April 6, 2000

SNUB THE BOOB-TUBE

Adbusters is preparing their next mainstream culture jam. April 22-28 will be "TV Turnoff Week", a week in which all TV addicts are urged to leave their screens blank, as a "powerful gesture of consumer sovereigntyŠ" Their plan includes airing a 30-second "Uncommercial" on CNN Headline News during the week leading up to "TV Turnoff Week." Ultimately, the battle is against the handful of media megacorps that control the increasingly narrow viewpoints we are exposed to. "As media concentration has increased," says Adbusters, "diversity of opinion has decreasedŠ our 5000-channel universe has become limited by a narrow scope of corporate filters‹ones driven by the interests of big-money sponsors like the global auto makers, oil companies and the fast-food and fashion industries." You don't say. More info is at www.adbusters.org.

KIDS THESE DAYS

An 11-year-old boy won a $1500 court settlement after his teacher confiscated his Pokémon cards and then misplaced them. The boy had first asked for $500 in losses, which the school board rejected, so he took them to court. (San Jose Mercury)

OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN THE FARTHEST REACHES OF THE UNIVERSE

Surf over to www.newprayer.com, and you can have a "directional radio transmitter" beam your prayer to the oldest part of the universe, where, according to the people who run the site, "we know God resides." And, considering the blinding speed of radio transmissions, I suppose God will answer your prayer in about 800 billion years. (National Post)

ANYONE WHO CAN AFFORD IT, PROBABLY ALREADY HAS A COFFEE TABLE

A 480-page, 70-pound "coffee table" book by photographer Helmut Newton was released in December. The catch: it can only be purchased with its own coffee table, designed by Philippe Starck, and costing about $1,700. (UPS)

EVIL NUMBERS FOR THE MASSES

The Russian government is putting the last touches on its plan to give every citizen a "tax identification code" (similar to social insurance numbers) in order to simplify tax collection and other bureaucratic processes. It has run into opposition from the Christian Orthodox church however, because the barcode on the new ID cards contains the number "666". "Deliberately or not, the developers of the global strip-code systemŠ chose a symbol which is offensive and disturbing for Christians and which appears to be at the very least impertinent mockery," said the church. Let's not rule out the possibility that the Russian government has a pact with the anti-Christ. (Reuters)

BREAK INTO JAIL

Thieves broke into a prison in Sao Jose do Campos, Brazil, and tied up guards and robbed the prisoners. A police spokesperson said "I don't think anything like it has happened before." (AP)

FINGER FOOD

Since December 1997, a young black man in Tottenham, north London, has attacked nine women in a peculiar manner. He stops the women, claims to be a manicurist, admires their hands, and then tries to bite off their fingernails. (Guardian)

HISTORICAL FACTS WE DIDN'T NEED TO KNOW

Michael Newton, author of The Encyclopedia Of Serial Killers,claims that the first recorded serial killer was a woman in the time of the Roman Empire, and that she was punished with rape by "specially-trained giraffes." He also contends that Brazilian and Argentinian secret police used "specially-trained dogs" for similarly obscene punishments as recently as the 1970's. (Coast to Coast AM)

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE TO GO BACK IN THE WATER

The Times of London has reported that officials at the former Soviet naval base at Sevastopol have sold 27 "killer" dolphins, Beluga whales, walruses and sea lions to Iran. The animals had been "trained to kill enemy divers and blow up ships."

WEAPONS TESTING KILLS WHALES

Environmental groups Earthwatch and The Sea Watch Foundation are calling for the U.S. and British Navies to stop the underwater testing of aniti-submarine warfare systems after 14 whales were grounded on three beaches close to the Abaco Islands test sight within 48 hours of the sonar experiments starting. In 1996, 12 beached whales died in Greece after sonar tests by NATO, leading environmentalists to suspect that the experiments disorient the whales, who depend on sonar for navigation and communication. (Sightings)

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Copyright 2000 by Andreas Ohrt (604) 803-7485
Email:aohrt@hotmail.com
Website:www.curioustimes.com