Lucasfilm + Cartoon Network: Clone Wars

Picking up where Episode II left off, the saga of the Clone Wars will continue through animated shorts premiering this year from the Cartoon Network and Lucasfilm Ltd. Star Wars: Clone Wars will be a series of 20 animated shorts that will air on the Cartoon Network in 2003-2004 between other programming.
Helming this new series is Genndy Tartakovsky (see Three-Minute Epics: A Look at Star Wars: Clone Wars), the acclaimed creator of "Samurai Jack" and "Dexter's Laboratory." The episodic shorts will be two- to three-minutes in length and will air exclusively on Cartoon Network at regularly scheduled times beginning this fall.
The epic Clone Wars dominated the final years of the Galactic Republic, as Jedi-led clone troopers battled against the evil forces of the Separatists. Joining already established Star Wars characters in the series will be several new and ruthless adversaries.
"We are incredibly excited to be working with Lucasfilm in creating an animated story that extends one of the world's most beloved entertainment properties," said Sam Register, senior vice president of development for Cartoon Network. "Cartoon Network's creative team will work hand-in-hand with Lucasfilm to make sure that our common vision for Clone Wars thrills Star Wars fans around the world."
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StarWars: The Case for the Empire

Like the United Nations, the Republic has no armed forces of its own, but instead relies on a group of warriors, the Jedi knights, to "keep the peace." The Jedi, while autonomous, often work in tandem with the Senate, trying to smooth over quarrels and avoid conflicts. But the Jedi number only in the thousands--they cannot protect everyone.
What's more, it's not clear that they should be "protecting" anyone. The Jedi are Lucas's great heroes, full of Zen wisdom and righteous power. They encourage people to "use the Force"--the mystical energy which is the source of their power--but the truth, revealed in "The Phantom Menace," is that the Force isn't available to the rabble. The Force comes from midi-chlorians, tiny symbiotic organisms in people's blood, like mitochondria. The Force, it turns out, is an inherited, genetic trait. If you don't have the blood, you don't get the Force. Which makes the Jedi not a democratic militia, but a royalist Swiss guard....
In all of the time we spend observing the Rebel Alliance, we never hear of their governing strategy or their plans for a post-Imperial universe. All we see are plots and fighting. Their victory over the Empire doesn't liberate the galaxy--it turns the galaxy into Somalia writ large: dominated by local warlords who are answerable to no one
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Save the Tree Octopus

The Pacific Northwest tree octopus (Octopus paxarbolis) can be found in the temperate rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula on the west coast of North America. Their habitat lies on the Eastern side of the Olympic mountain range, adjacent to Hood Canal. These solitary cephalopods reach an average size (measured from arm-tip to mantle-tip,) of 30-33 cm. Unlike most other cephalopods, tree octopi are amphibious, spending only their early life and the period of their mating season in their ancestrial [sic] aquatic environment. Because of the moistness of the rainforests and specialized skin adaptations, they are able to keep from becoming desiccated for prolonged periods of time, but given the chance they would prefer resting in pooled water.
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Get Packin’

Picked up my itinerary from email today. Wondered what do about packing for about a minute, then realized the TV...

London with the Leader

Had to visit London, to check up on my parents’ place. It’s been a couple of weeks, and the fish...

Party Hardy with the LCBO

Pretty schway party last night – managed to cram over 15 people into my TV room (the room where if...

Tickets Away

It’s official – I’m going to San Francisco to visit my brother. Picked up the tickets on Expedia.ca — it...

New ‘Brain Fingerprinting’ Could Help Solve Crimes

A technique called "brain fingerprinting," which seeks to probe whether a suspect has specific knowledge of a crime, could become a powerful weapon in national security, its inventor believes.

Eat This, Kellog

Best known today for his inadvertent invention of corn flakes cereal--occurring when a pan of baking grain was left unattended during a medical emergency--Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was 43 years old when he wrote the above lines. He had never partaken of the connubial pleasures of his wife's bed, believed masturbation to be a sin best cured through copious enema treatments, and sought to cure his patient's ills through daily applications of yogurt--introduced at the body's two ends--aided by colon-wracking machines that could ably pump 15 gallons of water into a hapless behind in just a few seconds.

Saddam Enrages Bush With Full Compliance

From The Onion (http://www.theonion.com)
WASHINGTON, DC.President Bush expressed frustration and anger Monday over a U.N. report stating that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein is now fully complying with weapons inspections. "Enough is enough," a determined Bush told reporters. "We are not fooled by Saddam's devious attempts to sway world opinion by doing everything the U.N. asked him to do. We will not be intimidated into backing down and, if we have any say in the matter, neither will Saddam." Bush added that any further Iraqi attempt to meet the demands of the U.N. or U.S. will be regarded as "an act of war."