Friday, March 21, 2014

Movie Review: Ragini MMS 2

Summary

I quite enjoyed 'Ragini MMS 2' in the portions when Sunny Leone is in full stride.

Movie Coupon Codes: Ragini MMS 2 Star Cast: Sunny Leone, Pravin Dabas, Karan Mehra, Sandhya Mridul, Divya Dutta Director: Bhushan Patel

A film unit goes off to a deserted house in the middle of a forest for a shoot. Because this is a sequel to 'Ragini MMS', we are already primed for what is about to happen: a vengeful spirit will get after the humans, and scare us witless in the process.

The original film boasted a dirty weekend between a horny fellow and his nervous-but-willing girlfriend. That one got the 'dirty' bit right, but slid off on the scary aspect, being more tell than show. The sequel goes much further in the down-and-dirty aspect, because it has a perfect lead to deliver on its promises. The lusciously curved Sunny Leone fits her part like her tight sheaths, and makes 'Ragini MMS 2′ Bollywood's first unabashed adult sex-horror flick, begging the Ramsay Bros pardon.

Ms Leone, who is called Sunny in the movie (just in case there is any confusion, either for her or us) has been hired by a director (Pravin Dabas) who wants to make a film on the Ragini case. We are treated to a lingering exhibition of Sunny's pneumatic wares, and lest we think she is all bod, no brains, the dialogue-writer gives her such lines as this - Director: is it hot or is it you? Sunny: err, global warming?

Right, got that. After which, there is the haunted house, and the 'chudail', and Sunny and her endless array of baby-doll night-wear, and the members of the cast who rattle about the place, waiting for their turn. There's Sandhya Mridul, acting so well against type as the hair-brained wannabe who knows that she has to 'compro' to get somewhere. Karan Mehra, the TV star who has a great line about TV actors (this being an Ekta Kapoor production, there must have been a great deal of chortling when these 'inner joke' dialogues were dreamt up). And Divya Dutta playing the mandatory 'psychiatrist' with a book of 'mantras' at hand to chase evil spirits away.

Despite its harum-scarum script and barely-there logic (why would the senior crew members stay in a haunted house and the bit part-actors in a comfy hotel, for example), I quite enjoyed 'Ragini MMS 2' in the portions when Sunny Leone is in full stride. She is totally comfortable in her acres of bare skin, and is surprisingly not that much of a slouch when it comes to acting her part. Heaving and moaning, sure, that's expected. But she can carry a scene: maybe not 'porn se Rituparno' just yet (another example of the dialogue that continued...

Monday, March 17, 2014

Best St. Patrick's Day 2014 Deals and Discounts

St. Patrick's Day 2014 is right around the corner on March 17, and it's the perfect time to show your Irish side by sporting - and saving - some green. It's a great opportunity to get out and have some fun without needing to touch your savings account.

Related: Ally Bank High-Yield Deposit Accounts Help You Save Money

In partnership with BeFrugal.com, GOBankingRates rounded up some of the best St. Patrick's Day deals to help you show off your holiday spirit and hold onto your pot of gold.

St. Patrick's Day Deals & Freebies for Food & Gifts

  • 1-800-Baskets: Get 15% off select St. Patrick's Day gifts with the Best Offer LUCKY15 through 3/17.
  • 1-800-FLOWERS: Promo code LUCKYSVNTN will get shoppers 17% off St. Patrick's Day flowers and gifts through 3/18.
  • 7-Eleven: Text "DIETCOKE1″ to 711711 to get a small free Diet Coke Slurpee.
  • Bonefish Grill: This coupon is good for $10 off a purchase of two lunch entrees through 3/29.
  • Carvel: Get $2 off any cake (excludes small squares) at participating locations with this coupon. Expires 3/31.
  • Cheryl's: This cookie gift seller offers a range of St. Paddy's Day-themed sweets, and promo code SPRNGSHIP will get shoppers free shipping through 5/11.
  • Del Taco: Buy a bacon or sausage Egg & Cheese Muffin and get a second free with their on-site coupon. Good through 4/2.
  • FTD.com:This gift site's St. Patrick's Day Sale has marked down gifts for the holiday, including chocolate-covered strawberries, Irish-themed jewelry, and flower bouquets. Markdown already applied, no coupon needed.
  • Honey Dew Donuts: Get a green Pistachio Muffin for $.99 with coupon at participating locations through 3/31.
  • Kay Jewelers: Select styles of St. Patrick's Day-themed, gold and green jewelry is discounted up to 50% for the jeweler's St. Patrick's Day Sale, through 3/17.
  • Mimis Cafe: Buy one lunch or dinner entree and two beverages, and get a second entree free with this printable coupon. Valid through 3/23.
  • Papa John's: Promo code SAVE25 will apply a 25% discount to all regular-priced menu items on an order placed on the pizza chain's website.
  • Quiznos: Get $1 off a large sub or salad purchase with coupon, through 3/21. Coupon available on Quiznos website.
  • Olive Garden: A free dessert will come with the purchase of entree when patrons use this coupon through 3/30.
  • Red Lobster: Get a coupon for $10 off two Lobsterfest entrees by filling out a form on their website. Coupons expire 4/13.
  • Regal Cinemas: Coupon is available on this link to claim a free small popcorn from the theater's concession stand through 3/27.
  • Scoutmob Shoppe: Promo code STPADDY10 will get shoppers 10% off a collection of beer- and whiskey-themed items to honor St. Paddy's Day. Expires 3/17.
  • Shari's Berries: Get 15% off a $29+ order of St. Patrick's Day chocolate-covered strawberries, pretzels and cake pops.
  • Things Remembered: Get a set of four monogrammed Irish Coffee Mugs on sale for $25 through 4/6.

St. Patrick's Day Sales to Shop This Weekend

  • American Apparel: 25% off St. Patrick's Day styles when using promo code LUCKY at checkout. Offer ends 3/17.
  • BCBGeneration: Select items are up to 40% through 3/17 for the store's St. Patrick's Day sale. Plus, use the coupon code WELCOME2013 at checkout to get 20% off the order.
  • Champion:Use promo code OFFER75 to get 20% off orders of $75 or more.
  • Claire's: St. Patrick's Day 2014 items are buy one, get one free. Expires 3/17, no coupon code needed.
  • Expedia: For a last-minute St. Patrick's Day celebration, Expedia is offering steep discounts on hotel rooms in Chicago for the holiday through 3/17.
  • EXPRESS: Through 3/16, get 30% off online or in-store purchases with promo code 1258.
  • HarryPotterShop.com: Harry Potter-themed apparel and collectibles are 17% off through 3/18.
  • H&M: Get 20% off one item with coupon code 1616.
  • PETCO: Get 17% off a $49+ order and free shipping through 3/17 when you use the promo code SHAMROCK.
  • Roaman's: Promo code RDSTPATRICK will get choppers 30% off any order through 3/17.
  • Samsonite: Get 20% off select items with an order of $100+, along with free shipping, by using promo code STPATS20. Expires 3/17.
  • SmartWool: A 17% discount is applied to an entire order with promo code O'WOOLIES. Expires 3/17.
  • Sperry Top-Sider: Purchase of green items earn shoppers free shipping with promo code GREENFS through 3/17.
  • Stride Rite: This children's shoe retailer is offering 17% off one regular-priced item with the promo code GREEN17 on St. Patrick's Day only.
  • Target, Corp.: Save up to 30% on home items. Use the code SAVE10 to get $10 off a $50+ purchase through 3/22.
  • ThinkGeek: Get a free St. Patrick's Day Shirt with an order of $40 or more through 3/17, with the code ELVISH. Or buy the t-shirt by itself for only $5. And in honor of Pi Day and Einstein's birthday, the site is also offering a 20% discount on orders of $40 or more with the code PINSTEIN. All offers expire 3/17.

RUSH HOUR: The stories you need to know today

<toys r us jobsp>Britain's double Olympic and world 10,000m and 5,000m champion Mo Farah says a frightening collapse he experienced after the New York City Half Marathon is "no big deal".

The Somali born star took a hard fall about 8km into the race. He made a gritty recovery to finish second behind Geoffrey Mutai, who won in 1hr 00min 50sec.

Farah collapsed after the finish line and left in a wheelchair. He made it to the post-race press conference, however, and said he felt good, if a little cloudy on just what happened.

"I don't remember passing out, but I think it was, just I tried so hard in the race, obviously, taking a fall and then going through. I'm all right. It's fine. It's no big deal," he said.

6:54am

You are under arrest... and please stop this "reckless dancing".

A Northern Territory man was ejected from a nightclub for "reckless dancing" and it all went downhill from there, The NT News reports.

Duty Superintendent Louise Jorgensen told the newspaper a 20-year-old Alawa man was arrested for criminal damage in the early hours of Sunday morning after leaving a nightclub in the city.

"He was intoxicated and apparently incensed that he was asked to leave a nightclub for reckless dancing.

"As a result, he kicked over signs and property in his path. When police caught up with him he began yelling and, out of the blue, bashed his fist on the bonnet of the police van.

"Bad moves all round. Some people should not drink and dance."

6:43am

Neighbours heard a man and woman screaming moments before a ­mother and her three-month-old son plunged from a 6m-high balcony - killing the child - on the New South Wales Central Coast yesterday afternoon.

The baby boy suffered critical injuries after falling to the driveway below.

He was flown to Westmead Children's Hospital where he later died. His mother suffered serious injuries to her back.

You can read more of this story here. 6:30am

Voters in Crimea - the region of Ukraine invaded by Russian forces in late February - have overwhelmingly backed joining Russia.

In a referendum rejected by the United States as illegitimate, exit poll data suggested 93 per cent of voters supported the region becoming part of the Russian Federation.

6:17am

We have all heard of email scams where Nigerian royalty promise millions of dollars if you just give them your bank details.

But one Austrian tradesman has been fooled out of 27,500 euros ($42376AUD) by a Facebook user who pretended to be British royalty - Prince Harry.

The BBC reports the fake prince fraudster offered the European tradie a million-dollar contract to renovate the floors at Buckingham Palace - if only he transferred the hefty sum to "set up a British business."

He reported the encounter to authorities after failing to receive word from the Prince after two weeks.

Authorities told the tradie the chances of recovering his cash are "slim".

6am

Here's a quick look at the top stories this morning:

* The final words from the missing Malaysian jetliner's cockpit - "all right, good night" - gave no indication anything was wrong even though one of the plane's communications systems had already been disabled, officials say.

* Daniel Ricciardo was last night stripped of becoming the first Australian to score a podium at the Australian Grand Prix with FIA stewards disqualifying him from the race in a midnight bombshell. He was disqualified from the season-opening race for a fuel flow breach that saw him exceed regulations.

The parents of Daniel Morcombe heard shocking tales of what had happened to their 13-year-old son during their tireless hunt for leads.

The couple even confronted pedophiles in their search for clues.

"They're generally weak, gutless people ... over the journey people fed us some shocking lies really," Mr Morcombe told Channel Nine's 60 Minutes last night.

"(There were) many different stories of what happened to Daniel," Mrs Morcombe said. "Drugged, smashed with a steel bar. In the bushes, hidden under excavators, and hundreds of things ... emails and letters we used to get all the time."

6am

Good morning, and welcome to our "headlines in a hurry" morning news coverage. We will be bringing you the best of what's happening this morning, so you can get across the news quickly.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Hawaii Best Buy stores to offer SolarCity PV systems

Hawaii is one of five states where SolarCity will sell its residential solar-power systems in Deal Now Buy stores.

The two companies announced their partnership on Wednesday and a plan to station SolarCity sales people in about 60 stores in Arizona, California, Hawaii, New York and Oregon.

Representatives at Best Buy stores will use satellites to assess potential customers' homes and share the information within minutes, according to SolarCity.

The companies also launched a website, bestbuysolarcity.com, that listed the program's participating stores, including Best Buy's outlets in Iwilei and Aiea.

Amazon raising Prime membership to $99 per year

By Jason Abbruzzese, Mashable

Updated: 03/14/2014 03:39:08 PM EDT

Discount will raise the price of its Prime membership to $99 in a bid to boost the company's income through its flagship product.

In an email to Prime members, Amazon identified rising fuel and transportation costs along with a growing stable of products eligible for the program's unlimited two-day shipping as factors in the price increase. Amazon Prime currently costs $79 per year.

See also:10 Things You Didn't Know Amazon Prime Could Do

New Prime members will begin paying the higher price on March 20, while existing members will begin renewing at $99 on April 17. The student price for Prime will rise $10 to $49 per year. It is the first price hike in Prime's nine-year history.

Investors welcomed the news, as Amazon shares rose 2.9 percent to $381.44 in morning trading. But the stock remains down more than 4 percent in 2014 after reporting fourth-quarter earnings that missed revenue expectations.

Prime is a logical place for Amazon to look for an increase in cash flow, particularly as its primary sales of various consumer products relies on thin margins amid fierce competition. Amazon claims to have around 20 million Prime members.

RBC analyst Mark Mahaney said they project between $300 million to $400 million generated by the price increase with minimal loss of existing customers.

"We acknowledge that not all Prime users will adopt an increased membership fee - however, based on our recent conversations with Costco, we don't believe that [Amazon] will see a material increase in Prime sub churn as a result of the increased membership fee," he wrote in an analyst note.

A price increase was first floated by the company during the most recent investor call following the company's fourth-quarter earnings report. The $20 price increase is on the lower end of what Amazon CFO Tom Szkutak discussed.

Amazon noted that its growing media library, much of it included in Prime, now counted 40,000 movies and TV episodes as well as 500,000 e-books available for lending. It has also been reported that Amazon has been in talks to add streaming music to its media offerings.

"We are working to expand selection even further, as we develop additional fulfillment and transportation capacity to make the Prime program even more valuable to our members," an Amazon spokesperson wrote in an email to Mashable.

While Prime's original selling point was its two-day shipping, the media offerings from Amazon have slowly begun to rival other streaming outlets like Netflix.

Amazon's shipping is already fast - standard shipping arrives in an average of 3 days, 10 hours, according to consumer service analytics firm StellaService. Depending on how much a person orders from Amazon, having a package arrive 36 hours earlier may not be worth $99 per year.

But Prime is no longer just a shipping product. Amazon has begun to morph it into the company's primary consumer-facing product with a variety of features.

"Netflix is one set of things and Amazon Prime is a lot more than that," said
David Smith, an analyst with Gartner. "I think it comes down to people being comfortable with the company, with the value they have already received."

The price increase brings Prime closer in price to other competitors. At $99 per year, the service costs $8.25 per month, making it slightly higher than the $7.99-per-month of Netflix and Hulu.

Prime content may not be of the caliber of Netflix or HBO Go, but Amazon is working on that, with original series and content licensing deals with CBS. Extant, a thriller produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television and starring Halle Berry, will be available on Prime just four days after airing on TV.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

And with Amazon prepping the launch of its entry into the streaming set-top box market, Prime will conceivably be put front and center of the company's first foray into living rooms across the country.

This article originally appeared on Mashable .

Friday, March 14, 2014

Veronica Mars the Movie, Two Humble Bundles, Amazon Prime [Deals]

Act early to get the Promo Codes.com/gp/product/B00HEQOAQ8/?tag=io9amzn-20&ascsubtag=%5Btype%7Clink%5BpostId%7C1543044304%5Basin%7CB00HEQOAQ8%5BauthorId%7C5856732741879800112">Veronica Mars movie on blu-ray for just $15. The film hits theaters tomorrow, but if you're a fan of the show you pretty much already know you want this. [ Amazon]

Amazon is raising the price of Amazon Prime by $20 per year, up to $99. While it's still the best deal in tech, you can lock in another year at $79 if you sign up now.

This special Humble Bundle includes 25+ games for a minimum price of $25, and 100% of proceeds go to a good cause.

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This post is brought to you by the Commerce Team, a dedicated group of deal hunters and product enthusiasts. We operate independently of Editorial to bring you the best bargains every day, share our favorite products with you, and ask you about yours. When you buy something we recommend, we may also get a small share of the sale. We welcome your questions and want your feedback. Follow us for the best deals on the Internet, curated for @io9 readers.- io9 Deals (@io9Deals) March 12, 2014

Get in touch with me on Twitter or by e-mailing Shane@Gawker- Shane Roberts (@ShaneOSX) December 9, 2013

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Girls of all ages urged to reach for the sky

As the tiny four-seat helicopter lifts off the tarmac at Langley Regional Airport, I grip my reporter's notebook tightly, trying to ignore the slight turbulence as we start to gain altitude during Saturday's drizzling grey weather comox.

If four-year-old Uma Lauridsen in the seat behind me isn't afraid - and no four-year-old smiles that big for show - then I should try to calm my nerves.

Then I look down. Way down.

One thousand feet above Langley Township's green patchwork of farmland, cars move like ants on the roads below. The shift in perspective is drastic, and the cockpit of our aircraft is silent as Uma, her mother Beverly Neufeld and I take in the view from our first-ever helicopter trip.

It occurs to me how lucky I was, growing up with parents who bought me as many toy airplanes as they did dolls, to know any high-flying dreams I was interested in were within reach.

And that's just the message that more than 1,000 girls had the chance to hear during the Girls Fly Too celebration of women in aviation, held at the Langley airport March 8 and 9.

More than 1,200 girls and women were signed up to take free flights on helicopters and small planes at the event, which also featured opportunities to meet female members of the Coast Guard and Air Force and the chance for young girls to get up close and personal with the inner workings of the powerful machines that give us humans the capability of flight.

Representatives from the Vancouver Airport were on hand, outfitting ladies with Amelia Earhart-esque white scarves, and girls had the chance to talk education options with members of the University of Fraser Valley and BCIT aerospace programs.

While waiting in line for my flight amid the hum of propellers, I met Major Rhonda Stevens, a Canadian Forces flight navigator with more than 20 years experience.

When I ask her what she flew, she points to the mammoth bright yellow DHC5 Buffalo search and rescue plane from Comox parked 50 metres away. My eyes widen.

"I like that it's a dynamic job, so you don't always go to work for the same thing," explains Stevens. She says out of her squad of 200, only three aviators - one navigator and two pilots - are women.

It's not about barrier to entry, she insists, but about generating more interest among young girls.

"For my kids, I can set a good example," she says of why she enjoys her work so much, noting that the need to remain physically fit, flexible and always learning are traits she prizes showing her six- and two-year-old daughters.

Back in the helicopter, the pilot sets us gently back down on solid ground, much too soon for the quiet but wide-eyed Uma. As cadets walk the three of us back to the airplane hangar, I look over my shoulder to watch the next group of excited girls step up for their turn in the air.

"Was it fun?" they ask us as we pass.

"Yes," Beverly and I chime in unison.

Uma only has eyes for the whirring chopper taking off beside us.