing on Friday and Saturday and 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Pictureon Sunday. Sunday will also be a repeat of Kubrick’s 1969 film 2001: A Space Odyssey in 70mm with a discussion before the movie between Doug Trumbull and Piers Bizony. There’s also the usual DCP screening of 2001on Saturday afternoon, as part of the exhibition. On Saturday, they’ll screen Marjane Satrapi’s excellent Persepolis(2007) as part of its “World of Animation.”

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Starting Friday, the Forum will be screening a DCP restoration of Luchino Visconti’s L’Innocente (1976), starring Giancarlo Giannini. This weekend’s “Film Forum Jr.” is Guys and Dolls from 1955, starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons and Frank Sinatra. (If you read this on Wednesday, you can catch Joseph Strick’s 1963 film The Balcony, starring Shelley Winters, Peter Falk and Lee Grant, in 35mm.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

The Quad’s run of Pandora and the Flying Dutchman continues through the weekend, and there will be Valentine’s Day screenings of Alex Cox’s Sid and Nancy on Thursday and Friday night. (How romantic!)

ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES (NYC):

The Anthology’s great “The Devil Probably: A Century of Satanic Panic” continues this weekend with screenings of Robert Eggers’ The Witch, Alan Parker’s Angel Heart, another screening of Rosemary’s Baby, as well as screenings of Race with the Devil on Weds. and Thursday night. I missed it last week but they’ve been showing Mark Rappaport’s 1975 film Mozart in Love the past week, as well.

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

The Cage-athon continues Weds. with Neil Labute’s The Wicker Man (2006) and 2009’s Knowing on Thursday. Valentine’s Day sees screening of Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, as well as the 1987 Nicolas Cage movie Moonstruck, co-starring Cher. Spike Jonez and Charlie Kaufman’s Adaptation (2003), starring Cage, repeats on Saturday.

NITEHAWK CINEMA (NYC):

Williamsburg‘s “Uncaged” series continues Friday with last year’s Mandy at midnight and 1983’s Valley Girl on Saturday morning. Casabalanca is also playing at the Prospect Park on Thursday, and unrelated but Back to the Future will play there on Monday night. Billy Wilder’s 1954 film Sabrina, starring Bogart, Hepburn and Holden will play on Saturay morning.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Weekend Classics: Luis Buñuel is back with Belle de Jour from 1967, starring Catherine Deneuve. Waverly Midnights: Hindsight is 2020 will screen the animated Ghost in the Shell, while Late Night Favorites: Winter 2020 will also go with an Anime film, Paprika.

MOMA (NYC):

Modern Matinees: Jack Lemmon is off Weds. and Thursday but will return Friday with Billy Wilder’s Irma La Douce (1963).

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

BAM will continue to show Horace Jenkins’ 1982 film Cane River through the weekend.

Next week, the second to last week of February (man, it flew right by!) will include Fox’s The Call of the Wild, starring Harrison Ford, and the horror sequel, Brahms: The Boy II.

#TheWeekendWarrior Movies Reviews SonicTheHedgehog FantasyIsland Downhill ThePhotograph OlympicDreams Repertory Streaming

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bunkershotgolf · 5 years

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Monday After the ’19 Masters

By ED TRAVIS

Tiger Woods is back. It’s almost like he never left, and his two-stroke win over a trio of first-class younger players plus the self-destruction of Francesco Molinari gave the Masters a compelling finish. It was a must-see even if you aren’t a Tiger fan.

Not mentioned by the CBS TV coverage is the fact the purse was increased this year to $11.5 million up $500,000 from the last two years which meant Woods take for his 15th major was a record $2,070,000 or $90,000 more than Patrick Reed last year and Sergio Garcia in 2017.

It has been pointed out, perhaps with some significance, the Masters is not run by the USGA and as is true week to week on the PGA Tour there were no rules controversies. That may be a cheap shot, but the proof will come at Pebble Beach in June and when the USGA-run U.S. Open is held.

Prior to the 83rd bestowing of the green jacket Augusta National Golf Club further strengthened its connection with amateur golf exemplified by the club’s co-founder Bobby Jones with the first Women’s Amateur Championship. The finals were played the previous Saturday followed on Sunday with the Drive, Chip and Putt competition for 80 youngsters in four age groups.

Along with the Wednesday par-3 contest these events are each important in their own way but merely the preamble to six amateurs and 81 pros teeing it up on Thursday.

One of what many at the time considered a “reality lapse” occurred prior to the start of the tournament when oddsmakers had Tiger Woods listed at 14 to 1 to triumph, the same guess as Justine Rose’s chances (missed cut) but less favored than Rory McIlroy (T21) at 8 to 1. The kicker though is someone placed a bet on Woods to win at those odds, plunking down over $80,000 for a payout of more than $1 million.

Having no significance at all was the new logo Woods displayed on his pre-tournament shirt, a depiction of his tiger headcover he calls “Frank.” That along with his on-course gum chewing each day merely gave the media something else to talk about.

What can we take away from this years Masters? Several things starting with the long ball hitters didn’t win. Tony Finau led in driving distance and finished in a tie for fifth while Woods averaged 10 yards less in 44th spot which in fact was two yards less than the field average. Nor did Woods putt lights-out having 120 putts over the four rounds earning another 44th place with the field averaging more than one-half a stroke per round better. What we can say is, though his driver accuracy was not tremendous at 62.5% (T47) his greens in regulation was superb at 80.56% (1) and with 22 birdies he was only three behind Xander Schauffele who had the most with 25.

It proves again as it has in the past and contrary to what those who say the ball goes too far, being able to hit the ball on the green and make a score wins more often than not.

We also were shown how vulnerable Augusta National is when played in soft conditions and little wind. The lack of firmness on the greens allowed many shots that would have been long gone to hold. The greens rolled much slower taking away at least some of the usual terror of previous years. Woods score of -13 was 1.4 shots lower than the average of the past 10 Maters but one stroke higher than Patrick Reed’s 2018 win.

It goes without saying next month’s PGA Championship at Bethpage Black can’t come too soon to give Tiger a crack at his 16th major.

#tiger woods #golf #tiger #tigerwoods #ed travis

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snommelp · 5 years

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I was in marching band for all of high school and one year of college. And we were taught a standard stride length: eight steps to five yards. Assuming perfectly even steps, that’s 22.5 inches (0.5715 meters) per pace.

Eight steps for five yards is good for marching, since most marching band music has two or four beats in a measure, but it’s not so good for comparisons, so I’m going to switch to base 10 now.

1 pace is 1.875 feet (0.5715 meters)

10 paces is 18.75 (5.715 meters)

100 paces is 62.5 yards (57.15 meters)

1,000 paces is 625 yards (571.5 meters)

10,000 paces is 3.55 miles (5.715 km)

100,000 paces is 35.5 miles (57.15 km)

A million paces is 355 miles (571.5 km)

10 million paces is 3,551 miles (5,715 km)

100 million paces is 35,511 miles (57,150 km)

A billion paces is 355,113 miles (571,500 km)

10 thousand paces is a long parade, 100 thousand is almost a marathon and a half.

A million paces is roughly the distance from New York City to Pittsburgh:

10 million paces would just about take you from Quebec to Guatemala.

100 million paces would circumnavigate the globe and then keep going.

A billion paces, if it were physically possible, would get you to the moon and halfway back.

Just in case you wanted yet another reference for how ridiculously big a billion is compared to even something we think of as huge, like a million.

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kembungsusu · 3 years

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Zucchini Spaghetti and Chicken.

Hello everybody, it's me again, Dan, welcome to our recipe site. Today, I'm gonna show you how to prepare a special dish, zucchini spaghetti and chicken. One of my favorites. For mine, I am going to make it a little bit tasty. This is gonna smell and look delicious.

Zucchini Spaghetti and Chicken is one of the most well liked of recent trending foods on earth. It is easy, it's fast, it tastes yummy. It's enjoyed by millions daily. Zucchini Spaghetti and Chicken is something that I have loved my entire life. They are nice and they look wonderful.

To begin with this recipe, we have to prepare a few components. You can have zucchini spaghetti and chicken using 16 ingredients and 7 steps. Here is how you cook it.

The ingredients needed to make Zucchini Spaghetti and Chicken:

{Make ready 400 g of chicken breast (diced) / 14 oz ..

{Make ready 500 g of zucchini courgette / / 17½ oz ..

{Prepare 250 g of Carrot / 9 oz ..

{Prepare 250 g of yellow onion (sliced) / 9 oz ..

{Get 250 g of mushroom (sliced) / 9 oz ..

{Take 100 g of peppers mixed (sliced) / 3½ oz ..

{Prepare 100 g of scallions spring onions / / 3½ oz ..

{Take . 100 fl of stock (veg, chicken or mixed) ml / 4 oz ..

{Take . 62.5 fl of dry white wine * ml / 2 oz . (½ glass).

{Prepare 1 tablespoon of mustard wholegrain.

{Take 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard.

{Make ready pinch of chili dried flakes.

{Get 4 tablespoons of low fat crème fraîche.

{Get 1 small handful of basil chopped fresh (preferred).

{Take or 1 tablespoons of basil of dried.

{Take of Spray2Cook - any low - cal . non - stick cook ’ s oil spray.

Steps to make Zucchini Spaghetti and Chicken:

Cut the Zucchini and carrots into very thin long strips – ideally using a mandolin – gauge 3.5 mm / ⅛ inch..

Microwave: the Zucchini for 4 minutes; and the carrots, onions and peppers for 6 minutes (adding the mushroom for the last 2 minutes) – set all the vegetables aside..

Put a large lidded fry pan on medium to high heat and spray with Spray2Cook. When the Spray2Cook is bubbling “stir fry” to cook the chicken until the meat is opaque (about 3 minutes)..

Re-spray well with Spray2Cook to prevent the chicken sticking. Deglaze the pan with the wine..

Add the microwaved vegetables (leave any liquid produced by the zucchini behind) spray with Spray2Cook whilst turning over with a spoon to mix..

Add half the stock, the chili flakes, mustard, and crème fraîche. Add more stock if needed to keep everything moist and bring to the boil. Cover the pan and simmer for 3 minutes and let the sauce begin to thicken..

Cut the thickest piece of chicken in half to ensure it is cooked through and continue to cook if not. When the chicken is ready stir in most of the basil and simmer, uncovered, for about 1 minute until the aroma of the basil sweetens the air. Serve in warmed bowls and garnish with the remaining basil..

So that's going to wrap it up for this special food zucchini spaghetti and chicken recipe. Thank you very much for your time. I'm sure you can make this at home. There's gonna be interesting food in home recipes coming up. Remember to bookmark this page on your browser, and share it to your family, friends and colleague. Thanks again for reading. Go on get cooking!

#recipesfood

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16014523-blog · 4 years

Text

Evaluation

The blog on how LeBron James’ uses social media was very intriguing. When a person has over a hundred million followers across their social media profiles, it is clear to see that this person is extremely popular and thought of highly. This made analysing James’ social media behaviour more enthralling because with that many followers surely a sense of responsibility and pressure comes with it.

A key reason why the blog was written on LeBron James is because he is very active on social media, he posts regularly and he is not fazed to speak his own mind which makes it all the more interesting to study his social media accounts. It was important to choose someone who is constantly active on social media to analyse because the more data that a person has, the easier it is to spot trends and patterns. LeBron James is active on all of his social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) which made him a great choice to write a blog on.

LeBron James is undoubtedly one of the most recognisable names in sporting history. Millions of people around the world look at LeBron as some sort of hero, he is continuously breaking every barrier that is put in front of him on the basketball court. However, it is not only on the basketball court where we see LeBron, LeBron James is very active on his social media platforms and has a massive 128 million followers across his social media platforms, making him one of the most followed people around the world on social media and with this comes a lot responsibility. The blog analysed how effective LeBron James is with his social media and how he uses it to communicate.

When analysing LeBron James’ social media profiles, a clear theme was apparent, he is a kind and caring man. Kindness may shape goals and decisions: People may enjoy being kind. Or they may like it when others view them as kind. Or they may wish to be kind in return (Dufwenberg, Kirchsteiger, 2019). It is said that individuals attempt to communicate a certain picture of who they are and how they wish others to perceive them (Goffman, 1959), from the blogs posts that were written it was clear to see a picture of the type of person that LeBron is.

In the blog post titled ‘LeBron James Family Foundation’ it is clear to see the self-presentation (Goffman, 1959) of James. The fantastic work he does for millions of children around the world represents his kindness. The idea that self-presentation is extremely important to individuals can be seen here, by James presenting himself as a heroic kind figure, his likability is massive. If he continues to keep doing amazing things for the people who are not in privileged positions then his self-presentation will always be positive.

It is through celebrity that social and ethical norms and values are played out an understood (Davis, 2013). LeBron James’ kind behaviour on social media is understood by his millions of followers, it is with hope that LeBron’s ethical and social values are set as examples for how people should treat each other. Celebrities are trendsetters, and often we follow their lead (Brownstone, 2014), this connotes the idea that LeBron showing compassion and love to people will be copied by his millions of followers.

We see celebrities as versions of our ideal selves (Brownstone, 2014), this continues on the fact that we would all like to be our celebrity heroes and act how they do, LeBron’s message of love and compassion is realistic for anyone to go out and do, so through social media James is encouraging a kinder, loving world.

The contemporary celebrity will usually have emerged from the sports or entertainment industries, they will be highly visible through the media, and their private life will attract greater public interest than their professional life (Turner 2014). The work that LeBron James does off the court for the Family Foundation is seen as more important than his actual basketball. Throughout the blogs you can see fans commenting on LeBron’s posts calling him a hero or a king, they are not calling him these names for the work that he does on the basketball court, they are calling him a hero and a king for making a positive influence on thousands of children’s lives, for using his power and turning it into something good for people who are less fortunate than him.

Celebrity is a genre of representation and a discursive effect (Turner, 2014). Celebrity’s representation is much different to any other person, celebrities are represented as powerful figures who have the platform to communicate with large audiences. LeBron James’ communicated with his millions of followers with compassion when he was talking about the death of his great friend Kobe Bryant, his kind, loving words gave a representation of the type of man LeBron James is.

The blog post about LeBron addressing the death of his close friend Kobe Bryant was extremely emotional, even though millions of LeBron’s followers do not know him personally, they knew the close bond he had with Bryant. Intimacy of friendship crucially involves the friends being uniquely able to shape each other's thoughts, feelings, and lives, at least within particular domains defined within their friendship (Helm 2010). LeBron and Kobe had a massive part in each other’s lives, the fact that they were both in the same industry meant that the memories they had could be reciprocated by the other, this is because some of the memories that LeBron has would have involved Kobe, an example of this would be when they played in the Olympics and won the Gold medal, an incredible achievement that both men were a part of.

Online sharing and the use of technology to express grief and memorialize has the ability to become the new form of collection memory (Lapper, 2017). LeBron James posted pictures of himself and Kobe after the death of Bryant and this supports the theory that social media is the new form of collection memory. LeBron James posting an image or video onto social media of himself and Kobe Bryant is a way of creating a memory that can be seen and commented on by millions and as the blog post explains there was an overwhelming amount of positive comments on the first Instagram post of Kobe. This emphasis the idea that on social media LeBron James is a kind hearted man who does not make all his social media posts about how great he is at basketball, he posts words of love and compassion, he is trying to spread positivity.

Societies appear to be subject, every now and then, to periods of moral panic (Cohen, 2011). This is telling in the world right now because of the coronavirus, a virus that is causing fear all around the world. It was important that someone who has the stature that LeBron James has would talk about people staying inside and listening to the government. Being a celebrity does not just mean living a rich, lavish lifestyle anymore; but being some of the world’s largest advocates for our society today (LaFreniere, 2018). LeBron James used his social media to try and influence people to stay inside and to do the right thing and, as the blog post says, healthcare workers were extremely happy that LeBron James used his social media to talk about a serious topic.

The effect of celebrity notoriety is assumed to be especially influential when it comes to informing young adults about what they should care about and the choices they should make (O’Regan, 2014). This emphasises the idea that James’ social media posts advising people to stay in their homes would have influenced people’s decisions, people listen to their role models.

It is very apparent to see that LeBron James uses his social media effectively for the greater good. He does not self-promote himself, he is not arrogant and he certainly is not irresponsible at using social media. James uses his social media to bring positivity and hope to people, he mainly posts about his family foundation, which he hopes he will be able to give millions of underprivileged children in America a chance in life. He spreads awareness and gives advice in tough times, just like with the Coronavirus he used his power to influence people to stay inside. He is also a loving and caring man, this was signified through the emotional social media posts about his friend Kobe Bryant.

LeBron James could improve how he uses social media by engaging with followers more, he could reply to some of the questions that fans ask him. The reason that he should do this is because he would then be activity engaging with his followers. LeBron should also post more regularly on Instagram, this is because Instagram is his most followed social media account (62.5 million), by posting more regularly on Instagram he will be able to reach his largest audience when he is promoting products, spreading awareness or anything else.

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pmsocialmedia · 4 years

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Snapchat launches Bitmoji TV: zany 4-min cartoons of your avatar

If you were the star of every show, would you watch more mobile television? Snapchat is betting that narcissism drives resonance for its new weekly videos that put you and your friends’ customizable Bitmoji avatars into a flurry of silly animated situations. Bitmoji TV premieres on Saturday morning, and it’s remarkably funny, exciting, and addictive. Think cartoon SNL on fast-forward with you playing a secret agent, a zombie president, or a Moonlympics athlete.

It’s a style of content only Snapchat could pull off that relies on ubiquitous personalized avatars only Snapchat owns. The company says 70% of its daily active users, or 147 million of its 210 million, have made themselves a Bitmoji. Snapchat bought Bitmoji’s parent company Bitstrips in 2016 for a steal at $62.5 million, and it’s paying off. Amidst a sea of premium video and haphazard Stories that blur together across streaming services and social apps, Snapchat finally found something Facebook can’t copy.

“We really believe that we have invented a new category of entertainment. It’s scripted but it’s personalized. You could take that in a million directions” says Bitmoji co-founder and CEO Ba Blackstock who wrote and directed Bitmoji TV. “First and foremost, I hope that everyone who watches this has kind of a mind blowing experience that they’ve never had before.”

Bitmoji TV, which TechCrunch was first to report Snapchat was building last month, will have its own Snapchat Show page where users can subscribe to get notifications and see new episodes on the Discover Page. Users can visit this page on mobile or tap and hold on the Snapcode below while pointing at it with the Snapchat camera to open Bitmoji TV.

The show is designed to be PG-13 with some bleeped out swearing and a little bloody violence. The shows are made out of Bitmoji’s Toronto office and are based on North American TV, film, and advertising. Each episode cuts away and back to a main story, with the first two centered around an America’s Best Bitmoji game show and a Mime Cops hostage negotiation. Interspersed are ‘channel flips’ between shorter single-gag clips that take your avatar into sit-coms, soap operas, action movies, and informercials.

The gags are ridiculous. At the basketball “Moonlympics”, a player jumps up for a dunk, but low gravity causes him to crash through the glass dome and suck all the other players into space. At Cannibal High, an school announcement says “Attention students, we’re all deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Vice Principal Schneider. To honor his legacy, today the cafeteria will be serving Vice Principal Schneider.”

You’re not alone it Bitmoji TV. There’ll be occassional celebrity guests like Randy Jackson, Andy Richter, and Jon Lovitz. But your co-star in these segments is the Bitmoji of whichever person you last interacted with on Snapchat. That lets you control whether you want your best friend, your significant other, or some rando alongside you. That decision will change the way you interpret the jokes and scenes. Your Bitmoji won’t talk, but their’s will.

Getting philosophical, Blackstock explains that “When you say words to me, it’s not just your words in a vacuum. They’re coming from you. You’re the medium . . . In any narrative fiction you learn about the characters, they have a back story, they have relationships that exist under the story that color it.” Who you make your supporting actor lends personal subtext that enriches each story. That’s one reason you can’t download or easily share clips of your version of Bitmoji TV, and Snap instead just lets you share a link to watch the real thing. Blackstock says it just doesn’t have the same effect if you’re not in the spotlight.

youtube

One thing you won’t find in Bitmoji TV, at least at first, are advertisements. The initial 10 episode season won’t have them. But that does seem to be the plan. When I asked Blackstock about monetizing the show, he said “You can imagine. Discover has a business model of showing ads.” Since it make Bitmoji TV, Snapchat would get to keep that ad money rather than paying it out with revenue shares to partners or by buying content. Just as we’ve seen music and video streaming apps move to cut royalty expenses by creating content in-house, Snap seems to have the same idea.

Snapchat has yet to monetize Bitmoji directly beyond its merchandise store where you can get yours on t-shirts and mugs. Surprisingly, it doesn’t sell premium or branded clothes and looks for Bitmoji, nor does it allow brands to pay to have their apparel featured.

Snap did recently start letting people mix-and-match clothes for their Bitmoji, and when asked if that could foreshadow a revenue opportunity, Blackstock said “You gotta build the store before you start selling the clothes . . . this was a foundational evolution designed to not only improve the experience for users but to set the stage for things to come.” You and your friends seeing your avatar’s fresh outfit on Bitmoji TV might make people care more about what their digital mini-mes wear.

Having watched the first three episodes, I’m pretty certain Bitmoji TV is going to be a hit. The show embodies the whimsy of Snapchat and the youth culture of the community who uses it. It’s rare to see something so premium but so unabashedly kooky. It’s remininscent of the Rick & Morty ‘Interdimensional Cable’ episodes that similarly feature rapid-fire snippets of fake and absurd TV shows.

Yet “the idea for Bitmoji TV actually precedes Bitmoji. It’s something I’ve been thinking about since those days [before Snapchat acquired it.] In a way it precedes Bitstrips. I’ve been making comics and cartoons since I was a little kid” Blackstock tells me. “How I met two of the co-founders of Bitstrips was passing them comics in class. Even after school when we had jobs I would draw comics of my co-founder that were very compromising and I would fax them to his office to try to get him fired” he recalls with a hearty laugh. Now he has the budget to make them TV-worthy but just as crazy.

Snapchat has a good hunch it’s going to work because it’s been testing a comic-stripped down version called Bitmoji Stories. These still or lightly-animated slide shows use the same idea of starring the avatars of you and your friends, but without full-motion video or constant audio. 130 million people have watched Bitmoji Stories since they launched in late 2018.

Blackstock tells me “They were easier to make at a high volume and release ongoingly, which we could put out as a prelude to get our audience ready for personalized content — but also for us to learn from and see how people responded and figure out our own processes in terms of production.” Snapchat had animators and engineers work hand in hand to build a rendering system for Bitmoji Stories and TV. That helps it rapidly produce the personalizable content that can flex to accomodate any shaped avatar without them clipping into their surroundings.

Tonight, Bitmoji TV will receive an in-person ‘silent disco-style’ premiere at Los Angeles’ Soho House. Guests will scan a code on the big screen, don headphones, and each watch on their own phone with themselves as the star.

Snapchat’s head of original content Sean Mills tells me that “New technology will unlock new kinds of storytelling” citing “the power of bringing a user into the experience with their best friends.” Bitmoji TV has certainly found a way to turn vanity into engagement. It’s more compelling than the mediocre originals on Facebook Watch. And it’s technologically innovative, unlike the planned lineup for Quibi.

If the modern era of visual communication began with the selfie, Snap honed it into a messaging tool. A few words were more interesting with a friend’s face behind it. The original Bitmoji chat stickers let your face say whatever you wanted even without having to get on camera. Snapchat’s new Cameo feature grafts your face into GIFs to express even more complex feelings. And now with Bitmoji TV, an animated version of your face can live out your wildest fantasies or weirdest dreams. That’s something worth tuning into.

Snapchat Cameos edit your face into videos

via Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2uMrUbK

#IFTTT #Social – TechCrunch

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un-enfant-immature · 4 years

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Snapchat launches Bitmoji TV: zany 4-min cartoons of your avatar

youtube

Snapchat Cameos edit your face into videos

#TechCrunch

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localbizlift · 4 years

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Snapchat launches Bitmoji TV: zany 4-min cartoons of your avatar

youtube

Snapchat Cameos edit your face into videos

#marketing

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