Tag Archives: motivation

Jerry Lewis telethon 2010

According to the LA Times, Jerry Lewis still has the motivation to keep going. “Being old doesn’t mean you’ve lost your spirit,” he told the paper. “And that’s what this is about. It’s spirit and energy and the desire to do good work for people who don’t stand a chance if I don’t.” Jerry Lewis has something for you this Labor Day weekend. He may be 84, but his work in the entertainment industry is not slowing down. The 2010 Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon will feature 21 ½

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Jerry Lewis telethon 2010

50 Cent Explains Photo With Jay-Z Backstage In Detroit

Fif ‘got a chance to kick it’ with Jay at Home and Home shows, co-headlined by Eminem. By Shaheem Reid 50 Cent and Jay-Z in Detroit Friday Photo: Thelifefiles.com DETROIT — You didn’t think they were going to have two of the biggest hip-hop shows in the past decade without inviting 50 Cent to join in, did you? Fif and the Unit have been Eminem’s special guests for the Home and Home shows, co-headlined by Jay-Z. The Detroit run started Thursday night at Detroit’s Comerica Park and concluded Friday (September 3). Sitting down with MTV News before the second show, 50, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo expressed their excitement to be a part of the historic event. On Thursday, the Unit performed “Patiently Waiting,” “I Get Money” and “In Da Club.” And by the following morning, footage and photos from the show circulated on various websites. But thelifefiles.com caught a very unexpected gem: One of Jay’s close friends, Lenny Santiago, snapped a picture of the Jiggaman and Fif talking backstage. The energy in the pic seemed to be positive, and both were smiling. It was surprising to all hip-hop fans, considering the fact that since last year, Fif has been throwing jabs at Hov in interviews and on songs such as “Flight 187.” While Fif declined to say exactly what he and Jay conversed about on Thursday, he did say they didn’t have serious beef. “We got a chance to kick it for a minute,” 50 said. “I know people were interested in what that conversation was like. But they can ask Jay-Z. I take people’s actions as if it’s genuinely how they feel. I can only use what I saw you do as if that’s what you meant. I can’t understand what your motivation was prior to that.” Fif has also had some well-documented issues with Diddy. Ever since Diddy aligned himself with Rick Ross several months ago, the General of the G-Unit has publicly lambasted the leader of Dirty Money. But 50 says a recent talk with Diddy helped clear the air between them. “I had a conversation with Puffy the night before Jay,” the Queens mogul revealed. “He gave me a whole new perspective on his actions. He’s like, ‘I understand the way you felt because of what I was doing at the time. But I wasn’t thinking what you was thinking I was. You done hit me nine times. I’m just in the fetal because I understand why you are attacking me. But if I can’t touch bases with you to tell you what I’m thinking or why I did it, then you can’t understand it.’ We created a little clarity out there.” The Home and Home tour continues in the Bronx, New York, on September 13 and 14 at Yankee Stadium. Related Photos Jay-Z And Eminem Make History In Detroit Related Artists 50 Cent Jay-Z

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50 Cent Explains Photo With Jay-Z Backstage In Detroit

Feminist Bloggers/Journalists Offended When Dallas Police Chief Suggests Preventative Measures Against Date Rape

A startling statistic was presented at the August 2 Dallas Public Safety Committee meeting: Rape there is up 25.3% over last year. Police Chief David Brown (pictured right) was pressed on this, and here was how blogger Andrea Grimes of the Dallas Observer interpreted his remarks: But Ms. Jasso read my mind, asking the Chief to explain the… increase…. is it that victims are reporting rapes more frequently, or that more rapes are happening? The answer, unfortunately: More rapes, says Chief Brown, specifically date rapes. And we all know what the solution to date rape is: getting women to stop drinking, because that is what causes date rape. Not dudes raping women, but women drinking. Blogger Shelby Knox piled on : Thank you law enforcement official charged with preventing or at least condemning crimes like, oh say, RAPE for suggesting that if I get raped it’s my fault…. Guess I should leave the short skirt at home too, right Chief? Men of Dallas: Your Chief of Police doesn’t seem to think you possess enough self-control or self-respect to resist violating a woman who’s been drinking. Be offended by this and be part of the solution. You watch your friends and remind them that if a woman is too drunk to say ‘yes,’ she’s too drunk for sex. Women of Dallas: Rape is rape is rape. If you were raped while drunk it doesn’t make it your fault or any less of a crime. And Bethany Anderson at D magazine added : So date rape solved? Don’t drink if you have two x chromosomes. Forget the fact that the drunk cannot consent to sex, and nonconsensual sex = rape. I’m sure glad we cleared that up. But wait a minute. Would a high profile modern man be so stupid as to place the fault of rape on women? Scott Goldstein at the Dallas Morning News was the 1st to challenge the stereotypical and stereotypist feminist mob: Some writers at a couple of local Dallas publications are accusing… Brown of essentially blaming rape victims in comments he made during a City Hall committee meeting yesterday…. No need for me to judge whether the folks at D magazine and the Dallas Observer are being unfairly provocative. You be the judge. Watch the video clip and tell us what you think. Yes… Liberal feminists are often caricatured as over reactive, and here was just another example of the Birkenstock fitting. Fortunately, and surprisingly given this touchy subject, there was immediate blowback. Goldstein wrote in follow-up: Brown… was unaware of the way some bloggers are portraying [his] comments…. I filled him in and asked him to respond. “I absolutely did not state that the victims are to blame for sexual assault,” Brown said. He said that he was explaining yesterday that a DPD analysis of the increase shows that many of the cases involve alcohol and date rape. “I do want to continue to emphasize that women be aware of their surroundings and, when possible, travel in pairs or in a group to enhance security around sexual assault,” Brown said. Speaking specifically about the way some have characterized his comments, Brown said: “I just think it’s irresponsible for bloggers to put inaccurate information in reports to excite or to create this uproar that is not consistent with my statement,” Brown said. “They’re being irresponsible. This is a very sensitive issue and we really do want to make victims aware of how to protect themselves from these predators.” Commenters proceeded to take Anderson to task … “I know it’s cool to suddenly be playing gender-centric neo-1970s games regarding what people actually say vs. how others claim they spoke… or even to interpret what they meant. But to me, hanging people out to dry, with an agitator’s agenda being the motivation to twist and shout, that’s every bit as shocking as the Chief’s ‘summarized’ comment in question here….” Guess i’ll be the contrarian here, i don’t see anything about drinking causing rape in his quote. What i see is a suggestion for friends to keep an eye on each other when they’re out partying, something guys do all the time. If you’re friend isn’t acting herself, maybe it’s because something was slipped in her drink, a friend would probably be able to notice something like that if they were keeping an eye on one another when out partying.” … to such an extent Anderson had to perform a mea culpa, “of sorts” … After listening to the video of Chief Brown, and reviewing his statement about how his comments were taken, I’ve done some thinking. Yes, you get more of an idea of what he was getting at, and it confirmed my gut reaction: He meant well…. If I had been at the meeting, or watching it, I admit, my response would’ve been more measured… I do think that the resulting discussion was, by the whole, a good leaping off point for exactly the sort of thing Chief Brown said we needed – more preventive measures…. Really? What Brown was saying in the first place? I know it’s verboten to say women, particularly young women in bars, ask for it when they get raped. But as we saw in this instance, it’s to the point where liberal feminists aren’t even allowing women to be educated on common sense preventative measures. Why is there a 25% increase in rape this past year in Dallas? Is it that there are more perpetrators on the street or more naive victims? I think it’s a combination of both, the former thanks in large part to another verboten topic, increasing access to porn, and the latter because liberal feminists have created an environment that makes it nearly impossible to discuss preemptive measures women can take to stop it. I look back to many instances when I did stupid things that opened the door to crime, such as picking up male hitchhikers. As recently as last week I walked through a large, dark parking lot at O’Hare Airport alone to my car at 11:30p at night. I should have asked Security for a ride. Liberal feminists don’t like it, but the simple fact is the bar scene, particularly late at night, isn’t necessarily safe. There aren’t a lot of date rapes in church. [Photo via CBS News ]

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Feminist Bloggers/Journalists Offended When Dallas Police Chief Suggests Preventative Measures Against Date Rape

James Cameron Discusses Sending 3-D Cameras (And People) To Mars

‘I want to make films about this and get people excited about [space] exploration,’ the ‘Avatar’ director says. By Kara Warner James Cameron Photo: MTV News For Oscar-winning director James Cameron, whose box-office clout at this point seems unmatchable, making mega-blockbusters like “Avatar” and “Titanic” might not be enough. So next year, Cameron is taking his filmmaking expertise to the final frontier. In April, it was announced that Cameron had partnered with NASA to help build a 3-D camera mounted atop the Mars rover Curiosity for a mission planned for launch next year. When MTV News caught up with the filmmaker, we asked if, in addition to sending 3-D cameras to Mars, he’s thinking about how to send humans there. “Oh, yeah, I’ve been thinking about the issues of sending human beings to Mars for a long time,” he admitted during a press day for the re-release of “Avatar.” “I started 11 years ago working on a Mars project that led me to doing a lot of research, meeting a lot of people at NASA, getting involved with people, and then at a certain point, a couple years ago, they said, ‘Wait a minute, this guy knows a lot about Mars, he knows a lot about 3-D cameras, zoom lenses, motion photography, all the things we’re incorporating into this new camera system. Why don’t we bring him in?’ ” Cameron said one thing led to another, and suddenly, a partnership was born. “I’m actually on the team developing the new camera for the Mars Science Laboratory, which launches next year,” he said, adding that if all goes well, we could see 3-D photos of the red planet in the very near future. “Theoretically, we will have a motion-image stereoscopic camera on the surface of Mars in 2011, and it will be making the first 3-D movie on Mars — well, it’s not a movie, but we’ll be taking 3-D shots.” As for humans making the trip, Cameron added that it will require a couple of things — namely, a shift in our national interest. “The public has to want it — that’s number one — because it has to be paid for. I think commercial, new, lean enterprises like [PayPal co-founder] Elon Musk’s company SpaceX , which is going to be creating human transportation to the space station. They’re a good candidate to build the systems that could get us to Mars, for example,” he said. “But it still requires the national will, and right now, that national will, quite frankly, isn’t up to the task. People don’t care about it enough, which is why I want to make films about this and get people excited about exploration.” Cameron ended his thoughts with a question for the public: “Frankly, what would you rather spend your money on: pointless wars in the Middle East to support our oil addiction or going to another planet?” What do you think about Cameron’s involvement with NASA and space exploration? Let us know in the comments! Check out everything we’ve got on “Avatar.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .

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James Cameron Discusses Sending 3-D Cameras (And People) To Mars

Young Jeezy Explains Why He Picked Plies And Yo Gotti For New LP

‘You heard of them, but you don’t know them,’ he tells MTV News of working with the lesser-known MCs. By Jayson Rodriguez Young Jeezy Photo: MTV News Young Jeezy might rock microphones alongside Jay-Z, but the Georgia rapper isn’t ready to be exactly like Brooklyn icon just yet. The Def Jam star featured a pair of less-heralded acts in Plies (“Lose My Mind”) and Yo Gotti (“All White Everything”) for two of the first three singles from his forthcoming Thug Motivation 103. The Snowman said he tapped the Southern artists not only to put the spotlight on both of them, but also to show his new fans — who might not be familiar with his mixtape work — where he comes from. “Me and Gotti kind of came up at the same time,” Jeezy told MTV News. “But I respected his grind just as well as he respected mine. Same thing with Plies. We kind of cover the same routes with what we do. Of course I’ve sold records in other places, but I don’t ever want to forget. ‘Cause I was always that cat trying to get to the next level, and no one held their hand out. I had to grind my way up. So I feel like the big homie, like, ‘Come on, y’all, let me show you over here.’ Just as well as showing the people over here who don’t understand why I act the way I act, this is what I come from. And look who I’m bringing with me? You heard of them, but you don’t know them. We know them.” Young Jeezy’s Thug Motivation 103 is set for a September 28 release. In addition to the two aforementioned singles, Jeezy has also released the Lil Jon collaboration “Jizzle.” He also recently put out a mixtape, 1,000 Grams, Vol. 1, which featured the track “Death B4 Dishonor,” a song seemingly directed at Rick Ross. Jeezy, however, denied the charge, saying the record is “not a dis.” What do you think of Jeezy’s latest collaborators? Let us know in the comments! Related Artists Young Jeezy Plies Yo Gotti

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Young Jeezy Explains Why He Picked Plies And Yo Gotti For New LP

Meet ‘Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ Star Rooney Mara

Before landing the dream role of Lisbeth Salander, Mara starred in ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ remake and more. By Eric Ditzian Rooney Mara Photo: Getty Images Get used to hearing the name Rooney Mara. After an extensive search that reportedly focused on A-list names like Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman, “Girl With a Dragon Tattoo” director David Fincher selected Mara to play the role of dark and damaged Lisbeth Salander. While hardly a newcomer to Hollywood — she starred in this year’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and her sister is “Iron Man 2” star Kate — Mara remains largely unknown to the public. That’s all about to change. “Dragon Tattoo” is based on the first of Stieg Larsson’s best-selling crime novels, a trilogy that has been published in 44 countries and has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. Anticipation for Fincher’s adaptation, slated to get an Oscar-friendly December 2011 release, is already running high, with every casting rumor — Kristen Stewart as Salander? Ellen Page? — getting wide media attention. So just who is Mara? MTV News first met her in June 2009 on the set of “Elm Street.” By this point, she had appeared in a few low-profile roles on the big and small screens. But the remake of the beloved horror flick would give the actress her widest exposure to date. And taking on the iconic role of Nancy — originated in 1984 by Heather Langenkamp — left Mara more than a little nervous. “It’s quite stressful,” she confessed. “There are big shoes to fill, and people love Nancy. There’s a lot of pressure to not let people down.” How will Mara deal with the burden of portraying Salander? As with “Elm Street” and Nancy, there is already a cinematic Salander. The Swedish version of “Dragon Tattoo,” starring Noomi Rapace, opened in the U.S. earlier this year to wide acclaim. Perhaps, though, Mara’s success on “Elm Street” has boosted her confidence: The film notched an impressive $33 million opening in April. A few months earlier, Mara had appeared in a supporting role alongside Michael Cera in “Youth in Revolt.” And by the time “Elm Street” hit theaters, she’d already lined up another high-profile flick, a prominent part in Fincher’s “The Social Network,” the story of the founding of Facebook, which arrives in October. Before then, Mara will already be in Sweden, where “Dragon Tattoo” is expected to begin shooting in September. Last year on the “Elm Street” set, Mara revealed to us how she prepares for each day in front on the camera by creating specific playlists of songs that fit the day’s shoot. “It’s sort of like reading my diary. It’s very personal,” she said, at first resisting the urge to open up about her musical tastes. But she eventually told us she listens to Red and Three Days Grace when she needs to get pumped up and, when she has a somber scene, Radiohead and every cover of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World” she can find. “I have a playlist for Nancy for just every day, and I have a specific playlist for the stuff I have to do today, which is really hard-core and I really have to kick ass today,” she explained. Check out everything we’ve got on “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Photos Rooney Mara: Indie Darling To Franchise Star

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Meet ‘Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ Star Rooney Mara

Fantasia Already Back To Promoting New Album

After apparent suicide attempt, singer will make appearances on ‘GMA,’ ‘106 & Park,’ ‘Regis and Kelly’ and more next week. By Jocelyn Vena Fantasia Photo: Bennett Raglin/WireImage After she reportedly tried to commit suicide by overdosing on medication, Fantasia was released from the hospital last week. Now, with her third album, Back To Me, set for release on August 24, the singer is ready to begin promoting the LP, according to her label, J Records. In a press release, the label said that the singer has a “renewed commitment to her music and her fans” since the incident. “I can’t thank my fans enough for their prayers and support during such a challenging time. It has given me the motivation to get back to work and honor the commitments I made to promote Back To Me,” Fantasia said in a statement. “I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this album and I pray that everyone enjoys it as much as I do.” Fantasia’s busy schedule will include stops at “Good Morning America” (August 24), “Lopez Tonight”(August 25), “106 & Park” (September 8), “Live With Regis and Kelly” (September 9) and “The Wendy Williams Show” (September 10). Currently, her single “Bittersweet” sits at #10 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. For her album, Fantasia worked with a number of hitmakers, including Ne-Yo, Claude Kelly and Chuck Harmony as well as Rico Love and Jim Jonsin. The good news comes just a week after the season-three “American Idol” victor was rushed to the hospital after she was found in a North Carolina home. “She has been lifted up by the outpouring of love and support from her fans,” Barrino’s manager, Brian Dickens, said in a statement to MTV News. “She is more committed than ever to her daughter and her work because they are her heart, her soul and inspiration.” Are you glad to hear Fantasia is ready to promote her album? Let us know in the comments. Related Videos Reactions To Fantasia’s Overdose Related Photos Fantasia’s Career In Photos Related Artists Fantasia

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Fantasia Already Back To Promoting New Album

Marijuana maven won’t butt out

In the 1940s and '50s, Stan Eby was part of a strong-man balancing act, traveling the country and becoming a regular in the early days of Santa Monica's famous “Muscle Beach.” Some 60 years later, Eby runs a marijuana dispensary – Stan the Man Collective – on the outskirts of Vallejo, and is under legal fire for alleged illegal operations due to city zoning policies. When Eby talks about why he bears police raids and legal hurdles instead of dropping his efforts, he spends little time explaining. “Because I want to help people while I'm alive,” Eby said of his motivation. “Nobody's ever OD'd – there's never been a death from it. That's a pretty good record, isn't it?” Eby asserted, comfortably barefoot in his Glen Cove home, with its front door open to visitors. “(Marijuana's) just a plant and herb that helps people.” http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_15779263 added by: JackHerer

Unselfishly Unpopular- Unselfish and Exceptional Individuals are often Disliked

If you want to listen to public radio, you have to donate to public radio…or you can of course let others do the donating while you free ride and concentrate on the listening part. In this case, however, you should be warned that free riding is not the most popular of behaviors, and that notorious free riders are generally not welcome in most group contexts. In the real world, whenever it is possible to monitor and sanction behavior, free riders are often expelled from groups, or group benefits are withheld from them. And when given the option in experimental public goods games, people often choose to exclude identified free riders from further participation in group activities also. As I said, free riders are not very popular. However, free riders are far from being the only ones who can be unpopular in public goods settings. Instead, they are surprisingly joined in infamy by those at the very opposite end of the selfishness-unselfishness spectrum; namely those who do not consume the public good, but unselfishly contribute towards its provision anyway! This surprising finding comes from a recent study by Craig Parks and Asako Stone, which shows participants in experimental public goods games to dislike playing with people who contribute beyond what they consume just as much as they dislike playing with those who free ride. The series of experiments, which can be found in this months Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, highlight data on the choice behavior of students made to participate in repeated computerized public goods games against simulated opponents. Not knowing that their opponents were software programs, participants were later provided fake information about the supposed behavior of each of the other group members; in addition to which they were also given the option to expel group members from participation in an upcoming round of the same public goods game. To the surprise of the researchers (who were initially investigating an entirely different phenomenon), participants tended towards playing against those who had contributed in equal proportion to what they were consuming. Both those who had contributed less than they consumed, as well as those who contributed more than they consumed were the most likely to be voted out of the group. To make sure this was not a mere statistical artifact, the researchers repeated similar studies which replicated the finding and added further insight into which processes could be driving the effect.These additional studies suggest that, although sanctions were given to unselfish contributors and free riders alike, the motivation for these sanctions were quite different in both cases: For example, the main reasons participants did not like playing with unselfish contributors seemed to be that a) participants did not like how they themselves compared to unselfish contributors, and b) participants viewed unselfish contributors as “rule breakers” who were not adhering to the “appropriate norms” for the public goods setting. In comparison, free riders were rejected as future playing partners, mostly on grounds of the argument that they were being asocial or “destructive”. As mentioned, the finding comes as somewhat of a surprise, but the researchers see it as fitting nicely with similar research which shows that exceptional individuals are often disliked. For example the authors cite research which shows that we often dislike those who are extremely competent, tend to get upset with those who offer help, and also reject those who succeed in standing their ground on moral issues. So disliking those who unselfishly contribute to our cause might not be that unusual after all. Parks and Stone offer different reasons for their findings, which relate to the different motivations that people report for disliking unselfish group members: “Regarding those who emphasize the social comparative aspect of the benevolent other, there is evidence that, within a group task setting, social comparison tends to induce feelings of inter- personal competition. People feel driven to outdo the group member who is setting the standard. In a setting such as ours, the standard being set by the benevolent other is to give up a considerable amount of personal resources and receive only a small payoff in return. To compete with such a person means that one would need to give even more and take even less, not a very desirable prospect. Removal of this person would eliminate that competitive standard. ..” Regarding those who would sanction unselfish contributors because of perceived norm violations, Parks and Stone offer that, “research on norm deviance shows that antinorm ingroup members are dealt with harshly, because they represent a threat to the stability of the group norm, and that others see removal as an effective method of dealing with the problem. From a norm deviance perspective, then, the benevolent other would look like someone who has the potential to shift the norm away from equity and in an undesirable direction, and an effective way to deal with such a person is to remove him or her from the group.” Remains to say that popularity is – of course – not everything… Main Reference: Craig D. Parks, Asako B. Stone (2010). The Desire to Expel Unselfish Members From the Group Journal of Personality and Social Psychology : DOI: 10.1037/a0018403 added by: animalia_libero

Kanye West "Power" Video: Watch It Now!

Two of the biggest stars in the rap game have released new music videos this week. First, Eminem teamed up with Rihanna to deliver ” Love the Way You Lie ,” which features Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan. Now, Kanye West has delivered his rebuttal, a religious-themed video in honor of his latest single, “Power.” It puts the star (and his giant gold chain) front and center, with director/artist Marco Brambilla explaining the motivation as follows: “I’ve always wanted to do something that would visualize power, to do a portrait of what power would look like in a sort of timeless way and being able to have him framed in that portrait, essentially doing a video portrait of Kanye as a symbol of power, was very consistent with my art practice and what I explore in my artwork.” Watch the video below and chime in with your thoughts on it: Power

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Kanye West "Power" Video: Watch It Now!