I have not received a blog link for the following individuals:

• J Bortolotti
• S Caron
• M Pateraude
• L Seguin

Please send me a link to your blog if your name appears in this list.

I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed.–Albert Einstein

This just goes to prove that Einstein, was not only a genius, he was a genius with a flair for irony.

Numbers aside, for those of us growing up during the Cold War the threat of Nuclear Obliteration was a daily obsession.  If we weren’t reading about it, or hearing about it on the news, we were watching movies about it.  Here’s a clip from one of my favorites:

Alors qu’on ne parle que de la formidable bande-annonce de Paranormal Activity (elle a coûté 500 balles et rapporté 50 millions), voici un top 50 trouvé sur le site IFC.

Pour la petite info, on appelle une bande-annonce un trailer (remorque) car  elles étaient initialement diffusées après les films… Les studios se sont rapidement rendu compte qu’elles gagneraient en visibilité et en impact avant les films…

Il est en outre rigolo de constater l’évolution des techniques de trailers. Alors que j’en cherchais quelque uns hors-catégorie, on se rend compte que 2001, Apocalypse Now ou Le Mépris n’avait pas de trailer cool… Quelle invention.

Quelques pépites :

Dr Folamour

Blair Witch Project

Dr. Strangelove or:how i lerned to stop worrying and love the bomb, 1964 – Direção: Stanley Kubrick – Elenco:Peter Sellers,Peter Sellers,Peter Sellers.

Uma das obras mais geniais que o cinema já proporcionou no quesito humor. Tudo é milimetricamente pensado e planejado por Kubrick e arranca risada apenas dos que estão preparados com o tema do filme (guerra fria) ou com quem já viu mais de uma vez. Acho difícil rir bastante da primeira vez que se vê esta obra de arte magnífica.

Temos um arsenal de piadas subscritas e atiradas de maneira tão sutil que revendo a coisa fica muito mais divertida. Pra começar, acho que Kubrick pensou como eu penso ao fazer o filme. A guerra fria foi o momento mais humorístico da história sendo que tudo foi uma grande piada que poderia ter tido consequências assustadoras. Portanto decidiu pegar suas idéias e juntá-las a um livro que achou interessante. O livro, é claro, não tinha humor, até porque falava de guerra, certo? E na guerra não se pode fazer piadas certo? Mas Kubrick anarquiza idéias conservadoras como essas e transforma o livro em um roteiro de humor negro fantástico e que faz pessoas babarem até hoje pela genialidade das piadas.

Um general pirado aciona um comando onde todos os aviões que sobrevoam determinadas regiões próximas a Rússia carregados de bombas nucleares com a força muito maior que as bombas da segunda guerra, têm por obrigação bombardear suas áreas marcadas por causa do comando. Depois de dada essa ordem, o aviões ficam incontactáveis para qualquer um que queira impedir o ataque, menos quem tem a senha de desativação do bloqueio dos rádios aéreos, nesse caso, o general pirado.

Logo depois dessa loucura toda descobrimos que o general acionou os aviões sem a permissão do presidente, que é claro que vocês já sabem, é o único que pode acionar um ataque nuclear. Mas como o general conseguiu isso então? Mais que simples. Descobrimos tudo isso pela, talvez, cena mais engraçada de todo o filme, onde o presidente questiona um de seus generais no comando, o Buck, e descobre (sim cara, descobre!) que todo um protocolo foi aceito por ele mesmo ao concordar com um módulo de defesa onde, se o país sofresse algum ataque soviético qualquer general no comando de sua base poderia, em sua defesa, acionar um contra-ataque nuclear. Mas é claro que a Rússia não atacou ninguém e o general que acionou o ataque é um louco. Toda a cena da explicação me fez chorar de rir. É maravilhosa de mais!

Mas não é só essa cena que se destaca levada pelas consequencias dos atos dos personagens. A maioria das cenas depois dos cinco primeiros minutos de exibição são hilárias e eternas. No QG onde está o general e seu assistente acontecem momentos assustadoramente engraçados, como quando ele dá um discurso sobre fluidos corporais e água com flúor e quando ele se mata. Rir é a única escapatória.

Mas Kubrick não era apenas gênio por pegar uma historia normal e fazê-la provocar risadas. Nas cenas de guerrilha o cara arregaça com movimentos de câmera livre e sem perfeccionismo extremo. As câmeras nessa cena passeiam com os soldados e tremem por estarem a vontade e filmarem num realismo documental que proporciona mais ligação com a platéia ao ver o filme.

Peter Sellers não merece um parágrafo porque ele é um espetáculo de ser visto e não falado ou escrito. Portanto vejam um cara em três papéis (ou mais) que anarquiza tudo em termos de atuação e nunca se parece a mesma pessoa.

O jogo envolvendo a URSS e os EUA é muito hilário. Kubrick mostra que a guerra da época era apenas um pretexto pros “líderes” de cada nação poderem construir bombas a vontade sem ter ao menos quem atacar. Claro, os americanos tinham quase todo o seu povo contra a URSS só por ser comunista. E é claro que os comunistas queriam o mundo, mesmo não tendo nada de comunista em suas idéias. E em diversas cenas onde o talento de Sellers era o mais importante, afinal ele fica com um telefone no ouvido com uma penca de gente envolta e ainda consegue arrancar uma chuva de risadas, acho que não é um trabalho muito fácil não. E é nessas conversas ao telefone que percebemos que a guerra era uma brincadeira sem graça. O presidente dos EUA, além de levar até a sala de guerra um representante russo, tem conversas mais do que amigáveis com o embaixador russo pelo telefone.

Interessante saber que o filme tem apenas três cenários, o avião que bombardeará o seu objetivo, a sala de guerra no pentágono e o QG onde o general pirado dá as ordens malucas.

Outra questão a ser levantada é que ao tentar impedir o ataque os russos acertaram mísseis em alguns aviões americanos, e um deles o que agente acompanha desde o começo do filme é atingido, mas consegue se manter, para ainda sim, bombardear seu objetivo. O que o presidente, lá na sala de guerra descobre é que os russos têm a “arma do juízo final” e que se qualquer bomba cair em solo russo ela é ativada por um computador e deixa o planeta terra inabitável por exatos 93 anos. E depois de muito correr e conseguir fazer os aviões voltarem e não atacar mais seus alvos, o que o presidente e todos na sala não imaginavam é que o avião que , nós espectadores acompanhávamos durante o filme todo, conseguiria lançar uma bomba em território soviético com um cowboy louco em cima dela gritando como se fosse 4 de julho.

E no fim, o que nos resta é apenas uma mão, uma mão que tenta nos enforcar. Uma mão que não se controla. Uma mão que a qualquer momento pode roubar nosso cigarro. Uma mão chamada ganância. Uma mão que os homens insistem em manter e que um dia poderá dar uma escapada do controle e soltar uma bomba que dure 93 anos apenas por brincadeira de ego.

5/5

Med ugens skævert vil jeg prøve at tage nogle lidt anerledes film, som ikke bare er mainstream Hollywood film. Dr. Strangelove, er en film jeg så i forbindelse med historie undervisningen i 3g, da den viser ét fremtidssyn fra 60′erne. Da jeg fortalte min mor, hvad jeg skulle se, sagde hun at det var en klassiker, og da jeg aldrig havde hørt om den er den ugens skævert.
I filmens begyndelse forskanser en amerikansk general sig på en luftbase, under dække af at USSR har angrebet, derfor sender han ordrer til at bombe USSR med alle deres avåben. Men hvad endnu værre er at USSR lige har installeret et forsvarssystem, der dræber alt på jordens overflade, hvis de skulle blive angrebet. USA og USSR arbejder nu sammen for at stoppe flyene men vil det lykkes.
Jeg vil give den film 1/5 stjerner, kan godt være den er lidt kult, men ihvertfald ikke for min generation

Ditlev

Oh dear! I went out to see if I got any letters today and discovered something truly disturbing in my mailbox. It was a booklet sent from the Office of Emergency Management and an agency with the strangely archaic-sounding name, “His Majesty’s Stationary Office.” I guess they got my address when I applied for a disaster assistance loan and added me to some list.

In Case of Attack

Of course, none of this craziness would require fiddling around with atomic nuclei in a secret laboratory in New Mexico or Snezhinsk. No Atomgrads here, just lines of code developed whenever it was felt necessary to provide a “deterrent” in the interest of protecting National Security. “The mad fools!,” as Alexei de Sadesky proclaims in Dr. Strangelove when he discovers that his own government has activated an automated doomsday device.

Jeez, this stuff used to scare the knickers off of me when I was a young one out there in real life la la land. Now, I guess the youth and the crazies have the planet Niribu to fret over, and when I think long and hard enough on it, I have a difficult time finding any substantial difference between my adolescent fears and theirs. So, who am I to judge?

Anyway, I’m going to let you read a particularly frightening section of In Case of Attack here, because I feel like the material therein is something with which every Second Life resident should at least have a passing familiarity…

Do You Know Where You Stand?

The map pictured below graphically represents the range of effects from the detonation of a 1 Megabyte Blue Mars ground burst device in the approximate center of the Sansara continent of Second Life. Descriptions of modifications to builds, avatars, and the long-term effects of such a detonation follow.

Blast effects from a Blue Mars 1MB Device

1-2 Sims from ground zero

Builds: All structures, scripts, and textures instantly deleted. Terrain mesh is turned black with a fine dusty brown glow which persists for a period of several years, post-event.

Avatars: 100% of avatar account information, including inventory, Linden Dollars, etc. deleted instantly. Permanent IP block from Second Life placed into effect immediately for everyone within these regions.

Long-Term Effects: Rebuilding, scripting, and texturing becomes impossible within this zone for a period of at least two years. Avatars spending more than 15 minutes at a time in these areas automatically have their accounts set to expire one year after date of over exposure with a permanent IP block from Second Life.

3-4 Sims from ground zero

Builds: Structures, scripts, and textures heavily damaged or destroyed (many missing prims, lines of code). Remaining textures take on a gray or black underlying color. Terrain mesh becomes a dark brownish gray.

Avatars: 50% of avatar accounts instantly deleted and IP blocked. Surviving avatars sustain permanent loss of one or more abilities, e.g. building, communicating, or flying. 50% of financial assets deleted. All accounts are set to permanently expire at a date not less than one year and no more than three years from the time of detonation. Avatars assume a stigmatizing dusty brown glow.

Long-Term Effects: Rebuilding and spending long durations in these regions is extremely hazardous, as random accounts will be flagged for expiration in one to three years from point of over exposure.

5-7 Sims from ground zero

Builds: Moderate damage to structures and scripts (missing prims, lines of code). Textures and terrain mesh receive a light gray underlying color.

Avatars: 25% of avatar accounts instantly deleted and IP blocked. Survivors suffer a temporary (3 to 4 month) loss of one or more abilities. 25% of financial assets deleted. Accounts are set to expire at a date no less than two but not more than four years from point of detonation.

Long-Term Effects: Rebuilding in these regions is risky. A small percentage of avatars who spend long periods of time in these area will have their accounts flagged for deletion in two to four years.

8-10 Sims from ground zero

Builds: A few structures sustain light damage (missing prims only). Scripts remain intact. Terrain mesh and textures unaffected.

Avatars: 1-2% of avatar accounts instantly deleted without IP block due to falling debris and small fires. Avatars outside of structures at the time of detonation suffer a temporary loss of eyesight persisting for up to two days. Most remain unaffected.

Long-Term Effects: Repair and Habitation of structures is safe in these areas.

In Summary

The immediate physical devastation and disease that this device would cause is certainly unthinkable, but such an event would have other, long-lasting effects, as well. Economic impacts would take place on a scale never witnessed before. Large refugee populations from affected areas would place a great strain on server resources. A sense of sadness would prevail over the whole land. Read the next chapter “WTF are We Going to Do Now?” to learn more.

##

Dang. Just typing that up was scary.

I do have to wonder a little bit at the specific anxiety subtext in terms of an assumed foe. I mean, I went to that wrongly hued Mars once, and it felt like a really hot and humid afternoon at Celebration, where all the people stay in the air conditioning. It didn’t look weird or broken at all. Not my thing, and, hopefully, no real threat to our way of life here on the mainland.

Well, I’m going to hop in my Dreamliner now and go to sleep and try to think about something nice. First thing tomorrow, I’m going to get up and call the OOEM and those stationary people (whoever they are) and have them take me off of their mailing list. This Cold War propaganda business is a real comb-over. Give me some propaganda that is a little bit more now.

Nite nite

Navegando por la web uno se encuentra con páginas a cada cuál más curiosa. Una de ellas es Nukeometer, una web que te calcula el número de cabezas nucleares que podrían alcanzar determinada ciudad. Entras, escribes por ejemplo la ciudad donde tu vives y al instante te dice el número de misiles que se sitúan en el rango de alcance y desde dónde proceden.

http://nukeometer.com/

]]> http://alertindia.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/breaking-news/ Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:57:05 +0000 alertindia http://alertindia.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/breaking-news/ http://diagoras.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/armageddon/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:14:38 +0000 Διαγόρας ο Μήλιος http://diagoras.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/armageddon/ http://iloveuottawa.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/my-birthday-present/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:12:23 +0000 Dr. Strangelove http://iloveuottawa.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/my-birthday-present/

Maybe its my peaceful nature or my dislike for emotional manipulation, but for some reason, I’m not a big fan of war movies and never really have been. Nevertheless, in recognition of Veteran’s Day, here is a list of five great war movies.

5. Saving Private Ryan – Utilizing the vision of one of Hollywood’s most beloved directors (Spielberg) and starring 1990’s everyman Tom Hanks, this look at WWII is probably the quintessential war film of the past 20 years.

4. Full Metal Jacket – The Vietnam War has long proven itself ripe for film, but there are few who do it as well as director Stanley Kubrick.

3. Apocalypse Now – A seriously twisted look at Vietnam with some of the most iconic scenes ever captured on film.

2. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb – Stanley Kubrick proves that even when this was released in 1964, the Cold War was meant for satire.

1. All Quiet on the Western Front – This story of the horrors of war, of disillusionment and loss of youth, is still as (and maybe more) poignant today, almost 80 years after its release.

What would you put on the list?

With all the coverage of the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I tried to think of a way to commemorate this historic, history-changing event that happened 20 years ago. A generation ago. Anyone 30 years old and younger probably has no emotional link with images of a bunch of young people dancing while they tore down a far away wall covered in graffiti.

Continue reading my blog post Celebrate the fall of the wall

Wanna know the other side of the story from A flood of Circle’s video for “Ghost”?

Well, check it out. They released a new video with a different point of view of the ping pong match, chronicling the adventures of the little boy who plays ping pong against the crazy man for the song 博士の異常な愛情 which I think translates to “Dr. Strangelove”. That’s what google translation told me anyway!

Check it out now. It is quite awesome and I really love this song better than “Ghost”. Don’t forget to preorder the new CD from Amazon of japan.

Ed and Frankie welcome actress Gail Gerber (The Loved One, Village of the Giants) and film historian Tom Lisanti, co-authors of Trippin’ with Terry Southern: What I Think I Remember, a poignant look at the life and career of iconic novelist and screenwriter Terry Southern

http://media.podcastingmanager.com/9/3/5/3/3/142636-133539/Media/110209tvc33_1.mp3

Cartel de Snatch

Recibe ese nombre el subgénero de la comedia que toma temas considerados taboo, demasiado serios o delicados para ser tratados en broma, dándoles un cariz humorísticos. Si bien no es la regla, el hecho de tocar estos temas lo convierte en un excelente medio para la crítica social, pues suele hacer ciertos tópicos más accesibles, pero al mismo tiempo, conservando parte de la solemnidad que le es característica.

Si bien en ese sentido, los ingleses son maestros inigualables, aunque desafortunadamente, la sutileza y muy particular vena de su humor no las hace realmente muy comerciales. Entre las mejores comedias negras dentro del mainstream se encuentran El Doctor Insólito, La Muerte le Sienta Bien y Snatch, cada una de ellas una obra maestra. Actualmente, está por estrenarse Zombieland, que cae en esa categoría.

YOJI KURI, THE ROOM, 1964 – INFLUENCES IDENTIFIED IN GROUP DISCUSSION WEEK 2

Terry Gilliam (1940- )

Monty Python (1969-74 UK, 1976 Japan)

Yellow Submarine (1968)

James Thurber (1894-1961)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Rolling Stones (1962- )

M. C. Escher (1898-1972)

David Lynch (1946- )

Saul Steinberg (1914-1999)

Surrealism (1920s- )

Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

Man Ray (1890-1976)

Modern advertising

Pink Floyd (1965- ) specifically their animation The Wall (1982)

Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980)

Saloon bar/Western movies
Sexualisation of women

There was also a particular film but we couldn’t recall its title – maybe David Lynch/Lynch-esque – anyone able to add this?

Join us as we remember two of the biggest icons of the 1960s, legendary screenwriter Terry Southern (Easy Rider, Dr. Strangelove, The Cincinnati Kid, Barbarella) and the classic sci-fi Western series The Wild, Wild West, on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, premiering Monday, Nov. 2 at 10pm ET, 7pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio, with a rebroadcast Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 11pm ET, 8pm PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org.

Our scheduled guests include dancer/actress Gail Gerber, co-star of many films from the 1960s, including Beach Ball, Girl Happy, Harem Scarum, the cult classic Village of the Giants and the scathing satire on the funeral industry, The Loved One. It was on the set of The Loved One that Gail first met Terry Southern, the iconic novelist and screenwriter whose Oscar-winning 1969 screen play for Easy Rider was about to turn the film industry on its head. Gail’s new book, Trippin’ with Terry Southern: What I Think I Remember, is a poignant look at her 30-year relationship with Southern, a bona fide celebrity who was equally at home in the worlds of art, literature and film, yet often struggled to make ends meet despite his enormous fame. Gail and her co-author, film and TV historian Tom Lisanti, will join us beginning at 10:05pm ET, 7:05pm PT.

Then in our second hour we’ll welcome Susan Kesler, author of The Wild, Wild West Book, a behind-the-scenes look at the iconoclastic television Western starring Robert Conrad and Ross Martin as intrepid Secret Service agents Jim West and Artemus Gordon, and Michael Dunn as their nemesis, Dr. Miguelito Loveless. Recently updated with an arsenal of new information about the 1965-1969 CBS-TV series since its original 1988 publication, The Wild, Wild West Book is not only one of the best, most comprehensive television histories ever written, it’s also a lot of fun. Sue Kessler joins us at beginning at 11pm ET, 8pm PT.

If you want to be part of our conversation, if you grew up watching The Wild, Wild West or are a fan of the films of Terry Southern, we invite you to join us for our live broadcast, premiering Monday, Nov. 2 at 10pm ET, 7pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio. Phone number is (888) 746-5875 / (888) SHOKUS-5. If you have questions or comments you’d like to send in advance, our email address is talk@tvconfidential.net.

TV CONFIDENTIAL with Ed Robertson and Frankie Montiforte
Mon-Sun 10pm ET, 7pm PT
Shokus Internet Radio
Every other Tuesday at 11pm ET, 8pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner

Good evening, my fellow citizens: – This Government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military build-up on the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive Missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere.

Every year I keep finding more and more stuff about the Cuban Missile Crisis. As a teacher, I keep making more and more room in my lesson plans to teach the topic. It is getting to the point where I have enough stuff to teach it as a unit all by itself for up to six weeks. Unfortunately, I cannot do that. But if I could Iwould. The ample amount of primary documents available now is just unbelievable. Next November I hope to give a presentation at the National Council for Social Studies Conference in Denver, Colorado, on teaching with these now available primary documents. It should be a blast.

It all starts with a photograph….this one in fact. As a historian, this is my favorite photograph of all time. It is a gold mine of possibilities for what has happened, what is happening, and what could happen. I have students try to figure out what they are talking about before they know what the lesson is. We then discuss the possibilities and begin adding more documents from the days of October, 1962.

Over the course of the next 40 minutes, I feed them little bits of data and information about what they might be talking about relating every new document back to the original. These images mostly include a series of U2 shots of Cuba like this photo:

Over the course of the next three days, my students investigate everything from letters to images to TV broadcats, UN transcripts, and even former top secret tapes from the White House. It is a great way to piece together the events of those thirteen days in October when the world stood still. I even throw in this YouTube video for good measure.

But here’s the thing that get me every year: My students see history through evidence. And they see through history for its studpidity. They see the events of the 1960s in a totally different light than I did. While I was born about ten months after the crisis, I still remember the threat of nuclear war and the drills we had to do in school. I remember the Beatles, Woodstock, Bobby Kennedy, and Vietnam as clear as day. To my students, they see this history for the first time and it is exciting for them and me. What they don’t get is the amount of nuclear weapons stockpiled.

“How many times over did we really need to blow up the world? Wouldn’t the fall out from about twenty bombs have done in most of the planet?”

I can’t tell you how many times I have been asked this question. It never ceases to amaze me how stupid the arms race was and is. How many atomic war heads do you need? If you have a couple thousand, you don’t really need anymore. This is a point I get every year from about half the glass. They react with a calmness where as my generation was always emotional about the possible nuclear threat through the 1980s. It was not until the 1990s when the communist and nuclear threat went away. It was a whole other world. It was a whole other time.

But for me, the Cuban Missile Crisis is a high point in our nation’s history when we used our military as a deterent but relied on diplomacy to avoid conflict. There are many other important things to come out of the Crisis besides the aversion of nuclear war. The conflict showed the need for better means of communication between the two super powers. The powers also signed a limited test ban treaty. Maybe after all, the leaders were beginning to think like my students. I can still see the end of Dr. Strangelove….I think they sum up the era of  inane leadership best.

Further Reading:
Thirteen Days by Robert F. Kennedy
One Minute to Midnight by Michael Dobbs

Primary Documents from the Crisis
George Washington University I highly recommend this site. It has a wide variety of sight, sounds, images, and letters.
Avalon Project

Is there a doctor in the house? Yes, there is, as it happens. Five of them. And all are great movie characters in one way or another. You can go right through – the doctors will see you now…

5. Dr Henry Jones Jr

For Indy 5, Spielberg and Lucas should forget the fedora and the bullwhip – the movie I want to see centres around Dr Jones and some unruly kids in his classroom. Surely it’s about time an instalment of the series was devoted to the archaeology professor’s home turf. Indiana Jones And The Staff Room At Lunch would be way better than Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull.

4. Dr Richard Kimble

What is it with Harrison Ford and doctors? He also plays one in Polanski flick Frantic. But it is his portrayal as a vascular surgeon (no, I have no clue what it means either) in The Fugitive where he really puts the ‘action’ in ‘Actionident & Emergency’. Kimble may be a man of medicine, but he’s not averse to jumping off a bus before it’s hit by a train, plunging into a dam from a great height and keeping a straight face while Tommy Lee Jones hams it up.

3. Dr Peter Venkman

PhD holder Pete Venkman is a parapsychologist, but he takes the stand-up comedy approach to his chosen field. Continually wisecracking while carrying a nuclear accelerator on your back isn’t as easy as it looks. As Venkman himself says: ‘Back off man. I’m a scientist.’

2. Dr Strangelove

Dr Strangelove in English, Dr Merkwürdigliebe in German – call him what you like, this is one messed-up dude. So where better for this crazy scientist to spend most of his time than in the war room, with the world’s fate almost in his hands. Well, one of his hands, anyway. When not restraining himself from giving Nazi salutes and calling the US president ‘Mein Führer’, he dreams of repopulating the Earth with women ’selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature’. Nice.

1. Dr Michael Hfuhruhurr

And now we come to cinema’s top doc. Who else could it be but Dr Hfuhruhurr, the brain surgeon with the unspellable name and fan of England’s greatest one-armed poet, John Lillison. Considering he’s The Man With Two Brains, wackiness is a given, yet he remains a doctor’s doctor – so devoted to his discipline (‘So many brains. I feel like a kid in a candy store’) it even costs him his marriage to his lovely wife (‘She’s not ill, she’s a cheap, vulgar slut’). This is one doctor you’ll want to visit again and again.

WHO ARE YOUR FAVOURITE MOVIE DOCTORS?

TOP FIVES ARCHIVE

by paulabowles

For the past few weeks the British media and public have hotly been debating the rights and wrongs of allowing the controversial British National Party [BNP] leader to appear on the BBC’s ‘flagship’ politics programme Question Time. Despite attempts to halt Nick Griffin’s appearance, the programme finally aired on Thursday 22 October 2009, with record viewing figures of 8 million.

Since the broadcast, media analysis has been at fever pitch in an attempt to make sense of the reality. Against the backdrop of debates over freedom of speech and right wing rhetoric, as well as accusations of Holocaust denial and racism, Griffin has announced he will be making a complaint over his treatment by the programme.

In essence, Griffin insists that the format of the programme was changed in order to focus purely on his party’s policies on immigration and race, leaving him facing little more than a ‘lynch mob.’ Although, many commentators have suggested that his appearance has irrevocably tarnished the limited credibility of the BNP, others have argued that he should never have been allowed to appear in the first place. Interestingly, the BNP insist that their membership has increased since Griffin’s appearance. Needless to say the debate will run for some considerable time, dragging the issue of freedom of speech once more into the spotlight.

Read more

Tanya Golash-Boza on A Confluence of Interests in Immigration Enforcement: How Politicians, the Media, and Corporations Profit from Immigration Policies Destined to Fail

Amir Saeed on Media, Racism and Islamophobia: The Representation of Islam and Muslims in the Media

Alternative Title: “You fools! A Doomsday Machine isn’t any good if you don’t tell anyone you have it!”

The Soviets designed a risk management device to end the world in the event the Soviet Union suffered a decapitating nuclear strike (code named Petrimtr or Dead Hand).  Unlike the fictional device employed in Dr Strangelove which triggered the explosion of a huge stockpile of buried warheads, Dead Hand is a Command and Control program that implements a fail-deadly strategy.  Dead Hand was allegedly semi-autonomous–requiring an appropriate Soviet leader to “press a button” to defer launch decision to Soviet staff officers in an underground bunker.  This took the political leaders out of the decision loop.

Apparently Dead Hand was devised in the 1980’s and never revealed to the world (until relatively recently).

The risk management applications of Dead Hand may have been two fold.  First, the Soviets feared leadership decapitation resulting from increasingly accurate American submarine launched ballistic missiles.  Dead Hand would ensure a Soviet second strike if their nuclear forces were caught in a surprise American nuclear first strike. 

Second, Dead Hand designers feared unstable political elements in the regime.  By ensuring a Soviet second strike, designers intended to reduce the possibility of nuclear war instigated by Soviet hardliners.

For reasons that appear too obvious Dead Hand (allegedly) never operated in fully autonomous mode.  A fully autonomous Dead Hand would need to programatically determine a) if a nuclear strike happened against Soviet (Russian) territory, b) if the Soviet (Russian) political leadership has been incapacitated or cut off by the attack and c) if it should order a nuclear retaliatory launch.  This set of instructions seems difficult to program into a machine.

In an interesting corollary, modern financial institutions and private Americans built their own financial doomsday devices and never told anyone (Dr Strangelove would be irate).  So long as markets marched upwards, the financial institutions and homeowners reaped the rewards and the doomsday device would not be triggered. 

However, if markets turned South, the true doomsday nature of over-leveraged assets would become apparent.  If markets declined far enough the system would implode.  By this point, humans were out of the loop–the financial doomsday system, once built, was an automaton with bad intentions.

The bad news is that the financial doomsday automaton has not been dismantled but rather portions have been handed over to other, perhaps more opaque, owners–the US Government and the Federal Reserve.

I’m sure no financial institution or private American consciously sought to create a fail-deadly financial doomsday device, but one did result from the economy’s collective actions.