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The Ten Biggest ‘Green’ Car Failures of All Time(0) In the past four decades, cars have grown significantly cleaner and more fuel efficient, but it’s been a bumpy road getting there. These are Jalopnik readers’ picks for the ten most expensive, inefficient measures to make cars “green.” Welcome back to Answers of the Day — our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day’s Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It’s by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy! Photo Credit: GM Suggested By: 3pedalsgood Why it failed: The Solar Car Challenge is a yearly competition for high schools to build and race a solar-powered car. It’s a fine idea for getting people involved with engineering. But solar-powered cars? Other than a limited use of solar for powering accessories in vehicles like the Fisker Karma, it’s not happening anytime soon. Photo Credit: Pspatry. Suggested By: zacarious Why it failed: Today, more and more engines employ cylinder deactivation. What the systems do is shut down a number of cylinders when the driver is just cruising on the highway, using very little throttle. Back in 1981, when the technology was new, GM decided that Cadillac should try it out to make their big V8s more fuel efficient. The engines were completely crude, the shut-off was the opposite of smooth, and the cars broke down regularly. Oh, and it produced 140 horsepower out of six liters of displacement. Photo Credit: Cadillac/Old Car Brochures. 8.) California’s Cool Cars Initiative Suggested By: Buckus Why it failed: California’s Air Resources Board has one of the least enviable jobs of a government agency: cleaning up the air in a smog-ridden state that loves cars. Some of their draconian rules about smog equipment and old car certification can be seen as necessary evils, but CARB’s “Cool Cars” plan of the late 2000s was a complete flop. The idea was to reduce the amount of air conditioning people would use. Air conditioning uses engine power, which sucks gas. The regulation would require manufacturers to use reflective paints in their cars. First, people thought that CARB was banning black paint, and then they realized that most of the heat soak in cars was through the windows. Over fears that GPS systems, cellphones, and ankle monitors wouldn’t work, CARB gave up on the whole plan in early 2010. Photo Credit: Hashem Akbari, Berkeley Lab. 7.) Arizona alternative fuel rebate Suggested By: iowncalculus Why it failed: Back in 2000, Arizona offered to pay half the cost of any alternative fuel vehicle, in an effort to promote clean cars and improve the state’s surprisingly bad air quality. People figured out that they could fit a one-gallon compressed natural gas tank to an SUV and get the state to pay half the price. When Arizona realized they would be paying half the cost of $50,000 leather-lined Excursions at an estimated total cost of $600 million dollars (that was 10% of the state’s yearly budget) they quit the plan, leaving people to foot the bill on these CNG-equipped vehicles themselves. Photo Credit: GMC. Suggested By: Viperfan1 Why it failed: Corn ethanol seems to make sense – there’s too much corn in the Midwest, so why not make it into a fuel that’s got a higher octane rating than pump gas? Well, you can’t put it in a pipeline, so you have to truck it everywhere, and it cuts into your gas mileage. Biofuels are really fantastic, but E85 is not the way of the future. Photo Credit: Getty Images. 5.) CAFE’s light truck loophole Suggested By: KillerKoala Why it failed: CAFE stands for Corporate Average Fuel Economy. It defines how fuel efficient a car manufacturer’s vehicles must be, and it is broken down into different categories based on size and weight. Each different kind of vehicle has a different standard. CAFE started out in the 1970s with much lighter fuel economy standards for light trucks than full-size family cars. This seemed to make sense, as trucks were used for work, and businesses needed cheap, powerful engines. US carmakers, however, capitalized off the growing market for recreational trucks and started building SUVs intended for people to just drive around in. These SUVs were cheap to build ad they didn’t have to comply with the tough emissions and fuel economy standards of regular cars. This loophole meant that Americans just switched from driving big, heavy sedans to big heavy SUVs, without effecting any real change in fuel economy. Photo Credit: Ford. Suggested By: claiborne Why it failed: The most egregious manifestation of the light trucks loophole are SUV hybrids. The worst offenders are the ones from GM and Chrysler that come with big “Hybrid” badges to show off their mileage numbers bested by just about any station wagon on the market. In cities where hybrids are allowed special privileges, like exemption from London’s inner-city congestion charge, they’re just insulting. Photo Credit: Cadillac. Suggested By: My X-type is too a real Jaguar Why it failed: The idea behind cash for clunkers was to get people out of smog-producing old cars and into new fuel-efficient ones. New car sales spiked only for a few months, used car prices have gone up and stayed up, and we’ve seen the death of all kinds of strange, beautiful old machines. It wasn’t worth it. Photo Credit: Detroit Free Press. Suggested By: Wolc Why it failed: Everyone loved the EV1. Everyone but GM. The car was doomed to slow sales, so GM cut the program early and crushed the cars. Ask anyone who owned one and they loved it. While Toyota was content to lose money for years developing the Prius, GM couldn’t stand a little bit of an investment in clean tech. Photo Credit: Associated Press. Suggested By: Irving Washington Why it failed: In the year following the 1973 Oil Crisis, the Congress enacted the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act setting a national speed limit at 55. The double nickel was supposed to greatly cut fuel consumption and the ensuing pollution, as cars create significantly more drag at highway speeds. studies found it was a mere 22-45% as effective as anyone hoped. This hellish restriction on the nation’s transportation network was finally fully repealed in 1995, after getting bumped up to 65 in December 1987. It was a dark time for this country. Photo Credit: Associated Press. Source: Jalopnik. |
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22 Red Flags That Indicate Doom is Coming for Global Financial Markets(0) If you enjoy watching financial doom, then you are quite likely to really enjoy the rest of 2012. Right now, red flags are popping up all over the place. Corporate insiders are selling off stock like there is no tomorrow, major economies all over Europe continue to implode, the IMF is warning that the eurozone could actually break up and there are signs of trouble at major banks all over the planet. Unfortunately, it looks like the period of relative stability that global financial markets have been enjoying is about to come to an end. A whole host of problems that have been festering just below the surface are starting to manifest, and we are beginning to see the ingredients for a “perfect storm” start to come together. The greatest global debt bubble in human history is showing signs that it is getting ready to burst, and when that happens the consequences are going to be absolutely horrific. Hopefully we still have at least a little bit more time before the global financial system implodes, but at this point it doesn’t look like anything is going to be able to stop the chaos that is on the horizon. The following are 22 red flags that indicate that very serious doom is coming for global financial markets…. CONTINUED at the Economic Collapse. |
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Marco Rubio’s Loyalty to Corruption(1) From his first days on the political scene, Sen. Marco Rubio has never strayed far from his close friend, Rep. David Rivera. The men first met while volunteering for then Florida State Senator Lincoln Diaz-Balart’s first congressional campaign in 1992. A few years later, Rivera hired Rubio out of law school in Miami to work on Bob Dole’s doomed presidential bid. By 2002, they were colleagues in the Florida state house and when Rubio was elected speaker in 2006, Rivera took up as his top lieutenant. They rode into Washington together on the crest of a powerful GOP midterm wave in 2010, Rubio as a senator, Rivera as the new house representative from Florida’s 25th district. Today, Rubio is one of the Republican’s party’s most buzzed-about young stars and an early favorite to run alongside presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in the coming general election. Despite repeated statements that he “won’t be the vice president,” operatives in both parties told ABC News they believe Rubio is seeking the bid. “He wants it,” one Democratic strategist said. “He can say what he wants, but he’s doing all the things that people who want to be the running mate do. He’s going to South Carolina [to speak before state party bigwigs at their annual Silver Elephant dinner] and working on some Republican version of the Dream Act.” What Rubio has not done – and recently told POLITICO he never will — is break his ties to David Rivera. Featured prominently in the non-partisan “Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington” 2011 “Most Corrupt” list, Rivera has been “under investigation by at least five different law enforcement agencies for a range of violations,” including payments he allegedly received in connection with the successful campaign (led, at times, by his mother’s consulting firm) to legalize slot machines at horse and dog-racing tracks. (On Wednesday night, The Miami Herald reported that Rivera would not be charged by state prosecutors for actions detailed in a scathing report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement because the statute of limitations had expired on the alleged crimes. The same Herald story maintains that the IRS and FBI are still investigating his role in a $510,000 payment made by dog track owners to his mother and godmother’s firm.) The alleged dog track shenanigans cap off a decade of sometimes odd brushes with the law. On Sept. 6, 2002, the Florida Highway Patrol recorded an incident in which a car driven by Rivera ran a truck carrying flyers authored by a political opponent off the road, forcing it to the shoulder. The delay kept the potentially damaging mailers on board from arriving at the post office before a 6 p.m. deadline. Rivera said in a statement shortly after the incident that the truck was carrying his mailers, too, and that he was only trying to retrieve his own materials. Earlier this year, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor expressed “concern” about the probes and at least one GOP strategist, speaking to ABC News, referred to Rivera as one of the “possible skeletons in [Rubio's] closet.” Asked if he was concerned that the allegations, from the 2002 highway incident to the dog track controversy and the revelation that he had not, despite reporting it as a source of income, ever worked for USAID, could hurt his friend Rubio’s standing in the party, Rivera told ABC News, simply, “No.” When pressed for specific details about the timeline of events surrounding a threatened foreclosure on — and eventual decision to sell — a home he and Rubio bought together in Tallahassee during their time in the statehouse, Rivera said, “You’ll have to ask Marco.” Faced with that, a spokesman for Rubio wrote: “The issue over the home mortgage payments has been really well documented. There was confusion over the payments, and Sen. Rubio paid the bank as soon as he became aware of the issue.” The reality is a bit more complicated. Rivera said the bank “was overcharging us,” so he and Rubio decided to withhold payment until the dispute was settled. But it was only after Deutsche Bank filed suit and threatened to foreclose that Rubio delivered a check to the mortgage company’s lawyers. Later on they tried and failed to sell the home. “The real estate market is still really struggling there,” Rivera said. The property is now being rented. Even with allegations and investigations swirling, Rubio has remained steadfast by his friend’s side. He will hold a fundraiser for Rivera in Washington, D.C., later next month and, according to Rivera, Rubio speaks to him regularly about matters both personal and political. “I don’t think there’s another vice presidential candidate that could energize the ticket the way Marco could,” Rivera said over the phone Monday night. “Both in substance and style, he has the ability to communicate an optimistic and conservative message. “But he’s told me in private exactly what he’s said in public, that he’s not going to be picked. He has told me he’s not going to be picked [as Romney's running mate.]” One GOP strategist with strong ties to Florida state politics, Tim Baker, said he “takes Sen. Rubio at his word that wants to remain a great senator from Florida.” And that may well be the case, but after years operating at the center of South Florida’s politically powerful Cuban-American community, Rubio must maneuver carefully. Breaking with Rivera could solve one problem, but create another, more damaging set of circumstances. If Rubio’s appeal as a running mate is primarily rooted in his perceived ability to rally the Hispanic vote, which broke strongly for President Obama and the Democrats in 2008, it is critical that he has the full support of his constituency back home. Should Miami turn its back on him, his very reason for cutting ties with Rivera — ending their very real friendship — would be mooted and his Florida-based political career placed in unique peril. Source: ABC News. |
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15 Hot Small Business StartupsComments Off Everyday the SBA’s Office of Advocacy receives hundreds and hundreds of emails and phone calls by individuals who want to start their own small business. The Office of Advocacy defines a small business for research purposes as an independent business having fewer than 500 employees. Firms wishing to be designated small businesses for government programs such as contracting must meet size standards specified by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Size Standards. These standards vary by industry–seewww.sba.gov/size. Here are some of the most common questions the Office receives everyday along with their responses. How important are small businesses to the U.S. economy? Small firms: • Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms. Yes, it is a fact. • Employ just over half of all private sector employees. • Pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll. Small biz is a machine. • Have generated 64 percent of net new jobs over the past 15 years. o Create more than half of the nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP). • Hire 40 percent of high tech workers (such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers). • Are 52 percent home-based and 2 percent franchises. • Made up 97.3 percent of all identified exporters and produced 30.2 percent of the known export value in FY 2007. • Produce 13 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms; these patents are twice as likely as large firm patents to be among the one percent most cited. Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census and International Trade Admin.; Advocacy-funded research by Kathryn Kobe, 2007 (www. sba.gov/advo/research/rs299tot.pdf) and CHI Research, 2003 (www.sba. gov/advo/research/rs225tot.pdf); U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. CONTINUED at Small Business Opportunities. |
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The Top Ten Cars Cheating Spouses DriveComments Off It turns out that when it comes to cars, style has very little to do with cheating on your spouse. At least according to a completely unscientific survey released by adulterer website AshleyMadison.com, the car most preferred by men who cheat is the beigest brand around — Toyota. But all you cheating guys should rest easy — women aren’t any better. Their top brand? Honda. See if your car made the cut below. The survey, which was not in any way scientific, was conducted of 3,600 users of the world’s most popular website for adultery, AshleyMadison.com. The site says those responses were broken up into 2,520 men and 1,080 women in the United States. Although most respondents trended more toward consumer appliances, USA Today‘s Chris Woodyard explains that at least demographics showed a bit more “class”:
Well, if you’re going to go beige, at least go for expensive beige, right? The results help prove a point for the CEO of the website — that cheaters are regular people. They’re Dick and Jane Smith. “Cars can represent a lifestyle, denote financial success and show personality but our survey clearly proves that people having affairs are everyday people,” says Noel Biderman, AshleyMadison.com’s CEO, in a statement. Anyway, here’s the full breakout — by gender: MEN WOMEN It is worth noting that BMW did break the top five for men — one of only two luxury brands to even make the top ten. Which again provides further ammunition for that most notable of stereotypes about BMW drivers. You know the one I’m talking about. Source: Jalopnik. |
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19 Things the Mainstream Media is Being Strangely Silent AboutComments Off If the talking heads on television don’t tell us about something that happens, does it make that event any less real? Of course the answer to that question is quite obvious, but unfortunately way too many Americans allow their realities to be defined by what they hear from the mainstream media. Way too many people use phrases such as “if that was true I would have heard about it on television” to deflect conversations that are starting to become uncomfortable. Critical thinking is a skill that is in short supply in America today, and most Americans seem content to let their televisions do their thinking for them. Sadly, the pretty people on television do not spend a lot of time talking about the things that are truly important. Instead, they love to talk about the latest celebrity scandal and they love to divide people into groups and get them fighting with one another. In this day and age, it is absolutely critical that we all learn to think for ourselves. The talking heads on television are concerned with keeping their bosses happy and with keeping the ratings up. Most of them are not really concerned about what happens to you. They just want you to keep watching them so that they can continue to earn their inflated salaries. Unfortunately, most Americans seem perfectly content with the “infotainment” that they are getting from the major news networks, so major changes to the mainstream media are not likely to happen any time soon. For those wanting something different, you will have to seek out alternative sources of news (such as this website) that are willing to discuss the truly earth shattering events that are continually taking place all over the globe. So what are some of the things that the mainstream media has been ignoring? The following are 19 things that the talking heads on television have been strangely silent about…. List CONTINUED at the American Dream. |
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21 Signs That the UK is Becoming a Big Brother Surveillance SocietyComments Off Why would anyone want to live in the UK at this point? Well, if you enjoy having every little detail of your life dictated to you by elitist control freaks then you might like living there. But most of the rest of the world is absolutely horrified that the UK is being transformed into a hellish Big Brother surveillance society. The UK truly is on the “cutting edge” when it comes to implementing liberty-killing rules and regulations. Many have pointed out that the United States is becoming a Big Brother police state, but the truth is that the UK is even worse. The madness going on in the UK is where the rest of the world is headed. Right now, there are more surveillance cameras per capita in the UK than anywhere else in the world. If you accidentally drop a couple of potato chips in public or if you whisper a phrase that is not politically correct in a restaurant there is a good chance that you will be hauled into court. In the UK, the public has been sold the lie that society will be better off if everything and everyone is constantly monitored. But instead of improving society, what all of this surveillance is really doing is turning the entire nation into a very frightening version of George Orwell’s 1984. Sadly, most of the rest of the globe is going down the exact same path that the UK has gone. The UK is several years ahead of most of the rest of us, but eventually almost every nation on earth will be just like them. The following are 21 signs that the UK is being transformed into a hellish Big Brother surveillance society…. #1 A new UK law will allow the government “listening agency” to openly monitor all phone calls, all emails, all website visits, all Facebook status updates and all text messages. CONTINUED at the American Dream. |
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20 Signs That We Are Witnessing the Complete Collapse of Common Sense in AmericaComments Off What do you do when an entire nation begins to lose the capacity to think rationally? Many Americans spend a great deal of time criticizing the government, and there is certainly a lot to complain about, but it is not just the government that is the problem. All over America, people appear to be going insane. It is almost as if we have been cursed with stupidity. Sadly, this applies from the very top of our society all the way down to the very bottom. A lot of us find ourselves asking the following question much more frequently these days: “How could they be so stupid?” Unfortunately, we are witnessing a complete collapse of common sense all over America. Many people seem to believe that if we could just get Obama out of office or if we could just reform our economic system that our problems as a nation would be solved, but that is simply not true. Our problems run much deeper than that. The societal decay that is plaguing our country is very deep and it is everywhere. We are a nation that is full of people that do not care about others and that just want to do what is right in their own eyes. We hold ourselves out to the rest of the world as “the greatest nation on earth” and an example that everyone else should follow, and yet our own house is rotting all around us. The words “crazy”, “insane” and “deluded” are not nearly strong enough to describe our frame of mind as a country. America has become a sad, delusional old man that can’t even think straight anymore. The evidence of our mental illness is everywhere. The following are 20 signs that we are witnessing the complete collapse of common sense in America…. #1 According to Wired Magazine, FBI agents have been taught that they can “bend or suspend the law” as they pursue criminals and terrorists. But when they break the law they become criminals themselves. #2 A TSA manager (not just an agent) at Dulles International Airport was recently discovered to be running a prostitution ring out of a local hotel room. TSA agents have been charged with crime after crime after crime and yet we continue to allow them to be in charge of airport security. #3 CBS News is reporting that approximately 200 pieces of luggage a day are being stolen by employees at John F. Kennedy International Airport and authorities still have not been able to stop it. #4 Visitors to the United States must now pay $14 to complete an online form that asks them a series of really bizarre questions. For example, one of the questions asks visitors to the U.S. if they ever “collaborated with the Nazis”. #5 The U.S. military is buying huge amounts of electronic parts from China (mistake number one) and a government investigation has uncovered the fact that a large percentage of these parts are counterfeit. Yet the U.S.military continues to buy huge amounts of electronic parts from China (mistake number two). #6 A high school senior in Indiana was recently expelled from school for cussing on Twitter. #7 Police in Chicago apparently believe that our “First Amendment rights can be terminated” at their discretion. #8 Americans are becoming very cruel to one another. This is especially true when it comes to the weak and the elderly. For example, two “caregivers” down in Georgia were recently charged with waterboarding an 89-year-old woman that had been entrusted to their care….
#9 An increasing number of American families are taking out student loansin order to pay for their children’s kindergarten tuition. #10 One town in Massachusetts plans to distribute free condoms to children as young as 12 years of age. #11 Children in America are exposed to enormous amounts of sexual material on television these days, but we are always so shocked when they try to act out on it. The following is one very disturbing example that happened recently in Ohio….
#12 The following is another example from Indiana of how our sexualized society is affecting our young children….
#13 According to Natural News, the Michigan state government intends to raid private farms and kill pigs that have “the wrong hair color” even though some of these farmers have been raising these pigs for decades. #14 An executive order recently updated by the Obama administrationwould give the federal government complete control over all food, all energy, all health resources, all transportation resources and “all other materials, services, and facilities” at the discretion of Barack Obama. The wording of the executive order has been changed so that this can now be done even in “non-emergency” situations. Very few Americans seem concerned by this. #15 These days many Americans are very hesitant to get involved with helping out anyone else. For example, an 86-year-old World War II veteran living near Detroit was recently brutally carjacked in broad daylight at a gas station. He could not walk after the attack because his leg was shattered so he began to crawl across the concrete pavement to get help. Sadly, many people walked past and drove past as if he was not even there. #16 At one airport in Hawaii, TSA agents recently required one new mother to go to a public restroom and fill up the empty baby bottles she was carrying with her own breast milk before they would allow her to get on to her flight. The following is how one local news station described the incident….
#17 Massive brawls have been erupting at Chuck E. Cheese restaurants all over the nation. Police responded to violence at one particular Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Pennsylvania 17 times in just one recent 18 month time period. #18 Thieves in New Jersey have become so desperate for scrap metal that they have started breaking into churches and ripping the copper piping right out of the walls. #19 Tide detergent has become an alternative form of currency on the streets of America and there has been an epidemic of Tide thefts all over the nation. The following is from a recent article in The Daily….
#20 New federal rules will severely restrict the kind of work that children can do on farms in America. Kids will be banned from doing many of the most basic kinds of farm chores under the new regulations. Perhaps the children can just sit inside and watch television while the adults do all the work. As mentioned earlier, what America is experiencing is not just an economiccollapse. The truth is that our entire society is collapsing. For many years our great prosperity masked much of our decline, but now our great economic strength is rapidly fading and it is becoming very difficult to deny how far we have fallen as a nation. You can find more examples of how American society is decaying right here andright here. Anyone with half a brain can see what is happening to the United States. It really is sad, because America was once a truly great nation. So is there any hope of a recovery? Not if we keep going down the same path. In the end, the choice is up to you America. Source: The Economic Collapse. |
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19 Signs That America Has Become a Crazy Control Freak NationComments Off Do you think that you are free? Most Americans would still probably answer “yes” to that question, but is that really the case? In the film Edge of Darkness, Mel Gibson stated that “everything is illegal in Massachusetts”. Well, the same could pretty much be said for the United States as a whole. Our lives are governed by millions of laws, rules and regulations and more are being piled on all the time. In fact, 40,000 new laws just went into effect in January. Every single new law restricts your freedom just a little bit more. The truth is that America has become a crazy control freak nation where virtually everything that we do is highly regulated. You have probably broken multiple laws today that you don’t even know exist. We have all become criminals and lawbreakers because almost everything is illegal at this point. Our politicians are convinced that they are “making life better” by piling gigantic mountains of laws on to our backs, and law enforcement authorities are convinced that they are helping society by “cracking down on crime”, but the reality is that our liberties and our freedoms are being strangled by all of this government oppression. This is not the way that America is supposed to work. Yes, every society needs laws. But the laws should be short enough and simple enough that everybody can read them and understand them. In America today, there is no possible way that any of us could ever read all of the laws that apply to us. Most of us just live our daily lives and try to do the “right” thing. But there is no guarantee that men with guns will not show up at your door one evening because of some obscure regulation that you have broken. The following are 19 signs that America has become a crazy control freak nation where almost everything is illegal…. CONTINUED at the American Dream. |
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Silent Black & White Film “The Artist” Wins Best Picture at the OscarsComments Off Black and White Silent Picture “The Artist” Wins Best Picture at the 2012 Oscars. Here’s the rest of the results. BEST PICTURE BEST ACTOR BEST ACTRESS BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS BEST ANIMATED FILM BEST DIRECTOR BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY BEST ART DIRECTION BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY BEST COSTUME DESIGN BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT BEST EDITING BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM BEST MAKEUP BEST ORIGINAL SCORE BEST ORIGINAL SONG BEST ANIMATED SHORT BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT BEST SOUND EDITING BEST SOUND MIXING BEST VISUAL EFFECTS |
About UsWe’re definitely not progressives or neo-conservatives. Chances are, you will not like us if you are either of those. “I put the bastards of this world on notice that I do not have their best interests at heart. I will try and speak for my reader. That is my promise, and it will be a voice of ink and rage.” - Paul Kemp
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