Pavithra Rathinavel, March 10, 2014 3.09EST

Apple hoped to get a ban on 23 different Samsung's devices, but the irony is that most of the models have already been discontinued by Samsung. Apple and Samsung have been involved in this legal tussle for nearly three years over various Smartphone features patented by Apple. Hence this win is a home run for Samsung.
In a statement, Samsung said it was pleased with the ruling. "We agree with its observation that a few software features alone don't drive consumer demand for Samsung products - rather consumers value a multitude of features," the company said.

Despite the fact that Samsung no longer sells the model (old) phones targeted by the injunction request, Apple has argued in court documents that such an order is important to prevent Samsung from future copying of new products "not more colorably different" from the defunct models.
But Samsung argued that Apple was trying to target new Samsung phones in order to instil fear and uncertainty among carriers and retailers. Also Koh wrote that a consumer survey by Apple likely "inflated" the value that customers place on the patented Smartphone features in dispute.
"A multitude of other survey evidence not prepared for the purpose of litigation," Koh wrote, "indicates that numerous features that were not tested - such as battery life, MP3 player functionality, operating system, text messaging options, GPS, and processor speed - is highly important to consumers."
Apple must demonstrate more than an insignificant amount of lost sales due to Samsung's copying, and Apple's survey is "unpersuasive" evidence on that point.
The caveat: For the damages stemming from the 2012 jury finding of patent infringement, Koh recorded a final judgment against Samsung for $930 million, which is slightly lesser than the original amount of $1.05 billion. Samsung said it would appeal that decision.
Thursday's ruling comes ahead of another patent war set to kick off later this month involving newer Samsung phones. There seems to be no end to the patent war between Apple and Samsung.
To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.com

ROOM 237

ROOM 237

A light  bulb came on for Blakemore when he saw the Indian-head logo on the Calumet baking powder can in the hotel pantry. Add to that the Native American décor at the Overlook, and the hotel manager’s remark that it was built on an Indian burial ground, and you’re set to go. Kubrick’s movie is an allegory for the treatment of Native Americans by white settlers.

Wait a minute. Right next to the baking powder are boxes of Tang, which we all know is synonymous with NASA. Jay Weidner claims that Kubrick faked the moon-landing footage (his 2001: A Space Odyssey was a kind of dress rehearsal) and uses The Shining to illustrate his point.



Weidner finds proof of his theory in the key to the hotel’s haunted room, which reads “ROOM No 237.” When these letters are mixed up, ignoring a couple, and you have the word MOON 237. And the moon’s average distance from Earth is 238,000 miles, which is almost exactly 237 thousand miles!!!

Theories and counter-theories continue to pile up, as do one-off oddities. One guy is convinced the movie tells the story of the Holocaust. Another viewer maps out the hotel’s floor plan and finds an “impossible window” with a view to the outside, deep within the structure. Someone says The Shining is all about sex; surely, no one has thought that about a movie before.

Then there’s a guy who has watched the film backwards and forwards simultaneously, finding patterns in the overlapping images. If you’re tired of listening to Dark Side of the Moon while watching The Wizard of Oz with the sound off (and while high), this could be your next project.


On the one hand, at least four (and possibly all five) of the theorists have to be wrong. But what emerges from Room 237 is not the denigration of conspiracies, but a type of celebration of our ability to create patterns wherein (perhaps) none exist. “Continuity error?” asks one of the Shining-ologists about a missing chair in one shot. “I don’t think so.”

Ascher never lets us see his film theorists, but instead illustrates their views with clips from The Shining and other tangentially related films by Kubrick and others. Interactive maps also explain the hotel’s maddeningly inconsistent (and madness-inducing?) topography.

In a strange way, Kubrick, who died in 1999, needs to shoulder some of the blame, just for being so intelligent. The cinematic genius had a scrupulous, even obsessive attention to detail. (In 2001,the barely glimpsed zero-G toilet instructions, for instance, are the real deal.)

A number of fans think that if Kubrick sneezed, it could indicate significance. Such  attention to detail, coupled with the ability for movies to serve as mirrors does provide an explanation for why The Shining continues to captivate our imaginations.

Then again possibly Room 237 is saying something else altogether. I’m open to possible interpretations are you? It is an explanation of allegorical readings of the The Shining. In the last 6-8 months, it was researched, and because of the internet there is so much more information now. The number 237, in the book it was 217. Room 217 was used in the book, the actual hotel used a room number that does not exist in the hotel. One simple cut from Jack and the woman in the bathroom to her in the tub becomes very mysterious. Kubrick was obsessed with themes of duality; Jack in the present day to Jack in the photograph, the twin sisters, and Danny and the mother to the girls. In the scene with Grady in the bathroom, they are surrounded by mirrors and they are not quite looking at each other. A theory discussed with Bill Blakemore, there is a streak of racism, Blakemore’s theory is the film is about the genocide of American Indian.
In a manner, of speaking, Room 237 is an argument against thorough, reasonable criticism: it trots obsessive cranks out like it’s leading a public freak show and inviting us to feel superior by laughing off their conspiracies as being absurd. It is, as has been noted before, more concerned with the type of people who develop obsessive crackpot theories about horror films more than it is about the quality or content of the theories themselves and it does seem to suggest that these sorts of people are usually very unusual and weird. It is worth taking note of the theories which have been expounded upon in Room 237 and despite being researched extensively, have the intellectual rigor of a hard theoretical or academic reading.
 

A comparative analysis of the critical methods and procedures used by two writers on Psycho

Douchet (1986:10) elaborates on the themes in Psycho and let us make the assumption that Stewart descended from the screen of Rear Window in order to take his place in the theatre and that he becomes one of us,  that is a spectator. His voyeuristic  needs finds nourishment in the opening scene of Psycho. The camera penetrates into a room in an unassuming manner and the shades are lowered, in the afternoon. It is in this room we see a couple on a bed who are kissing and are amorous toward one another. It is from this moment onwards that he feels frustration and would like to see more. If John Gavin’s bare chest could make half the audience feel satisfied, the fact that Janet Leigh is not naked is barely tolerated by the other half. These aroused  desires should find its finale toward the end of Janet’s expedition. She will become totally naked and will offer herself completely. The sexual   act  which will be extreme; a wish fulfilment which goes beyond all desires. Back to the start of the movie, the spectator’s feelings toward Janet are  coincidentally of  contempt and envy. She is a person who accepts a sleazy hotel in the middle of the afternoon in her town. Where is her self-esteem? He  could ascribe to her his most innate instinctual lusts, amongst others being those unconscious desires which he does not want to act out in real life.. theft. At her desk, Janet envisages a noteworthy cash transaction. The spectator, who starts to get bored by business scenarios, wants something to eventuate and thinks,  Janet could take the cash for herself. The transaction is not considered to be a common occurrence and the person who owns the money is loathing. She can take the money as the theft won’t be noticed until Monday and indeed she does perform this action.
 

Psycho (Chion: 1992: 195) is preoccupied with the impossibility of being able to attach a voice with a body or the with he concept  of  being embodied. It is of little coincidence that the French word for embodiment[mis-en-corps] brings to mind the word for ‘coffining’[mise-en-biere] or ‘burial’[mise-en-terre], as something which is likened to interment. Interment is a symbolic act, some would argue that it was the first of acts which lead mankind toward a type of evolution which was distinct from that of the other species. To bury somebody does not imply disposing of the decomposing body, it is to assign a place to their soul or their double-should one not believe in this, to everything which remains in us or for us of this being. This is performed by means of rites and marks like inscriptions, crosses or stones which tell the dead person ‘you will be remaining there' so that the spirit in question does not return and haunt the living as a tormented soul might do. A ghost is essentially the spirit from one who did not have a burial or was buried in an untoward manner. This is true also for acousmetre, wherein the voice of a person not yet witnessed is involved, here too, there is a thing which is unable to enter the frame so as to attach to one of the bodies which are revolving there, and does not occupy the withdrawn place of the shower of images and is therefore destined to wander at surface level. This is indeed the underlying fears in Psycho.

Chion (1992:205) highlights the power of making the dead live via image and sound. In the cinema this is bought up against its own impossibilities and these are identified as such. Thus, image and voice can feature in it only as sundered one from the other and can perform the consummation of rediscoveries through a mythical unity that will be lost forever. The talking cinema is a kind of tying up and this could constitute the claim it has to greatness-rather than deny this turning up, it does turn in to its subject, going under the sign of the impossible, to the core of the reality effect.

REFERENCES:
Douchet, J (1986) “Hitch and his Public”.. Deutelbaum, M. & L. Poague, A  Hitchcock Reader, Armes, Iowa State University Press,  pp7-15.
Chion, M (1992) The Impossible Embodiment, in S.Zizek(ed)Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lacan….But Were Too Afraid to Ask Hitchcock. London: Verso. p195-207

JUSTIN AND MINAJ

The nature of the film is light hearted young people enjoying themselves and why should this be viewed as anything but confirmation that young people do know how to enjoy themselves and yet keep themselves nice, in terms of being able to sing and dance without getting caught up in drugs and alcohol. Perhaps the footage was considered to be illegally obtained and uploaded however it may have been a marketing ploy which, to my way of thinking has successfully worked and having watched the clip a number of times I think I will watch it yet again!!!

            I believe that this video encourages us all to be young at heart and now and again society allows us to have a night out wherein we can let down our hair and do just that. I mean, we can always re-visit our youth and it is never too late to have a happy childhood. We may be growing older but in these modern times with wigs and make-up and accessories galore we can dolly ourselves up and pretend we are someone we are not and although tomorrow we may need to re-evaluate who we are, for the moment, why not step out of out our sheltered existence and reach out to others and engulf human warmth from another human being. Sometimes if we are confident with who we are, which obviously Justin appears to be, with some inspiring words of wisdom and the right dance music and the colourful costumes and entertainers in front of us in exuberant settings, we may just be able to reach past our own barriers and encompass another generation of individuals who appear to be willing to reach out to us.

            Instead of sitting back in our arm chairs and throwing a rotten tomato, how about we get to know the younger people and even take on board some of their ideas and terminology. Their invigorating manoeuvers in the pool certainly got my attention and I think that youth speaks loud and clear in this footage. Certainly young people wear make up and costumes however at the end of the day, when they take it all off, they still have beautiful skin and teeth which gives them a cutting edge. Perhaps at my age and stage, I am inclined to what to wear a mask and cover up the blemishes but you know what, now and again, you will find that when you let go of the façade there are people who recognise who you are and respect you for being honest enough to say that this is who I am. If  jumping in to a pool and letting our hair down encourages us to show off who we really are underneath all the layers then I would take a leaf out of Justin’s video and I don’t think that it was stolen footage and illegally uploaded, I think it was a wonderful move on his behalf to send the world a very positive message.