pimblr.com

No, before you ask, I’m not going to post it, but yes, I have read Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods. Just to get one thing out of the way, I really enjoyed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It wasn’t a great movie, but it was better than Temple of Doom and, at times, even surpassed The Last Crusade, in my opinion. I do admit to feeling that it could have been so much more, but, on the whole, I found it to be a satisfying Indiana Jones adventure. However, I now see how the fourth Indy outing could have been a spectacular film, a true send off to one of the greatest motion picture icons and a film that would have gone toe-to-toe with Raiders.
The same basic story is there, but things have been removed, rearranged and added that just make Darabont’s version pop. The aliens are still there, but Mutt isn’t. The action sequences are just stellar. The nods to the other films are much more interesting. And, perhaps most importantly, Marion is much more the Raiders Marion. Even Sallah and Henry Sr. manage to make an appearance. I’m really having a hard time understanding why Lucas and Spielberg rejected this draft of the script and turned it into what wound up on the screen. If you find this draft floating out there on the interwebs, give it a read. You might get pissed off or just shake your head in wonder at a missed opportunity, but you will find it fascinating. I hope enough buzz gets built up about this script in the next few days that Lucas and Spielberg are forced to respond as to why they rejected it. I would love to hear their reasoning, really I would.

popculturezoo.com

Twin Brothers Kaleb, right, and Kyle Walden, 16, take their bikes alongside Shane Spurgeon, 11, left, who swims in a flooded street in Franklin, Ind., Saturday, June 7, 2008. Storms dumped as much as 10 inches of rain on soggy central Indiana on Saturday, threatening dams, inundating highways and sending the Coast Guard to rescue residents from swamped homes. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
By TOM MURPHY – 20 hours ago
FRANKLIN, Ind. (AP) — Severe storms crippled central Indiana with as much as 10 inches of rain Saturday and spawned tornadoes that ripped up roofs and flipped tractor-trailers in Wisconsin and the Chicago suburbs.
The floods in Indiana threatened dams, inundated highways and forced the Coast Guard to rescue residents from swamped homes. To the northwest, Chicago-area residents ran for cover as tornadoes touched down throughout the region.
Wisconsin had a few minor tornado injuries, and at least one injury was reported near Chicago. Indiana had been spared any reported deaths or injuries due to flooding.
“At this point, mercifully, we believe all Hoosiers are secure,” Gov. Mitch Daniels said at a news conference. “We hope that will continue.”
Daniels declared an emergency in 10 counties as the Coast Guard was called in from the Great Lakes to help with flooding that has forced hundreds of people from their homes.
Ninety percent of the small town of Paragon, southwest of Indianapolis, was underwater, State Homeland Security Director Joe Wainscott said.
Water reached the first floor of Johnson Memorial Hospital in Franklin, but no patients had to be moved, county Commissioner Tom Kite said, and cars were submerged up to their windshields in the county government building parking lot.
“We have dams failing in the Prince’s Lakes area,” threatening the town of Nineveh, about 30 miles south of Indianapolis, Kite said.

ap.google.com

At least one person died, hospitals were evacuated, a dam failed, people fled their homes in boats.
Flooding followed a torrential downpour Saturday that swamped low-lying areas between Terre Haute and Bloomington, sending rivers and streams over their banks: An apparent Indiana record of almost 11 inches fell in Edinburgh, and 8 to 10 inches were recorded from Sullivan to Shelbyville.
The governor’s office reported one person dead in Columbus and no others seriously hurt. The Columbus Republic reported on its Web site that a body was found in a flood-washed car.
The property damage across Indiana is expected to be substantial.
The floodwaters could begin to recede today, with no more rain expected until late Monday. The rivers will continue to rise in parts of the state as the high water moves downstream toward the Ohio River. White River’s East Fork, for example, is expected to crest in Columbus this afternoon, and this week in Seymour, Bedford, Williams and Shoals.
After the dry-out, the cleanup.
“We’ll worry about recovery later,” said David Skaggs, deputy director of emergency management in Morgan County, which by 8 p.m. had evacuated about 500 people. “It’s not that you just go to bed, get up and it’s over. (The cleanup) is going to be continuing for weeks.”
Coming on the heels of a week of storms and tornadoes, the deluge seemed especially cruel. Just Friday, Gov. Mitch Daniels had issued a disaster declaration for 41 counties. Saturday, he declared a new disaster in 18.
“Mother Nature has landed another one on our chin,” Daniels said.
Marine and Coast Guard helicopters helped searched for people stranded by the sudden flooding, the governor’s office said. More than 200 National Guard soldiers fanned out to Terre Haute and Martinsville, and stood by in other communities with trucks and Humvees.

indystar.com

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heraldtimesonline.com

No. 2 (Second Street/82) New Albany shuttle will be combined into No. 2-Second Street. There also will be minor schedule changes.
No. 18 (Preston – 18th Street) — Service will be discontinued east of Jefferson Mall, including Outer Loop east of Judge Boulevard, Shepherdsville Road, Applegate Lane, Joyce Drive, Michael Ray Drive, Smyrna Parkway, Vandre Avenue, Rochelle Road, Vaughn Mill Road and Fegenbush Lane.
Service will continue to Jefferson Mall and Target during shopping hours.
Service will be discontinued in Valley Station, east of Dixie Highway, including Deering Road, Flowervale Lane, Pierce Way, Alicante Lane, Lemont Drive and Fruitwood Drive.
But Jefferson Community and Technical College’s Southwest Campus and Jewish Hospital Medical Center Southwest will continue to be served by No. 18 along Third Street Road, Stonestreet Road and Valley Station Road.
Service will be reduced to the Camp Taylor neighborhoods. Three trips — two in the morning and one in the afternoon, via Pindell Road, will continue to serve this area.
The Highview area will continue to be served by both No. 43-Poplar Level and No. 62-Breckenridge-Shepherdsville.
No. 71-Jeffersonville with service along Penn Avenue will be extended to serve the Census Bureau’s Dutch Lane facility with four morning and four afternoon trips. There will be minor schedule changes.
Service to Capitol Hills in Southern Indiana will be discontinued, including Page Place, Senate Avenue, Capitol Hills Drive, Blueberry Way, Presidential Place and Middle Road east of Allison Lane. All trips will end at Meijer on Allison Lane at 10th Street.
Reporter Sheldon S. Shafer can be reached at (502) 582-7089.

courier-journal.com

Updated Sat. Jun. 7 2008 3:08 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Scuba teams are rescuing residents in southern Indiana after storms dumped nearly 250 millimetres of rain in the area.
Numerous roads have been closed in the county, and emergency evacuations have been made, a local official told the Associated Press.
At least two rural bridges have failed because of the flooding.
In the city of Franklin, water had reached the first floor of a hospital there.
The National Weather Service has issued flash-flood warnings in 15 counties, and says record flooding is a possibility.
Authorities are cleaning up after thunderstorms and winds tore down tress and power lines Friday night, in both northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio.
In North Carolina, a wildfire is burning in an area of about 125 square kilometres.
It is only 30 per cent contained.
With files from the Associated Press

ctv.ca

While the presidential race is getting all the attention, voters in Indiana and North Carolina also selected their parties’ nominees for their 22 House of Representatives seats and one Senate slot on Tuesday. Each seat’s incumbent is running for reelection, but this is a turbulent election year, and the three high-school teachers, three attorneys, several small business owners and elected officials, and one TV weatherman challenging them could give them a run for their money. The Democrats are defending twelve House seats to the Republicans ten, plus Elizabeth Dole’s seat in the Senate.
Each candidate and incumbent has a profile within Congresspedia’s Wiki the Vote project, which you can find at the Indiana and North Carolina portals, or through the full listing of the primary victors below. We need your help to find out more about these candidates, so remember that these profiles are editable by anyone and jump right in. You can always contact one of the staff editors for help.
In the 1st district, incumbent Rep. Peter Visclosky (D) will square off against Republican Mark Leyva, a journeyman carpenter and former steelworker.
In the 2nd district, incumbent Rep. Joe Donnelly (D), will face Luke Puckett, the founder of Monster Pontoon Corp. and the victor in yesterday’s Republican primary.
In the 3rd district, incumbent Rep. Mark Souder (R) will face Democratic candidate Michael Montagano, a higher education attorney.
In the 4th district, incumbent Rep. Stephen Buyer (R) will be opposed by Democratic nominee Nels Ackerson, a former U.S. Senate staffer-turned lawyer.
In the 5th district, incumbent Rep. Dan Burton (R) won his primary race, as did Mary Ruley (D), a consultant and small business owner.
In the 6th district, incumbent Rep. Mike Pence (R) is running against the Democratic candidate, Barry Welsh, a high school government and economics teacher.
In the 7th district, incumbent Rep. Andre Carson (D) — who was elected to his seat in March — held off several primary challengers, setting up a rematch against special election opponent Jon Elrod (R), an Indiana state representative.

prwatch.org

Indiana Jones: Cartoon character or the cool hero humanized? Just like James Bond before him, Indy is a clever mix of fiction and wish-fulfilment fantasy who appeals equally to men and women. What is it about the man with the whip and fedora that makes the heart-rate of both sexes soar?
The answer goes beyond the personal appeal of Harrison Ford. It reaches deep into the history of screen heroics.
Shortly after Time Magazine first hit the stands in 1923, it surveyed high school students and asked them to name their favourite movie star. The young women named heavy-lidded Rudolph Valentino as their object of desire. Young men chose the swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks.
The results weren’t all that surprising to the nascent Hollywood establishment, which was just beginning to learn the relationship between genre and demographic appeal, but the data solidified certain ideas about what men and women look for in a leading character.
Also, because Fairbanks’ movies were beginning to outperform Valentino’s domestically and internationally - with Fairbanks’ The Thief of Baghdad becoming one of the first international box office hits - Hollywood began crafting an increasing number of male heroes in Fairbanks’ macho image instead of Valentino’s sultry, bordering-on-effeminate, esthetic.
Over the ensuing decades, the male hero only grew beefier, brawnier and manlier as the action-adventure genre became tailored to suit masculine sensibilities. Producers didn’t really even think of appealing to women older than 12 in the genre, and focused on attracting grown women to other genres instead - namely, melodramas and romantic comedies.
The trend continued right up until the 1960s, when ideas about gender stereotyping were suddenly questioned by the burgeoning feminist movement, and the masculine hero’s antiquated armour began to rust in an increasingly anti- war climate.
Hollywood answered with its most potent creation to date: James Bond. With the 1962 tagline for Dr. No describing Bond as “the most extraordinary gentleman spy in all fiction,” agent 007 was one of the first fictional heroes who successfully straddled the gender divide.

canada.com

There was a certain feel to Sen. Barack Obama’s speech last night in Raleigh, N.C. He didn’t win both Indiana and North Carolina last night, but he sure sounded like he did.
More than in past speeches Senator Obama talked like a presidential nominee. He thanked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for putting up a good fight, and then took on the man who is likely to be his rival in the fall: Sen. John McCain.
Clearly, the thinking was that his 14-point victory in North Carolina was overwhelming and that the squeaker loss in Indiana was close enough. He advanced his lead in pledged delegates. He advanced his popular vote advantage. His nomination became all but certain.
The results, when viewed through the prism of the Patchwork Nation map, do show some reason for optimism in the Obama camp. He won in some important places last night, particularly in Indiana, and he has made some inroads in areas that had been Senator Clinton’s core constituency.
Obama won a big “Emptying Nest” county (Allen), a community with a large share of older voters. He won a few “Monied ’Burbs” counties immediately around Indianapolis (Boon and Hamilton) that are well above 90 percent white. He also won an “Immigration Nation” county (Elkhart), which has a good-size Hispanic population.
He won those places he had to win, too. We wrote last week that the three counties Patchwork Nation classified as “Industrial Metropolis” (Marion, Lake, and St. Joseph, the respective homes of Indianapolis, Gary, and South Bend) were crucial for him. Last night, he carried all of them.
Perhaps just as important were the close margins by which he lost in “Emptying Nests,” which have been reliably in Clinton’s corner throughout this primary season. Although these counties were with her again, in Benton County, Montgomery County, and LaPorte County, her margin of victory was within 6 percentage points.

csmonitor.com

The end of the road at least was a place where Isiah Thomas would never be singularly cast as a failure, much less one of historical proportion. He grew up in Chicago, but dribbled onto the national radar in basketball-loving Indiana, where he won a national championship in 1981 under the doctrinaire tutelage of Bob Knight.
“Feels like yesterday,” Thomas said of the rolling landscape leading to Bloomington, about 50 miles southwest of here. But that was because he had gone there Tuesday night to visit his son, a student at Indiana University, touching one of the bases on his way to being thrown out in New York.
After all the determined talk in recent weeks about soldiering on, even as his nameplate was removed from the team president’s door, Thomas had to all but admit he was coaching his last game for the Knicks on Wednesday night. Not surprisingly, it was a 132-123 defeat to the Pacers, giving him a 23-59, Larry Brown-matching season before he faces his expected executioner, Donnie Walsh.
“I’m not used to being on the bottom,” Thomas said before the morning shoot-around at Conseco Fieldhouse. “However, this is the bottom and this is how you get treated on the bottom.”
If there is a place for Thomas in the Knicks’ organization until the matter of his contract is resolved, it will be something akin to a scouting assignment to Slovenia. By now, Walsh surely understands that the New York basketball community does not want more rationalizations from Thomas, or, worse, postulations for the future.
“Obviously, that’s there every day,” Walsh said of the fans’ antipathy while remaining coy on Thomas’s fate.
For Thomas’s part, he seemed to know it was time to stop pretending he might have a meaningful role with the team he tried to hastily remake upon replacing Scott Layden in the front office in December 2003, beginning with the acquisition of a pseudo star, Stephon Marbury. It was far from his last error of commission, even if he would rather get a root canal than admit to anything specific.

nytimes.com