Late Night News Round-up: It’s Hammer Time!
Posted: October 17, 2012 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Black Agenda Report, children, Foreign Affairs, Fox News, Mitt Romney, Myanmar, Pakistan, physical abuse, SDB Evening News Reads | Tags: Classic Horror Movies, Hammer Films, Hammer Studios, Mutant Rats Attack!, second presidential debate 2012, Spitfire, Women's Rights are Human Rights 37 Comments »
Just a few links tonight…and since it is Classic Horror night on TCM, I may be wandering some in tonight’s post. It is the old horror flicks from Hammer Studios…starting with Horror of Dracula.
Hammer Horror celebrates the deliciously macabre offerings of the 1950s and ’60s from Hammer Films including Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Horror of Dracula (1958) and The Devil’s Bride (1968, aka The Devil Rides Out).
A small independent British studio simply trying to gain a foothold in the world market, Hammer Studios managed to forever transform the horror film. Once the lowliest of film genres, horror is now one of the world’s most popular and, to a large extent, the modern horror film began with Hammer’s Horror of Dracula (1958).
I absolutely love these old films. So it is difficult for me to keep from watching them.
This first link is for Boston Boomer, I find this kind of stuff interesting. Discovery of two opposite ways humans voluntarily forget unwanted memories
If only there were a way to forget that humiliating faux pas at last night’s dinner party. It turns out there’s not one, but two opposite ways in which the brain allows us to voluntarily forget unwanted memories, according to a study published by Cell Press October 17 in the journal Neuron. The findings may explain how individuals can cope with undesirable experiences and could lead to the development of treatments to improve disorders of memory control. (Credit: Current Biology, Benoit et al.)
On to a few news items that may have been overlooked today.
Pakistan’s Textile Industry Faces Challenges
A fire last month that killed some 300 trapped workers at a garment factory in Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi exposed serious flaws in the country’s industry regulations. It was one of the worst industry disasters in Pakistan, one in which most victims were trapped behind closed or blocked fire exits. Union members blame a culture of easy violation of health and safety laws.
At the M.K. Sons factory in Faisalabad, which produces colorful printed fabrics for sale by U.S. retail giants like Walmart and Target, chief executive Rana Javed Akhtar insists that unlike the Karachi factory that burned down, his business is in line with international regulations.
Afghan woman beheaded after refusing prostitution
Afghan police have arrested four people who allegedly tried to force a woman into prostitution in western Afghanistan and beheaded her when she refused, officials said Wednesday.
Mah Gul, 20, was beheaded after her mother-in-law attempted to make her sleep with a man in her house in Herat province last week, provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada told AFP.
“We have arrested her mother-in-law, father-in-law, her husband and the man who killed her,” he said.
Gul was married to her husband four months ago and her mother-in-law had tried to force her into prostitution several times in the past, Sayedzada said.
The suspect, Najibullah, was paraded by police at a press conference where he said the mother-in-law lured him into killing Gul by telling him that she was a prostitute.
“It was around 2:00 am when Gul’s husband left for his bakery. I came down and with the help of her mother-in-law killed her with a knife,” he said.
The murder comes against a backdrop of a world outcry over the shooting by Taliban Islamists of a 14-year-old Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, who had become a voice against the suppression of women’s rights.
While Yousafzai’s case has made world headlines, people using social media in Afghanistan have made the point that oppression and violence against women are commonplace in Afghanistan.
It is upsetting I know, but here is a feel good link for you. Check out this video: - Air Canada jet passengers and crew hunt down missing yacht
A passenger jet was sent to 5000 feet to look for a stranded sailboat off the coast of Australia. Can you imagine flying down that low over the sea?
Here is another article about flight…this time it is old spitfires. Dozens of Spitfire planes to be excavated in Burma
Restored Spitfires are in short supply and the Burma/UK project is expected to largely increase their population. Photograph: Darrin Zammit Lupi/ReutersDozens of Spitfire fighter planes that were buried by British troops in Burma as the second world war drew to a close are to be excavated after an agreement to dig up the historic aircraft was signed by the Burmese government and an aviation enthusiast from Lincolnshire.
After 16 years of searching and lobbying, David Cundall, 62, has signed a deal to recover the lost RAF planes, which are believed to have been packed in crates and hidden by British forces on the orders of Earl Mountbatten shortly before the United States bombed the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.
During his visit to Burma in April, David Cameron reached an agreement with President Thein Sein about the recovery of the missing aircraft. The British embassy in Rangoon said the newly signed deal was a chance to work with the new Burmese government “in uncovering, restoring, displaying these fighter planes”.
The restoration should begin at the end of month.
The number of Mark 14 Spitfires awaiting discovery remains unclear, but Htoo Htoo Zaw, managing director of Cundall’s Burmese partner, the Shwe Taung Paw company, said he estimated there were at least 60. Previous estimates have varied between 20 and 36. Even that number would represent a large increase in the global Spitfire population: while 21,000 were built, only 35 remain in a good enough condition to fly.
Well, now a few links about the debate.
There is news that Tagg wanted to punch Obama at the debate last night, guess that was part of the reason the family rushed over to Mitt? Romney’s son says he wanted to punch Obama during second debate | The Raw Story
From BAR: The Duopoly Debates Itself | Black Agenda Report
To any objective observer, the consensus that exists between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on the fundamental issues of war and peace, Wall Street’s dominance of American life, and fiscal austerity, has been made crystal clear in the two “debates.” In the absence of effective popular resistance to the duopoly of money, the economic and social crisis fails to create a corresponding political crisis for the rulers. As a result, there is nothing important for them to debate.
This one by Paul Waldman: No, Candy Crowley Did Not Show Any Favoritism
Before last night’s debate, both the Obama and Romney camps expressed their concern that moderator Candy Crowley might go rogue and act like something resembling a journalist, not merely keeping time and introducing questioners but interjecting to get clarifications and ask follow-ups. Once the debate was over, it was only conservatives complaining about her.
And this last link from Juan Cole…Romney Binder full of Top Ten Mistakes and Falsehoods | Informed Comment
I will end this post with an interesting mutation being seen in England. Yup, it is a strange case, Attack of the Mutant Rats!
Okay, I got carried away with the theme of campy horror films.
Three quarters of rats in parts of West ‘resistant to poison’
About 75% of rats in the West have built up a resistance to poisonsAn increasing number of rats in areas of the west of England are mutating to become more resistant to commonly sold poisons, a university study has found.
Scientists at Huddersfield University said about 75% of rats in Bristol, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire had built up a resistance.
The most serious mutations have affected rats in Bath and Wiltshire.
Experts have blamed the rise on the incorrect use of poisons where dosages which are too low have been used.
Alright, that is it. It took me all of the movie to write this post…next up The Curse of Frankenstein.
I won’t be back tonight…after Frankenstein, comes The Mummy (1959) , actually just waiting for The Gorgon is giving me a thrill!
Sima
dakinikat
ecocatwoman
fiscalliberal
grayslady
JJ Lopez Minkoff
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
quixote
Speaking of binders, the reviews of this binder on Amazon are hilarious. Check them out before Amazon takes them down.
http://www.amazon.com/Avery-Durable-Binder-EZ-Turn-17032/product-reviews/B001B0CTMU/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
That’s amazing … I wonder who started that! So funny!!!
I love it! Lots of reviews and all funny.
OMG! That’s hilarious!
LOL! while FOF.
Liberals have a much better sense of humor.
Those are so clever! A must-read!
Wonderfully brilliant!
This cartoon is brilliant! (it is between movies now, up next is The Mummy)
http://blogs.ajc.com/mike-luckovich/files/2012/10/mike101812.jpg
WTF – Rush didn’t call Candy a whore, but did call her a terrorist, and said in a REAL WORLD she would have committed career suicide.
He’s the most disgusting man in the world.
He is, and the right wing christians and republicans love him. He can bloody a woman with a billy stick, and they’d still love him.
Rush has a lot of competition for that title though.
Alright, now CNN should do the right thing tomorrowm and give Candy a big fat PAY RAISE.
Did you see this horrible headline?
Green Party candidate: Police handcuffed me to a chair for eight hours
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/10/17/green-party-candidate-police-handcuffed-me-to-a-chair-for-eight-hours/
I’m not surprised after the way the Occupy people have been treated. Still terrible though.
Here are the latest polls from the battleground: FWIW
New Hampshire: Obama 50%, Romney 49% (Rasmussen)
Nevada: Obama 48%, Romney 45% (SurveyUSA)
Nevada: Obama 50%, Romney 47% (Rasmussen)
Nevada: Obama 50%, Romney 43% (Project for a New America)
Ohio: Obama 45%, Romney 42% (SurveyUSA)
Wisconsin: Obama 49%, Romney 48% (Marquette Law)
John Cole/Balloon-juice: The Ties That Bind
Is there anyone more useless than Matt Stoller? Good grief!
I’m going to put that on my refrigerator, stitch it in needlepoint, have it printed on a bumper magnet, and have it tattooed on my chest. Brilliant!
Thanks for thinking of me, JJ. That’s an interesting article. I’ll bet Mitt Romney would like to find a way to forget his disastrous fact check last night.
Tagg Romney was on some radio show and said he “wanted to take a swing” a President Obama when he called Tagg’s dad a liar. Did he say that word?
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/10/on_being_a_liar.php?ref=fpblg
You should take a look at Bob Somerby, He’s got several posts on Benghazi and the way the MSM has been following the right wing script in their reporting. It’s really good!
He concluded that Rmoney’s huge Benghazi hose in the debate was because he started to believe his own BS.
OK, I’ll read them. I haven’t read him in a long time. Did you see that Charles Pierce says that Jill Stein and her running mate were held in some facility outside the debate, wearing plastic wrist cuffs?
I think Mitt started to believe his own BS shortly after he was born.
I did. Kat’s comment above has a story about it. They treated her like an Occupy protestor.
It was a hose and it dismays me to see that the wingers are still repeating these lies. I also saw some guy get on TV and say that the employment rate is higher today than when Obama took office which it is definitely not. It even looks like the 7.8 rate could go down to 7.3. Reality and truth are not these folks’ strong points. I still think it’s because the live in the Rush/Fox/Hot Air bubble.
Sorry, I missed that.
They are definitely in a closed feedback loop. Must be more comfortable when you just make up your own truth!
Yeah, and his first reason that he didn’t rampage up and swing at Obama was because the Secret Service were in the way.
Wonder what kind of parents that guy had?
Not very good ones I’d guess
A message from Bruce Springsteen
Ohio and Iowa should be in for good times
Why doesn’t he come out to the West Coast?
On 2nd thought, he’s best in those central high-electoral-vote states.
Big Bird for Halloween!
The article also quotes a very stupid voter:
http://seattletimes.com/text/2019454046.html
George McGovern is near death. His daughter says he is “no longer responsive.”
http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/17/14515260-family-former-sen-george-mcgovern-no-longer-responsive?lite
That’s too bad. He is a really good guy.
photos of performers at ACLfest this year.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/live-at-austin-city-limits-2012-20121015
Sam Wang: This Friday at 2:15pm Eastern, I’ll be on National Public Radio’s “Science Friday” with host Flora Lichtman. Nate Silver and I will talk about poll aggregation and the state of the national race. We’ll take calls too. Tune in – or listen here.