Why the crowds are pulling into Fruitvale Station

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fruitvale_station1
The name Fruitvale Station has been bandied about a lot in the last few weeks. The film opened in cinemas in the United States last Friday.

Made at a cost of US$900,000, the film has already reeled in almost US$7,000,000 at the US box office in its opening weekend.

The film, which was directed by Ryan Coogler, tells the story of black teen Oscar Grant, who was shot and killed by police at – you guessed it –Fruitvale Station – in the Fruitvale District of Oakland near San Francisco in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 2009.

Grant, who was 22 at the time of his death, was also a two-time convicted felon. The film tells the tale of the final days of his life before being shot by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer Johannes Mehserle while being detained on the subway platform at Fruitvale Station.

The film stars Michael B. Jordan in the lead role of Oscar Grant with Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer playing his mother Wanda Grant.

Jordan has had small roles on American television in the HBO series The Wire and since 2010 has starred in the NBC series Parenthood.

Spencer won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the movie The Help.The film is Coogler’s first feature length work and has been highly praised. It received the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

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Where does the “jerk” come from?

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jerk-chicken
For lovers of spicy food there is nothing like the taste of Jamaican jerk to whet the appetite and get the taste buds going. Jerk is as synonymous with Jamaica as reggae music.

The jerk method is said to have originated in Africa. The sauce is a special marinade made from local spices such as cinnamon, pimento, cloves, scallions, garlic, thyme, salt, nutmeg, and hot peppers known as “Scotch Bonnet” or “country” peppers in Jamaica. The sauce is then rubbed over the meat which is left to marinade in the sauce. The food can be cooked over a grill, barbecue, or in the oven.

Jerk is the most popular dish in Jamaica and just about anything can be jerked. Meats that are jerked include chicken, pork, beef, sausages, fish, lobster, squid, shrimp, conch, rabbit, and mutton while staples that have been jerked include breadfruit.

Jerk food can be eaten by itself or with rice, dumplings, or festival or by itself with a fork or with the hands.

The most famous place for jerked dishes in Jamaica is Boston in Portland. There are several other famous eating spots all over the island. Jerk food has gained popularity outside of the Jamaica and there are jerk festivals in various parts of the world.

Two jerk food festivals are held in Portland at Port Antonio and Boston annually while a jerk food festival is also staged in New York.

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Le Havre, where to see a little of the old and a little of the new in France

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le_havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime Department in Haute-Normandie on the North Western coast of France. The name Le Havre means harbour and indeed the city is set on a harbour.

Founded in 1517 by the French king Francois I, it was named Franciscopolis in his honour.

The German-occupied city was destroyed by allied forces during World War II and was later redesigned and rebuilt by Brazilian architect Auguste Perret. The rebuilt city was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.

The Le Havre port is the second busiest in France after Marseille. For travelers who wish to move between England and France it is possible to take a ferry from Le Havre to Portsmouth in England. The trip takes five and a half hours.

For the traveler who wants to see a mixture of the old and the modern in France then Le Havre is the place. Several pre-war structures still exist such as the Musee du Havre, the Abbey de Graville, while the more modern include the Church of St. Joseph, arguably the most recognizable sight in the city with its bell tower rising over 100 feet.

Other modern buildings include the Hotel de Ville and the Musee des Beaux Arts Andre Malraux. Getting around Le Havre can be by done by bus or tram and the city is two hours from Paris by train.

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Harry Potter takes on Frankenstein

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harry_potter
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe continues to shake off the role he has been most associated with when he plays the doctor’s assistant Igor in the new Fox Frankenstein movie.

The English actor Radcliffe, who signed up for the project in February, will play alongside Scottish actor James McAvoy who was cast in the main role of Dr. Victor Von Frankenstein. It is reported that in this new film, Igor’s secret past will be revealed.

Both Radcliffe and McAvoy are below average height for men with Radcliffe measuring in at 5’5’ and McAvoy coming in at 5’7’. Radcliffe originated the role which made him famous – that of boy wizard Harry Potter. He has aso starred in a number of other adult roles including The Woman in White and also starred in the stage play Equus in which he appeared naked.

McAvoy is perhaps best known for films such as Wanted, The Last King of Scotland, and X-Men: First Class. No date has yet been announced for start of production but the film is to be directed by Paul McGuigan. McGuigan’s film projects include Lucky Number Slevin and Push. He has also directed episodes of the British series Sherlock as well as the NBC series Smash.

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Could Kanye West be let off the hook?

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Kanye West Brawl
Hip Hop artiste Kanye West got himself into hot water with the law but may not face felony charges of attempted robbery after attacking paparazzi at Los Angeles’ LAX Airport on Friday, July 19.

The troubled rapper, who became a father for the first time on June 15, attacked and tried to wrestle the camera from a photographer – known as Dano – who tried to snap his picture as he tried to leave the airport.

The photographer is said to have been injured in the incident which was witnessed by several other persons. The extent of his injuries was not known.

The incident was also filmed by other paparazzi on hand.

There had been suggestions that the rapper would face felony charges of attempted robbery but now reports say that the Los Angeles District Attorney says there is not enough evidence against West.

According to celebrity website TMZ, the paparazzo’s next option could be to pursue a criminal battery case which would see West paying his way out of a civil compromise.

This is not the first time that West has found himself in problems. The outspoken artiste once said of then-US president George Bush “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” during the relief concert to raise funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005.

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‘The chicken or the egg’ dilemma solved!

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At CircleMe, we have made the concept of “continuous innovation” our mantra and our driver each day. In order to innovate, we need to be ready to transform and revolutionize what we have done so far. To transform though, it is important to understand where we are coming from, and where we are going… and so, the resolution of “the chicken and the egg” dilemma becomes crucial to our day-to-day business. Today, we believe we have solved this dilemma!

Even though we continue to pursue great new partnerships with content and service providers, which enable our users to enjoy their passions more, we knew this was not enought. While we consistently improve our algorithms for taste-graph analysis and recommendation, we just thought you deserved more!

For this reason, today we are releasing a very special feature which we internally call “CEDG” or “Chicken-Egg Dilemma Solver” (it is a technical term – please write to us at support@circleme.com if you’d like to know more about the detailed explanation of this complex term). Due to the incredible impact it will probably have on all our user base, the overall Internet community and (most likely) the entire human race, we have decided to activate this feature just for a day, starting now. We realize that an abuse of such ‘awesomeness’ could really be too disruptive for the rest of the Internet players and population, hence for this reason we are limiting its fruition to the next 24 hours. I am sure our competitors will be very thankful for our decision. (And we respond: “You’re welcome! ;-D” )

We know, we know. Once you will see it you will be asking yourself how were we able to come up with such intuition, and then develop it only in a few months. You will wonder who is the genius behind all of this, and how come never anyone had thought about this problem’s resolution in such terms. But hey, what can we say? That’s what true innovation and disruption is all about, and why you have the CircleMe team work on tough stuff like this.

Alright: ready for the CircleMe revolutionary feature? If you say so, well… take a deep breath and log-in now. Amazingly enough, the chicken and egg dilemma will fade away in seconds as the solution is hatched in front of you.

And sure thing… you’re welcome! ;-D

CircleMe is hiring!

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Today, our CEO Giuseppe D’Antonio will be at the Codemotion event in Rome, hunting for the brightest minds to join CircleMe!

Since Codemotion is an event aimed at developers, it seems the right place for CircleMe to have a stand, as we’re looking for 3 bright developers to join our ambitious project. The positions we’re after are:

  1. Web Front-End Engineer
  2. Mobile Engineer (Android preference)
  3. Back-end Engineers

So if you’re in Codemotion Rome today, don’t hesitate to stop by our stand and chat to Giuseppe about these positions. If you can’t make it to Codemotion, you can always send your CV to careers@circleme.com. Also, our jobs will be advertised on http://www.cascaad.com/jobs, but we strongly suggest sending the CVs as soon as possible.

If you’re new to CircleMe, you’ll find on the image below some info about us and the kind of person we’re after:

Codemotion - CircleMe hiring

Happy 1st CircleBirthday!

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Dear Circlers,

Today is a great day for CircleMe: It’s been 1 year since we launched CircleMe publicly on the 15th of March, 2012! This is a great feat for us, especially considering how difficult it is to create something as innovative as CircleMe that can stand the test of time.

CircleMe's 1st Birthday

CircleMe’s 1st Birthday

It’s been an extraordinary year as you can read in our summary of most notable events for CircleMe and more recently, we were in the Mobile Premier Awards 2013 in Barcelona during the Mobile World Congress as one of the top 20 apps in the world!

We wanted to take this chance to thank you for your support with something creative. For this reason, we wanted to share this background image with all our Circlers that you can use in your own desktop: A year of a Galaxy of Likes with CircleMe 🙂 We hope you enjoy it.

CircleMe's Galaxy of Likes

CircleMe’s Galaxy of Likes (click on the image to download it)

Thank you for your support and happy CircleBirthday!  😉

CircleMe one of the Top 10 sites of 2012 according to All My Faves

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As we turn the page on our calendars to the month of February, we don’t want to forget CircleMe‘s achievements in 2012. If you subscribe to this blog, you’ll be aware of many of them. However, there is something we hadn’t had the pleasure of sharing yet: CircleMe was selected as one of the Top 10 sites of 2012 on All My Faves.

This was great news for us especially because it was decided by public vote. That’s right: users like you made us one of the top 10 sites of 2012! 🙂

AllMyFaves-Best-of-2012-cool-websites

If you’re not familiar with All My Faves yet, we recommend you give it a try: It lists the most popular and useful sites of the world by categories, which is a great way to know ‘what’s hot’ out there. And if you’d like to find out which other 9 sites made it to the top 10 of 2012, you can check them here.

Many thanks for your continuous support and… CircleOn!

CircleMe finalist at the Mobile Premier Awards 2013!

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Dear Circlers,

badge-finalist2013 couldn’t have started off any better for CircleMe! We’ve just learned that CircleMe has been selected as one of the 20 finalists at the Mobile Premier Awards! The MPA 2013 awards will take place on the 25th of February in Barcelona during the prestigious Mobile World Congress 2013.

The 20 finalists were chosen amongst the winners of all the AppCircus events worldwide (As you might remember, in July we won the London one!). We’re really excited as there were over 1000 app entries, and we’re one of the 20 apps that made it to the final. Great!

Mobile Premier Awards

We’re getting ready for Barcelona… Wish us luck! 😉