Thursday, October 28, 2004

FUN
In this week’s LA CityBeat, I pay tribute to Godzilla on his 50th birthday. (Although the "his" may be in some doubt.) In researching the piece I was amazed to learn that Godzilla and Gamera had never appeared in the same movie. Indeed, Gamera is not even a Toho Pictures character. Which is damned weird because it means that I have false movie memories of scenes in which Godz takes on the rocket-assisted turtle that never happened. Seems I can’t take my own word for anything, any more. I also didn’t have enough space to recall John Belushi’s brilliant portrayal of Godzilla as a terminal-Elvis superstar on SNL, back in the days before singers lipsynced. (Or maybe that never happened either.)
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=1346&IssueNum=73

And this is a load of fun, and may also be made an instrument of cyber-voodoo with suitable invocation. (Think about it.)
http://uk.download.yahoo.com/ne/fu/attachments/buildabetterbush.htm

UNFUN
Peter W. Galbraith in yesterday’s Boston Globe...
"In 2003 I went to tell Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz what I had seen in Baghdad in the days following Saddam Hussein's overthrow. For nearly an hour, I described the catastrophic aftermath of the invasion -- the unchecked looting of every public institution in Baghdad, the devastation of Iraq's cultural heritage, the anger of ordinary Iraqis who couldn't understand why the world's only superpower was letting this happen.
I also described two particularly disturbing incidents -- one I had witnessed and the other I had heard about. On April 16, 2003, a mob attacked and looted the Iraqi equivalent of the Centers for Disease Control, taking live HIV and black fever virus among other potentially lethal materials. US troops were stationed across the street but did not intervene because they didn't know the building was important.
When he found out, the young American lieutenant was devastated. He shook his head and said, "I hope I am not responsible for Armageddon." About the same time, looters entered the warehouses at Iraq's sprawling nuclear facilities at Tuwaitha on Baghdad's outskirts. They took barrels of yellowcake (raw uranium), apparently dumping the uranium and using the barrels to hold water. US troops were at Tuwaitha but did not interfere
."
Read whole thing fast because they start charging after 48 hours...

The secret word is Reptilian

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