[scifinoir2] FW: Chertoff Unveils Apathy Alert System - Satire
September 13, 2005 CHERTOFF UNVEILS APATHY ALERT SYSTEM- Satire Color-coded System Would Warn Public of Sluggish Government Response Reacting to criticism that the federal government does not respond quickly enough in times of emergency and crisis, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff today unveiled what he called a color-coded apathy alert system that will warn the public of just how sluggish the government's response will be. In the past, people have asked, what is taking the government so long to help? Mr. Chertoff said in a press conference in Washington. It is my firm belief that this color-coded system will keep the public better informed about the government's precise level of apathy and indifference. In times of crisis, people have had to guess whether the government cares or not, Mr. Chertoff added. This apathy alert system should totally take the guesswork out of that. The color-coded system consists of five different colors, each corresponding to the government's degree of sluggishness, Mr. Chertoff explained, using a chart and a pointer to demonstrate the system for reporters. According to the new system, the color yellow means normal apathy - will wait and see how situation develops, orange means heightened apathy - will not return phone calls and red means severe apathy - will not cut short summer vacation in Nantucket. But even as he unveiled the new apathy alert system, Mr. Chertoff was less specific about how and when the system would be implemented on a national basis. I don't see what the rush is all about, he said, telling reporters he was late for a golf date. Elsewhere, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts entered his second day of not answering questions before the Senate Judiciary Committee. SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Free Email Updates, click the link below or paste it into your browser. http://www.borowitzreport.com/subscribe.asp ***ANDY AT TOWN HALL IN NEW YORK - SUNDAY, SEPT. 25*** Andy performs in the New Yorker Festival's Humor Revue on Sunday, Sept. 25 at 3 PM at Town Hall. Tickets are available at ticketmaster.com, all Ticketmaster outlets, by calling 1-877-391-0545, or at the Town Hall box office, 123 West 43rd Street. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.25/102 - Release Date: 9/14/2005 Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Life without art music? Keep the arts alive today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/FXrMlA/dnQLAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- 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: New shows premiering tonight
It's nice to have something to discuss other than Katrina and the Brad Pitt/Jennifer Anniston breakup. I just upgraded from Basic cable (a/k/a antenna service) to Standard cable with ESPN, ESPN2, SciFi, and TBS. (Comcast upgraded my monthly bill from $8 to $55, too. That is criminal as there is no package inbetween the two.) So, now I cna get my full weekly dose of football. Bones was another CSI clone. There are now so many CSI clones on TV. Bones was cute in spots, but doesn't have enough horsepower to keep my attention or viewership. Yes, it is formulaic... very much so. Nothing really original here, either. I'll make no bones about it and strongly recommend that you skip it. George --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Two new shows are premiering tonight. First is Bones (8 pm EST on Fox), about a forensic anthropologist who assists an FBI agent (played by Angel star David Boreanaz) solve cases. Early reviews I've read say it's formulaic (the genre's getting crowded) but has decent leads. Next up is Supernatural, about two brothers (one of whom is Smallville star Jensen Ackles) who travel around dispatching supernatural baddies as they search for their missing father. Critics have given this show good press, saying it's genuinely scary. Might be worth a look. The two shows represent the obvious continuing influence of other hits. In the case of Bones it's the whole investigative theme (CSI, Navy NCIS, Crossing Jordan, etc.) Supernatural is glomming on to the resurgence in, well, supernatural-themed shows like Medium and Lost (which may or may not be supernatural). Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Life without art music? Keep the arts alive today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/FXrMlA/dnQLAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- 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] Japanese probe pulls up alongside asteroid
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9331322 Japanese probe pulls up alongside asteroid Two-year trip to climax in November with touch-and-go landing Sept. 14, 2005 TOKYO - Bringing Japan's most complex space mission near its climax, a probe is within 12 miles of an asteroid almost 180 million miles from Earth in an unprecedented rendezvous designed to retrieve rocks from its surface. The Hayabusa probe, launched in May 2003, will hover around the asteroid for about three months before making its brief landing to recover the samples in early November. The asteroid is located between Earth and Mars. The mission is going very smoothly and proceeding as planned, Atsushi Wako, a spokesman for JAXA, Japan's space agency, said Tuesday. The asteroid, informally named Itokawa, after Hideo Itokawa, the father of rocket science in Japan, is only around 2,300 feet long and 1,000 feet wide, and has a gravitational pull one-one-hundred-thousandth of Earth's. Though it took two years to get there, the asteroid is among the closest neighbors to Earth other than the moon. The probe's first mission will be to survey the asteroid with cameras and infrared imaging gear. It has already begun sending back images, Wako said. When Hayabusa moves in for the rendezvous, expected to be over in a matter of seconds, it will pull up close enough to fire a small bullet into the asteroid and collect the ejected fragments in a funnel-like device. It won't be coming back with much - the amount of material planners hope to capture wouldn't even fill a teaspoon. JAXA officials say Hayabusa would be the world's first two-way trip to an asteroid. A NASA probe collected data for two weeks from the surface of the Manhattan-sized asteroid Eros in 2001, but it did not return with physical samples. Despite a glitch with one of Hayabusa's three gyroscopes, the mission has been largely mishap-free. Wako said the probe is set to return to Earth and land in the Australian outback in June 2007. The success of the mission so far is a major coup for JAXA. Japan was the fourth country to launch a satellite, in 1972, and this spring announced a major project to send its first astronauts into space and set up a base on the moon by 2025. JAXA already has an unmanned moon survey mission planned. Its SELENE probe - originally scheduled for launch in 2005, but since delayed - is designed to orbit the moon, releasing two small satellites that will measure the moon's magnetic and gravitational field and conduct other tests for clues about the moon's origin. It had to abandon a mission to Mars two years ago, however, after the probe moved off course. The explosion of a domestically designed H-2A rocket, the centerpiece of the country's space program, in November 2003 also marked a major setback for JAXA's plans. Controllers had to detonate that rocket and its payload of two spy satellites after a booster failed to detach. The failed launch came just one month after China successfully put its first astronaut into orbit. Beijing has since announced it is aiming for the moon. Japan returned to space in February with a successful H-2A launch, after 15 months on the ground. Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that no samples had been brought back to Earth from a space mission since the Apollo missions in the 1970s. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Life without art music? Keep the arts alive today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/FXrMlA/dnQLAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- 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] New shows premiering tonight--what did you think?
Not really. Bones, like I said below, was very standard. The two leads were okay, but didn't stand out. The lady in particular, with the backstory of her parents disappearing, is cliched. I mean, the female detective on Law and Order: SVU is the product of a rape I believe, and the blonde chick on that outre detective show recently cancelled (the one with Daniel Baldwin and Peter Coyote) had a backstory of having been abducted as a child. Gets old. Supernatural is the one to catch. -Original Message- From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Astromancer Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2005 01:22 To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: [scifinoir2] New shows premiering tonight--what did you think? Hmm...Sorry i missed the premieres...Bones sounds pretty interesting Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:Anyone see these shows? Bones was indeed formulaic. The star is a lady whose parents disappeared when she was a teen, an event that of course shaped her life. She now solves crimes and chases down the bad guys to make sure others don't suffer as she did. She tries to be there for the victim because she thinks things might have been different had someone like her had been there when her parents disappeared, a co-worker sagely reveals. She's that typical driven-and-brilliant-cold-on-the-surface-but-caring-deep-down genius. Nothing special about her. Boreanaz plays the FBI agent with the square jaw and police skills who tends to have doubts about the value of big-brained lab types in the field. Brains don't solve cases, asking questions a thousand times solves cases, he growls at his new partner the squint--the cute name FBI agents evidently give forensic nerds who are always squinting at microscopes and test tubes and the like. He didn't stand out either. The investigative staff is the standard eclectic mix of young and eccentric folk. Again, typical nowadays. The only aspect of Bones I saw to differentiate it from the other investigative shows was their usage of holography to create an image of a murder victim from her bones. Other than that it didn't offer anything new. Since I'm not a big fan of the investigative genre, I'm not sure I'll keep watching it. Supernatural, on the other hand, was intriguing. The beginning is creepy, showing how the brothers are set on a path of hunting--seeking out and destroying evil ghosts and monsters. The show dealt with the Lady in White myth, a beautiful young woman betrayed in life by her man, who killed herself and whose ghost haunts backroads, killing unfaithful men who succumb to her. The show wasn't terrifying, but it had enough suspenseful moments to make me keep the lights on. The ending's a trip. I liked the stars, liked the writing and pacing, liked the seriousness with which it was done. Not sure if it'll end up being as good as the creepier episodes of The X-Files or Kolchak the Night Stalker at its scariest, but I'm definitely willing to stay with it for the season. Lots of good possibilites. Speaking of Kolchak, it will be interesting to see how Supernatural compares to the remake of The Night Stalker airing this season. Someone check out these shows and tell us what you think. I believe Supernatural will re-air this Thursday night. -Original Message- From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Keith Johnson Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 20:22 To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: [scifinoir2] New shows premiering tonight Two new shows are premiering tonight. First is Bones (8 pm EST on Fox), about a forensic anthropologist who assists an FBI agent (played by Angel star David Boreanaz) solve cases. Early reviews I've read say it's formulaic (the genre's getting crowded) but has decent leads. Next up is Supernatural, about two brothers (one of whom is Smallville star Jensen Ackles) who travel around dispatching supernatural baddies as they search for their missing father. Critics have given this show good press, saying it's genuinely scary. Might be worth a look.The two shows represent the obvious continuing influence of other hits. In the case of Bones it's the whole investigative theme (CSI, Navy NCIS, Crossing Jordan, etc.) Supernatural is glomming on to the resurgence in, well, supernatural-themed shows like Medium and Lost (which may or may not be supernatural). [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. - - Yahoo! for Good Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] SPONSORED LINKS Genre
[scifinoir2] U.S. President Outsourced
http://www.bsnews.com/mld/bsnews/news/politics/12637462.htm Posted on Tue, Sep. 13, 2005 U.S. Presidency Outsourced WASHINGTON - Congress today announced that the office of President of the United States of America will be outsourced to overseas interests as of September 30th. The move is being made to save not only a significant portion of the President's $400,000.00 yearly salary, but also a record $521 billion in deficit expenditures and related overhead. We believe this is a wise move financially. The cost savings should be significant, stated Congressman Thomas Reynolds (R-Wash.). Reynolds, with the aid of the Government Accountability Office, has studied outsourcing of American jobs extensively. We cannot expect to remain competitive on the world stage with the current level of cash outlay, Reynolds noted. Mr. Bush was informed by email this morning of his termination. Preparations for the job move have been underway for some time. Gurvinder Singh of Indus Teleservices, Mumbai, India will be assuming the office of President as of October 1st. Mr. Singh was born in the United States while his Indian parents were vacationing at Niagara Falls, thus making him eligible for the position. He will receive a salary of $320 (USD) a month but with no health coverage or other benefits. It is believed that Mr. Singh will be able to handle his job responsibilities without support staff. Due to the time difference between the US and India, he will be working primarily at night, when few offices of the US Government will be open. Working nights will allow me to keep my day job at the American Express call center, stated Mr. Singh in an exclusive interview. I am excited about this position. I always hoped I would be President some day. A Congressional spokesperson noted that while Mr. Singh may not be fully aware of all the issues involved in the office of President, this should not be a problem. Mr. Singh will rely upon a script tree that will enable him to respond effectively to most topics of concern. Using this tree, he can address common concerns without having to understand the underlying issues at all. We know these scripting tools work, stated the spokesperson. Mr. Bush has used them successfully for years. Mr. Bush will receive health coverage, expenses, and salary until his final day of employment. Following a two week waiting period, he will be eligible for $240 dollars a week unemployment for 13 weeks. Unfortunately he will not be eligible for Medicaid as his unemployment benefits will exceed the allowed limit. Mr. Bush has been provided the outplacement services of Manpower, Inc. to help him write a resume and prepare for his upcoming job transition. According to Manpower, Mr. Bush may have difficulties in securing a new position due to limited practical work experience. One possibility is re-enlistment in the Air National Guard. Should he choose this option, he would likely be stationed in Iraq, a country he has visited. I've been there, I know all about Iraq, stated Mr. Bush, who gained invaluable knowledge of the country in a visit to the Baghdad Airport's terminal and gift shop. Sources in Baghdad and Falluja say Mr. Bush would receive a warm reception from local Iraqis. They have asked to be provided with details of his arrival so that they might arrange an appropriate welcome. © 2005, BS Tribune [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Life without art music? Keep the arts alive today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/FXrMlA/dnQLAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- 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] New shows premiering tonight--what did you think?
What was I thinking...that's NBC... Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:Not really. Bones, like I said below, was very standard. The two leads were okay, but didn't stand out. The lady in particular, with the backstory of her parents disappearing, is cliched. I mean, the female detective on Law and Order: SVU is the product of a rape I believe, and the blonde chick on that outre detective show recently cancelled (the one with Daniel Baldwin and Peter Coyote) had a backstory of having been abducted as a child. Gets old. Supernatural is the one to catch. -Original Message- From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Astromancer Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2005 01:22 To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: [scifinoir2] New shows premiering tonight--what did you think? Hmm...Sorry i missed the premieres...Bones sounds pretty interesting Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:Anyone see these shows? Bones was indeed formulaic. The star is a lady whose parents disappeared when she was a teen, an event that of course shaped her life. She now solves crimes and chases down the bad guys to make sure others don't suffer as she did. She tries to be there for the victim because she thinks things might have been different had someone like her had been there when her parents disappeared, a co-worker sagely reveals. She's that typical driven-and-brilliant-cold-on-the-surface-but-caring-deep-down genius. Nothing special about her. Boreanaz plays the FBI agent with the square jaw and police skills who tends to have doubts about the value of big-brained lab types in the field. Brains don't solve cases, asking questions a thousand times solves cases, he growls at his new partner the squint--the cute name FBI agents evidently give forensic nerds who are always squinting at microscopes and test tubes and the like. He didn't stand out either. The investigative staff is the standard eclectic mix of young and eccentric folk. Again, typical nowadays. The only aspect of Bones I saw to differentiate it from the other investigative shows was their usage of holography to create an image of a murder victim from her bones. Other than that it didn't offer anything new. Since I'm not a big fan of the investigative genre, I'm not sure I'll keep watching it. Supernatural, on the other hand, was intriguing. The beginning is creepy, showing how the brothers are set on a path of hunting--seeking out and destroying evil ghosts and monsters. The show dealt with the Lady in White myth, a beautiful young woman betrayed in life by her man, who killed herself and whose ghost haunts backroads, killing unfaithful men who succumb to her. The show wasn't terrifying, but it had enough suspenseful moments to make me keep the lights on. The ending's a trip. I liked the stars, liked the writing and pacing, liked the seriousness with which it was done. Not sure if it'll end up being as good as the creepier episodes of The X-Files or Kolchak the Night Stalker at its scariest, but I'm definitely willing to stay with it for the season. Lots of good possibilites. Speaking of Kolchak, it will be interesting to see how Supernatural compares to the remake of The Night Stalker airing this season. Someone check out these shows and tell us what you think. I believe Supernatural will re-air this Thursday night. -Original Message- From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Keith Johnson Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 20:22 To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: [scifinoir2] New shows premiering tonight Two new shows are premiering tonight. First is Bones (8 pm EST on Fox), about a forensic anthropologist who assists an FBI agent (played by Angel star David Boreanaz) solve cases. Early reviews I've read say it's formulaic (the genre's getting crowded) but has decent leads. Next up is Supernatural, about two brothers (one of whom is Smallville star Jensen Ackles) who travel around dispatching supernatural baddies as they search for their missing father. Critics have given this show good press, saying it's genuinely scary. Might be worth a look.The two shows represent the obvious continuing influence of other hits. In the case of Bones it's the whole investigative theme (CSI, Navy NCIS, Crossing Jordan, etc.) Supernatural is glomming on to the resurgence in, well, supernatural-themed shows like Medium and Lost (which may or may not be supernatural). [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. - - Yahoo! for Good Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. [Non-text portions of this message
[scifinoir2] Are you watching Prison Break?
Prison Break isn't moving me. I watched it recently and just couldn't get engrossed in the whole plot of the man sentenced to death for a crime he didn't commit. The idea of a guy getting inside the prison to break said innocent out is intriguing, but I'm not sure if they can build on it to hold my interest for an entire season. I'm afraid it'll become laborious slowly sifting through the unraveling mystery week after week. Takes special skill to pull off the one-theme show, something shows like Lost and 24 have managed to great effect. (I don't count the X-Files because despite its overwhelming theme of conspiracy and aliens, it had a huge number of standalone shows that introduced other topics). I'm trying to decide if I'll watch Prison Break again. Dominic Purcell, who plays the guy sentenced to death, is a good actor. He was very effective in John Doe, a great show (that incidentally also had a theme of a mystery slowly unfolding). Sadly that was cancelled. After that Purcell showed up as a leather pants wearing vampire in Blade: Trinity, a role that made me alternately laugh and groan at his character. I guess Prison Break is a step up from that fiasco of a film. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/LRMolB/TM ~- 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] Re: New shows premiering tonight
As you saw on my followup post, I wasn't impressed with Bones at all. If i don't watch CSI, I'm certainly not going to put Bones on the must-see list. As for the topic, I agree, it's nice to discuss scifi again. Not that I have any problems discussing socio-political issues, mind you, but I've been missing our discussions on Battlestar Galactica, movies, cartoons, crappy Sci Fi Channel original programs like last week's so-bad-it's-funny The Man with The Screaming Brain. -Original Message- From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of g123curious Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2005 13:01 To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: New shows premiering tonight It's nice to have something to discuss other than Katrina and the Brad Pitt/Jennifer Anniston breakup. I just upgraded from Basic cable (a/k/a antenna service) to Standard cable with ESPN, ESPN2, SciFi, and TBS. (Comcast upgraded my monthly bill from $8 to $55, too. That is criminal as there is no package inbetween the two.) So, now I cna get my full weekly dose of football. Bones was another CSI clone. There are now so many CSI clones on TV. Bones was cute in spots, but doesn't have enough horsepower to keep my attention or viewership. Yes, it is formulaic... very much so. Nothing really original here, either. I'll make no bones about it and strongly recommend that you skip it. George --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Two new shows are premiering tonight. First is Bones (8 pm EST on Fox), about a forensic anthropologist who assists an FBI agent (played by Angel star David Boreanaz) solve cases. Early reviews I've read say it's formulaic (the genre's getting crowded) but has decent leads. Next up is Supernatural, about two brothers (one of whom is Smallville star Jensen Ackles) who travel around dispatching supernatural baddies as they search for their missing father. Critics have given this show good press, saying it's genuinely scary. Might be worth a look. The two shows represent the obvious continuing influence of other hits. In the case of Bones it's the whole investigative theme (CSI, Navy NCIS, Crossing Jordan, etc.) Supernatural is glomming on to the resurgence in, well, supernatural-themed shows like Medium and Lost (which may or may not be supernatural). SPONSORED LINKS Genre http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=msk=Genre+magazinew1=Genre+magazinec= 1s=20.sig=sxGQiCtPJYwREaknMS9Glw magazine _ 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 been removed] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Life without art music? Keep the arts alive today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/FXrMlA/dnQLAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- 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] New Orleans and the Third World
-Original Message- From: JSCASC [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2005 2:42 PM Subject: New Orleans and the Third World FYI - forwarded by Center director Al Roberts, an interesting commentary by Kenyan poet and activist Mukoma Wa Ngugi. Incidentally, in the September 19 issue of Newsweek*, there is a detailed story about the failures on many levels that led to catastrophe, yet again there is a reference to New Orleans being ...turned into a Third World hellhole. The following commentary by Mukoma Wa Ngugi addresses this Third World designation. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=72ItemID=8694 ZNet | U.S. New Orleans and the Third World by Mukoma Wa Ngugi; September 08, 2005 Introduction The devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina is being compared to disasters in the Third World but with no specific countries or disasters named. And if not compared to this black hole or repository of disaster that is the Third World, a comparison to Africa is as specific as it gets. New Orleans is a scene from the Third World, like the Third World, US Handles the crisis like a third world country, bodies floating on water reminiscent of Africa, etc. This has been a constant with news commentators, analysts, members of the senate and congress and other sections of America commenting on New Orleans. The accompanying statements to this have been I cannot believe this is America or This is not supposed to happen in America. It is supposed to and can only happen somewhere else. Attending a food festival event in Madison, Wisconsin I overheard a joke Where is New Orleans again? New Orleans is next to Somalia. What role is the Third World playing in how Americans are dealing with the disaster? Where does the Third World fit in the imagination of the American? What does it mean to say that this is not supposed to happen in the United States? To me, it is almost as if by displacing disasters and human suffering to the Third World, the New Orleans disaster is not really happening in the United States. New Orleans is out there and everyone else is safe and American the crisis in New Orleans is happening in a Third World outpost and the United States remains rich, strong and invulnerable. The American citizen has been stewing in nationalism, manifest destiny and the myth of the democratic society that errors but never oppresses or marginalizes for so long that even a natural disaster cannot be seen and understood outside this lens. And the fact that most of the victims are predominantly poor and African American is not being understood as a creation of very specific domestic policies and conservative ideologies; it has to be filtered through the Third World. As if a disaster from that part of the world somehow managed to sneak through the porous Mexican borders. Bushs Remarks It is interesting therefore to look at President Bushs remarks after touring New Orleans on September 2nd after four days of inaction. His first sentence was Ive just completed a tour of some devastated country. A detached statement but it gets worse a little later he says I know the people of this part of the world are suffering and he goes on to talk about how progress is being made. Then he says The people in this part of the world have got to understand Shortly after this, he says You know, I'm going to fly out of here in a minute, but I want you to know that I'm not going to forget what I've seen and again refers to his constituents as good folks of this part of the world. It is almost as if he is in a different country consoling its citizenry. He himself is so detached about what is happening in the very country he leads that he refers to it as this part of the world. As far as I know, no one in the mainstream media picked this up, they too are reporting on that part of the world. Believing that humor is the best medicine, in the same speech he also makes a rather tasteless joke: I believe the town where I used to come [to] from Houston, Texas, to enjoy myself, occasionally too much, will be that very same town, that it will be a better place to come to. Now, this is a President who up to this point has not visited New Orleans, a disaster area that is being acknowledged as probably the worst in recent U.S. history, yet, speaking to an evacuated, wounded and dying constituency, he refers to their drowned city that was their whole life as his old party ground. All in all President Bush gives the kind of speech a visiting leader would make during a hurriedly prepared press conference after being caught unawares by a natural disaster. It captures his inability to empathize, to really be one with the victims. The Myth and the Third World An American dying in a natural disaster will look like a human being dying in any natural disaster and not necessarily like an African. A homeless American
[scifinoir2] Didja see The Man with The Screaming Brain?
Gawd, did ANYONE see Bruce Evil Dead Campbell's writing/directorial/producing debut last Saturday on the Sci Fi Channel? It was a very, very low-budget, camp, implausible movie about an arrogant pharmaceutical exec who gets killed by a crazy gypsy woman in Bulgaria. (Told ya the plot was implausible). Stacy Keach--wielding an awful, fake accent--plays a mad scientist who's discovered a method of combining tissue from two or more people without any danger of rejection. He plans to get Campbell's character to invest in his technology. But upon hearing of Campbell's death, he decides to put on the ultimate demo. He grafts brain tissue from a former KGB agent-turned-cabbie who was also killed by the gypsy (again, don't ask!) into Campbell's head, regenerating his brain and body in the process. The result is a freakish-looking low-budget Frankenstein (big forehead, big scar) who runs around acting crazy as the two personalities fight for dominance in his head. Hence, the Screaming Brain title. Those of you old enough to remember the infamous two-headed transplant films of the early '70s will recognize this effort as a modernized take on that classic theme. Throw into the mix Keach's sidekick, a Bulgarian who's created a humanoid robot and who so loves American hip-hop culture that he says stuff like fo' shizzle my nizzle (in equally badly faked accent) and teaches the robot to flash gang signs. He's played by Ted Raimi, best known as Joxer on Xena. And THEN throw into the mix Campbell's wife, who's had an affair with the dead KGB cabbie, and you have the ingredients for an awfully campy, awfully bad movie. The sets were cheap, everyone sounded horrible, the robot was painfully, obviously a man in latex, and the whole thing couldn't have cost more than a few hundred thou to produce. Still, I found myself laughing out loud throughout much of the movie. Campbell is a gifted comic actor. Only he could get laughs from stuff like pouring cold milk on his head to cool off his overheated brain, or from sitcom-level slapstick as the two personalites battle in his body, each having separate control of one hand. Only Campbell could make me laugh as his two brains argue out loud in a fake Bulgarian restaurant, with fake Bulgarian patrons looking on. I want steak!... No I don't!...I want vodka!... No I hate vodka! Bring me scotch! Can't believe I enjoyed that stuff, but it was silly enjoyable fun. The movie does tend to peter out in the last quarter as the minimal framework starts to give. Raimi's wannabe-Black Bulgarian grates on the nerves after a while. The ending's a little predicatble. Screaming Brain doesn't rise to the level of classic camp like Plan 9 From Outer Space or Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Still, all in all it's not the worst movie I've seen, it gave me some laughs, and frankly, Campbell's camp was much better than some of the serious fare Sci Fi Channel's put out recently. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Life without art music? Keep the arts alive today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/FXrMlA/dnQLAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- 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] Are you watching Prison Break?
Maybe it is because i caught the first episode and it involves a presidential conspiracy and the fact that they break out early in the show, But i love the show!!! I'm glad they gave a brother the lead - yes the engineer step brother is a brother. - I think he is a good actor. He got lots of press attention for his work with Anthony Hopkins in the Human Stain. Keith are you sure the reason you don't like it that they are no sisters with great asses in it? Just kidding. I know better. -Original Message- From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Keith Johnson Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2005 9:53 PM To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: [scifinoir2] Are you watching Prison Break? Prison Break isn't moving me. I watched it recently and just couldn't get engrossed in the whole plot of the man sentenced to death for a crime he didn't commit. The idea of a guy getting inside the prison to break said innocent out is intriguing, but I'm not sure if they can build on it to hold my interest for an entire season. I'm afraid it'll become laborious slowly sifting through the unraveling mystery week after week. Takes special skill to pull off the one-theme show, something shows like Lost and 24 have managed to great effect. (I don't count the X-Files because despite its overwhelming theme of conspiracy and aliens, it had a huge number of standalone shows that introduced other topics). I'm trying to decide if I'll watch Prison Break again. Dominic Purcell, who plays the guy sentenced to death, is a good actor. He was very effective in John Doe, a great show (that incidentally also had a theme of a mystery slowly unfolding). Sadly that was cancelled. After that Purcell showed up as a leather pants wearing vampire in Blade: Trinity, a role that made me alternately laugh and groan at his character. I guess Prison Break is a step up from that fiasco of a film. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Links -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.25/102 - Release Date: 9/14/2005 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.25/102 - Release Date: 9/14/2005 Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/LRMolB/TM ~- 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] Didja see The Man with The Screaming Brain?
Souonds like a farce to me and I do so love farces...especially unintended farces...(i.e. Starcrash...) Keith Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:Gawd, did ANYONE see Bruce Evil Dead Campbell's writing/directorial/producing debut last Saturday on the Sci Fi Channel? It was a very, very low-budget, camp, implausible movie about an arrogant pharmaceutical exec who gets killed by a crazy gypsy woman in Bulgaria. (Told ya the plot was implausible). Stacy Keach--wielding an awful, fake accent--plays a mad scientist who's discovered a method of combining tissue from two or more people without any danger of rejection. He plans to get Campbell's character to invest in his technology. But upon hearing of Campbell's death, he decides to put on the ultimate demo. He grafts brain tissue from a former KGB agent-turned-cabbie who was also killed by the gypsy (again, don't ask!) into Campbell's head, regenerating his brain and body in the process. The result is a freakish-looking low-budget Frankenstein (big forehead, big scar) who runs around acting crazy as the two personalities fight for dominance in his head. Hence, the Screaming Brain title. Those of you old enough to remember the infamous two-headed transplant films of the early '70s will recognize this effort as a modernized take on that classic theme. Throw into the mix Keach's sidekick, a Bulgarian who's created a humanoid robot and who so loves American hip-hop culture that he says stuff like fo' shizzle my nizzle (in equally badly faked accent) and teaches the robot to flash gang signs. He's played by Ted Raimi, best known as Joxer on Xena. And THEN throw into the mix Campbell's wife, who's had an affair with the dead KGB cabbie, and you have the ingredients for an awfully campy, awfully bad movie. The sets were cheap, everyone sounded horrible, the robot was painfully, obviously a man in latex, and the whole thing couldn't have cost more than a few hundred thou to produce. Still, I found myself laughing out loud throughout much of the movie. Campbell is a gifted comic actor. Only he could get laughs from stuff like pouring cold milk on his head to cool off his overheated brain, or from sitcom-level slapstick as the two personalites battle in his body, each having separate control of one hand. Only Campbell could make me laugh as his two brains argue out loud in a fake Bulgarian restaurant, with fake Bulgarian patrons looking on. I want steak!... No I don't!...I want vodka!... No I hate vodka! Bring me scotch! Can't believe I enjoyed that stuff, but it was silly enjoyable fun. The movie does tend to peter out in the last quarter as the minimal framework starts to give. Raimi's wannabe-Black Bulgarian grates on the nerves after a while. The ending's a little predicatble. Screaming Brain doesn't rise to the level of classic camp like Plan 9 From Outer Space or Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Still, all in all it's not the worst movie I've seen, it gave me some laughs, and frankly, Campbell's camp was much better than some of the serious fare Sci Fi Channel's put out recently. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] SPONSORED LINKS Genre magazine - 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. - - Yahoo! for Good Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Life without art music? Keep the arts alive today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/FXrMlA/dnQLAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- 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] [Waay off topic]Cosmetics from executed Chinese, paper says
Cosmetics from executed Chinese, paper says Tue Sep 13, 5:03 AM ET A British newspaper said that a Chinese cosmetics company was using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe. Agents for the firm, which could not be named for legal reasons, have told would-be customers that skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot is being used to develop collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments, the Guardian newspaper said following an undercover investigation. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is 'traditional' and nothing to 'make such a big fuss about', the daily alleged. It said doctors and politicians were worried about the dangers associated with people wanting to look better in such ways, because European regulations to control cosmetic treatments such as collagen are not expected for several years. Apart from the ethical concerns, there is also the potential risk of infection, the newspaper said. Collagen is the fibrous protein constituent of skin, cartilage, bone, and other connective tissue. The Guardian said it was unclear whether the anonymous company's treatments were already available in Britain or over the Internet. It was also unable to say whether collagen made from prisoners' skin was in the research stage or was in production. However, the Guardian has learned that the company has exported collagen products to the UK in the past. An agent told customers it had also exported to the US and European countries, and that it was trying to develop fillers using tissue from aborted foetuses. The newspaper said that when formally approached the agent denied the company was using skin harvested from executed prisoners. At the same time, it said the same person had already admitted this to an undercover researcher. It quoted that agent as saying: A lot of the research is still carried out in the traditional manner using skin from the executed prisoner and aborted foetus. This material, he said, was being bought from bio tech companies based in the northern province of Heilongjiang, and was being developed elsewhere in China. China executes more prisoners than the rest of the world combined, although the precise number put to death is not known. One recent tally by a European anti-capital punishment group said that at least 5,000 of the near 5,500 known executions worldwide in 2004 took place in China. Copyright © 2005 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse. Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Life without art music? Keep the arts alive today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/FXrMlA/dnQLAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM ~- 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/
