The 14th annual X Games was held in Los Angeles, at both The Home Depot Center and STAPLES Center, July 31-August 3 with record-breaking milestones on the course as well as among consumers via both television and online. X Games 14 was ESPN's most-viewed X Games among households, men 18-49 and 25-54 as well as persons 18-49 and 25-54. In addition, ABC's X Games 14 was up double digits year-to-year among households—an increase of 14% overall from X Games 13. "X Games 14 surpassed all our expectations both on the field and across all of our global multi-media platforms, reaching a record number of fans", said Rick Alessandri, Managing Director, X Games Franchise. "It's clear that fans around the world have embraced these athletes and our events".
Bruce Wayne made like Bruce Jenner this weekend, as Batman took home the boxoffice gold yet again.
Sony's stoner comedy "Pineapple Express" couldn't cop the session's top berth, despite a heady $40.5 million in estimated domestic grosses since bowing Wednesday. Midweek binging sapped its Friday-Sunday strength, and the Seth Rogen-James Franco starrer had to settle for a silver medal with $22.4 million over a weekend seemingly influenced by Olympics telecasts.
The R-rated laffer's lighter-than-expected weekend tally allowed Warner Bros.' "The Dark Knight" to top domestic rankings for an incredible fourth straight frame, with the Batman sequel fetching another $26 million to pump cume to $441.5 million. More…
Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and Batman: A billionaire dedicated to protecting Gotham City from the criminal underworld. Bale said he was confident in his choice to return in the role because of the positive response to his performance in Batman Begins. He trained in the Keysi Fighting Method, and performed many of his own stunts, but did not gain as much muscle as in the previous film because the new Batsuit allowed him to move with more agility.
The actor described Batman's dilemma as whether "something that has an end. Can he quit and have an ordinary life? The kind of manic intensity someone has to have to maintain the passion and the anger that they felt as a child, takes an effort after awhile, to keep doing that. At some point, you have to exorcise your demons." He added, "Now you have not just a young man in pain attempting to find some kind of an answer, you have somebody who actually has power, who is burdened by that power, and is having to recognize the difference between attaining that power and holding on to it." Bale felt that, because Batman's personality was strongly established in the first film, it was unlikely his character would be overshadowed by the villains, stating: "I have no problem with competing with someone else. And that's going to make a better movie."
Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth: Bruce Wayne's trusted butler and advisor who tends to Wayne's penthouse. His supply of useful advice to Wayne and his likeness to a fatherly figure to him has led to him being labelled as "Batman's batman".
Heath Ledger as The Joker: Heath Ledger described the Joker as a "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy". Nolan had wanted to work with Ledger on a number of projects in the past, but had been unable to do so. When Ledger saw Batman Begins, he realized a way to make the character work consistent with the film's tone, and Nolan agreed with his anarchic interpretation. To prepare for the role, Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's posture, voice, and personality, and kept a diary, in which he recorded the Joker's thoughts and feelings. While he initially found it difficult, Ledger eventually generated a voice unlike that of Jack Nicholson's character in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film. He was also given Batman: The Killing Joke and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, which he "really tried to read and put it down". Ledger also cited A Clockwork Orange and Sid Vicious as "a very early starting point for Christian and I. But we kind of flew far away from that pretty quickly and into another world altogether." "There’s a bit of everything in him. There’s nothing that consistent," Ledger said, adding that "There are a few more surprises to him." Before Ledger was confirmed to play the Joker in July 2006, Paul Bettany, Steve Carell, and Robin Williams publicly expressed interest in the role.
Tony Hawk
Anthony Frank Hawk (born May 12, 1968) is an American professional skateboarder. He is credited with the invention of many aerial skateboard tricks including the Stalefish, Madonna, and McHawk, and over 80 others, but is most famous for being the first recorded skater to land the 900, which consists of two-and-a-half rotations (900°) in the air before landing back on the pipe during the televised June 27, 1999 X Games, for which he received an enormous amount of attention.
He was also the second skateboarder to land a McTwist, a trick named after a Mike McGill of the Bones Brigade, a skate team of which Tony Hawk was an original member. It marked the next level of his rise to fame, solidifying his status as a household name. He retired from competitive skateboarding afterwards, but continues to skate and perform.
Ryan Sheckler
Sheckler was born in San Clemente, California, to Randy and Gretchen Sheckler. He has two brothers, Shane and Kane. At the age of 18 months, Sheckler found his dad's old school skateboard. Sheckler taught himself to push it around by using one knee, and eventually stood up on the skateboard. Since the age of 6, he spent up to 22 hours a week practicing tricks in his backyard - which includes a half pipe, table tops and several grind rails. He developed his own trick called the Sheck-lair - an indy kickflip flyout.
Sheckler's career took shape during the summer of 1995, when Sheckler's dad built him and his friends a new quarter pipe along with a few other additions making it a small skate park. A few years later, he joined the CASL (California Amateur Skateboarding League) and entered one of their contests and won. He idolized Tony Hawk and wanted to invite him to his seventh birthday party. Hawk attended the party and took some time to practice with Sheckler. During 1997-2001 Sheckler was winning the CASL state championships, where he picked up his first eye wear sponsor, Arnette, the same company sponsoring Tony Hawk. He turned professional in 2003 after winning in the X Games, Gravity Games, Vans Triple Crown and Slam City Jam. In 2004 he was named the World Cup of Skateboarding’s National Street Champion. In 2005, he was named the World Cup of Skateboarding’s National Street Champion and the AST Dew Tour Athlete of the Year. For 2006, he won the Global Assault in Australia and finished fifth at the Tampa Pro in Florida. Sheckler has had roles in the movies Grind, Dishdogz, and MVP 2: Most Vertical Primate, and stars in his own MTV reality show "Life of Ryan".
Bam Margera
Brandon Cole "Bam" Margera (born September 28, 1979), is a professional skateboarder, television and radio personality, and daredevil. He released a series of videos under the CKY banner and came to prominence after being drafted into MTV's Jackass crew. He has since appeared in MTV's Viva La Bam and Bam's Unholy Union, both Jackass movies, and Haggard, which he co-wrote and directed. Margera was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania to Phil and April Margera. He is also the younger brother of Jess Margera and nephew of Vincent Margera. His grandfather nicknamed him "Bam" at the age of three after his habit of running into walls.[2] He attended East High School and cites friend Chris Raab as his only reason for attending high school, and dropped out after Raab got expelled for smearing feces on a locker. He later received his GED at the insistence of his parents.
The Tony Hawk Foundation Stand Up For Skateparks
Hamptons.com, NY
By Nicole B. Brewer and John Anthony Olsen For years skateboard legend Tony Hawk has been thrilling the crowds across the country with his extreme tricks. After five years in Beverly Hills, California this family-centric, carnival-style, star-studded benefit will expand to the East Coast for an intimate Vert skateboarding and BMX demonstration where Tony Hawk and other top skate and BMX pros will perform on Tony's personal vert ramp. More…
Gumball 3000 Starts This Weekend
Transworld Skateboarding
By Carleton Curtis | Tue Aug 05 00:00:00 EDT 2008 Rob Dyrdek, Sal Barbier, Bam Margera, Willy Santos, and Bucky Lasek will be driving gumballs-to-the wall. From San Francisco, the 3000 mile route incorporates overnight stops in Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas, with VIP parties each night. Upon reaching Las Vegas, all participants will be flown directly to Pyongyang, North Korea, to spend an unprecedented night in this undiscovered city to watch the incredible 'Mass Games' (their spectacular annual display of arts and sport) as part of a global "friendship" initiative. (And you thought Gumball was just another Cannonball Run - this one's more likely to get the Nobel Peace Prize than Burt Reynold's version – that's for sure!)
Teen skateboarder Sheckler doesn't disappoint at X Games
USA Today
Fourteen years after the X Games began, skateboarding remains one of its biggest attractions. That was evident on Friday when fans flooded downtown Los Angeles on Day 2 of X Games 14. Most were there to see 18-year-old skating sensation-turned-pop-culture-icon Ryan Sheckler. And "Shecks" didn't disappoint the crowd that numbered about 3,500 more than Day 2 last year. Sheckler won the gold medal in the Skateboard Men's Street Final, five years after becoming the youngest X Games gold medalist when he won the Park Final.
Identity theft is a term used to refer to fraud that involves stealing money or getting other benefits by pretending to be someone else. The term is relatively new and is actually a misnomer, since it is not inherently possible to steal an identity, only to use it. The person whose identity is used can suffer various consequences when they are held responsible for the perpetrator's actions. In many countries specific laws make it a crime to use another person's identity for personal gain.
A classic example of credit-dependent financial crime (bank fraud) occurs when a criminal obtains a loan from a financial institution by impersonating someone else. The criminal pretends to be the victim by presenting an accurate name, address, birth date, or other information that the lender requires as a means of establishing identity. Even if this information is checked against the data at a national consumer reporting agency, the lender will encounter no concerns, as all of the victim's information matches the records. The lender has no easy way to discover that the person is pretending to be the victim, especially if an original, government-issued id can't be verified (as is the case in online, mail, telephone, and fax-based transactions). This kind of crime is considered non-self-revealing, although authorities may be able to track down the criminal if the funds for the loan were mailed to them. The criminal keeps the money from the loan, the financial institution is never repaid, and the victim is wrongly blamed for defaulting on a loan s/he never authorized.
In most cases the financial identity theft will be reported to the national Consumer credit reporting agency or Credit bureaus (U.S.) as a collection or bad loan under the impersonated person's record. The victim may discover the incident by being denied a loan, by seeing the accounts or complaints when they view their own credit history, or by being contacted by creditors or collection agencies. The victim's credit score, which affects one's ability to acquire new loans or credit lines, will be adversely affected until they are able to successfully dispute the fraudulent accounts and have them removed from their record.
Other forms of bank fraud associated with identity theft include "account takeovers", passing bad checks, and "busting out" a checking or credit account with bad checks, counterfeit money orders, or empty ATM envelope deposits. If withdrawals or checks are made against the impersonated person's real accounts, that person may need to convince the bank that the withdrawal was fraudulent or file a court case in order to retrieve lost funds. If checks are written against fraudulently opened checking accounts, the person receiving the checks will suffer the financial loss. However, the recipient might attempt to retrieve money from the impersonated person by using a collection agency. This action would appear in the victim's credit history until it was shown to be fraud.
US Prosecutors Indict 11 in Massive Identity Theft Case
Voice of America
By VOA News US federal prosecutors have indicted 11 people for what officials say is the largest and most complex identity theft case ever charged. Click here for more information.
Massive Identity Theft Exposes Troubling Trend
PC World
What's being called the worst case of identity theft in American history is behind us — but the vulnerabilities it's exposing are far from fixed. More…
Millions of Americans Victimized by Largest Ever Identity Theft
MarketWatch
More than 27 million Americans have been victims of identity theft between 2003 and 2007, according to the Federal Trade Commission. More information…
