RE: [scifinoir2] Wal-Mart cancels experiment with in-store dating
I'm not surprised. And if you think about it, Wal-Mart is all for shooting, right? :o) ---Original Message--- From: Keith Johnson Date: 07/25/05 22:29:40 To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: [scifinoir2] Wal-Mart cancels experiment with in-store dating Someone I spoke to says Wal-Mart doesn't sell condoms. Is that true? What a world where you'll sell guns for violence, but not condoms for protection -Original Message- From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of M C Jennings Sent: Monday, July 25, 2005 13:26 To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Wal-Mart cancels experiment with in-store dating Keith, I'm on the floor! And we won't even mention the surge in sales at the Pharmacy for...you guessed it!... And Wal-Mart generic condoms! ---Original Message--- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 07/25/05 09:51:47 To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Wal-Mart cancels experiment with in-store dating How would it be done? Would the old lady who looks like your granny fill out a survey for what you want? Would you get I'm available badges to wear? Would they be amenable to people who want selections to be limited by race, age, or orientation? How do you stop an insistent would-be courter who won t leave you alone? Call one of the old geezers to jump him? The Great Unwashed, making love connections amidst the gun racks, toiletries and back-to-school supplies! How would you shelter your poor innocent kids from explicit conversations as Bubba whispers sweet nothings to Cindy Lou or Eula Bell? What if Leroy and Antoine are mackin' the same woman, and a fight breaks out? They do sell guns, don't they? Yipes: Shootout on Aisle 3! Oh make that Cleanup on Aisle 3! And back to this old dude who was saddened at the loss of his dating spot. What happened to seniors hooking up at Saturday night bingo? Can't they court over a game of gin rummy? Or get their groove back over a stimulating round of bowling? What about during the senior specials at Denny's or other restaurants? Do they even have church socials anymore? -- Original message -- H...Pimps in blue vests... Welcome to Wal-Mart...visit the ATM, then aisle 3... Maurice ---Original Message--- From: Keith Johnson Date: 07/24/05 17:07:59 To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: [scifinoir2] Wal-Mart cancels experiment with in-store dating From the sublime to the ridiculous. This was a scary experiment. I know Wal-Mart is already starting to dominate the world in terms of retail, groceries, even automotive care. They're changing the shape of shopping--for good or ill. They've have all kinds of impacts of people's lifestyles (I know people who think of trips to Wal-Mart on the same level as going out to the movies!) But the thought of people making love connections in the aisles?! How creepy is that? Also, the article references a dude over 60 but I'm assuming it's setup for folks of all ages, just as the store's clientele varies in age? How would a young woman in her 20's stop unwanted advances from an old geezer. 'Scuse me dearie, but you're certainly looking spiffy tonight! Great set of gams you got there chicky! How's about me and you stepping out and cutting the rug? Oh--can you pass me that bottle of Geritol first? Wal-Mart Nixes 'Singles Shopping' ROANOKE, Va. - Wal-Mart has ditched a program that helped single shoppers find love in the discount store's aisles. Officials at Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., ordered their Roanoke store to put an end to Singles Shopping, the only program of its kind at Wal-Mart's U.S. stores. Taking a cue from Wal-Marts in Germany, the month-old program encouraged customers on Friday evenings to pick up a red bow they could place on their shopping carts as an invitation to other singles. Flirt points were set up in various sections of the store. A Wal-Mart spokesman declined to comment on the reason behind the program's cancellation. But customer Dale Firebaugh, who showed up Friday night hoping to meet his match, said store employees told him several people had complained. I'm disappointed, said Firebaugh, 63. Where can someone over 40 who doesn't smoke or drink or go to bars meet someone? ___ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group scifinoir2 on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] _ YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS * Visit your group scifinoir2 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2 on the web. * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
[scifinoir2] Bay's 'Island' no paradise this time
BOX OFFICEBay's 'Island' no paradise this timeThe action director tries to figure out how the opening of his latest megabudget blockbuster became a debacle.By Chris Lee Special to The Times July 26, 2005 Anticipating that the heat would be on in Hollywood this weekend, The Island director Michael Bay slipped away to sweltering Arizona. I didn't hear the numbers all weekend, he said. I relaxed, called my agent Sunday and said, 'Give me the bad news.' When he did, this much was clear: It's a debacle. It's my worst opening weekend ever, Bay said. This summer, box office doldrums have claimed any number of victims: Rebound, The Honeymooners, The Lords of Dogtown and, on a bigger-budget scale, Cinderella Man and Kingdom of Heaven. But last weekend, moviegoers crowned the biggest big-budget dud yet: Bay's Island. According to Paul Degarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Co., its opening comes as a major disappointment for DreamWorks, the studio that released the film. There's a lot riding on a tent pole movie like that, he said. Everyone expected this movie to come in at No. 1 or 2. Bay said The Island suffered from low awareness among potential moviegoers. In a phone interview, he said he felt the movie, which stars Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johannson as clones who go on the run after discovering they have been raised for harvested body parts, had fallen victim to a number of factors. It could be the subject matter, the lack of stars, he said. I'm not blaming the whole thing on the marketers. A spokesman for DreamWorks said the studio mounted the biggest print, online and broadcast marketing campaign in its history for The Island, an effort that included five theatrical movie trailers, a word-of-mouth screening campaign, three websites and numerous Internet ads. In the weeks leading up to The Island's opening, though, marketing executives at other studios said they thought the campaign was confusing and unfocused. Bay himself, in an earlier interview with The Times, worried about the marketing campaign and complained that The Island's poster made Johansson look like a porn star. In its first three days of release, the $124-million sci-fi epic took in just $12.4 million, opening in fourth place behind the previous weekend's top draws, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wedding Crashers and Fantastic Four. That means The Island grossed just 10% of its production budget, placing it ahead of Cinderella Man and Kingdom of Heaven as the most expensive dud of the summer so far. Its lackluster performance is another indication of a continuing moviegoing slump in which overall admissions are down about 10% for the year. The director's previous five films opened at No. 1 and have combined to gross $1.7 billion worldwide, according to boxofficemojo.com. He said he felt reassured by the knowledge that other successful directors had also experienced commercial missteps. Everyone from Spielberg to Zemeckis to Kubrick they've all had big flops, he said. I was five for five. You know it's going to happen. It hurts, Bay added. It's always the director's fault. If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives. If you could make a difference, what would you do?...Said Kakese Dibinga __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Beauty and the Bleach
now, uh, this is interesting...SaidCOLUMN ONEBeauty and the BleachSome Asian American women spend thousands pursuing the traditional ideal of whiter skin. Others see a dark shadow of prejudice.By Jia-Rui Chong Times Staff Writer July 26, 2005 For many Southern Californians, summer is the season for beaches, chaise longues and the quest for the perfect tan. Not for Margaret Qiu. She and thousands of other Asian American women are going to great lengths to avoid the sun fighting to preserve or enhance their pale complexions with expensive creams, masks, gloves, professional face scrubs and medical procedures. For these women, a porcelain-like white face is the feminine ideal, reflecting a long-held belief that pale skin represents a comfortable life. They also believe it can hide physical imperfections. There's a saying, 'If you have white skin, you can cover 1,000 uglinesses,' said Qiu, a 36-year-old Chinese immigrant who lives in Alhambra. Qiu goes through a regimen of skin-whitening products twice a day. She is one of many customers who have turned Asian whitening creams and lotions into a multimillion-dollar industry in the United States. But that's just the beginning. Take a daylight drive through Asian immigrant enclaves like Monterey Park and Irvine, and you'll see women trying to shield themselves with umbrellas even for the short dash from a parking lot into a supermarket. While driving, many wear special UV gloves which look like the long gloves worn with ball gowns to protect their forearms, and don wraparound visors that resemble welder's masks. At beauty salons, women huddle around cosmetics counters asking about the latest cleansers and lotions that claim to control melanin production in skin cells, often dropping more than $100 for a set. Beauticians do a brisk business with $65 whitening therapies. Women dab faces with fruit acid, which is supposed to remove the old skin cells that dull the skin, and glop on masks with pearl powder or other ingredients that they believe lighten the skin. There are doctors who, for about $1,000, will use an electrical field to deliver vitamins, moisturizers and bleaching agents to a woman's face in a procedure known as a mesofacial. Whitening products have been a mainstay in Asia for decades, but cosmetics industry officials said they have emerged as a hot seller in the United States only in the last four years. Whitening products now rack up $10 million in sales a year, according to the market research firm Euromonitor. But their popularity has sparked a debate in the Asian American community about the politics of whitening. Qui and others say the quest for white skin is an Asian tradition. But others younger, American-born Asians question whether the obsession with an ivory complexion has more to do with blending into white American culture, or even a subtle prejudice against those with darker skin. The market research firm says cosmetics companies have taken note of the sensitivity, saying their Asian skin products in America are intended not for whitening but for brightening. It's not a politically correct term because it seems to imply that looking Caucasian via a white complexion is the desired beauty goal, said Virginia Lee, a Euromonitor analyst. - Qiu, a 36-year-old native of Xi'an, China, thinks there is nothing politically incorrect about using products that whiten the skin, which are known in Mandarin as mei bai, or beauty white. Qiu, who sells herbal supplements, has used whitening creams for five years and went to Vitativ, a cosmetics store in Monterey Park, one recent morning for a refill. As she paid for a set of Shiseido UV White lotions, Qiu said she was surprised when she first arrived in the U.S. and saw so many young women flaunting their tans. She came to realize that Eastern and Western ideas of beauty were different. Here, she said, When you see darker, you think they are very rich. They have a boat. They have enough time to go to the beach. It's OK for American women to be darker, said her husband Lei Sun, a 36-year-old sushi chef. It's part of the sports thing. But Lei Sun prefers lighter-skinned Asian women, saying that they embody the traditional ideal known as si si wen wen. He looked to his wife to explain the concept. That means when a lady stands there with white skin and is very polite, and when she laughs, she doesn't make a big noise, Qiu said. Women with pale skin are more delicate, more feminine and show that they don't have to toil outdoors, Qiu explained. Whiter skin also means high class, she said. Every morning and every night, Qiu spends a few minutes applying whitening lotions. I never buy the very cheap one, she said one morning as she dabbed her face with whitening moisturizer in the white bathroom of her Alhambra house. Sometimes with those, your neck and your face are different colors,
[scifinoir2] Canadian lab to test 'sasquatch' hair
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050726/sc_nm/odd_canada_sasquatch_dc Canadian lab to test 'sasquatch' hair Tue Jul 26 VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - The debate over the existence of sasquatch, aka Bigfoot, an ape-like creature said to haunt the wilderness of western Canada has entered the world of modern DNA testing. A laboratory will test hair samples that several residents of Teslin, Yukon, say were left when the large, but so-far mythological creature made a late-night run through their community in early July. University of Alberta wildlife geneticist David Coltman, who agreed to do the tests as a favor to a colleague, said on Monday that scientists have cataloged the DNA of nearly all large animals in the Yukon such as bears and bison. So we'll compare it to all of that, and if it doesn't match anything, then it's potentially interesting, said Coltman, who suspects the hair was actually left behind by a much more mundane Yukon bison. If sasquatch is indeed a primate, then we would expect the sample to be closer to humans or chimpanzees or gorillas, Coltman said. The legend of a large, hairy, two-legged creature lurking in the mountains of western Canada and the United States dates back to before Europeans settled the continent. This was the second report of the creature near Teslin in just over a year. In the latest sighting, a group of Teslin residents told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. they heard branches cracking and saw a large human-like creature run by a house. It left behind large footprints, they said, and the hair tufts that were given to wildlife officials. Coltman expects to have his results on Thursday and said that even if the hair turns out not to be from a sasquatch, the process should serve as good way to get students interested in the field of DNA testing. It's sort of like a wildlife CSI story, he said. Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: Beauty and the Bleach
Thanks for posting this. This is a personal grooming habit to which I was unaware. Having read it, I am speechless. Avoiding the sun due to skin cancer is one thing; whitening is something else. George --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Said Kakese Dibinga [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: now, uh, this is interesting...Said COLUMN ONE Beauty and the Bleach Some Asian American women spend thousands pursuing the traditional ideal of whiter skin. Others see a dark shadow of prejudice. By Jia-Rui Chong Times Staff Writer July 26, 2005 For many Southern Californians, summer is the season for beaches, chaise longues and the quest for the perfect tan. Not for Margaret Qiu. She and thousands of other Asian American women are going to great lengths to avoid the sun fighting to preserve or enhance their pale complexions with expensive creams, masks, gloves, professional face scrubs and medical procedures. snip Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
RE: [scifinoir2] Bay's 'Island' no paradise this time
Are we surprised? Like I said Sunday: As for The Island? Can't say I am surprised. First, you know I'm not a fan of the directing style of Michael Bay and his ilk. The film's trailers throw out the concept, then assault you with lots of vehicle crashes, explosions, and people running. Looked no different from Bad Boys or The Rock or something. That did nothing to make me want to see it despite McGregor and Johannson, actors I really like. Most of the dreck that Bay and his kind put out which makes money has stars like Will Smith, Bruce Willis, or Ben Affleck. I like McGregor and Johannson, but they're not going to draw as many mainstream people. Without that, the movie needs to be good and clever, or at least trully entertaining. Over-the-top as I think it is, no surprise... -Original Message- From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Said Kakese Dibinga Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 12:37 To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com; Tope Oluwole; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [scifinoir2] Bay's 'Island' no paradise this time BOX OFFICEBay's 'Island' no paradise this timeThe action director tries to figure out how the opening of his latest megabudget blockbuster became a debacle.By Chris Lee Special to The Times July 26, 2005 Anticipating that the heat would be on in Hollywood this weekend, The Island director Michael Bay slipped away - to sweltering Arizona. I didn't hear the numbers all weekend, he said. I relaxed, called my agent Sunday and said, 'Give me the bad news.' When he did, this much was clear: It's a debacle. It's my worst opening weekend ever, Bay said. This summer, box office doldrums have claimed any number of victims: Rebound, The Honeymooners, The Lords of Dogtown and, on a bigger-budget scale, Cinderella Man and Kingdom of Heaven. But last weekend, moviegoers crowned the biggest big-budget dud yet: Bay's Island. According to Paul Degarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Co., its opening comes as a major disappointment for DreamWorks, the studio that released the film. There's a lot riding on a tent pole movie like that, he said. Everyone expected this movie to come in at No. 1 or 2. Bay said The Island suffered from low awareness among potential moviegoers. In a phone interview, he said he felt the movie, which stars Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johannson as clones who go on the run after discovering they have been raised for harvested body parts, had fallen victim to a number of factors. It could be the subject matter, the lack of stars, he said. I'm not blaming the whole thing on the marketers. A spokesman for DreamWorks said the studio mounted the biggest print, online and broadcast marketing campaign in its history for The Island, an effort that included five theatrical movie trailers, a word-of-mouth screening campaign, three websites and numerous Internet ads. In the weeks leading up to The Island's opening, though, marketing executives at other studios said they thought the campaign was confusing and unfocused. Bay himself, in an earlier interview with The Times, worried about the marketing campaign and complained that The Island's poster made Johansson look like a porn star. In its first three days of release, the $124-million sci-fi epic took in just $12.4 million, opening in fourth place behind the previous weekend's top draws, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wedding Crashers and Fantastic Four. That means The Island grossed just 10% of its production budget, placing it ahead of Cinderella Man and Kingdom of Heaven as the most expensive dud of the summer so far. Its lackluster performance is another indication of a continuing moviegoing slump in which overall admissions are down about 10% for the year. The director's previous five films opened at No. 1 and have combined to gross $1.7 billion worldwide, according to boxofficemojo.com. He said he felt reassured by the knowledge that other successful directors had also experienced commercial missteps. Everyone from Spielberg to Zemeckis to Kubrick - they've all had big flops, he said. I was five for five. You know it's going to happen. It hurts, Bay added. It's always the director's fault. If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives. If you could make a difference, what would you do?...Said Kakese Dibinga __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] _ YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS *Visit your group scifinoir2 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2 on the web. *To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ . _ [Non-text portions of this message have
