News & Not News Megathread

Rhombaad said:
Next up: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Bashar al-Assad.

Oh, both great choices! Either way would end with Iran trying to destroy us. Who we liberate first would just dictate the number of allies Iran has in the end. So do you go straight for the head of the Imminent Threat To Democracy™ or fight a proxy-war-not-called-a-proxy-war with Iran in Syria?

I think fighting Arabs is becoming old though (and Persians are just Arabs by a different name, right?). Besides, it looks like we're starting to focus on Central Africa. I think it's pretty likely the next Imminent Threat To Democracy™ will be a Sub-Saharan African country. You have to change things up to keep them interesting, right?
 
Woman crawls into a dead horse to feel one with it -

Link to the article - http://www.koinlocal6.com/news/local/story/Portland-woman-boyfriend-wont-face-charges-in/O5kF74cxmUikMab_W02A2g.cspx

Link to the uncensored picture(s) - http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee500/Piraancantation/700.jpg

:slan:
 

Viral Harvest

Every Knee Bent Too Shall Break
http://www.destructoid.com/activision-hunting-down-modern-warfare-3-pirates-214741.phtml

Watch out! ACTIVISION MIGHT COME TO YOUR HOUSE! This gives the term "nerd rage" a whole new meaning. (Granted, Activision will not actually come to your house but I'm sure they'll contact the CYBER POLICE)
 

Gobolatula

praise be to grail!
One of my favorite comedians, Patrice Oneal died today. It really sucks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23FwEd5c8Cg&feature=player_embedded

He was such a funny dude.
 
Gobolatula said:
One of my favorite comedians, Patrice Oneal died today. It really sucks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23FwEd5c8Cg&feature=player_embedded

He was such a funny dude.

Yeah, that was really sad to hear. I loved him. Sad day. :(
 
X

Xem

Guest
Patrice's death actually affected me more than I first realized, very sad indeed and will be missed. I used to be really skeptical of his act but over time it kept growing on me and never stopped, I think the world is gonna miss out on a real impactful individual. Sad sad sad...

Patrice O'Neal on Spelling
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Did ‘Star Wars’ become a toy story? Producer Gary Kurtz looks back

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2010/08/12/star-wars-was-born-a-long-time-ago-but-not-all-that-far-far-away-in-1972-filmmakers-george-lucas-and-gary-kurtz-wer/

6a00d8341c630a53ef013486259171970c-800wi.jpg


Not new, but with the recent re-raping of Star Wars on blu-ray, it's worth another look at the other man behind Star Wars. Here are some relevant excerpts, particularly concerning the original plan for Return of the Jedi, which I've bolded:

“Star Wars” was born a long time ago, but not all that far, far away. In 1972, filmmakers George Lucas and Gary Kurtz were toiling on “American Graffiti” in their San Rafael office when they began daydreaming about a throwback sci-fi adventure that channeled the old “Flash Gordon” serials as opposed to the bleak “message” movies that had taken over the genre.

“We had no idea what we were starting,” said Kurtz, who was the producer of the first two “Star Wars” films and also a second-unit director. “That simple concept changed Hollywood in a way….”

There was a bittersweet tinge to Kurtz’s voice, and it’s no surprise. This year is the 30th anniversary of “The Empire Strikes Back,” the “Star Wars” sequel that many fans consider the pinnacle moment in a franchise that has pulled in $16 billion in box office and merchandising. But 1980 was also the year that Kurtz and Lucas realized the Jedi universe wasn’t big enough for the both of them.

“I could see where things were headed,” Kurtz said. “The toy business began to drive the [Lucasfilm] empire. It’s a shame. They make three times as much on toys as they do on films. It’s natural to make decisions that protect the toy business, but that’s not the best thing for making quality films.”

He added: “The first film and ‘Empire’ were about story and character, but I could see that George’s priorities were changing.”

Kurtz’s presence speaks to his vital role in the franchise’s history — he is, for instance, the one who came up with the title for “The Empire Strikes Back” — but the Lucasfilm leadership is already fretting about the Jedi galaxy expatriate’s appearance. They may have good reason; during a recent visit to Los Angeles, the filmmaker, who just turned 70, showed a willingness to speak out against the priorities of an old partner.

“The emphasis on the toys, it’s like the cart driving the horse,” Kurtz said. “If it wasn’t for that the films would be done for their own merits. The creative team wouldn’t be looking over their shoulder all the time.”

Alexandre Philippe is the director of “The People vs. George Lucas,” a documentary that just had its West Coast premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival. He says that Kurtz has become a figure of integrity to the fans who believe that Lucas has followed the wrong path.

Philippe said the departure of Kurtz was a major moment in “Star Wars” history and deeply unsettling to all involved. “The cast and crew were crushed when George and Gary went their separate ways,” said Philippe, who added that Mark Hamill, who portrayed Luke Skywalker, later explained it in broken-family terminology. “He said it was like mom and dad getting a divorce. They were both equally loved and respected on the set.”

For Kurtz, the popular notion that “Star Wars” was always planned as a multi-film epic is laughable. He says that he and Lucas, both USC film school grads who met through mutual friend Francis Ford Coppola in the late 1960s, first sought to do a simple adaptation of “Flash Gordon,” the comic-strip hero who had been featured in movie serials that both filmmakers found charming.

“We tried to buy the rights to ‘Flash Gordon’ from King Features but the deal would have been prohibitive,” Kurtz said. “They wanted too much money, too much control, so starting over and creating from scratch was the answer.”

Lucas came up with a sprawling treatment that pulled from “Flash Gordon,” Arthurian legend, “The Hidden Fortress” and other influences. The document would have required a five-hour film but there was a middle portion that could be carved out as a stand-alone movie. Kurtz championed the project in pitch meetings with studios and worked intensely on casting, scouting locations and finding a way to create a believable alien universe on a tight budget.

“Our plan was to do ‘Star Wars’ and then make ‘Apocalypse Now’ and do a black comedy in the vein of ‘M*A*S*H*,’” Kurtz said. “Fox insisted on a sequel or maybe two [to ‘Star Wars’]. Francis [Ford Coppola] … had bought the ["Apocalypse Now"] rights so George could make it. He eventually got tired of waiting and did it on his own, of course.”

The team of Lucas and Kurtz would not hold together during their own journey through the jungles of collaborative filmmaking. Kurtz chooses his words carefully on the topic of their split.

After the release of “Empire” (which was shaped by material left over from that first Lucas treatment), talk turned to a third film and after a decade and a half the partners could no longer find a middle ground.

“We had an outline and George changed everything in it,” Kurtz said. “Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason.”

The discussed ending of the film that Kurtz favored presented the rebel forces in tatters, Leia grappling with her new duties as queen and Luke walking off alone “like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns,” as Kurtz put it.

Kurtz said that ending would have been a more emotionally nuanced finale to an epic adventure than the forest celebration of the Ewoks that essentially ended the trilogy with a teddy bear luau.

He was especially disdainful of the Lucas idea of a second Death Star, which he felt would be too derivative of the 1977 film. “So we agreed that I should probably leave.”


Kurtz went straight over to “The Dark Crystal,” a three-year project with old friend Jim Henson, whom Kurtz had brought in on the creation of Yoda for “Empire.”

he says that “Empire” may be the shining moment of his career, the confluence of commercial and artistic success. His work as a second-unit director and his hands-on efforts with the visual effects make him especially proud.

“I took a master class with Billy Wilder once and he said that in the first act of a story you put your character up in a tree and the second act you set the tree on fire and then in the third you get him down,” Kurtz said. “ ‘Empire’ was the tree on fire. The first movie was like a comic book, a fantasy, but ‘Empire’ felt darker and more compelling. It’s the one, for me, where everything went right. And it was my goodbye to a big part of my life.”

I don't know if I would have liked all the differences in that vision of Jedi (judging by Empire, their compromise seemed to be the best way), but I wish he hadn't lost Lucas' ear or left in any case.
 
The People vs. George Lucas documentary is pretty cool. I only wish they had a chance to interview Lucas and ask him questions head on. I'd love to watch an interview like that if it exists.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Aazealh said:
Luke Skywalker made into an Eastwood-like lone avenger would have been fantastic though.

Oh definitely, I'm imagining some combination of the ending of Fallout crossed with imagery from The Gunslinger. :guts:

I just don't know if I could handle Han Solo being killed so soon after being rescued. :judo:

IncantatioN said:
The People vs. George Lucas documentary is pretty cool. I only wish they had a chance to interview Lucas and ask him questions head on. I'd love to watch an interview like that if it exists.

Not necessary, I think he's made his feelings pretty clear already; they're his movies, he can do what he wants with them, if you don't like it, don't buy it. Unfortunately, few have called his bluff.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
I just don't know if I could handle Han Solo being killed so soon after being rescued. :judo:

Well if that can comfort you, I think in a way him dying wouldn't have been less of a cop out than him living. It's been done many times before either way. The Ewoks though... That was a bit much, I think anyone can agree. In fact I'd say that Lucas' bullshit was already obvious long before the new trilogy, starting with the Ewoks spin-offs. And since Kurtz mentions it, the second Death Star always felt a bit cheap as a plot device to me, even as a kid.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Aazealh said:
Well if that can comfort you, I think in a way him dying wouldn't have been less of a cop out than him living. It's been done many times before either way.

Yeah, I almost added to my last line on the subject "although it's not like he did much after anyway." It all comes down to how it was portrayed, if it was something bitingly tragic after the relief of getting him back that the characters never quite overcome, okay. If it just seemed like a gimmicky waste to kill him off right after saving him ala Alien 3 (:troll:), it'd be as much as a bitching point as anything.

Aazealh said:
The Ewoks though... That was a bit much, I think anyone can agree. In fact I'd say that Lucas' bullshit was already obvious long before the new trilogy, starting with the Ewoks spin-offs. And since Kurtz mentions it, the second Death Star always felt a bit cheap as a plot device to me, even as a kid.

Oh yes, like many, as an adult I've come to see Return of the Jedi less as the ideal end of the holy trilogy than a mixed bag and the beginning of what Star Wars has become. Though, they tried, and it's not bad; the space battle at the end is technically the best in the series, plus a simultaneous nature vs technology ground battle, lightsaber duel, and Death Star run. It's a fitting follow up in the same vein as the first film (it's got the Death Star and MORE), and still works on a basic level as a satisfying conclusion. It just failed to expand on the potential of the characters like Empire, which is truly the anomaly of the series in writing, characterization, tone, etc. I can see Lucas' side of the story though beyond just merchandising, it shouldn't have been ambivalent since the original Star Wars was a rebuttal to that, and so it was fair to bring that back around. It's just unfortunate he went so far retarding the growth achieved by Empire, which is more unfortunate because most series fail to make such a leap in the first place. I would have liked to have seen a Jedi produced by both Lucas and Kurtz, something between the Jedi we have now and what Kurtz described above, something where the characters overall got as much attention as the spectacle. Oh yeah, and directed by Steven Spielberg, now THAT would have been the best way to end to Star Wars. :guts:
 

Vampire_Hunter_Bob

Cats are great
http://abcnews.go.com/International/diamond-ring-save-woman-buried-alive/story?id=15112540#.TuIYLGOVpkY

"Oh what happened to you this morning?" :???:

"Just dug my self out from being alive, no big deal." :badbone:
 
NightCrawler said:
What's a Horcrux?
According to the Harry potter Wiki :
A Horcrux is a very powerful object in which a Dark wizard or witch has hidden a fragment of his or her soul for the purpose of attaining immortality.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
(CNN) -- A Massachusetts mom said police went too far when they paid her and her 5-year-old daughter a visit for failing to return their library books on time.

"She's 5; she didn't understand," said Shannon Benoit of her daughter, Hailey.

Police said Tuesday that an officer showed up last week at the Benoit's home in the town of Charlton to inform the family that the books were long overdue.

Hailey -- who was standing beside her mom when the officer arrived -- then burst into tears.

The books, titled "How To Tie My Shoes" and "Eloise's Birthday," had been sitting on Hailey's bookshelf since April

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/03/us/massachusetts-overdue-books/index.html
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
While that's certainly strange, it doesn't totally surprise me. However, there are some things not being said in the article, but are implied.

Police Chief James A. Pervier said his officers have been asked by library personnel to make similar visits to at least 13 other Charlton households over library late fees.

Officials say the police-backed crackdown has since inspired more prompt book returns among library patrons.
What's not being said here is that under normal circumstances, the library system has utterly no sway with the police department. This kind of enforcement request would be laughed at if it came directly from someone like the library administrator. However, the collection order could have come from both of these departments' boss: the county executive/mayor, who has a stake in a) keeping accounts balanced and collecting owed fees; b) creating an image that his departments are accountable.

Just my thoughts after reporting on similar stories in my own career.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
Yea I totally understand. I just thought that it was funny about how the girl starts crying and the two police officers have stand there and ask her to return How To Tie My Shoes. I'm sure at that moment they may have been thinking "Do we have better things to do"?
 
Meanwhile in Russia.
http://gizmodo.com/5873441/this-girl-sneaked-into-this-russian-military-rocket-factory
It was easy to get in. She just went there, jumped over the fence and got right into the heart of the complex through a series of tunnels and pipes, which was very surprising. After all, this is an active industrial installation that belongs to one of the top manufacturers of liquid-fuel rockets in the world. Their engines power the modern Soyuz, the Zenit 3SL, and the Angara and Baikal launch vehicles. Heck, their RD-180 engine powers the first stage of the Atlas V, an American rocket. More importantly, they have specially strong ties to the Russian military.

Here is a thread with more pictures. It's all in Russian, i don't understand what they are saying . http://lana-sator.livejournal.com/160176.html#cutid1
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Joe Chip said:
Meanwhile in Russia.
http://gizmodo.com/5873441/this-girl-sneaked-into-this-russian-military-rocket-factory
Here is a thread with more pictures. It's all in Russian, i don't understand what they are saying . http://lana-sator.livejournal.com/160176.html#cutid1
Those pictures are simply incredible. My first audible reaction: "Holy SHIT!"
 
Walter said:
Those pictures are simply incredible. My first audible reaction: "Holy SHIT!"
Yeah, i had the same reaction. Considering that this factory is apparently active, she just walked inside and there was no security. That's kinda scary.
 
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