Ticket sales and box-office grosses decline in 2011.
In 2011, Hollywood dropped the ball as the movie business saw a decline in ticket sales and attendance fell to a 16-year low.
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12,000 killed in drug violence in Mexico in 2011
Around 12,000 people died in Mexico’s spiraling drug violence in 2011.
Some 12,000 people were killed last year in Mexico’s surging drug violence, according to grim tallies reported Monday by the country’s leading media outlets. Annual indexes of torture, beheadings and the killing of women all showed increases.
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Stone Age temple found in Orkney is 800 years older than Stonehenge
Stonehenge may not have been the centre of Neolithic culture after all.
A 5000-year-old temple in Orkney could be more important than Stonehenge, according to archaeologists.
The site, known as the Ness of Brodgar, was investigated by BBC2 documentary A History of Ancient Britain, with presenter Neil Oliver describing it as ‘the discovery of a lifetime’.
So far the remains of 14 Stone Age buildings have been excavated, but thermal geophysics technology has revealed that there are 100 altogether, forming a kind of temple precinct…
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Death Valley microbe may spark novel biotech and nanotech uses
Badwater Basin, lowest elevation in the Western Hemisphere, at Death Valley National Park.
Nevada, the “Silver State,” is well-known for mining precious metals. But scientists Dennis Bazylinski and colleagues at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) do a different type of mining.
They sluice through every water body they can find, looking for new forms of microbial magnetism.
In a basin named Badwater on the edge of Death Valley National Park, Bazylinski and researcher Christopher Lefèvre hit pay dirt…
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How to find the perfect portrait lighting using a marble
An easy way to figure out how to shoot photos better.
This is a really great portrait photography trick that requires no special equipment: use a black marble to see how the light hits on the eyes of the person you want to photograph…
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Crowdfunding temporarily halts oil extraction in Ecuador
No drilling here for now.
Ecuador had agreed last year to accept money in exchange for not drilling foroil in Yasuní National Park, an area of the Amazon rainforest that last year set a record for the most mammal, bird, amphibian and plant species in the world.
But a fundraiser was held last night that collected the $116 million necessary to temporarily halt exploitation of the area for oil…
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Guerrilla Grafters: Turning public trees into fruit-bearing trees
Money doesn’t grow on trees, but that doesn’t stop a group of renegade agriculturists from turning public trees into a provider for bountiful harvest by grafting fruit-bearing branches.
Meet the Guerilla Grafters…
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How people are turning to Facebook for organ donors
Damon Brown’s Facebook plea for a kidney paid off.
These days people are using Facebook for a lot more than looking at friends’ photos or playing addictive word games. Facebook and other social media sites are quickly becoming a go-to place to find a generous person with a kidney to spare.
5 homes with amazing staircases
Staircase slide and bookcase staircase
Circular stairs were commonplace in castle towers during medieval times. Staircases were designed to go the same direction all the way around, ascending clockwise, to suit right-handed swordsmen for ease in hindering the attacker. Fast forward to the late 1800s and stair design changes dramatically when steel and reinforced concrete are introduced, and the use of dramatic curves and fantastic sweeps become important elements in staircase workmanship. Even today, stair-crafting ingenuity continues, with many staircases doubling for incredible feats of gravity and eye-popping works of art. (Pics)
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New wave of ‘silent camera’ apps blamed for huge rise in illicit photography in Japan
An upskirt warning poster in a subway station outside Tokyo.
Almost all smartphone cameras have a built-in shutter noise to prevent the camera being used to take pictures without people’s consent. But a new wave of ‘silent’ apps – some specifically designed for voyeurism – have been blamed for a huge rise in illicit photography in Japan.
6 reasons why renting is better than buying a home
Renters have flexibility that homeowners don’t.
Buying a home is seen by most people as part of the “American Dream”, but for most it’s become a nightmare. Buying a home is pretty much the best way to throw your money away and here’s why.
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Record number of guns bought by Americans for Christmas
The actual number of guns bought may have been even higher if individual customers took home more than one each.
Over 1.5 million background checks on customers were requested by gun dealers to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System in December, according to the FBI. Nearly 500,000 of those were in the six days before Christmas.
