Don't we all....

Meanwhile...let's have some fun.

Part of the deal with producing a series is that you have to clear all
the names you use in an episode, both in terms of people names and corporate
names, even the names of various substances or objects you use. There's a
clearances department that checks names and titles against registered
trademarks, copyrights and other stuff and tells you when something is or
isn't clear. I never cease to be amazed at the number of names that one makes
up, sure that it's bogus, only to find out that somebody out there has
actually made a business with that name.

Anyway, on the production report that came in the other day, two names
didn't clear; one is for a company that does interstellar planetary surveying
(a megacorporation that then exploits the resources of those planets), and the
other is a name for a certain mineral/compound used in the manufacture of jump
gates, very rare, very expensive.

(The name I came up with for the megacorp I won't mention here; because
when I found out there *was* a corp with this name, I asked what it was,
because it's the kind of name that could ONLY apply to what was just described
above...and the answer came back that it's classified, and why did I want to
know? Suffice to say I let the matter drop there. This is something like the
second or third time this has happened with a name I've come up with, and by
now my name is probably on a list or two somewhere....)

Anyway, I was just about to sit down and come up with a pair of new names
for this, when I thought...let's have some fun. So I'll take some suggestions
here for names for the two items listed above. Whichever sounds coolest (not
extreme, not parody, real but cool sounding), I'll slip into the script.
(This is, of course, contingent upon the clearances department clearing the
name.) The competition ends Midnight tonight, Pacific time.

jms