Inevitably, where there is a will, there is a way.   The Steadicam Rickshaw demonstrates another stabilizing platform method for digital filmmaking.

The plot of "Stealing Thunder" deals with the rising tensions in the Pacific Rim between Communist China and the United States and - in particular - over disputes to rich oil and natural gas territory in the South China Sea.  So here's the headline from Reuters:

REUTERS: Tension between the United States and China spilled over into meetings of Asia-Pacific leaders on Friday as the two countries jostled over how to handle competing claims to the South China Sea.

PANDORA'S BOX?

Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei are the other claimants to parts of the South China Sea, a major route for some $5 trillion in trade each year and potentially rich in resources.

The Southeast Asian countries along with the United States and Japan, are pressuring China to try to seek some way forward on the knotty issue of sovereignty, which has flared up again this year with often tense maritime stand-offs that an Australian think tank said could lead to conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged claimants this week not to resort to intimidation to push their cause, itself an indirect reference to China, which lays claim to large swathes of the sea.

In bilateral meetings, Obama said the maritime dispute was an issue to be discussed by the summit. Indeed, he told India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the East Asia Summit was the "premier arena" for resolving such an issue.

Japan added its voice to the call, saying those with claims should "seek a peaceful resolution in a transparent matter based on international law."

This US Navy ship is using stealth technology and a unique supercavitation system.  Supercavitation was first used by the Russian navy (or that's the first I heard about it).   Simply put, the Russian torpedo would pump out gases at the top of the torpedo.  These gases created an 'envelope around the torpedo.  And shooting through an envelope of air has far less friction than water.  Hence, faster.

Check it out here:

Harold Ramis directed Caddyshack which became a very popular film in 1980.

Jack Lemmon, actor extraordinaire, on Billy Wilder, writer & director extraordinaire.   I am reading Cameron Crowe's book on Billy Wilder who did such films as "One, Two, Three", "Double Indemnity" and "Some Like It Hot".

Benjamin Franklin, “The First American,” would have loved the Internet. He was, first and foremost, a printer, author and publisher. He established the Pennsylvania Chronicle firing up the Colonies against British tyranny. He made his fortune with “Poor Richard’s Almanack” and the Pennsylvania Gazette. “Almanack” sold 10,000 copies a year - three million a year today. As a self-published author, Franklin controlled his own financial destiny.

Today’s digital publishing options hold the same lure of Freedom and Opportunity

Publishing has shifted from faltering publishing houses to the Author. Self-publishing has a significant heritage: Willa Cather, Pat Conroy, Stephen Crane, Alexander Dumas, T.S. Eliot, Zane Grey, Thomas Hardy, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, Louis L'Amour, Thomas Paine, Edgar Allen Poe, Upton Sinclair, Henry David Thoreau. And Mark Twain. Unfortunately, the publishing industry is in more turmoil than the film industry. Getting an agent to read a script is tough. Try getting one to read an 800 page manuscript. Traditional publishers offer no advance, little support and no flexibility. Remember that iTunes emerged from the Napster download world. Netflix bought Starz movies for internet streaming - labeled naive by media luminaries at the time - and now ‘visionary’.