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Finally Watched “The Phantom Edit” & “Attack of the Phantom”

For those unaware, these were versions of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones that were re-edited in order to improve upon the movie.

The verdict, no amount of editing can add humanity to those characters.

I couldn’t get through thirty minutes of “The Phantom Edit.” It’s still an utter pile of garbage. I am ashamed to admit that I paid to see it three times in the theater because I couldn’t believe it was that bad. I kept telling myself, I must be missing something.

“Attack of the Phantom” was a bit more watchable but that is largely because it was a slightly better movie. Still, there are plot holes that you could drive a truck through. The most glaring, why wouldn’t Anakin in all those years check in on his mother and after slaughtering the sandpeople, why would Padme stick around?

It was that point that I turned it off.

Here’s hoping JJ Abrams can pull a rabbit out of his hat and make the next movie work.

For a much better explanation about why these movies suck check out these beautiful, hilarious reviews.

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What online services exist to help companies understand, identify and segment their customers before the product is actually developed?

One of the major difficulties we face as a small startup company is identifying our  target customers and understand who they are.

Sure, getting out of the office, doing the footwork and talking to as many people we can find helps, and is the right thing to do.
But it could be a real time saver if there were online services which could narrow our search, help us focus on specific groups and test our hypothesis.

I would like to know if you are aware of any solutions like that.
Thanks in advance!

View Question on Quora

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By analysing the movements of human shadows in aerial and satellite footage, JPL engineer Adrian Stoica says it should be possible to identify people from the way they walk — a technique called gait analysis, whose power lies in the fact that a persons walking style is very hard to disguise.

via Schneier on Security: Gait Analysis from Satellite.

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There is a simple reason health care in the United States costs more than it does anywhere else: The prices are higher.

via Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France.

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Cool article / infographic on content marketing.

Content Marketing Explained in a Dynfographic by MandLoys.

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“You don’t drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there.”

-Edwin Louis Cole

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I love discovering really cool websites. I’m not sure how I missed this one before.

Here is an index of websites that you should visit if you don’t want to waste time.

No Excuse List

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WiseGeek has a really cool post today that shows you what 200 calories looks like across a variety of different foods.

As someone who’s trying to shave a few pounds this was a great post.

In a nutshell – you can eat a lot of veggies and not so many M&Ms :)

What Does 200 Calories Look Like?.