It only took them $4B. And now Disney, owns more superheroes than Stan Lee. What does this mean for video enthusiasts? Well you can all probably expect a ton more superhero movies, as if there weren’t enough already. Except this time Wolverine is going to be wearing those cute little Mickey Mouse ears! With access to over 5,000 characters Disney is hoping to make even more profit off television and merchandise sales. Or as Disney President and Chief Executive Robert A. Iger put it, “We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation.” Disney’s big success has came with the young pre-teen demographic due to shows featuring the Jonas Brothers and “Hannah Montana.” They are hoping to bring in Marvel’s stranglehold on teen males as it has struggled to bring them in.  “It helps Disney add exposure to a young male demographic it had sort of lost some balance with,” Disney said. One thing is for sure, Marvel has definitely lost it’s edge for me. Sure, the Fantastic 4 movies didn’t help but this is really the end. Good bye cruel comic book world, hello Disneyland!

These videos are graphic, please watch with caution

On June 16 Charlie Fulton posted a very thought provoking blog. After discovering the new video of Iranian Protestor Neda Soltan’s death that is quickly reaching alarming views on Youtube I decided to give my thoughts on the same issue. Today we live in an age where technology rules, with the click of a button and audience awaits all of us and what we choose to show that audience. The idea that in a place where the media does not have access, the people are using social networks and privately shot video to bring the news to the media is a powerful example of how times have changed since the birth of Youtube & social networks.  It is also alarming and at the same time refreshing to think that people are turning to themselves that there own abilities to bring each other into the know, rather than a tv with a rather one sided point of view. Here are a few more links and media outlets on the story:

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The situation in Iran is frightening and is still unfolding rather quickly. (For anyone using us as their sole news source, the results of the recent election in Iran are being questioned by a large number of citizens, and the stability of the current Iranian government is in some question.)

Before, if someone noted that, our instincts probably would have been to turn on the TV to one of the news channels just like what some of us did on that one horrible day in 2001. But today, there’s not much of a reason to bother turning on the idiot box–just opening your Web browser can tell you everything you need to know faster. And that has made for a lot of interesting discussions on the net Read the rest of this entry »