The Look Of Fashion F95 - World-of-Newave.info http://answers.world-of-newave.info/the-look-of-fashion-f95.htm Latest news and articles about The Look Of Fashion F95 en-us Copyright (c)2004-2008.§/Newave SARL. All rights reserved. webmaster@world-of-newave.com (Webmaster) Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:37:28 GMT Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:37:28 GMT Newave Lisa XML Engine v1.0 - http://www.world-of-newave.info/about.htm 60 http://www.world-of-newave.info/images/wi8831.gif World-of-Newave.info - Knowledge and Informational Database http://www.world-of-newave.info/ 88 31 {NORTH AMERICA > RENTALS} - Large Bedroom and Full Bath Available in NEWER Apartment (laurel hts / presidio) $1200 http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/business-and-economy/real-estate/rentals/large-bedroom-and-full-bath-available-in-newer-apartment-20080816416.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/business-and-economy/real-estate/rentals/large-bedroom-and-full-bath-available-in-newer-apartment-20080816416.htm Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:14:06 GMT 23 year old professional female looking for a fun, clean, and respectful roommate! One large bedroom and full bath available in this Laurel Heights condo. The bedroom is very spacious with large windows and a full length mirrored closet. Very large, spacious apartment with an updated kitchen including granite counters and dishwasher. Common areas are Kitchen, Dining Room, Living Room, and Hallway. One parking spot also available included in rent price and lots of street parking available around the building. Coin laundry available downstairs. The building has about 20 units and there is a shared deck downstairs, as well as roof top access which provides views across the city and Bay. I am looking for someone else who is also a young professional or recent graduate who is reliable and responsible, but also fun. An interest in fashion or sports is definitely a plus! If you are interested, please email me. Photos available upon request. Look forward to hearing from you! Sfbay.Craigslist.Org Large Bedroom and Full Bath Available in NEWER Apartment (laurel hts / presidio) $1200 {new window}   Sfbay.Craigslist.Org - 23 year old professional female looking for a fun, clean, and respectful roommate! One large bedroom and full bath available in this Laurel Heights condo. The bedroom is very spacious with large windows and a full length mirrored closet. Very large, spacious apartment with an updated kitchen including granite counters and dishwasher. Common areas are Kitchen, Dining Room, Living Room, and Hallway. One parking spot also available included in rent price and lots of street parking available around the building. Coin laundry available downstairs. The building has about 20 units and there is a shared deck downstairs, as well as roof top access which provides views across the city and Bay. I am looking for someone else who is also a young professional or recent graduate who is reliable and responsible, but also fun. An interest in fashion or sports is definitely a plus! If you are interested, please email me. Photos available upon request. Look forward to hearing from you!
Large Bedroom and Full Bath Available in NEWER Apartment {...}
Published: August 25, 2008, 6:14 pm - Indexed: August 25, 2008, 6:30 pm - Page Size: 5KB
Category: Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Business and Economy > Real Estate > Rentals

]]> Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Business and Economy > Real Estate > Rentals {NORTH AMERICA > RENTALS} - Super-nice roomate sought to share Large Garden Cottage (cole valley / ashbury hts) $1000 http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/business-and-economy/real-estate/rentals/super-nice-roomate-sought-to-share-large-garden-20080829626.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/business-and-economy/real-estate/rentals/super-nice-roomate-sought-to-share-large-garden-20080829626.htm Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:03:47 GMT Hi there, My roomate Aiden & I are seeking a third roomate to share our 3-bedroom garden cottage in Cole Valley. By SF standards, our place is pretty big. We have a living room, dining room, full kitchen, laundry room and backyard garden that looks out onto an amazing Eucalyptus forest. Street parking is plentiful, and if you park 4 blocks away, the street cleaning is MONTHLY, so you don't actually have to move your car that often if you don't want to (even if you don't have a neighborhood parking permit). We're located right in the middle of UCSF, Haight St., Cole Valley (of course), and Golden Gate Park, and are close to public transportation as well. We're about 4 blocks away from the N-Judah, the 37 Corbett, 43 Masonic, 71-Haight, and the 33 Stanyan. We just moved here a few months ago, installed a washer, dryer, full set of kitchen appliances (dishwasher), installed a granite countertop in the kitchen, and repainted the entire place. The apartment is fully furnished (with the exception of your bedroom), and our garden has outdoor seating/lounging areas, and is maintained by a gardener that our landlord pays for, so it is gorgeous but requires no maintenance on our part. About us: We are one straight female (31) (MICHELLE) and one gay male (29) (AIDEN) looking for a SUPER NICE third roomate to be part of our little household. We are looking for someone who wants to be part of our "family" who is considerate, intuitive, and will participate in doing their share of household chores, cleaning, and do their fair share to contribute to apartment necessities. In short, we want someone who wants to make our house their HOME; not just someone who will be a friend as well as a roomate; someone who we would have fun hanging out with on the weekends, going out to drinks with, and who can contribute to a warm home environment. We would love to find a third best-buddy, but a good-friend is fine for starters. What we don't want is someone who stays in their room all day with the door closed and just comes, goes, and pays rent. Aiden is an interior designer (and designed our apartment). He is also a gourmet oatmeal-cookie maker, an amazing Thai chef, and a great fashion consultant who has never let me down when I ask him for my opinion before going to interviews or other fancy occassions. I am a marathon-runner, martial artist, bicyclist, writer and photographer. I practice law too, but prefer to define myself by my interests and not by my career. Both of us love having our friends over, so we are looking for someone who enjoys company and social gatherings and would enjoy an environment where our friends become your friends and we are all one-big-family. One final thing - Aiden is SUPER NEAT, but I am SUPER MESSY (but I keep my mess in my own room, and keep the common areas nice for everyone else). That being said, I'm looking for someone in-between the two of us to balance us out. Someone cleaner than me, but messier than Aiden would be perfect. If you're interested, shoot an email to both of us with a little description about who you are, what your preferences are, what you are looking for and the kind of environment you would like to live in. You can respond to the reply-to-craigslist email, but please also cc: aidensf@gmail.com, and koalapuff@hotmail.com. We look forward to meeting our fun third-roomate soon. Sfbay.Craigslist.Org Super-nice roomate sought to share Large Garden Cottage (cole valley / ashbury hts) $1000 {new window}   Sfbay.Craigslist.Org - Hi there, My roomate Aiden & I are seeking a third roomate to share our 3-bedroom garden cottage in Cole Valley. By SF standards, our place is pretty big. We have a living room, dining room, full kitchen, laundry room and backyard garden that looks out onto an amazing Eucalyptus forest. Street parking is plentiful, and if you park 4 blocks away, the street cleaning is MONTHLY, so you don't actually have to move your car that often if you don't want to (even if you don't have a neighborhood parking permit). We're located right in the middle of UCSF, Haight St., Cole Valley (of course), and Golden Gate Park, and are close to public transportation as well. We're about 4 blocks away from the N-Judah, the 37 Corbett, 43 Masonic, 71-Haight, and the 33 Stanyan. We just moved here a few months ago, installed a washer, dryer, full set of kitchen appliances (dishwasher), installed a granite countertop in the kitchen, and repainted the entire place. The apartment is fully furnished (with the exception of your bedroom), and our garden has outdoor seating/lounging areas, and is maintained by a gardener that our landlord pays for, so it is gorgeous but requires no maintenance on our part. About us: We are one straight female (31) (MICHELLE) and one gay male (29) (AIDEN) looking for a SUPER NICE third roomate to be part of our little household. We are looking for someone who wants to be part of our "family" who is considerate, intuitive, and will participate in doing their share of household chores, cleaning, and do their fair share to contribute to apartment necessities. In short, we want someone who wants to make our house their HOME; not just someone who will be a friend as well as a roomate; someone who we would have fun hanging out with on the weekends, going out to drinks with, and who can contribute to a warm home environment. We would love to find a third best-buddy, but a good-friend is fine for starters. What we don't want is someone who stays in their room all day with the door closed and just comes, goes, and pays rent. Aiden is an interior designer (and designed our apartment). He is also a gourmet oatmeal-cookie maker, an amazing Thai chef, and a great fashion consultant who has never let me down when I ask him for my opinion before going to interviews or other fancy occassions. I am a marathon-runner, martial artist, bicyclist, writer and photographer. I practice law too, but prefer to define myself by my interests and not by my career. Both of us love having our friends over, so we are looking for someone who enjoys company and social gatherings and would enjoy an environment where our friends become your friends and we are all one-big-family. One final thing - Aiden is SUPER NEAT, but I am SUPER MESSY (but I keep my mess in my own room, and keep the common areas nice for everyone else). That being said, I'm looking for someone in-between the two of us to balance us out. Someone cleaner than me, but messier than Aiden would be perfect. If you're interested, shoot an email to both of us with a little description about who you are, what your preferences are, what you are looking for and the kind of environment you would like to live in. You can respond to the reply-to-craigslist email, but please also cc: aidensf@gmail.com, and koalapuff@hotmail.com. We look forward to meeting our fun third-roomate soon.
Super-nice roomate sought to share Large Garden Cottage {...}
Published: August 25, 2008, 5:03 pm - Indexed: August 25, 2008, 6:28 pm - Page Size: 8KB
Category: Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Business and Economy > Real Estate > Rentals

]]> Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Business and Economy > Real Estate > Rentals {NEWS > BREAKING NEWS} - Meet Leland Chee, the Star Wars Franchise Continuity Cop http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/breaking-news/meet-leland-chee-the-star-wars-franchise-continuity-2008089619.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/breaking-news/meet-leland-chee-the-star-wars-franchise-continuity-2008089619.htm Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:55:00 GMT On the wall behind Leland Chee's desk is a portrait of an Ithorian, an alien with a hammer-shaped head that you glimpse briefly in the famous Star Wars cantina scene. In its leathery, foot-long fingers, the Ithorian holds a cube decorated with elaborate metallic tracings, a device known as a holocron. Think of it as a Force-powered hard drive, capable of storing an enormous quantity of information. "It's a piece of Jedi technology," Chee says. "It tells you ... everything." To Star Wars fans, Chee is the Keeper of the Holocron, arguably the leading expert on everything that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. His official title is continuity database administrator for the Lucas Licensing arm of Lucasfilm—which means Chee keeps meticulous track of not just the six live-action movies but also cartoons, TV specials, scores of videogames and reference books, and hundreds of novels and comics. Keepin' it canonical: Leland Chee, continuity database administrator at Lucas Licensing, maintains the Holocron — a vast FileMaker database that's consulted to make sure that any new elements added to the Star Wars franchise fit within the existing mythology. Producer: Annaliza Savage, Editor: Michael Lennon, Camera: John Ross For more, visit video.wired.com. Of course, Chee's Holocron isn't a Force-sensitive crystal. It's a FileMaker database, a searchable repository of more than 30,000 entries covering almost every character, planet, and weapon mentioned, however fleetingly, in the vast array of Star Wars titles and products. The Holocron isn't just for fun—when Lucas Licensing inks a deal with a toy company or a T-shirt designer, it vets those ancillary products to ensure they conform to the spirit and letter of the continuity that has come before and will continue afterward. In the past 31 years, Star Wars movies have grossed in excess of $4 billion worldwide. But retail sales of merchandise stand at $15 billion, and 20 percent of that has been earned since 2006, the year after the final film was released. Careful nurture of the Star Wars canon—thousands of years of story time, running through all the bits and pieces of merchandise—has kept the franchise popular for decades. So Chee spends three-quarters of his typical workday consulting or updating the Holocron. He also approves packaging designs, scans novels for errors, and creates Talmudic charts and documents addressing such issues as which Jedi were still alive during the Clone Wars and how long it takes a spaceship to get from Dagobah, where Yoda trained Luke Skywalker, to Luke's homeworld of Tatooine. The Keeper of the Holocron takes this very seriously: "Someone has to be able to say, 'Luke Skywalker would not have that color of lightsaber.'" The screening room at the Letterman Digital Arts Center, Lucasfilm's sprawling facility in San Francisco's Presidio District, is as opulent as you would expect—plush seats, wood panels, crystal-clear projection, and a perfect sound system. So when that classic John Williams fanfare begins and the Star Wars logo appears onscreen in that distinctive font, in that distinctive yellow, it quickens the pulse. It's also when Chee, sitting next to me, tells me that in an early version of what we're watching—a new LucasArts videogame called The Force Unleashed, due out in September—the logo was slightly wrong. "It was off by only a few pixels, but someone in Licensing spotted it and submitted a report." I grab an Xbox 360 controller and soon I'm striding through the corridors of a satellite that orbits the smugglers' moon of Nar Shaddaa, destroying everyone in my path. My character, Starkiller, is the secret apprentice of Darth Vader, sent here to eliminate a Jedi elder ... and leave no witnesses. I deflect laser blasts from militia troops with my lightsaber and then use the Force to hurl a chunk of metal through a window behind them. The glass shatters, and several foes are sucked into the vacuum of space before a safety wall snaps shut. I'm beginning to understand the power of the Dark Side. On the scale of badassedness, obliterating legions of good guys with the Force ranks right up there with leaping Snake River Canyon in a monster truck that can transform into a robot. And it's true that the game's sophisticated physics, combined with clever AI software for characters, means that when you Force-throw a Wookiee into a tree on its home planet, Kashyyyk, the Wookiee writhes realistically and the tree explodes in a botanically accurate cloud of splinters. But that's not what has fans most excited about The Force Unleashed. It's the stuff that happens between the interactive killing sprees: brief cinematic interludes that add new details—new plot points—to the saga. "The game is set between episodes III and IV," says Haden Blackman, who led the development team. Translation: Play it and you'll learn what happened before the original Star Wars film trilogy and after the prequels, two decades that have been shrouded in mystery. Over the course of the game, players will learn the details of the internecine feud between Darth Vader and his mentor, Emperor Palpatine, and the way these two unwittingly created the very rebellion that brought them down. The game has yielded a bountiful crop of tie-ins: a book, a graphic novel, a tabletop role-playing game supplement, and several lines of toys. With no more live-action Star Wars films forthcoming (or so we are told), games from the subsidiary division LucasArts are becoming ever more important in expanding the universe—and perpetuating the story-product ecology. And with every narrative beat and plot point, Chee and his dozens of colleagues with Holocron access are there. "Licensing approves everything," he says. "Text, dialog, art ... It all comes through our office." This is where the work of hundreds of writers and artists gets woven into a vast, internally consistent continuum. The power of the Dark Side: LucasArts' Haden Blackman discusses the story and the technology behind the upcoming game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Producer: Annaliza Savage, Editor: Michael Lennon, Camera: John Ross For more, visit video.wired.com. In his 1932 book Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction, T. S. Blakeney used the term canonicity in reference to the mystery novels and short fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes enthusiasts treat Doyle's work as if the great detective inhabits a coherent and logically consistent universe. Some of the stories written by Doyle were canonical—genuine events in that alternate universe—while others had to be considered apocryphal. (It should come as no surprise that fans would appropriate theological terms. The ecstasy of true fandom can, after all, approximate religion.) Today, canon and its serial-fiction cousin, continuity, are integral to genres like mystery, fantasy, and sci-fi. The giants of the field are known as world-builders as much as writers. J. R. R. Tolkien supplemented his Lord of the Rings series with hundreds of pages of appendices, genealogical charts, even pronunciation and usage guides for the languages he invented. Yet in the multiverse of fictional realities, Holmes's London, Frodo's Middle-earth, Buffy's Sunnydale, and Batman's Gotham are mere planetary systems compared with the grand galactic enterprise of Star Trek. When the original series—known to devout fans as The Original Series—went off the air in 1969, acolytes kept the flame alive. They extended the stories with their own fiction. They created technical manuals. Eventually, the series became a movie, and then another, and then another TV series, and a few more after that. Each new iteration produced more canonical information. Spock's death, Kirk's son, Picard's adventures as a cadet ... eventually, the writers' room on a Trek show became a minefield. "Someone would tell you that a Voyager episode last year mentioned a bit of backstory with the Romulans, and now you can't do this over here," says Ron Moore, a writer and producer on several Star Trek shows who went on to create the new Battlestar Galactica. "You'd argue the validity of that, but they'd be, like, 'No, now it's established.'" Lucas Licensing oversees billions of dollars in merchandise—from pillows to Pez dispensers. Photo: Jeff Minton But the many strata of Star Trek books, games, comics, and cartoons haven't been well tended. Some events in the movies and even later TV shows contradict preexisting lore. (A backward change like that is called a retcon, short for "retroactive continuity.") Gene Roddenberry himself, creator of Star Trek, was known to second-guess his own pronouncements about what was and was not canonical. After a while, the retcons and inconsistencies can become off-putting to fans and render once-beloved universes impenetrable to newcomers. One solution: a reboot. Start from scratch, like Moore did with Galactica. Clever preservation of original story elements retains the old fans, and streamlining and modernizing lets newbies spend their hard-earned quatloos, too. To Chee, the orderliness of the Star Wars canon is what sets it apart, what makes it feel more real than all those other franchises. "Look at James Bond," he says. "What's real in the James Bond world? What year does it take place in? It's not grounded in a real timeline." The Star Wars chronology, on the other hand, marks time from the Battle of Yavin, the assault on the Death Star at the end of the original Star Wars. Luke Skywalker was born in the year 19 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin). It says so in the Holocron. Back in his office, Chee asks his database what else it has on young Skywalker. The result contains scores of fields covering lineage, favorite vehicles, the planet he's from, how to write his name in the Aurebesh alphabet. "Oops," Chee says, blocking the screen with his body until he has minimized the window. "There are things in the Holocron that aren't public knowledge, stuff coming down the pike two or three years from now." He won't say whether those secrets relate to upcoming books, movies, games, or toys. Probably all of them. Merch and more merch: Movies, games, comics, and novels are the tip of the iceberg. Leland Chee shows off more Star Wars goods, like Yoda skateboards, Wookiee slippers, and Darth Tater. Beware the Jar Jar lollipop! Producer: Annaliza Savage, Editor: Michael Lennon, Camera: John Ross For more, visit video.wired.com. Lucasfilm has to plan ahead and think long term. "We don't reboot. We don't start from scratch," Chee says. "When Chewbacca died, he died." (Poor Chewie yowled his last yowl in 25 ABY, when he was stuck on the planet Sernpidal as it collided with its moon, Dobido, in the novel Vector Prime, the first book in the New Jedi Order series. His death is now canon.) "The thing about Star Wars is that there's one universe," Chee says. "Everyone wants to know stuff, like, where did Mace Windu get that purple lightsaber? We want to establish that there's one and only one answer." Star Wars was the number two toy brand aimed at boys last year, behind only Transformers. But toys account for less than half of the revenue for licensed merchandise. The Lucas Licensing office is positively drowning in other merch. Bedspreads, window blinds, pillowcases, wastebaskets, guitars, chairs, baseball caps, beach balls, jewelry, lunch boxes, cookie jars, and kites all added up to $3 billion in retail sales in 2006 and 2007. That figure includes big-ticket items aimed at adults. An R2-D2 DVD projector. A stormtrooper golf bag. A high-end fashion line created with superstar designer Marc Ecko, including $300 Star Wars jeans and a replica of the poncho Han Solo wore on the ice planet Hoth. There was even a $3,000 suit of Darth Vader-style samurai armor. "We realize that our fans have different levels of disposable income," says Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensing, who joined the company a week after the premiere of The Empire Strikes Back, in 1980. "The kids who played with the toys have grown up." Leland Chee strolls the San Francisco campus of Lucasfilm. Photo: Jeff Minton There have been some egregious missteps, like the Jar Jar lollipop. It looks like a plastic bust of the hated character, but push a button and it opens its mouth and sticks out a hideous candy tongue for children to suck on. "The tongue had bumps on it," Chee says, wrinkling his nose. Chee's sense of what is correct in the Star Wars universe has been a lifetime in development. He saw the original movie at the Coronet Theater in San Francisco at age 6. He got his first plastic Star Wars action figures—R2-D2 and that lame C-3P0 look-alike, Death Star Droid—for his seventh birthday and from there steadily enlarged his collection, storing them all in a case shaped like Darth Vader's head (which he still has). Chee even kept the cardboard they were mounted on. "The packaging had great visuals, plus, like, a paragraph of backstory on the character," he says. It's easy to forget that before Star Wars, licensed merchandise was a different, less profitable business. All the big toymakers turned down the rights to make Star Wars action figures; upstart Kenner didn't sign on until a month before the film's release. The earliest product tie-ins were novels and comics—Marvel published an adaptation of the movie a month after it hit theaters, then continued with its own stories. Soon Marvel had smugglers Solo and Chewbacca teaming up with questionable characters like Jaxxon, a furry green creature with big floppy ears who wisecracked like Bugs Bunny. "The idea of continuity was alien at the time," Roffman says. "We let Marvel Comics do the stories they wanted as long as it didn't interfere with the upcoming movies, and they went in some bizarre directions." The first Star Wars novel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, was published in 1978, before anyone knew that sequels would be filmed, much less that Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia would later turn out to be siblings. "Luke and Leia get ... affectionate," Chee allows. "It's very wrong." The success of the movies led to more products: TV specials, a Saturday morning cartoon show, newspaper comics, a board game, a D&D-style tabletop role-playing game, simple arcade and console videogames. Young Chee bought as much as he could, including the sheet music for the iconic theme song, which he played at his first organ recital. After the release of Return of the Jedi, in 1983, Lucasfilm assumed that interest would wane. But the merch kept selling. And then, Chee remembers, the novel Heir to the Empire was published. "Wait, was it 1990?" he says, tapping a search into the Holocron. "I need to get this date right." It was actually 1991 when Hugo Award-winning writer Timothy Zahn released the novel, set five years after Return of the Jedi. The book spent 19 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list and proved to Lucasfilm that even without new movies, it still had a market. "I was in college at UC Davis by then, but that book brought me back into Star Wars," Chee says. Without movies at the core, though, Lucas Licensing couldn't afford to be lackadaisical—no more Jaxxons, no more incestuous flirtations. "We set parameters," Roffman says. "It had to be an important extension of the continuity, and it had to have an internal integrity with the events portrayed in the films." Closely tending the canon was paying off with fans. Essentially, all the new comic books, novels, and games were prequels and sequels of one another. If you wanted to know the whole story, you had to buy them all. Neither Lucasfilm nor its licensees will divulge just how much money Lucasfilm gets for each item; suffice it to say the percentage is substantial. Chee applied for a job as a software tester at LucasArts shortly before Star Wars: Special Edition was rereleased in 1997. The film was an updated version of the 1977 original, with new visual effects and added scenes. (The special edition proved that the canon is vulnerable to retcons. In the most egregious example, an f/x tweak now has alien errand boy Greedo, not Han Solo, shooting first in the cantina duel. This made Solo a more simplistic character.) Chee scoffed at the fanboys who waited in line for three days outside the Coronet to see a movie they already owned on VHS. He had the self-restraint to wait until 5 am on the day of the release to queue up. When Chee got home from the movie, there was a message on his answering machine. He had the gig. "That was the last time I had to wait in line to see a Star Wars movie," he says. At first, his job entailed identifying and logging game bugs. His uncanny command of Star Wars lore and his organizational skills allowed him to rise quickly to the role of lead tester, which eventually led him to work on the 1998 title Behind the Magic. Magic wasn't so much a game as an interactive CD-ROM of Star Wars trivia, a treasure trove of data for überfans that included a timeline, a searchable glossary, scripts, and deleted scenes. Assembling it revealed inconsistencies in the canon. "There were differences in the layout of the Millennium Falcon between the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back," says Blackman, who, in addition to being project lead on The Force Unleashed, also wrote and did research for Magic. "The continuity fix is that Han Solo made some modifications to the ship's interior." Around 2000, Chee moved from LucasArts to Lucas Licensing, where he was tasked with creating an even more detailed version of Magic for internal use. "We had several game-design teams, several comic book writers, and dozens of novelists," Roffman says. "We needed a reference for everyone who was playing in our sandbox." Chee was the perfect person for the job. "I've been amassing Star Wars knowledge my whole life," he says. "My friends were always like, what the heck are you ever going to do with all of that?" Chee's answer: Create a FileMaker doc similar to the ones he had used to track game bugs. He started transferring information from Magic, from binders, and from the stream of new novels and comics. "You don't know how much you don't know until you get here," he says. "Like, I'd never heard the radio dramas." In a forum on StarWars.com, PiccoloKenobi poses a question that we've all wondered about at one time or another: Are the Low Altitude Assault Transport gunships used by the Grand Army of the Republic spaceworthy, or are they limited to traveling within a planet's atmosphere? "LAATs can be sealed to operate in the vacuum of space," Chee decrees in a response post. "But the standard LAAT is not equipped for long-distance space travel." In the world of continuity maintenance, Chee is something of an anomaly. Most geek-friendly franchises rely on volunteerism—while Chee was building the Holocron, fans of other canons were working outside official imprimatur. Babylon 5 has a fan-created database. The Buffyverse has several. In fact, the best source for Star Wars information on the older stuff that Chee hasn't logged yet is an online database created and maintained by a community of fans that Chee views with wary respect. It's called, inevitably, the Wookieepedia. Naturally, some fans chafe at the Lucasfilm pronouncement-from-on-high approach. Take Curtis Saxton, a theoretical astrophysicist at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in the UK. Beginning in 1995, he released a series of amateur technical commentaries on TheForce.net, a Star Wars omnibus site, that sent shock waves through the fan community. A fan-made video critiquing Curtis Saxton's theory of the Endor Holocaust. Video: The Endor Holocaust Saxton wasn't writing fan fiction—it was more like fan physics. He started out by estimating the size and power of various Star Wars vehicles and weapons, including the Death Star's planet-destroying superlaser (2.4 x 1032 joules to blow up the planet Alderaan). His numbers didn't jibe with those in the Lucas Licensing-approved tech manuals. But he persisted. And that's what led to the Endor Holocaust. At the climax of Return of the Jedi, Death Star II explodes while orbiting a forested moon called Endor, populated by cuddly creatures called Ewoks. Saxton considered the Death Star's orbit, the power output of its hypermatter power source, and the sheer tonnage of debris its destruction would have generated, then concluded that the climactic battle must have rained death and nuclear winter onto the teddy-bear tribe. He wrote: "The mass-extinction event at Endor is an inevitable physical consequence of the circumstances at the end of Return of the Jedi. As such, it indirectly enjoys canonical status, even though it was not clearly portrayed in the film." In other words, science says the Ewoks are dead. You can't posit the genocide of the Ewoks without igniting a backlash. In the forums, debates raged between self-described Saxtonites and their foes. This willingness of some obsessives to go deeper into the fictional world than its original creators did is a mainstay of fandom. "It goes back to Hugo Gernsback, the father of modern science fiction, who encouraged readers to dig into his stories, expand on them, and critique the science," says Henry Jenkins, a sci-fi fan and MIT media-studies professor. Despite Saxton's heretical notions, he later worked on four official technical manuals. And the notion of an Endor Holocaust has been incorporated into several comics—as foul propaganda spread by Imperial loyalists. But the fact that official Star Wars products even addressed the idea shows how influential writing like Saxton's can be. It's called fanon—fan-generated canon—and it's still a controversial notion to the priesthood at Lucasfilm. "I don't like the term," Chee says. "There's no such thing as fan continuity." Yet even within the Holocron, not all reality is created equal. Chee coded a pulldown menu that lets him categorize entries. S, for example, stands for secondary continuity—early unvetted works, such as The Star Wars Holiday Special. Sure, it introduced fan-favorite character Boba Fett to the continuity. But it also featured Princess Leia singing a carol to celebrate the Wookiee ceremony of Life Day, and Harvey Korman in drag playing a cooking instructor making Bantha Surprise. Princess Leia serenades Wookiees on their homeworld Kashyyyk. From the quasi-canonical Star Wars Holiday Special. Video: Star Wars Holiday Special - Leia sings And then there's the very top level of canon, the inviolable, infallible level of Truth, marked GWL—George Walton Lucas. It's the divine word of the Creator who stands outside his universe and is not subject to the rules that govern it. Lucas approves every important addition to the canon. The ambitious story beats contained in the new game The Force Unleashed were permitted only after he signed off—and spent hours talking to the developers about the relationship between Darth Vader and the Emperor. Yes, he'll accept outside ideas. The novel Heir to the Empire introduced the planet of Coruscant, capital of the Old Republic, which Lucas later incorporated into the prequels. But he also used those prequels to retcon the hell out of Chee's otherwise well-integrated universe. Anakin Skywalker built C-3P0? GWL. Yoda knows Chewbacca? GWL. "George's view of the universe is his view," Chee says with a slightly grudging tone. "He's not beholden to what's gone before." The careful tending of the Star Wars continuity has yielded great wealth, but the key to a productive farm is to leave some fields fallow. A complete Holocron would leave little room for fantasy—for fans who, as Jenkins says, "love unmapped nooks and crannies, the dark shadows we can fill in with our imagination." That's something that GWL understands. For instance, the origins of the Jedi master Yoda, his species, and his home planet are off-limits. The backstory isn't even in the Holocron. "It doesn't exist, except maybe in George's mind," Chee says. "He feels like, 'You don't have to explain everything all the time. Let's keep some mystery.'" But ... what about the Holocron? "We work around him," Chee says. Senior editor Chris Baker (chris_baker@wired.com) wrote about the return of Futurama in issue 15.12. Wired.Com Meet Leland Chee, the Star Wars Franchise Continuity Cop {new window}   Www.Wired.Com - On the wall behind Leland Chee's desk is a portrait of an Ithorian, an alien with a hammer-shaped head that you glimpse briefly in the famous Star Wars cantina scene. In its leathery, foot-long fingers, the Ithorian holds a cube decorated with elaborate metallic tracings, a device known as a holocron. Think of it as a Force-powered hard drive, capable of storing an enormous quantity of information. "It's a piece of Jedi technology," Chee says. "It tells you ... everything." To Star Wars fans, Chee is the Keeper of the Holocron, arguably the leading expert on everything that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. His official title is continuity database administrator for the Lucas Licensing arm of Lucasfilm—which means Chee keeps meticulous track of not just the six live-action movies but also cartoons, TV specials, scores of videogames and reference books, and hundreds of novels and comics. Keepin' it canonical: Leland Chee, continuity database administrator at Lucas Licensing, maintains the Holocron — a vast FileMaker database that's consulted to make sure that any new elements added to the Star Wars franchise fit within the existing mythology. Producer: Annaliza Savage, Editor: Michael Lennon, Camera: John Ross For more, visit video.wired.com. Of course, Chee's Holocron isn't a Force-sensitive crystal. It's a FileMaker database, a searchable repository of more than 30,000 entries covering almost every character, planet, and weapon mentioned, however fleetingly, in the vast array of Star Wars titles and products. The Holocron isn't just for fun—when Lucas Licensing inks a deal with a toy company or a T-shirt designer, it vets those ancillary products to ensure they conform to the spirit and letter of the continuity that has come before and will continue afterward. In the past 31 years, Star Wars movies have grossed in excess of $4 billion worldwide. But retail sales of merchandise stand at $15 billion, and 20 percent of that has been earned since 2006, the year after the final film was released. Careful nurture of the Star Wars canon—thousands of years of story time, running through all the bits and pieces of merchandise—has kept the franchise popular for decades. So Chee spends three-quarters of his typical workday consulting or updating the Holocron. He also approves packaging designs, scans novels for errors, and creates Talmudic charts and documents addressing such issues as which Jedi were still alive during the Clone Wars and how long it takes a spaceship to get from Dagobah, where Yoda trained Luke Skywalker, to Luke's homeworld of Tatooine. The Keeper of the Holocron takes this very seriously: "Someone has to be able to say, 'Luke Skywalker would not have that color of lightsaber.'" The screening room at the Letterman Digital Arts Center, Lucasfilm's sprawling facility in San Francisco's Presidio District, is as opulent as you would expect—plush seats, wood panels, crystal-clear projection, and a perfect sound system. So when that classic John Williams fanfare begins and the Star Wars logo appears onscreen in that distinctive font, in that distinctive yellow, it quickens the pulse. It's also when Chee, sitting next to me, tells me that in an early version of what we're watching—a new LucasArts videogame called The Force Unleashed, due out in September—the logo was slightly wrong. "It was off by only a few pixels, but someone in Licensing spotted it and submitted a report." I grab an Xbox 360 controller and soon I'm striding through the corridors of a satellite that orbits the smugglers' moon of Nar Shaddaa, destroying everyone in my path. My character, Starkiller, is the secret apprentice of Darth Vader, sent here to eliminate a Jedi elder ... and leave no witnesses. I deflect laser blasts from militia troops with my lightsaber and then use the Force to hurl a chunk of metal through a window behind them. The glass shatters, and several foes are sucked into the vacuum of space before a safety wall snaps shut. I'm beginning to understand the power of the Dark Side. On the scale of badassedness, obliterating legions of good guys with the Force ranks right up there with leaping Snake River Canyon in a monster truck that can transform into a robot. And it's true that the game's sophisticated physics, combined with clever AI software for characters, means that when you Force-throw a Wookiee into a tree on its home planet, Kashyyyk, the Wookiee writhes realistically and the tree explodes in a botanically accurate cloud of splinters. But that's not what has fans most excited about The Force Unleashed. It's the stuff that happens between the interactive killing sprees: brief cinematic interludes that add new details—new plot points—to the saga. "The game is set between episodes III and IV," says Haden Blackman, who led the development team. Translation: Play it and you'll learn what happened before the original Star Wars film trilogy and after the prequels, two decades that have been shrouded in mystery. Over the course of the game, players will learn the details of the internecine feud between Darth Vader and his mentor, Emperor Palpatine, and the way these two unwittingly created the very rebellion that brought them down. The game has yielded a bountiful crop of tie-ins: a book, a graphic novel, a tabletop role-playing game supplement, and several lines of toys. With no more live-action Star Wars films forthcoming (or so we are told), games from the subsidiary division LucasArts are becoming ever more important in expanding the universe—and perpetuating the story-product ecology. And with every narrative beat and plot point, Chee and his dozens of colleagues with Holocron access are there. "Licensing approves everything," he says. "Text, dialog, art ... It all comes through our office." This is where the work of hundreds of writers and artists gets woven into a vast, internally consistent continuum. The power of the Dark Side: LucasArts' Haden Blackman discusses the story and the technology behind the upcoming game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Producer: Annaliza Savage, Editor: Michael Lennon, Camera: John Ross For more, visit video.wired.com. In his 1932 book Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction, T. S. Blakeney used the term canonicity in reference to the mystery novels and short fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes enthusiasts treat Doyle's work as if the great detective inhabits a coherent and logically consistent universe. Some of the stories written by Doyle were canonical—genuine events in that alternate universe—while others had to be considered apocryphal. (It should come as no surprise that fans would appropriate theological terms. The ecstasy of true fandom can, after all, approximate religion.) Today, canon and its serial-fiction cousin, continuity, are integral to genres like mystery, fantasy, and sci-fi. The giants of the field are known as world-builders as much as writers. J. R. R. Tolkien supplemented his Lord of the Rings series with hundreds of pages of appendices, genealogical charts, even pronunciation and usage guides for the languages he invented. Yet in the multiverse of fictional realities, Holmes's London, Frodo's Middle-earth, Buffy's Sunnydale, and Batman's Gotham are mere planetary systems compared with the grand galactic enterprise of Star Trek. When the original series—known to devout fans as The Original Series—went off the air in 1969, acolytes kept the flame alive. They extended the stories with their own fiction. They created technical manuals. Eventually, the series became a movie, and then another, and then another TV series, and a few more after that. Each new iteration produced more canonical information. Spock's death, Kirk's son, Picard's adventures as a cadet ... eventually, the writers' room on a Trek show became a minefield. "Someone would tell you that a Voyager episode last year mentioned a bit of backstory with the Romulans, and now you can't do this over here," says Ron Moore, a writer and producer on several Star Trek shows who went on to create the new Battlestar Galactica. "You'd argue the validity of that, but they'd be, like, 'No, now it's established.'" Lucas Licensing oversees billions of dollars in merchandise—from pillows to Pez dispensers. Photo: Jeff Minton But the many strata of Star Trek books, games, comics, and cartoons haven't been well tended. Some events in the movies and even later TV shows contradict preexisting lore. (A backward change like that is called a retcon, short for "retroactive continuity.") Gene Roddenberry himself, creator of Star Trek, was known to second-guess his own pronouncements about what was and was not canonical. After a while, the retcons and inconsistencies can become off-putting to fans and render once-beloved universes impenetrable to newcomers. One solution: a reboot. Start from scratch, like Moore did with Galactica. Clever preservation of original story elements retains the old fans, and streamlining and modernizing lets newbies spend their hard-earned quatloos, too. To Chee, the orderliness of the Star Wars canon is what sets it apart, what makes it feel more real than all those other franchises. "Look at James Bond," he says. "What's real in the James Bond world? What year does it take place in? It's not grounded in a real timeline." The Star Wars chronology, on the other hand, marks time from the Battle of Yavin, the assault on the Death Star at the end of the original Star Wars. Luke Skywalker was born in the year 19 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin). It says so in the Holocron. Back in his office, Chee asks his database what else it has on young Skywalker. The result contains scores of fields covering lineage, favorite vehicles, the planet he's from, how to write his name in the Aurebesh alphabet. "Oops," Chee says, blocking the screen with his body until he has minimized the window. "There are things in the Holocron that aren't public knowledge, stuff coming down the pike two or three years from now." He won't say whether those secrets relate to upcoming books, movies, games, or toys. Probably all of them. Merch and more merch: Movies, games, comics, and novels are the tip of the iceberg. Leland Chee shows off more Star Wars goods, like Yoda skateboards, Wookiee slippers, and Darth Tater. Beware the Jar Jar lollipop! Producer: Annaliza Savage, Editor: Michael Lennon, Camera: John Ross For more, visit video.wired.com. Lucasfilm has to plan ahead and think long term. "We don't reboot. We don't start from scratch," Chee says. "When Chewbacca died, he died." (Poor Chewie yowled his last yowl in 25 ABY, when he was stuck on the planet Sernpidal as it collided with its moon, Dobido, in the novel Vector Prime, the first book in the New Jedi Order series. His death is now canon.) "The thing about Star Wars is that there's one universe," Chee says. "Everyone wants to know stuff, like, where did Mace Windu get that purple lightsaber? We want to establish that there's one and only one answer." Star Wars was the number two toy brand aimed at boys last year, behind only Transformers. But toys account for less than half of the revenue for licensed merchandise. The Lucas Licensing office is positively drowning in other merch. Bedspreads, window blinds, pillowcases, wastebaskets, guitars, chairs, baseball caps, beach balls, jewelry, lunch boxes, cookie jars, and kites all added up to $3 billion in retail sales in 2006 and 2007. That figure includes big-ticket items aimed at adults. An R2-D2 DVD projector. A stormtrooper golf bag. A high-end fashion line created with superstar designer Marc Ecko, including $300 Star Wars jeans and a replica of the poncho Han Solo wore on the ice planet Hoth. There was even a $3,000 suit of Darth Vader-style samurai armor. "We realize that our fans have different levels of disposable income," says Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensing, who joined the company a week after the premiere of The Empire Strikes Back, in 1980. "The kids who played with the toys have grown up." Leland Chee strolls the San Francisco campus of Lucasfilm. Photo: Jeff Minton There have been some egregious missteps, like the Jar Jar lollipop. It looks like a plastic bust of the hated character, but push a button and it opens its mouth and sticks out a hideous candy tongue for children to suck on. "The tongue had bumps on it," Chee says, wrinkling his nose. Chee's sense of what is correct in the Star Wars universe has been a lifetime in development. He saw the original movie at the Coronet Theater in San Francisco at age 6. He got his first plastic Star Wars action figures—R2-D2 and that lame C-3P0 look-alike, Death Star Droid—for his seventh birthday and from there steadily enlarged his collection, storing them all in a case shaped like Darth Vader's head (which he still has). Chee even kept the cardboard they were mounted on. "The packaging had great visuals, plus, like, a paragraph of backstory on the character," he says. It's easy to forget that before Star Wars, licensed merchandise was a different, less profitable business. All the big toymakers turned down the rights to make Star Wars action figures; upstart Kenner didn't sign on until a month before the film's release. The earliest product tie-ins were novels and comics—Marvel published an adaptation of the movie a month after it hit theaters, then continued with its own stories. Soon Marvel had smugglers Solo and Chewbacca teaming up with questionable characters like Jaxxon, a furry green creature with big floppy ears who wisecracked like Bugs Bunny. "The idea of continuity was alien at the time," Roffman says. "We let Marvel Comics do the stories they wanted as long as it didn't interfere with the upcoming movies, and they went in some bizarre directions." The first Star Wars novel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, was published in 1978, before anyone knew that sequels would be filmed, much less that Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia would later turn out to be siblings. "Luke and Leia get ... affectionate," Chee allows. "It's very wrong." The success of the movies led to more products: TV specials, a Saturday morning cartoon show, newspaper comics, a board game, a D&D-style tabletop role-playing game, simple arcade and console videogames. Young Chee bought as much as he could, including the sheet music for the iconic theme song, which he played at his first organ recital. After the release of Return of the Jedi, in 1983, Lucasfilm assumed that interest would wane. But the merch kept selling. And then, Chee remembers, the novel Heir to the Empire was published. "Wait, was it 1990?" he says, tapping a search into the Holocron. "I need to get this date right." It was actually 1991 when Hugo Award-winning writer Timothy Zahn released the novel, set five years after Return of the Jedi. The book spent 19 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list and proved to Lucasfilm that even without new movies, it still had a market. "I was in college at UC Davis by then, but that book brought me back into Star Wars," Chee says. Without movies at the core, though, Lucas Licensing couldn't afford to be lackadaisical—no more Jaxxons, no more incestuous flirtations. "We set parameters," Roffman says. "It had to be an important extension of the continuity, and it had to have an internal integrity with the events portrayed in the films." Closely tending the canon was paying off with fans. Essentially, all the new comic books, novels, and games were prequels and sequels of one another. If you wanted to know the whole story, you had to buy them all. Neither Lucasfilm nor its licensees will divulge just how much money Lucasfilm gets for each item; suffice it to say the percentage is substantial. Chee applied for a job as a software tester at LucasArts shortly before Star Wars: Special Edition was rereleased in 1997. The film was an updated version of the 1977 original, with new visual effects and added scenes. (The special edition proved that the canon is vulnerable to retcons. In the most egregious example, an f/x tweak now has alien errand boy Greedo, not Han Solo, shooting first in the cantina duel. This made Solo a more simplistic character.) Chee scoffed at the fanboys who waited in line for three days outside the Coronet to see a movie they already owned on VHS. He had the self-restraint to wait until 5 am on the day of the release to queue up. When Chee got home from the movie, there was a message on his answering machine. He had the gig. "That was the last time I had to wait in line to see a Star Wars movie," he says. At first, his job entailed identifying and logging game bugs. His uncanny command of Star Wars lore and his organizational skills allowed him to rise quickly to the role of lead tester, which eventually led him to work on the 1998 title Behind the Magic. Magic wasn't so much a game as an interactive CD-ROM of Star Wars trivia, a treasure trove of data for überfans that included a timeline, a searchable glossary, scripts, and deleted scenes. Assembling it revealed inconsistencies in the canon. "There were differences in the layout of the Millennium Falcon between the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back," says Blackman, who, in addition to being project lead on The Force Unleashed, also wrote and did research for Magic. "The continuity fix is that Han Solo made some modifications to the ship's interior." Around 2000, Chee moved from LucasArts to Lucas Licensing, where he was tasked with creating an even more detailed version of Magic for internal use. "We had several game-design teams, several comic book writers, and dozens of novelists," Roffman says. "We needed a reference for everyone who was playing in our sandbox." Chee was the perfect person for the job. "I've been amassing Star Wars knowledge my whole life," he says. "My friends were always like, what the heck are you ever going to do with all of that?" Chee's answer: Create a FileMaker doc similar to the ones he had used to track game bugs. He started transferring information from Magic, from binders, and from the stream of new novels and comics. "You don't know how much you don't know until you get here," he says. "Like, I'd never heard the radio dramas." In a forum on StarWars.com, PiccoloKenobi poses a question that we've all wondered about at one time or another: Are the Low Altitude Assault Transport gunships used by the Grand Army of the Republic spaceworthy, or are they limited to traveling within a planet's atmosphere? "LAATs can be sealed to operate in the vacuum of space," Chee decrees in a response post. "But the standard LAAT is not equipped for long-distance space travel." In the world of continuity maintenance, Chee is something of an anomaly. Most geek-friendly franchises rely on volunteerism—while Chee was building the Holocron, fans of other canons were working outside official imprimatur. Babylon 5 has a fan-created database. The Buffyverse has several. In fact, the best source for Star Wars information on the older stuff that Chee hasn't logged yet is an online database created and maintained by a community of fans that Chee views with wary respect. It's called, inevitably, the Wookieepedia. Naturally, some fans chafe at the Lucasfilm pronouncement-from-on-high approach. Take Curtis Saxton, a theoretical astrophysicist at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in the UK. Beginning in 1995, he released a series of amateur technical commentaries on TheForce.net, a Star Wars omnibus site, that sent shock waves through the fan community. A fan-made video critiquing Curtis Saxton's theory of the Endor Holocaust. Video: The Endor Holocaust Saxton wasn't writing fan fiction—it was more like fan physics. He started out by estimating the size and power of various Star Wars vehicles and weapons, including the Death Star's planet-destroying superlaser (2.4 x 1032 joules to blow up the planet Alderaan). His numbers didn't jibe with those in the Lucas Licensing-approved tech manuals. But he persisted. And that's what led to the Endor Holocaust. At the climax of Return of the Jedi, Death Star II explodes while orbiting a forested moon called Endor, populated by cuddly creatures called Ewoks. Saxton considered the Death Star's orbit, the power output of its hypermatter power source, and the sheer tonnage of debris its destruction would have generated, then concluded that the climactic battle must have rained death and nuclear winter onto the teddy-bear tribe. He wrote: "The mass-extinction event at Endor is an inevitable physical consequence of the circumstances at the end of Return of the Jedi. As such, it indirectly enjoys canonical status, even though it was not clearly portrayed in the film." In other words, science says the Ewoks are dead. You can't posit the genocide of the Ewoks without igniting a backlash. In the forums, debates raged between self-described Saxtonites and their foes. This willingness of some obsessives to go deeper into the fictional world than its original creators did is a mainstay of fandom. "It goes back to Hugo Gernsback, the father of modern science fiction, who encouraged readers to dig into his stories, expand on them, and critique the science," says Henry Jenkins, a sci-fi fan and MIT media-studies professor. Despite Saxton's heretical notions, he later worked on four official technical manuals. And the notion of an Endor Holocaust has been incorporated into several comics—as foul propaganda spread by Imperial loyalists. But the fact that official Star Wars products even addressed the idea shows how influential writing like Saxton's can be. It's called fanon—fan-generated canon—and it's still a controversial notion to the priesthood at Lucasfilm. "I don't like the term," Chee says. "There's no such thing as fan continuity." Yet even within the Holocron, not all reality is created equal. Chee coded a pulldown menu that lets him categorize entries. S, for example, stands for secondary continuity—early unvetted works, such as The Star Wars Holiday Special. Sure, it introduced fan-favorite character Boba Fett to the continuity. But it also featured Princess Leia singing a carol to celebrate the Wookiee ceremony of Life Day, and Harvey Korman in drag playing a cooking instructor making Bantha Surprise. Princess Leia serenades Wookiees on their homeworld Kashyyyk. From the quasi-canonical Star Wars Holiday Special. Video: Star Wars Holiday Special - Leia sings And then there's the very top level of canon, the inviolable, infallible level of Truth, marked GWL—George Walton Lucas. It's the divine word of the Creator who stands outside his universe and is not subject to the rules that govern it. Lucas approves every important addition to the canon. The ambitious story beats contained in the new game The Force Unleashed were permitted only after he signed off—and spent hours talking to the developers about the relationship between Darth Vader and the Emperor. Yes, he'll accept outside ideas. The novel Heir to the Empire introduced the planet of Coruscant, capital of the Old Republic, which Lucas later incorporated into the prequels. But he also used those prequels to retcon the hell out of Chee's otherwise well-integrated universe. Anakin Skywalker built C-3P0? GWL. Yoda knows Chewbacca? GWL. "George's view of the universe is his view," Chee says with a slightly grudging tone. "He's not beholden to what's gone before." The careful tending of the Star Wars continuity has yielded great wealth, but the key to a productive farm is to leave some fields fallow. A complete Holocron would leave little room for fantasy—for fans who, as Jenkins says, "love unmapped nooks and crannies, the dark shadows we can fill in with our imagination." That's something that GWL understands. For instance, the origins of the Jedi master Yoda, his species, and his home planet are off-limits. The backstory isn't even in the Holocron. "It doesn't exist, except maybe in George's mind," Chee says. "He feels like, 'You don't have to explain everything all the time. Let's keep some mystery.'" But ... what about the Holocron? "We work around him," Chee says. Senior editor Chris Baker (chris_baker@wired.com) wrote about the return of Futurama in issue 15.12.
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Published: August 21, 2008, 9:55 pm - Indexed: August 24, 2008, 10:10 am - Page Size: 53KB
Category: News > Breaking News

]]> News > Breaking News {SUBCULTURES > NEWS AND MEDIA} - Gallery: Daguerre to Be Different! http://articles.world-of-newave.info/society/subcultures/geeks-and-nerds/news-and-media/gallery-daguerre-to-be-different-20080886514.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/society/subcultures/geeks-and-nerds/news-and-media/gallery-daguerre-to-be-different-20080886514.htm Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:00:00 GMT : Image: George H. Johnson, 1853/Courtesy Oakland Museum of CaliforniaThe daguerrotype process had a relatively short commercial life span of about two decades. A major reason was that innovators capitalized on "France's gift to the world" and started improving the process immediately. Better emulsions and better developing and fixing solutions improved image quality and reduced exposure times. Replacing the metal matrix for the emulsions with glass-plate negatives -- and eventually celluloid -- and printing the images on paper all helped shape more than a century of film photography. But the sudden release of the previously secret process created a worldwide mania for having one's image "done." This was especially true in the United States, as you can see in the following examples. California Fireman Daguerreotypes were objects of pride, so the subjects usually posed in their finest clothes, whether their Sunday best or uniforms. The image was fixed on a polished metal surface, which was usually covered with a thin plate of glass for protection and enclosed in a frame or case. This relatively large example occupies a full, standard-size daguerreotype plate, 9 by 7 inches. Although the names of the subject might be lost (because everyone knew it was Uncle Albert), the photographer's name often appeared in a corner of the plate or on the frame or case. : Image: Isaac Wallace Baker, circa 1853/CourtesyOakland Museum of CaliforniaMore typical was a sixth-plate daguerreotype, occupying one-sixth of a standard plate, or 3.25 x 3.25 inches. Exposure time could be several minutes, and it's hard to hold a smile for that long, so photographers usually instructed subjects to hold their mouths in a flat, noncommittal mien. If you think these folks look uncomfortable (or worse), you try sitting like that, unflinching, for two minutes. : Image: Isaac Wallace Baker, circa 1853/CourtesyOakland Museum of CaliforniaThis sixth-plate image (3.25 by 3.25 inches) had a more elaborate case, and the subject appears proud of his queue. : Image: Attributed to William Shew, circa 1853/Courtesy Oakland MuseumWhether this was some sort of fraternal group, merchants' association or just gentleman songsters off on a spree, we know naught. It would be hard to make out the tiny faces in a sixth-plate, so this group portrait was exposed on a half-plate, 6 by 4.75 inches. : Image: Unidentified photographer, between 1860 and 1862, re-photographed 1961/Courtesy Library of CoPvt. Jemison served in the 2nd Louisiana Regiment of the Confederate Army. While fighting in the Peninsula campaign under General J.B. Magruder, Jemison was killed in the battle of Poindexter's Farm (aka the Battle of Malvern Hill, Virginia in July 1862). The battle was a tactical victory for the Union, though Union Gen. George McClellan in typical fashion failed to make good use of it. For Pvt. Jemison, the battle was a disaster. : Image: Unidentified photographer, between 1840 and 1860/Courtesy Library of CongressThis unidentified woman sat by a table, a longstanding artistic convention in portraits of women. The book at her elbow may be a Bible. : Image: Unidentified photographer, 1847/Courtesy Library of CongressThe unidentified girl may be holding a daguerreotype case. That would put her in touch with the "magic" while she had to sit stock-still for several minutes. The object might also be her favorite storybook, a similar attempt at pacification. Or, following the conventions of painted portraits, it could be a child's prayer book or a reading primer. Mid-1840s daguerreotypes cost anywhere from $2 to $5 ($55 to $140 in today's money), so you can see why families treasured them and held on to them. Those daguerreotype cases also helped preserve them. : Image: Senter E. Price, between 1849 and 1859/Courtesy Library of CongressA paper note with this daguerreotype says: "Hosea Curtice." That's may be the guy in the picture, but maybe it's the name of the owner, or a name that the guy in the picture wanted to remember. Best bet: It's him, all right. : Image: Unidentified photographer, circa-1864/Courtesy Library of CongressPresident Lincoln sat for an albumen photograph, which was then duplicated as a daguerreotype. It's framed in a leather case with a push-button clasp.: Image: Unidentified photographer, between 1852 and 1860/Courtesy Library of CongressA moving steamship or riverboat would have been hard to capture with the long exposures a daguerreotype needed. But a steamship at a landing, perhaps with crew, officers and passengers ready and willing to pose, now there's a subject! : Image: Unidentified photographer, between 1842 and 1860/Courtesy Library of CongressWhat more can we say? : Image: Unidentified photographer, circa 1848/Courtesy Library of CongressThese guys' job was to drove, or herd, the oxen. These oxen appear to be yoked for the purpose of hauling something. Tough job all around. Wired.Com Gallery: Daguerre to Be Different! {new window}   Www.Wired.Com - : Image: George H. Johnson, 1853/Courtesy Oakland Museum of CaliforniaThe daguerrotype process had a relatively short commercial life span of about two decades. A major reason was that innovators capitalized on "France's gift to the world" and started improving the process immediately. Better emulsions and better developing and fixing solutions improved image quality and reduced exposure times. Replacing the metal matrix for the emulsions with glass-plate negatives -- and eventually celluloid -- and printing the images on paper all helped shape more than a century of film photography. But the sudden release of the previously secret process created a worldwide mania for having one's image "done." This was especially true in the United States, as you can see in the following examples. California Fireman Daguerreotypes were objects of pride, so the subjects usually posed in their finest clothes, whether their Sunday best or uniforms. The image was fixed on a polished metal surface, which was usually covered with a thin plate of glass for protection and enclosed in a frame or case. This relatively large example occupies a full, standard-size daguerreotype plate, 9 by 7 inches. Although the names of the subject might be lost (because everyone knew it was Uncle Albert), the photographer's name often appeared in a corner of the plate or on the frame or case. : Image: Isaac Wallace Baker, circa 1853/CourtesyOakland Museum of CaliforniaMore typical was a sixth-plate daguerreotype, occupying one-sixth of a standard plate, or 3.25 x 3.25 inches. Exposure time could be several minutes, and it's hard to hold a smile for that long, so photographers usually instructed subjects to hold their mouths in a flat, noncommittal mien. If you think these folks look uncomfortable (or worse), you try sitting like that, unflinching, for two minutes. : Image: Isaac Wallace Baker, circa 1853/CourtesyOakland Museum of CaliforniaThis sixth-plate image (3.25 by 3.25 inches) had a more elaborate case, and the subject appears proud of his queue. : Image: Attributed to William Shew, circa 1853/Courtesy Oakland MuseumWhether this was some sort of fraternal group, merchants' association or just gentleman songsters off on a spree, we know naught. It would be hard to make out the tiny faces in a sixth-plate, so this group portrait was exposed on a half-plate, 6 by 4.75 inches. : Image: Unidentified photographer, between 1860 and 1862, re-photographed 1961/Courtesy Library of CoPvt. Jemison served in the 2nd Louisiana Regiment of the Confederate Army. While fighting in the Peninsula campaign under General J.B. Magruder, Jemison was killed in the battle of Poindexter's Farm (aka the Battle of Malvern Hill, Virginia in July 1862). The battle was a tactical victory for the Union, though Union Gen. George McClellan in typical fashion failed to make good use of it. For Pvt. Jemison, the battle was a disaster. : Image: Unidentified photographer, between 1840 and 1860/Courtesy Library of CongressThis unidentified woman sat by a table, a longstanding artistic convention in portraits of women. The book at her elbow may be a Bible. : Image: Unidentified photographer, 1847/Courtesy Library of CongressThe unidentified girl may be holding a daguerreotype case. That would put her in touch with the "magic" while she had to sit stock-still for several minutes. The object might also be her favorite storybook, a similar attempt at pacification. Or, following the conventions of painted portraits, it could be a child's prayer book or a reading primer. Mid-1840s daguerreotypes cost anywhere from $2 to $5 ($55 to $140 in today's money), so you can see why families treasured them and held on to them. Those daguerreotype cases also helped preserve them. : Image: Senter E. Price, between 1849 and 1859/Courtesy Library of CongressA paper note with this daguerreotype says: "Hosea Curtice." That's may be the guy in the picture, but maybe it's the name of the owner, or a name that the guy in the picture wanted to remember. Best bet: It's him, all right. : Image: Unidentified photographer, circa-1864/Courtesy Library of CongressPresident Lincoln sat for an albumen photograph, which was then duplicated as a daguerreotype. It's framed in a leather case with a push-button clasp.: Image: Unidentified photographer, between 1852 and 1860/Courtesy Library of CongressA moving steamship or riverboat would have been hard to capture with the long exposures a daguerreotype needed. But a steamship at a landing, perhaps with crew, officers and passengers ready and willing to pose, now there's a subject! : Image: Unidentified photographer, between 1842 and 1860/Courtesy Library of CongressWhat more can we say? : Image: Unidentified photographer, circa 1848/Courtesy Library of CongressThese guys' job was to drove, or herd, the oxen. These oxen appear to be yoked for the purpose of hauling something. Tough job all around.
See the latest multimedia and applications including videos, animations, podcasts, photos, and slideshows on Wired.com {...}
Published: August 19, 2008, 5:00 am - Indexed: August 20, 2008, 10:21 am - Page Size: 35KB
Category: Society > Subcultures > Geeks and Nerds > News and Media

]]> Society > Subcultures > Geeks and Nerds > News and Media {NEWS > BREAKING NEWS} - Andy Grove's Electrifying Energy Proposal http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/breaking-news/andy-grove-s-electrifying-energy-proposal-20080871720.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/breaking-news/andy-grove-s-electrifying-energy-proposal-20080871720.htm Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:15:00 GMT News from Portfolio.com Also on Portfolio Salut! to the IBM PCjr, Unveiled 25 Years Ago Condoleezza Rice: What Now? Georgia's Leader Was Shaped by Stint in Manhattan Subscribe to Portfolio magazine To drill or not to drill? That has been the question this summer as Congress, the president and both candidates debate where and whether we should be exploring for domestic oil. The implication is that this is an important step in reducing our dependence on imported oil. It is not. Oil?wherever it is produced?is priced, sold and consumed in a global marketplace. Whatever the outcome of this existential debate, any incremental oil will be sold to the highest bidder, in the U.S.?or in other countries? most of which have an insatiable appetite for oil. Such flaws of strategic logic seem to show up in most discussions on what to do. We must discipline ourselves to follow a more rigorous approach, which can be hard to do given the enormous importance energy has in our lives. The plans announced recently by T. Boone Pickens and former Vice President Al Gore provide a good opportunity to think through our strategic options, by means of a comparative look. (See the Portfolio.com Green Machine graphic to find out where investors are putting their cash in the clean-tech game.) I include as a third option a plan to allow cars and trucks on U.S. roads to run primarily on electricity drawn from the regular electric grid. Pickens proposes to build massive wind farms in the nation's center to generate a large part of America's electricity, which would then liberate the natural gas that is currently used to generate electricity. If the cars on the road were to be retrofitted to run on natural gas, Pickens argues, the need to import the corresponding amount of petroleum would disappear. Setting aside the task of retrofitting over 200 million vehicles, this plan raises a fundamental question. Natural gas, like oil, is a global commodity that can be shipped anywhere. Even if it is produced in the United States, what makes it stay here? It does so if, and only if, the United States pays the prevailing market price for it, just as we are paying market price for the petroleum fueling our cars today. So very little would change. Vice President Gore's focus is on carbon reduction. He proposes that by 2018, 100 percent of America's electricity be generated from sources such as wind, solar and geothermal. Doing so would free a lot of oil, imported and domestic alike, as well as coal and natural gas. The oil, coal and natural gas that the U.S. does not use would become available for others through the world market. Correspondingly, carbon emissions would be shifted to other countries, but the world's total would not be reduced. And, in spite of this effort, cars on the road would still be fueled by petroleum. I have been arguing that the first task?Job 1?is the electrification of the transportation sector. The fuel needs of transportation account for a very large part of the nation's petroleum consumption. Even more important is that today only petroleum and agri-fuels can be used as sources of energy for the overwhelming majority of the nation's vehicles, even though the residential, industrial, and commercial needs for fuel can be satisfied using the full range of energy sources. Put another way, the various sources of energy are fungible for residential, industrial, and commercial uses, but not for transportation. If we are to undertake the equivalent of open-heart surgery on our economy, we must insist that after the trauma, the fuel for all segments of the economy should be capable of coming from multiple sources of energy. This will allow us to cope with the unexpected, and will prepare us for future transition to renewable sources of energy like wind and solar. This is why fungibility in transportation is important. This approach has its problems too. As with Pickens' plan, cars and trucks, old and new, must be converted. They need to be able to run on electric power, even if only partially. As we make progress, we will become increasingly dependent on battery technology and manufacturing, most of which currently takes place outside the U.S. If investments in battery manufacturing abroad outstrip domestic investments, this situation is reinforced. In addition, improved battery technologies may end up using exotic metals. As we scour the periodic table of elements, our hunt may lead us to yet another set of dependencies. The key features of the three approaches, in a comparative fashion, are shown in this table. Complicated picture? Yes, it is. Let's face it, we are dealing with the adaptation of the world's largest industry, under the pull and push of different problems. To have even a small chance to improve matters and end our dependence on imported oil, we need to ask basic questions: What problems do we intend to solve? And in what order? Environmental? Economic? National security? They are all important, but our answers lead to different approaches and to different outcomes. Personally, my bias is that national security has to be our first priority. We can't lead the world if we're on our knees begging often-hostile nations for oil. Wars have been fought over natural resources, and this could happen again. But whatever the answer, objectivity and clarity are essential for us to make progress on the issue that informs the life of our generation. Wired.Com Andy Grove's Electrifying Energy Proposal {new window}   Www.Wired.Com - News from Portfolio.com Also on Portfolio Salut! to the IBM PCjr, Unveiled 25 Years Ago Condoleezza Rice: What Now? Georgia's Leader Was Shaped by Stint in Manhattan Subscribe to Portfolio magazine To drill or not to drill? That has been the question this summer as Congress, the president and both candidates debate where and whether we should be exploring for domestic oil. The implication is that this is an important step in reducing our dependence on imported oil. It is not. Oil?wherever it is produced?is priced, sold and consumed in a global marketplace. Whatever the outcome of this existential debate, any incremental oil will be sold to the highest bidder, in the U.S.?or in other countries? most of which have an insatiable appetite for oil. Such flaws of strategic logic seem to show up in most discussions on what to do. We must discipline ourselves to follow a more rigorous approach, which can be hard to do given the enormous importance energy has in our lives. The plans announced recently by T. Boone Pickens and former Vice President Al Gore provide a good opportunity to think through our strategic options, by means of a comparative look. (See the Portfolio.com Green Machine graphic to find out where investors are putting their cash in the clean-tech game.) I include as a third option a plan to allow cars and trucks on U.S. roads to run primarily on electricity drawn from the regular electric grid. Pickens proposes to build massive wind farms in the nation's center to generate a large part of America's electricity, which would then liberate the natural gas that is currently used to generate electricity. If the cars on the road were to be retrofitted to run on natural gas, Pickens argues, the need to import the corresponding amount of petroleum would disappear. Setting aside the task of retrofitting over 200 million vehicles, this plan raises a fundamental question. Natural gas, like oil, is a global commodity that can be shipped anywhere. Even if it is produced in the United States, what makes it stay here? It does so if, and only if, the United States pays the prevailing market price for it, just as we are paying market price for the petroleum fueling our cars today. So very little would change. Vice President Gore's focus is on carbon reduction. He proposes that by 2018, 100 percent of America's electricity be generated from sources such as wind, solar and geothermal. Doing so would free a lot of oil, imported and domestic alike, as well as coal and natural gas. The oil, coal and natural gas that the U.S. does not use would become available for others through the world market. Correspondingly, carbon emissions would be shifted to other countries, but the world's total would not be reduced. And, in spite of this effort, cars on the road would still be fueled by petroleum. I have been arguing that the first task?Job 1?is the electrification of the transportation sector. The fuel needs of transportation account for a very large part of the nation's petroleum consumption. Even more important is that today only petroleum and agri-fuels can be used as sources of energy for the overwhelming majority of the nation's vehicles, even though the residential, industrial, and commercial needs for fuel can be satisfied using the full range of energy sources. Put another way, the various sources of energy are fungible for residential, industrial, and commercial uses, but not for transportation. If we are to undertake the equivalent of open-heart surgery on our economy, we must insist that after the trauma, the fuel for all segments of the economy should be capable of coming from multiple sources of energy. This will allow us to cope with the unexpected, and will prepare us for future transition to renewable sources of energy like wind and solar. This is why fungibility in transportation is important. This approach has its problems too. As with Pickens' plan, cars and trucks, old and new, must be converted. They need to be able to run on electric power, even if only partially. As we make progress, we will become increasingly dependent on battery technology and manufacturing, most of which currently takes place outside the U.S. If investments in battery manufacturing abroad outstrip domestic investments, this situation is reinforced. In addition, improved battery technologies may end up using exotic metals. As we scour the periodic table of elements, our hunt may lead us to yet another set of dependencies. The key features of the three approaches, in a comparative fashion, are shown in this table. Complicated picture? Yes, it is. Let's face it, we are dealing with the adaptation of the world's largest industry, under the pull and push of different problems. To have even a small chance to improve matters and end our dependence on imported oil, we need to ask basic questions: What problems do we intend to solve? And in what order? Environmental? Economic? National security? They are all important, but our answers lead to different approaches and to different outcomes. Personally, my bias is that national security has to be our first priority. We can't lead the world if we're on our knees begging often-hostile nations for oil. Wars have been fought over natural resources, and this could happen again. But whatever the answer, objectivity and clarity are essential for us to make progress on the issue that informs the life of our generation.
Get Wired's take on technology business news and the Silicon Valley scene including IT, media, mobility, broadband, video, design, security, software, networking and internet startups on Wired.com {...}
Published: August 18, 2008, 4:15 pm - Indexed: August 20, 2008, 11:27 am - Page Size: 47KB
Category: News > Breaking News

]]> News > Breaking News {ISSUES > BIAS AND BALANCE} - Citing convention negotiations, Fox News Sunday 's Wallace asked if President Obama would negotiate by "caving in" http://articles.world-of-newave.info/society/issues/business/media/bias-and-balance/citing-convention-negotiations-fox-news-sunday-20080895010.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/society/issues/business/media/bias-and-balance/citing-convention-negotiations-fox-news-sunday-20080895010.htm Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:15:19 GMT On the August 17 edition of Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace said that Sen. Barack Obama "cav[ed] in" in agreeing that Sen. Hillary Clinton's name will be placed in nomination and receive a roll call vote at the Democratic National Convention, and he suggested that the agreement was an indication that "the way President Obama would negotiate" would be "to just keep caving in." During his interview with Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Wallace said that "after giving Hillary Clinton a speaking role on Tuesday night and Bill Clinton a speaking role on Wednesday night, now Hillary Clinton's going to get her name placed in nomination and to have a roll call. Question: Is that the way President Obama would negotiate, to just keep caving in?" Later, during the program's roundtable segment, Wallace asked the panel: "Obama has agreed -- and from what I'm told from people in the Obama camp, this wasn't something they were happy about, Claire McCaskill to the contrary not withstanding -- to have Hillary Clinton's name placed in nomination and to have a roll call vote. Smart politics or a show of weakness?" In a joint statement from the Obama and Clinton press offices, Obama said that placing Clinton's name in nomination was a way of "honoring" her "historic campaign." From the statement: "I am convinced that honoring Senator Clinton's historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong united fashion," said Senator Barack Obama. At no point did Wallace explain how Obama's willingness to allow a roll call vote on Clinton's nomination at the convention constituted evidence that "the way President Obama would negotiate" would be "to just keep caving in." From the August 17 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday: WALLACE: Senator McCaskill, the big news from Democrats this week is that after giving Hillary Clinton a speaking role on Tuesday night and Bill Clinton a speaking role on Wednesday night, now Hillary Clinton's going to get her name placed in nomination and to have a roll call. Question: Is that the way President Obama would negotiate, to just keep caving in? McCASKILL: Well, first of all, there has not been any caving in. Hillary Clinton is not the enemy. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are working together on making this a great convention where we can talk about changing this country. You know, the policies of this administration, which are identical -- the economic policies to that of John McCain have, have driven this country into a ditch, and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are working together, and what Barack Obama is doing is saying to Hillary Clinton, "What do you think would be best in terms of bringing us all together?" You cannot be afraid to work with anyone, certainly someone who agrees on the issues like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama do. [...] WALLACE: Obama has agreed -- and from what I'm told from people in the Obama camp, this wasn't something they were happy about, Claire McCaskill to the contrary not withstanding -- to have Hillary Clinton's name placed in nomination and to have a roll call vote. Smart politics or a show of weakness? MARA LIASSON (NPR national political correspondent): I think the answer to that question will be determined in Denver. I think that a lot of this is up to Hillary. There is going to be a real watch on the part of all journalists, everybody else, to see how gracious, how sincere she seems in really supporting him. One of the things she could do is take her name out of nomination after it was in and say, "Now, you know, my supporters can support me, but I encourage everybody to now vote for Obama." Or she could let the catharsis that she talks about so much to have its full rein, which -- who knows exactly what that's going to look like? I do think that her future in the party depends on how solidly she looks and seems behind Obama. Now she has to be a team player. I think I was a little bit surprised that the Obama campaign seemed to quick -- so quickly kind of concede to that, you know, that idea that she should be put in nomination. It's not completely unusual; lots of people's names are put in nomination. However, not lots of people have come this close, and you're gonna have, perhaps, the spectacle of a very close vote, almost, at the Democratic convention. Mediamatters.Org Citing convention negotiations, Fox News Sunday 's Wallace asked if President Obama would negotiate by "caving in" {new window}   Mediamatters.Org - On the August 17 edition of Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace said that Sen. Barack Obama "cav[ed] in" in agreeing that Sen. Hillary Clinton's name will be placed in nomination and receive a roll call vote at the Democratic National Convention, and he suggested that the agreement was an indication that "the way President Obama would negotiate" would be "to just keep caving in." During his interview with Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Wallace said that "after giving Hillary Clinton a speaking role on Tuesday night and Bill Clinton a speaking role on Wednesday night, now Hillary Clinton's going to get her name placed in nomination and to have a roll call. Question: Is that the way President Obama would negotiate, to just keep caving in?" Later, during the program's roundtable segment, Wallace asked the panel: "Obama has agreed -- and from what I'm told from people in the Obama camp, this wasn't something they were happy about, Claire McCaskill to the contrary not withstanding -- to have Hillary Clinton's name placed in nomination and to have a roll call vote. Smart politics or a show of weakness?" In a joint statement from the Obama and Clinton press offices, Obama said that placing Clinton's name in nomination was a way of "honoring" her "historic campaign." From the statement: "I am convinced that honoring Senator Clinton's historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong united fashion," said Senator Barack Obama. At no point did Wallace explain how Obama's willingness to allow a roll call vote on Clinton's nomination at the convention constituted evidence that "the way President Obama would negotiate" would be "to just keep caving in." From the August 17 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday: WALLACE: Senator McCaskill, the big news from Democrats this week is that after giving Hillary Clinton a speaking role on Tuesday night and Bill Clinton a speaking role on Wednesday night, now Hillary Clinton's going to get her name placed in nomination and to have a roll call. Question: Is that the way President Obama would negotiate, to just keep caving in? McCASKILL: Well, first of all, there has not been any caving in. Hillary Clinton is not the enemy. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are working together on making this a great convention where we can talk about changing this country. You know, the policies of this administration, which are identical -- the economic policies to that of John McCain have, have driven this country into a ditch, and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are working together, and what Barack Obama is doing is saying to Hillary Clinton, "What do you think would be best in terms of bringing us all together?" You cannot be afraid to work with anyone, certainly someone who agrees on the issues like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama do. [...] WALLACE: Obama has agreed -- and from what I'm told from people in the Obama camp, this wasn't something they were happy about, Claire McCaskill to the contrary not withstanding -- to have Hillary Clinton's name placed in nomination and to have a roll call vote. Smart politics or a show of weakness? MARA LIASSON (NPR national political correspondent): I think the answer to that question will be determined in Denver. I think that a lot of this is up to Hillary. There is going to be a real watch on the part of all journalists, everybody else, to see how gracious, how sincere she seems in really supporting him. One of the things she could do is take her name out of nomination after it was in and say, "Now, you know, my supporters can support me, but I encourage everybody to now vote for Obama." Or she could let the catharsis that she talks about so much to have its full rein, which -- who knows exactly what that's going to look like? I do think that her future in the party depends on how solidly she looks and seems behind Obama. Now she has to be a team player. I think I was a little bit surprised that the Obama campaign seemed to quick -- so quickly kind of concede to that, you know, that idea that she should be put in nomination. It's not completely unusual; lots of people's names are put in nomination. However, not lots of people have come this close, and you're gonna have, perhaps, the spectacle of a very close vote, almost, at the Democratic convention.
Media Matters - Citing convention negotiations, Fox News Sunday 's Wallace asked if President Obama would negotiate by "caving in" {...} On Fox News Sunday , Chris Wallace said that "after giving Hillary Clinton a speaking role on Tuesday night and Bill Clinton a speaking role on Wednesday night, now Hillary Clinton's going to get her name placed in nomination and to have a roll call. Question: Is that the way President Obama would negotiate, to just keep caving in?" Wallace also asked if placing Clinton's name in nomination was "[s]mart politics or a show of weakness." {...}
Published: August 17, 2008, 11:15 pm - Indexed: August 18, 2008, 10:20 pm - Page Size: 22KB
Category: Society > Issues > Business > Media > Bias and Balance

]]> Society > Issues > Business > Media > Bias and Balance {NEWS > BREAKING NEWS} - Dressing for Success Now Means Looking Like Hell http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/breaking-news/dressing-for-success-now-means-looking-like-hell-2008085247.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/news/breaking-news/dressing-for-success-now-means-looking-like-hell-2008085247.htm Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:00:00 GMT News From Portfolio.com Also on Portfolio FCC Head Links Net Neutrality With Fairness Doctrine U.S., Iran, Dubai: Axis of Commerce Online Ad Spending: It's Ugly Out There Subscribe to Portfolio magazine Get on an elevator in any Manhattan office building, and there's a good chance you'll find yourself surrounded by them: the tattersalls, the windowpanes, the mini-checks of Brooks Brothers' fleet of Non-Iron Dress Shirts. Inoffensive? Yes, as are the often-accompanying oxfords with Nike Air technology in the soles. But as the patterns blend together, they start to form a vaguely disturbing picture. Gone is the time when the Patrick Batemans of the world could hold pissing contests over the microscopic differences in their business card stocks, dismissing peons for the inferior weaves of their suits. These days, there are fewer distinctions between industries and power levels. Pretty much everyone looks more like they belong in tech support than in a partners' meeting. (View our slideshow to see how the captains of industry dress.) That's because somewhere between His Girl Friday and casual Friday, between black-tie and BlackBerrys, our workforce morphed from Mad Men into marathon men?and the race is not to the sartorial top, but to the bottom of the laundry pile. When the dot-com bubble burst, many predicted an end to Teva-wearing C.E.O.'s and even the curtailment of casual Fridays. Clearly the second tsunami of tech money, which brought twentysomethings in hoodies to the head of the conference table, has helped keep that from happening. But tech chic only has so much to do with the dressing down of the workforce. As Bill Clinton might say, "It's the economy, stupid." Before sitting down to write this, I e-mailed a bunch of friends in various professions and asked them about their work wear. The men overwhelmingly responded with an affinity for the aforementioned stiff shirts from Brooks Brothers, as well as half-brags about their disheveled appearances at the office. "I wind up wearing my lunch more often than not" one wrote [subtext: because I eat at my desk every day]. "I wear pleated-front pants because they're more comfortable," another admitted [subtext: I eat at my desk every day?and every night]. If you look good, you're obviously not working hard enough. Outdoing the next guy in terms of looking put-upon is the new pissing contest. In a world where profits are down, bankruptcies are rampant, and the most entrenched I-bankers are getting the heave-ho, you can't afford to look as though you spared an extra second thinking about the cut of your Charvet shirt. Did you go shopping for a Breguet instead of billing that extra hour? Are you interviewing? Because seriously, who wears a suit these days? Who has time for that? With subprime losses piling up, it's not just cubicle-bound young analysts who are being subjected to this sort of scrutiny. After all, Angelo Mozilo always looks like he put a lot of thought into his clothes. Company shareholders are more concerned with what the stewards of their wealth actually do. "Hey, nice suit, asshole. How much did it cost me?" In fact, it's not uncommon for the messiest guy in the office to also be the most heralded, a phenomenon that has made its way into popular culture. In Dana Vachon's recent novel, Mergers & Acquisitions, the only clear hero is the poor overweight slob to whom all J.S. Spenser's dirty work has been outsourced. The other guys?the ones who can tell the difference between a Turnbull & Asser and a Thomas Pink shirt "blindfolded"?are not so laudable. Women can take even more criticism if they seem overly concerned with their dress?often at the hands of female superiors. "I'm more 'fashiony,' which is definitely misunderstood and under-appreciated in my line of work," wrote a V.P. at one of New York's better banks. Sport more tailored and modern clothing and you get hit with a double-whammy?not only are you not working hard enough, you're trying to distract everyone else from their business. If you think that's all hooey, I'd ask you to recall the time Hillary Clinton showed up on the Senate floor revealing a centimeter of cleavage under her rose-colored blazer. No one went so far as to accuse her of trolling for a date, but no one exactly congratulated her on the outfit either. (Or glance at the wardrobes of such titans as Meg Whitman, who just stepped down from her post as eBay's C.E.O., and Irene Rosenfeld, head of Kraft Foods. For them, the way to success was brains, hard work, and separates from Talbots.) There are, of course, the rare exceptions to the rule. Julie Macklowe, portfolio manager for Sigma Capital Management, was recently recognized as an "It" girl by Vogue. And, speaking of that venerable title, fashion is perhaps the one industry where showing up looking like a slob or like a buttoned-up matron can get you into hot water. Don something less-than and you could face the same question: "Who has time for?that?" Wired.Com Dressing for Success Now Means Looking Like Hell {new window}   Www.Wired.Com - News From Portfolio.com Also on Portfolio FCC Head Links Net Neutrality With Fairness Doctrine U.S., Iran, Dubai: Axis of Commerce Online Ad Spending: It's Ugly Out There Subscribe to Portfolio magazine Get on an elevator in any Manhattan office building, and there's a good chance you'll find yourself surrounded by them: the tattersalls, the windowpanes, the mini-checks of Brooks Brothers' fleet of Non-Iron Dress Shirts. Inoffensive? Yes, as are the often-accompanying oxfords with Nike Air technology in the soles. But as the patterns blend together, they start to form a vaguely disturbing picture. Gone is the time when the Patrick Batemans of the world could hold pissing contests over the microscopic differences in their business card stocks, dismissing peons for the inferior weaves of their suits. These days, there are fewer distinctions between industries and power levels. Pretty much everyone looks more like they belong in tech support than in a partners' meeting. (View our slideshow to see how the captains of industry dress.) That's because somewhere between His Girl Friday and casual Friday, between black-tie and BlackBerrys, our workforce morphed from Mad Men into marathon men?and the race is not to the sartorial top, but to the bottom of the laundry pile. When the dot-com bubble burst, many predicted an end to Teva-wearing C.E.O.'s and even the curtailment of casual Fridays. Clearly the second tsunami of tech money, which brought twentysomethings in hoodies to the head of the conference table, has helped keep that from happening. But tech chic only has so much to do with the dressing down of the workforce. As Bill Clinton might say, "It's the economy, stupid." Before sitting down to write this, I e-mailed a bunch of friends in various professions and asked them about their work wear. The men overwhelmingly responded with an affinity for the aforementioned stiff shirts from Brooks Brothers, as well as half-brags about their disheveled appearances at the office. "I wind up wearing my lunch more often than not" one wrote [subtext: because I eat at my desk every day]. "I wear pleated-front pants because they're more comfortable," another admitted [subtext: I eat at my desk every day?and every night]. If you look good, you're obviously not working hard enough. Outdoing the next guy in terms of looking put-upon is the new pissing contest. In a world where profits are down, bankruptcies are rampant, and the most entrenched I-bankers are getting the heave-ho, you can't afford to look as though you spared an extra second thinking about the cut of your Charvet shirt. Did you go shopping for a Breguet instead of billing that extra hour? Are you interviewing? Because seriously, who wears a suit these days? Who has time for that? With subprime losses piling up, it's not just cubicle-bound young analysts who are being subjected to this sort of scrutiny. After all, Angelo Mozilo always looks like he put a lot of thought into his clothes. Company shareholders are more concerned with what the stewards of their wealth actually do. "Hey, nice suit, asshole. How much did it cost me?" In fact, it's not uncommon for the messiest guy in the office to also be the most heralded, a phenomenon that has made its way into popular culture. In Dana Vachon's recent novel, Mergers & Acquisitions, the only clear hero is the poor overweight slob to whom all J.S. Spenser's dirty work has been outsourced. The other guys?the ones who can tell the difference between a Turnbull & Asser and a Thomas Pink shirt "blindfolded"?are not so laudable. Women can take even more criticism if they seem overly concerned with their dress?often at the hands of female superiors. "I'm more 'fashiony,' which is definitely misunderstood and under-appreciated in my line of work," wrote a V.P. at one of New York's better banks. Sport more tailored and modern clothing and you get hit with a double-whammy?not only are you not working hard enough, you're trying to distract everyone else from their business. If you think that's all hooey, I'd ask you to recall the time Hillary Clinton showed up on the Senate floor revealing a centimeter of cleavage under her rose-colored blazer. No one went so far as to accuse her of trolling for a date, but no one exactly congratulated her on the outfit either. (Or glance at the wardrobes of such titans as Meg Whitman, who just stepped down from her post as eBay's C.E.O., and Irene Rosenfeld, head of Kraft Foods. For them, the way to success was brains, hard work, and separates from Talbots.) There are, of course, the rare exceptions to the rule. Julie Macklowe, portfolio manager for Sigma Capital Management, was recently recognized as an "It" girl by Vogue. And, speaking of that venerable title, fashion is perhaps the one industry where showing up looking like a slob or like a buttoned-up matron can get you into hot water. Don something less-than and you could face the same question: "Who has time for?that?"
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Published: August 14, 2008, 6:00 pm - Indexed: August 18, 2008, 10:36 pm - Page Size: 48KB
Category: News > Breaking News

]]> News > Breaking News {NORTH AMERICA > RENTALS} - 3 Guys looking for 4th Roommate (sunset / parkside) $725 http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/business-and-economy/real-estate/rentals/3-guys-looking-for-4th-roommate-sunset-parkside-2008083178.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/regional/north-america/united-states/california/metro-areas/san-francisco-bay-area/business-and-economy/real-estate/rentals/3-guys-looking-for-4th-roommate-sunset-parkside-2008083178.htm Mon, 11 Aug 2008 06:56:10 GMT One bedroom (shared bathroom) available in home-like three bedroom two bathroom flat on 19th Avenue at Taraval. Parking spot available. Wall to wall carpeting. Ocean view (when it’s clear). 10 minute bus ride to SF State. Across the street from L – Taraval MUNI streetcar (25 mins to downtown). Safeway around the corner Laundry on site (though the landlord could stand to update the heat on the dryer). Nice sized kitchen. Lots of windows looking out toward 19th Ave. ROOM: $725+UTILITIES: $80/month....Deposit:$ 800 (per landlord) A BIT ABOUT US: Three gay men, early 20s, student-workers. One Fashion major/retail employee, one journalism major/retail manager, martial arts receptionist/childrens camp leader. Think Golden Girls meets Designing Women, we’re like a family that loves to drink and dance. Also enjoy casual nights at home with wine, Poker, 420, Hypnotiq, The Cheesecake Factory, breakfast for dinner, all things Fashion, Sex and the City, Castro, CSI, Law & Order, Project Runway, ANTM, etc. All clean, responsible, friendly, and mature. Can be witty, loud, humorous, sarcastic, sassy, quiet, spontaneous, sporadic, and flamboyant. WHAT WE’RE SEEKING: Early 20s GOOD CREDIT (landlord requiring an application/credit process) NO PETS If you can cook, that’s great Knows how to utilize the bathroom/shower under a time crunch Likes to socialize with the roomies (inside and out of the apartment) An In and Out Burger lover Clean Responsible Sense of Humor Fun Knows to keep the party outside COURTEOUS OPEN-MINDED PLEASE INCLUDE INFORMATION ABOUT YOURSELF, A PHONE NUMBER, AND BEST TIME TO BE CONTACTED IN THE EMAIL. THANKS…. WE LOOK FORWARD TO MEETING YOU…HAPPY HUNTING!!! MATT TONY TERRY Sfbay.Craigslist.Org 3 Guys looking for 4th Roommate (sunset / parkside) $725 {new window}   Sfbay.Craigslist.Org - One bedroom (shared bathroom) available in home-like three bedroom two bathroom flat on 19th Avenue at Taraval. Parking spot available. Wall to wall carpeting. Ocean view (when it’s clear). 10 minute bus ride to SF State. Across the street from L – Taraval MUNI streetcar (25 mins to downtown). Safeway around the corner Laundry on site (though the landlord could stand to update the heat on the dryer). Nice sized kitchen. Lots of windows looking out toward 19th Ave. ROOM: $725+UTILITIES: $80/month....Deposit:$ 800 (per landlord) A BIT ABOUT US: Three gay men, early 20s, student-workers. One Fashion major/retail employee, one journalism major/retail manager, martial arts receptionist/childrens camp leader. Think Golden Girls meets Designing Women, we’re like a family that loves to drink and dance. Also enjoy casual nights at home with wine, Poker, 420, Hypnotiq, The Cheesecake Factory, breakfast for dinner, all things Fashion, Sex and the City, Castro, CSI, Law & Order, Project Runway, ANTM, etc. All clean, responsible, friendly, and mature. Can be witty, loud, humorous, sarcastic, sassy, quiet, spontaneous, sporadic, and flamboyant. WHAT WE’RE SEEKING: Early 20s GOOD CREDIT (landlord requiring an application/credit process) NO PETS If you can cook, that’s great Knows how to utilize the bathroom/shower under a time crunch Likes to socialize with the roomies (inside and out of the apartment) An In and Out Burger lover Clean Responsible Sense of Humor Fun Knows to keep the party outside COURTEOUS OPEN-MINDED PLEASE INCLUDE INFORMATION ABOUT YOURSELF, A PHONE NUMBER, AND BEST TIME TO BE CONTACTED IN THE EMAIL. THANKS…. WE LOOK FORWARD TO MEETING YOU…HAPPY HUNTING!!! MATT TONY TERRY
3 Guys looking for 4th Roommate {...}
Published: August 11, 2008, 6:56 am - Indexed: August 11, 2008, 1:10 pm - Page Size: 6KB
Category: Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Business and Economy > Real Estate > Rentals

]]> Regional > North America > United States > California > Metro Areas > San Francisco Bay Area > Business and Economy > Real Estate > Rentals {INTERNET > GOOGLE} - Technologies behind Google ranking http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/internet/searching/search-engines/google/technologies-behind-google-ranking-2008083689.htm http://articles.world-of-newave.info/computers/internet/searching/search-engines/google/technologies-behind-google-ranking-2008083689.htm Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:26:11 GMT In my previous post, I introduced the philosophies behind Google ranking. As part of our effort to discuss search quality, I want to tell you more about the technologies behind our ranking. The core technology in our ranking system comes from the academic field of Information Retrieval (IR). The IR community has studied search for almost 50 years. It uses statistical signals of word salience, like word frequency, to rank pages. (See "Modern Information Retrieval: A Brief Overview" for a quick overview of IR technology.) IR gave us a solid foundation, and we have built a tremendous system on top using links, page structure, and many other such innovations. Search in the last decade has moved from give me what I said to give me what I want. User expectations from search have rightly increased. We work hard to fulfill the expectations of each and every user, and to do that we need to better understand the pages, the queries, and our users. Over the last decade we have pushed the technologies for understanding these three components (of the search process) to completely new dimensions.When we talk about queries at Google, we use square brackets [ ] to mark the beginning and end of queries (see "How to write queries" by Matt Cutts), a notation I will use throughout this post. (Pages and search results change frequently, so in time, some examples used here may not behave as explained.) Understanding pages: Over years we have invested heavily in our crawl and indexing system. As a result we have a very large and very fresh index. In addition to size and freshness, we have improved our index in other ways. One of the key technologies we have developed to understand pages is associating important concepts to a page even when they are not obvious on the page. We find the official homepage for Sprovieri Gallery in London for the Italian query [galleria sprovieri londra], even though the official page does not have either London or Londra on it. In the U.S., a user searching for [cool tech pc vancouver, wa] finds the homepage www.cooltechpc.com even though the page does not mention anywhere that they are in Vancouver, WA. Other technologies we have developed include distinctions between important and less important words in the page and the freshness of the information on the page. Understanding queries: It is critical that we understand what our users are looking for (beyond just the few words in their query). We have made several notable advances in this area including a best-in-class spelling suggestion system, an advanced synonyms system, and a very strong concept analysis system. Most users have used our spelling suggestion system at one time or another. It knows that someone searching for [kofee annan] is really searching for Mr. Kofi Annan, and is prompted: Did you mean: kofi annan; whereas someone searching for [kofee beans] is actually looking for coffee beans. Doing this internationally with very high accuracy is hard, and we do it well. Synonyms are the foundation of our query understanding work. This is one of the hardest problems we are solving at Google. Though sometimes obvious to humans, it is an unsolved problem in automatic language processing. As a user, I don't want to think too much about what words I should use in my queries. Often I don't even know what the right words are. This is where our synonyms system comes into action. Our synonyms system can do sophisticated query modifica