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Hollywood is buzzing about the special effects team that animated Gollum in 'The Lord of the Rings' and the actor who gave him a soul.

By P.J. Huffstutter and Alex Pham
Times Staff Writers

December 17 2002

After a recent Beverly Hills screening of "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences walked out of the three-hour epic buzzing about "him."

Not actor Viggo Mortensen, who plays the hunky, sword-wielding Aragorn. Not Elijah Wood, cast as the diminutive, ring-bearing hero Frodo. Instead, the chatter focused on Gollum, the wheezing, lisping wretch who plays Frodo's foil.

What a stunning performance. An Oscar contender. He's just great!

Technically, Gollum is not a "he," but an "it" -- an agglomeration of 1s and 0s that required six years of research, scores of computer programmers and countless cycles of processing power to make the animated amphibious creature as believable as human actors.

The key, though, was a human actor -- a classically trained Shakespearean stage player named Andy Serkis whose face never appears on-screen, but nonetheless infuses Gollum with enough sadness and pain to make him perhaps the most believable computer-generated character in a movie.

Animated film characters have mingled on-screen with live actors since Gene Kelly danced with Jerry the Mouse in 1945's "Anchors Aweigh." And animators long have been able to squeeze a response out of audiences -- whether it's the tearful death of Bambi's mother or the fearful rampage of the Tyrannosaurus rex in "Jurassic Park."

Yet despite the advances made by powerful computers in animation, most characters have never felt like anything but special effects novelties to humans adept at distinguishing life from lifelike.

Gollum's debut in "The Two Towers" marks the strongest marriage to date of technology and art in moviemaking. Already, Hollywood is talking about Academy Award nominations both for the team that gave Gollum life and the actor who gave him a soul.

"What's the difference between John Hurt wearing a latex mask in 'The Elephant Man' and Andy Serkis wearing a pixel mask of Gollum now?" asked Russell Schwartz, president of domestic marketing for New Line Cinema, which releases the movie Wednesday. "There's no difference. They're both human."

Making Gollum believable was the biggest technical and artistic challenge for Peter Jackson, who directed "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. In the J.R.R. Tolkien series on which the movies are based, Gollum is a central figure, a Hobbit disfigured and driven mad by the power of the One Ring.

"Peter's biggest fear, even back in the earliest days, was that audiences would not think of Gollum as a 'he,' " said Lulu Zezza, a former production supervisor on the "Lord of the Rings" series.

"Peter thought the success of these movies hinged on Gollum being real, being believable," she said. "If he missed on Gollum, if he didn't create the hugely dimensional character that he is in the books, the movies would fail."

The burden fell to Serkis, known for his leading roles in "King Lear" and "Macbeth" at London's Royal Court Theater. When he met with Jackson and co-producer and writer Fran Walsh in London in the late 1990s, the actor thought he was trying out for a voice-over job.

"My thought was, 'Why can't my agent get me up for a decent part?' " Serkis said.

The job was quickly clarified. Serkis flew to New Zealand and, for nearly 18 months, joined the rest of the cast in principal photography. That alone was unusual.

When animated characters appear in movies, they are generally added after the fact by technicians and artists. A crew member may read lines or go through the motions to give actors a point of reference. But for director Jackson, there was never a question of using someone other than the person cast in the role of Gollum.

That decision added time and money to the project, but Jackson's reasoning was that stunt people and crew members don't have the same ability as actors to speak with their bodies and convey emotion through something as simple as a stare. Serkis' performances during the original shoot became the foundation of what audiences see on screen.

Each scene that included Gollum was shot at least twice during principal photography, when most of the film is shot. The first time was with Serkis in front of the camera with his fellow actors so they could create an emotional energy and give key data to the lighting and animation teams.

On the second round, Serkis stepped off-camera and the scene was reshot, giving the effects crew a "clean" pass of the scene and space to put in the digital creature.

As the rest of the cast returned home, Serkis stayed in New Zealand and donned a motion-capture suit, acting out for the third time every scene in front of a blank screen.

The suit looks like a wetsuit fitted with dozens of sensors tied to a computer.

When Serkis moved, an electronic skeleton parroted each motion precisely.

The monitoring also covered his face, which was dotted like a pox. Each twitch, smile or grimace was recorded digitally.

During the process Jackson made a decision that threw everything into chaos: Gollum should resemble Serkis.

The edict came as a shock. Artists at Weta Digital had spent years laboring over Gollum's look, creating so many statues of the emaciated being that they filled one room and threatened to spill into the hallway.

Scrambling to satisfy Jackson, mounds of clay were carved to marry Serkis' face with the froglike appearance of Gollum. One day, Richard Taylor, head of the practical effects house Weta Workshop, brought a sculpture to Jackson for review.

When Jackson said the ears were too pointy, Taylor reached for a bread knife and hacked down the tips. Moments later, Serkis entered the room.

"It was like seeing my father and my son in the same face," Serkis said. "It was uncanny."

The sculpted body and face were scanned into the computer to create a three-dimensional map that became the canvas artists used to link Serkis' recorded expressions to Gollum's face. Serkis' smile became Gollum's.

Then, it was time to test the system. Serkis and the animators spent days together in darkened rooms studying a monitor, pretending they were sitting in stadium seats at the local multiplex. What would movie-watchers believe? What flaws would they spot?

"In the human brain, we are very sensitive to human faces," said Henrik Wann Jensen, an assistant professor of computer science at UC San Diego, who has done extensive research in the process of creating realistic human skin. The production team relied on Jensen's theories in part to develop the look of Gollum's skin.

"If you look at animals, you can distinguish between a few of them," Jensen said. "But our brain is encoded to remember hundreds and hundreds of human faces."

In judging digital characters, one of the first things audiences look for is emotion, said Rob Coleman, animation director at visual effects giant Industrial Light & Magic.

"Do I believe in the character?" Coleman said. "Is there spark behind the eyes? Can I feel that this character is thinking?"

To get an audience to answer yes, animators have to re-create a mind-numbing amount of detail.

"When you talk with someone, you can tell whether they're engaged or distracted," Coleman said. "Just a flicker of muscle and we can tell whether someone is telling the truth."

As for movement, gestures aren't the only things that must be re-created. Animators also have to duplicate tiny tremors, twitches and tics.

To make a character believable requires "quick twitchy movements that are not essential to the performance. It's a twist of the mouth, a flicker of the eyes," said Steve Sullivan, research and development director at ILM. "They're not essential, but they make you realize that the character is in an environment and is reacting to the world beyond the camera."

One of the biggest tests of this subtlety is seen during Gollum's three-minute monologue, where the evil creature created by the One Ring has an impassioned debate with his gentle side -- the being known as Smeagol. It is a key point in the film, and a scene where the virtual character literally stands alone in front of the camera.

Back and forth, back and forth, the debate rages. At first, it appears that there are two creatures: The manic Gollum, whose face crinkles with malevolence, and the gentle Smeagol, whose slow movements seem weighed with sadness.

Then, the camera pans back, revealing that the two creatures are actually one. Gollum's eyes widen. His chest heaves.

Suddenly, he freezes.

For Serkis, the key to making Gollum human was capturing this sense of stillness -- to convey emotion and movement, while remaining absolutely motionless.

"On stage, you use movements to build energy and use stillness to draw the audience in," Serkis said.

"When I was on stage against the blue screen, the same theories applied as if I was on stage in London."

Animators, though, work in a world of movement. To be stills to be flat, uninteresting or worse -- clearly fake. One of the hardest aspects of the role, Serkis said, was thinking like an animator.

"By the end, the animators were more my family than the acting community," Serkis said.

If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives. For information about reprinting this article, go to www.lats.com/rights.

Well, it's even funnier when the previous story had a registration required link in it. Makes you wonder it michael pays any attention to Slashdot at all.

For those who are curious, I believe that this is the story in question. (And no, no registration required.)

When americans complain that it can't be done some japanese company just goes ahead and does it. Is 400 horseposer, 42mpg and ULEV certification enough for you?

Simply read the next sentence. No military person likes to fight multiple enemies unless it is required.

If the military (or even the CIA) were deciding whether or not to go to war I'd feel differently, but in this case the politicians are. (L.A. Times, reg. required)

-dameron

I'm still waiting for my Flying Car from the year 2000..

It's coming.

As far as predictions

1. The technology sector will start recovering in a different form that is divided into smaller parts and tailor to specific needs rather than generalized solutions.

2. Growing dominance and more technological power to big businesses is going to be a dominant theme on /.

3. Mr. Cringely's column will be cancelled from pbs.org, as it will finally equal to the Book Review section in popularity, even though /. will try its best for some reason.

4. Mr. Cringely will be hired at /. and will continue his career as an editor for a new /. section called "SIR" - Semi-Interesting Read at sir.slashdot.org. Slashdot has successfully debuted such an idea recently with an astounding success!

"I would accept any copyright extensions if they serve to protect Micky Mouse and Goofy."

The whole point is that new creation is very often based on old creation, viz Cinderella, Snow White, et al. These days, all these copyright extensions do is protect the profit of the corporations.

Heinlein said (as quoted by Yale Law in Top Ten New Copyright Crimes,

There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or a corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years , the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped ,or turned back, for their private benefit.

This pretty much says it all. What is a copyright extension but "turning back the clock?" I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Supremes will follow the intent of the framers of the Constitution, rather than pandering to those in Congress who are in the pockets of those who have a vested interest in keeping the laws as they are, or worse.

The Los Angeles Times has a very good article about this whole thing, with particular emphasis on Lessig and on the historical perspective (this debate goes back more than two hundred years); find it here.

Then you'd be able to track how driving a gas guzzler affects other people.

Quote from article: " Under pressure from Los Angeles- based Occidental Petroleum and the U.S. government, the Colombian military has redeployed its forces to protect a key oil pipeline, leading to an explosion of violence in the undefended countryside."

I'm not supprised, but that's because it's not the administration you're accusing. More on that in a moment.

This is the same administration that tried to create the Office of Strategic Information whose mission in life was to lie to our allies and to the media in an effort to fight terrorism.

I see... Our allies like Saudi Arabi and Egypt? Those same allies who send us news reports specifically tailored to show them in a good light while simultaneously decrying America as a cespool of evil in their own government-sponsored press?

An enemy who can pose as an ally can do far more damage than one who is vocally opposed.

And people wonder why the world is reluctant to trust the US.

Actually, I don't wonder; the reasons are redily apparent if you look hard enough. We're the richest country in the world and those with less tend to be distrustful of those with more. One just has to look at the growin Have vs. Have-nots in American society to see this interaction at work.

Nevermind that a large majority of Those Who Have worked their collective asses off to get where they are, and work even harder to stay where they are. But that's another discussion, irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

This is also the same administration that has given you secret military tribunals with little or no constitutional protections for the accused.

How, exactly, should we extend our Constitution to include those outside of our borders? It's the Constitution of the United States of America, not the Constitution of Whoever Happens To Want To Use It.

We were at war in Afghanastan (sorry for the spelling), and rules and trials of war are completely different than those applied to American citizens.

Yes, John Walker is an American citizen. Notice the different direction the case moved once the Judicial branch came to an agreement on his legal status. He was an enemy combatant, as the detainees in Cuba are, but he's also a citizen. This moves him from war tribunals into Federal court for treasonous actions.

This is the same administration that imprisons individuals in secret for indefinite periods of time with no evidence or charges ever presented.

Not sure to whom you're referring here. People who were taken into custody shortly after September 11th, I'm assuming.

Yep, that overstepped the bounds set forth by our Constitution. This is a legitimate complaint.

Do you actually believe that "Dubya" walked into the FBI offices and said, "Hey, let's arrest a whole bunch 'a people and not tell them why?"

This is the same administration that wants to create a roaming death squad that would travel the globe murdering 'enemies' of the US.

Pardon me? "Roaming death squads"? Where did this come from?

This is the same administration that wants a return to the days of the J. Edgar Hoover's FBI abuses of private citizens and the McCarthy era witch hunts. (Bush's daddy used the FBI to harass groups protesting his central american policies.)

I see. Somebody proposes something you don't agree with and, immediately, it's "a return to the days of J. Edgar Hoover" and "McCarthy era witch hunts." Easiest way to spot a shaky foundation is the level of insults hurled instead of valid points.

Bush is quite good at wrapping himself in the flag and preaching the virtues of freedom, but the fact is he is the biggest threat to freedom and to the security of this country that has come along in our the 236 year history. His lies, double dealing, and school-yard-bully mentality is alienating even our most supportive allies and generating plenty of reasons why someone would want to launch a terrorist attack against the US.

Valid examples please? Or is this just another "terrorists are people, too" argument?

The sooner we're get him out of office, the safer we'll be.

And you'd probably like Clinton back? Remember, he's the one who was handed the keys to grabbing Osama bin Laden in the late nineties and responded "We don't have any reason to arrest him." This was, of course, after bin Laden's initial bombing of the World Trade Centers; it was known shortly after the attack his organization was responsible.

As to why it doesn't suprise me that the administration was doing this? The dates that all 75(!) of the abuses were filed were within the reign of the Clinton administration. The latest one was sometime in 2000. Bush didn't take office until 2001 and would have absolutely no way to affect policy before his swearing in.

The real suprise here isn't that the Justice Department was abusing it's powers, nor the fact that it was the Clinton administration that actually was the problem.

The secondary suprise is that a newspaper can look at a set of facts and point to the opposite direction. In this case, I suggest you read the Los Angeles Times article (free registration and all that); it's close to the same sort of "Bush is bad" article, but it does disclose in the last paragraph that the violations happened before Bush's watch and Ashcroft was actually praised for doing something about it shortly after taking office.

The real suprise, however, comes in realizing that the same person who so fanatically distrusts the current administration would so blindly trust a media outlet.

Letter to the Editor
Los Angeles Times
202 W. 1st St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Letters to the Editor must also include your full name, city and daytime phone number (your number will not be published). Please keep your Letter under 250 words.

In case there's any confusion on the backgrounds of the authors, McCurry was President Clinton's press secretary Purpuro was deputy chief of staff of the Republican National Committee (in other words, they're both veterans of the political misinformation game) .

Letter to the Editor
Los Angeles Times
202 W. 1st St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Letters to the Editor must also include your full name, city and daytime phone number (your number will not be published). Please keep your Letter under 250 words.

In case there's any confusion on the backgrounds of the authors, McCurry was President Clinton's press secretary Purpuro was deputy chief of staff of the Republican National Committee (in other words, they're both veterans of the political misinformation game) .

this article found at LATimes.com, 29 Jul 2002:

http://www.latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.j sp?slug=la%2Dfi%2Dnetnames29jul29

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And that's even if it makes it past CNET or ZDNET and into the mainstream press, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, L.A. Times, etc. more of the people who vote still read newspapers and watch news programs for their news, so they'll read a pro-RIAA spin and agree with them.

Yikes! I'm not sure how to change the views of the general public, but I know that I already wrote my congressmen to let them know how I feel from a professional and personal level. Will that change my congressmen's point-of-view? Maybe not, but at least they know how one of their constituents feel, just like how the democratic process is suppose to work.

...end rant

Most U.S. newspapers are affiliated with the AP and Reuters, though a smaller number use the Agence France-Presse, which is more popular internationally. Then there's United Press International, which is practically dead, so few papers use it.

Knight Ridder and Gannett are different animals altogether. They are huge corporations which own dozens of tiny newspapers you've never heard of and a few larger papers (USA Today is Gannett's flagship paper, while the San Jose Mercury News is KR's, though KR's Miami Herald is a better paper). One of the "advantages" of these giant corporations is that they share stories with other papers in the corporation, which enables a paper in Fargo to cover an event in San Francisco without having to put up the money for a regional bureau.

Better papers (New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, etc.) maintain their own bureaus outside their hometowns (for instance, the Washington Post has about 10 bureaus in U.S. cities outside DC [Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, etc.], and about 12 bureaus in international cities [London, Tokyo, Moscow, etc.]), so they use a far higher percentage of their own content, but they still use the AP, Reuters and AFP for stories they can't afford to cover themselves or don't have the time to reach. However, you won't see a Knight Ridder story in a paper like the New York Times.

The big difference here is that aggregators/metabrowsers are computers that display headlines without discretion. Newspapers employ editors who have been trained in the art/science of news judgment. For this reason, a metabrowser will quickly become exceptionally boring and irrelevant.

Here's some good info as well:

Suisse Report on Digital Cinema (pdf file)

LA Times article on digital filmmaking

I used to believe that digital blew chunks. When I used my first DV cam, my only reaction was that it was glorified Beta. That was 1997. I've shot many a film and only recently I've joined a group that relies heavily on digital. Their best example was a short film titled Sweet. My jaw dropped at the pure clarity and quality of the work.

Digital is getting there. And after looking at all these shorts, I realize its all about light. Video - especially Digital - needs a crapload of light. But one properly explosed, you can produce some great images.

The best thing I like about Digital is that I can have a home production studio studio for under 10,000 dollars. No way can you have that with film. Hell, an Aaton 16 costs over 100,000 dollars. Then you have processing, printing, and video transfer. Its such a damn expensive process that only a select few can afford.

This LA Times article goes into digital production and makes the claim that we are at a point in history similar to the end of the silent film era during the transition of sound. A lot of people were left behind because they could not make the move.

Some nibblets for thought.

LATimes has a story on Dave Richardson who is considered one of the masters of his trade.

The article is fairly long, but he comes off as one hell of a legal lock picker, whose services are employed by law enforcement and in sometimes to break in to safes without leaving a trace behind. Interesting stuff.

I would post examples from The NYTimes, but they don't let you see previous issues of the paper online for free. However, as I recall their picks closely mirrored The Washington Post's:

The Washington Post
Top Story: Cyber-Attacks by Al Qaeda Feared
No. 2 Story: SEC Charges WorldCom With Fraud
No. 3 Story: U.S. Court Votes to Bar Pledge of Allegiance

The Los angeles Times
Top Story: 'Tweens: From Dolls to Thongs
One of the store mannequins wears a fringed denim skirt riding low on the hips and a top pushed high on the midriff. Another has shorts that roll down on the tummy and a one-shoulder top.
No. 2 Story: Pledge of Allegiance Violates Constitution, Court Declares
No. 3 Story: WorldCom Hit With Federal Fraud Lawsuit

The Los Angeles Times shows a consistent bias toward "Reader's Digest" type stories that are entertaining and give you something to gossip about but don't really tell you anything of value. I also get the sense that many LA Times reporters are really failed screenplay writers who can't let go of the need to create drama. However, they do occasionally print something worth reading.

The LA Times is owned by The Chicago Tribune , which puts even less original content on its Web site and is more "in-your-face" about pressuring you to subscribe.

I suspect Slashdot would link to The Wall Street Journal more often if the paper made more than 1% of its content available to non-paying subscribers. (I had a paid subscription to wsj.com for about a year, but I no longer do because it's just not worth that much to me.)

I'd like to read Le Monde , but the French refuse to publish an English version. Go figure.

All of Knight-Ridder's newspapers (The San Jose Mercury News , Miami Herald , Philadelphia Inquirer , et al) have been crippled by the "RealCities Network" which forces all of its sites to use the same content-poor, ad-rich design. The saddest story of the group is the SJMercury though, which has just fallen apart since the parent company began slashing costs and forcing the RealCities conformity on its once industry-leading site. The Miami Herald is an unofficial training school for future Washington Post reporters, but that doesn't matter if you can't find their content on the Web.

Slashdot doesn't link to the Financial Times often (ever?), though it's a great paper. It just doesn't turn out a lot of unique content that's of interest to most Slashdot readers.

Newspapers aside, Slashdot has linked to CNN and the BBC in the past, though not the CBC . ABC, CBS and NBC generally provide watered down news for people who don't like to read newspapers -- not Slashdot readers.

Slashdot often links to MSNBC , but I expect that will begin to decline -- MSNBC.com's founding editor (Merrill Brown, a former Washington Post reporter) recently announced that he's resigning after 6 years to pursue other, undisclosed "opportunities." The New York Times noted on June 12 (you'll have to pay for the archived version of the story) that he offhandedly mentioned that MSNBC.com is about to be swallowed by MSN for economic reasons. (In other words, Microsoft put its foot down and said financial concerns outweigh editorial concerns.)

The International Herald-Tribune writes some of its own content, but a lot of the paper is an amalgamation of New York Times and Washington Post stories.

I haven't read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer or the Seattle Times in a while, but you may find some good technology stories there.

Bottom Line: Slashdot links to a disproportionate number of New York Times and Washington Post stories because both papers' sites post a lot of content and that content is top notch. It also helps that they're among the most recognizable names in journalism, but the Slashdot system is set up to allow editors to pick from the best stories that are submitted, regardless of the content provider's brand recognition. If you read a good story somewhere, submit it -- the quality of the story is more important than the misguided registration policies of the content provider. And if I've missed a good site people should be reading, reply to this message and let people know.

I would post examples from The NYTimes, but they don't let you see previous issues of the paper online for free. However, as I recall their picks closely mirrored The Washington Post's:

The Washington Post
Top Story: Cyber-Attacks by Al Qaeda Feared
No. 2 Story: SEC Charges WorldCom With Fraud
No. 3 Story: U.S. Court Votes to Bar Pledge of Allegiance

The Los angeles Times
Top Story: 'Tweens: From Dolls to Thongs
One of the store mannequins wears a fringed denim skirt riding low on the hips and a top pushed high on the midriff. Another has shorts that roll down on the tummy and a one-shoulder top.
No. 2 Story: Pledge of Allegiance Violates Constitution, Court Declares
No. 3 Story: WorldCom Hit With Federal Fraud Lawsuit

The Los Angeles Times shows a consistent bias toward "Reader's Digest" type stories that are entertaining and give you something to gossip about but don't really tell you anything of value. I also get the sense that many LA Times reporters are really failed screenplay writers who can't let go of the need to create drama. However, they do occasionally print something worth reading.

The LA Times is owned by The Chicago Tribune , which puts even less original content on its Web site and is more "in-your-face" about pressuring you to subscribe.

I suspect Slashdot would link to The Wall Street Journal more often if the paper made more than 1% of its content available to non-paying subscribers. (I had a paid subscription to wsj.com for about a year, but I no longer do because it's just not worth that much to me.)

I'd like to read Le Monde , but the French refuse to publish an English version. Go figure.

All of Knight-Ridder's newspapers (The San Jose Mercury News , Miami Herald , Philadelphia Inquirer , et al) have been crippled by the "RealCities Network" which forces all of its sites to use the same content-poor, ad-rich design. The saddest story of the group is the SJMercury though, which has just fallen apart since the parent company began slashing costs and forcing the RealCities conformity on its once industry-leading site. The Miami Herald is an unofficial training school for future Washington Post reporters, but that doesn't matter if you can't find their content on the Web.

Slashdot doesn't link to the Financial Times often (ever?), though it's a great paper. It just doesn't turn out a lot of unique content that's of interest to most Slashdot readers.

Newspapers aside, Slashdot has linked to CNN and the BBC in the past, though not the CBC . ABC, CBS and NBC generally provide watered down news for people who don't like to read newspapers -- not Slashdot readers.

Slashdot often links to MSNBC , but I expect that will begin to decline -- MSNBC.com's founding editor (Merrill Brown, a former Washington Post reporter) recently announced that he's resigning after 6 years to pursue other, undisclosed "opportunities." The New York Times noted on June 12 (you'll have to pay for the archived version of the story) that he offhandedly mentioned that MSNBC.com is about to be swallowed by MSN for economic reasons. (In other words, Microsoft put its foot down and said financial concerns outweigh editorial concerns.)

The International Herald-Tribune writes some of its own content, but a lot of the paper is an amalgamation of New York Times and Washington Post stories.

I haven't read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer or the Seattle Times in a while, but you may find some good technology stories there.

Bottom Line: Slashdot links to a disproportionate number of New York Times and Washington Post stories because both papers' sites post a lot of content and that content is top notch. It also helps that they're among the most recognizable names in journalism, but the Slashdot system is set up to allow editors to pick from the best stories that are submitted, regardless of the content provider's brand recognition. If you read a good story somewhere, submit it -- the quality of the story is more important than the misguided registration policies of the content provider. And if I've missed a good site people should be reading, reply to this message and let people know.

I would post examples from The NYTimes, but they don't let you see previous issues of the paper online for free. However, as I recall their picks closely mirrored The Washington Post's:

The Washington Post
Top Story: Cyber-Attacks by Al Qaeda Feared
No. 2 Story: SEC Charges WorldCom With Fraud
No. 3 Story: U.S. Court Votes to Bar Pledge of Allegiance

The Los angeles Times
Top Story: 'Tweens: From Dolls to Thongs
One of the store mannequins wears a fringed denim skirt riding low on the hips and a top pushed high on the midriff. Another has shorts that roll down on the tummy and a one-shoulder top.
No. 2 Story: Pledge of Allegiance Violates Constitution, Court Declares
No. 3 Story: WorldCom Hit With Federal Fraud Lawsuit

The Los Angeles Times shows a consistent bias toward "Reader's Digest" type stories that are entertaining and give you something to gossip about but don't really tell you anything of value. I also get the sense that many LA Times reporters are really failed screenplay writers who can't let go of the need to create drama. However, they do occasionally print something worth reading.

The LA Times is owned by The Chicago Tribune , which puts even less original content on its Web site and is more "in-your-face" about pressuring you to subscribe.

I suspect Slashdot would link to The Wall Street Journal more often if the paper made more than 1% of its content available to non-paying subscribers. (I had a paid subscription to wsj.com for about a year, but I no longer do because it's just not worth that much to me.)

I'd like to read Le Monde , but the French refuse to publish an English version. Go figure.

All of Knight-Ridder's newspapers (The San Jose Mercury News , Miami Herald , Philadelphia Inquirer , et al) have been crippled by the "RealCities Network" which forces all of its sites to use the same content-poor, ad-rich design. The saddest story of the group is the SJMercury though, which has just fallen apart since the parent company began slashing costs and forcing the RealCities conformity on its once industry-leading site. The Miami Herald is an unofficial training school for future Washington Post reporters, but that doesn't matter if you can't find their content on the Web.

Slashdot doesn't link to the Financial Times often (ever?), though it's a great paper. It just doesn't turn out a lot of unique content that's of interest to most Slashdot readers.

Newspapers aside, Slashdot has linked to CNN and the BBC in the past, though not the CBC . ABC, CBS and NBC generally provide watered down news for people who don't like to read newspapers -- not Slashdot readers.

Slashdot often links to MSNBC , but I expect that will begin to decline -- MSNBC.com's founding editor (Merrill Brown, a former Washington Post reporter) recently announced that he's resigning after 6 years to pursue other, undisclosed "opportunities." The New York Times noted on June 12 (you'll have to pay for the archived version of the story) that he offhandedly mentioned that MSNBC.com is about to be swallowed by MSN for economic reasons. (In other words, Microsoft put its foot down and said financial concerns outweigh editorial concerns.)

The International Herald-Tribune writes some of its own content, but a lot of the paper is an amalgamation of New York Times and Washington Post stories.

I haven't read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer or the Seattle Times in a while, but you may find some good technology stories there.

Bottom Line: Slashdot links to a disproportionate number of New York Times and Washington Post stories because both papers' sites post a lot of content and that content is top notch. It also helps that they're among the most recognizable names in journalism, but the Slashdot system is set up to allow editors to pick from the best stories that are submitted, regardless of the content provider's brand recognition. If you read a good story somewhere, submit it -- the quality of the story is more important than the misguided registration policies of the content provider. And if I've missed a good site people should be reading, reply to this message and let people know.

I would post examples from The NYTimes, but they don't let you see previous issues of the paper online for free. However, as I recall their picks closely mirrored The Washington Post's:

The Washington Post
Top Story: Cyber-Attacks by Al Qaeda Feared
No. 2 Story: SEC Charges WorldCom With Fraud
No. 3 Story: U.S. Court Votes to Bar Pledge of Allegiance

The Los angeles Times
Top Story: 'Tweens: From Dolls to Thongs
One of the store mannequins wears a fringed denim skirt riding low on the hips and a top pushed high on the midriff. Another has shorts that roll down on the tummy and a one-shoulder top.
No. 2 Story: Pledge of Allegiance Violates Constitution, Court Declares
No. 3 Story: WorldCom Hit With Federal Fraud Lawsuit

The Los Angeles Times shows a consistent bias toward "Reader's Digest" type stories that are entertaining and give you something to gossip about but don't really tell you anything of value. I also get the sense that many LA Times reporters are really failed screenplay writers who can't let go of the need to create drama. However, they do occasionally print something worth reading.

The LA Times is owned by The Chicago Tribune , which puts even less original content on its Web site and is more "in-your-face" about pressuring you to subscribe.

I suspect Slashdot would link to The Wall Street Journal more often if the paper made more than 1% of its content available to non-paying subscribers. (I had a paid subscription to wsj.com for about a year, but I no longer do because it's just not worth that much to me.)

I'd like to read Le Monde , but the French refuse to publish an English version. Go figure.

All of Knight-Ridder's newspapers (The San Jose Mercury News , Miami Herald , Philadelphia Inquirer , et al) have been crippled by the "RealCities Network" which forces all of its sites to use the same content-poor, ad-rich design. The saddest story of the group is the SJMercury though, which has just fallen apart since the parent company began slashing costs and forcing the RealCities conformity on its once industry-leading site. The Miami Herald is an unofficial training school for future Washington Post reporters, but that doesn't matter if you can't find their content on the Web.

Slashdot doesn't link to the Financial Times often (ever?), though it's a great paper. It just doesn't turn out a lot of unique content that's of interest to most Slashdot readers.

Newspapers aside, Slashdot has linked to CNN and the BBC in the past, though not the CBC . ABC, CBS and NBC generally provide watered down news for people who don't like to read newspapers -- not Slashdot readers.

Slashdot often links to MSNBC , but I expect that will begin to decline -- MSNBC.com's founding editor (Merrill Brown, a former Washington Post reporter) recently announced that he's resigning after 6 years to pursue other, undisclosed "opportunities." The New York Times noted on June 12 (you'll have to pay for the archived version of the story) that he offhandedly mentioned that MSNBC.com is about to be swallowed by MSN for economic reasons. (In other words, Microsoft put its foot down and said financial concerns outweigh editorial concerns.)

The International Herald-Tribune writes some of its own content, but a lot of the paper is an amalgamation of New York Times and Washington Post stories.

I haven't read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer or the Seattle Times in a while, but you may find some good technology stories there.

Bottom Line: Slashdot links to a disproportionate number of New York Times and Washington Post stories because both papers' sites post a lot of content and that content is top notch. It also helps that they're among the most recognizable names in journalism, but the Slashdot system is set up to allow editors to pick from the best stories that are submitted, regardless of the content provider's brand recognition. If you read a good story somewhere, submit it -- the quality of the story is more important than the misguided registration policies of the content provider. And if I've missed a good site people should be reading, reply to this message and let people know.

I think the original poster was talking about this story where they lifted a story from The Onion reporting that the US congress was demanding a new 5 star capital with better bathrooms and parking...not making a political statement (although both are true)

Does XM run ads?

Yes, XM Radio does run ads. That's why, if anything, I'm considering SiriusRadio (which has no ads).

Do we know how they pick their playlists?

This is the LA Times' review of AOTC. At least he gives the proper atribution to Kenneth Turan.

Maybe you should read better reviewers, then. One of the things that I really like about the reviewers for the LA Times is that they actually understand that not everyone shares their taste in movies. They're capable of saying things like "I didn't really like this one, but I know that fans of this kind of movie will love it." I recall a review of a movie where the reviewer said something along the lines of, "I don't know why I'm even bothering to review this movie. The people who will like it aren't going to pay attention to my review anyway, and the people who won't like it don't need me to tell them that." It's not quite as good as having a reviewer who perfectly shares my taste, but it's a lot better than having ones who will complain about any movie that is comprehensible and praise anything subtitled.

It's already been done. The L.A. Times article on this subject mentioned that they did this on LOTR copies.

A version that does not require registration is at

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-051 002starwars.story

(Posting anon. to avoid charges of karma-whoring.)

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-051002starwars. story?null

which is rather extensive, but is somewhat of a showcase of antipriracy arguments.

According to The LA Times, you can find AOTC on irc chat.

From the article:

The pirating of "Attack of the Clones" lends fuel to the film industry's efforts in Washington to crack down on piracy. While the studios' trade association steps up its enforcement activities, their lobbyists are pushing for laws that would require computers and consumer electronics to be modified to deter unauthorized copying.

"It's an extremely serious threat," said Jean Murrell Adams, head of the litigation department at DreamWorks SKG. "I'm not surprised that it's on the Internet. I talk to pirates because I want to find out why they're doing this. And what I've been told is that they were eagerly anticipating who would be first to do this. It's a challenge for them."

Apparently it's a version videotaped in the theater, which they're worried will cut into DVD sales (?)

W

So just that we all understand you, according to your logic, if you don't agree with Israel, if we criticize its politics or head of state, we are anti-semitic? And if you happen to be jewish and criticize Israel or Sharon (like Chomsky), you are a "self-hating jew" (even rabbis)? So no debate is possible, right? Boy, you're quite the reactionary! Putting David Duke, Farrakhan and Chomsky in the same boat...

Anyway, that has nothing to do with the current debate. First, Chomsky earns a living as a linguistics professor. Even though some of his theories have been questioned, there is no doubt that he remains one of the most influential person in the field. Second, about his political activism sideline (which has quite a following, notwithstanding your uneducated appraisal): I guess you've read some of his writing in order to talk about him with such assurance. Could you please give us an example (with links) of his anti-semitism (his words, mind you, not what some have said about him). You can find a lot of his writing online here. You can also show us an example of his hate for Western Culture, his racism and his "narrow-minded, hate-based dialogue." You should have no trouble identifying the latter if you find it, seeing as how you so aptly use it yourself.

BTW, Sharon was judged to be inderectly responsible for the massacre at Sabra and Shatila by his own government...so, if you're criticizing this, I guess this makes you an anti-semite too! Boy, this is fun!

Actually in the future the computer will scan your face and biological status and read your mind based on millions of tiny clues. All you'll have to do is sit there with a vague disinterested loook on your face and the computer will magically do stuff based on all those clues.

It not be that far fetched after all... anyway a UC San Diego team has done some research into this...

When you're talking about a 95 million dollar deal, Davis had better know what's going on

Perhaps in Arkansas, but not in CA. Hell, back in 1991 the state spent $25 million to build a science building at my school. $95mil is a pile of cash to you & be but looks like a hill of beans in a state budget running into the tens of billions.

But this is not to say that he isn't to blame. I agree, in the end all responsibility rests with him. My distinction is that he's appointed lousy cabinet officials who didn't oversee the transaction correctly, while the position of the GOP is that it shows Davis is corrupt. There is no evidence, yet, that this is the case. But you're right in that it's a screwup stemming from the people he appointed, and it should never have happened.

This, combined with the way he mis-managed the energy crisis

Happen to read the LA Times today (reg required)? It's a nicely laid-out story explaining all about how documents out of the Enron investigation show that they were gaming the market for profits to save their bankrupt asses. Read it and learn the truth before you talk about the energy crisis being Davis's fault. Hell, the Governor inherited a fucked-up a deregulation that, if you forget, was passed by our previous Repub Gov Pete Wilson with the bipartisan support of a complicit Assembly.

And lest you forget, while we were getting our power turned off each afternoon, it was Bush & the assholes he appointed at the FERC who refused repeated requests by our governor and senators to investigate companies' obvious fucking-around with our power & gas markets. And lo, what are we finding now that our subpoenas are being fulfilled? That these companies were indeed fucking with our energy markets for profits. It's no joke. People fucking DIED because they didn't have the money to run their A/Cs. The CEOs of these companies should rot in jail for that shit.

• Site Gutted by Sony based on DMCA
  My Take:
  This site is great. I think this is exactly what we need. The only thing that really got removed per the story referenced below is "virgin" copies of Aibo-Life, because everything you could possibly want, and more, is available, including "RCodePlus", which appears to be a utility for writing and transferring RCode ("Plus" some aibohack.com extensions) to your Aibo.
  
  Summary:
  http://www.aibohack.com had much of its content removed because it built on Sony's AiboWare, but added new features.
  Among its programs:
  AiboScope: Wirelessly transmits images from robot's camera to a computer
  Disco Aibo: Execute a programmable dance when Aibo hears a certain song.
  Brainbo: Uses voice-recognition. When Aibo hears a phrase, Aibo selects an appropriate response and "says" it.
  
  Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000086726nov01. story?coll=la-headlines (old)
  http://www.latimes.com/search/lat_all.jsp?Query=Ai bo (new, needs registration)
• AIBO Uses Copy-Protection on its Memory Sticks
  My Take:
  While it would probably be trivial to overcome Sony's copy-protection algorithms, it's not worth the bother. $35 for a PMS (Programmable Memory Stick) is money well spent, and if all the code consists of is bootstrapping into the WLAN, we'd only need one for each 'bot.
  
  Summary:
  Sony makes red/pink memory sticks specifically for the Aibo. They contain copy-protection code that means that you can't copy their programs from one stick to another (unless, of course, the second one already had that program installed).
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/123/format.htm
• Japan-Only AiboWare Releases
  My Take:
  Nothing new here.
  
  Summary:
  Sony released several pieces of AiboWare that are only available in Japan. Based on what a friend of mine could manage to decode, there's nothing here to pique our interest.
  
  Source: http://www.yk.rim.or.jp/~hkora11/aibo_2nd-g/kAiboW are.htm (in Japanese)
• More-or-less Complete 210 Hardware Reference
  My Take:
  Note that the 200Mhz (!) CPU uses the MIPS IV instruction set, for which there are no shortage of compilers. We may be in luck yet! (Of course, we might have to replace the current flash ROM with a custom one to develop that luck, but based on other readings, there seems to be very little code in the flash ROM and a heck of a lot of JPEGs of the development team.) You want to read this page.
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/210/hardware.htm
• Brain Surgery: a Tool for Editing AiboLife
  My Take:
  An excellent tool, but not very applicable to our particular challenge. Nonetheless, a useful resource of which to be aware.
  
  Summary:
  Basically, Brain Surgery allows users to view and edit the data Aibo "feels". What does this mean? You can abuse your Aibo, and fix it yourself--no Sony required.
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/2or3/browser.htm

• Site Gutted by Sony based on DMCA
  My Take:
  This site is great. I think this is exactly what we need. The only thing that really got removed per the story referenced below is "virgin" copies of Aibo-Life, because everything you could possibly want, and more, is available, including "RCodePlus", which appears to be a utility for writing and transferring RCode ("Plus" some aibohack.com extensions) to your Aibo.
  
  Summary:
  http://www.aibohack.com had much of its content removed because it built on Sony's AiboWare, but added new features.
  Among its programs:
  AiboScope: Wirelessly transmits images from robot's camera to a computer
  Disco Aibo: Execute a programmable dance when Aibo hears a certain song.
  Brainbo: Uses voice-recognition. When Aibo hears a phrase, Aibo selects an appropriate response and "says" it.
  
  Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000086726nov01. story?coll=la-headlines (old)
  http://www.latimes.com/search/lat_all.jsp?Query=Ai bo (new, needs registration)
• AIBO Uses Copy-Protection on its Memory Sticks
  My Take:
  While it would probably be trivial to overcome Sony's copy-protection algorithms, it's not worth the bother. $35 for a PMS (Programmable Memory Stick) is money well spent, and if all the code consists of is bootstrapping into the WLAN, we'd only need one for each 'bot.
  
  Summary:
  Sony makes red/pink memory sticks specifically for the Aibo. They contain copy-protection code that means that you can't copy their programs from one stick to another (unless, of course, the second one already had that program installed).
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/123/format.htm
• Japan-Only AiboWare Releases
  My Take:
  Nothing new here.
  
  Summary:
  Sony released several pieces of AiboWare that are only available in Japan. Based on what a friend of mine could manage to decode, there's nothing here to pique our interest.
  
  Source: http://www.yk.rim.or.jp/~hkora11/aibo_2nd-g/kAiboW are.htm (in Japanese)
• More-or-less Complete 210 Hardware Reference
  My Take:
  Note that the 200Mhz (!) CPU uses the MIPS IV instruction set, for which there are no shortage of compilers. We may be in luck yet! (Of course, we might have to replace the current flash ROM with a custom one to develop that luck, but based on other readings, there seems to be very little code in the flash ROM and a heck of a lot of JPEGs of the development team.) You want to read this page.
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/210/hardware.htm
• Brain Surgery: a Tool for Editing AiboLife
  My Take:
  An excellent tool, but not very applicable to our particular challenge. Nonetheless, a useful resource of which to be aware.
  
  Summary:
  Basically, Brain Surgery allows users to view and edit the data Aibo "feels". What does this mean? You can abuse your Aibo, and fix it yourself--no Sony required.
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/2or3/browser.htm

Oracle apparently made a $25K donation to governor Gray Davis' campaign fund after the sale was made...

This is true, but misleading, because the money was received by the head of the Dep't of Information Technology, not Davis himself, nor his campaign fund directly. The contract appears to have been completely mishandled, and perhaps manipulated, by the governor's cabinet, the CA Dep't of Information Technology, and its head, Elias Cortez, who's already been suspended pending the current investigations. Cabinet secretaries involved have already resigned, embarassed at their lack of proper review of the contract. There appears to be some malfeasance on the part of software advisors to the state who made money on the deal, and $25K & $50K campaign checks that've been making the rounds to one & all. It's all available in the latest article on the deal. All in all a dirty deal, but I don't see where Davis, even though he was the Governor, could have had any precognition of the stupidity going on in the lower halls of the government before the deal was completed.

Despite GOP willingness to paint with as broad a brush as possible in an election year, Davis appears not to have known much about the deal until it hit the news, about when /. first reported it. Since then, it's been his own office working with the Assembly that've sought to find out what happened.

Think about it. The Governor does not personally handle or approve all software purchases, nor should he. There appears to be quite a bit of crooked behavior on the part of Oracle and the leaders of the CA Dep't of IT, as well as a lack of proper review by those overseeing the department, and Davis is looking into it with the Assembly. If anyone finds evidence that Davis was a part of the deal then sure, nail his ass to the wall, but don't make insinuations there's no evidence for. That just cheapens the discussion, and ignores the fact that it is Davis who began the investigations, Davis who sent in the CA Highway Patrol to stop document shredding at the Dep't of IT, and Davis who's asked for and received the resignations of 3 top cabinet officials for failing to do a proper review of the deal. I don't mind disagreeing on political issues, but corruption in the governor's chair is a serious charge that requires more than non-evidence.

Oh, and his opponent, Bill Simon, saying that the oracle deal takes food out of the mouths of children is rich. This guy wants to gut children's services, make abortion illegal, and stop state tracking of all racial data regarding education, health care, etc. I guess if you don't want to solve a problem, you start by ignoring it.

Here's the article without the annoying popup or the god-awful DHTML ad flying across the screen.

More details on the emerging Oracle scandal, including a chronology of events for those just hearing about the story, can be found in George Skelton's Capitol Journal column, which ran in today's LA Times under the title "No Defense Tactic Can Hide This Ugly Scandal."

Skelton's column is definitely worth the read--this is more than just a colossal sales job, and more than just a $25,000 campaign contribution to the governor oh-so-coincidentally two weeks after the deal. There are state legislators with family ties to this, and a startling lack of California employees (or departments) with any interest in using it.

Given the jitters many people have about the securities business today, the most ominous comment might well be a brief mention at the bottom of Skelton's column:

Oracle insisted this was a now-or-never deal--a onetime offer that would disappear the next day because it needed to impress Wall Street right then with a huge contract.

CA was famous for years for doing all sorts of stuff to "make the numbers" at the end of each quarter. You can only do it for so long--once everybody figures out that Sears is always running sales, nobody is willing to buy at anything other than the sale price. Writ large, the same thing happens to companies that are motivated by this quarter's presentation to the securities analysts: eventually customers learn to wait for the last week of the quarter, when you can name your price.

Oracle, in the go-go 90s, made money by the barrel--at one point a colleague observed that their margins were probably higher than the Medellin Cartel. If they have to resort to this kind of shenanigans to make the quarter's numbers, Oracle has bigger problems than a $25,000 payoff to the governor of California.

That's right... that's the whole point anti-trust law...

We need IP to be a priority within these [CHIP] units.

Considering that the CIA just warned of a Chinese cyber attack on the US , I really doubt that CHIP units are going to start devoting more time to a few 15-year olds trading MP3s.

I don't know where this idea originated, but it's just simply wrong. The goal of the Sherman Act -- according to Sen. Sherman -- was to protect "industrial liberty".

• Asia: Dumping ground for high-tech trash
• Recycled Electronics Pose a Health Hazard in Asia
• Cleaning Up Computer Trash

Two years ago, Hollings sponsored a bill that would have required Web sites to get permission before collecting or disclosing personal information, a process known as opt-in.

Senator Hollings is at it again with a new bill. What kind of buddy-buddy shit is he tring to pull this time? First the Consumer Broadband Promotion BS, and now he's our pal with 'The Privacy Act for Kazaa Users'? Sure. What kind of consitutional f-over will this be?

Try looking at Minnesota, Fritz. They want an opt-in approach...

It has become a modern cliché: There aren't enough hours in the day. Americans are struggling to balance work and family commitments while trying to find time for a social life and recreation. A growing number of supermarkets, restaurants, gyms and other businesses are accommodating today's 24/7 culture by staying open all night. Not to mention, of course, that the Internet never shuts down. But what if you could do the same?

What if you could take a pill and stretch your day--by skipping sleep?

That sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but a drug called Provigil could make it possible. Studies have shown that this new medication allows people to remain awake and attentive when their bodies normally crave shut-eye, without suffering the unpleasant side effects and risk of addiction associated with caffeine, amphetamines and other stimulants.

Researchers caution that the long-term health consequences of avoiding slumber by taking Provigil, or any drug, aren't well understood.

And the makers of Provigil go out of their way to state that the drug is strictly for patients who feel sleepy during the day due to diagnosed medical disorders. Yet as its reputation grows, doctors may soon find themselves faced with a difficult question: When is sleepiness a sickness?

"This drug is going to bring up some very interesting ethical dilemmas," says Dr. Mark Mahowald, director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center in Minneapolis and an expert on the causes of daytime sleepiness. "Do you prescribe a stimulant medication for someone who is intentionally sleep deprived?"

Currently the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Provigil only for the treatment of one condition, narcolepsy, which causes a sudden and uncontrollable urge to sleep. But Cephalon, the West Chester, Pa.-based company that sells Provigil, hopes to win FDA approval within a few years to market the drug as a pick-me-up for people plagued by sleepiness associated with any medical condition. Many doctors in this country already prescribe Provigil "off-label," that is, for conditions not approved by the FDA (which is a common and perfectly legal practice). Those conditions include depression, sleep apnea, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis.

What's more, scientists at sleep clinics across the United States are studying whether Provigil can help those working the swing or graveyard shift, who are sometimes diagnosed with a condition known as "shift work disorder." Symptoms can include insomnia, headaches and an all-around blah feeling, in addition to problems staying focused on the job.

For 20 years, Jane Jaegers has worked the overnight shift as a 911 dispatcher for Santa Clara County--four days a week, 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. The San Jose resident loves the job, but her body has never adjusted to the odd schedule. In the wee hours of the morning, Jaegers says, her attention occasionally drifts during nonemergency calls. If she takes them in time, caffeine pills such as Vivarin and No-Doz help, but they leave Jaegers staring at the ceiling when she goes home and crawls into bed. Constantly exhausted, she has seen her social life suffer. Go to a movie? "As soon as the theater gets dark, I'm gone," says Jaegers, 55.

In December, Jaegers heard that scientists at the Sleep Disorders Clinic at Stanford University were studying Provigil, whose name is shorthand for "promotes vigilance." She signed up right away.

Every night before leaving for work, Jaegers takes two small tablets--she calls them "magic pills." Because half the people participating in the study are receiving placebo tablets, Jaegers can't be sure she's popping Provigil. But she thinks her pills are the real deal. "I just feel more alert," says Jaegers, who adds that she sleeps soundly these days too. "I'm tickled with the stuff."

Drug Is Not Classified as a Stimulant

Provigil was developed in France in the 1970s. Although no one is sure how it works, animal studies show that the medication--unlike other drugs that induce wakefulness--doesn't seem to dramatically increase levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with arousal and alertness.

Caffeine and older prescription stimulants buzz the entire central nervous system, causing jitteriness, insomnia and other unwanted effects. When people who use coffee or amphetamines to stay awake finally doze off, they often remain in bed for much longer than usual, their bodies paralyzed by the need for "rebound sleep." Provigil, meanwhile, seems to target only the part of the brain that keeps us awake. When its effects wear off, the user resumes a normal sleep pattern.

"Provigil isn't considered a stimulant per se, though it has a wakefulness effect," says Dr. Jed Black, director of the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic, who is involved in the shift-work study. Although Black says Provigil isn't effective for all patients, it helps many people haunted by daytime sleepiness keep on their toes. While a few users report mild nausea, most don't feel a thing other than awake and alert. When patients switch from older stimulants to Provigil, says Black, they often return to his office and say, "It's not working. I don't feel revved up." Yet tests usually show that their ability to stay awake is much improved.

Earlier research found that when healthy people take Provigil they are able to stay awake and on the ball for a long, long time. For example, a 1995 Canadian study showed that subjects taking the drug were able to perform well on cognitive tests while remaining awake and in good spirits for two and a half days. In another study, published in 2000, U.S. Army helicopter pilots stayed awake for 40 hours while being called upon periodically to perform maneuvers on a flight simulator. Unmedicated, the aviators became sloppy and made errors in the early morning hours. But while taking Provigil during a second 40-hour marathon, their skills and focus never wavered.

Army psychologist John Caldwell, who conducted the latter study, says more research is needed to determine whether dosing soldiers with Provigil is a safe and effective way to promote alertness. However, he says, it's possible that one day the drug could be used "as an emergency measure to briefly overcome fatigue in 'must-do' missions where total sleep deprivation is unavoidable."

What About Students and Working Parents?

But aren't many of us faced with our own "must-do missions" from time to time? If Provigil works for soldiers and pilots, won't it do the same for college students cramming for exams? Medical students on 36-hour rotations? Or a working parent with a sick child and a presentation to finish for tomorrow's big meeting with potential investors?

Cephalon spokesman Robert Grupp emphasizes that Cephalon has no plans to market Provigil to the all-nighter crowd. "It's not for people who work too long," he says. "It's for people with clinical illness." But as word spreads of Provigil's powers, it seems inevitable that the healthy-but-harried will be intrigued.

"Silicon Valley will go wild over this thing," says Andy Serwer, a columnist for Fortune magazine who admits to burning a fair amount of midnight oil when he's on deadline. Instead of swigging Jolt cola and espresso, software designers under the gun could simply take Provigil, which costs about $4 per pill--not much more than the price of a double latte.

But would executives pressure their employees to take a pill for the team? Possibly, says Serwer, if they heard that workers at other firms were pulling Provigil-fueled all-nighters. "You would be at a competitive disadvantage if you didn't," he says.

If any doctors have begun prescribing Provigil to college students and corporate workers under the gun, they're keeping the practice quiet. But Provigil does raise a difficult question for the medical community. What if people who work in positions where sleepiness can endanger themselves and others start asking their doctors for the drug?

Shift Workers Pose Dilemma for Doctors

Take long-haul truckers, for instance. According to federal regulations, they're supposed to take breaks every 10 hours. But many drivers ignore the law, even if it means navigating an 18-wheeler while bleary-eyed. A recent exposé by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel featured an interview with one driver who admitted to being behind the wheel of his big rig for 36 straight hours.

"Do you give that person the medication to keep him awake and not kill himself and a car full of people?" asks Mahowald, of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center. "Or do you as a matter of principle say, 'No, you cannot have this medication because you don't have the proper sleep disorder'? ... Quite frankly, in the interest of public safety, I would be tempted to give the individual stimulant medication."

Not all sleep experts feel that's the right choice. "I think that becomes irresponsible," says Black. "There might be fewer accidents on our highways, but there might also be long-term health consequences" associated with using Provigil "that we aren't anticipating." Black says he will only prescribe the drug to people whose sleepiness and fatigue are caused by a medical condition or occur as a side effect from another medication. However, Black, Mahowald and other sleep researchers agree that it's unwise to think Provigil or any pill will make shut-eye optional.

"We don't understand the role sleep plays," says the Army's Caldwell. "It's a bad idea for anyone to rely on a drug of any description to maintain alertness."

And yet for Jane Jaegers and other shift workers, Provigil may mean the difference between a zombie-like existence and a normal life. And they represent a huge potential market for Cephalon. The number of shift workers in the United States increases 2% to 3% each year, says David Mitchell, a spokesman for Circadian Technologies, a Lexington, Mass., company that advises firms that want to convert to 24/7 operation.

The nationwide shift-work study should be completed by the end of this year. If the results are promising, perhaps Provigil will one day be found in the medicine cabinets of police officers, firefighters, nurses and other people who work nights. And if that happens, what's to stop the son of a shift worker from asking, "Hey, Dad, I've got a history final on Tuesday--can I bum a Provigil?"

Then again, maybe Junior won't bother asking--the medication is on sale through Internet-based pharmacies based overseas, often marketed as a "smart drug."

In "Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything" (Vintage, 2000), author James Gleick writes about our changing notion of time. Reached by e-mail, he was dubious about using a drug to lengthen our days. "In a time-obsessed age, this is the Holy Grail," said Gleick. "Cheating sleep is the closest thing we have to cheating death." However, until scientists better understand the phenomenon known as sleep, he was quick to add, "Beware of miracles."
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives. For information about reprinting this article, go to www.lats.com/rights.

Does anyone know how much Gov. Davis got in campaign contributions from Larry Ellison and/or Oracle employees?

Then again, given Gov. Davis's views on whose money it is, the $95M in wasted funds doesn't surprise me even if Oracle isn't a big campaign donor.

that wired article was originally in the magazine two months ago, and, at the time, certainly did offer some piece of mind.

unfortunately, there was an article in wired news this week (also covered in the la times -- can't find wired's) talking about america's losing ground to other nations such as china and india in the satellite advantage rate.

well, that pax americana sure was fun, eh?

It's gonna get worse...I don't know where you live, but Adelphia is going to have to divest itself of 50% of its cable franchises to pay for the Rigas family's high-finance shenanigans. Can you say Enrondelphia? I knew you could.

If you live in the Greater Los Angeles, CA area and you have Adelphia as your cable company, kiss 'em goodbye.

However, this may actually be A Good Thing (tm).

We live about 100 yards from the Mulholland Drive mentioned at the end of the article, right in the middle of Los Angeles. Interestingly, and frustratingly, even though this part of Bel Air and Beverly Hills is full of people who would desparately like to have broadband access, there is none. No DSL, no cable modems. ATT has pulled out its fixed-wireless system. Metricom of course went belly-up.

Adelphia would be our cable modem provider. They've been busily laying cable for the last year, and have all but completed their network. Now I read in this story, Adelpha claims that it being crippled by DWP, because they can't get power to their network.

I wonder if the Department of Water and Power sees Adelphia as competition, and is inhibiting them in the obvious way. Or, this might be another case where you shouldn't attribute to malice what can equally be explained as bumbling by a cable company.

It will be interesting. Adelphia claims that they'll light up the fibers here within the next month or so. I can't wait.

thad

One should wonder whatever happened to the old Enlightenment idea that having a predictive model should over-ride religious conviction, once you've read this LA Times story:

March 27, 2002

Slatkin Agrees to Plead Guilty Crime: Money manager could get 15 years in prison for running one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history.