iFrizz

If only I could convince my wife we need this.

MarketSaw is reporting, from a super secret source, that George Lucas is considering another Star Wars trilogy, this time in 3D. The source says it all depends on how James Cameron's 'Avatar' does at the box office. According to the rumor (and I can't say that enough), George Lucas would produce, and not direct; Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola are said to in consideration to direct.

It's no big news that Lucas has repeatedly said he would not make another Star Wars trilogy, but you can imagine him being very excited about the direction of 3D cinema. As long as Lucas is not the only writer (please get someone like Joss Whedon to write the dialogue), and as long as the films are not simply a vehicle for new effects technology, I see this as nothing but good news. (Two big ifs, by the way.)

The most important aspect of this new trilogy is going to be setting. When will the movies take place? After ROTJ? The Old Republic? I have a feeling that if this really does happen (and that seems rather doubtful), it won't be at all connected to the Skywalker saga. Lucas has always said that Star Wars is about the rise and fall and redemption of Darth Vader, adding a new trilogy without Anakin seems out of place in the mythos.

Also, expect EU fanboys to lose their minds because the whole timeline is about to destroyed (again).

Yes. With our new LendMe™ technology, you can now share from nook to nook. But it doesn’t stop there. Starting Nov. 30th, you can lend to and from any device with the Barnes & Noble eReader app, including PC, Mac OS®, BlackBerry®, iPhone™ and iPod® touch. All you need to know is your friend’s email address. You can lend many of your eBooks one time for a maximum of 14 days. When you use our LendMe™ technology, you will not be able to read your eBook while it is on loan, but you always get it back.

This makes the ebook experience much like regular books, although I wish they would allow you more than 14 days. Such a good idea.

Update: it appears I was wrong; this is a good idea that will die because of horrible implementation. If you read the quote carefully, you will see you can only lend a book once, for a maximum of 14 days. Once you lend a book, you can never lend it again. Let's hope this is just their way of getting their feet in the water before taking a full plunge. Otherwise, this feature is DOA.

This is democracy’s real cancer – the arrogance of power. Let us be clear. This mental illness that allows those in power to hustle humble juice women off the street, or have nurses shot on rooftops, or any of the other offenses that come with it is not monopolized by any ideology or any nationality. There are people who suffer from it spread across the across left and right, and the north and south. And they are drawn to power, as the saying goes, “like flies to shit.

Clark Kenyon has sent a card to his mailing list announcing the closing of Camp Pope Bookshop as a retail operation and the staging of an inventory liquidation sale starting October 15 at www.camppope.com. On Nov. 15, when the sale ends, the website will present Camp Pope publishing (his marque's own books) while offering publishing services. This after 20 years of direct mail retail ...

The wailing and gnashing of teeth that you hear among Republicans is 68 percent envy and 32 percent sour grapes. Here is an idealistic, articulate young president who is enormously popular everywhere in the world except in the states of the Confederacy, and here sit the 28 percent of the American people who still thought Mr. Bush was doing a heckuva job at the end, gnashing their teeth, hoping and praying for something horrible to happen such as an infestation of locusts or the disappearance of the sun, something to make the president look bad, which is not a good place for a political party to be, hoping for the country to slide into chaos. When you bet against America, you are choosing long odds.

I disagree that there was "wailing and gnashing of teeth," although clearly a hyperbolic statement, but rather that many people were simply arguing they felt he hadn't done enough to win the prize. The essence of the argument, that people who disagreed with Obama's win were doing so out of envy and hatred, is spot on. The desire of many to make the president of the United States look so bad is appalling (and was under Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush).

During debates of the entry of free and slave states, South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks beat Senator Charles Sumner unconscious and bloody after  Sumner insulted Brooks’ home state.  The attack highlighted the increased polarization between the two factions that divided our nation for a century.  Somehow, Rep Joe Wilson’s outburst during President Obama’s speech seems tame by comparison.

Read the whole piece, it's quite good.

"If you take a user who's used to a 14- or 15-inch notebook and you say 'Here's a 10-inch netbook,' they're gonna say 'Hey, this is so fantastic. It's so cute. It's so light. I love it,'" Dell told Silicon Valley's tech-obsessed Churchill Club during an appearance Tuesday night. "But about 36 hours later, they're saying 'The screen's gonna have to go. Give me my 15-inch screen back.'"