Mortal Kombat team sheds Midway skin for 'WB Games Chicago'

by Ben Gilbert { Jul 27th 2009 at 4:30PM }

Picked up by Warner Bros. in the auctioning off of Midway Games' assets, the development studio behind the Mortal Kombat franchise has seemingly been re-branded by its new corporate overlords. Superannuation spotted the info in the LinkedIn profile of Connie Gabelein, a human resources employee currently with Warner Bros. and formerly with Midway (and apparently never part of the management that was recently let go from the failed publisher). Ms. Gabelein lists her position as a "recruiter/HR generalist for the WB Game family of studios, which includes Monolith Productions, Surreal Software, Snowblind Studios and WB Games Chicago."

Furthermore, former Midway CTO/now "head of WB Games Chicago" Michael Weilbacher's LinkedIn profile seems to corroborate our suspicions. We've contacted Warner Bros. and Midway for comment and will update this post with more information as we get it.

Mortal Kombat Team Reportedly Considering Split from Midway

Unnamed sources say the development team is in "active talks" with other publishers.
By Kris Pigna, 04/04/2009
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

For the long-suffering Midway, a critical blow to what remains their biggest-selling franchise must be the last thing they need right now, but it seems that may be happening all the same. According to Kotaku, unnamed sources say the development team behind the Mortal Kombat franchise is in "active talks" with other publishers to split from Midway and form their own studio.

According to the report, the Mortal Kombat team -- which is made of about 50 developers -- is angered over the lack of bonus payments guaranteed to them for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe reaching previously-agreed-to sales targets. These unnamed sources also say there's general frustration over how Midway has handled their bankruptcy filing.

The MK team is not under contract at Midway, although there is one catch: if they do leave, they probably can't take the MK license with them, and would have to abandon work on the follow-up to MK vs. DC Universe -- a prospect that, evidently, one source said would be "tough."

A Midway PR rep commented to Kotaku, saying only that the MK team was in "good shape," and that the bonus payment scuffle wasn't Midway's doing. "Midway is not refusing to pay out those bonuses," the PR rep said. "It's the unsecured creditors committee that is refusing to allow us to pay them. They're the ones holding that up."

Midway filed for bankruptcy back in February, after facing a number of financial problems following Sumner Redstone's sale of his majority stake in the company back in December of 2008.

WANTED: Have you seen this beer-throwing Cubs fan

August 13, 2009
BY KEVIN ALLEN and DAN CAHILL STAFF REPORTERS

During the fifth inning of Wednesday night's Cubs-Phillies game, one Wrigley Field bleacher dweller took out his frustration with the Cubs' poor performance on Shane Victorino.

With the bases loaded, Jake Fox lofted a fly ball to the warning track.
» Click to enlarge image
The real beer-throwing culprit is on the left, the fall guy is to the right. (Deadspin)


PHOTO GALLERY

Wrigley Field beer-throwing incident


Just as the ball was about to fall in Victorino' glove, the contents of one fan's beverage was projected onto the center fielder's head.

Victorino made the catch, and Sean Marshall tagged and scored on the play.

Sun-Times photographer Tom Cruze immortalized the moment—for better or worse—in the accompanying photo.

Wrigley Field security moved in quickly to escort the fan from his seat, but upon further review, they targeted the wrong fan.

The real culprit was quietly sitting a few seats away as the "fall guy" was hauled away.

The Cubs are working with the Chicago Police to find the real "beer chucker" and to prosecute accordingly.

Read THE Healthcare Bill For Yourself

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/111/AAHCA09001xml.pdf

Un-American' attacks can't derail health care debate

By Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer

Americans have been waiting for nearly a century for quality, affordable health care.

Health coverage for all was on the national agenda as early as 1912, thanks to Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose presidential run. Months after World War II came to an end in 1945, President Harry Truman called on Congress to guarantee all Americans the "right to adequate medical care and protection from the economic fears of sickness." From President Lyndon Johnson to President Bill Clinton, to President Obama's winning campaign on the promise of reform, there hasn't been a more debated domestic issue than the promise of affordable health care for all.

(Steny Hoyer)

(Nancy Pelosi/USA TODAY)

We believe it is healthy for such a historic effort to be subject to so much scrutiny and debate. The failure of past attempts is a reminder that health insurance reform is a defining moment in our nation's history — it is well worth the time it takes to get it right. We are confident that we will get this right.

Already, three House committees have passed this critical legislation and over August, the two of us will work closely with those three committees to produce one strong piece of legislation that the House will approve in September.

In the meantime, as members of Congress spend time at home during August, they are talking with their constituents about reform. The dialogue between elected representatives and constituents is at the heart of our democracy and plays an integral role in assuring that the legislation we write reflects the genuine needs and concerns of the people we represent.

However, it is now evident that an ugly campaign is underway not merely to misrepresent the health insurance reform legislation, but to disrupt public meetings and prevent members of Congress and constituents from conducting a civil dialogue. These tactics have included hanging in effigy one Democratic member of Congress in Maryland and protesters holding a sign displaying a tombstone with the name of another congressman in Texas, where protesters also shouted "Just say no!" drowning out those who wanted to hold a substantive discussion.

Let the facts be heard

These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades.

Health care is complex. It touches every American life. It drives our economy. People must be allowed to learn the facts.

The first fact is that health insurance reform will mean more patient choice. It will allow every American who likes his or her current plan to keep it. And it will free doctors and patients to make the health decisions that make the most sense, not the most profits for insurance companies.

Reform will mean stability and peace of mind for the middle class. Never again will medical bills drive Americans into bankruptcy; never again will Americans be in danger of losing coverage if they lose their jobs or if they become sick; never again will insurance companies be allowed to deny patients coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

Lower costs, better care

Reform will mean affordable coverage for all Americans. Our plan's cost-lowering measures include a public health insurance option to bring competitive pressure to bear on rapidly consolidating private insurers, research on health outcomes to better inform the decisions of patients and doctors, and electronic medical records to help doctors save money by working together. For seniors, the plan closes the notorious Medicare Part D "doughnut hole" that denies drug coverage to those with between $2,700 and $6,100 per year in prescriptions.

Reform will also mean higher-quality care by promoting preventive care so health problems can be addressed before they become crises. This, too, will save money. We'll be a much healthier country if all patients can receive regular checkups and tests, such as mammograms and diabetes exams, without paying a dime out-of-pocket.

This month, despite the disruptions, members of Congress will listen to their constituents back home and explain reform legislation. We are confident that our principles of affordable, quality health care will stand up to any and all critics.

Now — with Americans strongly supporting health insurance reform, with Congress reaching consensus on a plan, and with a president who ran and won on this specific promise of change — America is closer than ever to this century-deferred goal.

This fall, at long last, we must reach it.

Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is speaker of the House and

Steny Hoyer, D-Md., is House majority leader.

Posted at 12:15 AM/ET, August 10, 2009 in Forum commentary, Health care/Insurance - Forum, Politics, Government - Forum | Permalink

...............wow,so just because you disagree with the Healthcare Proposal....you disagree with the facts? Bullshit. I say Pelosi is full of shit,she is from San Fransicko after all right?

I'll speak with your Moma Outside

http://www.examiner.com/x-3747-Louisville-City-Hall-Examiner~y2009m7d23-Prof-Gates-to-policeman--Ill-speak-with-your-mama


I'll speak with your mama outside
Current mood: working
Category: News and Politics
Prof. Gates to policeman: “I’ll speak with your mama..”
July 23, 10:51 PM
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Prof. Henry Louis "Skip" Gates
Harvard professor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates got busted the other day, for shooting his mouth off to a cop, and our post-racial, bipartisan president has put his two cents in to fan the flames of this racial tempest in a teapot. If President Obama can mix his metaphors, so can we.
Returning from a trip to China, Gates was having trouble with the stuck front door to his rental house in trendy Cambridge, Mass. Apparently, a neighbor (all the press reports make sure to mention that she was “a white lady”) saw the Harvard don and his chauffer trying to force the door open, and called the cops. The comedy which followed is something out of the 1970’s Sanford and Son.
Giving a police officer a hard time is never a smart thing to do, no matter how many honorary degrees one has (Gates claims over 50). The surest way to get oneself arrested is to act arrogantly and aggressively when questioned. The Cambridge police report paints such a ridiculous picture of Prof. Gates that an embarrassed Boston Globe felt it had to scrub it from its website after initially posting the report. (We have posted a copy at the end of this article.)

Veritas
According to the arresting officer, Gates yelled at the police and initially refused to show any identification. Gates allegedly yelled “this is what happens to a black man in America” and “you don’t know who you’re messing with” before he was arrested, and police said he was uncooperative.
Naturally, Skip demanded the investigating officer’s name, and repeatedly called him a racist. When the policeman asked Gates to step out onto the porch to continue the discussion, the Harvard professor’s reply was: “Ya, I’ll speak with your mama outside”. Ol’ Skip’s got a lot of class, don’t he?
President Obama, in his Wednesday night prime-time commercial for socialized medicine, took time out to admit that he was ignorant of the facts, but that that, in his opinion, the cops “acted stupidly.” This intellectual breach should surprise no one, since he has previously admitted that he hasn’t read the health care legislation he was hawking to the country. Opined Obama:


I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it’s fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry; No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they [sic] were in their own home; and, No. 3, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact.
Later, of course, Prof. Gates and the Cambridge cops kissed and made up. The police agreed to drop the (apparently well-deserved) disorderly conduct charges, and Skip can now assume the long-awaited mantle of “victim of racist police,” so valued in Harvard’s African-American Studies Department, where he teaches students preparing to enter our post-racial society.
This just in: The bulk of President Obama’s presentation Wednesday evening was, of course, a vague disquisition on the need to hurry up and pass the health care reform bill, before anyone gets a chance to read it. Short on detail, but long on metaphor, Obama’s recitation was reviewed by James Taranto in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal, with this interesting juxtaposition:
Life Imitates the Movies
• Morpheus: “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill--the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill--you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”--dialogue from “The Matrix,” 1999

• “If there’s a blue pill and a red pill, and the blue pill is half the price of the red pill and works just as well, why not pay half price for the thing that’s going to make you well?”--President Obama, July 22, 2009
This booking photo released by the Cambridge, Mass., Police Dept., shows Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who was arrested while trying to force open the locked front door of his home near Harvard University Thursday, July 16, 2009. Gates, a pre-eminent African-American scholar, is accusing Cambridge police of racism after he was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he "exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior." He was released later that day on his own recognizance and arraignment was scheduled for Aug. 26. (AP Photo/Cambridge Police Dept.)
Read the Henry Louis Gates arrest report: Gates Police Report

http://www.scribd.com/doc/17512830/Gates-Police-Report

http://www.examiner.com/x-3747-Louisville-City-Hall-Examiner~y2009m7d23-Prof-Gates-to-policeman--Ill-speak-with-your-mama

KFC BATH.....hmmmmmmmmmm

KFC Workers In Trouble for Taking Bird Bath in Sink Used to Wash Dishes
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
By Staff, Associated Press

Anderson, Calif. (AP) - Three employees of a Kentucky Fried Chicken have been suspended for bathing in a deep sink used to clean dishes. The prank was discovered after one of the young women posted photos on a social networking site of the trio posing and cavorting in the steaming water in their underwear and swim wear.

The photos were filed in a gallery called "KFC moments." Captions included "haha KFC showers!" and "haha we turned on the jets."

A manager of the fast-food restaurant said the three were reprimanded and suspended Tuesday. She said no manager was on duty when the photos were taken as the three had closed the restaurant for the night.


(Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)