Word: isn
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...truth is, you don't really play Mafia Wars; it plays you. It rewards you lavishly for doing next to nothing and for propagating its viral spores further and further into your social network, thereby perpetuating its existence. In fact, Mafia Wars isn't so much a game as a parasite: it lives in the petri dish of the social-networking sphere and feeds off your attention. Try to quit, and it begs and bribes you to fall off the wagon again. It's just a game, but it's like the real mafia in that one respect: just when...
...count, but no evidence of that first child. Precious' mother Mary (Mo'Nique, an actress and comedian who had a role in Daniels' 2005 directorial debut, Shadowboxer), lolls about in a recliner, shouting orders and insults at her daughter when she's not smacking her around: if Precious isn't going to be in school, she'd better get herself to the welfare office and start bringing home her own check. Mary is an unabashed abuser of that system, and she's terrifying - unbelievably awful yet completely believable. Mo'Nique should prepare for a busy awards season...
...Jones family home is an amber-lit hell, and we're not initially sure whether Precious is a prisoner or a participant in it. This isn't Bastard out of Carolina, with a cute little girl suffering while we rise up in indignation. The movie allows us moments of judging Precious - as Mrs. Lichenstein does - and then begins to roll out a series of nightmares that last the whole day long: rape, incest and a mother so lacking in human decency that she not only aided in a father's lust for a child but also considered that child...
...Some bloggers have wondered if it isn't simply in the French blood to root for an underdog taking on authority figures. Generations of French children have been enamored with traditional Guignol puppet shows, in which the protagonist, Guignol, fights with a rotten, bumbling policeman. The nation is also obsessed with the comic-book hero Asterix, a puny but cunning Gaul warrior who always gets the best of Julius Caesar's Roman armies despite being overmatched and outnumbered. (Read "Asterix at 50: A French Comic Hero Conquers the World...
...Like Chang, Chanos claims a "wholesale fudge factor" in Chinese statistics, including unemployment numbers. "Economic activity isn't necessarily building wealth," Chanos argues. "If you have to keep putting up the same bridge every five years because it falls into the river, you're going to show a lot of GDP growth as you keep rebuilding the bridge [but] you're not generating any wealth for your countrymen...