Star Wars Follow ons

More of me there is

Lucas will do two Starwars TV series: A Cartoon and Live Action:

The fan-anticipated "Star Wars Celebration III" convention in Indianapolis drew big crowds and a few big scoops in regards to the fate of the popular Lucas sci-fi franchsie. After several minutes of footage from "Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith", Producer Rick McCallum conducted a Q&A and confirmed a few details.

"Revenge of the Sith" final running time of is 131 minutes (though official reports last week listed it at 141 minutes), the film itself had the last touches added to it on Tuesday. Whilst they plan to do Star Wars in 3-D, they have no real timetable due to the lack of technology available.

Lucas got a script for Indiana Jones 4 last week and Spielberg plans to make it the film he does after his next one (likely the Munich Olympics terrorist flick). By that timetable it would put in on track for a Summer 2007 release.

Meanwhile, Lucas himself appeared and talked about the TV plans for the future. There are two TV series in development - a half hour 3-D computer animated series, and a live action series starring some supporting characters featured in the movies.

Production on the live action show would begin in about a year and unlike other shows, all the scripts for every episode will be done first and then shooting will happen in one big block. Lucas himself would handle at least the pilot. Judging by this timetable it would probably start airing sometime 2007.

Thanks to 'Justin'

Putting the "fried" back in Fried Chicken.

"With", you forgot the "With"

I never knew they only used "KFC" so they could stop saying "fried". It didn't work with me - I knew it was fried - crispy batter outside and all - and I and my kind called it Kentucky Fried Chicken.

After 14 years of trying to downplay the image of its food as greasy and unhealthy by calling itself simply KFC, the chain opened a new restaurant in its hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, on Wednesday under its former name and plans 50 more this year.

Nuts

Fashion

aHEM aHEM

Chinese Men Measure Up to Others Below the Belt

A group of scientists in Hong Kong spent five months from October last year measuring 148 ethnic Chinese volunteers aged between 23 and 93.

The average length of their (AHEM AHEM) was 3.33 inches, which compared favorably with similar studies on other men overseas.

Germans have average lengths of about 3.4 inches, Israelis 3.27 inches, Turks 3.07 inches and Filippinos 2.89 inches. Italians were the longest at 3.54 inches, and Americans averaged 3.46 inches.

Rouge Wave

Rouge Waves

Oh me gosh: Seven-Story-High Wave Hits Cruise Ship

A seven-story-high wave damaged a cruise ship returning from the Bahamas over the weekend, smashing windows, flooding more than 60 cabins and injuring four passengers.
...
The ship's hull was damaged but the vessel was not taking on water, said Keith Moore of the Coast Guard Group Charleston.

Here's a scientifc explanation:

Once dismissed as a nautical myth, freakish ocean waves that rise as tall as ten-storey apartment blocks have been accepted as a leading cause of large ship sinkings. Results from ESA's ERS satellites helped establish the widespread existence of these 'rogue' waves and are now being used to study their origins.

"The same phenomenon could have sunk many less lucky vessels: two large ships sink every week on average, but the cause is never studied to the same detail as an air crash. It simply gets put down to 'bad weather'."

Well, There are rouge waves and there are leprechauns.

Pot o' Gold

SF housing
Homeowners find much to appreciate. Despite rising interest rates, sales and prices in the Bay Area rocket to new highs. How high? The annual increase in the median home price now tops the region's typical household income.
...
The numbers say it all: Between February and March, the median price for a single-family house jumped $36,000, or 6.3 percent. Over the last 12 months, it soared $106,000, or 21 percent, hitting $605,000 in March.
...
During a tour for real estate agents at a home in San Francisco's Noe Valley early this week, agent John Abbott feared he would exhaust his sheaf of 75 flyers as dozens of buyers' agents trouped through the creaky 1,200-square- foot Victorian listed for $1.25 million.
...
But even those home sellers flush with cash find it difficult to trade up for a new property. Most homes in desirable areas fetch at least a handful of offers; and some, like a three-bedroom home on Winfield Street in Bernal Heights, garner more than two dozen and sell for at least $250,000 above the asking price.
...
DataQuick's research shows the typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed to in March was $2,566, an all-time high. In spite of an eight-week stretch of rising mortgage rates in February and March, however, sales and prices have remained strong.

Bay Area Flipping:
Brian Brager has bought and sold 13 Bay Area homes over the past 18 months or so, making at least $25,000 each time. A general contractor, he buys ``fixer-uppers'' worth up to about $1 million. He makes repairs and adds upgrades -- new flooring, new kitchens, new paint -- then sells them at a profit within a few months.

He's not alone in ``flipping'' houses. The potentially risky practice has hit a new high in Santa Clara County, according to recent data. As home prices have increased, so has public interest in reaping quick profits from the hot Bay Area real estate market.

Of the 1,882 houses and condos sold in the county in February, 4.5 percent -- about 84 homes -- had been purchased within the previous six months, according to DataQuick Information Systems. That's up from 3 percent in February 2004.
...
Last year he bought a Santa Clara house listed at about $435,000. Because there were other bids, he paid $467,000. He spent about $75,000 for upgrades and repairs -- new driveway, wiring, landscaping, windows, hardwood floors, maple cabinets, marble shower -- and sold it within six months for $640,000. After commissions, property tax and mortgage costs, that left him with a profit of more than $50,000.

There are no guarantees when it comes to flipping, however.

``If the market shifts, some of these people are going to get caught short,'' Rossi said.
...
Rossi said legal problems can occur when a listing agent buys a property from the seller he or she is representing, then flips it without disclosing the intention to do so. The listing agent should have disclosed to the seller that the home was worth more -- or could be worth more with a little cosmetic fixing up, he said.

Rossi said he's seen flipping -- and associated legal problems -- spike in each of the past four decades. In the past, some speculators flipped properties -- often new homes -- by reselling them before escrow had even closed.

Many would-be flippers are restrained by the high prices of Bay Area homes, even fixer uppers. But over the past year, many home builders have added clauses to purchase contracts to forbid the practice.

In addition to flipping houses locally, Bay Area residents have invested heavily in property outside the area, especially in places like Las Vegas, Sacramento suburbs and Phoenix. In the first eight months of 2004, Bay Area buyers purchased more than 13,700 homes outside the region and somewhere in western states. It's not known how many of those properties have already been sold again.

Creator of Lucky Charms cereal killed in car crash

There's gold in them th'r peanuts

FYI

Creator of Lucky Charms cereal killed in car crash

RICHFIELD, Minnesota (AP) -- The creator of Lucky Charms cereal and his wife were killed in a Minnesota traffic accident on their way to visit their comatose daughter, who died two days later.

John Holahan, 83, a former General Mills vice president, apparently ran a stop sign and steered into a truck's path on Wednesday, police said. His wife Rosalind, 84, died at the scene. He died four hours later.

Their daughter, Shannon Kilkenny, 51, lost her fight with liver cancer on Friday.

"That was pretty much my immediate family," John Holahan Jr. said Sunday. "This is a terrible tragedy for all of us."

The elder Holahans had been married for 60 years.

They might have taken some comfort in knowing they had died together, said the younger Holahan's wife, Midge Holahan. "I think that they also would be very happy to know that they died before their daughter did," she said.

For years, John Holahan shared the story of Lucky Charms -- toasted oat cereal with marshmallow bits -- with students in his hometown of Annandale as a lesson in creativity and marketing.

He recalled stumbling upon orange marshmallow peanuts while brainstorming in 1963, cutting them up and then sprinkling them over Cheerios. "I knew we had a winner," he said.

Emphasis on marketing.

pac-man

Yummy

This was my Saturday morning cereal of choice in college '82-'85. 

Saturday Cartoons and Pacman cereal.  A great way to pass a hangover.

Why is this box red and not green?