The original Thunderbirds was an eccentric, low-budget, weird piece of TV science fiction with the emphasis on alluring gadgetry and brilliant machines. The fact that all roles were played by puppets certainly helped it attain a certain cult status. Fans and even casual viewers have fond memories of puppets bobbing around miniature sets and palm trees folding back to allow Thunderbird 2 to get down the runway. Approaching a cinematic updating of the concept, director Jonathan Frakes had two choices: Go for a faithful, no-holds-barred action-packed romp full of alluring gadgetry and brilliant machines with a 21st century gloss, or ruin the whole thing and make the worst film of the year. Unfortunately, Mr. Frakes chose the latter option.

"Speaking via telephone from his home in the UK following a screening of the original Thunderbirds movie, Thunderbirds Are Go!, the creator of the British cult television hit said the new film was a "terrible failure"."

Dr Aldred’s current research interests involve paths, cycles, matchings and colourings in graphs. Recently he has worked on bounding the number of cycles in a 3-connected cubic graph, determining the smallest 3-connected cubic planar non-Hamiltonian graphs of cyclic connectivity 4 and 5, factoring (colouring) regular graphs into linear forests of minimum length and classes of graphs which admit 1-factors with prescribed and proscribed edges.

In France Meyer's commanding officer was Ernest Hemingway, who enabled the shy young cameraman to lose his virginity. Major Hemingway escorted Meyer to a brothel outside Paris which he controlled, and told him to take his pick of the 15 staff. "I picked the girl with the biggest tits," Meyer recalled.

The progression from Blade Runner through Total Recall to Paycheck has all the hallmarks of one of his stories—black irony, psychological degradation and the implication of a vast conspiracy organized to deceive and persecute one man. The young Dick would have written it as a dark comedy, the older as a bizarre Christian fable.

Kerry Vows To Raise Wife's Taxes
BOSTON—Campaigning in his home state, John Kerry vowed Monday to raise taxes on his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry, whose worth is estimated to be in the range of $900 million to $3.2 billion. "My spouse has benefited long enough from tax cuts," Kerry said. "If Congress increased her taxes by 15 percent, this country would have millions of dollars to use to create new jobs and explore alternative energy sources." Kerry added that it's high time that billionaires like the one with whom he shares his life start paying their fair share.

I'd just say this to Andrew Bartlett: mate, don't go off the deep end with Pauline. She's a straight shooter who's done porridge and, if attacked, will surely shank your ass.

Moreland City College Closure - "F" for the Bracks Government
Saturday 31 July 2004
Moreland City College - "F" for the Bracks Government
The closure of Coburg's Moreland City College is a failure for the Bracks Government's education policies.
The children of Coburg and surrounding suburbs have been abandoned by a government unwilling to guarantee a safe and disciplined school environment.
This Labor Government has let a group of thugs tear this school community apart - instead of dealing with the thugs and enforcing discipline and standards; the Government is closing the school.
This is Labor Heartland in which a fine school has been destroyed by a soft socialist and undisciplined education department.
Over the last four years, Moreland City College was permitted to operate with an unacceptable record of violence and bullying, scholastic failure, poor discipline, non-attendance and truancy.
Lynne Kosky promised accountability for state schools over three years ago - yet under her leadership the number of badly performing state schools has blown out to over 100.
Lynne Kosky promised accountability for state schools over three years ago - yet this school was allowed to continue in its decline.
I find it bizarre that Lynne Kosky should blame the Kennett Government for this closure five years after her Government came to power.
Les Twentyman sounded a distress signal earlier in the year when he wrote that he was "alarmed the other day to read that a highly successful program in Moreland CityC ollege, where a police constable of Turkish origin was based full-time to work with the kids, was likely to be closed down."
Parents expect that children will be safe in school and that they will learn the basics. Over the last four years, they have identified this school as one to avoid. The enrolment numbers have halved during the last four years of Bracks Government administration. The VCE enrolments were about to halve again next year.
As a child, I grew up a short walk from the school. In those days it had a fine reputation for scholastic achievement.
As Coburg High, its successful students included the Dean of Architecture at MIT,Bill Mitchell, and Olympic athlete, Raelene Boyle.
The children of Coburg deserve all the opportunities my neighbours enjoyed in the area four decades ago.

Top Ten Reasons CBS Is The Best In The Business
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4. Only organization to uncover proof Nixon was President in 1968!
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And the number one reason CBS is the Best in the Business ...

1. They actually voted against airing report on forged documents before they voted for it!

The most devastating articles in the Anti-Chomsky Reader are not those that expose the ideological prejudices, factual misrepresentations, and distorted logic of his political writings but the two at the end of the book that tear up his reputation as one of the towering intellects of our time. Two essays about linguistics reveal Chomsky’s output in that field to be not the work of a rare, great mind but the product of a very familiar kind of academic hack. His reputation turns out not to have been earned by any significant contribution to human understanding but to be the product of a combination of self-promotion, abuse of detractors, and the fudging of his findings.

Listing all the weapon systems that Senator Kerry tried his best to shut down sounds like an auctioneer selling off our national security but Americans need to know the facts.
The B-1 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, dropped 40% of the bombs in the first six months of Operation Enduring Freedom.
The B-2 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered air strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hussein's command post in Iraq.
The F-14A Tomcats, that Senator Kerry opposed, shot down Khadifi's Libyan MIGs over the Gulf of Sidra. The modernized F-14D, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered missile strikes against Tora Bora.
The Apache helicopter, that Senator Kerry opposed, took out those Republican Guard tanks in Kuwait in the Gulf War. The F-15 Eagles, that Senator Kerry opposed, flew cover over our Nation's Capital and this very city after 9/11.
I could go on and on and on: Against the Patriot Missile that shot down Saddam Hussein's scud missiles over Israel, Against the Aegis air-defense cruiser, Against the Strategic Defense Initiative, Against the Trident missile, against, against, against.
This is the man who wants to be the Commander in Chief of our U.S. Armed Forces?

U.S. forces armed with what? Spitballs?

Mrs Hirsi Ali arrived in Holland as a penniless refugee in 1992 after sneaking across the German border to escape a forced marriage to a Somali kinsman. She did not speak a word of Dutch. Finding jobs as a cleaner, she went on to study political science at Leiden University.
Her ambition now is nothing less than a reformation of Islam.