Rather than block the electrodes, it might be better to short them out. Clothes soaked in salt water might do it, but a better choice would be metal or carbon fibre cloth.
Sounds fine, as long as there are intervening layers of clothing between the shorting surface and your skin. I'm just not comfortable with something conductive being in contact with my epidermis, which may expose my lack of hard knowledge regarding electrical transmission...
As for Fido, carry a Taser yourself. A disposable Flash camera can easily be adapted:).
Actually, I'd prefer to avoid harming the dog whenever possible. The idea is defense and resistance, not attack and harm. Beyond those who engage in property destruction as a symbolic protest against the concept of private, exclusive property[0], nearly all protesters prepare to defend against police attacks, not attack the police themselves. Weapons are generally limited to the really hardcore militants, and their target is property, not people.[1] There have been some funny incidents where police displayed an array of "weapons" at press conferences, and journalists helpfully pointed out their gas masks and microphones confiscated earlier in the day.
[0] Before anyone attacks; I find that smashing windows of major franchise/chain restaurants and shops just frightens the people demonstrators try to reach. Symbolic, yes, effective, not if effective means exposing people to new ideas. Or, as one anti-capitalist militant said (I forget his name right now), "It's not enough to smash a McDonald's window. Then you have to go inside and organize."
On the other hand, I wonder how much more coverage, and what kind of coverage the recent WEF protests would have received if a few windows had been smashed, or even if demonstrators resisted NYPD arrest attempts. Many demonstrators who did nothing to break any laws were grabbed; one IMC correspondent was tackled and arrested while calling in a live report on his cell phone. As it was, the New York media prepared the city for civil war, then declared the protests a failure when riots didn't break out. Damned if you do...
[1] This is true for North American protests. Certain protests in Europe have seen more militant actions; Prague and Genoa in particular featured attempts to break through police lines and offensive actions against riot cops. From what I know, Genoa was a massive aberration, one step short of a worst-case scenario for cops and protesters alike. While there was a sizable militant anti-capitalist group that engaged in property destruction and rioting, claims have surfaced of British and Italian fascist skinheads joining forces to stir things up. A few scattered reports also surfaced of "black blockers" passing through police lines unhindered, or meeting outside police stations without harassment, but the veracity and meaning of these reports is still hotly debated among activists. For the most part, Western mass protests are noisy, but peaceful affairs where the violence comes from a few hotheads, and the police.
If you think the above claim is paranoid, dig up info on protests last summer in Barcelona related to the aborted World Bank meeting there. Two undercovers sidled up to the main Saturday march, attempted to start a brawl by fighting each other, and when demonstrators tried to break the cops up, uniformed police took the opportunity to attack and arrest people. Pictures later surfaced of "black blockers" posing with uniformed police on lawns before the demonstrations. Not to mention the attack on a spokescouncil meeting after the main march. The Ottawa Citizen published a series on RCMP infiltration and surveillance of political groups across Canada, which may no longer be online. It's only paranoia if they're not watching you...
Yes, I'm an anarchist whackjob. No, I'm not a Black Blocker. Yes, I think Bush is nuts. No, I don't like bin Laden either.
So how is this "non-hazardous"? Are they going to hand out safety harnesses to crowds before they get sprayed with slime?
The mass anti-corporate globalization protests over the past three years have seen the development of some fairly effective, DIY defense tactics against "non-lethal" crowd control measures.
Tear gas and pepper spray? Bandanna soaked with cider or vinegar on the low end, gas mask on the high end, full-coverage clothing. Gas masks are especially preferable if the riot troopers are especially teargas-happy.
Batons and rubber bullets? Shields, helmets, padding, and loads of backup.
I haven't learned of any reasonable defenses against taser attacks yet, and they have been used on occasion (I'm specifically thinking of a few incidents during the Ottawa G20/IMF/WB protests last November). Something would be needed to block the electrodes; hockey pads, perhaps? Sometimes, dogs will also be used (again, Ottawa G20), and there's just not much you can do when a well-trained Fido decides to gnaw on your leg. Again, padding, perhaps sports pads.
This stuff? Skis, high-traction footwear, maybe carry something to dissolve the slime. Perhaps sandbags might become the next big thing at protests?
I mean, tear gas is bad and not used often, but after a few hours, you're all back to normal.
Weeeelllllllll....
One, two, five canisters, you might be OK. Once you're downwind of twenty-plus canisters, things start getting iffy.
Numerous women reported early periods after the April 2001 Quebec City protests, which saw over 1000 canisters of tear gas being lobbed at peaceful, boisterous protesters from behind a 4km-long fence. It is thought that three different varieties of gas were used during the actions.
At the moment, I don't own a cell phone. Shocking, I know. I've been on the fence about breaking down and picking one up for emergency and urgent use.
However, if I would have to deal with spam phone calls and spam messages in my voice mail, forget it. I'm annoyed enough having to obfuscate my e-mail address just so I don't have to slog through crap I'll never look over, never mind reply to. It's bad enough that spammers manage to waste bandwidth by hitting some mailing lists I'm subscribed to. The last thing I want is to have the fucking telemarketers and spam gods following me everywhere, wasting my time and patience. I would either get an ancient cell phone, or just not get one at all.
Nice job, spammers - you just lost yourselves a potential victim by the sheer threat of your infecting another market. Fuck off and die somewhere.
Try Adbusters.org, and note that Adbusters.com links to the main site.
Irony dept.: A magazine that has an article entitled "Resistance" about the recent anti-corporate globalization actions around the world has a full-page ad on the back cover... for the U.S. Army.
Curiously, Lenin actually said [bartleby.com] some things the John Birch Society might agree with: "While the State exists there can be no freedom; when there is freedom there will be no State."
Now, if only he hadn't stalled at the "State" part... the monarchy was gone, too bad the Bolsheviks instituted a party dictatorship and stalled the whole revolution in their burning need to "ensure the revolution."
Some people are intelligent enough not to prejudge others based on atrocities commited (or ignored) by their long deceased ancestors.
I see no point in attacking present individuals for atrocities committed by past executives and individuals, but the business as a whole should apologize for past wrongs committed by the corporation. And, quite frankly, much of the history of Nazi Germany has been whitewashed to hide powerful Western financial and industrial connections to the Nazi war machine.
A friend involved in a society at university with me had great misgivings about an incident during the society's international convention, where Ford was honoured for giving whackloads of cash to the society. Quotes from Henry Ford were placed in the same presentation as quotes from Nelson Mandela, from what I can recall. Henry Ford was a vicious anti-Jew, praised by Hitler and given Nazi Germany's highest civilian honour. The film "The Eternal Jew" gained its inspiration and material from a book Ford helped publish called "The International Jew". Most people around our little Canadian group apparently didn't make the ironic connection of Ford and Mandela in the same presentation, because many (most?) people don't know about this aspect of Ford. It's simply not spoken of.
And let's not even discuss the activities of one Prescott Bush. Look it up - you may be surprised what parts of World War II history you haven't been taught. I'm still finding out this stuff myself.
People may be willing to forgive a business since the people who use that company to commit wrongs are dead, but at the same time those actions shouldn't be forgotten. A lot of people got rich from helping Hitler build the Third Reich; some even directly participated in creating the infrastructure for the Holocaust. "Never again" isn't just a cute saying, it should be a rallying cry against all fascism and oppression, and acceptance of such under the mask of normal business. Note that this may have ironic implications in Israel and Palestine, but that's a can o' worms I don't even want to get into right now.
Or where a gang of white police offers can be caught red handed on video tape beating a black man with billy clubs but they're set free to go.
A horrible incident of police abusing their power and authority took place on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in San Francisco. Numerous incidents of brutality, murder, and corruption go unpunished, overlooked, tacitly accepted by politicians and administrators.
And yes, the War on (Some) Drugs has led to most abrogations of the Constitution over the past century. An interesting study would be to determine how many laws that violate sone part of the Constitution and Bill of Rights were passed on anti-drug grounds. That "war" has also led to the creation of paramilitary police forces in North America, caused much of the aforementioned police corruption, and helped lay the groundwork for the establishment of an American fascist police state. This isn't scaremongering - take a look into the history of the Drug War, the innocent victims, the possible connnections to American foreign intelligence (ie, the CIA).
How the hell do you outdo proposing on a popular geek website in front of thousands... and leaving the comments on?
I'll be racking my brains for months on this one. Nice one Rob, couldn't do it the old-fashioned way to make it easy on the rest of us poor schlubs, could ya?:)
You only need to be able to read the media once in order to copy it. Also in order to produce the self destructing media copies there need to be a permenant copy somewhere.
True, which is why this would be possible with FlexPlay/SpectraDisc. Divx used a 3DES decryption system to prevent play on normal DVD players, plus some kind of ID system that prevented discs from being played on Divx players you didn't own.
I love the Simpsons, but never got into Futurama because there was never enough promotion of the show to make me remember to turn it on.
I don't watch much TV outside of certain shows I consistently switch on. I was never able to find Futurama after it was initially shuffled away from post-Simpsons Sunday nights, and I saw maybe one promo for the show on Fox after it premiered, ever. Once it moved, I was never able to find it again. Meanwhile, crap like Malcolm in the Middle and Boston Public eats up numerous promo slots. Fox just had no interest in cultivating a post-football, pre-Simpsons audience.
To some extent, the numerous advertising breaks during football games help push the broadcasts outside of three-hour blocks. It's as boring for people in the arena as it is for viewers at home, and while I'm sure the offense enjoys an extra minute or so to talk strategy, it just messes with the flow of the game. Long post-game wrapups don't help, either; does Fox really need to run ten, fifteen minutes of JB and the boys cracking jokes at each other? Does it boost advertising revenue that much? You'd figure Fox would want to cultivate post-football viewing by preserving the show in the next half-hour slot, instead of running over it all the time. It would especially help those slow periods between football and the next sports season, when a show has to live on its own popularity instead of getting a boost from football.
But then, I'm not a network executive, nor would I want to be.
Luckily, Global up here occasionally runs it as filler during dark hours, so I enjoyed a Futurama marathon two nights ago:)
no but comedy central is cable, so they dont have as many viewers or as much ad revenue as the big time networks
True, but unless the system in the U.S. is completely different, Comedy Central also receives subscription fees. Those can add up for a popular channel.
1. Fox plays it at 7 PM. I'd always figured it would slip into the 8 PM spot when the Simpsons ended and quickly jump in ratings.
Didn't it once run at 8:30, immediately following the Simpsons? I forget whether Family Guy or Crap in the Middle kicked it out and sent it on the Fox Death Journey.[0]
Either way, Fox is finding ways to piss off more and more viewers with each moronic programming decision. The last one that made any sense was mercy-killing The Chamber. Prepare for a wave of crapcoms to fill time.
[0] Start at the prime post-Simpsons slot, catch some smalll but consistent audience, then get sent to Tuesday, then get relegated to Sunday before the Simpsons, when everyone is eating dinner, still watching football, or getting something done before Simpsons.)
I was eerily reminded of the gameshows like those in 'The Running Man.'
You know, I almost said the same thing in my first reply, but I figured the reference wasn't quite exact. In the Running Man, the contestant could at least fight back and run. "The Chamber" was more like a 1984-esque Miniluv interrogation scene writ bizarre. I half-expected the host to offer the poor woman a roast beef sandwich with mustard during a break in the torture.[0]
What ever happened to the other torture show, The Chair? Cancelled as well?
[0] Ok, let's see who can identify that obscure reference.
I'm not one to flame, but the people at FOX are smoking something with strong hallucinagenic qualities.
Actually, from what I can tell, people who smoke stuff with strong hallucinogenic qualities like at least some of those shows. Therefore, the FOX execs aren't smoking anything (aside from cigarettes), but they're probably drinking a helluva lot of something.
Dammit, that's what The Man wants you to think! The Man wants you to just sit down, shut up, and take whatever you get fed. You're not supposed to stand up with others who agree with you and say you want something to change, or stay the same. That would be interaction - and Big Media can't have that, beyond what little scraps the plebes get thrown with "online polls", "bulletin boards", and stupid contests.
Try, man! Stand up and try! MST3K fans may have failed, but that doesn't mean they'll always fail.
Hey, a mass letter-writing campaign worked for Star Trek. I'm sure us Futurama nerds can come up with some contemporary equivalent.
Well, I watched about ten minutes of the Chamber, once.
Somehow, the thought of torture becoming a game show disturbed me. That feeling probably hasn't been helped by the intermittent discussions of how to make torture in the interrogation of suspected terrorists palatable to Americans.
I'll miss the X-Files, though things kinda started to tank once Duchovny started throwing his weight around - getting the show moved from nice digs in Vancouver, then leaving, then not, then leaving, then not, forcing Carter and the writers to dance around this... just a mess. A part of me wishes Mulder had just been McLeaned at the end of the seventh season, instead of letting him play these games and drag the death out so much longer.
Never watched The Tick. Live-action versions of animated shows just don't resonate with me for some reason. Probably something about the inherent absurdity of cartoons, combined with the ability to depict events and places far cheaper than showing the same things in live-action.
That 80's Show should make like the decade and be over. I'd like to forget the greed-is-good, disco-hangover 1980's, thanks. If anyone tells you the 1970's lived off pretension, please see "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and glam rock, then slap the person who tells you that.
Perhaps FOX should switch the timeslots of Futurama and Malcolm in the Middle for, say, a month.
FOX seems to have a history of trying to prop up weaker timeslots by relegating popular shows to crap times when no one is watching (or when everyone is watching other channels). Even the Simpsons got this treatment for a season or so, back when FOX didn't have as much strong programming to fall back on. The lack of good content to replace it on Sunday night at that time may be what saved the show from being cancelled; FOX just moved it back to the original 8 pm timeslot.
If all else fails, perhaps the creators could see about getting the Comedy Channel or the Cartoon Network to fund and pick it up, something not unheard of for cult hits that get chopped by their original network.
Slashdot Mirror
Chernobyl was caused by stupidity (turning off safety systems) and poor reactor design.
You may be able to improve reactor design, but you always always always have to allow for human stupidity, which knows no bounds.
Rather than block the electrodes, it might be better to short them out. Clothes soaked in salt water might do it, but a better choice would be metal or carbon fibre cloth.
:).
Sounds fine, as long as there are intervening layers of clothing between the shorting surface and your skin. I'm just not comfortable with something conductive being in contact with my epidermis, which may expose my lack of hard knowledge regarding electrical transmission...
As for Fido, carry a Taser yourself. A disposable Flash camera can easily be adapted
Actually, I'd prefer to avoid harming the dog whenever possible. The idea is defense and resistance, not attack and harm. Beyond those who engage in property destruction as a symbolic protest against the concept of private, exclusive property[0], nearly all protesters prepare to defend against police attacks, not attack the police themselves. Weapons are generally limited to the really hardcore militants, and their target is property, not people.[1] There have been some funny incidents where police displayed an array of "weapons" at press conferences, and journalists helpfully pointed out their gas masks and microphones confiscated earlier in the day.
[0] Before anyone attacks; I find that smashing windows of major franchise/chain restaurants and shops just frightens the people demonstrators try to reach. Symbolic, yes, effective, not if effective means exposing people to new ideas. Or, as one anti-capitalist militant said (I forget his name right now), "It's not enough to smash a McDonald's window. Then you have to go inside and organize."
On the other hand, I wonder how much more coverage, and what kind of coverage the recent WEF protests would have received if a few windows had been smashed, or even if demonstrators resisted NYPD arrest attempts. Many demonstrators who did nothing to break any laws were grabbed; one IMC correspondent was tackled and arrested while calling in a live report on his cell phone. As it was, the New York media prepared the city for civil war, then declared the protests a failure when riots didn't break out. Damned if you do...
[1] This is true for North American protests. Certain protests in Europe have seen more militant actions; Prague and Genoa in particular featured attempts to break through police lines and offensive actions against riot cops. From what I know, Genoa was a massive aberration, one step short of a worst-case scenario for cops and protesters alike. While there was a sizable militant anti-capitalist group that engaged in property destruction and rioting, claims have surfaced of British and Italian fascist skinheads joining forces to stir things up. A few scattered reports also surfaced of "black blockers" passing through police lines unhindered, or meeting outside police stations without harassment, but the veracity and meaning of these reports is still hotly debated among activists. For the most part, Western mass protests are noisy, but peaceful affairs where the violence comes from a few hotheads, and the police.
If you think the above claim is paranoid, dig up info on protests last summer in Barcelona related to the aborted World Bank meeting there. Two undercovers sidled up to the main Saturday march, attempted to start a brawl by fighting each other, and when demonstrators tried to break the cops up, uniformed police took the opportunity to attack and arrest people. Pictures later surfaced of "black blockers" posing with uniformed police on lawns before the demonstrations. Not to mention the attack on a spokescouncil meeting after the main march. The Ottawa Citizen published a series on RCMP infiltration and surveillance of political groups across Canada, which may no longer be online. It's only paranoia if they're not watching you...
Yes, I'm an anarchist whackjob. No, I'm not a Black Blocker. Yes, I think Bush is nuts. No, I don't like bin Laden either.
So how is this "non-hazardous"? Are they going to hand out safety harnesses to crowds before they get sprayed with slime?
The mass anti-corporate globalization protests over the past three years have seen the development of some fairly effective, DIY defense tactics against "non-lethal" crowd control measures.
Tear gas and pepper spray? Bandanna soaked with cider or vinegar on the low end, gas mask on the high end, full-coverage clothing. Gas masks are especially preferable if the riot troopers are especially teargas-happy.
Batons and rubber bullets? Shields, helmets, padding, and loads of backup.
I haven't learned of any reasonable defenses against taser attacks yet, and they have been used on occasion (I'm specifically thinking of a few incidents during the Ottawa G20/IMF/WB protests last November). Something would be needed to block the electrodes; hockey pads, perhaps? Sometimes, dogs will also be used (again, Ottawa G20), and there's just not much you can do when a well-trained Fido decides to gnaw on your leg. Again, padding, perhaps sports pads.
This stuff? Skis, high-traction footwear, maybe carry something to dissolve the slime. Perhaps sandbags might become the next big thing at protests?
I mean, tear gas is bad and not used often, but after a few hours, you're all back to normal.
Weeeelllllllll....
One, two, five canisters, you might be OK. Once you're downwind of twenty-plus canisters, things start getting iffy.
Numerous women reported early periods after the April 2001 Quebec City protests, which saw over 1000 canisters of tear gas being lobbed at peaceful, boisterous protesters from behind a 4km-long fence. It is thought that three different varieties of gas were used during the actions.
No nation, not even the US, can unilaterally decide what the ground rules for war are.
And which rock have you been living under for the past four decades?
This is also quite scary. Check out those sweat stains!
Lesson learned; don't wear business casual when you intend to do high-impact aerobics.
At the moment, I don't own a cell phone. Shocking, I know. I've been on the fence about breaking down and picking one up for emergency and urgent use.
However, if I would have to deal with spam phone calls and spam messages in my voice mail, forget it. I'm annoyed enough having to obfuscate my e-mail address just so I don't have to slog through crap I'll never look over, never mind reply to. It's bad enough that spammers manage to waste bandwidth by hitting some mailing lists I'm subscribed to. The last thing I want is to have the fucking telemarketers and spam gods following me everywhere, wasting my time and patience. I would either get an ancient cell phone, or just not get one at all.
Nice job, spammers - you just lost yourselves a potential victim by the sheer threat of your infecting another market. Fuck off and die somewhere.
AdBusters went away, dude
Try Adbusters.org, and note that Adbusters.com links to the main site.
Irony dept.: A magazine that has an article entitled "Resistance" about the recent anti-corporate globalization actions around the world has a full-page ad on the back cover... for the U.S. Army.
Curiously, Lenin actually said [bartleby.com] some things the John Birch Society might agree with: "While the State exists there can be no freedom; when there is freedom there will be no State."
Now, if only he hadn't stalled at the "State" part... the monarchy was gone, too bad the Bolsheviks instituted a party dictatorship and stalled the whole revolution in their burning need to "ensure the revolution."
Actions speaking louder than words and all...
Some people are intelligent enough not to prejudge others based on atrocities commited (or ignored) by their long deceased ancestors.
I see no point in attacking present individuals for atrocities committed by past executives and individuals, but the business as a whole should apologize for past wrongs committed by the corporation. And, quite frankly, much of the history of Nazi Germany has been whitewashed to hide powerful Western financial and industrial connections to the Nazi war machine.
A friend involved in a society at university with me had great misgivings about an incident during the society's international convention, where Ford was honoured for giving whackloads of cash to the society. Quotes from Henry Ford were placed in the same presentation as quotes from Nelson Mandela, from what I can recall. Henry Ford was a vicious anti-Jew, praised by Hitler and given Nazi Germany's highest civilian honour. The film "The Eternal Jew" gained its inspiration and material from a book Ford helped publish called "The International Jew". Most people around our little Canadian group apparently didn't make the ironic connection of Ford and Mandela in the same presentation, because many (most?) people don't know about this aspect of Ford. It's simply not spoken of.
And let's not even discuss the activities of one Prescott Bush. Look it up - you may be surprised what parts of World War II history you haven't been taught. I'm still finding out this stuff myself.
People may be willing to forgive a business since the people who use that company to commit wrongs are dead, but at the same time those actions shouldn't be forgotten. A lot of people got rich from helping Hitler build the Third Reich; some even directly participated in creating the infrastructure for the Holocaust. "Never again" isn't just a cute saying, it should be a rallying cry against all fascism and oppression, and acceptance of such under the mask of normal business. Note that this may have ironic implications in Israel and Palestine, but that's a can o' worms I don't even want to get into right now.
Or where a gang of white police offers can be caught red handed on video tape beating a black man with billy clubs but they're set free to go.
A horrible incident of police abusing their power and authority took place on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in San Francisco. Numerous incidents of brutality, murder, and corruption go unpunished, overlooked, tacitly accepted by politicians and administrators.
And yes, the War on (Some) Drugs has led to most abrogations of the Constitution over the past century. An interesting study would be to determine how many laws that violate sone part of the Constitution and Bill of Rights were passed on anti-drug grounds. That "war" has also led to the creation of paramilitary police forces in North America, caused much of the aforementioned police corruption, and helped lay the groundwork for the establishment of an American fascist police state. This isn't scaremongering - take a look into the history of the Drug War, the innocent victims, the possible connnections to American foreign intelligence (ie, the CIA).
This shit has got to stop. Take the power back.
How the hell do you outdo proposing on a popular geek website in front of thousands... and leaving the comments on?
I'll be racking my brains for months on this one. Nice one Rob, couldn't do it the old-fashioned way to make it easy on the rest of us poor schlubs, could ya?:)
Congratulations you two.
whoopsie, my bad:)
it's been a while, and SPACE doesn't run it anymore; their licence to show it ran out back in the summer.
You only need to be able to read the media once in order to copy it. Also in order to produce the self destructing media copies there need to be a permenant copy somewhere.
True, which is why this would be possible with FlexPlay/SpectraDisc. Divx used a 3DES decryption system to prevent play on normal DVD players, plus some kind of ID system that prevented discs from being played on Divx players you didn't own.
Three seasons for ST, actually.
79 episodes, and into history.
I love the Simpsons, but never got into Futurama because there was never enough promotion of the show to make me remember to turn it on.
I don't watch much TV outside of certain shows I consistently switch on. I was never able to find Futurama after it was initially shuffled away from post-Simpsons Sunday nights, and I saw maybe one promo for the show on Fox after it premiered, ever. Once it moved, I was never able to find it again. Meanwhile, crap like Malcolm in the Middle and Boston Public eats up numerous promo slots. Fox just had no interest in cultivating a post-football, pre-Simpsons audience.
To some extent, the numerous advertising breaks during football games help push the broadcasts outside of three-hour blocks. It's as boring for people in the arena as it is for viewers at home, and while I'm sure the offense enjoys an extra minute or so to talk strategy, it just messes with the flow of the game. Long post-game wrapups don't help, either; does Fox really need to run ten, fifteen minutes of JB and the boys cracking jokes at each other? Does it boost advertising revenue that much? You'd figure Fox would want to cultivate post-football viewing by preserving the show in the next half-hour slot, instead of running over it all the time. It would especially help those slow periods between football and the next sports season, when a show has to live on its own popularity instead of getting a boost from football.
But then, I'm not a network executive, nor would I want to be.
Luckily, Global up here occasionally runs it as filler during dark hours, so I enjoyed a Futurama marathon two nights ago:)
DINGfuckinglamenessfilterDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGDINGD INGDINGDING!
Give the man a bong hit.
Here's a hint; it wasn't a movie.
no but comedy central is cable, so they dont have as many viewers or as much ad revenue as the big time networks
True, but unless the system in the U.S. is completely different, Comedy Central also receives subscription fees. Those can add up for a popular channel.
1. Fox plays it at 7 PM. I'd always figured it would slip into the 8 PM spot when the Simpsons ended and quickly jump in ratings.
Didn't it once run at 8:30, immediately following the Simpsons? I forget whether Family Guy or Crap in the Middle kicked it out and sent it on the Fox Death Journey.[0]
Either way, Fox is finding ways to piss off more and more viewers with each moronic programming decision. The last one that made any sense was mercy-killing The Chamber. Prepare for a wave of crapcoms to fill time.
[0] Start at the prime post-Simpsons slot, catch some smalll but consistent audience, then get sent to Tuesday, then get relegated to Sunday before the Simpsons, when everyone is eating dinner, still watching football, or getting something done before Simpsons.)
I was eerily reminded of the gameshows like those in 'The Running Man.'
You know, I almost said the same thing in my first reply, but I figured the reference wasn't quite exact. In the Running Man, the contestant could at least fight back and run. "The Chamber" was more like a 1984-esque Miniluv interrogation scene writ bizarre. I half-expected the host to offer the poor woman a roast beef sandwich with mustard during a break in the torture.[0]
What ever happened to the other torture show, The Chair? Cancelled as well?
[0] Ok, let's see who can identify that obscure reference.
I'm not one to flame, but the people at FOX are smoking something with strong hallucinagenic qualities.
Actually, from what I can tell, people who smoke stuff with strong hallucinogenic qualities like at least some of those shows. Therefore, the FOX execs aren't smoking anything (aside from cigarettes), but they're probably drinking a helluva lot of something.
Probably Kool-Aid.
You can't fight the man.
I'm going to be half-serious here...
Dammit, that's what The Man wants you to think! The Man wants you to just sit down, shut up, and take whatever you get fed. You're not supposed to stand up with others who agree with you and say you want something to change, or stay the same. That would be interaction - and Big Media can't have that, beyond what little scraps the plebes get thrown with "online polls", "bulletin boards", and stupid contests.
Try, man! Stand up and try! MST3K fans may have failed, but that doesn't mean they'll always fail.
Hey, a mass letter-writing campaign worked for Star Trek. I'm sure us Futurama nerds can come up with some contemporary equivalent.
FIGHT THE POWER!
Well, I watched about ten minutes of the Chamber, once.
Somehow, the thought of torture becoming a game show disturbed me. That feeling probably hasn't been helped by the intermittent discussions of how to make torture in the interrogation of suspected terrorists palatable to Americans.
I'll miss the X-Files, though things kinda started to tank once Duchovny started throwing his weight around - getting the show moved from nice digs in Vancouver, then leaving, then not, then leaving, then not, forcing Carter and the writers to dance around this... just a mess. A part of me wishes Mulder had just been McLeaned at the end of the seventh season, instead of letting him play these games and drag the death out so much longer.
Never watched The Tick. Live-action versions of animated shows just don't resonate with me for some reason. Probably something about the inherent absurdity of cartoons, combined with the ability to depict events and places far cheaper than showing the same things in live-action.
That 80's Show should make like the decade and be over. I'd like to forget the greed-is-good, disco-hangover 1980's, thanks. If anyone tells you the 1970's lived off pretension, please see "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and glam rock, then slap the person who tells you that.
Perhaps FOX should switch the timeslots of Futurama and Malcolm in the Middle for, say, a month.
FOX seems to have a history of trying to prop up weaker timeslots by relegating popular shows to crap times when no one is watching (or when everyone is watching other channels). Even the Simpsons got this treatment for a season or so, back when FOX didn't have as much strong programming to fall back on. The lack of good content to replace it on Sunday night at that time may be what saved the show from being cancelled; FOX just moved it back to the original 8 pm timeslot.
If all else fails, perhaps the creators could see about getting the Comedy Channel or the Cartoon Network to fund and pick it up, something not unheard of for cult hits that get chopped by their original network.