Fan in Chicago

I never said that. For example, these people are invaluable to determining which rookie QB belongs in the hall of fame and which one is the next Ryan Leaf.

Now if you put it that way, I can appreciate it. I do think Unbreakable is his best by far - didn't realize how good it was till I saw it a second time. As for the trashing the Happening is taking, it was bring trashed way before the movie was released on both Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB. Yet, it had a solid weekend worldwide. This further strengthens by belief that internet loud mouths (me included) matter little to the financial performance of a movie.

Seems like just a few months back and not that long ago. But welcome back and looking forward to more amicable debates in the future.

Fair enough but I think the question was related to this weekend and not next. I expect it to drop fast as well but perhaps not too much as there is no other scare/thriller competition for that target audience (18+) next weekend. Hulk's target demographic on the other hand has plenty of competition coming up.

No question Hulk will be tops. But The Happening made ~ $13 million on Friday compared to the $21 million take for Hulk and most 'experts' had expected not only the gap to be wider, but Hulk's take to be much more. Critical reviews and viewer preferences are not always directly correlated. http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/hulk_...riday_estimates

MadCap, What do you define as 'hit'. All his movies since Sixth Sense have made a lot of money save for Lady in the Water. I can post stats if you want. Secondly, using superlatives such as 'ever' implies you have studied all the directors ever to make movies and narrowed down a list to those that made one commercially successful movie followed by all flops. Is that what you want to say ?

I disagree. My wife and I both enjoyed it. Preferred seeing this one to the Hulk.

I am assuming you are asking about capacity utilization. Quite simple - dynamics of the market few years back was such that demand was surging, prices were high and refining capacity was constrained. Hence the evil oil industry decided to use some of their profits to invest in their own refineries to expand capacity. Now that capacity is high, a different set of dynamics is causing demand of end products to fall rapidly. Hence, processing is curtailed to meet the (lower) demand.

Bills_fan & Adam, Excellent posts. I was taken aback by the above statement and went back to confirm it (not that I don't trust you ) And, by jove, you are correct: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mopueus2m.htm Comment on refining profits: Refining profitability is generally measured by the 3-2-1 crack spread (not what you dirty minds are thinking) - related to the cost of three barrels of oil versus the price of two barrels of gasoline and 1 barrel of heating oil. This crack spread has already dropped drastically compared to last year which means that refiners have been unable to raise prices on the end products at the same rate as their cost of buying the oil. The refiners reporting highest profits are the ones who also control the upstream assets (read: oil fields) in various parts of the world. Right now, even with the high prices of gasoline and diesel the ones that are NOT making huge profits are the refineries and the retail outlets. The poor sap running the corner gas station wants you to buy a can of coke in addition to filling up your Hummer as that helps his profits immensely. Oil company profits are mostly coming from selling the oil itself. I don't understand the commodities markets much and I need to read up a bit more to see if indeed the speculators and weak dollar are the major causes of high crude oil prices. But, to comment on the point of the OP, I hate the idea of a windfall profit tax - idiotic idea from a free markets perspective and near impossible to implement (tax laws, accounting etc.)

I will be seeing The Happening anyway. Still pi$$ed about the first Hulk.

Suburb of Chicago - I pay $22 per week for cutting, trimming and clean-up after the cut.

My vote goes for Hardy as the most important player. The players on offense are virtually unchanged from last year. Granted all will be a year wiser but our offense will take a big step ahead and upwards if Hardy has a decent rookie season. Not only will he be the big target, but will enable Evans to have a good year too. I cannot point to any one person on D because I see fairly good depth all over and that includes the D Line (can't be worse than last year even if someone is injured or underperforms).

Jokes aside, what caused the bag to catch fire ? 35 seconds seems harmless enough but what caused the contents to heat up so much so fast ?

What's wrong with using the diesel powered generator to charge the battery ?

I think the aliens (the ones from outer space) must be looking down with similar sympathy and disdain from their UFOs and deciding this poor species is best left alone.

Actually, I was hoping one was Becker and the other Fagen. Or should I be asking 'oh by the way, which one's Dan ?'

Any way I can use that theme for my own page ? I would also like a Bills theme for Firefox.

I read a more extensive article on this sighting. What stunned me is that after first contact with such tribes, it is not unusual to see upto 50% of that tribe wiped out within a matter of months. This is because they do not have resistance to a few illnesses common to us outsiders. They catch a cold and flu and it is fatal to them. What exactly do we hope to achieve by contacting them ? Impose our perception of a happier living when such is purely subjective ? It is okay to fly by and take pictures but I think they are best left alone.

I think the reason your sister behaves the way she does with you, is because you sound like a passive person who is perceived as being easy to push around and boss over. Years of 'training' have reinforced her attitude and behavior towards you. You can deal with such personalities in two ways (1) Ignore her and distance her completely from your life (2) Give it back to her in the same fashion she does. If you make the choice to ignore, it is likely she will not let you be. You may have to resort to choice (2) Doing (2) is difficult for a passive personality (I am one also until pushed beyond a point) but sometimes you have no choice. By your preamble, it appears that you have a bit of inferiority complex towards her. If so, be confident about what you are and how you perceive life. Finances do not dictate happiness in any family and obviously you are happy where you are. If you reduce your contact with her, I think you will be a much happier person as you do not have to be bombarded with her constant drive to prove herself superior. Some psychologists may argue that she is the one with the hidden inferiority complex and trying to compensate for it. See if you can use this latest example as a means to reinforce to yourself that you are better off maintaining minimum contact with her. But before you do anything, talk the matter completely with your wife and make sure you are both on the same page. If your wife bypasses you and tries to talk to your wife, she has to display implicit support by taking a similar attitude to yours and deferring to you for any conversations your sister tries to have through her. Good luck, man. Too often people try to trample a person who wants to get along with everybody. Luckily, there aren't too many of such people out there.

Congrats ! A job well done.

That's the part I am not sure about. I has a similar feeling after POTC 3 and it continued to make money in subsequent days & weekends. Indy has no real competition in the next 2 weekends. Sex and the City and Indy are skewed by gender and SATC doesn't appear to be a traditional chick flick to which makes women want to drag their SOs (thankfully).

Agreed. NT followed the Pirates of Caribbean formula of milking a perfectly good franchise and getting away with it (read: dishing out crap but still making a lot of money) . Now Lucas/Spielberg seem to have taken a similar path.

Thank you. Pretty much every action movie defies physics in some way but this movie has more than its fair share of ridiculous scenes. To the point that I was groaning at the start of every action sequence as I knew there will be some new level of absurdity. I don't know if Spielberg seriously underestimated the audience's intelligence or he is smarter than we think and marking this movie as a break into a new saga/style of Mutt-led Indy series. The latter would cater to a new audience and this movie is expected to make money (which it is doing) due to the strength of nostalgia.

Are you serious or is my sarcasm detector not working ?

I think I did not state my point clearly. I meant the fondness is for the Indy franchise as a provider of movies with adventure and fantasy blended together entertainingly. This movie did not hurt how I feel about those two movies - but it did dent the feelings I had about the Indy character and the campy, entertaining movies he appeared in. ToD I forgave especially after Last Crusade. But I felt cheated by this movie and in general go the feeling that Spielberg & co. went the Gore Verbinski way (Pirates of the Caribbean) by passing off idiocy under the guise of entertainment. This movie did not entertain and definitely did not provide a payoff for the Suspension of Disbelief concept. If you want to use a possible analogy about the Bills, I will feel this way if overnight Ralph were to move the franchise to some other town ala Browns.