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With television and film production prohibitively expensive, executives in those industries were notoriously reluctant to take risks in developing new programs and backing them long enough for those risks to pay off.

Not all great shows were instant hits, he said, adding that shows such as Cheers and Seinfeld would have been taken off the air before they had a chance to become popular had they been produced today.

He encouraged his audience not be afraid to make mistakes in the search for fresh directions, and to be prepared to give unknowns a chance.

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Police have shot and killed a 45kg, 1.5-metre emu that tormented drivers on a busy American highway.

Police in Illinois shot the bird on Monday out of fear that it could cause a fatal accident, after six reports that the big bird had wandered onto the highway.

Authorities said they had no idea where the bird came from.

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Port Huron police were notified about the eBay posting by a caller from North Carolina who spotted the item on the online auction site, Porrett said.

EBay spokeswoman Catherine England said the posting was removed Wednesday because it violated a policy against selling human remains. The Web site allows the sale of skeletons for medical use, but not mummified remains.

Curiosity did attract at least one bid before the posting was removed.

"There was a bid on it for $500 from `Satan's Child,'" Porrett said.

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