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I find it interesting that Scorsese hasn't spoken to Dylan.

Scorsese Hasn't Spoken to Dylan About Film

Martin Scorsese has been working on a film about Bob Dylan for two years and there's one important person he hasn't spoken to about it: Bob Dylan.

"I'd not like to deal with the man directly," Scorsese told television critics this weekend. "I'd like to create the story, to find the story, first of all, and then play it out the way I think it's right."

The film concentrates on Dylan's early performing years from 1961 to 1966 and will run this summer as part of the PBS "American Masters" series. Scorsese directed "The Last Waltz," chronicling the final performance of former Dylan backup The Band.

Scorsese has access to 10 hours of fresh Dylan interviews conducted by the singer's manager, and said he may eventually ask Dylan a few questions. Even then, he can never be quite sure if the always inscrutable Dylan is being upfront or not.

"I'm trying to make as honest a film as possible without unnecessary restrictions," he said. "But I think for me, of course, I'm on his side, so I might come out in terms of a pro-Dylan."

The Perry Bible Fellowship

Edwardo! Happy Birthday! Hopefully there will be a celebration? Keep us posted.

There will be as a matter of fact. It will be Friday night at the Royal Oak on Laurier near Ottawa U.

Everyone is welcome.

WASHINGTON, - Rat cells grown onto microscopic silicon chips worked as tiny robots, perhaps a first step towards a self-assembling device, researchers working in the United States reported on Sunday.

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They described a new method for attaching living cells to silicon chips. They then got the combined entities to move like tiny, primitive legs.

Writing in the journal Nature Materials, Jianzhong Xi, Jacob Schmidt and Carlo Montemagno of the University of California Los Angeles said it is possible to make such devices, starting with a single cell “seeded” on a specially treated silicon chip.

Related story

Scientists wire up rats for remote control

They used rat heart cells in one experiment and created a tiny device that moved on its own as the cells contracted.

A second device looked like a minuscule pair of frog legs.

“A microdevice had two 'legs’ extending from the body at 45-degree angles; each leg had a 'foot’ extending at a 45-degree angle,” the researchers wrote.

It may eventually be possible to grow self-assembling machines using the method, they said.

Happy Birthday Broseph.

Happy Birthday Homeboy.

And I suppose this is just an urban legend too. pfft

The heirs of rock legend Jerry Garcia are suing a burrito franchise based in Atlanta for improper use of the singer's image in its restaurants and advertising.

Not only does Moe's Southwest Grill offer the "Alfredo Garcia" fajita (choice of grilled chicken, steak or tofu with lettuce, salsa, and shredded cheese), but nearly all 130 restaurants prominently display a portrait of the renowned singer, the suit filed by Jerry Garcia Estate LLC claims.

Although the estate administers licensing for several products bearing Garcia's likeness, such as the Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor "Cherry Garcia," the singer's heirs claim Moe's never sought licensing for the portraits, ads, fliers or commercials graced with Garcia's mug.

The suit also condemns the use of an altered lyric from Grateful Dead song, "Casey Jones," that appears beneath portraits of Garcia.

The plaintiff claims the altered lyric "Trouble ahead, trouble behind, just have my taco ready in time," was misappropriated.

"Just in case a consumer is not certain that the likeness in the portrait is Mr. Garcia, Moe's clinched the identification by using famous song lyrics readily associated with Mr. Garcia," the suit complains.

Founded in 2001 by Garcia's widow, children and brother to protect and promote Garcia's legacy, and managed by music lawyer Christopher Sabec, the estate claims the franchise violated federal trademark and copyright laws by using Garcia's image to reap "ill-gotten benefits."

Even so, Brooke Oliver, intellectual property counsel for the Estate, says licensing would not have necessarily been granted in this instance.

"It's not the sort of product the heirs are interested in associating Jerry Garcia's likeness with," Oliver said, adding that the sort of licensing Moe's might have sought would have cost at least $75,000 per store for a short-term agreement.

Moreover, the estate claims Moe's use of Garcia's image creates "confusion among consumers" by wrongly suggesting "sponsorship or an implied endorsement of Moe's restaurants" by Garcia.

"Defendant's widespread misappropriation of Mr. Garcia's likeness, song lyrics and name have turned the internationally famous musician, artist and founder of the 'Grateful Dead' into little more than a taco huckster," the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, claims.

Moe's Southwestern Grill LLC, along with its parent company, Raving Brands, are named in the suit, which seeks unspecified damages, along with injunctive relief and restitution.

Martin Sprock, the franchise's founder and CEO and his wife, Leann, are also named in the suit.

The couple started the Atlanta-based franchise in 2000. Its name is an acronym for musicians, outlaws and entertainers, and the chain uses the images and music of entertainers such as Jim Morrison, Bob Marley, Janis Joplin and Elvis in all of its establishments.

Moe's Southwestern Grill spokesperson Heather Graham declined to comment on the case.

But the company's vice president, Matt Andrew, released a statement claiming the restaurants have already taken down all portraits of Garcia. He also refuted allegations that Moe's used Garcia's image to promote sales.

"We recognize that the First Amendment protects an artist's ability to create artwork and anyone's right to display that artwork if in lawful possession of it, even if it bears similarity to a public figure," Andrew said. "We doubt seriously anyone would need to remind Mr. Garcia of the First Amendment were he alive."

Michael Crain, co-counsel for the estate, found those statements questionable.

"We're not going after the artist that painted the picture. We're going after the big corporation that used it to capitalize on his image," Crain said.

By RACHEL D'ORO

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Al Grillo / The Associated Press

It's good to have large friends: Carlos Owens Jr. stands next to his 18-foot tall hydraulic "mecha" earlier this month at his parents' house in Wasilla. Owens envisions the humanoid machine he's building will shoot nine-inch nails from the shoulders and 20-foot flames from the forearms.

WASILLA - As Carlos Owens Jr. envisions it, the humanoid machine he's building will shoot nine-inch nails from the shoulders and 20-foot flames from the forearms. "You've got to have flame-throwers!" he says.

The red backlit eyes of his 18-foot hydraulic mecha - please don't call it a robot - will glow, but they're just for show. Five cameras will be the real eyes, allowing the operator riding inside the steel contraption to see via a laptop computer and flatscreen monitor rigged inside.

When it's all done, he'll have a walking exoskeleton that will make him stronger than a grizzly bear, he said. So what if this is the stuff of science fiction fantasies?

"I'm 110 percent positive this will work," the soft-spoken apprentice ironworker said during a recent break from the all-consuming project taking shape in his parent's back yard. "Failure is not an option. I have no choice but to do this. If I don't do it, I will explode."

So great is his confidence that Owens, 27, already has arranged to debut his mecha at a demolition show where it will bash cars this summer at a local racetrack just north of Anchorage.

And that's only the beginning for the Philippines-born offspring of retired Air Force members. Owens, a former heavy equipment mechanic with the Army Reserves, imagines mechas boxing in arenas, fighting wildfires, repairing distant space stations, even fighting enemy soldiers in battle. The U.S. military has spent millions and a half decade developing a limited exoskeleton to help soldiers carry supplies.

Owens figures his prototype, which he began building in October 2003, will set him back about $20,000.

Standing in his parents' back yard on a subfreezing morning in January, the 6-foot-5 Owens was dwarfed by the slouching rusty red exoskeleton.

It's the culmination of two previous attempts and a lifetime fascination with the inner workings of machinery. A 35-foot wooden template built in 2001 now lies folded in another part of the property. In the winter of 2002 Owens began building a 25-foot mecha, which turned out too great for his shoestring budget. He scaled down, transferring the steel parts to the present project he covers with a tarp to shield it from the snow.

Besides mild steel - stainless would be too expensive - 23 hydraulic cylinders are woven throughout, giving the mecha 46 possible movements. An 18-horsepower gas engine will provide the power and a car battery the juice for the computer, cameras, lights and sound effects. Fiberglass skin will allow the operator to stay fully hidden.

Much of the parts have come from auto parts stores and online vendors.

Owens plans to pad a central compartment in which to operate the mecha, controlling it with his own movements. When he lifts a leg or flexes an arm so will his creation, according to the plan. The finished product will be painted black with red trim and will look like a giant robot, he says.

Success hinges on finding a way to balance a machine packing 3,500 pounds per square inch. To counter the possibility of falling down inside his steel armor, Owens has built the bottom half to weigh far more than the top. He's also installed "training feet" to rely on until he gets the hang of it.

"It's costing me a bit, but that's OK," he said. "Dreams don't come cheap."

The germ of that dream was sparked in childhood with his first look at "The Transformers" cartoons, further fueled by sci-fi movies, such as "Star Wars" and the "Alien" series. Don't even get him started on the implications explored last summer by the Will Smith flick, "I, Robot."

No wonder his parents take his current obsession in stride. They recall the times he raided scrap yards, once bringing home a lawnmower to simply take it apart. When he was seven, he dismantled a toy robot and put it back together. As a teenager, he wanted to build a boat, but his mother, Randi Owens, quickly put her foot down. Now she just watches as her son works on his most ambitious endeavor to date, even on the coldest days when numb hands are no excuse to quit.

"He eats, sleeps and drinks this thing," Randi Owens said. "This is his passion."

Don't forget the easter eggs under "O" and "!" in the last screen.

"My most of me!"

Congradulations Eric and Denise. ::

GIVEAWAYS: C-3P0's Cereal came armed with enough free sh!t to entice even the most skeptical-of-droid consumers. One of the better premiums was a plastic rocket toy that could be assembled and shot up to the heavens, but more desirable were sets of four die-cast "micro figures" -- leftover stock from Kenner's somewhat misfired attempt to branch out the toyline with a tiny-sized series. There were other freebies too, though nothing as interesting as dildo rockets or lead-dipped micro figures. One was a set of stickers/trading cards, while the final prize was what's shown above: cardboard cutout masks on the boxbacks. I'm not going to slice up my box, sorry, but if you'd like to BE Luke Skywalker, Click here for a full-sized scan of the madness that you can print out, cut out, rock out and rock on with. There were other characters available, six in total.

[india News]: Hajo (Assam), Jan 15:

Over 300 birds, high on marijuana, fight as thousands of spectators goad them with drum beats and cymbals at the annual harvest festival in Hajo village, 30 km west of Guwahati.

Bird fights, using the red-vented Bulbuls, a 20-cm-long bird of the Pycnonotus Cafer family, are an integral part of the Bihu celebrations at Hajo, with residents training the birds for a fortnight prior to the event.

In the two-day festival that concludes Saturday, at least 300 intoxicated birds are coaxed to fight each other by their temporary owners for a trophy and a cash reward of Rs.1,000.

Locals catch the birds from the forest using bamboo traps, according to a village elder, Chinmoy Das.

For 20 days, the birds are fed an intoxicating concoction consisting of a small amount of marijuana along with other herbs, bananas, black pepper, cloves and cinnamon.

"We feed the birds regularly to make them strong and sharp for the fight," village elder Haricharan Kalita told IANS.

Their legs tied with a string, the inebriated birds are then goaded to fight each other on the precincts of a Hindu temple.

"It is a part of our long tradition and people come from afar during the Bihu season to witness these annual bird fights," said local resident Ambar Bora.

Once the fights are over, the birds are set free. "We treat the birds humanely during the entire period and once the event is over we release them," said Hiranya Das, one of the organizers of this unique bird fight.

The number of bird fights is, however, on the decline with the species, locally known as Bulbuli, moving towards extinction.

"Earlier we had 800 to 1,000 birds fighting each other. But now the birds are vanishing and so this year we have just about 300 birds in the event," another organizer said.

--Indo-Asian News Service

There's surprisingly limited information on C-3P0's out there, or so says a five second Google search, so I might as we'll go full monty. Shown above is one of the box's side panels -- its intent is to make you look at C-3P0's and see destiny in wait. The "New Force at Breakfast" outsmarted other, lesser cereals with its patented "double crunch" technology, a modification that provides you twice as many crunches with C-3P0's than any foreseeable contender. Symbolic of the advanced technical achievements seen in the films, "double crunching" is more powerful than any cinnamon sprinkle.

Click Here for the article

If you don't mind being a corperate whore. Telus is in the top 10 in canada to work for.

Great benifits.

TELUS

This is playing in the mall right now...

Last night I had the strangest dream

I sailed away to China

In a little row boat to find ya

And you said you had to get your laundry cleaned

Didn't want no-one to hold you

What does that mean

And you said

Ain't nothin' gonna to break my stride

Nobody's gonna slow me down, oh-no

I got to keep on movin'

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

I'm running and I won't touch ground

Oh-no, I got to keep on movin'

You're on the road and now you pray it lasts

The road behind was rocky

But now you're feeling cocky

You look at me and you see your past

Is that the reason why you're runnin' so fast

And she said

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

Nobody's gonna slow me down, oh-no

I got to keep on moving

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

I'm running and I won't touch ground

Oh-no, I got to keep on moving

Never let another girl like you, work me over

Never let another girl like you, drag me under

If I meet another girl like you, I will tell her

Never want another girl like you, have to say

Ooooooh

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

Nobody's gonna slow me down

Oh-no, oh-no, I got to keep on moving

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

I'm running and I won't touch the ground

Oh-no, I got to keep on movin'

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

Nobody's gonna slow me down

Oh-no, oh-no, I got to keep on moving

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

I'm running and I won't touch the ground

Oh-no, I got to keep on movin'

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

Nobody's gonna slow me down

Oh-no, I got to keep on moving

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

I'm running and I won't touch the ground

Oh-no, I got to keep on movin'

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride

Nobody's gonna slow me down

Oh-no, oh-no, I got to keep on moving

For those who like the movie, don't forget that it's based on a novel: The Short Timers by Gustav Hasford. I think it's out of print, but your local library or used book store might have a copy. I read an excerpt from it (in a retrospective anthology by Frederik Pohl, who edited it), and it was heart-stopping.

Aloha,

Brad

Thanks BradM

I'll definatley check it out.

Oh that's right, Private Pyle, don't make any fu©king effort to get to the top of the fu©king obstacle. If God would have wanted you up there he would have miracled your ass up there by now, wouldn't he?

Judy... You're fired.

The deadliest weapon in the world is a marine and his rifle. It is your killer instinct which must be harnessed if you expect to survive in combat. Your rifle is only a tool. It is a hard heart that kills. If your killer instincts are not clean and strong you will hesitate at the moment of truth. You will not kill. You will become dead marines and then you will be in a world of sh!t because marines are not allowed to die without permission. Do you maggots understand?

This is my rifle.

There are many like it, but this one is MINE.

My rifle is my best friend. It is my life.

I must master it as I must master my life.

My rifle without me is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless.

I must fire my rifle true.

I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is trying to kill me.

I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will...

My rifle and myself know that what counts in war is not the rounds we fire,

the noise of our bursts, nor the smoke we make.

We know it is the hits that count. We will hit...

My rifle is human, even as I, because it is my life.

Thus, I will learn it as a brother.

I will learn its weaknesses, its strengths, its parts, its accessories,

its sights, and its barrel.

I will ever guard it against the ravages of weather and damage.

I will keep my rifle clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready.

We will become part of each other. We will...

Before God I swear this creed.

My rifle and myself are the defenders of my country.

We are the masters of our enemy.

We are the saviors of my life.

So be it, until there is no enemy, but PEACE.