.
Amazing day at the #SuperBowl: image via Britney Spears @britneyspears, 1 February 2015
@JimmyFallon's #SuperBowl show started with this epic a capella "We Are the Champions" video: image via JustJared @JustJared, 1 February 2015
#AmericanSniper has officially broken the box office record for #SuperBowl weekend: image via Geek Nation @GeekNation, 1 February 2015
#AmericanSniper set a #SuperBowl weekend record at the box office: image via Variety @Variety, 1 February 2015
#AmericanSniper Shoots Down Super Bowl Weekend Record With $31.9M: image via FOX 11 Los Angeles @myfoxla, 1 February 2015
FASHION STATEMENT #FashionStatement: image via IG:steloolive @stelooive, 28 January 2015
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London, UK. Workmen watch as the tunnel machine, named Elizabeth after the Queen, breaks through into Crossrail’s Liverpool Street station: photo by Anthony Devlin/PA via The Guardian, 29 January 2015
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A workman is seen through a drill after the Crossrail breakthrough into the east-end of Crossrail's Liverpool Street station in London: photo by Anthony Devlin/PA via The Guardian, 29 January 2015
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A workman is seen through a drill after the Crossrail breakthrough into the east-end of Crossrail's Liverpool Street station in London: photo by Anthony Devlin/PA via The Guardian, 29 January 2015
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Composite image of workmen looking on as tunnel machine, named Elizabeth after the Queen, breaks through into the east-end of Crossrail’s Liverpool Street station in LondonLondon: composite photo by Anthony Devlin/PA via The Guardian, 29 January 2015
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Workers look on as a Crossrail tunnelling machine makes the first breakthrough into the City of London, 40m below ground under Liverpool Street: photos by Anthony Devlin/PA The Guardian, 30 January 2015
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London, UK. Workmen watch as the tunnel machine, named Elizabeth after the Queen, breaks through into Crossrail’s Liverpool Street station: photo by Anthony Devlin/PA via The Guardian, 29 January 2015
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Tunnel machine Elizabeth breaks into Liverpool Street station: images via Crossrail Project @Crossrail, 29 January 2015
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Disneyland is taking action amid a California measles outbreak: photo by H Lorren Au Jr/AP via the Guardian, 22 January 2015
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Tim Cook unveils the Apple Watch in California last year: photo by Zuma/Rex via The Observer, 31 January 2015
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Taylor Swift prefers downloads to streaming: photo by Darley Shen/Reuters via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
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“Is that your chiiiick?” For goodness sakes, it’s Katy Perry, Missy!: photo by Christopher Polk via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
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People often say they’re scared of sharks. They should count their lucky stars they’ve never had to spend time with two-legged sharks. While dancing.: photo by David J. Phillip/AP via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
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It’s a primary colour blitz as Perry and pals work through their routine: photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
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The Patriots fans are getting excited ...: photo by Brian Snyder/Reuters via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
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... as are the Seahawks fans: photo by Timothy A Cleary/AFP via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
That was not the most exciting #SuperBowl ever (but it does rank pretty high): image via FiveThirtyEight @FiveThirtyEight, 1 February 2015
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Who was better? RT for Britney Spears FAV for Katy Perry: images via Feim vol.1 @FeimM, 1 February 2015
I'm so sorry but no halftime show will ever top Steven Tyler with Britney Spears, 'N Sync, & Nelly. #2001: image via Adrianna @_peruz, 1 February 2015
Let's take a moment to remember this #SuperBowl brilliance: image via Hayley Podschun @haypod22, 1 February 2015
@britneyspears vip suite @SuperBowl @etnow: image via Canaan Rubin @CanaanRubin, 1 February 2015
I'm not sure I am emotionally prepared in case of a @britneyspears special guest halftime appearance #SB49: image via Ariel Ufret @arielufret, 1 February 2015
Proudly supporting #ChrisKyle and #ChrisKyleDay on 2/2/15. Urging everyone to go and follow @ChrisKyleFrog: image via Shane Read @srcreate, 30 January 2015
Governor Abbott of Texas has announced that February 2nd will be #ChrisKyleDay across our great state: image via Chad Anders @caught_lookin, 30 January 2014
American Cinematic Icon Clint Eastwood, like a BOSS #ChrisKyleDay #Feb2 #American Sniper: image via Infidel @HeidiL_RN, 31 January 2015
Chris Kyle Traitor, Racist, Mass Murderer, War Criminal #ChrisKyleDay #Feb2 #American Sniper: image via DJ Rubiconski @Rubinconski, 31 January 2015
Monday is proclaimed #ChrisKyleDay in Texas #military: image via Military Trending @militarylizer, 31 January 2015
Awesomeness > Feb 2nd Declared #ChrisKyleDay in Texas via @GregAbbott_TX @ChrisKyleFrog: image via I Yam What I Yam @Nvr4Get91101, 30 January 2014
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What soldiers do in their free time #murica: image via Josephine Behrends @josephinebehre2, 31 January 2015
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What soldiers do in their free time #murica: image via Josephine Behrends @josephinebehre2, 31 January 2015
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What soldiers do in their free time #murica: image via Josephine Behrends @josephinebehre2, 31 January 2015
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What soldiers do in their free time #murica: image via Josephine Behrends @josephinebehre2, 31 January 2015
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Going on a date with my girl to see #americansniper: image via roray @realroray, 31 January 2014
ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!!???? EVERY PUBLIC OFFICIAL IN THIS STATE HAS ME RAGING TODAY. @GovAbbott #ChrisKyleDay: image via k-cobb @KristinaCobb, 30 January 2015 Austin, Texas
Texas Governor to declare #ChrisKyleDay in honour of sniper: image via Canoe Politics @canoepolitics, 31 January 2015
#American Sniper #1 Domestic War Movie of all time. #ChrisKyleDay: image via Bang Zoom @VikingMike88, 31 January 2015
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Bradley Cooper in American Sniper: photo uncredited/AP via The Guardian, 29 January 2014
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Former US navy Seal Chris Kyle: photo by Paul Moseley/AP via The Guardian, 20 January 2015
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Heightened for the screen … American Sniper is based on Chris Kyle’s memoir of the same name: photo by Keith Bernstein/AP via The Guardian, 20 January 2015
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Chris Kyle, who was shot dead at a Texas gun range in February 2013, has become a divisive figure. Public statements suggested he relished his job, and in his book of the same name as the film, co-written with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice, he portrayed the Iraqis and Islamic insurgents he killed as “savages”. Kyle’s story has also fueled controversy on social media, where advocacy groups have detected a disturbing rise in Islamophobic comments and anti-Muslim threats inspired by the movie: photo by Paul Moseley/AP via The Guardian, 31 January 2015
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Jane analyzes the weekend box office w/ #AmericanSniper breaking #SuperBowl Weekend Record: image via Reel Life with jane @reellifejane, 1 February 2015
#AmericanSniper set a #SuperBowl weekend record at the box office: image via Mohamed Omer @MohamedOmar, 1 February 2015
This is why #AmericanSniper should not be awarded for anything except America's crappiest movie after Gili: image via Fatimah @Fatimahs1990, 1 February 2015
Isr amb. 2 US watched 2 much #AmericanSniper - Watch this! @AmbDermer: Breaking Protocol, Choosing Sides: Go Patriots: image via Bea @Bea4Palestine, 1 February 2015
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Palestinians walk on a stone wall that was painted by local artists in an attempt to bring more colour to Gaza City: photo by Wissam Nassar/Xinhua Press/Corbis via The Guardian, 31 January 2015
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Beit Hanun, Gaza Strip. A Palestinian girl sleeps on a mat at her destroyed home. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said it cannot afford to repair Gaza homes damaged in last year’s war because donors have failed to pay and cutting subsidies to displaced residents now renting alternative accommodation could force large numbers back to UN schools and centres which are already sheltering 12,000 people: photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via The Guardian, 30 January 2015
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In Gaza City, a Palestinian boy wearing a military costume arrives at a graduation ceremony for Palestinian youths who were trained at one of the Hamas-run liberation camps: photo by Suhaib Salem/Reuters via The Guardian, 31 January 2015
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Wallops Island, Virginia. An unmanned rocket owned by Orbital Sciences Corporation explodes just seconds after launch, on what was to be a resupply mission to the International Space Station: photo by Steve Alexander/AFP via The Guardian, 29 October 2014
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Fireworks over Super Bowl Central in Phoenix! #SB49: image via Super Bowl @SuperBowl, 28 January 2015
Amazing day at the #SuperBowl: image via Britney Spears @britneyspears, 1 February 2015
@JimmyFallon's #SuperBowl show started with this epic a capella "We Are the Champions" video: image via JustJared @JustJared, 1 February 2015
#AmericanSniper has officially broken the box office record for #SuperBowl weekend: image via Geek Nation @GeekNation, 1 February 2015
#AmericanSniper set a #SuperBowl weekend record at the box office: image via Variety @Variety, 1 February 2015
I'd watch #AmericanSniper again right now if I could: image via Andrew Day @Andrew_S_Day, 1 February 2015
#AmericanSniper Shoots Down Super Bowl Weekend Record With $31.9M: image via FOX 11 Los Angeles @myfoxla, 1 February 2015
FASHION STATEMENT #FashionStatement: image via IG:steloolive @stelooive, 28 January 2015
Staring hard into the face of the future and seeing yet another giant boring machine tunneling toward me made me think of how it might feel to be drinking three liters of Dr Pepper while viewing the game action from Britney's vip suite if the Super Bowl were being mysteriously attacked by a huge steroidal iPhone with revolving Alien terror teeth
London, UK. Workmen watch as the tunnel machine, named Elizabeth after the Queen, breaks through into Crossrail’s Liverpool Street station: photo by Anthony Devlin/PA via The Guardian, 29 January 2015
A workman is seen through a drill after the Crossrail breakthrough into the east-end of Crossrail's Liverpool Street station in London: photo by Anthony Devlin/PA via The Guardian, 29 January 2015
A workman is seen through a drill after the Crossrail breakthrough into the east-end of Crossrail's Liverpool Street station in London: photo by Anthony Devlin/PA via The Guardian, 29 January 2015
Composite image of workmen looking on as tunnel machine, named Elizabeth after the Queen, breaks through into the east-end of Crossrail’s Liverpool Street station in LondonLondon: composite photo by Anthony Devlin/PA via The Guardian, 29 January 2015
Workers look on as a Crossrail tunnelling machine makes the first breakthrough into the City of London, 40m below ground under Liverpool Street: photos by Anthony Devlin/PA The Guardian, 30 January 2015
London, UK. Workmen watch as the tunnel machine, named Elizabeth after the Queen, breaks through into Crossrail’s Liverpool Street station: photo by Anthony Devlin/PA via The Guardian, 29 January 2015
Tunnel machine Elizabeth breaks into Liverpool Street station: images via Crossrail Project @Crossrail, 29 January 2015
Disneyland is taking action amid a California measles outbreak: photo by H Lorren Au Jr/AP via the Guardian, 22 January 2015
Running up the numbers in Neverland
Katy Perry headlining the Super Bowl halftime extravaganza: playful and pop: photo by Byan Snyder/Reuters via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
As anyone who saw Madonna carried into the arena by a platoon of Roman centurions three years ago will have realised, the halftime show at the Super Bowl is no place for understatement. Yet Katy Perry’s grand entrance redefines the term kitsch. She emerges standing on the back of a giant puppet tiger which advances across the stadium, red eyes flashing, while Perry shakes its enormous golden reins while belting out Roar, clad in a Jeremy Scott outfit constructed of tongues of vinyl flame. It’s The Hunger Games as reimagined by the producers of Strictly Come Dancing.
The opening sets the tone for a high-octane show as notable for its surreal camp as for its tunes. Over 12 minutes, Perry manages to squeeze in four costume changes, nine songs (including three by Missy Elliott), and two backing dancers dressed as cuddly sharks, during an interlude in which the stage seems to turn into a cross between Club Tropicana and the hill from Tellytubbies. Perry’s sturdily-constructed pop tunes are whipped up into a hectic megamix, each number the excuse for ever more outlandish staging.
-- Alex Needham: from Super Bowl halftime show review -- epic, lung-busting kitsch: The singer emerged on a giant tiger, danced with people dressed as sharks - and narrowly avoided being upstaged by Missy Elliott, The Guardian, 1 February 2015
Workers at a Foxconn factory in China: photo by Darley Shen/Reuters via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
The typical worker at Apple’s main manufacturer is a young man of 27, a “migrant worker” who grew up in a village. One among 170,000 employees, he (two-thirds of staff are male) earns about £180 a month at China’s biggest technology manufacturer, most likely in one of its airport-sized facilities in Shenzhen, about an hour’s drive from Hong Kong. Those wages are more than many blue-collar jobs in China -- and many go to Foxconn for a short-term summer job before returning to school or university in the autumn. The biggest threat to their livelihood might not be Apple; instead, it’s Foxconn’s plan to install robots to eliminate errors.
Apple’s rise has come through lucrative contracts with Foxconn and many other suppliers in and around Shenzhen handpicked to meet exacting deadlines and quality controls. Apple boss Tim Cook says it is impossible to find companies of such scale in the US.
Workers typically put in 56 to 61 hours a week (despite the local legal maximum of 60), some doing seven-day stints without a break during the summer as orders are ramped up for new devices to be launched in the autumn. A Fair Labor Organisation investigation in 2012 found that required 15-minute breaks every two hours were sometimes ignored. The strain drove some to suicide in the past; Apple has repeatedly pledged to improve its labour practices, with counselling and labour monitoring.
-- Charles Arthur: from Planet Apple, The Guardian, 1 February 2015
A Chinese customer buys two new iPhone 6s: photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP via The Observer, 31 January 2015
Financially, is this the peak?
Apple was 90 days away from bankruptcy when Steve Jobs rejoined it in 1997-- as he later revealed -- but Apple now tends to downplay its financial success ahead of quarterly profit announcements in order to surprise investors and analysts.
This quarter’s profits were on another scale, though. Sales in the three months to the end of December were up 30% to $74.6bn. Those profits of $18bn were up 37%.
It was the fastest quarterly growth since March 2012, but then Apple was half the size it is now. As Apple’s chief financial officer, Luca Maestri, said: “For a company of our size that is not a small feat.”
Katy Huberty, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, said it was a “quarter for the record books” and increased her share price target from $126 to $133, indicating she believes there is more growth to come. The shares, which jumped 5% in after-hours trading following Apple’s results, closed at $117 on Friday.
The big challenge now, says Geoff Blaber, vice-president of research for CCS Insight, is to find the next growth opportunity. “Western Europe and north America are becoming saturated: to have room for growth Apple has to rely on taking growth from [Google’s] Android operating system based devices,” he says. “The big, big, focus is on China and to a lesser extent India.”
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect Apple’s revenue in the year to September to grow 22%, but growth to slow to 4% in the following year.
Are there many people left who want an iPhone?
Apple sold a record 74.5m mobiles in the quarter, 46% more than in the same period a year earlier. “Demand for iPhone has been staggering, shattering our high expectations,” chief executive Tim Cook said. “This volume is hard to comprehend.”
The phones accounted for two-thirds of Apple’s revenue, and were worth more than Microsoft and Google’s latest quarterly sales combined.
“Seems like the whole world wants an iPhone,” Steven Milunovich, an analyst at UBS, wrote in a note to investors, pointing out that consumers had demanded even more phones but Apple couldn’t produce them fast enough until recently.
However, Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Bernstein Research, cautions that Apple’s growth may be too reliant on the seven-year-old product
line.
“A bet on Apple is increasingly a bet on the iPhone,” Sacconaghi says. “The good news is, iPhones are great. The bad news is, right now that’s driving over 100% of the revenue growth of the company.”
-- from What do you do after you become the world's most profitable company?: Rupert Neate, The Observer, 31 January 2015
Tim Cook unveils the Apple Watch in California last year: photo by Zuma/Rex via The Observer, 31 January 2015
How important is China?
Very: iPhone sales are exploding in the country. Apple overtook local producer Xiaomi to become China’s biggest smartphone seller in the last quarter. Chinese sales, which had been weak for Apple until it released the latest bigger-screen phones, came in at $16.1bn, up 70% on last year – when it also did not have a deal giving it access to China Mobile’s estimated 760 million subscribers.
Revenues in China are quickly catching up with the amount it collects in the whole of Europe, where sales were $17.2bn, up 20%.
“I was there [in China] right after the launch in October, and the excitement around the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus [was] absolutely phenomenal,” Cook said during his call with analysts. “You can tell that we’re a big believer in China.”
Apple plans to double the number of its stores in greater China to 40 by mid-2016. “It’s an incredible market,” he said. “People love Apple products. And we are going to do our best to serve the market.”
Only a year earlier, in October 2013, Apple was the No 6 smartphone maker in China, trailing Xiaomi, Huawei, Lenovo, Samsung and Yulong, according to research firm Canalys.
“This is an amazing result, given that the average selling price of Apple’s handsets is nearly double those of its nearest competitors,” Canalys says. “While Chinese smartphone vendors are quickly gaining ground internationally, Apple has turned the tables on them in their home market.”
Can it afford for the Apple Watch to fail?
It has been five years since Apple launched its latest truly new product -- the iPad -- in 2010. To live up to its name for innovation, and diversify revenues away from reliance on the iPhone, Apple needs the Apple Watch to be an unqualified success.
Cook announced that the watch would go on sale in April, giving the company a boost in its third quarter when it will not benefit from Christmas or the Chinese new year, which will have helped the previous two quarters. “We’re making great progress in the development of it,” he said.
Apple describes the new product – often referred to as the iWatch, although it has not been officially named – as the “most personal device ever” and it is thought it will be able to monitor its wearer’s health as well as connect to an iPhone to provide several other functions. Cook said app developers had already impressed him with “some incredible innovation”.
Carolina Milanesi at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech says the watch will help Apple extend its sales into a much wider market. “They have been very smart in pushing it as jewellery and design rather than how technologically smart it is,” she says. “They are concentrating more on impressing the design and fashion world than the tech bloggers.
“I think this will be a much more irrational buy than with an iPad. With an iPad you wanted an iPad: this is going to be more of a fashion statement.”
She said the launch would benefit from the fashion and marketing skills of Angela Ahrendts, the former Burberry boss Apple hired last year on a $73m pay package as its head of retail.
Apple poached a string of big names from fashion and design to join its watch team, including Patrick Pruniaux, former vice-president of sales at Tag Heuer and former Yves Saint Laurent boss Paul Deneve, who is now Apple’s “vice president of special projects”.
-- from What do you do after you become the world's most profitable company?: Rupert Neate, The Observer, 31 January 2015
Taylor Swift prefers downloads to streaming: photo by Darley Shen/Reuters via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
US: Pop stars
Apple transformed the music business with the launch of its iTunes music store in 2003, making buying digital music easy and fast. Since then iTunes has become a behemoth -- but the rise of streaming services such as Spotify, Deezer and Pandora has made “buying” tracks less popular, leading to a slump in digital sales.
Some major pop artists, such as Taylor Swift, still prefer sales over streams: in October she removed all her songs from Spotify, and had the year’s second-best selling album with 1989 (behind the Disney soundtrack for Frozen). Pharrell Williams had the most downloaded song with Happy.
Even so, Apple sees that downloads are becoming passé. Having bought Dr Dre’s company Beats Electronics, it is expected to wrap the streaming service that came with it into iTunes this year, and make Beats headphones (which have a huge following) into a new gateway for Apple products.
Will Swift be able to shake that off? She might not have a choice.
-- Charles Arthur: from Planet Apple, The Guardian, 1 February 2015
With dignity and restraint (is it a lion or is it a tiger?)
Missy Elliott and Katy Perry play the Super Bowl: photo by Christopher Polk via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
Missy Elliott doesn’t exactly strike a note of sobriety, but she does stop the show disappearing down the rabbit hole. Wearing a startling, waist-length hair weave, her salvo of Get Ur Freak on, Work it and Lose Control almost steal the slot from under Perry’s nose: almost 15 years since they were released, these songs still sound like the future. The only way Perry can top it is by reappearing in a star-spangled silver outfit and flying around the stadium on a platform which seems to be propelled by a giant sparkler-shooting star. So naturally she does, inevitably while singing Firework. It’s a wildly over-the-top ending for a show that didn’t know the meaning of “too much”, but which somehow never overwhelmed its star.
-- Alex Needham: from Super Bowl halftime show review -- epic, lung-busting kitsch: The singer emerged on a giant tiger, danced with people dressed as sharks - and narrowly avoided being upstaged by Missy Elliott, The Guardian, 1 February 2015
As ever, no expense spared as the nation’s favourite show kicks off: photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
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A giant tiger carries Katy Perry into the stadium for her to belt out her hit single Roar: photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
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And here she is! On a big lion! Of course she is! Or is it a tiger? It’s a big cat, anyway: photo by Karl Walter via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
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Things are barely underway and some of the dancers look like are on their way to the yellow brick road: photo by Christopher Polk via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
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A giant tiger carries Katy Perry into the stadium for her to belt out her hit single Roar: photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
And here she is! On a big lion! Of course she is! Or is it a tiger? It’s a big cat, anyway: photo by Karl Walter via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
A: So what’s the plan for the half-time show? B: Katy Perry. Massive tiger. Looks like a horse: photo by Jamie Squire via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
“Is that your chiiiick?” For goodness sakes, it’s Katy Perry, Missy!: photo by Christopher Polk via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
People often say they’re scared of sharks. They should count their lucky stars they’ve never had to spend time with two-legged sharks. While dancing.: photo by David J. Phillip/AP via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
It’s a primary colour blitz as Perry and pals work through their routine: photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
The Patriots fans are getting excited ...: photo by Brian Snyder/Reuters via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
... as are the Seahawks fans: photo by Timothy A Cleary/AFP via The Guardian, 1 February 2015
That was not the most exciting #SuperBowl ever (but it does rank pretty high): image via FiveThirtyEight @FiveThirtyEight, 1 February 2015
In the huddle
JUST GIMME A KISS…BRIT... @britneyspears #2001HALFTIMESHOW #WALKTHISWAY #REUNITED: image via Steven Tyler @IamStevenT, 1 February 2015
Who was better? RT for Britney Spears FAV for Katy Perry: images via Feim vol.1 @FeimM, 1 February 2015
I'm so sorry but no halftime show will ever top Steven Tyler with Britney Spears, 'N Sync, & Nelly. #2001: image via Adrianna @_peruz, 1 February 2015
Let's take a moment to remember this #SuperBowl brilliance: image via Hayley Podschun @haypod22, 1 February 2015
@britneyspears vip suite @SuperBowl @etnow: image via Canaan Rubin @CanaanRubin, 1 February 2015
I'm not sure I am emotionally prepared in case of a @britneyspears special guest halftime appearance #SB49: image via Ariel Ufret @arielufret, 1 February 2015
The Day After: A Day of Honour
Proudly supporting #ChrisKyle and #ChrisKyleDay on 2/2/15. Urging everyone to go and follow @ChrisKyleFrog: image via Shane Read @srcreate, 30 January 2015
Governor Abbott of Texas has announced that February 2nd will be #ChrisKyleDay across our great state: image via Chad Anders @caught_lookin, 30 January 2014
American Cinematic Icon Clint Eastwood, like a BOSS #ChrisKyleDay #Feb2 #American Sniper: image via Infidel @HeidiL_RN, 31 January 2015
Chris Kyle Traitor, Racist, Mass Murderer, War Criminal #ChrisKyleDay #Feb2 #American Sniper: image via DJ Rubiconski @Rubinconski, 31 January 2015
Monday is proclaimed #ChrisKyleDay in Texas #military: image via Military Trending @militarylizer, 31 January 2015
Awesomeness > Feb 2nd Declared #ChrisKyleDay in Texas via @GregAbbott_TX @ChrisKyleFrog: image via I Yam What I Yam @Nvr4Get91101, 30 January 2014
Three liters of Awesomeness
taste of #murica: image via matty @MatthewHayward2, 1 February 2015
Ready for the big game tomorrow. @BehemothbeerNZ #murica #SuperBowl: image via the Beer Library @BeerLibraryCHCH, 31 January 2015
What soldiers do in their free time #murica: image via Josephine Behrends @josephinebehre2, 31 January 2015
What soldiers do in their free time #murica: image via Josephine Behrends @josephinebehre2, 31 January 2015
What soldiers do in their free time #murica: image via Josephine Behrends @josephinebehre2, 31 January 2015
What soldiers do in their free time #murica: image via Josephine Behrends @josephinebehre2, 31 January 2015
Going on a date with my girl to see #americansniper: image via roray @realroray, 31 January 2014
ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!!???? EVERY PUBLIC OFFICIAL IN THIS STATE HAS ME RAGING TODAY. @GovAbbott #ChrisKyleDay: image via k-cobb @KristinaCobb, 30 January 2015 Austin, Texas
Texas Governor to declare #ChrisKyleDay in honour of sniper: image via Canoe Politics @canoepolitics, 31 January 2015
#American Sniper #1 Domestic War Movie of all time. #ChrisKyleDay: image via Bang Zoom @VikingMike88, 31 January 2015
Bradley Cooper in American Sniper: photo uncredited/AP via The Guardian, 29 January 2014
Former US navy Seal Chris Kyle: photo by Paul Moseley/AP via The Guardian, 20 January 2015
Heightened for the screen … American Sniper is based on Chris Kyle’s memoir of the same name: photo by Keith Bernstein/AP via The Guardian, 20 January 2015
Chris Kyle, who was shot dead at a Texas gun range in February 2013, has become a divisive figure. Public statements suggested he relished his job, and in his book of the same name as the film, co-written with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice, he portrayed the Iraqis and Islamic insurgents he killed as “savages”. Kyle’s story has also fueled controversy on social media, where advocacy groups have detected a disturbing rise in Islamophobic comments and anti-Muslim threats inspired by the movie: photo by Paul Moseley/AP via The Guardian, 31 January 2015
Jane analyzes the weekend box office w/ #AmericanSniper breaking #SuperBowl Weekend Record: image via Reel Life with jane @reellifejane, 1 February 2015
#AmericanSniper set a #SuperBowl weekend record at the box office: image via Mohamed Omer @MohamedOmar, 1 February 2015
This is why #AmericanSniper should not be awarded for anything except America's crappiest movie after Gili: image via Fatimah @Fatimahs1990, 1 February 2015
What if the other guys got to play too?
Isr amb. 2 US watched 2 much #AmericanSniper - Watch this! @AmbDermer: Breaking Protocol, Choosing Sides: Go Patriots: image via Bea @Bea4Palestine, 1 February 2015
Palestinians walk on a stone wall that was painted by local artists in an attempt to bring more colour to Gaza City: photo by Wissam Nassar/Xinhua Press/Corbis via The Guardian, 31 January 2015
Beit Hanun, Gaza Strip. A Palestinian girl sleeps on a mat at her destroyed home. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said it cannot afford to repair Gaza homes damaged in last year’s war because donors have failed to pay and cutting subsidies to displaced residents now renting alternative accommodation could force large numbers back to UN schools and centres which are already sheltering 12,000 people: photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via The Guardian, 30 January 2015
In Gaza City, a Palestinian boy wearing a military costume arrives at a graduation ceremony for Palestinian youths who were trained at one of the Hamas-run liberation camps: photo by Suhaib Salem/Reuters via The Guardian, 31 January 2015
Wallops Island, Virginia. An unmanned rocket owned by Orbital Sciences Corporation explodes just seconds after launch, on what was to be a resupply mission to the International Space Station: photo by Steve Alexander/AFP via The Guardian, 29 October 2014
Fireworks over Super Bowl Central in Phoenix! #SB49: image via Super Bowl @SuperBowl, 28 January 2015