Want to take your Madden NFL 15 trash talking to the next level? EA Sports is making that easier for you. The company today launched an online portal that lets you create animated GIFs that celebrate great plays or poke fun at your opponents (or both).
All you need to do is visit the GIFERATOR website to get started. From there, you'll choose an NFL team, then a specific play, then a background for your GIF, and finally a message. There are pre-written options, or your can write your own message. But profanity is prohibited.
The GIFERATOR tool is very easy to use. I made the GIF you see in this post of New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski performing his trademark "Gronk Spike" in front of an American flag, because he seems like a pretty patriotic guy, don't you think?
Going forward, EA Sports says new plays will be added to the GIFERATOR throughout this year's NFL season, which begins tonight.
Madden NFL 15 launched last week for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. Though we've seen some hilarious glitches, we haven't seen sales numbers for the game yet. Historically, EA Sports releases first-week sales data the week after launch, which would be right around now.
The Show is a 1995 documentary film about hip hop music. It was directed by Brian Robbins and featured interviews with some of hip hop's biggest names.
Michael Imhotep discusses the #5020BlackWallStreetChallenge to help promote Economic Empowerment for African Americans by supporting more of our own businesses. The goal is for you to get at least 50 people to spend $20 per for 4 weeks at a particular African American Owned Business. The represents $4,000 in increased revenue and $48,000. We want to continue the habit beyond just 1 month. Post videos of you and your receipt and/or what you purchased and challenge friends to support that business or any they choose that are African American Owned.
When you've got an artist like El DeBarge on the show, you don't mess around: you have him kick off the party. Watch El DeBarge get the show going with this medley of "How Can You Love Me" and "All This Love."
Senegal in 2010 unveiled a colossal statue during a lavish ceremony amid reports of criticism over the monument's construction at a time when the western African nation is struggling financially.
The 164-foot structure -- about a foot taller than the Statue of Liberty -- shows the figures of a man, a woman and a child, arms outstretched, facing the Atlantic Ocean.
President Abdoulaye Wade says the statue, which he designed, is a monument to Africa's renaissance. Critics say the opulent copper structure is merely the product of the president's own self-indulgent vision and poor governance.
And though it dominates the skyline of Senegal's capital, Dakar, the monument falls far short of the president's claim that it is the world's largest. Several other statues are listed by multiple sources to be taller, including China's Spring Temple Buddha, which stands just under 420 feet.
Opposition group Benno Siggil Senegal called on the Senegalese people to "refuse to associate themselves with a fraudulent scheme designed to satisfy the fantasies of Abdoulaye Wade and to lay the foundations of dynastic reign of Wade on our country," according to the African Press Agency.
A spokeswoman for the president sought to downplay criticism Saturday, saying the statue -- valued at roughly $20 million -- was made possible by a land deal between Wade and North Korea, and that proceeds from the monument will benefit Senegalese children.
The statue is "an affirmation to be proud of Africa -- to be proud to be black," said spokeswoman Gia Abrassart. Other dignitaries in attendance at Saturday's ceremony, which coincided with the 50th anniversary of Senegal's independence, echoed that message.
"This renaissance statue is a powerful idea from a powerful mind," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson in remarks to the crowd of hundreds waving flags at the foot of the lighted monument. "This is dedicated to the journey of our ancestors, enslaved but not slaves."
Malawi President Bingu Wa Mutharika praised Wade for constructing a monument that represents Africa.
"This monument does not belong to Senegal," he said. "It belongs to the African people wherever we are."
North Korea, which made the statue's construction possible, also sent Wade a congratulatory message, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.
In exchange for the money to build the statue, North Korea received a piece of Senegalese land, Abrassart said.
The message from top North Korean official Kim Yong Nam "expressed belief that the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries would grow stronger in various fields in the future, too," according to KCNA.
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- About two dozen of this city's fast-food workers marched Thursday afternoon to a street corner that's home to a McDonald's, a Wendy's and a KFC. Calling for a living wage of $15, they seated themselves in the middle of a freeway entrance, backing up traffic as far as the eye could see.
Charleston police were eventually forced to pull them out of the street one by one, citing them for disorderly conduct in what were deemed "non-custodial" arrests. All told, 18 people -- most of them earning right around minimum wage -- were arrested next to the McDonald's parking lot.
"I'm just tired of seeing my family struggle," Robert Brown, a 20-year-old with short dreadlocks sprouting from his McDonald's visor, said right after a cop handed him a citation ordering him to appear in court. "I can't help them at all with what I make."
The Charleston arrests were part of Thursday's nationwide protest coordinated by Fight for $15, a union-backed campaign in which workers are demanding a $15 wage and union recognition. With the support of local labor and community groups, workers have been taking part in a series of intermittent one-day strikes in various cities over the past two years, shaming big fast-food companies like McDonald's over low pay and irregular hours.
Organizers billed Thursday's strikes and protests as an escalation of the campaign through civil disobedience. Notably, the demonstrations have spread well beyond big cities like New York and Chicago, where they were originally based. On Thursday, workers took to the streets in places like Durham, North Carolina; Tucson, Arizona; and Rochester, New York, according to news reports.
A Fight for $15 spokesperson said that roughly 500 people had been arrested in the demonstrations as of Thursday afternoon, though a portion of those appeared to be citations without arrest.
In instances that HuffPost could confirm, police arrested 47 people in Kansas City, Missouri; 27 in West Milwaukee, Wisconsin; 19 in New York City's Times Square; 30 in Detroit; 11 in San Diego; 8 in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania; seven in Miami; and three in Denver. Police also confirmed 19 citations in Chicago; 10 in Indianapolis; 13 in Hartford, Connecticut; and 10 in Las Vegas. In most cases, the arrests and citations came after protesters were blocking traffic.
The high-profile strikes -- which tend to draw national news coverage when they happen -- have helped progressive legislators push through minimum wage hikes on the state and local level in recent months, including a $15 wage floor that will slowly go into effect in Seattle. Even President Barack Obama has held up the protests as evidence that Congress needs to hike the federal minimum wage, which hasn't been raised since 2009. The current level of $7.25 is less than half of what the Fight for $15 campaign is calling for.
"You know what? If I were looking for a job that lets me build some security for my family, I’d join a union," Obama said Monday in a Labor Day speech. "If I were busting my butt in the service industry and wanted an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work, I’d join a union."
While the fast-food companies themselves have generally remained quiet, critics of the campaign who sympathize with the industry have tried to dismiss the protests as stunts orchestrated by the Service Employees International Union. The union has devoted millions of dollars to the campaign in an effort to bring unionism to what's generally a union-free industry.
With some exceptions, the fast-food strikes generally haven't been large enough to shut down restaurants. In fact, it isn't always clear how many of the people participating in a protest are striking workers. In Charleston on Thursday, several workers said they had the day off and wanted to take part in the protest; others told HuffPost they were missing a scheduled shift and were formally notifying their bosses they were taking part in a protected one-day strike.
Jonathan Bennett said he was supposed to be working at Arby's on Thursday.
"If we don't do this, I don't know who will," Bennett said. "$15 could change everything."
South Carolina does not mandate a minimum wage higher than the federal level. All of the workers interviewed by HuffPost on Thursday said they made less than $8 per hour at their restaurants. That works out to a full-time salary of about $16,000 per year, which is well below the poverty level for a family of three. Most workers said they don't get a full 40 hours each week, either.
As in other towns, the Charleston protest drew in just a small fraction of the city's actual fast-food workforce. But the fact that it was happening at all in South Carolina took onlookers by surprise. The state has the third-lowest union density in the nation, with little of the organized labor infrastructure that often helps lead a wage protest.
Dave Crossley, a local who came out in support of the protest, marveled at the line of workers bottling up traffic for blocks on Spring Street, chanting for "$15 and a union."
Based on the best-selling novel by Zane, ADDICTED is a sexy and provocative thriller about desire and the dangers of indiscretion. Successful businesswoman Zoe Reynard appears to have attained it all - the dream husband she loves, two wonderful children and a flourishing career. As perfect as everything appears from the outside, Zoe is still drawn to temptations she cannot escape or resist. As she pursues a secretive life, Zoe finds herself risking it all when she heads down a perilous path she may not survive.
Based on Elmore Leonard's novel "The Switch," "Life of Crime" is a dark caper comedy starring Jennifer Aniston, John Hawkes, Yasiin Bey, Will Forte, Mark Boone Junior, Isla Fisher and Tim Robbins. The wife (Jennifer Aniston) of a corrupt real estate developer (Tim Robbins) is kidnapped by two common criminals (Yasiin Bey and John Hawkes), who intend to extort him with inside information about his crooked business and off-shore accounts. But the husband decides he'd actually rather not pay the ransom to get back his wife, setting off an unbelievable sequence of double crosses and plot twists that could only come from the mind of Elmore Leonard.
Alex Gibney's Finding Fela (2014) is a sweeping portrait of the artist as guerilla warrior. Set to the insistent groove of Nigerian superstar Fela Kuti's revolutionary Afrobeat sound, the remarkable story of one man's courageous stand against a corrupt and dictatorial government gives testament to the transformative power of music as a force of social and political unification.
