MartinBlee.com

Trish Stratus makers her action Film Debut in ‘Bounty Hunters’ on February 28th

martin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:57:21 +0000

THE MOST HONORED AND REVERED WOMAN WRESTLER IN HISTORY MAKES HER BUTT-KICKING ACTION MOVIE DEBUT

BOUNTY HUNTERS

Seven-Time WWE Champion Trish Stratus Hits the Streets to Put All the Scum on Notice That They Have a New Force to Reckon With in This Adrenaline-Fueled Thriller, Coming to DVD From MPI on February 28, 2012

New York, NY (January 30, 2012) – She’s the pro wrestling phenomenon with the covergirl looks, and now Trish Stratus brings her breathtaking awesomeness to the screen in her action-movie debut, BOUNTY HUNTERS. The action-packed thriller, which gives fans a look at the impressive Stratus that they’ve never seen on WWE Raw, hits DVD on February 28, 2012, from MPI Home Video, with an SRP of $24.98.

A group of down-on-their-luck bounty hunters, led by Jules Taylor (Stratus), hit the jackpot one night when they pick up an informant with $100,000 on his head. But their world is turned upside down when mob boss Hal Lambrino (Joe Rafla) and his impressive associate Ruby (Andrea James Lui) offer them a million dollars in exchange for the informant.

When Jules and her partners Chase (Boomer Phillips) and Ridley (Frank J. Zupancic) refuse “the offer you can’t refuse,” the Mafia unleashes a trio of assassins on them who use all their power to bring the bounty hunters down, and to get their man – dead or alive.

In the course of the nonstop action, Stratus puts her amazing wrestling moves to good use, battling a bail dodger in a gym and, most memorably, getting into it with Ruby in an ambulance – a mighty display of flying legs, one woman outfitted in a nurse’s uniform, the other in a hospital gown. The movie “has some real fights in there and they are, quite frankly, moments of awesomeness,” raved Fred Topel of Screen Junkies.

Besides being WWE Women’s Champion an amazing seven times, Trish Stratus has had a remarkable career outside the ring, including sexy cover girl, fitness icon, yoga entrepreneur, travel series creator and host, reality TV star and comedic performer on such shows as MAD TV. And now, BOUNTY HUNTERS, directed by Patrick McBrearty (Psycho Ward), provides yet another level of Stratusfaction to the countless fans of this stunning force of nature.

About Trish Stratus

Trish Stratus is a fitness icon, TV personality and entrepreneur who is recognized as one of the top sports entertainment athletes in the world through her achievements as a seven-time WWE Women’s Champion. Over the last decade, Stratus has dedicated her life to health and fitness, and has parlayed her success and passion into a recognized lifestyle brand. Stratusphere was officially launched with the opening of her yoga studio, the largest in Canada. Stratusphere Living, a yoga fitness product line created by Trish launched nationally fall 2011 with the release of her first workout DVD ‘Stratusphere Yoga’ all of which reflect her core philosophy of achieving wellness through balanced living. For more information please visit www.trishstratus.com or follow @trishstratuscom

Media contact: med...@trishstratus.com

About MPI Home Video
Chicago based MPI Home Video, a subsidiary of MPI Media Group, is a market leader for high quality releases to both wide and specialized audiences through home video distribution. Founded in 1976, MPI Home Video remains one of the largest independent companies producing and distributing a compelling slate of the world’s most respected cinema, documentaries, performances and television programs. www.mpihomevideo.com

About MPI Media Group
The MPI Media Group is a leading producer, distributor and licensor of films, home entertainment, historical footage and more. Founded in 1976, Chicago-based MPI Media Group remains one of the largest independent entertainment companies producing and distributing a compelling slate of the world’s most respected cinema, documentaries, performances and television programs. MPI’s wholly owned subsidiaries include MPI Home Entertainment, Dark Sky Films, and the WPA Film Library. www.mpimediagroup.com

For Screeners and press inquiries:
Daniela Sapkar / Diana Camurovski
Dani...@SapkarPR.com / Dia...@SapkarPR.com
646.644.4418

# # #

BOUNTY HUNTERS
Street date: February 28, 2012
Prebook: January 23, 2012
SRP: $24.98
Running time: 80 minutes
Not rated

Source: Trish Stratus

Tim Thomas on Obama snub: ‘Not about politics or party’ but ‘right as a Free Citizen’

martin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:52:04 +0000

Tim Thomas was the only Boston Bruins player from their 2011 Stanley Cup championship team that chose not to attend a White House celebration of their achievement. Cam Neely, the Bruins’ team president, cited Thomas’s “own opinions and political beliefs” for that absence.

On the official Facebook page for Tim Thomas — his other page is for his hockey camps — the Bruins goalie and playoff MVP clarified his absence from the White House event:

“I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People
.
“This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government.

“Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL.

“This is the only public statement I will be making on this topic. TT”

Something tells me that with Thomas slated to appear in the 2011 NHL All-Star Game this weekend, this might not be the only public statement he’ll make on this controversy. It’s overshadowed the Bruins’ visit to the White House. It’ll likely do the same for Thomas’s participation in the midseason classic.

UPDATE: Cam Neely with a statement from the B’s:

“As an organization we were honored by President Obama’s invitation to the White House. It was a great day and a perfect way to cap our team’s achievement from last season. It was a day that none of us will soon forget. We are disappointed that Tim chose not to join us, and his views certainly do not reflect those of the Jacobs family or the Bruins organization. This will be the last public comment from the Bruins organization on this subject.”

SOPA, PIPA anti-online piracy bills halted by U.S. Congress after Wikipedia protest

martin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:39:35 +0000

U.S. lawmakers halted controversial anti-piracy legislation Friday, delivering a stunning victory for websites like Wikipedia that staged an unprecedented online protest this week to try and kill the bills.

The legislation, known as PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) in the Senate and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in the House of Representatives, are aimed at curbing access to websites that traffic in pirated content and counterfeit products, such as movies and music.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said he would postpone a critical vote that had been scheduled for January 24 “in light of recent events.”

Lamar Smith, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, followed suit, saying his panel would delay action on similar legislation until there is wider agreement on the issue.

The two pieces of legislation set off a wave of protests across the Web this week, which included the popular Website Wikipedia going dark on Wednesday and Silicon Valley giant Google Inc. blacking out part of its homepage to U.S. users.

“I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy,” U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, a Republican from Texas and the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products,” Smith said.

Support for the two bills has eroded over the past 48 hours after some of the world’s largest Web companies came out against the bills, claiming the legislation could threaten the business models of legitimate Web-based companies.

Several sponsors of the legislation, including senators Roy Blunt, Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, John Boozman and Marco Rubio, have withdrawn their support.

The bills appeared to be on track for approval by both the Senate and Congress, but shifting popular opinion and an implicit veto threat from the White House eventually cast doubt on the whether legislation would have the necessary support to pass.

In a brief statement on Friday, Reid said there was no reason why concerns about the legislation cannot be resolved. He offered no new date for the vote.

Source: financialpost

What is SOPA? / What is PIPA?

martin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:13:31 +0000

What is SOPA?

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, H.R. 3261) is on the surface a bill that attempts to curb online piracy. Sadly, the proposed way it goes about doing this would devastate the online economy and the overall freedom of the web. It would particularly affect sites with heavy user generated content. Sites like Youtube, Reddit, Twitter, and others may cease to exist in their current form if this bill is passed.

What is PIPA?

The Protect IP Act (PIPA, S. 968) is SOPA’s twin in the Senate. Under current DMCA law, if a user uploads a copyrighted movie to sites like Youtube, the site isn’t held accountable so long as they provide a way to report user infringement. The user who uploaded the movie is held accountable for their actions, not the site. PIPA would change that – it would place the blame on the site itself, and would also provide a way for copyright holders to seize the site’s domain in extreme circumstances.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation laid out four excellent points as to why the bills are not only dangerous, but are also not effective for what they are trying to accomplish:

The blacklist bills are expensive. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that PIPA alone would cost the taxpayers at least $47 million over 5 years, and could cost the private sector many times more. Those costs would be carried mostly by the tech industry, hampering growth and innovation.
The blacklist bills silence legitimate speech. Rightsholders, ISPs, or the government could shut down sites with accusations of infringement, and without real due process.
The blacklist bills are bad for the architecture of the Internet. But don’t take our word for it: see the open letters that dozens of the Internet’s concerned creators have submitted to Congress about the impact the bills would have on the security of the web.
The blacklist bills won’t stop online piracy. The tools these bills would grant rightsholders are like chainsaws in an operating room: they do a lot of damage, and they aren’t very effective in the first place. The filtering methods might dissuade casual users, but they would be trivial for dedicated and technically savvy users to circumvent.

Source: SOPAblackout

Wikipedia, WordPress and Anonymous and Express Opposition to SOPA

martin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:06:10 +0000

Hacker group Anonymous has announced that it will stop all operations for twelve hours to oppose the passing of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) as a law in the US.

Hot on the heels of Reddit’s take on SOPA, the controversial hacker group now wants to jump aboard a massive blackout on January 18 from 8AM to 8PM.

Anonymous, through its @AnonymousIRC Twitter account, is also trying to persuade other big companies and organizations such as Google and Wikipedia to join the protest.

“Reddit recently announced that they will be blacking out the site from 0800-2000, Jan 18th,” said Wikipedia head Jimmy Wales. “Were Wikipedia to consider a similar measure, it might make sense to do so at the same time, to increase impact.”

“You are an agent of change. Has anyone ever told you that? Well, I just did, and I meant it,” said WordPress as it also joined the fray against SOPA. “There’s something going on in U.S. politics right now that we need to make sure you know about and understand, because it affects us all.”

“We are not a small group. More than 60 million people use WordPress – it’s said to power about 15 per cent of the web. We can make an impact, and you can be an agent of change,” WordPress added. “The Senate votes in two weeks, and we need to help at least 41 more senators see reason before then. Please. Make your voice heard.”

Source: Socialbarrel

Facebook Introduces Timeline

martin — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 04:03:38 +0000

The biggest development in Facebook since they dropped “The” is all set to go. Facebook announced this morning that Timeline would be available worldwide starting today. You can check out the introduction below. Timeline makes a user’s entire history of photos, videos, links and other things shared on Facebook much more accessible with a single click.

When you activate the Timeline, the familiar Facebook page is re-arranged into a month by month history of your life, complete with photos, friends and comments from your Facebook history. Everything from forgotten faces and friends to lost loves are suddenly staring back at you. So be ready for a heavy dose of nostalgia.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, introduced Timeline in September of this year during the company’s annual developer conference in San Francisco. He described it as a platform where by users could present a more detailed portrait of their lives. Friends would be freed from having to read updates or look at profile pictures to see what their friends are up to.

Not ready to make the change? You get a seven-day review period, where you can go through your profile and hide or delete unwanted posts.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Whenever they do activate Timeline, from that point is when they’ll be able to review their content for seven days before anyone else will see it”). So it’s probably worth the effort for you to go through your posts and edit out unfavorable content.

As you design your timeline you will have the option to feature certain stories as well as edit, hide or completely remove posts. Hiding stories is also simple enough. Select the pen on the top corner of a post and options will pop up, like hide a post or disable an app. You can also change the date or location of events. To feature an event in your timeline, roll over the story and click the star to expand it to two columns.

If you want to preview how your timeline appears to other users, all you need to do is click on the gear menu at the top of your timeline and select “View As”. Enter a user’s name and you get an idea of how they see your page.

Overall, this is going to be a noticeable change to your Facebook experience to say the least. In essence, Timeline is a complete revamping of Facebook. How do you feel about these changes? Are you comfortable with all your information being more readily available to other users?

Google’s 10-cent app sale part of 10 billion downloads promo Day 10

martin — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 08:17:15 +0000

Welcome to the final day of Google’s 10-day, 10-cent, 10 billion app download celebration where 10 apps will be sold for a measly dime. It has been a fun 10 days to get a lot of premium apps from the Android Market to get them for only 10 cents.

These are the apps being offered:

Google’s 10-cent app sale part of 10 billion downloads promo Day 9

martin — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:11:04 +0000

Welcome to Day 9 of Google’s 10-day, 10-cent, 10 billion app download celebration where 10 apps will be sold for a measly dime. Were have a 2 more days of these great prices for these apps!

These are the apps being offered:

Google’s 10-cent app sale part of 10 billion downloads promo Day 8

martin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:40:00 +0000

Welcome to Day 8 of Google’s 10-day, 10-cent, 10 billion app download celebration where 10 apps will be sold for a measly dime. Were have a 3 more days of these great prices for these apps!

These are the apps being offered:

Google’s 10-cent app sale part of 10 billion downloads promo Day 7

martin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:51:36 +0000

Welcome to Day 7 of Google’s 10-day, 10-cent, 10 billion app download celebration where 10 apps will be sold for a measly dime. Were have a few more days of these great prices for these apps!

These are the apps being offered: