8 'Love Actually' Cast Members Who Made It Big On TV (PHOTOS)

What do Betty Francis (née Draper) and Rick Grimes have in common? Neither character would be who s/he is without "Love Actually."

"Mad Men" star January Jones and "Walking Dead" leader Andrew Lincoln both appeared in the 2003 romantic comedy hit along with plenty of other now-familiar faces.

Before she was Betty, Jones was "Love Actually's" flirtatious Jeannie, who picked up British horndog Colin (Kris Marshall) at her local Wisconsin bar along with her roommates, one of which was played by "Happy Endings" and "24" star Elisha Cuthbert.

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CHART OF THE DAY: Turns Out People Aren't Actually Getting Bored With Facebook (FB)

There is, and probably always will be, a story floating the ether that Facebook is getting smoked by up and coming rivals like SnapChat, Whatsapp, or Twitter.

While those services are certainly popular, they're not hurting Facebook, according to comScore data analyzed by J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth. Anmuth notes that Facebook's share of total mobile minutes continues to rise, while share of time spent on those other sites remains relatively flat.

Though, as Peter Kafka at All Things D notes, Anmuth isn't looking at demographic data. Most of the concern about Facebook is that it's lost its edge with teens. If that's true, it will show up in the data soon enough.

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The 'Future' Of Modern Warfare Was Actually Developed 70 Years Ago

This future for heliborne Marine Corps assaults is actually 70 years old, and it's called "Vertical Envelopment."

The idea is to replace clunky amphibious landings, like that of Normandy in World War II, with quickly deployable squadrons of helicopters.

The helos shoot into enemy territory, drop off their troops, and zip back to base.

John Reed of Foreign Policy was with a group of journalists when Maj. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie — the Corps' representative to the Quadrennial Defense Review — laid out his plans for the future.

"I think the best example of what being amphibious means to the Marine Corps is Task Force 58. I think it's Brigadier General Jim Mattis launching off the Pakistan coast, striking deep into southern Afghanistan. No amphibious vehicles crossed a beach in that operation," said McKenzie to reporters.

Kudos for the killer reference to General James N. Mattis. Nonetheless, the idea of using amphibious vehicles to secure the beachhead of a modern country became obsolete decades ago, at the birth of the Atomic Age.

Here's an excerpt from a decent post about the history:

In the years immediately following World War II, the Marine Corps pioneered and developed a new concept in the mobility of assault troops and logistical resupply with the advent of the helicopter. Vertical envelopment was conceived at the Marine Corps Base, in Quantico and proven during the Korean War.

The doctrine followed into Vietnam, where the Army employed the idea of quickly dropping off well dispersed troops all over the jungle.

(It wasn't the first time the Army employed Marine Corps doctrine .. ahem, D-Day.)

At the time, the Army had the resources to rapidly acquire "off-the-shelf" technology. Though the Marine Corps certainly participated in the tactic, the Army perfected heliborne transport in Vietnam.

Notably, the very first squadron to be commissioned in the Marine Corps "Vertical Envelopment" program was the HMX-1, the same squadron the which now transports the president ("Marine 1" — though obviously more up-to-date helicopters).

Now Reed pointed out that the Marine Corps has yet to abandon its truly amphibious tactics, nor has it discontinued its fleet of amphibious vehicles, namely the costly Enhanced Fighting Vehicle.

Reed also noted that McKenzie referenced the Osprey's cutting edge technology as even more capable to fill the roles "Vertical Envelopment" demands:

[The MV-22] expands the service's ability to perform long-distance raids. "With the V-22 those capabilities would be even more pronounced," said McKenzie.

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Most Afghans Are Certain The Demons Of Myth Actually Roam The Earth

All cultures have fairy tales and folklore, stories that teach morality or emphasize the importance of not going into dark or dangerous places all by yourself. Some are so effective that they leave our siblings too terrified to go swimming in the ocean as kids, and, to this day, if I hear noises coming from under my bed in the middle of the night I’m high-tailing it out of my room and not coming back without some silver bullets or a wooden stake or a priest/rabbi/shaman or&something. (What?&Jaws&and&The Exorcist&were what passed for fairy tales in my house growing up. Thanks, Dad.) Like us, Afghans have myths and stories, legends and monsters. Overall, though, they tend to be a bit more superstitious than your average American. Not many Americans (openly) believe in fairies, dragons or headless horsemen. Until it’s dark anyway. And a whole lot of us still knock on wood or toss spilled salt over our left shoulders or even just say “bless you” when someone sneezes. They may be reflexive, but we still often do them. Many Afghans, though, are pretty certain that the monsters of yore are still stomping around the earth. While out on a patrol with some local policemen, we came across this grave marker: It was about 20 meters (about 65 feet) long. One of the policemen pointed at it and said, “This was a famous giant. He was almost 20 meters tall, that is why his grave is so long.” “A giant?” I asked, perhaps a touch skeptically. “Yes!” chimed in a second one. “As recently as 80 &years ago, there were giants all over in this area!” “Ah, so maybe just really tall people, like 2.5 meters (8-9 feet). That happens sometimes,” I replied. “No, no!” a third guy insisted. “Not just tall people, real giants. This man was a small one at only 20 meters. Some were as tall as 30 meters (almost 100 feet)!” I continued to be somewhat cynical, thinking they were pulling my leg and trying to suggest that if the grave marker was any indication of his size, he had been 20 meters tall, but really, really, really skinny. Not only did my sarcasm fall on deaf ears, it actually insulted the Afghans. Before I knew it, I had a whole squad of Afghan police who were pretty angry and yelling at me. My interpreter, who had a university education and had lived abroad, was no exception–he was vehemently supporting them. As I stood there somewhat flabbergasted, one of my colleagues stepped in with our stories about giants, such as David and Goliath, and came across as much more open-minded. That mollified the crowd somewhat, and they explained that people’s grandparents had seen the giants and had told their grandchildren about them, so it must be true. In the end, the Afghans&knewthat giants had roamed the earth within living memory and nothing some disbelieving (female) American could say was going to change the truth. In my defense, my interpreter later admitted that Afghans do get a kick out of misleading people, especially Americans, about goofy things like this, and had they been doing so, I would have earned super cool points for calling them out. It just happened that the one time I thought they were joking, they weren’t. In addition to giants, I knew of one mountain nearby that was inhabited by a dragon, who flew around with a giant diamond in its mouth and would eat anyone who went up the mountain alone at night. Not too far from that mountain was another one where evil dwarves lived, who would kill you if you went up their mountain alone at night. (Lesson: don’t go up mountains alone at night.) Last but not least are the djinn (no, they don’t grant wishes). In Islam, they are beings of fire created before humans. There are good djinn and evil djinn, Muslim djinn, Christian djinn and heathen djinn. And a lot of mischievous djinn. We can’t see them, but they’re everywhere, living under your stairs or in your garden or even your kitchen sink if you have one. And, like Americans and ghosts, most Afghans aren’t too troubled by djinn by the light of day. A good recitation of the first line of the Qur’an will scare them away, but once it gets dark…well, best not to take any chances. Please follow Military & Defense on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »

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