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It did fucking rule. I don't think it shook though. But I once bet my brother that the original Star Wars crawl said "Episode IV: A New Hope". Of course, it was one of the many re-releases that featured such a crawl. So I'm a very unreliable source on such critical matters.

 

I would have bet that too - in fact....it didn't?

EDIT: Huh.

Amazon.com

The 2006 limited-edition two-disc release of George Lucas's epic space fantasy Star Wars is not only the first time the movie has been officially available by itself on DVD. It marks the first-ever DVD release of Star Wars as it originally played in theaters in 1977. What does that mean exactly? Well, for starters, the initial title crawl proclaims that this is just Star Wars, not Episode IV, A New Hope.

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http://en.wikipedia....s_opening_crawl

 

The version that came out in '81 had it, post Empire Strikes Back.

 

I wonder if that's when we first heard about the "nine chapters" plan.

People can talk crap about Lucas all they want - and I do it myself plenty - but I was still in my single digits ('81, '82) when I heard about Obi Wan vs "Darth Vader" (we didn't know the name Anakin then) and Darth Vader falling into a lava pit and getting scarred and almost dying and that's why he had all that breathing and masking crap on him. My brother and I acted it out on our back porch at least once. Over twenty years later, seeing ROTS, and that shit actually happening, was a uniquely satisfying experience.

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I wonder if that's when we first heard about the "nine chapters" plan.

People can talk crap about Lucas all they want - and I do it myself plenty - but I was still in my single digits ('81, '82) when I heard about Obi Wan vs "Darth Vader" (we didn't know the name Anakin then) and Darth Vader falling into a lava pit and getting scarred and almost dying and that's why he had all that breathing and masking crap on him. My brother and I acted it out on our back porch at least once. Over twenty years later, seeing ROTS, and that shit actually happening, was a uniquely satisfying experience.

 

I staged this exact storyline using Star Wars action figures and the pocket of a pool table that served as a makeshift lava pit. I also staged a lot of improper things involving the Luke, Leia and Han figures but we won't go into that.

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I staged this exact storyline using Star Wars action figures and the pocket of a pool table that served as a makeshift lava pit. I also staged a lot of improper things involving the Luke, Leia and Han figures but we won't go into that.

 

Was this in the early 80s, or over the weekend?

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Was this in the early 80s, or over the weekend?

 

Over the weekend, but it's all good, I gave them a good scrub-down afterwards. Luke's light-saber arm has crusted shut over the years, though.

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If you were a rampaging monster, as caliber66 suggests you are, would you be an ape, a lizard or a wolf?

 

Which of these animals is Sarah Palin least likely to shoot from a helicopter?

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I was reading an article the other day that suggested that not firing on a escape pod just because there were no living organisms on it qualifies as gross incompetence in a world where droids are commonplace. I don't know how much it costs for a star destoyer to shoot one laser, but I imagine using one shot to make sure the plans of your ultimate secret weapon don't get to a bunch of terrorists is a pretty good idea. The whole series would have ended at that point, but instead the empire managed to lose two death stars. I hope that guy is mopping some floor on Kessel these days. Thats the sort of decision that'll get made once Palin is president.

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I was reading an article the other day that suggested that not firing on a escape pod just because there were no living organisms on it qualifies as gross incompetence in a world where droids are commonplace. I don't know how much it costs for a star destoyer to shoot one laser, but I imagine using one shot to make sure the plans of your ultimate secret weapon don't get to a bunch of terrorists is a pretty good idea. The whole series would have ended at that point, but instead the empire managed to lose two death stars. I hope that guy is mopping some floor on Kessel these days. Thats the sort of decision that'll get made once Palin is president.

 

Exactly. Fuck Lucas!

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Which of these animals is Sarah Palin least likely to shoot from a helicopter?

 

This made me laugh. And I also agree with GON -- I think that Palin is not fit for high public office (read: anything above dog catcher).

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In any of the movies, do they ever explain how Star Wars droid technology regresses from lightning fast, fully articulated soldiers and cool rolling droids to slow, small robots on wheels and a few droids of C3PO's vintage whose arms can't even bend?

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In any of the movies, do they ever explain how Star Wars droid technology regresses from lightning fast, fully articulated soldiers and cool rolling droids to slow, small robots on wheels and a few droids of C3PO's vintage whose arms can't even bend?

 

Well in the case of the Federation battle droids, they were all rendered impotent by lil Anakin's destruction of the remote base that controlled them. To me, that was the impetus behind the clone army and the eventual stormtroopers - they were self reliant. Not that that speaks to why droids like C-3PO in Eps 4-6 are slow and suspiciously move like humans inside robot outfits...

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Remember this game??????/ Anybody?

 

action_arcade.gif

OMG, I loved that game.

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Yeah, I remember the droid shutdown from the first movie, but didn't realize the little hellion wiped out the entire product line with a single shot.

 

Well in the case of the Federation battle droids, they were all rendered impotent by lil Anakin's destruction of the remote base that controlled them. To me, that was the impetus behind the clone army and the eventual stormtroopers - they were self reliant. Not that that speaks to why droids like C-3PO in Eps 4-6 are slow and suspiciously move like humans inside robot outfits...

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Single-payer will strengthen care

 

Dr. Donald J. Palmisano, a past president of the American Medical Association, recently wrote that our country’s health care system “the finest in the world” and went on to say how a publicly financed health care system could ruin what has been built. He cites such potential horrors as long waits for specialists, bureaucratic intervention in medical decisions, and taxpayers bearing the burden of a government plan as reasons to oppose the creation of one.

 

I have one question for Dr. Palmisano: What country do you live in? In my country, America, we have the best doctors in the world. However, the system we have placed them into is stifling their ability to treat patients to the best of their ability.

 

Take wait times for specialists. We live in a country where 18 percent of the population lacks health insurance. This means that right from the start at least 46 million people have been cut out of the waiting line. Certainly this shortens the wait time for those of us with insurance, but at what cost in human life and health?

 

And if you want to go on anecdotal evidence, how do you explain the six-week wait I was told I had when I tried to make an appointment with an orthopedist for back pain?

 

How about the bureaucratic demons that are plaguing our doctors and patients now? Wait, aren’t these just called HMOs? Private health insurance in the U.S. interferes with the doctor-patient relationship all the time. Pre-approval for procedures, denial of payment, and pharmaceutical formularies — all of these are par for the course in the American health system.

 

According to the Commonwealth Fund, American doctors spend on average 142 hours annually interacting with health plans, at an estimated annual cost to physician practices of $31 billion, or $68,274 per physician. This works out to be about three hours per week. For primary care physicians the time is about three and a half hours/week.

 

Now, Dr. Palmisano, if we divide this number by the average appointment time of 18.7 minutes, we see that doctors would be able to see an extra 11 patients per week if we did not have the administrative waste of our current system.

 

Finally, I agree with you that in these tough economic times, no one wants to saddle anything on taxpayers that they do not already pay.

 

However, our country spent $2.4 trillion in 2008 on health care, with 46 percent coming from government money. This accounted for 17 percent of our GDP. The world’s second-largest spender was Switzerland, and they covered everyone by spending only 10.8 percent. We are already paying more for what we don’t get in the first place.

 

Our health system is wasteful and inefficient. I agree with you 100 percent when you say that reform should not weaken our health care.

 

That is why I support a single-payer health program, like that in Taiwan, not Britain.

 

Taiwan spends only 6 percent of their GDP on health care, yet all their citizens are covered and get comprehensive, quality care. How do they do this? Simply put, they cut out all the administrative waste that is burdening the U.S. system. The government pays the bills, the doctors take care of the patients. It’s that simple.

 

The people there have free choice of physician, and the only thing that causes a wait time is the demand for the particular doctor. This is no different than trying to get an appointment with a high-end neurosurgeon here in the U.S.

 

Their system is publicly financed, but privately run. Were we to adopt such an approach here, very little would change in the work of our doctors except to lift from their shoulders the enormous paperwork burden that they presently carry. They wouldn’t have to worry about becoming government employees, for example, or told they can’t work in

a given area.

 

Patients would have ultimate choice in provider. All doctors would be in “their plan,” including the one they are seeing now.

 

At the end of Dr. Palmisano’s article he asked, “Will we have a system that puts the patient in control with the doctor as trusted adviser, or a government-run system … ?” My only response is: Why can’t we have both?

 

Ryan McIntyre

 

Bergenfield, N.J.

 

(Editor’s note: The writer is a second year medical student at Albany Medical College and an MPH candidate at SUNY Albany School of Public Health. He is also a member of Physicians for a National Health Program.)

 

 

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Not that that speaks to why droids like C-3PO in Eps 4-6 are slow and suspiciously move like humans inside robot outfits...

Think how the robots in the Dark Ages were clunkier than those during Roman times.

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In any of the movies, do they ever explain how Star Wars droid technology regresses from lightning fast, fully articulated soldiers and cool rolling droids to slow, small robots on wheels and a few droids of C3PO's vintage whose arms can't even bend?

 

Well, you're really talking about two completely different classes of droids. There are multiple examples of "fast" droid, such as assassin droids, in the expanded universe that have been around for thousands of years. An R2 droid and protocol droids are completely different than a battle droids. Battle Droids are expensive to make and maintain. The more complicated the droids function, the more $$$ it costs to develop and maintain. Simple galactic economics.

 

Lucas explains that the "current" technology levels have been fairly consistent for 17,000 by the time Ep.I starts. This is "old" technology that Lucas says has been around for a while.

 

Going back on topic, could the past 13 pages been summed up as Sarah Palin could or could not be crazy...but the most like answer is that she is bat-shit crazy.

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