Iron Man 2 opening Friday to the tune of 7.5 million dollars for the opening midnight screening. Those are big numbers, but nothing compared to the estimates which say it could top the best opening weekend of all time, belonging to The Dark Knight which made 158 million in it’s opening weekend. This would set it on pace to be one of the highest grossing movies of all time. This happens despite rumors of a cast that didn’t get along (Gwen and Scarlett apparently don’t see eye to eye) and mediocre reviews. It has been helped by tremendous buzz and advertising. It also opens on the largest number of screens of any movie in history, 4380 screens. It looks like Robert Downey doesn’t need his Iron Man suit to destroy the box office!

This article is for the Star Trek geeks out there! I’m sure, like me, a lot of you were puzzled when Kes, a main character in Voyager for the first 4 seasons, was suddenly and mysteriously dropped from the cast at the beginning of season 4. There have been many, many, many, theories about this, ranging from Jennifer Lien gaining too much weight to keep the roll, to the crew thinking that a show with 4 female leads would be too much for men to handle. In reality it is none of those reasons.

Here is what happened: Everyone remembers the best 2 episodes of season 4 right? Episodes 408 and 409. “Year of Hell” part 1 and part 2. Well, what you might not know is that when episode 1 of that story was put down on paper, Garrett Wang’s character, Ensign Harry Kim, was set to be ceremoniously sent off the series. According to my sources the producers were less than pleased with Wang’s work ethic, and they also felt the character had little room to grow in the ensemble. The voluptuous Jeri Ryan was cast to be his mid-season replacement as the half-Borg, half-human, Seven of Nine. Then, for reasons that I have never been able to determine, the producers had a change of heart, and decided not to write off Wang. At this point they were left with a big dilemma, because no one felt the show could support 10 main characters. The axe wound up coming down on Lien, as it was decided on that since Seven was now a regular, her story line would take up too much of the time to give adequate stories to Kes. And this became the great Kes-to-Seven transition of season 4 of Star Trek: Voyager.

It’s about time. According to reports the long awaited BlackBerry OS 6 is going to be arriving on the market later this year, in the third sales quarter. A centerpiece of the new OS is going to be a much improved user interface, with a focus on movable flowing task buttons. It’s going to be their first OS that is specifically geared toward BOTH touch and non-touch models. In the past BlackBerry has not done much by way of touch screen support. They have also designed a new web browser that is based on the same WebKit core Apple uses on it’s Iphone OS. It’s touted to be able to surf much faster and be much more streamlined, to enable faster load times, and less network lag time. There is also talk about a greater focus on their app store “App World”, which is typically viewed as inferior to other app stores such as Apple’s or Droid’s store.

Look for the new OS in the third sales quarter of 2010.

There is a great Showtime show called The United States of Tara. The show stars acclaimed actress Toni Collette as Tara, a suburban woman who just so happens to suffer from multiple personality disorder. The show follows her and her crazy family as they navigate the twists and turns of her and her “alters” (the word they use for Tara’s alternate personalities). At first glance this may sound very similar to Cybil, and it may sound rather cheesy. However , I assure you it is not. What it is, is a well written, dark comedy. The shows runs about 25 minutes long, with no commercials because it is on pay cable, and in those 25 minutes there are at least 4 or 5 laugh out loud moments per episode.

It is presented in a style that I would call sarcastic comedy. Written by the scribe of the award winning movie Juno, it contains a similar snaky wit (the family calls Tara’s gay son Marsha, because his name is Marshall). And the beautiful thing about the show is that it demonstrates a family that is, at once, completely crazy, completely dysfunctional, and clinically disturbed, but they all care about each other, and they all seem to make it. One of the moments that I found most enduring was when Tara’s son, who is only high school aged, comes out of the closet to his father, and his response is one of complete acceptance. The family has been through so much that it has actually helped them be accepting to any situation that arises.

If you are looking for a great, witty and funny show, and you have Showtime, then you simply must set your TIVO or DVR to record The United States of Tara and catch all the action of Tara and her family.

Trying to summarize LOST or indeed my love for LOST in one article, is probably the most difficult thing, I have ever tried to master.  Even worse than this is trying to explain an entire six season, six year journey to a non-lostie. The result is, they either get ridiculously confused or they end up under my patio. (Just kidding) As sad as it sounds and probably is. LOST is genuinely a part of my everyday life. I wake up I switch on my computer and I trawl the internet for my addiction. In whatever form it may be. I read countless theories everyday. Scowl countless websites for spoilers. I even spend my Saturday nights (yes, Saturday nights) and well every other night for that matter, listening to various Lost related podcasts. I'm 18 years old, and in my country that means you are obliged to spend a third of your evenings, getting obscenely drunk and rubbing up against strangers. Drunk shmunk I say, who needs alcohol when you have 20 minute slots of heaven from Damon and Carlton themselves?! None though, oh avid Losties, can compare to the thrill of a Tuesday evening. Refreshing and refreshing my page until that beautiful square box appears. I put the kettle on, (two teabags, one and a half sugars and a splash of milk) dim the lights, find my duvet and press that blessed button.

No words can describe my avid adrenaline and excitement as I hear those beautiful words "Previously on LOST" and boom! I get sucked in to another hour long slice of bliss. Sci-fi in general is and has always been such a great escapism for me. I literally get Lost in the myths, theories and wonders of it all. Since the very beginning, it's hooked me. Although those days were much simpler (Remember when everyone thought that Tom Friendly was the leader of the Island!? What a giggle) Season two: the hatches. Season three: the dharma folk. Season four: flashbacks, Season five: flashforwards and Season six: flashsideways. We have come so far from those days of driveshaft and mango hunting. And we've all been hooked to every episode.

I can't stress enough just how upset,  I know I will be and all you other Losties out there too, come the 23rd of May. And as sad as it is that this journey is ending (yes, there will be tears on my part) you can't deny the years of tears, fears, joys and laughs that every character right down to Vincent has brought us. I know there is absolutely no television programme out there today that can compare even slightly. And although is near the end, it's time we brace ourselves for tears and cold turkey, as we head into the final episodes of this magnificent journey.

By Jasmin Louise Mulrooney - April 21, 2010