NEW YORK (Reuters) - Kevin Smith says he has learned a lot of tough lessons in the two decades since breaking into the film industry with his indie hit "Clerks," and now he wants to pass them on.
"Tough Sh*t: Life Advice From a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good," Smith's fourth book, hits the shelves on Tuesday in the United States. In it, Smith focuses mainly on the highs and lows of the last five years of his career. He also talks about why he intends to retire from directing moviesbuy nike bags online
and other future plans.
"Film is one of the only art forms where you're like, 'I want to express something, give me $20 million and Ben Affleck in order to do it.' I've done that," he told Reuters.
Smith, 41, made "Clerks" for under $30,000 at the local convenience store where he worked. The movie went on to win awards, was acquired for distribution by Miramax Films and pulled in over $3 million in theaters.
Since then, the New Jersey-born Smith has written and directed films including "Dogma," "Chasing Amy," and "Zach and Miri Make a Porno." Some were critically acclaimed, while others, like "Mall Rats," and "Jersey Girl," were panned.
He vowed he is working on only one more live-action feature: "Hit Somebody," a story that follows the life of a Canadian hockey player from 1950 to 1980. After that, he plans to focus mainly on podcasting and his Internet radio station, SModcast.
"Podcasting is the democratization of entertainment. It really blurs the line between the entertainer and the entertained," he said.
Smith has built a large online following, and 'Tough Sh*t' started as a number of tweet responses to questions from some of his more than 2 million Twitter followers, which he began compiling on his "Silent Bob Speaks" website named after one of his more famous characters.
The end result is what Smith calls "part memoir, part advice to me."
"If you like me, I'm a good role model, and maybe you want to do the stuff I've done. But if you don't like me, you use that as fuel too, and you say, 'If this fat chump can do it, I should be even more successful,'" he said.
The book covers a wide range of topics from Smith's difficulties directing Bruce Willis in the buddy flick "Cop Out" to his veneration of hockey great Wayne Gretzky to drug use and his 2010 public feud with Southwest Airlines.
Smith labeled the incident with the low-cost U.S. airline, in which he said he was ejected from a flight for being too big for his seat even though he could buckle his safety belt and put his arm rests down, one of the lowest points of his life.
After he was escorted off the plane, he unleashed a barrage of complaints about his treatment on Twitter and Southwest eventually apologized. But not before the press picked up on Smith's "too fat to fly" tweets.
"You had about 5,000 news articles on Google basednike 60 cheap
on the tweet that I wrote, using my own words against me. That was hands down the low point," he said.
These days, he is keeping busy taking his comedy podcasts onnike sb shoes online
the road for live shows and promoting the work of young independent filmmakers.
He also has an animated "Jay and Silent Bob" film in the works, and an unscripted TV show called "Comic Book Men" filmed inside of Smith's New Jersey-based comic shop. The TV program wrapped up its first season on the AMC network on Sunday.
"If you could figure out how to monetize passion, and that's pretty much what I do, then you've got your handle on something. Basically, I just kind of speak passionately about the stuff that I dig, and that creates content," he said.
(Reporting By John McCrank, editing by Christine Kearney and Bob Tourtellotte)
2012年3月22日星期四
How "Hunger Games" can make Lionsgate a major player
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - With the release of "The Hunger Games"cheap nike dunks free shipping
next week, Lionsgate is about to become a big Hollywood player.
It will still field a hodgepodge of mid-budget Tyler Perry and horror films, but its hotly anticipated film adaptation of Suzanne Collins' bestselling novel will give the studio the kind of blue-chip franchise that can lift a minor company into the stratosphere, provided execs play their cards right.
"This is a game-changer for Lionsgate -- there's going to be huge box-office revenue, huge ancillary revenue and huge merchandising opportunities," Marla Backer, an analyst at Hudson Square Research, told TheWrap.
Even without "Hunger Games," Lionsgate is riding high. In January, the company acquired Summit, the studio behind "Twilight," for $412.5 million. And it got activist investor Carl Icahn to abandon his hostile takeover attempts last year.
The Vancouver-based company, long eager to break through to the top Hollywood ranks, appears poised to finally do so after a bruising year. Lionsgate suffered through a string of flops in 2011, and was still shaking off the after-effects from its brutal proxy fight.
"Hunger Games" and Summit's final "Twilight" installment have brightened the outlook considerably.
"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 2" is scheduled tonike air legend soccer cleats
hit theaters next fall, the final episode in a series that has so far brought in over $2.5 billion worldwide.
The studio expects to generate $1 billion at the North American box office this year, more than double its previous high, according to an individual with knowledge of the situation.
But it's "Hunger Games" that will put the studio on the map.
"Lionsgate could continue on the path that it was on of making smaller budget films with a nice return on investment, but instead this puts the studio on a completely different level," Backer said.
Tracking for the film has been sizzling, with theaters from Ammon, Idaho, to New York City already reporting sell-out crowds for most midnight shows.
Rival studio executives anticipate that the film will draw north of $100 million from more than 4,000 locations over its opening weekend.
"Since the first day that tickets went on sale there's been no let-up," Harry Medved, spokesman for movie-ticketing company Fandango, told TheWrap.
"Hunger Games" was produced for $80 million when tax credits are taken into account and marketed for roughly $45 million domestically, according to an individual with knowledge of the situation. That is about half of what most major studios typically spend to generate awareness for their tentpole offerings.
Despite the relatively tight budget, rival studio executives praised Lionsgate's marketing of the film, noting that while early tracking shows massive awareness among women, it also suggests substantial male interest and the potential for a four quadrant hit.
"This thing is tracking like a Marvel superhero movie with men," one rival executive said. "It may top ‘Twilight,' because those movies never had any men show up."
Unlike "Twilight," Lionsgate also has its principle cast locked up for all of "The Hunger Games" films, avoiding the kind of pricey re-negotiations that tacked tens of millions of dollars on to the budgets of the vampire romance series' later films.
Last year, without a breakout hit to call its own, the studio dwindled to fourth in domestic market share among the smaller independent players, behind Relativity, the Weinstein Co. and Summit.
Lionsgate racked up a disappointing $175.7 million at the domestic box office last year -- a figure that "Hunger Games" could conceivably pass on its own.
But Lionsgate's stock has not been badly bruised by that rough patch, or the fact that it is laying off staff as a byproduct of its merger with Summit. What has allowed the company's share price to nearly double in the past six months to over $13 was anticipation for "Hunger Games," analysts say.
"In the event that the movie didn't work, then the stock would be down very materially," Matthew Harrigan, an analyst at Wunderlich Securities, told TheWrap. "At this point everyone has concluded they're going to do a huge opening weekend, so buying the stock is warranted."
Thanks to its deal with Summit, Lionsgate has the potential to brand itself as the biggest player for young adult moviegoers. It also can make good on a strategy advocated by CEO Jon Feltheimer of making more franchise pictures.
Though the studio plans to only bump up its annual slate of releases from roughly 10 to a little more than 15 films a year, more of the films that it produces will benike accuracy tennis skirt
sequels. The company plans four installments of "Hunger Games" over six years. It also has franchise hopes for "The Expendables, "The Lincoln Lawyer," and the Summit action comedy "Red."
"'Hunger Games' is a once in a lifetime opportunity," Ben Mogil, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, told TheWrap. "Given how successful the franchise seems likely to be, the question is what will they do with the cash. Will they buy some other transformative company or will they pay down their debt aggressively?"
In the short-term, Lionsgate will probably use profits to pay off corporate debt, including some $446 million in high-yield notes, but if the headiest projections come to pass and the studio finds itself with a lot more cash on its balance sheets, it could become a buyer, as well.
Welcome to the big leagues.
next week, Lionsgate is about to become a big Hollywood player.
It will still field a hodgepodge of mid-budget Tyler Perry and horror films, but its hotly anticipated film adaptation of Suzanne Collins' bestselling novel will give the studio the kind of blue-chip franchise that can lift a minor company into the stratosphere, provided execs play their cards right.
"This is a game-changer for Lionsgate -- there's going to be huge box-office revenue, huge ancillary revenue and huge merchandising opportunities," Marla Backer, an analyst at Hudson Square Research, told TheWrap.
Even without "Hunger Games," Lionsgate is riding high. In January, the company acquired Summit, the studio behind "Twilight," for $412.5 million. And it got activist investor Carl Icahn to abandon his hostile takeover attempts last year.
The Vancouver-based company, long eager to break through to the top Hollywood ranks, appears poised to finally do so after a bruising year. Lionsgate suffered through a string of flops in 2011, and was still shaking off the after-effects from its brutal proxy fight.
"Hunger Games" and Summit's final "Twilight" installment have brightened the outlook considerably.
"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 2" is scheduled tonike air legend soccer cleats
hit theaters next fall, the final episode in a series that has so far brought in over $2.5 billion worldwide.
The studio expects to generate $1 billion at the North American box office this year, more than double its previous high, according to an individual with knowledge of the situation.
But it's "Hunger Games" that will put the studio on the map.
"Lionsgate could continue on the path that it was on of making smaller budget films with a nice return on investment, but instead this puts the studio on a completely different level," Backer said.
Tracking for the film has been sizzling, with theaters from Ammon, Idaho, to New York City already reporting sell-out crowds for most midnight shows.
Rival studio executives anticipate that the film will draw north of $100 million from more than 4,000 locations over its opening weekend.
"Since the first day that tickets went on sale there's been no let-up," Harry Medved, spokesman for movie-ticketing company Fandango, told TheWrap.
"Hunger Games" was produced for $80 million when tax credits are taken into account and marketed for roughly $45 million domestically, according to an individual with knowledge of the situation. That is about half of what most major studios typically spend to generate awareness for their tentpole offerings.
Despite the relatively tight budget, rival studio executives praised Lionsgate's marketing of the film, noting that while early tracking shows massive awareness among women, it also suggests substantial male interest and the potential for a four quadrant hit.
"This thing is tracking like a Marvel superhero movie with men," one rival executive said. "It may top ‘Twilight,' because those movies never had any men show up."
Unlike "Twilight," Lionsgate also has its principle cast locked up for all of "The Hunger Games" films, avoiding the kind of pricey re-negotiations that tacked tens of millions of dollars on to the budgets of the vampire romance series' later films.
Last year, without a breakout hit to call its own, the studio dwindled to fourth in domestic market share among the smaller independent players, behind Relativity, the Weinstein Co. and Summit.
Lionsgate racked up a disappointing $175.7 million at the domestic box office last year -- a figure that "Hunger Games" could conceivably pass on its own.
But Lionsgate's stock has not been badly bruised by that rough patch, or the fact that it is laying off staff as a byproduct of its merger with Summit. What has allowed the company's share price to nearly double in the past six months to over $13 was anticipation for "Hunger Games," analysts say.
"In the event that the movie didn't work, then the stock would be down very materially," Matthew Harrigan, an analyst at Wunderlich Securities, told TheWrap. "At this point everyone has concluded they're going to do a huge opening weekend, so buying the stock is warranted."
Thanks to its deal with Summit, Lionsgate has the potential to brand itself as the biggest player for young adult moviegoers. It also can make good on a strategy advocated by CEO Jon Feltheimer of making more franchise pictures.
Though the studio plans to only bump up its annual slate of releases from roughly 10 to a little more than 15 films a year, more of the films that it produces will benike accuracy tennis skirt
sequels. The company plans four installments of "Hunger Games" over six years. It also has franchise hopes for "The Expendables, "The Lincoln Lawyer," and the Summit action comedy "Red."
"'Hunger Games' is a once in a lifetime opportunity," Ben Mogil, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, told TheWrap. "Given how successful the franchise seems likely to be, the question is what will they do with the cash. Will they buy some other transformative company or will they pay down their debt aggressively?"
In the short-term, Lionsgate will probably use profits to pay off corporate debt, including some $446 million in high-yield notes, but if the headiest projections come to pass and the studio finds itself with a lot more cash on its balance sheets, it could become a buyer, as well.
Welcome to the big leagues.
2012年3月15日星期四
The Hunger Games’ star Jennifer Lawrence, like Katniss Everdeen, can’t decide between Peeta and Gale
Fans of "The Hunger Games" are already divided into two warring camps over the popular dystopian novel that is coming to the big screen — Team Peeta vs. Team Gale, forever split over whom heroine Katniss Everdeen should end up with as her true love.
The actress who plays Katniss, however, ischeap nike low dunks
having a much harder time picking a side.
"I think I was Gale, nike outlet johnson creek
until he started getting a little too trigger-happy... or maybe first Peeta and then Gale, or Gale then Peeta?," Jennifer Lawrence told Seventeen magazine. "I went back and forth a lot! I flip-flopped."
Opening March 23, "The Hunger Games" is already being compared to previous pop culture phenomenons like the “Twilight” and “Harry Potter” franchises.
The story is set in a future where 12- to 18-year-olds in outlying districts are subjected to a lottery to produce 24 “tributes” that have to battle to the death for the amusement of the Capitol — a battle in which heroine Katniss (Lawrence) finds herself a competitor.
RELATED: 'HUNGER GAMES' SET TO BECOME NEXT PHENOMENON
The movie also sets up the love triangle — involving Katniss' hunting partner Gale (Liam Hemsworth) and her Hunger Games competitor Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) — that will be at heart of the trilogy and evoke swooning reminiscent ofcoraline nike dunks
the Bella, Edward and Jacob situation from "Twilight."
Off camera, the 21-year-old actress says there was no tension for her affection between the two male leads.
"Josh and Liam are really great friends too," Lawrence told Seventeen. "They are hilarious and sweet. They are like my brothers. As soon as we all got together, we reverted back to being 13-year-olds. Josh and I were neighbors and every time I would come in late I would go bang on the door and wake him up and we'd all hang out."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/hunger-games-star-jennifer-lawrence-katniss-everdeen-t-decide-peeta-gale-article-1.1034763#ixzz1pBXGzfaT
The actress who plays Katniss, however, ischeap nike low dunks
having a much harder time picking a side.
"I think I was Gale, nike outlet johnson creek
until he started getting a little too trigger-happy... or maybe first Peeta and then Gale, or Gale then Peeta?," Jennifer Lawrence told Seventeen magazine. "I went back and forth a lot! I flip-flopped."
Opening March 23, "The Hunger Games" is already being compared to previous pop culture phenomenons like the “Twilight” and “Harry Potter” franchises.
The story is set in a future where 12- to 18-year-olds in outlying districts are subjected to a lottery to produce 24 “tributes” that have to battle to the death for the amusement of the Capitol — a battle in which heroine Katniss (Lawrence) finds herself a competitor.
RELATED: 'HUNGER GAMES' SET TO BECOME NEXT PHENOMENON
The movie also sets up the love triangle — involving Katniss' hunting partner Gale (Liam Hemsworth) and her Hunger Games competitor Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) — that will be at heart of the trilogy and evoke swooning reminiscent ofcoraline nike dunks
the Bella, Edward and Jacob situation from "Twilight."
Off camera, the 21-year-old actress says there was no tension for her affection between the two male leads.
"Josh and Liam are really great friends too," Lawrence told Seventeen. "They are hilarious and sweet. They are like my brothers. As soon as we all got together, we reverted back to being 13-year-olds. Josh and I were neighbors and every time I would come in late I would go bang on the door and wake him up and we'd all hang out."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/hunger-games-star-jennifer-lawrence-katniss-everdeen-t-decide-peeta-gale-article-1.1034763#ixzz1pBXGzfaT
John Carter' shoot had its ups and downs for Taylor Kitsch
It's the weaker gravitational pull on the surface of Mars that allows John Carter to leap tall armies in a single bound in Edgar Rice Burroughs' story.
But since the "John Carter" cast and crew were grounded very much on Earth for filming, actor Taylor Kitsch had to rely on his cursed harness and wires for his superpowers.
For one sequence in which hisnike outlet woodburn
character leaps into the air while learning to "walk" after first arriving on the planet, Kitsch had to be yanked 85 feet up over and over like a human yo-yo.
"I've got the groin scars to prove it," Kitsch, 30, says almost two years later. "To say the least it was insane. ... It was like you open that trailer door at 7 in the morning to get your day started and the first thing you see is that harness staring back at you.
RELATED: 'JOHN CARTER' 100 YEARS IN THE MAKING
"Nothing puts you more in the moment than being tugged f-ing 80 miles an hour up and then into free fall for three or four seconds."
Going into the film, the Canadian actor had an athlete's swagger that he would show these Hollywood types how a real hero does it.
He was a highly touted hockey prospect with cheap nike shox for kids
NHL aspirations a decade ago - before shredding his knee and moving to New York to study acting.
It was Kitsch's turn as a star high school football player in the pilot of "Friday Night Lights" that caught director Andrew Stanton's eye.
But hockey and playing a football jock never prepared Kitsch for the four months of intense weight and cardio training that started at 4 a.m. every morning before the cameras even started rolling.
By the time they did, it felt like he was toiling through his scenes in the heavier atmosphere of Jupiter instead of Utah.
"I just remember one day I literally was so exhausted, I couldn't walk to set and it was probably a hundred yards away," he says. "It was up acreate your own nike shoes online
small hill, and I couldn't walk up there, and I had to get a little cart to take me up there."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/john-carter-shoot-ups-downs-taylor-kitsch-article-1.1035324#ixzz1pBX2J4ev
But since the "John Carter" cast and crew were grounded very much on Earth for filming, actor Taylor Kitsch had to rely on his cursed harness and wires for his superpowers.
For one sequence in which hisnike outlet woodburn
character leaps into the air while learning to "walk" after first arriving on the planet, Kitsch had to be yanked 85 feet up over and over like a human yo-yo.
"I've got the groin scars to prove it," Kitsch, 30, says almost two years later. "To say the least it was insane. ... It was like you open that trailer door at 7 in the morning to get your day started and the first thing you see is that harness staring back at you.
RELATED: 'JOHN CARTER' 100 YEARS IN THE MAKING
"Nothing puts you more in the moment than being tugged f-ing 80 miles an hour up and then into free fall for three or four seconds."
Going into the film, the Canadian actor had an athlete's swagger that he would show these Hollywood types how a real hero does it.
He was a highly touted hockey prospect with cheap nike shox for kids
NHL aspirations a decade ago - before shredding his knee and moving to New York to study acting.
It was Kitsch's turn as a star high school football player in the pilot of "Friday Night Lights" that caught director Andrew Stanton's eye.
But hockey and playing a football jock never prepared Kitsch for the four months of intense weight and cardio training that started at 4 a.m. every morning before the cameras even started rolling.
By the time they did, it felt like he was toiling through his scenes in the heavier atmosphere of Jupiter instead of Utah.
"I just remember one day I literally was so exhausted, I couldn't walk to set and it was probably a hundred yards away," he says. "It was up acreate your own nike shoes online
small hill, and I couldn't walk up there, and I had to get a little cart to take me up there."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/john-carter-shoot-ups-downs-taylor-kitsch-article-1.1035324#ixzz1pBX2J4ev
Silent House’ has some scary moments for Elizabeth Olsen before getting frightfully familiar
The tricky camera moves that fill up “Silent House” make for one-half of a nerveracking horror film – before the movie’s obviousness just gets on your nerves.
In one long, continuous take — therebuy nike clothes
are no obvious cuts or edits — Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen, of “Marcy Mary May Marlene”) is seen helping her dad (Adam Trese) and her uncle (Eric Sheffer Stevens) fix up an old lakeside house. It is, of course, a rambling old clapboard thing that holds strange memories for Sarah, which she slowly realizes aren’t all pleasant. It doesn’t help that there’s no electricity in the house, so they have to use large construction flashlights, and behind every tarp and half-knocked-down wall are spooky shadows and dust.
By the time a mysterious girl (Julia Taylor Ross) appears, claiming to be Sarah’s unremembered “friend” from childhood, we get inklings that filmmakers Chris Kentis and Laura Lau – remaking a 2010 Uruguayan thriller that employed the same trick – have merely dressed up the usual psychological thriller with a camera-never-looks-away gimmick.
Alfred Hitchcock did the same thing 64 years ago in “Rope,” for different effect, and movies from “The Bonfire of the Vanities” to “Goodfellas” have used it, often breathtakingly, in specific scenes.
Yes, footsteps coming down a dark hallway are stillclearance nike air max
ominous. Think Sarah, her dad and her uncle seem a little too cozy? The reason won’t shock you.
What does give nice jolts are the way the hand-held camera catches car doors slowly opening, the way figures appear in doorways and people lurk under the stairs, as well as one effect that has nothing to do with technology: The late-afternoon autumn dusk that slowly envelops the house.
The trickery wears thin by the movie’s midpoint, design your own nike free
but at least there’s real atmosphere outside.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/silent-house-scary-moments-elizabeth-olsen-frightfully-familiar-article-1.1035436#ixzz1pBW2A74H
In one long, continuous take — therebuy nike clothes
are no obvious cuts or edits — Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen, of “Marcy Mary May Marlene”) is seen helping her dad (Adam Trese) and her uncle (Eric Sheffer Stevens) fix up an old lakeside house. It is, of course, a rambling old clapboard thing that holds strange memories for Sarah, which she slowly realizes aren’t all pleasant. It doesn’t help that there’s no electricity in the house, so they have to use large construction flashlights, and behind every tarp and half-knocked-down wall are spooky shadows and dust.
By the time a mysterious girl (Julia Taylor Ross) appears, claiming to be Sarah’s unremembered “friend” from childhood, we get inklings that filmmakers Chris Kentis and Laura Lau – remaking a 2010 Uruguayan thriller that employed the same trick – have merely dressed up the usual psychological thriller with a camera-never-looks-away gimmick.
Alfred Hitchcock did the same thing 64 years ago in “Rope,” for different effect, and movies from “The Bonfire of the Vanities” to “Goodfellas” have used it, often breathtakingly, in specific scenes.
Yes, footsteps coming down a dark hallway are stillclearance nike air max
ominous. Think Sarah, her dad and her uncle seem a little too cozy? The reason won’t shock you.
What does give nice jolts are the way the hand-held camera catches car doors slowly opening, the way figures appear in doorways and people lurk under the stairs, as well as one effect that has nothing to do with technology: The late-afternoon autumn dusk that slowly envelops the house.
The trickery wears thin by the movie’s midpoint, design your own nike free
but at least there’s real atmosphere outside.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/silent-house-scary-moments-elizabeth-olsen-frightfully-familiar-article-1.1035436#ixzz1pBW2A74H
2012年1月31日星期二
The folding electric car
European officials have taken the covers off a new electric car that folds in half to fit in to tight parking spots.
The CityCar, developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, can also crab sideways, making parallel parking a cinch.
The first production prototype of the car - dubbed the Hiriko – was inspected by European Union Commission chief, José Manuel Barroso, and is expected to hit the road in a 20-car trial in Spain next year.
The diminutive car, which weighs less than 500kg, folds up when parked, allowing three or four cars to fit in the average parking space.
The car is driven by an electric motor at each wheel, which allows it to spin on its own axis and move sideways into parking spots. The wheel also houses the car's suspension and steering components. Instead of a U-turn, the Hiriko can do an O-turn.
The lack of an engine or motor up front means the driver and passenger can exit through the front of the car, allowing it to fold in the middle and park nose-to-kerb in a spot that would usually require parallel parking.
The two-seater, which has a 100km range, will be initially trialled in Spain as part of an inner city car sharing scheme.
The car's lithium-ion batteries are placed low in the floor of the car, which frees up passenger and luggage space while keeping the centre of gravity low.
Its makers say the car can be recharged either at home, in the office or by parking in special recharging spaces.
And the good news is that the car is feasible for driving on New Zealand roads. The steering column can be ordered either on the left- or right-hand side.
The trial will start in the Spanish city of Bilbao, but others are planned for Boston in the United States and Malmo in Sweden.
The CityCar, developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, can also crab sideways, making parallel parking a cinch.
The first production prototype of the car - dubbed the Hiriko – was inspected by European Union Commission chief, José Manuel Barroso, and is expected to hit the road in a 20-car trial in Spain next year.
The diminutive car, which weighs less than 500kg, folds up when parked, allowing three or four cars to fit in the average parking space.
The car is driven by an electric motor at each wheel, which allows it to spin on its own axis and move sideways into parking spots. The wheel also houses the car's suspension and steering components. Instead of a U-turn, the Hiriko can do an O-turn.
The lack of an engine or motor up front means the driver and passenger can exit through the front of the car, allowing it to fold in the middle and park nose-to-kerb in a spot that would usually require parallel parking.
The two-seater, which has a 100km range, will be initially trialled in Spain as part of an inner city car sharing scheme.
The car's lithium-ion batteries are placed low in the floor of the car, which frees up passenger and luggage space while keeping the centre of gravity low.
Its makers say the car can be recharged either at home, in the office or by parking in special recharging spaces.
And the good news is that the car is feasible for driving on New Zealand roads. The steering column can be ordered either on the left- or right-hand side.
The trial will start in the Spanish city of Bilbao, but others are planned for Boston in the United States and Malmo in Sweden.
2011年11月21日星期一
Is Your Dog Smarter Than a 2-Year-Old?
I heard that, in intelligence, dogs are like 2-year-old children.”
One of my psychology students recently lobbed this statement at me. It’s an assertion I have heard — and dismissed — dozens of times, the reiteration of what must seem a profound, pithy truth about dogs’ mental abilities. From my perspective as a researcher of canine cognition, it at once overstates and understates dogs’ abilities to claim that they are equal in some unifying, cross-species “intelligence” to 2-year-olds.
But then the other day, sitting at home with my family, I was reminded of why the dog-child comparison is so often made. There was my 2-year-old child. Next to him lay our 4-year-old dog. There are undeniable similarities in their behavior.
For instance, they are both moderately impolite: my son stares unyieldingly at the large hairdo on an obese man on the sidewalk; my dog greets my friend at the door with a sniff right in his crotch. They both love many of the same things — squeaking objects, bagels, other dogs — and share a hatred of loud noises.
So I decided to get fully quasi-scientific about it. How are dog and child alike? How are they not? Herewith I report anecdotal instances of their behavior over one week, with some cherry-picked research to complete the story.
MONDAY Child (hereinafter “C”) rolls over in bed and into the dog (hereinafter “D”), also in bed, causing both to jump out of bed and commence running down the hall. In the bathroom, we all look in the mirror together: “Who’s that?” I ask. C identifies himself with a smile. D stands behind us, alert to his own reflection, but not, research indicates, identifying it as himself. Dogs don’t pass the “mirror mark test,” which examines if a subject looking in the mirror can identify that a secretly placed colored spot on his reflection’s head is actually on his own head.
Children pass this test around 18 months of age; it is part of their growing sense of self, of an “I” who is different from other people. C found the sticker I placed on his head one day by looking in the mirror and then touching his head. Dogs either do not care about the mark, or do not realize that the dog in the mirror is themselves.
One of my psychology students recently lobbed this statement at me. It’s an assertion I have heard — and dismissed — dozens of times, the reiteration of what must seem a profound, pithy truth about dogs’ mental abilities. From my perspective as a researcher of canine cognition, it at once overstates and understates dogs’ abilities to claim that they are equal in some unifying, cross-species “intelligence” to 2-year-olds.
But then the other day, sitting at home with my family, I was reminded of why the dog-child comparison is so often made. There was my 2-year-old child. Next to him lay our 4-year-old dog. There are undeniable similarities in their behavior.
For instance, they are both moderately impolite: my son stares unyieldingly at the large hairdo on an obese man on the sidewalk; my dog greets my friend at the door with a sniff right in his crotch. They both love many of the same things — squeaking objects, bagels, other dogs — and share a hatred of loud noises.
So I decided to get fully quasi-scientific about it. How are dog and child alike? How are they not? Herewith I report anecdotal instances of their behavior over one week, with some cherry-picked research to complete the story.
MONDAY Child (hereinafter “C”) rolls over in bed and into the dog (hereinafter “D”), also in bed, causing both to jump out of bed and commence running down the hall. In the bathroom, we all look in the mirror together: “Who’s that?” I ask. C identifies himself with a smile. D stands behind us, alert to his own reflection, but not, research indicates, identifying it as himself. Dogs don’t pass the “mirror mark test,” which examines if a subject looking in the mirror can identify that a secretly placed colored spot on his reflection’s head is actually on his own head.
Children pass this test around 18 months of age; it is part of their growing sense of self, of an “I” who is different from other people. C found the sticker I placed on his head one day by looking in the mirror and then touching his head. Dogs either do not care about the mark, or do not realize that the dog in the mirror is themselves.
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