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Leak Star Wars, Go To Jail
Shea O'Brien Foley, a former production assistant at LucasFilm, has been arrested on 13 counts of theft of Star Wars material from LucasFilm worth $450,000. The police investigation was launched after an early Attack of the Clones cut was leaked to and reviewed by Aint It Cool News in March, two months before it hit theaters. Other than the fact that Ain't It Cool News and Harry Knowles aren't being charged with anything, police aren't saying much. Apparently, Jedi mind tricks didn't work on the arresting officers. Update: 10/14 23:51 GMT by T : Michael Singer points to an article on internet.com with more depth.
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The word "monkey" is of uncertain origin; its first known usage was in 1498 when it was used in the literary work Reynard the Fox as the name of the son of Martin the Ape. "Monkey" has numerous nautical meanings, such as a small coastal trading vessel, single masted with a square sail of the 16th and 17th centuries; a small wooden cask in which grog was carried after issue from a grog-tub to the seamen's messes in the Royal Navy; a type of marine steam reciprocating engine where two engines were used together in tandem on the same propeller shaft; and a sailor whose job involved climbing and moving swiftly (usage dating to 1858). A "monkey boat" was a narrow vessel used on canals (usage dating to 1858); a "monkey gaff" is a small gaff on large merchant vessels; a "monkey jacket" is a close fitting jacket worn by sailors; "monkey spars" are small masts and yards on vessels used for the "instruction and exercise of boys;" and a "monkey pump" is a straw used to suck the liquid from a small hole in a cask; a "monkey block" was used in the rigging of sailing ships; "monkey island" is a ship's upper bridge; "monkey drill" was calisthenics by naval personnel (usage dating to 1895); and "monkey march" is close order march by US Marine Corps personnel (usage dating to 1952). [Sources: Cassidy, Frederick G. and Joan Houston Hall eds. Dictionary of American Regional English. vol.3 (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1996): 642; Wilfred Granville. A Dictionary of Sailors' Slang (London: Andre Deutch, 1962): 77; Peter Kemp ed. Oxford Companion to Ships & the Sea. (New York: Oxford University; Press, 1976): 556; The Oxford English Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press, 1933; J.E. Lighter ed. Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang. (New York: Random House, 1994): 580.; and Eric Partridge A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. 8th ed. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company): 917.] "Monkey" has also been used within an ordnance context. A "monkey" was a kind of gun or cannon (usage dating to 1650). "Monkey tail" was a short hand spike, a lever for aiming a carronade [short-sight iron cannon]. A "powder monkey" was a boy who carried gun powder from the magazine to cannons and performed other ordnance duties on a warship (usage dating to 1682). [Source: The Oxford English Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press, 1933.] The first recorded use of the term "brass monkey" appears to dates to 1857 when it was used in an apparently vulgar context by C.A. Abbey in his book Before the Mast, where on page 108 it says "It would freeze the tail off a brass monkey." [Source: Lighter, J.E. ed. Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang. (New York: Random House, 1994): 262.]It has often been claimed that the "brass monkey" was a holder or storage rack in which cannon balls (or shot) were stacked on a ship. Supposedly when the "monkey" with its stack of cannon ball became cold, the contraction of iron cannon balls led to the balls falling through or off of the "monkey." This explanation appears to be a legend of the sea without historical justification. In actuality, ready service shot was kept on the gun or spar decks in shot racks (also known as shot garlands in the Royal Navy) which consisted of longitudinal wooden planks with holes bored into them, into which round shot (cannon balls) were inserted for ready use by the gun crew. These shot racks or garlands are discussed in: Longridge, C. Nepean. The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships. (Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press, 1981): 64. A top view of shot garlands on the upper deck of a ship-of-the-line is depicted in The Visual Dictionary of Ships and Sailing. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 1991): 17.
"Brass monkey" is also the nickname for the Cunard Line's house flag which depicts a gold lion rampant on a red field. [Source: Rogers, John. Origins of Sea Terms. (Mystic CT: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1984): 23.
Goto jail Go directly to jail Do not pass go do not collect $200
fp
You realize there can be news that you don't have to disagree with, right? It can just be... news.
I am so fucking sick of people telling me that Star Wars (one of the most overrated films EVER) is the be all, end all of science fiction. Yeah it had good FX for the time but that's it. The story was stolen right from Arthurian Legend and just set in a science fiction world, the dialog was garbage and the acting at it's best points was adequate.
Why does everyone love Star Wars so damn much? Honestly, WHY? The film is devoid of characterization, virtually empty on emotion and over-raught on everything else. Hell, like I said the plot is just knights of old set in another world. When other, lesser, films do that it's called plagiarism but I guess since Lucas did it that is not the case here, huh? I mean I am getting sick of seeing any film that even remotely resembles Star Wars being called a rip-off or derivative of it. Lucas did NOT come up with this story nor does he have hold over it.
One friend of mine tried to tell me Star Wars holds up not because of the story or the characters or the FX but because it was the first science fiction film to attempt a multi-movie story. Uh, Planet Of The Apes did a 5 movie story (first mind you) and the Ape films are a HELL of alot more thought provoking and well made than the Wars movies.
I just saw "The Dark Redemption" and that is the movie Lucas SHOULD have been making instead of that 2 hour plus, excuse to gouge his audience (I mean really, did Phantom Menace have a plot? NO. Did it tell a cohesive story? Hell NO. Was it an excuse for FX and to further line Lucas' pockets? Bloody hell yes).
"The Dark Redemption" is a 20 minute short film that was made (without Lucas' knowledge or consent) after hours while Crapisode 1 was filing. It uses real costumes, sets and FX from the movie and tells the story of Episode 3.8 (it ends just before "A New Hope") and despite the terrible acting, it was SO much better than Episode 1. It can only be found in bootleg form and if Lucas has his way in court even that will be rare.
Okay back to Lucas and his lack of talent. If you look at all his films you will see that none of them have any substance really. The man is a hack just this side of Tim Burton. I mean look at the "best" Star Wars film "The Empire Strikes Back". I bet most of you don't even realize Lucas did NOT direct it, nor did he write it (to be fair he wrote the "outline" but the script was written by someone else entirely). He DID write (if that is called writing) A New Hope, Phantom Menace and Return Of The Jedi (but he didn't direct Jedi either) and I find it funny that the one most people consider the "best" of the series he only had passing influence in.
So to close I just want to say that Star Wars is not great science fiction nor is it adequate science fiction and Lucas is not the guru he is being heralded as.
(+1) Insightful!
... This post is simultaneously more interesting, insightful, and funny than most of the score 5 posts in this thread.
The amazing story of Barbra Streisand working for /. as an editor is right under the Star Wars story.
For public indecency and violating the laws of nature! Have you ever looked at this guy? Jesus Christ! He is the poster child "Lard Anonymous". He's so freaking' ugly, the doctor smacked his mom when he was born.
You will die alone!
David Einstein, Chronicle Staff Writer Monday, October 14, 2002
Q: When I start writing a letter in Microsoft Word and finish the salutation, an animated paper clip appears along with a dialog box that says, "It looks like you're writing a letter. Would you like help?" I don't need help writing a simple letter, thank you very much. What does the program think I am, an idiot? Is there a way to disable this unfortunate feature?
I dig the aliace walker comment!
-James
Too late =(
The song or the whole cd?
How ya like dat?
You forgot the tags!
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.