...and the Academy Orwell Award goes to...

News Item:

The Motion Picture Association of America announced that images of adults smoking will now be considered a factor when deciding what rating a movie should receive. Raters will now pay close attention to "depictions that glamorize smoking or movies that feature pervasive smoking outside of a historic or other mitigating context."

=====

Next step: Breakfast scenes with cholesterol-laden eggs and whole milk will be slapped with an "R" rating, too.

You, too, can look like a Spartan... maybe.

Here's an article about the workout that the actors and stuntmen did to get themselves into shape for the movie "300"

http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/the-300-workout-can-you-handle-it?src=RSS_PUBLIC

excerpt:

Training for the actors required 90 minutes to two hours a day, five days a week, plus the same amount of time fight training. Stuntmen trained 90 minutes to two hours, five days a week, and another four to six hours fight training. Everyone was given just enough food to recover from the workout.

At the end of training, the following test was given:

• 25 pull-ups
• 50 deadlifts at 135 pounds
• 50 push-ups
• 50 box jumps with a 24-inch box
• 50 "floor wipers" (a core and shoulders exercise at 135 pounds)
• 50 "clean and press" at 36 pounds (a weight-lifting exercise)
• 25 more pull-ups -- for a total of 300 reps

There's no rest between movements and the score is based on total time