SoManyThingz

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it -Charles R. Swindoll

Monday 25 April 2016

Movies That Were Supposed to Be Sequels to Other Movies

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1. THE HATEFUL EIGHT (2015)

Quentin Tarantino originally conceived of The Hateful Eight as a sequel to his Django Unchained (2012). But as he began writing, the filmmaker realized that something didn’t feel right about having Django in the middle of the new story. Tarantino felt that Django was too much of a good guy to be part of the deadly situation at the center of The Hateful Eight. "There should be no moral center. I thought it should be a room of bad guys, and you can't trust a word anybody says," Tarantino said during a Q&A at the Alamo Drafthouse in 2015.
“At the time it was called ‘Django in White Hell,’” Tarantino told David Poland. “And it was basically just, you know—so I started writing—and it was basically just the stagecoach stuff, you know, all the stuff that we have in the story of the stagecoach, instead of Major Warren it was Django. And I was working on that and I hadn’t got to Minnie’s Haberdashery yet, hadn’t figured out who the other people would be there, just kind of, just setting this mystery into place.”

2. DIE HARD (1988)

Die Hard is based on Roderick Thorp’s 1979 novel, Nothing Lasts Forever. Which is a sequel to his 1966 novel, The Detective, which was adapted into a film starring Frank Sinatra in 1968. When Die Hard was being developed, 20th Century Fox offered the lead role to Sinatra, who wasn’t interested in reprising the part.
“A good bar bet if you want to make some cash is to ask someone: ‘Who was the first actor to play John McClane and in what movie?’ They will say: ‘Bruce Willis in Die Hard' and you say: ‘No! Frank Sinatra in The Detective!’ and then run out before you get beat up,” Die Hard screenwriter Steven E. de Souza told the Bristol Bad Film Club in 2015. “Interestingly, 20th Century Fox had to contractually offer Bruce Willis’s part in Die Hard to Frank Sinatra because it was a sequel to the original book! Fortunately for Bruce, he said: ‘I’m too old and too rich to act any more.’”

3. PREDATOR (1987)

After Rocky Balboa defeated Ivan Drago and brought together the United States and Russia at the end of Rocky IV, there was a joke in Hollywood that Rocky was running out of people to box and would have to fight a space alien if there was ever a Rocky V. Screenwriters Jim and John Thomas took the joke seriously and started to write the script for Predator, which was originally titled Hunter. Producer Joel Silver really liked the story and picked it up for 20th Century Fox in 1985. Instead of casting Sylvester Stallone in the leading role, Silver cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer after working with him on Commando a few years earlier.

4. COLOMBIANA (2011)

With the success of 1994’s Léon: The Professional, director Luc Besson and his protégé Olivier Megaton tried to make a sequel called Mathilda. After years of running into roadblocks—including Natalie Portman’s rise to stardom and Besson’s rocky relationship with Gaumont Film Company, which owns the rights to The Professional—Besson and Megaton turned their script for Mathilda into Colombiana instead.
"Ten years ago we decided to make Mathilda, which was the Professional sequel, but we couldn’t do it because of the evolution of a lot of things," said Megaton. “Luc tried to do this movie again and again—he proposed it to me 12 years ago. But when we decided to change the script and to make another movie with a revenge story like Mathilda, he had to give up everything about Mathilda."

5. NIGHTHAWKS (1981)

During the late 1970s, screenwriter David Shaber wrote The French Connection III after the success of the first two feature films for 20th Century Fox. However, Gene Hackman refused to reprise the role of Popeye Doyle, so the project moved to Universal Pictures and Shaber rewrote the script into Nighthawks, with Sylvester Stallone and Billy Dee Williams in the main roles.
Fun Fact: The character Popeye Doyle would eventually reappear in a movie, but this time on the small screen. Ed O’Neill played the character in Popeye Doyle, a made-for-TV movie that aired on NBC in 1986.

6. SOLACE (2015)

After the success of Se7en in 1995, New Line Cinema wanted to make a sequel and acquired a script called Solace from Ocean’s Eleven writer Ted Griffin in 2002. With the hope of making a sequel called Ei8ht, the story featured a psychic who helps the FBI find a known serial killer. New Line wanted to change the psychic character to Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman’s character from Se7en), but Se7en director David Fincher was less than enthusiastic about the idea of a sequel.
“I would be less interested in that than I would in having cigarettes put out in my eyes,” the director said during an advanced screening of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at Lincoln Center in New York City in 2008. “I keep trying to get out from under my own shadow.” He later added, “I don’t want to do the same sh*t over and over.”
In 2013, New Line Cinema continued with the project without Fincher, but made Solace under its original title and characters instead.

7. SPEED 2: CRUISE CONTROL (1997)

Before Die Hard with a Vengeance hit theaters during the summer of 1995, 20th Century Fox was interested in turning a spec script called Troubleshooter from writer James Haggin into Die Hard 3. If made, the film would’ve followed John McClane aboard a Caribbean cruise ship with terrorists taking over the luxury ocean liner. Fox scrapped the idea when they learned that Steven Seagal’s Under Siege, which had a very similar story, was in production at Warner Bros. for release in 1992. However, in 1997, Fox reworked Troubleshooter into Speed 2: Cruise Control with Annie Porter (Sandra Bullock) and new love interest Alex Shaw (Jason Patric) on board the cruise ship instead. Keanu Reeves was offered $12 million to reprise his role, but said no.

8. MINORITY REPORT (2002)

Originally, Minority Report was developed as a sequel to Total Recall, both of which were based on short stories by Philip K. Dick. When Total Recall became a box office hit in 1990, TriStar Pictures wanted a sequel, so they looked to combine Total Recall with Minority Report and tasked novelist Jon Cohen with adapting the screenplay in 1997. The would-be sequel would’ve seen the precogs from Minority Report changed into the mutants from Total Recall, as they helped Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Douglas Quaid stop crime before it happened on the Red Planet.
However, production company Carolco Pictures, which owned the rights to Total Recall and Minority Report, went out of business, so the sequel project fell to 20th Century Fox where Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise later picked it up for release in 2002. 

9. CYBORG (1989)

During the late 1980s, Cannon Films planned to make a sequel for Masters of the Universe and a live-action Spider-Man movie at the same time. However, the movie studio ran into financial problems because Masters of the Universe was a box office bomb and had to cancel its deals with Mattel and Marvel, who owned He-Man and Spider-Man, respectively. Unfortunately, Cannon had already spent $2 million in pre-production, so the movie studio decided to rework the projects into a new film called Cyborg to make up for the loss. A script was written in one weekend and Jean-Claude Van Damme was cast in the lead role of Gibson Rickenbacker.
“That's part of the Cannon experience—we couldn't shoot these because the check bounced for the rights,” Cyborg director Albert Pyun told io9. “First it was Spider-Man, and then they couldn't bring themselves to tell us they'd also bounced the same check for Mattel [for He-Man]. It was kind of good, though. I was relieved—both Marvel and Mattel were very difficult to deal with, and they just did not want to cooperate.

Sunday 24 April 2016

Catatonia

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Catatonia is a state of neurogenic motor immobility and behavioral abnormality manifested by stupor. It was first described in 1874 by Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum, in Die Katatonie oder das Spannungsirresein[1] (Catatonia or Tension Insanity).
In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th edition catatonia is not recognized as a separate disorder, but is associated with psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia (catatonic type), bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other mental disorders, narcolepsy, as well as drug abuse or overdose (or both). It may also be seen in many medical disorders including infections (such as encephalitis), autoimmune disorders, focal neurologic lesions (including strokes), metabolic disturbances, alcohol withdrawal[2] and abrupt or overly rapid benzodiazepine withdrawal.[3][4][5]
It can be an adverse reaction to prescribed medication. It bears similarity to conditions such as encephalitis lethargica and neuroleptic malignant syndrome. There are a variety of treatments available; benzodiazepines are a first-line treatment strategy. Electro-convulsive therapy is also sometimes used. There is growing evidence for the effectiveness of NMDA antagonists for benzodiazepine resistant catatonia.[6] Antipsychotics are sometimes employed but require caution as they can worsen symptoms and have serious adverse effects.[7]

Treatment

Initial treatment is aimed at providing symptomatic relief. Benzodiazepines are the first line of treatment, and high doses are often required. A test dose of 1–2 mg of intramuscular lorazepam will often result in marked improvement within half an hour. In France, zolpidem has also been used in diagnosis, and response may occur within the same time period. Ultimately the underlying cause needs to be treated.[7]
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an effective treatment for catatonia. Antipsychotics should be used with care as they can worsen catatonia and are the cause of neuroleptic malignant syndrome, a dangerous condition that can mimic catatonia and requires immediate discontinuation of the antipsychotic.[7]
Excessive glutamate activity is believed to be involved in catatonia; when first-line treatment options fail, NMDA antagonists such as amantadine or memantine are used. Amantadine may have an increased incidence of tolerance with prolonged use and can cause psychosis, due to its additional effects on the dopamine system. Memantine has a more targeted pharmacological profile for the glutamate system, reduced incidence of psychosis and may therefore be preferred for individuals who cannot tolerate amantadine. Topiramate is another treatment option for resistant catatonia; it produces its therapeutic effects by producing glutamate antagonism via modulation of AMPA receptors.[13]

Binge eating disorder

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Binge eating disorder (BED) is characterized by binge eating without subsequent purging episodes. The disorder was first described in 1959 by psychiatrist and researcher Albert Stunkard as "night eating syndrome" (NES). The term "binge eating " was coined to describe the same binging-type eating behavior but without the exclusive nocturnal component.[1] Binge eating is one of the most prevalent eating disorders among adults,[2] though there tends to be less media coverage and research about the disorder in comparison to anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Previously considered a topic for further research exploration, binge eating disorder was included in the eating disorders section of the DSM-5 in 2013.[3]
BED is present in 0.8% of male U.S. adults and 1.6% of female U.S. adults in a given year.[3]

Signs and symptoms

The following are DSM-5 criteria that must be present to make a diagnosis of binge eating disorder. Studies have confirmed the high predictive value of these criteria for diagnosing BED.[4]
"A. Recurrent episodes of binge eating. An episode of binge eating is characterized by both of the following:
  1. Eating, in a discrete period of time (e.g., within any 2-hour period), an amount of food that is definitely larger than what most people would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances.
  2. A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode (e.g., a feeling that one cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating).
B. The binge-eating episodes are associated with three (or more) of the following:
  1. Eating much more rapidly than normal.
  2. Eating until feeling uncomfortably full.
  3. Eating large amounts of food when not feeling physically hungry.
  4. Eating alone because of feeling embarrassed by how much one is eating.
  5. Feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or very guilty afterward.
C. Marked distress regarding binge eating is present.
D. The binge eating occurs, on average, at least once a week for 3 months.
E. The binge eating is not associated with the recurrent use of inappropriate compensatory behavior as in bulimia nervosa and does not occur exclusively during the course of bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa."[5]
Binge eating is a core symptom of binge eating disorder; however, not everyone who binge eats has binge eating disorder.[6] An individual may occasionally binge eat without experiencing many of the negative physical, psychological, or social effects of binge eating disorder. This example may be considered an eating problem (or not), rather than a disorder.

Causes

Before binge eating disorder received its own category in the DSM-5 in 2013, there was resistance to give binge eating disorder the status of a full-fledged eating disorder because many perceived binge eating disorder to be the cause of individual choices.[7] More research is needed to uncover the causes of binge eating disorder. Previous research has focused on the relationship between body image and eating disorders, and concludes that disordered eating might be linked to rigid dieting practices.[citation needed][8] In the majority of cases of anorexia, extreme and inflexible restriction of dietary intake leads at some point to the development of binge eating, weight regain, bulimia nervosa, or a mixed form of eating disorder not otherwise specified. Binge eating may begin when individuals recover from an adoption of rigid eating habits. When under a strict diet that mimics the effects of starvation, the body may be preparing for a new type of behavior pattern, one that consumes a large amount of food in a relatively short period of time.
However, other research suggests that binge eating disorder can also be caused by environmental factors and the impact of traumatic events. One study showed that women with binge eating disorder experienced more adverse life events in the year prior to the onset of the development of the disorder, and that binge eating disorder was positively associated with how frequently negative events occur.[9] Additionally, the research found that individuals who had binge eating disorder were more likely to have experienced physical abuse, perceived risk of physical abuse, stress, and body criticism.[9][9] Other risk factors may include childhood obesity, critical comments about weight, low self-esteem, depression, and physical or sexual abuse in childhood.[10] A few studies have suggested that there could be a genetic component to binge eating disorder,[2] though other studies have shown more ambiguous results. Studies have shown that binge eating tends to run in families and a twin study by Bulik, Sullivan, and Kendler has shown a, "moderate heritability for binge eating" at 41 percent.[11] More research must be done before any firm conclusions can be drawn regarding the heritability of binge eating disorder. Studies have also shown that eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia reduce coping abilities, which makes it more likely for those suffering to turn to binge eating as a coping strategy.[12]
A correlation between dietary restraint and the occurrence of binge eating has been shown in some research.[6] While binge eaters are often believed to be lacking in self-control, the root of such behavior might instead be linked to rigid dieting practices. The relationship between strict dieting and binge eating is characterized by a vicious circle. Binge eating is more likely to occur after dieting, and vice versa. Several forms of dieting include delay in eating (e.g., not eating during the day), restriction of overall calorie intake (e.g., setting calorie limit to 1,000 calories per day), and avoidance of certain types of food (e.g., "forbidden" food, such as sugar, carbohydrates, etc.) [13][14] Strict and extreme dieting differs from ordinary dieting. Some evidence suggests the effectiveness of moderate calorie restriction in decreasing binge eating episodes among overweight individuals with binge eating disorder, at least in the short-term.[15][16]

Asperger syndrome

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Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Aspergers, is a developmental disorder characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests.[1] It is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and differs from other disorders by relatively normal language and intelligence.[2] Although not required for diagnosis, physical clumsiness and unusual use of language are common.[3][4] Symptoms usually begin before two years old and can last for a person's entire life.[1]
The exact cause of Asperger's is unknown.[1] While there is likely a genetic basis, it has not been determined conclusively.[3][5] Environmental factors are also believed to play a role.[1] Brain imaging has not identified a common underlying problem.[3] The diagnosis of Asperger's was removed in the 2013 fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and people with these symptoms are now included within the autism spectrum disorder along with autism and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified.[1][6] It remains within the tenth edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) as of 2015.[2]
There is no single treatment, and the effectiveness of particular interventions is supported by only limited data.[3] Treatment is aimed at improving poor communication skills, obsessive or repetitive routines, and physical clumsiness.[7] Efforts may include social skills training, cognitive behavioral therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, parenting training, and medications for associated problems such as depression or anxiety.[7] Most children improve as they grow up, but social and communication difficulties may persist.[8] Some researchers and people on the autism spectrum have advocated a shift in attitudes toward the view that autism spectrum disorder is a difference, rather than a disease that must be treated or cured.[9][10]
In 2013, Asperger's was estimated to affect 31 million people globally.[11] The syndrome is named after the Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger who, in 1944, described children in his practice who lacked nonverbal communication, had limited understanding of others' feelings, and were physically clumsy.[12] The modern conception of Asperger syndrome came into existence in 1981 and went through a period of popularization.[13][14][15] It became a standardized diagnosis in the early 1990s.[16] Many questions and controversies remain about aspects of the disorder.[8] There is doubt about whether it is distinct from high-functioning autism (HFA).[17] Partly because of this, the percentage of people affected is not firmly established.[3]

Saturday 23 April 2016

Bilingual Babies Have More Flexible Brains

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Bilingual baby

Babies who are exposed to two languages (not including baby talk) instead of one during the first year of their life may develop a cognitive advantage over their monolingual counterparts, attaining better problem-solving skills. And while most babies don’t actually have many problems to solve, this early boost to their mental progress could stand them in good stead for their adult lives.
Previous research has shown that people who speak multiple languages tend to have enhanced connectivity in areas of the brain involved in executive function, which refers to a range of cognitive capabilities related to planning, reasoning and problem solving. However, researchers from the University of Washington were keen to learn if this neurological side-effect of multilingualism could be detected in babies who had not yet begun to talk.
To test this, they recruited 16 11-month-old babies (via their parents, obviously), half of which came from families that only speak English while the other half came from English-Spanish bilingual families. The researchers used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure the brain activity of the babies as they listened to a stream of meaningless speech sounds that are common to either English, Spanish or both, as outlined in the video below.


Reporting their findings in the journal Developmental Science, the team discovered that the babies from bilingual families exhibited strong brain responses to both the Spanish and English sounds, indicating that they were able to recognize and process both types as “phonetic sounds” rather than general noises, or “acoustic sounds.” Babies from English-speaking families, however, only responded to English sounds, suggesting that the Spanish sounds were not phonetically processed.
This outcome indicates that, even before babies start talking, they are able to recognize linguistic sounds. However, a much more important finding was that the neurological responses of bilingual babies occurred in certain brain regions responsible for executive function, such as the prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex. In contrast, the brain responses of monolingual babies did not extend into these regions.
As such, the researchers conclude that the need to distinguish between two languages presents a cognitive challenge to bilingual babies that requires them to engage these brain areas, thereby strengthening their executive function capacities. According to study co-author Naja Ferjan Ramírez, this finding “suggests that bilingualism shapes not only language development, but also cognitive development more generally.”
In other words, babies who are exposed to multiple languages are likely to get a head start at strengthening the connections in the parts of the brain that are necessary for flexible thought and problem solving.

What Do You See In This Image? Your Answer Could Help Crack Your "Brain Code"

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Photo credit: "Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire" by Salvador Dalí, 1940. Wikimedia Commons/Fair Use
The surrealist paintings of mustached maestro Salvador Dalí were all about playing with our minds. One of his most famous pieces, “Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire,” is now being used by researchers from Glasgow University to understand how our brains process visual information. The study is published in Scientific Reports.

Same-Sex Parenting Has No Negative Impact On Children's Health

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Same-sex parenting has been a contentious issue since the 1980s, but the struggle for marriage equality has brought the issue back to the forefront of public debate. Scientifically speaking, though, there’s not much of a debate. No peer-reviewed study has ever found that gay parents in stable relationships are a disadvantage to their kids.
The latest study, by an international team of researchers from the U.S. and the Netherlands, looked at 190 intact families (95 different-sex, 95 female same-sex parents) with at least one child between the age of 6 and 17. They looked at the children’s general health, emotional difficulties, coping behavior, and learning behavior, and discovered no differences between children raised by same-sex or different-sex parents.
This finding, published in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, is obviously not a surprising discovery. Including this latest one, there are 74 scientifically peer-reviewed and published studies showing that gay and bisexual parents in stable same-sex relationships don’t disadvantage their children. The four claiming the opposite have been either debunked or have never been peer-reviewed.
This study was based on the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children’s Health, and the families were selected from the 95,677 households who completed interviews. Initial analysis revealed 139 female and 17 male same-sex couples, but these were reduced to 106 families (95 female, 11 men). This was because the researchers wanted families that had their children since infancy, as divorce and parental separation could affect the development of a child.
Having such a small sample for male same-sex couples, the researchers focused solely on female same-sex couples and constructed a control sample of different sex parents from the general population based on the age, education, U.S. birth status, and current geographic location of the parents, as well as the age, sex, race/ethnicity, and U.S. birth status of the children. This methodology guarantees the crucial variable in the study to be just the sexual orientation of the parent.
While the study didn’t show any differences in the health and development of children, it did show an increased level of parental stress. The National Survey did not have specific enough questions to pinpoint the cause of the stress, but based on previous studies, the researchers suggest that same-sex parents “have concerns about rearing their children in a homophobic society and feel more pressure to justify the quality of their parenting than their heterosexual counterparts.”