I don't know anything other than its a business right across from them and the building is taller!
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Stanton T. Friedman is a professional ufologist, currently residing in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
Stanton T. Friedman a New Brunswick Ufologist has studied many objects of interest which is at times have been questioned. The most recent discovery by the well established scientist is a set of binoculars which has come from a secure area51 installation which apparently was located inside one of the crash landed UFOs which was under investigation as a weather balloon.
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The Hills Is Too Real
Everyone who watches it knows on some level that The Hills is both real
and fake, authentic and inauthentic, true and false, fictional and
actual, honest and flimflam. People call this its fauxreality. Whatever
its producers's intentions, an appreciation of these contradictions is a
central appeal of the show. It exploits them in a way that is original
and exciting, that makes the show into an object of intense fascination
and wonder. I have blogged about this before and it's not news either to
readers of Dr. T and Songs About Buildings and Food. In some ways, the
balance has been skewing more toward artifice and contrivance and away
from believability as the show was become more popular and its
characters more savvy about how they function as agents of storytelling.
At the same time, it is only because the characters are not actually
fictional characters but real people that this kind of artifice is
possible in the first place.
Among the fakeries typical of The Hills, perhaps the most audacious is
the rigorous omission of any mention that the characters are in a show
on MTV. Not only do we have no sense of the existence of a crew, which
is usually true as well of Survivor and Project Runway and more or less
every reality show, but we also never hear any reference to the show in
dialogue. If you can imagine watching the show without knowing anything
about the context of its production and reception (this is an impossible
thought experiment), you would never know that the characters are
famous, and that the very show we are watching is the cause of their
fame. Contrast this with American Idol, for instance, which is all about
nobodies being transformed into stars. Contrast this with other
competitions like Dancing With the Stars, in which contestants regularly
credit the show with providing an opportunity for personal growth and
self-improvement. If Lauren or Heidi ever mentioned the existence of a
program on television on which they regularly appear, the effect would
be like a rupture in the space-time continuum. The first rule of The
Hills is, you do not talk about The Hills.
In choosing to represent the narrative world in this way, The Hills
departs from a convention of the reality genre: the confessional
"on-the-fly" interviews that producers use to shape and craft
storytelling and anchor meanings for otherwise ambiguous events. The
confessional interview typically includes an address to the camera, a
technique that aligns reality TV with the tradition of documentary film
and television and with journalism. Some shows, like Big Brother, also
have segments with an interviewer present to get the characters talking
about their experiences. In BB's case, this person is even a journalist
(Julie Chen, aka the Chenbot). Most forms of fictional cinema and
television, by contrast, prohibit actors from acknowledging the camera,
a convention often observed in the breach, as in comedies when the
comedian appeals directly to us, breaking the "fourth wall". Godard and
Woody Allen do this pretty effectively, and it always makes an
impression because we are so unused to seeing this violation of
stylistic orthodoxy in a dramatic fiction film. Mockumentaries get away
with interviews and direct address because they make clear their terms
of address as pseudo-reality.
The combination of avoiding all mention of The Hills and also of
avoiding the direct address technique of the interview (aural and
visual) has made The Hills (and before it Laguna Beach) distinctive all
along. What has changed is not the textual approach, but the context in
which the show is experienced. Now the show is a megahit, a pop culture
phenomenon. Its characters appear on talk shows and in paparazzi photos
and on the cover of Rolling Stone. John McCain and Barack Obama have
mentioned Lauren and Heidi and people who would otherwise never watch
MTV or reality TV know them by name and face. And now, much of the story
is being told extratextually. In a sense, the US cover a few weeks ago
spoiled the final episodes of season 3, alerting us to the growing rift
between Audrina and Lauren. Their appearances on TV shows like Live with
Regis and Kelly showed us that Heidi and Spencer were still a couple
even as they seemed on the show to have split up. The lag in time
between the appearance of Hills items in the news and the appearance of
these same events on the show requires that we keep a story order
straight in our minds even as the plot is presented through these
different sources of narrative which we encounter temporally out of
sequence. Thus we are constantly aware of the multiplicity of sources
for narrative info and of their relative importance.
This tail-wagging-the-dog dynamic might have begun two years ago, when
Lauren and Jason's breakup happened offscreen but was reported in the
tabloid media. This was duplicated a year ago with the sex tape episode
between seasons two and three (more on which in a moment). The crucial
events in these narrative developments are the reality out of which the
show crafts its drama, and the exposure the characters get in the
extratexts functions not as publicity and promotion (well, not just) but
as narration across platforms. These events set our expectations of
getting our story about the show from sources other than the show.
Amidst all the talk of fakery, the fact that The Hills can keep telling
its story through these other means is evidence of its reality--of the
real relationships and identities at the core of the show's narrative.
I propose that we can understand the significance of all this by looking
to film and narrative theory, and in particular two concepts:
reflexivity and diegesis. In classical cinema--movies that follow
conventional Hollywood formats of storytelling and cinematic
technique--reflexivity is generally avoided in favor of a kind of
realism (in the 70s it was called "classic realism") that makes no
reference to its own fictional and textual status. The literary analog
of this is the 19th century realist novel. Diegesis, often defined as
"story world", is a term that captures the sense the viewer has of a
reality represented onscreen in three dimensions plus time, fully formed
and internally coherent, like the real world. Of course this diegesis is
a construct of cinematic (or media) production. Devices like
synchronized sound and continuity editing stitch together a diegesis
that seems seamless, and offer viewers an experience of this fictional
space which they can believe exists when they lose themselves in the
story. This is why the classical style has often been called
"transparent" whether in literature or cinema: it never seems like the
fiction is being presented or represented; it just is. I'm not going to
get into the way this style was understood in 1970s film theory to
function ideologically by positioning the spectator as subject who
masters the space of the diegesis, misrecognizing himself (it's a male
subject position) as the origin of the image before him. This is not a
position many film scholars tend to buy these days. The point is to
recognize the usefulness of the concept of a diegesis to capture the
experience of a movie or TV show that represents a seamless, transparent
world. Reflexive and diegetic are on some level opposed concepts, as
devices of reflexivity threaten the coherence of the diegesis as
self-enclosed and realistic.
The Hills as a television series aims for classic realism, working
toward a diegetic effect while minimizing reflexivity. In avoiding
mention of the characters' status as celebs and the techniques of
reality TV, the show prefers instead to present itself as classically
cinematic (the producers say they're after the look and feel of a film),
using many traditional techniques including continuity editing and scene
dissection (beginning with establishing shots, then cutting in closer
for shot/reverse-shot sequences), clear scene transitions, and redundant
dialogue to remind us of earlier actions and future plans. The reflexive
techniques of documentary and political modernist cinema and of many
non-fictional television genres are totally missing from the style of
the show, a sort of "structuring absence" that is especially significant
for being avoided.
And yet the sense the producers seem to be trying too hard to achieve of
realism and diegesis is constantly undone by the show's success. Because
of this, the characters are celebs, and their stories are told in the
tabs and talk shows as much as on the show. They offer commentaries on
events, and occasionally even criticize their representation by the
producers (e.g., Lo complaining during last nite's season finale
aftershow about being made into a villain--did she go off message?). It
is totally unbelievable that they don't talk about the show and their
celebrity, and we might reasonably assume that when the cameras aren't
on, they talk about little else.
Our knowledge of Spencer and Heidi's self-fashioning as entrepreneurial
Hollywood stars (fauxbiz!) and Spencer's self-casting as villain
constantly distract us from the coherence of their characterization in
the show, which seems several degrees more bogus than the way Lauren and
her crew are represented. The artifice of the setup of Audrina and
Whitney and now She-Pratt as friends for Lauren make us more aware of
the authenticity of her friendship with Lo. Articles in the LA Times and
Rolling Stone and US Weekly fill in details we would never learn from
the MTV broadcast. The diegesis is constantly being constructed
contextually as incomplete and insufficient, and because the characters
are real people, it is possible for their characterization to continue
through multiple media and more or less perpetually.
The relative authenticity or inauthenticity of these people on the show
is made irrelevant by all of these contextual discourses, all of which
presuppose that the characters on the show are continuous with the
people in the magazines and on the talk shows who share their
identities. Even the more fakey-fake contextual moments like Spencer and
Heidi's insistence that the sex tape really existed remind us that the
characters on The Hills are also persons of flesh and blood and
feelings. Even if they're lying (of course they are!) Spencer and Heidi
are acting out real motivations---of pursuing fame and wealth and
success in entertainment. Even the rumor that Lauren and Lo's house is
actually a set and not their actual place of residence presupposes that
the same Lauren and Lo who are characters on the show also live
somewhere in Los Angeles. The extension of these characters and
relationships beyond the diegesis forces us to question the coherence
and stability of the text as narrative, reminding us of the reality that
cannot be contained in the weekly 22 minutes of TV time. Thus the
realism attempted by The Hills is constantly undermined by the
underlying reality from which it draws the materials of its
representation.
It's my sense that the sex tape is what really forced us into this
terrain of instability, caught between the appeal of the show's diegesis
and our excess of knowledge about the reality that it fashions into
drama. The sex tape and the actions surrounding its ambiguous existence
constituted an event or non-event between seasons, whether real or
imagined or merely rumored, which directed the narrative into one of
intense passion and drama--a real soap opera. The fact that no one can
say if it exists makes the sex tape into the perfect emblem for The
Hills as text and object of intense cultural significance--it is at once
too real and not real enough. Presumably, if it exists, the sex tape is
the mediated representation that could never be questioned in terms of
its authenticity--it would be the true evidence of people's intimate
lives. A sex tape, an amateur porn recording of Lauren having sex with
Jason, made by them and not by MTV, not by paparazzi, not by TMZ, would
promise to be more real than anything we have seen on MTV or in
magazines or on Letterman. We can only imagine it, of course, and like
Spencer we might think we prefer not to. Let's imagine that it's
underexposed, unedited, framed so you can't quite see some things you
might like to, that there are fragments of speech that don't easily make
sense. Let's imagine it has those amateur qualities that guarantee
authenticity. These characteristics, only hinted at or assumed or
projected onto it as products of fantasy, are those of a true document
of desire, untainted by dramatic performance and slick cinematography
and editing and the pop hits of the next five minutes and the whole bag
of tricks that MTV uses to make us at once so wowed by the magic of
moving images and so suspicious of their manipulative powers.
Or maybe it was part of an aspiring famewhore's quest to be another
Paris Hilton...
Psalm 67:7
Proud
Microsoft discussions completely over " Total Breakdown of Communication "
It seems the dream is over as Microsoft completely ends communication with " YAHOO " as the company retreats from a disastrous position in yahoo which didn't bear any fruits. As billionaire " KARL ICAHN " increases his position in Yahoo for another 80 Million one has to wonder why the wasted breath as this merger is completely over.0 Comments Published by Search on at 6:45 PM.
(“Micron”)
626 RexCorp Plaza
Uniondale, New York
11556 USA
May 12, 2008
MENV-USA
NDDA-Germany
Micron Enviro Systems Inc. Submits Additional Coal Permits in East Central Saskatchewan near Goldsource's New Discovery
Micron Enviro Systems, Inc.'s ("Micron" or the “Company”) wishes to announce that it has submitted additional coal permits encompassing approximately two additional townships (approximately 40,000 acres) in east central Saskatchewan, Canada. This would give Micron a potential claim area of approximately 63,000 acres of which the Company would have a 100% ownership in should it be successful in the bid process. This acreage is in close proximity to a recent new coal discovery made by Goldsource Mines Inc. There are no guarantees that any of these proposed permits will be awarded to Micron.
Bradley Rudman, president of Micron stated, “It appears that this area may host a new major coal deposit. Goldsource's shares have risen from $0.30 to $5.27 in the past few trading sessions since announcing this potential new coal deposit. Micron was able to be one of the first to stake land shortly after the Goldsource discovery. We are now attempting to increase this potential land position and management anticipates adding additional prospects in the future. When you factor in this tremendously exciting prospect with our substantial land position in the Alberta Oilsands, clearly the Company seems to be turning in the right direction.”
Micron is an emerging oil and gas company that now has exposure to multiple leases consisting of interests in 50.5 gross sections (31,945 acres) in the Oil Sands of Alberta, Canada, which is one of the largest oil producing regions in the world. Micron holds 100% interest in 4 sections, 50% interest in 16 other sections, 5% interest in 26 sections, and has a 4.17 % net interest in 4.5 additional Oil Sands sections. Micron also has pending coal applications outstanding at this time covering approximately 63,000 acres in Saskatchewan Canada. Management's goal is to build the asset base of the Company through strategic alliances and independent acquisitions that will build long-term shareholder value. Management continues to look for additional projects that would contribute to building Micron's market capitalization, including additional Oil Sands projects. Please visit our website for detailed maps of the locations of Micron's prospects at www.micronenviro.com
If you have any questions, please call Micron at (516) 640-9926. If you would like to be added to Micron's update email list, please send an email to info@micronenviro.com requesting to be added.
Contact Information:
Bradley Rudman
Micron Enviro Systems, Inc.
ir@micronenviro.com
TEL: 516 640 9926
This service is intended for dissemination of company information only. This is not a solicitation to buy or sell securities. Any decision to buy or sell securities should be discussed with a professional in the financial industry. If you would like to be deleted from this service or feel this message was sent in error, please send an email to ir@micronenviro.com with delete in the subject line and use the exact email address as it appears in this message. If you have asked previously to be deleted, we apologize as we have experienced some technical difficulties in the past month. 0 Comments Published by Search on at 5:38 PM.
Nous sommes désolés, CIBC en direct n'est pas disponible en ce moment. Nous nous excusons de tout inconvénient que cette situation pourrait vous causer.cibc.com uses an invalid security certificate.
The certificate is only valid for www.cibc.com.
(Error code: ssl_error_bad_cert_domain)
* This could be a problem with the server's configuration, or it could be someone trying to impersonate the server.
* If you have connected to this server successfully in the past, the error may be temporary, and you can try again later.
Or you can add an exception… 0 Comments Published by Search on at 8:20 AM.
