Mortal Kombat Classic 4 Inch Multipack: Cyrax, Smoke, and Sektor Review
Technical Details
- 4 Inch Multipack. Each figures comes with over 15 points of artuiculation
- Cyrax, Sektor, and Smoke
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Check Out Mortal Kombat Classic 4 Inch Multipack: Cyrax, Smoke, and Sektor
Technical Details
Monday, November 28, 2011
Brett Favre's Consecutive Start Streak - Putting It In Perspective
Brett Favre is inarguably one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. In addition to holding nearly every passing record there is, he also has a Superbowl win under his belt, and he has won 3 league MVP awards.
But perhaps his most impressive accomplishment is his consecutive start record.
Brett Favre began his consecutive start streak in 1992 and kept it alive for 16 seasons, all the way up to his retirement announcement on March 4, 2008. He started in 253 consecutive regular season games. If you count the post season, then he started 275 consecutive games.
As of November 2006, the other NFL teams started 374 quarterbacks in the same time period that the Packers started 1. Chicago started 20 quarterbacks by itself in that same time period.
Favre's streak is quite an impressive record, no doubt. But, have you ever really stopped to think about it? Let me help put it in perspective.
Favre started his consecutive start streak on September 27, 1992.
In 1992:
Tony Romo was 12 years old, Eli Manning was 11 years old, and Ben Roethlisberger was 10 years old. Aaron Rodgers was an 8 year old kid growing up in Chico, California.
Donald Driver, Chad Clifton, and Mark Tauscher were already playing football - IN HIGH SCHOOL, that is.
Trolls were the best selling toy.
Nafta was signed.
CDs surpassed cassette tapes as the preferred medium for recorded music.
Cell phones were practically the size of small suitcases, so they were typically installed in vehicles as car phones.
The internet just started to become popular.
Microsoft shipped Windows 3.1
The Dodge Viper and Jeep Grand Cherokee were introduced.
The Rodney King verdict was announced.
Mike Tyson went on trial. He was charged with raping Desiree Washington, a 1991 Miss Black America contestant.
The "Long Island Lolita", Amy Fisher, was arrested for shooting her lover's wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco.
Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to life in prison.
Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain married Courtney Love.
War began in the former Yugoslavia.
President George H. W. Bush ordered troops into Somalia.
Bill Clinton was elected as the 42nd president of the US.
Sam Kinison and Dick York died.
Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus) was born in 1992.
If you had a baby on the first day of Favre's consecutive start streak, they would be driving now.
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.29; Cost of a gallon of regular gas: $1.13; Cost of a dozen eggs: $0.93; Cost of a gallon of Milk: $2.78; Cost of a car: $16,950
Prince became the highest paid pop artist in the country.
Popular songs in 1992 were: I'm Too Sexy - Right Said Fred; Baby Got Back - Sir Mix-A-Lot; This Used To Be My Playground - Madonna; End Of The Road - Boyz II Men
Popular movies in 1992 were: Wayne's World; A Few Good Men; The Bodyguard; A League Of Their Own; Sister Act
Popular TV shows in 1992 were: Murphy Brown; Coach; Cheers; Full House; Murder, She Wrote; Roseanne
'Mad About You' and 'The Real World' premiered on TV, while 'The Golden Girls' and 'Night Court' ended.
Johnny Carson retired from The Tonight Show.
Wow - that brings back a lot of memories, doesn't it? It's been a long time since Favre began his streak. The next closest player to Favre's consecutive start record is Peyton Manning, with 160 consecutive starts.
If Manning remains uninjured, he has a chance to break Favre's record 94 games from now in the 2013 season. Or maybe it will never be broken at all.
"His record for most consecutive starts will never be broken. It's one of the most amazing records in sports. I guarantee you, he gets an immense amount of respect from every quarterback in the NFL for that record." Carson Palmer - Bengals Quarterback
Chris M. Smith owns http://www.Favre4Sale.com , a Brett Favre fan and memorabilia site. He specializes in Brett Favre merchandise, including jerseys, autographs, helmets, footballs, cards, photos, game-used items, and other Brett Favre gear. He also features the latest in Brett Favre news, videos, articles, pictures, bio info, and retirement information. Visit his site: http://www.Favre4Sale.com
Copyright 2008 Chris M. Smith
Friday, November 25, 2011
Up! Where They Belong - Disney, Pixar, and the New Golden Age of Animation
The nomination of the Disney/Pixar film "UP" in the Best Picture category of the 2010 Academy Awards returns Disney to its rightful position as undisputed king of animated film, a throne it has occupied for most of the past 100 years. Putting aside arguments as to what constitutes an animated film (some claim this appellation for Up's co-nominee Avatar), this marks only the second time an animated feature has been nominated for the award (the first was another Disney film - Beauty and the Beast, of 1991, which somewhat ironically lost out to The Silence of the Lambs, which, it could be argued, resembled Beauty and the Beast in more ways than one.)
Although popular opinion has Avatar as the front runner to win Best Picture, the mere fact of Up's nomination is a vindication of Disney's purchase of the company in 2006 and testament to the courage and commitment of Pixar chairman and CEO Steve Jobs, and creative genius John Lassetter, now Chief Creative Officer of Pixar, and also of Disney Animation Studios.
Disney's wisdom not only in recognising the financial worth of Pixar, but also the artistic worth of its creative team, brings the company back almost full circle to the very earliest days of animation, when founder Walt Disney very quickly realised that he would not be able to achieve his creative and business ambitions single-handedly, and set about employing the very best artists and writers that were available.
His first major collaboration was with friend and former workmate Ub Iwerks, with whom Disney had worked at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio in Kansas City. Although Iwerks was not the only animator with whom Disney worked, he was the most influential on the early films, most notably in his development of the now iconic Mickey Mouse from an earlier Disney character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, rights to which he had lost in a contractual dispute. Using Iwerks' new character, Disney took the risky step of investing in the new film technology of sound, introduced the previous year in The Jazz Singer.
Although Steamboat Willie of 1928, starring Mickey Mouse in his third appearance, is often cited as the first synchronised sound cartoon, it was in fact preceded in 1926 by Max and Dave Fleischer's My Old Kentucky Home, and in 1928 by Dinner Time, created by Paul Terry, later founder of Terrytoons. Neither of these predecessors were successful at the box office, but Steamboat Willie was a sensation. With it, Disney moved into the big time, and embarked on a hugely productive phase in which several Mickey Mouse cartoons (including his first two - Plane Crazy, and The Gallopin' Gaucho - remade with sound) were released each year, along with a number of other titles featuring a growing stable of popular characters.
Disney had combined technical superiority with artistic excellence and business acumen, and this combination of attributes earned him and his company's place at the forefront of the animation industry, a position he cemented four years later when he signed Technicolor to a two year contract for his exclusive use of their new colour processing technique for cartoons.
By the end of the 1930s, Walt Disney was ambitious to develop animation even further. He took the risky, but ultimately profitable leap into animated feature films with the vastly popular and successful Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1938, a film which began several decades of box office domination for Disney, with such iconic films as Bambi (1942), Song of the South (1946), and Cinderella (1950) joining modern classics like The Little Mermaid of 1989, and Beauty and the Beast (1991), in the pantheon of great films - animated and otherwise.
It is no surprise then, that the Disney company recognised the potential of the groundbreaking new medium of computer animation when Pixar made its first feature film Toy Story in 1995. Disney and Pixar entered into a distribution partnership for Toy Story and subsequent Pixar output which, although not without the occasional contractual disputes and personality clashes, eventually led to Disney's purchase of a majority share in Pixar. True to the history of both of these leaders in film animation, the quality of Pixar's work has steadily progressed, and with the appointment of John Lassiter (also a one time Disney animator) as creative director of both companies, there is no reason to doubt that this will continue. It can only be a matter of time until a Disney/Pixar film is given the recognition and respect that this often underrated art form has deserved since the early days of animation.
Andy McScott loves watching films, reading about film history, and writing about film. He has a degree in American Studies, specialising in film, and has even appeared in a film (a 'blink and you'll miss it' extra role in Peter Jackson's "The Frighteners" that is now visible due to advances in DVD freeze frame technology.) His favourite film genres are Western, Gangster, and Animated. Check out some more of his film writing at: http://www.squidoo.com/Top10BestNosesinFilmandTelevision or http://www.squidoo.com/Top10CartoonBirds.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Before They Were Famous - Top 10 Celebrity Lorry Drivers
Actors, athletes and mass murderers - it takes all sorts to drive lorries. With brief details of their involvement in the trade and subsequent celebrity, here is a countdown of the top 10 stars who worked as lorry drivers before they were famous, with varying degrees of success.
# 10 Chris Tarrant:
This radio and television presenter, best known for hosting the TV game show 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?', pursued a number of jobs before finding his feet in television. Tarrant's former roles include long-distance lorry driver, security officer and schoolteacher.
# 9 Chris Eubank:
Chris Eubank is notable for being the only member of our list to have taken up lorry driving after he become famous. October 2003 saw a politically motivated Eubank descending on Whitehall in his personal HGV to protest against the war in Iraq. The former world middleweight champion boxer ended up being arrested for blocking the entrance gates to Downing Street, driving around Parliament Square sounding his horn, with a knife in his pocket, and reversing into a delivery van.
# 8 Rock Hudson:
Hudson was a popular American film and television actor and a romantic leading man in the 1950s and 1960s. During WW II, Hudson served as a Navy airplane mechanic and after the war he was a truck driver. His size and good looks got him into movies.
# 7 Chevy Chase:
Our number seven is an Emmy Award-winning American comedian, writer, and television and film actor. Before his breakthrough as a comedian, Chase worked as a truck driver, cab driver, motorcycle messenger, waiter, busboy, construction worker, audio engineer, produce manager in a supermarket, salesman in a wine store and theatre usher.
# 6 Long Distance Clara:
The only woman on our list and, unfortunately, fictional, juggernaut-driving Clara was the star of 80s children's cartoon 'Pigeon Street'. Some see Long Distance Clara as an unsung feminist icon - her marriage to chef Hugo demonstrated a refreshing reversal of gender stereotypes.
# 5 Charles Bronson:
Charles Bronson was an American actor of 'tough guy' roles who made his name starring in a number of major Hollywood flicks including 'The Great Escape' and 'The Dirty Dozen'. Before becoming famous, Bronson was drafted into the army and was assigned to the Air Corps in 1943. He started as a truck driver and then trained as a pilot, winning awards for good service.
# 4 Richard Pryor:
Pryor was the first African American stand-up comedian to speak candidly to mixed audiences using the language and jokes of the black community. He worked in numerous jobs before finding fame, including truck driving and meatpacking.
# 3 Liam Neeson:
Liam Neeson is a movie star most well known for his role as Oskar Schindler in the 1993 blockbuster 'Schindler's List'. Irish-born Neeson once worked as a truck driver as well as a forklift operator for Guinness, an assistant architect and an amateur boxer.
# 2 Sean Connery:
This retired Scottish actor is best known for starring as James Bond in seven Bond films. Heart-throb Connery joined the Royal Navy after leaving school but was discharged on medical grounds. He went on to a succession of jobs, including lorry driver, labourer and lifeguard.
# 1 Elvis Presley:
The American singer, musician, actor and cultural icon took up truck driving as one of his jobs after graduation. The future 'King' drove a truck for the aptly named 'Crown Electric Company'. Presley even took up wearing his hair longer with a 'ducktail' - the style of truck drivers at the time. A musician for whom a young Elvis Presley auditioned advised him to 'Stick to driving a truck, because you'll never make it as a singer'.
The Mass Murderer - Peter Sutcliffe:
Quite possibly the most evil and deranged presence in the history of lorry driving, the 'Yorkshire Ripper' is far too nasty to make it into our top 10. Between 1975 and 1984, this lorry driver and former gravedigger killed 13 women in a five-year reign of terror before being sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in jail. On his arrest, Sutcliffe claimed that God had told him to go out and kill prostitutes. A sad blemish on the good name of lorry driving.
Celebrities who were lorry drivers before they were famous - a heady mixture of the talented, the eccentric, the unpleasant and the downright brilliant. Who knows what magical creatures are sitting behind the wheels of our country's lorries today?
Luke Humble is the Website manager for The Transport Exchange Group. Their two exchanges, Courier Exchange and Haulage Exchange, provide more backloads for their members and are two of the UK's largest and fastest growing independent freight exchanges. The exchanges are neutral, actively managed and with strict quality control to ensure smooth running.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Fast Food Market Forecast - The Subway Example of Strategic Product Positioning
The United States fast food market has seen a healthy rise in growth within the last three years which forecasts can be sustained. The fast food market is forecast to maintain its current growth expectations, with an anticipated Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 2.3% for the five-year period 2005-2010. This is expected to drive the market to a value of $57.6 billion by the end of 2010. Drivers of growth include increasing numbers of Americans in the workplace, which reduces the amount of time spent on preparing meals at home. In 2010, the United States fast food market is forecast to have a value of $57.6 billion, an increase of 12.1% since 2005.
Forecast Volume
In 2010, the United States fast food market is forecast to have a volume of 37 billion transactions (Figure 1). This represents an increase of 5.3% since 2005. The CAGR of the market volume in the period 2005-2010 is predicted to be 1%.
Success Factors
Success factors for fast food franchisees will include products and marketing targeted to healthier menu selections, brand consistency, low start-up costs, franchisee support, and consumer convenience. Subway ® represents a poignant example of a fast food franchisee ready for success in the future fast food market. Their strategies transcend the fast food market and apply to many other markets and products.
SWOT Analysis
Subway sandwich shops are well positioned to leverage their strengths and address reasonable threats, weaknesses, and opportunities. The table below highlights these Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
Strengths
- Size and number stores and channels
- Menu reflects demand for fresh, healthy and fast.
- Use of non-traditional channels.
- Partnering with the American Heart Association.
- Worldwide brand recognition.
- Customizable menu offerings.
- Low franchisee start up costs.
- Franchisee training is structured, brief and designed to assure rapid start-up and success.
Weaknesses
- Décor is outdated.
- Some franchisees are unhappy.
- Service delivery is inconsistent from store to store.
- Employee turnover is high.
- No control over franchise saturation in given market areas.
Opportunities
- Continue to Grow Global Business.
- Update décor to encourage more dine-in business.
- Improve Customer Service Model.
- Continue to expand channel opportunities to include event wagons.
- Improve franchisee relations.
- Experiment with drive-through business.
- Expand packaged dessert offerings.
- Continue to revise and refresh menu offerings.
- Develop more partnerships with movie producers and toy manufacturers to promote new movie releases through children's menu packaging and co-branding opportunities.
Threats
- Franchisee unrest or litigation.
- Food contamination (spinach).
- Competition.
- Interest Costs.
- Economic downturn.
- Sabotage.
- Law Suits.
Competitive Analysis
Subway is not without competitive pressures. Chief competitors include Yum! Brands, McDonalds, Wendy's, and Jack in the Box. Yum! Brands are the world's largest, with 33,000 restaurants in over 100 countries. Four of the company's highly recognizable brands, KFC, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver's and Taco Bell, are global leaders of the Mexican, chicken, pizza, quick-service seafood categories. Yum! has a workforce of 272,000 employees and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.
McDonald's Corporation (McDonald's) is the world's largest foodservice retailing chain with 31,000 fast-food restaurants in 119 countries. The company also operates restaurants under the brand names 'The Boston Market' and 'Chipotle Mexican Grill'. McDonalds operates largely in the US and the UK and is headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois employing 447,000 people.
Wendy's International (Wendy's) operates three chains of fast food restaurants: Wendy's (the third largest burger chain in the world), Tim Horton's, and Baja Fresh. Wendy's operates over 9700 restaurants in 20 countries, has been included in Fortune magazine's list of top 500 US companies, is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, and employs about 57,000 people.
Jack in the Box owns, operates, and franchises Jack in the Box quick-service hamburger restaurants and Qdoba Mexican Grill fast-casual restaurants and is headquartered in San Diego, California.
Target Markets
The increase in sales of the sandwiches has been a result of decreases in consumer interest in hamburgers and fries and increases in demand for healthier options. Sales of sandwiches are growing 15 percent annually, outpacing the 3 percent sales growth rate for burgers and steaks.
Current Marketing Program
A new breed of restaurant is making big gains against the market-saturated hamburger establishments. Termed "fast-casual," these restaurants are dominated by Mexican chains, and sandwich restaurants offering fresh-baked breads and specialty sandwiches.
Responding to evolving consumer expectations for health, fresh, custom-made sandwiches; Subway's marketing program addresses these expectations through a number of approaches. The most notable were the television commercials featuring Jared. These commercials emphasize the healthy aspects of a Subway sandwich by highlighting the 245 pounds Jared lost by eating a Subway sandwich diet. Subway also markets through a national sponsorship in events such as American Heart Association Heart Walks and local events such as triathlons, and children's sports teams.
The Subway example represents marketing and product strategies that are classic examples of focusing on market demand, consumer trends, product leveraging, and innovation. The marketing strategies of creating clear brand recognition, brand and product association, and market demands, have strategically positioned Subway to advance market share into the near future. These marketing strategies are also repeatable fundamental marketing strategies transcending the fast food market. Does your marketing strategy bind brand recognition to products that support your market's future direction?
Reference
Datamonitor Industry Market Research, (July, 2006), United States Fast Food
For more on Mr. McCarty, please refer to http://www.leadershippinnacle.com
Michael McCarty C.C.C.E, MBA
Mr. McCarty has a proven record of accomplishment in strategic leadership roles for fortune 500 companies. He is an award winning performer in the areas of large-scale operations leadership, strategic planning, senior project management, and significant contributions to the bottom line. Michael has successfully leveraged his leadership skills to provide keen insight, vision, direction, and executive support to financial services firms, information technology firms, and the automotive, credit, and insurance industries. He has been particularly effective in start-up and turnaround situations.
Insisting on integrity, self-reliance, resourcefulness, and ingenuity, Mr. McCarty is an action and solution oriented leader capable of making strong financial contributions to the bottom line. Operational leadership in the areas of process improvements, cost analysis, and innovative revenue generation characterize soundly this veteran executive's distinguished career. For more on Mr. McCarty, please refer to http://www.leadershippinnacle.com
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