text:
Confessions of a PT Apologist
My name is Gabe Powers, and I am a Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Apologist...
Reader discretion is advised.
'I am a Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Apologist. Hath not a Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Apologist eyes? Hath not a Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Apologist hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same blue milk, hurt with the same DL-44 blaster pistol, subject to the same Krytos virus', healed by the same bacta, warmed and cooled by the same Tatooine and Hoth as any unaltered OT fanatic? If you prick our robotic hands do they not quiver in verification of stimulation? If you run us through with a double bladed lightsaber do we not cauterize instantly and fall dead without bleeding? If you destroy our planet with your super-powered, planet sized space station do we not die?'
Part One: The Delusional Nuisance
I hereby call to order this meeting of SWPTAA ( Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Apologists Anonymous). We have a new member joining us tonight. This brings our standing total to three. Would you like to introduce yourself?
My name is Gabe Powers, and I am a Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Apologist. ('Hi Gabe') It has been three months, two weeks, and three days since the last time I watched the Prequel Trilogy. My story starts the day I was born. The number one film in America was The Empire Strikes Back, and my foolish parents decided to take me to the theatre to see it while I was still in an infantile state. I don't blame them, though, it was Star Wars. I don't remember the experience, obviously, but apparently the film burned itself thoroughly into my colour blind, non-cognitive little mind. Over the next eight years I spent my time creating new Star Wars adventures with my toy collection (I wasn't allowed action figures with guns, but 'blasters' and 'laser swords' were okay). At the age of three I got to see the final instalment of the Star Wars series, Return of the Jedi in a theatre, though my mother made me leave the theatre temporarily during the Rancor scene, which she had read was scary.
George Lucas never touched my childhood in the bathing suit area.
At the age of ten I finally felt I had outgrown Star Wars (I was much more interested in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ghostbusters by that time), and sold my entire toy collection (including the ghost Anakin Skywalker and Emperor figures you had to send away proof of purchases to get) to my collector uncle for the hefty sum of $100, which is a lot of money for a ten year old in the year 1990. I've since realized it was a mistake. It seemed the closest I was ever going to get to a new Star Wars movie were two awful made for video Ewok flicks, which I enjoyed as a child but now recognize as unwatchable tripe (except the monsters, those are still cool. Remember that stop-motion thing that tried to get the little bastards in the tree?). I went on with my life, only reliving a small part of the series when I was left home sick from school. Empire and Ghostbusters were the only two videos my family owned, and daytime television is awful.
Along came college, and my interest in film beyond occasional entertainment, specifically horror films, bloomed into a full-on obsession. This obsession led me to film related magazines and websites where I learned that George Lucas was in fact making a series of three prequels to the original Star Wars Trilogy. My interest was reinvigorated, thanks in no small part to my college roommate, whose father worked at a local grocery store and 'borrowed' the Phantom Menace promos on his son's behalf. It's hard not to get excited about a film when life-size Pepsi stand-up versions of its characters watch TV with you every night. For an entire summer I didn't throw out a Pepsi can without making sure it didn't feature a golden Yoda.
I lived close to a brand new theatre in Phoenix, Arizona (at the Metro Center Mall, where Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure had been filmed), and would take a trip to Suncoast Video every Tuesday to check out new releases. I decided I wasn't going to see The Phantom Menace opening weekend when I saw a small line of people forming two weeks before release. Two weeks! There was no way this, or any film was going to be worth this much time in the Phoenix sun.
After about a week the fan line filled out into the dozens, and the mall management decided to let them inside, even overnight (apparently a bunch of unbathed people in Storm Trooper costumes and brown robes expiring on the front steps isn't good for business). The geeks were partitioned off in the food court, like some kind of surrealist Science Fictional zoo attraction. I felt like I had walked onto the Preserver's ship, and half expected to find Superman behind glass. You had to walk around the geeks and through a gaggle of pre-teen mallrat goslings to enter the consumer utopia. The early word from these emporium barnacles was that the film was awesome, a juggernaut of satisfaction, and I had to take their word for it because I was going to wait another two weeks before I was going to pass my own judgment.
I was too concerned with bleeding all the local video stores dry of obscure foreign horror titles (one store had both Necromantic movies, and I only had to drive forty minutes there and back to rent them!) and finishing school to have even noticed the vehement hatred of all things Phantom Menace throughout the rest of 1999. I saw the film twice that year, the second time with a troop of ankle-biters from the local day-care I worked at, and they ate it up. I tried to show them the OT on video in the coming weeks but they were bored out of their minds. Little bastards. Before the Episode 1 DVD was finally released some time later I had finally been made aware that people really didn't like the film. At that point it was really too late for me to care.
Then came November of 2001, and I sat down in a theatre full of screaming toddlers to see Pixar Studios' Monsters Inc.. I never miss a Pixar film. The trailers ran, the theatre promo came and went, I was told to buy stuff from the concession stands and turn off my cell phone, then the screen went black. But then there was another green trailer screen. The following Attack of the Clones trailer is, in my opinion, one of the most effective trailers ever made. The images edited to the familiar rhythmic breathing of Darth Vader, the building music, glimpses of Jango Fett, C-3PO, and holy shit, was that Christopher Lee? I was born ready for May of 2002.
Due to a lack of lines I decided to see Attack of the Clones the Saturday after it opened. By the time the credits rolled Lucas' baited hook was firmly caught within the fleshy tissues of inner cheek. I was a born again Star Wars fan. I saw it three times total, once with my mother (and I didn't even make her leave the theatre during the monster scenes). I am ashamed and humbled when I admit that it was Attack of the Clones, that reinvigorated my fanaticism for the series.
The day I downloaded the final HD trailer for Episode III: Revenge of the Sith my failing health was looking up, and I found a quiet complacency in knowing my friend George was going to be there for me in my time of need. Attending a few midnight showings of the Lord of the Rings films had fuelled my appetite, and I bought tickets for the first showing of the final Star Wars film. A friend and I got to the theatre at 9:00 PM and were shocked to hear that the theatre had been seating for over an hour already. It was okay though, we got decent seats, and some kindly strangers paid us twenty bucks a piece to hold seats for them (they came back drunk). I embarrassingly watched costumed freaks make spectacles of themselves, and laughed like a drug-addled hyena as one theatregoer tripped and spilled his popcorn in a glorious arc across the front row. The movie came and went, and once again, I enjoyed myself immensely.
Part Two: Blitzkrieg of the Facsimiles
How could I have been so wrong? What good did I see in these cinematic equivalents to Auschwitz? I try to explain this to the hordes of angry OT fans that egg my house every night, I try to put this unbelievable affection into words, and time and time again I fail. Come with me my friends, on a Technicolor journey of over-analysis.
I enjoy A New Hope and the Prequel Trilogy for pretty much the same reasons I enjoy Tarantino's Kill Bill series. I like straight-faced, postmodern homage. I'm not a very big fan of spoof, and most blatantly referential cinema is spoof. If I were to critique Grindhouse it'd read as pretty much the exact opposite of most opinions I've come across. I think Rodriguez's Planet Terror was entertaining but missed the point of the exercise. It was a spoof of exploitation cinema rather than an homage. Tarantino's Death Proof is a modern equivalent to a grindhouse film, complete with space filling exposition and an entirely abrupt ending. It may be winking at its audience a bit, but I don't see it as dishonest as a spoof.
Hold on a sec, let me strap on my SWPTAA members' exclusive Kevlar vest…
Empire Strikes Back is more or less universally accepted as the best of the Star Wars series. I agree that it is the best film with the word Star Wars in the title. I would, however, argue (against my better judgment) that it is actually the worst Star Wars film. It's too realistic, too emotionally centred, too well acted, too well structured, and too empathetic. It's a real movie, with real characters that an audience really cares for. Return of the Jedi, Ewoks aside, has a solid and I believe affecting emotional core, that of Luke and Vader. Though generations of fans focus on the Ewoks as the negative aspect, I see them as more true to Lucas' model than the rest of the film, and they even play into the '60s leftist political stance found in the PT.
The four movies in the series that were actually directed by Lucas are stylistically and thematically very similar. They feel like old movies with new special effects. The acting is purposefully stilted, the dialogue is corny, and the situations entirely fantastic within the realms of pop familiarity. Attack of the Clones is especially attuned to the notion of homage in that it effectively references dozens of film types, from '30s era romance and swashbuckling, to '50s era, stop-motion monster movies and '60s era James Bond flicks. The romance is the one and only factor that even I can't argue works, but it is definitely played out in the old fashion mould.
The final act of the PT (the one people actually seemed to have liked) diverts from this formula (the way I see it Attack of the Clones and A New Hope are the 'purest' Star Wars films), and goes more for an operatic representation of such unbelievable events. I thought this worked, many people did not. It's overwrought, but then, so is just about every famous Opera ever written. Like Empire and Jedi (my two favourites), it takes the formula and matures it to a place where maybe it doesn't belong. It's almost like, a real movie.
I think people wanted Star Wars to grow up with them, but that's not what Star Wars is about, at least not the way I was made to understand it.
I once tried to explain the merits of digital effects to a kid on line at a comic book store. He slashed my neck with a Magic: The Gathering card protected within a thick mylar sleeve. I still bare the scare to remind me to keep my mouth shut. I learned a valuable lesson that day—people take the Star Wars universe very, very seriously. Why, just minutes before the incident I was having a civil discussion with my attacker about abortion rights. We disagreed by the guy didn't raise a finger, I mention the fact that I like digital Yoda and BAM, I wake up in the hospital.
From a visual standpoint, I believe the digital realm has afforded the PT a wonderful painterly feel, and I find it hard to believe that even the harshest critics honestly found the films graphically unattractive. The digital set designs are gorgeous, often evoking sci-fi fantasy novel covers from the '50s and '60s. They also evoke the painted backdrops of '30s serials, and are uncannily unrealistic yet tangible. The overall colour pallets of the three films represent a day to night transition ( TPM equals day, AOTC equals dawn, ROTS equals night). I'll never understand the critical stance that praised Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Sin City for their all digital backdrops, while bashing the PT for the same reasons. There are other moments of real graphic purity in these films, like the beautiful cutting of flashing colours and faces when Anakin and Dooku first face-off in Attack of the Clones.
I absolutely agree that this is in contrast to the OT, where everything was rough and dirty, but I was under the impression that that was kind of the point—there's no room for aesthetic beauty in Palpatine's Empire, a function over fashion kind of thing (even the Emperor himself ditches his flowing red robe for a dull black one). Maybe I'm the guy taking this all too seriously now.
I was also under the impression that the Star Wars films, as a whole, were suppose to be old fashion serials from every angle except that of their state of the art special effects. This is the mindset I've taken to these films since I was old and wise enough to think critically about such a mundane subject, I may be wrong. This mindset is what causes me to object to the digital changes in the OT. The OT changes don't bother me exponentially, but from a theoretical standpoint they go against my version of the series 'thesis statement'. I'm of the theory that each film should represent the height of special effects technology for its given time. The effects in Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon were the best for their eras, right? That's a story for another support group though.
Though I love a Muppet as much as the next guy, the puppets in the OT were only ever as real as their performers and the performances around them, and the same goes for the digital creatures of the PT. Jar Jar isn't a bad character because he's made out of CG rather than rubber, he's a bad character because he's badly written and annoyingly realized. I was just as enthralled by Yoda's performance in parts two and three as I was in part five, because the character is well written, beloved, and Frank Oz is a great actor. I've actually heard people say that they didn't like the digital creatures because they weren't as 'realistic; as the rubber creatures in the OT. At the risk of grievous bodily harm, I'll say that I honestly think the end results of both the OT and PT are comparably 'realistic'.
Do fans want more grown-up versions of the exact same three movies they fell in love with in the '70s and '80s? Do they want to pick and choose their specific favourite elements? Do they want rubber masked thespians, rod puppets, and stop-motion monsters speaking David Mamet level dialogue? This isn't me being facetious; I actually want an answer because I don't know.
On a completely unpretentious and non-analytical level, it comes down to taste. Good almost always outweighs bad per capita for me, and that's probably the reason I can enjoy so many Italian horror flicks. I can actually enjoy an entire film for a few good set pieces. The Star Wars Prequels have plenty of bits I don't enjoy, I'm not entirely insane, but each film has its fair share of bits I love. This is not a matter of lowering my expectations; this is a matter of me appreciating films in parts more than most folks I know. Just so we agree my taste is in question, rather than my methods.
Let's get down to brass tacks; here are some images I'll always remember:
The Phantom Menace: the giant fish scene (minus Jar Jar's screaming), R2-D2's introduction (I know it's short, but watching R2 units blasted off the wing of the ship is always good for a laugh), the pod race (as an exercise in image and sound, it doesn't get much better), and the final saber match (still not matched).
Attack of the Clones: the flying car chase, all of Obi-Wan's 'secret agent' bits on Kamino, anything involving Christopher Lee, and the film's final act where we go from Harryhausen monster movie, to full-on war film, to awesome Yoda vs. Dooku saber fight.
Revenge of the Sith is a film I honestly love. I don't love it in that 'at least it's not as bad as the others' way, I really, honestly adore it. I love its structure, I love its story, and I love its best bits more than any of the other best bits in the Prequel Trilogy. The opening rescue, Obi-Wan's stalking and killing of Grievous, Anakin's turn (I must be crazy, because I bought it), the purge (that score is heartbreaking), the flashy, and colour-coated final battle. I even thought Vader's James Whale-esque birth and subsequent giant 'No' was spot on.
I love these movies for what they mean to me, not what they mean to the legions of die-hard fans the world over. That is why I honestly think future generations will forget the anti-hype and embrace the entire series as two separate but strangely equal wholes.
That's not to say I wouldn't change a few things if given the chance…
Part 3: Counterinsurgency of the Reason
After month of intensive consoling, drying up, and heavy medication, I'm finally able to admit that my love for the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy is not unshakable. I've found some problems with the films, and at the suggestion of my sponsor Blake (thanks for being there for me all those late nights brother, and thank your wife for the cookies), and because it is step six in my twelve step program, I've compiled a list of things I'd like to see Lucas change when he eventually starts tinkering with the PT. I've broken each down by film.
The Phantom Menace:
While watching the documentary on the Phantom Menace DVD, I noticed there were two other finalists for the role of young Anakin Skywalker. Both young actors seem better equipped for the role. I propose that ILM digitally insert one of these children into all of Jake Lloyd's scenes.
I'm pretty sure that no one here is a very big fan of Jar Jar Binks. I totally understand the point of the character; he's meant as another Kurosawa-esque servant character who acts as the audience's eyes through the fantastic journey. Unfortunately he's no C-3P0 or R2-D2, and if this is how Lucas views his audience, we really all should be a little insulted. I suggest the character design remain the same, but he be re-voiced and reanimated as a more soft-spoken character, preferably one that isn't a racial stereotype. If racial stereotypes are a necessity, then I suggest a Japanese character, in keeping with those in Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress.
More time should be spent on the political intricacies of Darth Sideous' plan. Way too much screen time is devoted to frivolous scenes on Tatooine and the Gungan city (though the pod race and giant fish scenes that follow are cool). I understand that the plot against the Republic was meant to unfold over the first two films, but Lucas spends way too much time explaining this part of the story on his DVD commentary track.
Though the fact that the destruction of the droid mothership shuts down the droids attacking Naboo is important to Palpatine's choice in clones over droids, I wish that the Gungans could have actually been victorious during the Battle of Naboo. Anakin accidentally saving an entire planet is weak storytelling all around.
Darth Maul is too cool to die in the first film, and playing hours and hours of the Battlefront 2 video game planted the awesome idea of him as a general in the Clone Wars. The guy is raised to kill Jedi from, like, birth, and he gets offed by the second one he comes across? Obi-Wan should probably still get the best of him, but he shouldn't have died (there's a neat 'what-if' comic short I read where Maul is repaired with a robot lower half and confronts an older Obi-Wan on Tatooine). Palpatine could just break the rule of two and take on Dooku anyway as the wealthy ex-Jedi is politically more powerful than Maul, but Maul as the ultimate, war-time heavy would've been great fun. We can insert him digitally, and give him spider legs or something.
Attack of the Clones
I've never had a particular problem with Hayden Christianson's whiny portrayal of teenaged Anakin. It seems appropriate to me that the early reasons for his downfall are his normal teenage behaviour, including rebellion against authority figures and having a childish crush on the wrong girl. These are all things that the Jedi should figuratively beat out of force sensitive youths at a very young age, but Anakin is just too old when he's finally trained. I actually wouldn't change this aspect of the film at all.
I would remove the frivolous and tacked on droid factory sequence, and replace it with the DVD's deleted scenes of Anakin and Padme getting to know each other. The love story should be sappy and old fashion (Han and Leia's was, no matter how you remember it), but it can stand to be a little more heartfelt. And the droid factory sequence is dumb.
I also would've taken the time to hire a few martial arts experts to fill out my Jedi armada rather than craft services and members of N'Sync. When Mace Windu comes to Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme's rescue his Jedi soldier look a little, um, 'unrefined'. Then imagine Windu and Jango Fett fighting as they do, Obi-Wan (having just killed that screaming spider-monster) rushes to Windu assistance, but stops short as a black cloaked character (who had been lurking at Dukoo's side the whole film) lands hard in front of him. The character removes his cowl to reveal a newly repaired Darth Maul. He could tear through a couple of the lesser Jedi on his way to Obi-Wan, who'd be nearly overpowered. This time Obi-Wan would barely escape to join Anakin on the trail of Dooku.
Revenge of the Sith
General Grievous, no matter how cool looking he may be, is frivolous, and the film's weakest story element. He serves only two purposes—a Darth Vader prototype (part machine, part organic creature), and a reason to separate Anakin and Obi-Wan, who at this point in the story arc are actually getting along. Though the sequence where Anakin kills Dooku is important, Dooku is a more valuable and well structured character, and should've been the one that Obi-Wan confronted on Utapau. This would feed Anakin's frustration further, as he would find himself unable to avenge his missing limb. I'd replace Dooku in the rescue scene with my new hypothetical Robo-Maul, who Anakin would behead at Palpatine's behest as revenge for the death of Qui-Gon Jinn, thus making the same upsetting lurch towards the Dark Side.
Though I still love the operatic drama of the scene, I probably would've made the saber duel between Windu and Palpatine a bit more spectacular. I like Lucas' re-cutting the original footage to not have Anakin in the room the whole fight, but wish that we'd have a glimpse at Palatine's real power before he threw the fight for Anakin's benefit. Even as a PT apologist I find Lucas' handling of such an important battle very weak.
I like Anakin's initial fall, but like everyone else I wanted to actually see the new Darth Vader offing Jedi in the temple. We don't need to see him murdering children (that scene works perfectly as is), but a few short duels with Jedi like Shaak Ti would've been appropriate.
If you'll excuse me I've got a few other support groups to get to, including 'Remaining Puny Banner Together', my biweekly Hulk group, 'Our Love is Real', my Friday night A.I.: Artificial Intelligence group, and the latest addition to my self-help repertoire, 'Symbiotes Are OK and So Am I', my tri-weekly Spider-Man 3 group. Coffee and donuts are available in the back, if anyone cares to talk constructively among themselves on how to deal with the ever growing problem of Prequel Trilogy Apologism.
Editorial by Gabriel Powers
Nic Mall Member Join Date: November 2005 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 1,202
Haven't read it yet as I'm supposed to be working. But the pictures made me laugh. You look like the kid from the Tazmania cartoons (the cavemanboy who keeps trying to kill Taz)
Dunny Member Join Date: October 2006 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 347
Sorry this propaganda could never persuade me to believe, the new Star Wars movies are even remotley watchable.
Phantom Menace is one of the worst movies I've watched. I remember watching it in the cinema for a second time (dragged along!) with the worst headache I've suffered. The DVD should come free with a tub of paracetamol.
Phantom Menace is one of the worst movies I've watched. I remember watching it in the cinema for a second time (dragged along!) with the worst headache I've suffered. The DVD should come free with a tub of paracetamol.
Tenderheart Bear Member Join Date: March 2005 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 81
While I may not be a fan of the PT, the article is a work of pure genius, I commend you, sir!
scottmck Contributor Join Date: April 2006 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 393
Great article, Gabe. I like the prequels too and I'm not ashamed to admit it either. I saw TPM in New York before it was released in the UK and managed to convince my mate to start his stag do at 9:30am on the day ROTS was released before we caught the plane to Prague in the afternoon
RalphFiennes Member Join Date: August 2006 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 741
Interesting article to be sure. I agree with all your points about the strengths of the first three films. I saw TPM 5 times at the cinema, as I just loved the stronger parts of the films (I too am a guy who'll watch films for certain parts, enduring the weaker elements for the sake of those moments). While I'm not sure about some of your proposed changes, I think we'd all agree that killing Darth Maul was a huge mistake, and I love your ideas of how to keep him in the series.
Costanza Member Join Date: September 2006 Location: Canada Posts: 38
A great article indeed, but I still found the PT to be boring as hell. Haven't seen Phantom Menace since opening night in the theater, fell asleep in the theater during Attack of the Clones and turned the DVD of Sith off at least five times to check hockey scores. The computer effects were horrid in the first two films and the acting was like cardboard. The original (computer effects-less) trilogy will only be the ones I ever watch. But, to each his own.
Ardvark Member Join Date: March 2007 Location: Netherlands Posts: 99
This was fun!
For me it's like this:
OT: grown up movies I saw as a kiddie.
PT: kiddie movies I saw as a grown up.
Not the same! I was 12 when I saw "Empire" and have been pleasantly scarred ever since. Speaking of which...
As an OT fanatic, I'd like to know: did "one of us" really give you that scar?
For me it's like this:
OT: grown up movies I saw as a kiddie.
PT: kiddie movies I saw as a grown up.
Not the same! I was 12 when I saw "Empire" and have been pleasantly scarred ever since. Speaking of which...
As an OT fanatic, I'd like to know: did "one of us" really give you that scar?
Blue-Kal-El Member Join Date: October 2006 Location: United States Posts: 602
Good Reads...
goat boy Member Join Date: April 2007 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 87
A joy to read Gabe thanks. I think the changes you mention would give the films a whole different look and feel, a change in pace as well which i suppose is what everybody else wants anyway.
SnakePETER Member Join Date: August 2005 Location: United States Posts: 88
Great read, Gabe.... fantastic stuff for a Star Wars dork like myself. I totally agreed with the idea of having kept Maul around longer... (I think we all did).
you get major kudos (do they even still use that word anymore) for the whole Anakin killing Maul instead of Dooku, idea.... Seriously, I bet if Lucas himself read this article he'd probably smack himself on the forehead.
I totally loved "Menace, and Revenge"..... but, I'm sorry dude, no matter how hard I try, "Clones" just doesn't do it for me.
Great read, Gabe.... fantastic stuff for a Star Wars dork like myself. I totally agreed with the idea of having kept Maul around longer... (I think we all did).
you get major kudos (do they even still use that word anymore) for the whole Anakin killing Maul instead of Dooku, idea.... Seriously, I bet if Lucas himself read this article he'd probably smack himself on the forehead.
I totally loved "Menace, and Revenge"..... but, I'm sorry dude, no matter how hard I try, "Clones" just doesn't do it for me.
MrChaos Member Join Date: February 2007 Location: United States Posts: 20
Very good read Gabe. The changes you suggest would be quite interesting. And I completely agree with your comments on Darth Maul. Why did they kill him off so damn quickly?
Ian McFarland Member Join Date: January 2004 Location: United States Posts: 188
Nice write-up. And don't worry, there are other Apoligists (like me) out there waiting for the day that people stop giving c**p to the movies just becuase it's fashionable to do so.
Jurgie1979 Member Join Date: January 2006 Location: United States Posts: 164
Nice work, Gabe - I agree on a lot of points, and am constantly having to make similar argumets. While I still can barely sit through PT, I'll take "Clones" over "Jedi" ANY day of the week.
Hey - I'm also a big fan of "Hulk" and "A.I.", go figure.
Hey - I'm also a big fan of "Hulk" and "A.I.", go figure.
xjrmx Member Join Date: March 2006 Location: United States Posts: 77
good times.... i like it... was a fun read.
RalphFiennes Member Join Date: August 2006 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 741
Jurgie1979 wrote: Hey - I'm also a big fan of "Hulk" and "A.I.", go figure.
Same here, love those two films as well.
Same here, love those two films as well.
kenny wong Member Join Date: August 2005 Location: United States Posts: 141
Darth Maul had so much potential in it! I wanted to like him so much as everyone else did. But, Lucas just threw him in there as filler like everything else in the prequels! I definitely agree that he shouldn't have died so soon. And the way Lucas cut him from the rest of the trilogy was so lame. Stand above Obi Wan and make sparks with your lightsaber to intimidate him enough to let go and fall to his death. Then let Obi Wan flip over you and you go, 'huh? what?' and then you get cut in half! Weak. Christopher Lee's Dooku could have been cool too since Lee is such an accomplished actor! And that name is so silly! What did we get for additional Sith Lords! Grievous is so useless! When it comes to the one on one lightsaber duels in the prequels, Lucas had completely lost it. The final battle between Obi Wan and Anakin was just redundant in choreography! And all that unnecessary flailing around of the lightsabers in figure eight was just overdone. Nick Gillard could have done better than that!
Steven Carrier Senior Member Join Date: November 2004 Location: United States Posts: 1,575
This is funny cause I just rewatched the Prequel Trilogy this week and i have a new found respect for the films. I never was crazy about them and I have always worshiped the Original Triolgy. But now i have to say i really like the new films. The acting might be horrid and the special effects may be a little over the top, and dont get me started on Jar Jar Binks, but regarldess, Lucus knows how to write great sci-fi and the story is the essence of these 6 films. I really like all 6 films.
Chris Gould Editor Join Date: May 2001 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 7,171
LOL! had to laugh at that post, which basically said they were s**t, but Lucas can still write
LLcruize Member Join Date: January 2005 Location: United States Posts: 448
Amen Gabe! Sign me up! I would have to say you hit on everything I love about the prequels and what I would tweak. Great stuff!
Squeek81 Member Join Date: September 2006 Location: United States Posts: 150
I agree with keeping maul alive for more films, as it seemed liked Grievous and Maul were fillers, there should have been more dooku he was a great character. Maybe Dooku and Maul versus some Jedi in AOTC at the end.
A great read. When do we get the worst moments of the series?
A great read. When do we get the worst moments of the series?
Samuel Member Join Date: July 2006 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 145
No matter how much you love or hate the PT, I think everyone can agree that they were missed opportunities. Obviously I think some people are over-exaggerating here saying that the PT are the worst films that they have ever seen (obviously they've only watched 6 films then, the OT and the PT).
One thing I must disagree on is the claim of it being a saga of six films, I see it as two trilogies, and they don't really work being watched back to back unless it is 4-6, 1-3.
I think the biggest problem with the PT is that they just stand as an introduction to the events of the OT rather than being standalone films in their own right.
Arguing with PT haters is like arguing with Creationists that evolution exists, it's just never going to end.
One thing I must disagree on is the claim of it being a saga of six films, I see it as two trilogies, and they don't really work being watched back to back unless it is 4-6, 1-3.
I think the biggest problem with the PT is that they just stand as an introduction to the events of the OT rather than being standalone films in their own right.
Arguing with PT haters is like arguing with Creationists that evolution exists, it's just never going to end.
Matt Thompson Member Join Date: April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 236
I'm not an apologist, I just think The Phantom Menace is better than Return of the Jedi, and Revenge of the Sith might be the best of the six
Chris Gould Editor Join Date: May 2001 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 7,171
A clear-cut case of insanity if ever I saw one.
No hate mail yet. I'll keep checking my in box by the hour. I can't give away what the scar is actually from, it ruins the illusion.
goat boy Member Join Date: April 2007 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 87
I don't believe all that c**p about high expectations when it comes to disliking the prequels, If anything i think people tried harder to like them simply because it's Star Wars and like myself went to see say TPM twice because i couldn't believe a Star Wars movie could be so bad or boring. Theres alot of denial involved here.
I can only speak for myself, but I'm being 100% honest here, I really do like these movies, and propbably watch them at least once every year. I think you have a very valid point, just like any other fan phenomenon there are going to be people who aren't going to be honest with themselves about how much they actually like the films.
LLcruize Member Join Date: January 2005 Location: United States Posts: 448
The prequels were a lose/lose situation. Much of the fandom that surrounds these films is what people have created in their own imaginations about how everything came to be prior to A New Hope. You make something that doesn't come remotely close to what someone has imagined fore years, a serious letdown was inevitable by some.
I agree with Matt, TPM kicks the c**p out of RoTJ any day of the week and Sith ranks just slightly behind Empire for me.
I agree with Matt, TPM kicks the c**p out of RoTJ any day of the week and Sith ranks just slightly behind Empire for me.
mc_serenity Member Join Date: December 2006 Location: United States Posts: 824
I really don't get the intense love for "Star Wars", be it the prequel and original trilogies. I pretty much love the only "Star Wars", "The Empire Strikes Back" and "The Phantom Menace" (I refuse to acknowledge the prequels' connections to the original films), but that's pretty much it. Thought "Attack of the Clones" was one of the worst movies I ever seen, with the stilted dialogue and ludicrous plot developments and "Return of the Jedi" was highly disappointing (although Carrie Fisher in that slave girl outift was a definite highlight). "Revenge of the Sith" was okay... highly overrated I thought, but perfectly watchable.
Although Gabe, I'm still going to disagree with you on ROTS and "Serenity" -- the latter was economically paced, featured more sympathetic and well-rounded characters and looked like a $100 million picture when it only cost $40 million to make.
But did you file a suit against the kid who cut you on the neck? I certainly would.
Although Gabe, I'm still going to disagree with you on ROTS and "Serenity" -- the latter was economically paced, featured more sympathetic and well-rounded characters and looked like a $100 million picture when it only cost $40 million to make.
But did you file a suit against the kid who cut you on the neck? I certainly would.
It was just a joke, the scare is from something entirely unrealated to Star Wars (though if I told you what it was from some people might beg to differ with me). I think Serenity was a great film, I just didn't enjoy it as much as ROTS, especially after the shock of my first viewing was gone. I like it more than TPM, and about the same as AOTC.
And truthfully ROTJ is still my second favorite, but mostly for the last act. I'll always love the cutting between stories (something Matrix Revolutions could've used).
Nic Mall wrote: Haven't read it yet as I'm supposed to be working. But the pictures made me laugh. You look like the kid from the Tazmania cartoons (the cavemanboy who keeps trying to kill Taz) It was the '80s my friend, that was a popular haircut. Thankfully I have no pictures of my follow up do, a rat tail. Barf.
And truthfully ROTJ is still my second favorite, but mostly for the last act. I'll always love the cutting between stories (something Matrix Revolutions could've used).
Nic Mall wrote: Haven't read it yet as I'm supposed to be working. But the pictures made me laugh. You look like the kid from the Tazmania cartoons (the cavemanboy who keeps trying to kill Taz) It was the '80s my friend, that was a popular haircut. Thankfully I have no pictures of my follow up do, a rat tail. Barf.
Matt Thompson Member Join Date: April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 236
Jedi feels so safe to me. In that regard, it's similar to Attack of the Clones, where the whole time it seemed like Lucas was compromising. "You didn't like the last one? Okay, here come the Clone Wars! And Boba Fett! And Yoda fights!" By the time he got to Episode III, he figured he couldn't please most people and just did his own thing.
Revenge of the Sith and Empire Strikes Back are so incredibly closed for me. Empire's the more balanced film, but I think Sith has moments of sheer awe, and the last 45 minutes are the best of any Star Wars film.
Revenge of the Sith and Empire Strikes Back are so incredibly closed for me. Empire's the more balanced film, but I think Sith has moments of sheer awe, and the last 45 minutes are the best of any Star Wars film.
Follow our updates
Unseen Reviews
Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka UK - DVD R2 Stuff, The UK - BD RB Body Double UK - DVD | BD Capricorn One UK - BD RB Perversion Story US - BD RA
Hot Easter Eggs
Wizard Of Oz, The US - DVD R1 Evil Dead: Limited Edition US - DVD R1 Spider-Man 2 HK - DVD Cast Away US - DVD R1 Racing Stripes UK - DVD R2
Released Soon
Kin US - DVD R1 | BD RA Luciferina US - DVD R1 | BD RA Crazy Rich Asians US - DVD R1 | BD RA Blindspotting US - DVD R1 | BD RA Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers US - DVD R1 | BD RA
Most Talked About
A Simple Favor US - DVD R1 | BD RA All the Colors of the Dark US - DVD R1 | BD RA Reign of the Supermen US - DVD R1 | BD RA Kino Lorber Studio Classics January US - DVD R1 | BD RA Columbo Season 1 UK - BD RB


text:
Why Parenting Experts Say Peppa Pig Is A Danger For Kids
Despite being one of the world's most LOVED children's shows, experts have warned that Peppa Pig could be doing lasting damage to kids.
Not what parents who rely on Peppa Pig to keep their little ones occupied want to hear!
ABC2 shows like Peppa Pig, Shaun The Sheep and Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom now regularly top the daily digital ratings. According to The Daily Telegraph, 'given their target audience is tiny — both in stature and numbers — the fact these kids programs rival Today and Sunrise when it comes to eyeballs tuning in is raising alarm bells.'
Dr Karen Phillip, one of Australia's leading parenting experts, says that "A lot of parents feel that those (ABC2) programs are beneficial to the children...but by beneficial you don't know if they mean education or childminding. To me, it's more childminding."
According to Phillip, "The fact our children are so engaged with screens has led to not just the inability to use their imagination, but has even been linked to a lack of empathy development"
"Kids are losing the capability of developing skills in empathy and reading other people's body language because they're so not in tune with it anymore," she said. "Even with their friends, they'll play next to them on an iPad but not with them."
"They're sitting in front of a screen and being entertained externally and continuously. Even four and five-year-olds are losing the ability to come up with new games, new concepts and new ideas because they're so used to being entertained by an external source."
Luckily, Dr Phillip agrees that children still have the potential to develop while watching television, but they will require interaction with their parents at the same time.
To turn it to your benefit, Phillip says "If parents interact with them during a show or if they want to watch, say Peppa Pig and they're doing the singing and dancing and interacting, that's completely different,"
"We just (also) need to make sure that we provide the opportunity for children to engage in their own play."
Do you think we rely too much on technology to keep our kids entertained?
Source: Daily Telegraph

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Vote for Alisha "Ms. Panther" for Best Boobs in the Business!
Hey Fans, This is Alisha Madison formerly Ms. Panther informing you that I have been recently nominated for my first Urban X Award! As you know, I have been in the business since 2005 under the name Ms. Panther. During that time I starred in over 75 movies.
In 2010, I changed my name and look and became Alisha Madison. I wanted a name that fit me, and was more universally accepted. However, despite a new look, I have managed to keep my breast full and firm.
Urban X took notice this year, and nominated me for Best Boobs in the Business. It is nice to get an award validating what I already felt I knew.
All jokes aside, I really appreciate this nomination, and have even created a video for my fans, and those who may not know me, so that they can also vote. Enjoy the video, and Vote for Me!
Alisha Madison
Alisha "Ms. Panther" Madison
Below is the YouTube video:
Vanna Bardot: The Girl with the Braces
Scarlett Mae: Making Sex Feel Natural
HardArt's Sexual Harassment Trailer
HardArt Announces Sexual Harassment
Love in the Digital Age ~ Reviewer Rated
Being a Pornstar
Sexual Harassment Trailer
HardArt Lauches Website
OneStone Hub
E11EVEN, Nova Win at ED Expo
HardArt Rejects Director Sally Forth
Stokely Cherry OTM
August Taylor MILF PoY Nom
Phoenix Divina Hooking
ED Expo Opening Party
Vickie Jay on VNALive
HardArt 3 Pic Deal
Iron Girls 6
Carmen Valentina NightMoves Nom
Dillion Harper at Expose
Texas, Monroe, Valentien to SEXPO
The Puppeteer
Urban X Voting Open
Brooklyn Chase in Madison
HardArt's Hypersexuals a Success!
TES Affiliate Conference
Jessica Johnson Hooking
Vote Olive Glass, NightMoves
Attn: Club Owners, Managers, Staff, Entertainers
2018 Inked Awards
Hard Art's Hypersexual
Johnson Hosts Urban X
Dee Wallace at Horrorfest
AirBnB Discriminates Against Sara Jay
Hard Art Shoots First
Holly Hendrix at Exxxotica
Karen Fisher at Exxxotica
Carmen Valentina at Exxxotica
DomCon Registration Opens
Luna Star at Exxxotica
Elvira Receives Price Award
BSF Media Welcomes Sabrina Deep
Jenevieve Hexxx Site Launch
Sex Expo NY 2018
Bush 7
Hard Art Signs Director
Pulse Inks Hard Art
New Studio: Hard Art
XRCO Changes Venue
The Roast of April O'Neil
McCullough, Rai on Inside
Morgan, Foxxx CoHo XRCO
Big Ass Rubdown ~ Reviewer Rated
Natasha Nice Free Agent
Holly Hendrix Self Booking
CDC: Undetectable HIV
2018 XRCO Nominees
Natasha Nice Gangbang
Amateur Introductions 26
2018 XRCO Awards Announced
Anal Violation of Bonnie Grey ~ Reviewer Rated
Eros, a Short Film
Lee Signs Victoria June
Maxine X Voted #1
Czernich Releases Heavy Rubber 37
Legal Panel: Weinstein, #MeToo
Consent Checklist
Nice Girls Swallow 10
Paradise Wins Best Condom
Paradise, Astroglide StorErotica Nom
Paradise Marketing New Website
Dennis Paradise Inducted
Lesson From Belle Knox
Scammer Warning!
Jenevieve Hexxx Antics
Thoughts About Bill Margold
Letters to Editor Section Index
Greg Lansky Announces Vixen.com
Star Studded: My Life in Porn
Reader Comments on Adult Industry
Carlos Batts Service Information
Lexi Love, Penn Jillette
Hollie Stevens Charity or Charade
Nick East Condom Comments
Sunday April 29
Grecco, Year of the Dragon
AVN Rapes Transsexuals
Past Haunts Frank Towers
Who is Jade Love
Looking for Pornstar Wife
Murder & Cannibalism
Alisha Madison: Best Boobs
Sunset Thomas On Ho-Merta
Update From Julie Meadows
Wants to Cut Off Penis
Bethany Sweet in Hustler Holiday Issue
Jasmine Tame in Sacramento
Daejha Milan Speaks Out
Racism in Porn Valley
Pason Wins Gold Medal
Dave Cummings on Super Bowl Opening
Open Letter from Jazella Moore & Scott Janke
Alicia Rio at Bare Bowling
Wild Child on E!
Email from Violet Milfhouse
Precious June A1 Model
Ricki Raxxx Coming to LA
Give Precious a Push
Michael Grecco, New Portraits
A Thought From Sunset Thomas
Jessica D'Vine at Love Ranch
Georgina Spelvin Sends Thanks
From Make Up Artist Stephanie
Precious at Glamourcon 08
Cleopatra Mardi Gras Thanks
Black Bra Movement
Sex-Positive Journalism Awards
Love Shack's Cornetta Comments on Fire
Holli Hills Available for Porn
Thanks For The Toys
Pornstar Violet Blue Changes Name


text: Gore Vidal adapted his biting and bitter political satire from his hit Broadway play. Franklin J. Schaffner directed and Haskell Wexler provided the sharp-edged cinematography. The story concerns the political back-biting and smear politics involved in a presidential election year scramble by potential presidential party nominees. Lee Tracy (in an Oscar-nominated performance and his final screen role) is Art Hockstader, a dying president who refuses to throw his support behind any of his party's presidential hopefuls. Hoping to get the nod as the party's presidential candidate is liberal do-gooder William Russell (Henry Fonda). His wife Alice (Margaret Leighton) wants to get a divorce from Russell but is delaying the divorce proceedings until after the party convention. Opposing Russell for the nomination is Joe Cantwell (Cliff Robertson), a slick and unscrupulous political monster who will use any bit of dirt to get ahead in the party. When he discovers that Russell once suffered from mental problems, he threatens to use it against him. Russell then finds out that Cantwell once had a homosexual relationship. Russell, who abhors smear politics, now has to decide whether to use the information against Cantwell or bury the secret and risk losing the nomination.~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide


text:
Xulon Press book Rising 100 Meditations, Affirmations and Prayers for Military Families | Michele P. Ellison, A.C.S.W., M.Div.
Xulon Press introduces Rising 100 Meditations, Affirmations and Prayers for Military Families by author Michele P. Ellison, A.C.S.W., M.Div. The Xulon Press bookstore provides an easy way to purchase this book using the link below, or you can find it at your local Christian bookstore.
Christian Music Videos
Inspirational Videos
Comedy Videos
Cute Videos
Today's Devotional
A Prayer for Gratitude and Thanksgiving - Your Daily Prayer - November 21, 2018
Top Music Videos
Christian News
The latest news and hot topics trending among Christian music, entertainment and faith life.
20 Comforting Bible Verses to Warm Your Heart
Comforting Bible Verses to Warm your Heart - Life can be truly overwhelming at times, as we all endure the unexpected setbacks and troubles natural to the human experience. We can look to our friends and family for support and encouragement. We can also turn to the word of God to comfort us in moments of distress. Scripture provides wisdom and insight gathered over thousands of years for us to now utilize in the modern era. May you find solace in this Collection of comforting Bible verses!


text:
Growing Up on Methamphetamines
Growing Up on Methamphetamines
This New York Times bestselling memoir of a young man's addiction to methamphetamine tells a raw, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful tale of the road from relapse to recovery.
Nic Sheff was drunk for the first time at age eleven. In the years that followed, he would regularly smoke pot, do cocaine and Ecstasy, and develop addictions to crystal meth and heroin. Even so, he felt like he would always be able to quit and put his life together whenever he needed to. It took a violent relapse one summer in California to convince him otherwise. In a voice that is raw and honest, Nic spares no detail in telling us the compelling, heartbreaking, and true story of his relapse and the road to recovery. As we watch Nic plunge into the mental and physical depths of drug addiction, he paints a picture for us of a person at odds with his past, with his family, with his substances, and with himself. It's a harrowing portrait—but not one without hope.
- Atheneum Books for Young Readers |
- 352 pages |
- January 2009 |
- Grades 9 and up
Reading Group Guide
What are some of the reasons that Nic gives for turning to drugs? What are his insecurities? In what ways do the drugs help him to escape these?
Is Nic happy when he is on drugs? Does he enjoy his life at these times? What does he mean when he calls his addiction a "horrible vicious cycle"?
When Nic relapses in LA in the second part of the book, what is his reason for using again? Were the other people in his life surprised that he relapsed? Was he? Did you see the relapse coming? Why or why not?
What does Nic want from his father? Why does his father react to Nic the way he does? How much do you think Nic's childhood relationship with his father contributed to his addiction?
What does it mean for Nic to give himself over to a higher power? Why is it so difficult for him to do this?
A number of the people in the book come close to dying -- Lauren ODs on heroin, Spencer gets meningitis, and Nic suffers through various overdoses and infections. How do these brushes with death affect Nic's outlook on life? Does he ever believe that any of these people are actually going to die? How does Nic react when Jordan really does die?
Discuss Nic's relationship with Zelda. Why is he so drawn to her? Why does everyone in Nic's life caution him against becoming involved with her? How does she contribute to his addiction? Is there anything healthy about their relationship?
What causes Nic to get help each time he see more


text:
TWO top tourism businesses from west Dorset have been celebrating this week after securing top gongs at the South West Tourism Awards ceremony.
Highlands End Holiday Park in Bridport picked up the gold award for holiday park of the year, and the Lyme Regis Tourist Information Centre collected the bronze award in the tourist service of the year category.
The awards were held at Plymouth's holiday Inn Hotel on Thursday, January 30, to celebrate and reward the great and the good of the tourism industry, with more than 350 entries deliberated over by the judges.
The shortlisted entries went through a rigorous selection process and were visited by a mystery shopper, before they were judged.
Robin Barker of Services for Tourism, who manages the awards programme, said: "After 10 months of work, this year's awards are finally drawing to a close. "The event is just a small part of it all – the major tasks being liaising with business, managing the judging and helping our best get even better.
"Very many thanks to all concerned – the sponsors, judges and entrants. It's great working with such an enlightened group."
There were a total of 66 winners on the night, Both Highlands End Holiday Park and Lyme Regis Tourist Information Centre will now go on to represent the area at the National Enjoy England Awards for Excellence, to be held in May, ensuring West Dorset will have a strong presence at the national tourism finals.
A special award for outstanding contribution to tourism was also awarded to the South West Coast Path, for helping to attract tourists into the town to enjoy the scenic walks.
Mark Owen, National Trail Officer for the South West Coast Path, said: "We are absolutely delighted with it."
There were multiple winners across the county, Launceston Farm Bed and Breakfast in Blandford Forum, Greenwood Grange in Dorset both also scooping bronze awards in their respective categories.
Picking up silver in their respective categories were Dorset Seafood Festival in Weymouth, National Trust Brownsea Island, Eastbury Hotel in Sherborne and Morton's House Hotel in Corfe Castle.
John Crouch, Marketing Manager for Title Sponsors, Source for Business, said: "The Tourism Awards once again demonstrate how impressively the tourism sector is delivering a great visitor experience in the south west.
"What is especially pleasing is how businesses are embracing sustainability and particularly water efficiency."


text:
Australian Police To Go Wardriving, Telling People To Lock Up Their WiFi
from the but,-why? dept
Detective Superintendent Brian Hay said police have identified a large number of homes and businesses within the greater Brisbane area with wireless connections that are not secure or have limited protection. These people may as well put their bank account details, passwords and personal details on a billboard on the side of the highway.Except that's really not necessarily true. Banks and most sites that require passwords have long known to make use of SSL encryption. It's not perfect, but it's not posting your password on a billboard on the side of the highway by a long shot.
"Unprotected or unsecured wireless networks are easy to infiltrate and hack. Criminals can then either take over the connection and commit fraud online or steal the personal details of the owner. This is definitely the next step in identity fraud."That could be true in some cases, but it's not absolutely true, and plenty of people can be perfectly safe using open WiFi with a few common sense precautions. It's sad that the police would exaggerate like this.


text:
Meeting Coverage
2004 Is History
this issue of the Bulletin, we take a look at some of the
fun and some of the work that wrapped up 2004 for ASIS&T and
its members.
ASIS&T Award Winners
Each year at the ASIS&T Annual Meeting, the Society honors the winners of the prestigious ASIS&T Annual Awards. This years winners received their accolades at the Awards Luncheon and at other venues during the meeting. Nominated by practitioners and scholars throughout the information field and selected by juries of their peers, dozens of outstanding representatives of the field were cited for the highest levels of contributions in their selected specialties.
Award of Merit
Howard White has made fundamental and profound contributions to the field
of information science continuously and persistently over
decades, not only to the fields core, but also to the
interdisciplinary frontiers. Howard is one of the most original
and inventive minds in information. His recent work is both
empirically innovative and philosophically deep. He is driven by
an enjoyment of conducting research and by the commitment to
making things useful for readers.
The solid research and detailed
analysis presented in his papers convincingly show that Howard
is a talented researcher and thinker, a visionary and an
innovator. He has continuously brought new ideas, techniques and
methods to our field. He invented several methods of author
co-citation analysis in the early 1980s and has since developed
new methods and tools for author-citation analysis (ACA).
The 1998 White-McCain study (Best JASIST
Paper Award, 1998) is among a handful of information science
works that has overcome the disciplinary barrier. The study is
an exemplar of many kinds, with rigorous scholarship and
craftsmanship that delineate clearly so a reader outside the
field can understand. Howards work has raised the awareness
and visibility of the field of information science to a level
that productive and interdisciplinary communications become
possible and are, in fact, taking place.
has labored productively in a number of areas. He has
contributed to reference work, domain analysis, evaluation and
performance of retrieval systems, collection evaluation, on-line
searching methods, librarianship and more. His recent studies on
bibliometrics and social network analysis are seminal and will
be quoted for years to come.
Howard Whites research best exemplifies the
traditions, topical concerns and academic standards of the field
of information science. The Award of Merit is a fitting
acknowledgement of the distinctiveness and heft of Howard
Whites contributions to the field.
Special Award
The American Society for Information Science and
Technology is pleased to honor Sir Timothy Berners-Lee,
KBE, with the prestigious ASIS&T Special Award. The founder
of the World Wide Web joins a distinguished list of prior
winners of the Special Award, including such luminaries as Isaac
Asimov (1968); Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey (1978); Al Gore (1991),
for his work in shepherding the government's release of the
Internet as a distributed, open access system; Bob Kahn and Vint
Cerf (1993), for their work in developing the Internet
protocols; and Douglas Engelbart (1996) for his lifetime work in
augmenting human intelligence. A citation honoring
Berners-Lee reads as follows:
one goal espoused by the founders of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology was to promote the spread of
scholarly information so it was available universally, and
Whereas the World Wide Web is today and tomorrow's
"lingua franca" for a growing amount of scholarly
information and research; and
the American Society for Information Science and Technology
hereby bestows its Special Award on Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, KBE,
in recognition of his unprecedented work in fathering the World
Wide Web, and his work in maintaining the Web universal document
identifiers, as open source, royalty-free, platform independent,
and governed with distributed authority.
2004 Watson Davis Award, commemorating the founder of the
Society and given to members for outstanding continuous
contributions and dedicated service to the Society, is presented
to Joseph Busch, former ASIS&T president and founder
of Taxonomy Strategies.
Joseph has contributed to the Society in numerous ways. He has been involved with a number of SIGs (including AH, CR, HCI, KM and USE) as both a member and an officer; he served on the SIG Cabinet Steering Committee; and he won the SIG Member-of-the-Year award in 1992. He was an active member of the Los Angeles Chapter of ASIS&T for many years contributing through program planning and new member activities.
Joseph served as an ASIS&T director-at-large from 1994 to 1996 and was elected in 2000 as president-elect, succeeding to the presidency in 2001. He was the chair of the technical program committee for the 1997 Annual Meeting and has presented papers, served on panels and moderated sessions at a number of ASIS&T meetings throughout the years of his membership.
Joseph has most recently served on both the project team selecting and implementing the Society's new member records management system and on the ASIS&T Digital Library design and implementation task force.
Joseph is a tireless ambassador for the Society when meeting with students and new members and is always focused on the people who make up the membership. He has been described as the heart and soul of the Society and his contributions as wide-ranging and steadfast. The Society is very pleased to recognize Joseph Busch for all of his dedicated service by awarding him the Watson Davis Award for 2004.
Research in Information
Science Award
W. Boyd Rayward, the
winner of the 2004 ASIS&T Award for Research in Information
Science, is noted for his pioneering work investigating the
development of the International Institute of
Bibliography/International Federation of Information and
Documentation and the role of Paul Otlet. His work has
significantly improved our understanding of the many connections
between the early years of information science and current
issues and research problems, revealing important developments
and ideas that would otherwise remain unknown to contemporary
researchers and practitioners. He has provided a much richer
intellectual history for present-day theory and practice in
information science and technology. He has fostered the work of
other researchers in the history of information science and
technology through his leadership in organizing conferences on
History and Heritage of Science Information Systems, editing
issues of IEEE Annals of
the History of Computing on the history of library
automation (upcoming as part of an ASIS&T monograph he is
editing) and a
recent issue of Library
Trends on pioneers in LIS, and mentoring
students in their pursuit of historical research in information
science and technology.
Thomson ISI/ASIS&T
Outstanding Information Science Teacher
Don Cleveland,
his major contribution to the field of information science has
been his leadership role in developing the interdisciplinary
information science program at the
Best Information Science
Book Award
A History of
Online Information Services 1963-1976 (published by MIT Press,
2003), by Charles P. Bourne and Trudi
Bellardo Hahn, is, according to the award jury, a
landmark achievement based on a prodigious amount of research
over many years... it is doubtful this book will ever be
superseded. The topic is of central interest to ASIS&T. It
is a model of its kind. We should be grateful that it has
This book provides a rich narrative of the early
development of online information retrieval systems and services
during a period important to anyone who uses a search engine,
online catalog or large database. Drawing on personal
experience, extensive research and interviews with many of the
key participants, the book describes the individuals, projects
and institutions of the period. It also corrects common errors
and misconceptions and provides milestones for many significant
developments in online systems and technology.
John Wiley & Sons Best JASIST
Paper Award
The 2004 John Wiley & Sons Best JASIST Paper
Award goes to Cecelia Brown for The
Role of Electronic Preprints in Chemical Communication: Analysis
of Citation, Usage, and Acceptance in the Journal Literature
(Volume 54, Issue 5, March 2003; pp. 362-371).
Jurors found the paper to be a carefully executed and
well-presented study of the many factors that influence
information seeking. The paper documents the conflict between
chemists' use and perception of the value of the Chemistry
Preprint Server and editors' hesitation to allow publication of
papers previously submitted to an e-print server and citation to
e-prints. This work should advance thinking about a complex
situation that eventually implicates the whole social structure
of the refereeing/publishing system.
James M. Cretsos Leadership Award
The 2004 James M. Cretsos Leadership Award, honoring new
ASIS&T members who have demonstrated outstanding leadership
qualities in ASIS&T activities, is given to two deserving
members: Stacy Surla and
Tom Terrell.
Tom Terrell is recognized
for his service
to ASIS&T in a variety of national and local capacities.
Among his accomplishments and contributions thus far have been
participating in national and chapter meetings; helping to found
SIG/Digital Libraries and serving as chair; serving on the
ASIS&T Leadership Development Committee, the Leadership
Award Jury, the Information Science Education Committee and the
UMI/ProQuest Doctoral Dissertation Award Jury; continuous
participation in the Florida ASIS&T chapter, serving as
chair-elect/chair; and organizing the ASIS&T student chapter
at the University of South Florida where he continues to serve
as chapter faculty advisor. Toms good humor and enthusiasm
make any activity in which he is involved more fun for others.
Stacy Surla, a
valued member of the Potomac Valley Chapter, is honored for her
service to ASIS&T in both national and local chapter
meetings; her production of the 2004
IA Summit website; chairing the 2005 IA Summit program; service
as a founding member of the DC Information Architects (DCIA), a
local chapter of the ASIS&T IA SIG; and for team leadership
in planning and creating the redesigned ASIS&T website.
Stacy excels at motivating and leading project teams to the
timely and effective accomplishment of goals while keeping all
team members involved, and she is recognized for her
organization, communication and leadership skills, her pleasant
demeanor that allows others to enjoy themselves, and for
recruiting participants in IA Summit meetings to become members
of ASIS&T.
Thomson ISI/ASIS&T
Citation Analysis Research Grant
Texas Tech University, is the winner of the 2004 Thomson ISI/ASIS&T
Citation Analysis Research Grant for his proposal entitled,
Nature and Persistence of Corrected Journal Literature in the
Field of Chemistry, a context analysis of retracted/corrected
chemical literature.
This project will extend knowledge into additional
subject areas and will yield useful insights. While limited in
scope, the project is practical and doable. Hubbard has the
content knowledge to conduct the study, which will involve a
significant amount of work in collecting and classifying the
particular data set, as well as classifying the citations to
those items.
Thomson ISI/ASIS&T Doctoral Dissertation
Proposal Scholarship
Meng Yang has shown commendable courage and creativity in
her choice of research topic. She has taken relevance, a core
concept in information science, and given it a contemporary
twist by using it to study video, one of the most pervasive and
influential forms of current human expression. Ms. Yang's
research will investigate how people make relevance judgments
when they search video. She proposes to identify the criteria
they apply and the factors that influence these criteria using a
combination of qualitative research methods.
She has crafted a well-reasoned, articulate and
persuasive plan of research for her dissertation that augurs
well for her successful completion. Her meticulous attention to
data collection and analysis using multiple methods to ensure
reliability and validity, her clear and detailed articulation of
her proposed research, her balanced understanding of the likely
contributions of her work, her impressive record of research and
publication that deepened her expertise in the area all combined
to convince jurors that Meng Yang is indeed a worthy recipient
of this honor.
ProQuest/ASIS&T Doctoral Dissertation Award
Björneborn, Royal School of Library and
The paper is creative in its topic, scholarly in
its approach and well written. It provides a foundation for
research and development in the indexing and representation of
oral histories and similar rich, descriptive, narrative
information resources in a format that can be easily integrated
into digital libraries.
For the sixth year in a row, the Los Angeles Chapter
of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
(LACASIS) was named ASIS&T Chapter-of-the-Year,
sharing the honor for the second year in a row with the Southern
Ohio Chapter of ASIS&T (SOASIST).
LACASIS places a high premium on recruiting. Each
year the chapter appoints a coordinator for membership
recruitment, welcome and retention. After each chapter meeting
or event, the coordinator sends letters to all potential members
who participated in some way. In addition, the chapter reaches
out to potential student members with the appointment of a
student chapter coordinator who, along with other LACASIS board
members, visits library and information student events, such as
career fairs, professional association days and resume
workshops. Students are recruited as volunteers for the Annual
Fall Workshop and in return receive free workshop registration.
The chapter also sponsors a student scholarship competition,
which awards travel to an ASIS&T Annual Meeting and student
memberships in ASIS&T.
This year SOASIST was determined to
leverage its funds for the benefit of not only its current
membership, but for the wider community as well. To that end,
the chapter hosted a free seminar on the USA Patriot Act,
presented by Thomas S. Blanton. Because the chapter leaders
believed it important to inform as much of the public as
possible of the implications of the Patriot Act, the meeting was
supported by a well-planned publicity campaign to encourage
attendance and facilitate dialogue on the topic. SOASIST also
collaborates on programs with other organizations in its area,
allowing it to reach a broader audience and make effective use
of their resources. The chapter also posts HTML/PDF slides of
most of the past programs. The enthusiasm and leadership of this
chapter are very evident, making SOASIST a chapter on the move,
as the newsletter motto so aptly states.
Student Chapter-of-the-Year
For the second year in a
row, and for the sixth time since 1992, the University of
Washington Student Chapter of ASIS&T is the winner of Student
Chapter-of-the-Year honors for 2004. The chapter presented
an impressive annual report for the equally impressive
activities and events they organized in the past year.
chapter had a net increase of 59 members as a result of a
variety of recruitment and retention activities, in addition to
their technical programs. Among their recruitment activities
were social welcome events for incoming and distance-learning
students and a free membership and several scholarships
(co-sponsored with the school and local chapter) to students for
attending the national and Pacific Northwest annual meetings.
the year, the chapter hosted a wide range of activities,
including programs, workshops and discussions on such topics as
the Library Online Resource Analysis (LORA) system, CSS,
Photoshop, FrontPage, project management and Bliss
Chapter Member-of-the-Year
Nicole McNeeley
Kallas of the Potomac Valley Chapter is the 2004 winner of the ASIS&T
Chapter Member-of-the-Year Award recognizing the service of an
individual to a particular chapter.
During the past two years, Nicole Kallas has actively
worked to grow the Potomac Valley Chapter. She has organized
programs that serve the interests of PVC members, increasing
program attendance significantly; she developed a website,
served as chapter officer, hosted a major fundraiser and
involved new members in chapter activities. She brings all the
qualities that will ensure the future for the Potomac Valley
Chapter: leadership and initiative, enthusiasm, follow-though on
all promises, creativity in programming, and, at the same time,
appreciation for the chapters history and traditions. Her
successful and inspiring efforts to reinvigorate the Potomac
Valley Chapter are applauded by ASIS&T.
Chapter Event-of-the-Year
Two ASIS&T chapters share 2004 Chapter
Event-of-the-Year honors: The Los
Angeles Chapter (LACASIS) for its 2003 Fall Workshop and the Potomac Valley Chapter (PVC) for a program on taxonomy.
The 2003 LACASIS Fall Workshop, "Database-Driven
Technology," provided an opportunity to learn basic
techniques and to view applications of exciting new applications
of web-based technology. Speakers included industry
professionals and representatives from academic, corporate and
public institutions. More than 100 attendees from information
organizations of all types throughout California and Arizona
were in attendance. As one of the jurors enthusiastically
remarked, "The Los Angeles Chapter does a masterful job of
designing and implementing programming."
The Potomac Valley Chapter presented "Taxonomy and Metadata Strategies for Effective Content Management," providing real-world examples of how the right taxonomy can organize content so users can find the right information at the right time to solve the problem at hand. More than 80 people registered for the program, featuring Joseph Busch, former ASIS&T president and founder of Taxonomy Strategies (and winner of the 2004 ASIS&T Watson Davis Award). He demonstrated the re-use of existing vocabulary sources to create company-specific taxonomies and debunked many myths, including the myth that taxonomy creation and descriptive cataloging cant be done by mere mortals. The Potomac Valley Chapter provided its constituents a highly entertaining and educational program on a timely topic.
Chapter Electronic Publication-of-the-Year
(Observations of the American Society for Information Science
and Technology), the newsletter of the Los Angeles Chapter, and
the website of the Southern Ohio Chapter of ASIS&T (SOASIST)
are the recipients of the 2004 Chapter Electronic Publication-of-the-Year Award.
OASIS, the electronic newsletter of the Los Angeles Chapter, has
been published since fall 2003 exclusively as an electronic
publication. OASIS is a true electronic publication as
all facets of its creation submissions, coordination,
layout, editing, distribution utilize various forms of
electronic communication and media. Electronic publication of
the newsletter has provided significant cost savings to the
chapter and has decreased production time of each issue.
Creating OASIS in electronic format has allowed its
distribution to grow, effectively educating a wider audience
about activities within information science. It is a beautifully
designed and organized website, from its muted, cool colors
which are easy on the eyes to the good navigational links and
its timely and relevant content for chapter members.
The SOASIST website provides a clean entry point to
excellent resources, including listservs, newsletters, events
and PowerPoint presentations. The job lists and event
notification forms are particularly useful. Much thought has
gone into the design and maintenance of the site in order to
keep it simple, yet elegant and up-to-date. The site is a great
portal for interesting and relevant resources.
Recognized for its significant contributions to the
Society in programming, collaborative opportunities, member
participation and leadership, Special Interest
Group/Scientific and Technical Information Systems (SIG/STI)
is the winner of the 2004 SIG-of-the-Year Award. Among the
activities for which SIG/STI was cited was its partnership with
the New England Chapter of ASIS&T in the production of the
successful DASER Summit, the first cooperative effort of its
kind between a SIG and a chapter. In addition, the jury noted
that SIG/STI had been active in the sponsorship of program
sessions and in recruitment efforts at ASIS&T Annual
Meetings. The jury commended the entire membership of SIG/STI
and gave special commendation to SIG chair Ann Eagan, Northern
Arizona University, for her leadership during the year.
Sought for 2005 Awards
With the conclusion of the 2004 ASIS&T awards process, the juries and committees responsible for the awards in 2005 immediately go to work. Deadlines for this years nominations begin popping up as early as April. All members are encouraged to review the information regarding the purpose and the nomination procedure for all ASIS&T awards and to consider nominating colleagues throughout the information profession to be recognized with one of the prestigious ASIS&T awards.
Complete awards information can be found on the ASIS&T website at www.asis.org.
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Information Science and Technology


text:
When considering which bank to use in NYC, students (and parents) should think about bank chains that are located in their hometown first and then close to where their student will be living while at NYU. As students will only live around Washington Square their first year, a branch that has multiple locations in the city will be the most convenient in the long run. Also, a bank in the student's hometown and in New York City allows even more convenience for parents to make deposits and assist with transactions when the student returns home during the summer and holidays.
That being said, most of the major national bank chains in the city have a number of branches and ATM lobbies throughout the city. Almost all offer free checking to students with an NYU ID Card or Admissions Acceptance Letter.
For branch and ATM locations, please click on the following bank links and enter either an address or zip code. NYU buildings are located primarily within the 10012 and 10003 zip codes:
You can also do a Google search of businesses by bank name or zip code for banks within a certain area.
The New York University Credit Union (NYU FCU) is a not-for-profit financial institution that was established in 1982 to serve the New York University community. Faculty, staff, students, alumni, and their family members are all eligible to become members. All that's required to establish membership is $50 in a Share Savings account. Click for more . . .
The Student Link Center offers an emergency personal check cashing service to NYU students enrolled in credit courses. This service is not available to SPS Non-Credit students The following check cashing policies apply:
Note: The information provided on the Money Management pages are intended to assist students with financialeducation resources and information. NYU does not have an affiliation with any of the external websites for which links are provided, nor specifically endorses any credit, banking, or other financial products.


text:
|2012-11-06, 19:17
|Link #2761
Join Date: Feb 2010
I don't know what to think of Alicitization yet since it hasn't been fully translated yet, but GGO and Mother's Rosario are clear indications of the writing gradually improving.
The problem I have with SAO is that its flow is all over the map. By book order (meaning Day 1 > Floor 74 in an instant) you get an enormous time skip that leaves half of Kirito's motivations undefined and makes Asuna's relationship seem almost out of thin air. And then the story ends incredibly abruptly. With the side stories, the Liz and Silica ones could be considered unimportant to the main plot, but the Sachi and Yui ones are absolutely vital to Kirito's background and motivations.
My problem with ALO is that almost none of the events until Yggrasil actually make a difference regarding the conclusion. Rather, most of it is just an enormous setup for wincest until Asuna gets rescued. There's supposed to be the sub plot of Sigurd being a jerk, and the quest reward of getting help with the endgame...but there's never a sense that any of it actually matters. Heck, the Tonkii segment is pointless on its own until Caliber SS...other than stirring up wincest of course. Even Asuna's little escapade serves to do little more than exist as the exposition of the big bad's plans. Then the game concludes, and everyone from ALO except Lyfa and Tonkii basically stop existing apart from random side mentions.
|2012-11-07, 13:21
|Link #2765
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Real world
The price of SAO Volume 11 is set at 578 yen by Dengeki Bunko recently.
My previous projection was that Volume 11 might include Chapter 5 to first part of Chapter 7. This projection would bring this volume to 400+ pages but seeing that Volume 11 will not be as thick, I have to discard this projection.
Now, I have three possibilities in my mind:
One, Chapter 5 and 6 with more original contents never seen in web version.
Two, Chapter 5 up to first part of Chapter 7, just like in my previous projection but Kawahara may stop at one point much earlier than my projection.
Three, Chapter 5 and the first part of Chapter 7, skipping Chapter 6 for later.
Despite that, no matter which scenarioes we get, Chapter 5 will be in Volume 11 for sure. No doubt about that.
And a few more days later on 10th November, Volume 11 cover illustration will be revealed. Who will get to accompany Kirito in the cover illustration? Make your guess.
Spoiler for My guess:
|2012-11-07, 14:34
|Link #2766
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Chile
On my part, I guess that I like, in order (separated by coma), SAO volume 1 (the Gleameyes battle was awesome because of Dual Blade) Fairy Dance 1 and Phantom Bullet 1 and 2 (Kirito awesomeness, and the final battles against Eugene and XaXa), Fairy Dance 2 (because it reunited my favorite pair ever, and the scene in which Kirito sees the Black Swordsman and The Flash reflected on the window), Alicization (the theme is too awesome, even if it's not over), Caliber SS and Mother Rosario (the Skills Outside the system are cool, but the stories themselves don't stir me as much as the others)
... Oh to hell with this, almost the whole LN is awesome
|2012-11-09, 03:15
|Link #2769
Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2012
In that case, volume 11 cover should be the two girls introduced at the end of volume 10.
|2012-11-09, 05:36
|Link #2770
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Real world
Volume 11 afterword:
But I see you may have a point that my third scenerio has higher chance after reading the above quotes.
|2012-11-09, 12:43
|Link #2772
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Real world
FINALLY, Volume 11 cover revealed.
Guess I just got only half the answer right then.
If it was just me but wow....this cover looks so awesome. The two girls under abec's hands look so pretty. And Kirito looks very much matured if compared with Progressive 1 cover. He's a man now. This might be one of my favourite covers of the whole series for me.
|2012-11-09, 16:23
|Link #2776
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Brazil
kirito so coool and mature really c'me here 10th december you beuty *0*
|2012-11-09, 18:00
|Link #2777
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Cairo, Egypt
Age: 23
|action, gaming, harem, kirito, non-harem, romance, shounen, tragedy, virtual reality
|Thread Tools


text:
|The start of a new year brings hope to everyone. Let's look forward to a new year filled with health, peace and prosperity for all!
The housing market in Saskatoon should balance itself out in 2015. Resale activity is expected to increase with a slight rise in values throughout the year. New housing starts are expected to moderate in 2015.
If you are thinking of selling or buying real estate in the Saskatoon area this year, please give me a call at 306-280-3330. I would be happy to answer your questions.
Sign In
Save and Track Your Favourite Properties


text: Create a warm and welcoming entrance with halogen light bulbs. Halogen lamps have higher color temperatures than incandescent lamps, and produce a brighter and whiter light ideal for illuminating entryways and foyers. They are also 20 percent more efficient and last longer than standard incandescent bulbs. Halogen bulbs are available in wide range of shapes – capsule, double ended, reflector, and single ended bulbs for indoor and outdoor applications. Halogen reflectors bulbs are the perfect choice for track lighting.


text:
Google Introduces Binary Encoding Format: Protocol Buffers
- Share
- |
Read later
Reading List
- an IDL to describe data formats
- a binary encoding scheme to encode formats described in the IDL
- data binding support using code generators, with Google providing C++, Python, Java implementations
The IDL allows to describe data formats, here is an example from the Protocol Buffers project page:
message Person {The numbers ("tags") assigned to the field names need to be specified explicitly to allow the formats to evolve. If they were automatically assigned, a change to the format - say inserting a new field - would cause trouble. Why? Because in the binary format, tags are used to describe what field (in the protocol description) a particular chunk of bytes is. Together with the rule that unknown tags are ignored, explicitly assigned tag numbers allow to add new fields as the format evolves, yet retain compatibility.
required int32 id = 1;
required string name = 2;
optional string email = 3;
To use the format descriptions, stored in .proto files, they're compiled into source code. Google's release comes with support for C++, Python and Java. Support for other languages is also becoming available, eg. Ruby, Erlang, Perl, Haskell, and others. Everyone interested in adding support for another language will appreciate the reverse engineered grammar of the .proto files as EBNF.
Language support means that .proto files are turned into code in the target language, consisting of classes that map to the formats defined in the .proto files. With this, it's possible to get an object from a binary, modify the object's fields and serialize the state back to the binary format.
As is usual with new Google projects, the release of Protocol Buffers caused quite a stir, with a lot of blog posts devoted to it. The release post on Google's blog explained the reason for Protocol Buffers, and mentioned that XML would be very inefficient as an encoding format. This caused a storm of blog posts - either arguing that Protocol Buffers would mean the end of XML or arguing that Protocol Buffers were inferior to XML. Ted Neward gives an explanation of the situation, with this conclusion:
In the end, if you want an endpoint that is loosely coupled and offers the maximum flexibility, stick with XML, either wrapped in a SOAP envelope or in a RESTful envelope as dictated by the underlying transport (which means HTTP, since REST over anything else has never really been defined clearly by the Restafarians). If you need a binary format, then Protocol Buffers are certainly one answer... but so is ICE, or even CORBA (though this is fast losing its appeal thanks to the slow decline of the players in this space). Don't lose sight of the technical advantages or disadvantages of each of those solutions just because something has the Google name on it.With all the comparisons to XML or JSON, it's easy to miss that Protocol Buffers are a reimplementation of existing technologies. Next to the already mentioned ones, a widely used competing technology is ASN.1, which seems to be somewhat obscure and little known despite being several decades old. This is peculiar if you look at a small sample of the formats that are described in ASN.1:
- X.509 certificates (used for PKI in many systems, including SSL)
- Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS) for email cryptography
- PKCS#1 for RSA keys
- 3G phone networks
Another technology similar to Google's Protocol Buffers is Facebook's Thrift, which works in a similar way (see side by side comparison of Protocol Buffers and Thrift. A less successful technology is Binary XML which has been pondered in the XML scene for a very long time but hasn't really arrived yet. In response to questions about Protocol Buffers in, Erlang's creator Joe Armstrong mentioned UBF as binary format for programs that doesn't require parsing.
The common goal of these technologies is to improve efficiency. It's possible to argue that the amount of data, sent over a wire, doesn't matter because compression can help with data size. However: compression/decompression is an extra step that has to be performed after/before using the data - the actual parsing process still uses the larger amount of data. In the case of XML this means repeatedly reading the same element tags over and over - compare this to the numeric tags of, say Protocol Buffers. Of course - this improvement depends on the actual format. A format that consists of mostly strings will not benefit as much as a format made up of mostly numeric data.
Mark Pilgirm also put together a list of reactions to Protocol Buffer. Another aspect of Protocol Buffers mentioned in a comment by a Google employee on Steve Vinoski's blog, although it's supposedly in heavy used inside Google.
Have you been in a situation where you considered a binary format for efficiency reasons? If yes - did you roll your own or did you use an existing technology?
Rate this Article
Hello stranger!You need to Register an InfoQ account or Login or login to post comments. But there's so much more behind being registered.
Get the most out of the InfoQ experience.
Tell us what you think
Should have adopted SDO
mani doraisamy
Two more !!!
siva prasanna kumar P
The three most important characteristics which are must for any good data format are data structure, data types and data constraints.
According to me currently only XML has all the three. I am not aware of any other format which has all these characteristics and widely accepted.
All big shops have are sick with "Not invented here"
Slava Imeshev
Or, maybe, this a key to innovation? Reinvent 100 wheels and 101st will be another big thing?
Slava Imeshev
Cacheonix: Clustered Java Cache
Re: All big shops have are sick with
Slava Imeshev
Slava Imeshev
Cacheonix: Clustered Java Cache
Adobe's AMF
Jim Greer
Re: All big shops have are sick with
Nikita Ivanov
Nikita Ivanov.
GridGain - Grid Computing Made Simple
Performance doubts
Jimmy zhang


text:
EDITORIAL: Outside groups taint Michigan's history
The Rotunda of the Michigan State Capitol Building in Lansing is encircled with the battle flags of regiments that answered Abraham Lincoln's call to arms during the American Civil War and went on to cover themselves with glory on the not-so-distant battlefields in places such as Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta and hundreds of other places.
The Michigan soldiers who answered Lincoln's call never ran, and they were almost always victorious as they established a record of valor that has echoed down through the years.
Michigan cavalrymen liberated thousands of slaves all across the South and doing so, they carried on the state's already distinguished and humane political traditions that had already made it beacon of liberty for the common man.
Michigan was one of the first political societies anywhere in the world to outlaw capital punishment after the authorities made the mistake of hanging an innocent man. All across Oakland County there are places where the Michigan resident hid runaway slaves fleeing southern oppression. Michigan, in contrast to its southern neighbors -- where blacks were forbidden to learn to read or write, -- was in the forefront of public education and extending higher education to the sons and daughters of ordinary citizens.
Diego Rivera's monumental and inspiring murals, with a tribute to Michigan's industrial workers, grace the wall of the Detroit Institute of Arts.
The state can also lay claim to being the birthplace of Lincoln's Republican Party and the place where Henry Ford initiated the $5-a-day pay scale, raising wages of ordinary factory workers. Sit-down strikers in Flint, Detroit and Hamtramck fought for a better life and a share of the wealth they had created. Michigan was the heart of the "Arsenal of Democracy" that crushed Hitler.
Martin Luther King gave one of his famous "I have a dream" speeches in Detroit.
Few places on earth can claim to have played a larger role in elevating the common man from the tyranny of monarchy and royalty or lifting the twin curses of ignorance and poverty.
Thus, it is most distressing when outside groups, with no respect for the history and struggles of Michigan residents, use a lame-duck session of the Legislature to ram through a series of changes that are clearly inspired by the anti-democratic philosophies that permeated the old confederacy in a host of areas from public education to labor rights and health care.
The values of outside groups like Americans for Prosperity are not the values of decency and respect that have resonated throughout Michigan's proud political history, which has served as a beacon for all of mankind as it has worked to free itself from want and tyranny.


text:
Museum Shop
Swirl Stars
Item # swirl-stars
KA-BOOOOM! The Universe began about 15 billion years ago with a tremendous explosion called the "Big Bang." We've captured a miniature Big Bang explosion in this package of stars. When you open it you can transform your ceiling or wall into a universe complete with glowing galaxies and dazzling constellations!
Contains 30 plastic glow-in-the-dark stars and adhesive putty.


text:
Zumax 950 Watt X4 Review
As enthusiasts, we want to make sure that our latest build will have an adequate amount of power to cover the devices we plan to use to complete the system. If you cruise any enthusiast site's forums (preferably OverclockersClub) you will see no end of problems associated with inadequate power supplies. So how much is really enough when it comes down to choosing a power supply? 500 watts? 600, 700, 900 or more? The choice comes down to the number of devices consuming power in your build. If you are building an e-mail and gaming "lite" computer for the family, which features a single hard drive, mainstream discrete graphics card and not a whole lot else, then 500 watts or less will do the trick for that build. Now if you are building that high end rig with dual video cards, four hard drives, a water cooled Quad core processor, as well as a ton of high RPM fans, then 500 watts just wont cut the mustard.
The Zumax 950 watt power supply I will be testing today is part of the X4 linup of power supplies produced by Zumax. The X4 line includes power supplies from 750 watts the 1050 watts. The X4 950 features six +12v lines at 20 amps each, one 5v rail at 28 amps and the 3.3volt line at 28 amps as well. So will the 950 watts advertised by the Zumax X4 950 be able to stand up to a load and provide the power we all want? Let's find out.
Closer Look:
The Zumax X4 950 watt power supply comes in a flashy box with all of the necessary information about the unit integrated into all sides of the package. The front panel illustrates the X4 950 and highlights all of the specs. SLI-Multi GPU support and multi core CPU support are listed front and center. The rear panel mimics the front, minus a few specifications.
The left hand side panel highlights connectivity options and touches on the "Turbo fan switch" and included cable straps. The right hand panel lists the specifications of each power supply in the X4 lineup, including connectivity options.
The Zumax X4 is well packed to prevent any shipping damage. The power supply is enclosed in bubble wrap, protecting the finish. The rest of the contents are strategically placed to fill in the gaps.
Shipped with the Zumax 950 are a power cord, velcro cable ties, a detailed manual and a set of cable connector caps.
The protective cable end caps are pliable enough to fit over the end of the connection to seal out dust when not being used. They are included for the 6-pin PCI-E, 4-pin molex and SATA power lines.


text:
Foehn & Hirsch Portable WiFi Internet Radio (Black) £43.57 delivered at Ebuyer
The F&H Pocket Size Internet & FM Radio allows you to enjoy over 12,000 radio stations from all over the world. You can sort stations by region, by country and even by genre. Within seconds, you could listen to a pop station in Paris, or BBC news in the United Kingdom. Follow your home town sports team wherever you are and wherever they are. Plus, the list of radio stations is automatically updated every time you turn it on. And with FM reception, you can even listen to local radio stations. Personalise your F&H radio with custom station lists, built using a web portal. With 15 hours of operation time, you'll be able to amaze your friends all day. Simple wheel navigation makes it easy to get around the device, and the 3.5in headphone jack makes the F&H radio compatible with all the headphones and speakers you already own!