Word: effect
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Monsters vs Aliens, directed by Rob Letterman (co-director of Shark Tale) and Conrad Vernon (co-director of Shrek 2). The movie imagines that in 1950 the government, fearful that the populace would freak out if it knew that monsters actually existed, put a top-secret plan into effect. General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland) herded the lot of misfits into X-file confinement. Waiting for Susan are Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), the gelatinous B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), the gatory Missing Link (Will Arnett) and a huge, grubby, voiceless Insectosaurus. It's another band of weirdo-heroes to follow...
...Aliens functions as a visual encyclopedia of antique pop culture. It assumes that viewers of all ages are so steeped in the '50s B-movie ethos that they'll laugh familiarly at references to The Fly, The Blob, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Mothra and the 3-D paddleball effect from House of Wax. And, of course, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, of which Susan represents the absolutely cutest version...
...couple of Norwegian talent competitions, making her huge in Oslo. What's given Maria a surprising amount of buzz elsewhere, besides shortening her name to the punchier Ida Maria (pronounced Ee-dah Muh-ree-uh), is a reputation for staggeringly drunk live performances and rumors, often whispered for effect, that she has one of those voices. I can't speak to her stage persona--she cites Iggy Pop as an influence, though eyewitnesses report Dudley Moore--but Maria's voice will stop you in your earbuds. At 24, she sings with a mad, husky vulnerability, twirling her subjects...
...catching" happiness from your friends. We are social beings, of course, and our outlook is influenced to no small degree by that of our friends and family. Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a professor at Harvard Medical School, documented in a 2008 study just how extensive and powerful this network effect is. Compared with glum people, those who were happy were more likely to be surrounded by other happy people - even the friends of happy people's friends' friends (who might be complete strangers) tended to be happy...
Others disagree. "In effect, the E.U. has taken away its previous conditions of democracy and human rights," says Valery Karbalevich, a Belarusian political analyst. "They still talk about them, but they don't mean it." And Lukashenka seems less than committed to living up to the initiative's "shared values, including democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights." Just last week he said, "It's wrong [for the E.U.] to disturb us over minor points," and called the opposition "enemies of the Belarusian people...