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New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone



 
 
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  #21  
Old September 22nd 06, 04:13 AM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
Scott Golden
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Posts: 11
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great FunFor Everyone

wrote:

http://letterfromhere.blogspot.com/2...thinkable.html
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Making nuclear war thinkable

What's wrong with this picture? To begin with, if it weren't a
Hollywood special effects shot, the guy would probably be blind from
looking right at the exploding nuke -- he clearly didn't duck and
cover.


Let's assume that the blast occured in Denver, as speculated. The Kansas
border is 140 miles away, and no one said that Jericho is right on the
border (I think we can safely assume that it is in western Kansas but
that's all). Someone watching the detonation from that far away will
"probably be blind" as a result? Don't think so.


Also, the whole detached observer quality of the photo
subliminally says nuclear catastrophe is no big deal, something that
can safely be survived at a distance. The biblical name and hint of a
halo even hint at something transcendent.


All of those images can mean one thing to one person and something
totally different to another. And the detonation of _one_ nuclear weapon
can be survived at a distance.


In other words, CBS is helping make the use of nukes a little more
thinkable.


By showing them being used _inside_ the continental U.S.? By showing the
humans who are not killed struggling to survive and carry on? This is a
"What if?" scenario -- in other words, fiction -- and it is entirely
plausible.


I wonder how this thing ever got off the ground. Maybe it went
something like this:
You guys have been in the doghouse for a couple years now, ever since
the Janet Jackson costume malfunction and the Dan Rather mess. Getting
Katie for the news was a start, but you need to do more. Here's a
thought. How about a "high-concept" TV soap featuring a plucky red
state small town with a biblical name surviving nuclear catastrophe
while those sinners in the big cities apparently burn in hellfire and
disappear? How cool is that?
CBS seemed to buy it. They signed for at least 13 episodes, and the new
series "Jericho" will air weekly, starting this Wednesday.


One would think that conspiracy theorists would make good fiction
writers. After all, they have vivid imaginations and are perfectly
willing to meld disparate elements together to create a unique
perspective on a particular event. In other words, they have original
ideas. Unfortunately most of those ideas have little connection with
reality, but still . . .


A drama about what happens when a nuclear mushroom cloud suddenly
appears on the horizon, plunging the residents of a small, peaceful
Kansas town into chaos, leaving them completely isolated and wondering
if they're the only Americans left alive. Fear of the unknown propels
Jericho into social, psychological and physical mayhem when all
communication and power is shut down. The town starts to come apart at
the seams as terror, anger and confusion bring out the very worst in
some residents. But in this time of crisis, as sensible people become
paranoid, personal agendas take over and well-kept secrets threaten to
be revealed, some people will find an inner strength they never knew
they had and the most unlikely heroes will emerge.

Again, what's wrong with this picture?


Nothing. It's the standard form that fictional drama takes -- and has
taken for centuries.


More than 20 years ago, in the early years of the Reagan
administration, loose talk about "survivable nuclear war" created a
huge outcry, here and abroad. ABC produced a TV movie called "The Day
After." While operating within the constraints of network TV, the show
tried to communicate some of the true horror of a nuclear war. The
Reaganites learned their lesson and shut up.

Now, little more than two decades later, CBS is about to show nuclear
war as something that happens elsewhere, off-camera except for a
mushroom cloud or two on the horizon, nothing that can't be survived by
good people learning to work together in a small town far from Ground
Zero. Yeah, right.


Right! And who said that the events in "Jericho" are the depiction of a
"nuclear war"? (other than YOU, I mean).


Call me a cynic, but I don't think it's any accident that this show is
airing at the very time that the Bush administration is trying, through
a disingenuous combination of leaks, diplomatic initiatives and
gradually escalating threats, to build support for a preemptive strike
-- possibly with nuclear "bunker busters" -- against Iran. And while
they insist they haven't made up their minds to go to war yet, chances
are -- based on past performance -- they've already made their
decision. It's not a matter of "if," but "when" -- and how to sell it.


Let's see -- "cynic". Dictionary says: a person who denies the sincerity
of people's motives and actions. That sounds about right. Thinking that
it's not an accident that this show is airing now is a clear sign of
cynicism leading to paranoia which leads to the formulation of a
conspiracy theory. A lot of conspiracy theories can be rationalized,
even when there is no objective evidence of the connection between the
facts used to create that rationalization. You have zero proof of your
allegations and you need to provide some of that proof if you wish to
convince most (any?) of the people here that you are right.


The neocon strategists know they don't have a snowball's chance in hell
of selling another preemptive war to the public through rational
argument. What they can do, without ever discussing the real issues, is
make emotional appeals to their base, get them worked up, and then use
them to bludgeon political opponents of preemptive war.


The neocons are soliciting their base to watch "Jericho"? See previous
response: provide us with one shred, one scintilla of proof; then maybe
I'll give credence to your allegation.


Who knows? "Jericho" might do the job. On the one hand, it stirs
anxiety about nuclear war, and thus builds support for a "preventive
war" against Iran. On the other hand, showing nuclear war safely going
on in the background while people are fine and going about their lives
in the foreground helps desensitize the audience to the horror of
nuclear weapons and makes nuclear war less unthinkable. It helps erode
taboos about a U.S. nuclear first strike -- should that become
necessary to get rid of those underground labs in Iran.


The people on "Jericho" were fine? Oh, that's right; you wrote this
before the show aired. Did you watch it, or are you one of those
preemptive critics who slams a work without actually experiencing it?


It just might work.

Holy ****! (Update): Here's executive producer Jon Turteltaub on Sci Fi
Wi
Jon Turteltaub, the executive producer of CBS' upcoming
post-apocalyptic drama series Jericho, told SCI FI Wire that he did
research about what might happen after a nuclear attack and was
surprised by the answers he found. "This is going to sound odd, but a
nuclear bomb is not as bad as everybody thinks," Turteltaub in an
interview. "Without question on the scale of things in the world, it's
on the bad scale of things that can happen. Puppies are on the really
good side of things [laughs]. But sometimes we have this image that one
nuclear bomb would take out all of New York City and Brooklyn and
Queens and parts of New Jersey."

That wouldn't be the case with the initial blast, Turteltaub (National
Treasure) added. "Part of the question is how much of the area is
uninhabitable versus how much in our perception and our fears is
uninhabitable," he said. "Coping with our own panic may be a greater
enemy than the reality of these things."
Just in case there was any doubt about where these guys are coming from.


Where _are_ they coming from -- a desire to portray truth? accuracy?
showing a realistic scenario as opposed to a nightmare vision? This
proves nothing; YOU have proved nothing. All you've done is put forth an
anti-Bush paranoid fantasy as if it were verifiable truth, and backed it
up with nothing but opinions and spin. Now, I'm not a fan of the current
administration, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to tolerate false
accusations without saying something about it. Truth trumps all.

Here's another question for you: Are you going to be one of those trolls
who drops your extreme opinion and then sits back and never contributes
to the thread again, or are you going to comment on some of the
responses your post has received?
  #22  
Old September 22nd 06, 05:19 AM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
norrin
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Posts: 21
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone


wrote:
http://letterfromhere.blogspot.com/2...thinkable.html


Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Making nuclear war thinkable


The story outlined is not realistic. It's set in a small town in
Kansas. Nowadays, kids living in small towns are in such
a hurry to leave the parents have to nail their shoes to the
porch. In the event of war, all the able bodied people would
be leaving in droves. A few years later, ghost town.

(snip)

Holy ****! (Update): Here's executive producer Jon Turteltaub on Sci Fi
Wi
Jon Turteltaub, the executive producer of CBS' upcoming
post-apocalyptic drama series Jericho, told SCI FI Wire that he did
research about what might happen after a nuclear attack and was
surprised by the answers he found. "This is going to sound odd, but a
nuclear bomb is not as bad as everybody thinks," Turteltaub in an
interview. "Without question on the scale of things in the world, it's
on the bad scale of things that can happen. Puppies are on the really
good side of things [laughs]. But sometimes we have this image that one
nuclear bomb would take out all of New York City and Brooklyn and
Queens and parts of New Jersey."


Fallout. Long Island. Uninhabitable.

That wouldn't be the case with the initial blast, Turteltaub (National
Treasure) added. "Part of the question is how much of the area is
uninhabitable versus how much in our perception and our fears is
uninhabitable," he said. "Coping with our own panic may be a greater
enemy than the reality of these things."


Even a convential attack on a city can trigger a stock market crash.
The financial losses caused by a single nuke would be the biggest
ever seen, assuming the market ever opened again. The loss of
infrastructure is also fatal.

  #23  
Old September 22nd 06, 05:38 AM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
norrin
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Posts: 21
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone


Jon Schild wrote:
wrote:
I wonder how this thing ever got off the ground. Maybe it went
something like this:
You guys have been in the doghouse for a couple years now, ever since
the Janet Jackson costume malfunction and the Dan Rather mess. Getting
Katie for the news was a start, but you need to do more. Here's a
thought. How about a "high-concept" TV soap featuring a plucky red
state small town with a biblical name surviving nuclear catastrophe
while those sinners in the big cities apparently burn in hellfire and
disappear? How cool is that?


This is just ludicrous. No mention was made of "sinners" or "hellfire"
anywhere in the episode. The determination of Denver is mostly a guess,
based on the direction of the blast and the location of large cities in
that direction. Knowledge of another blast in Atlanta is accidental.
They have no clue whether other large cities were hit, or if so which
ones. And there is no mention of the people in the small town all being
non-sinners, or more righteous, or being chosen by God ro survive, or
any similar crap. I don't even recall a shot of a church anywhere in the
first episode.

As for your "biblical name" slam, the Jericho in the bible was full of
bad people and was destroyed. Hardly the sort of fuzzy warm image you
seem to claim for the name.


IIRC, the city of Jericho never fell to barbarian invasion, it was just
abandoned and refounded a few times. Somewhere else, the men
got what they deserved for the "crime" of being uncircumcised.

CBS seemed to buy it. They signed for at least 13 episodes, and the new
series "Jericho" will air weekly, starting this Wednesday.

A drama about what happens when a nuclear mushroom cloud suddenly
appears on the horizon, plunging the residents of a small, peaceful
Kansas town into chaos, leaving them completely isolated and wondering
if they're the only Americans left alive. Fear of the unknown propels
Jericho into social, psychological and physical mayhem when all
communication and power is shut down. The town starts to come apart at
the seams as terror, anger and confusion bring out the very worst in
some residents. But in this time of crisis, as sensible people become
paranoid, personal agendas take over and well-kept secrets threaten to
be revealed, some people will find an inner strength they never knew
they had and the most unlikely heroes will emerge.

Again, what's wrong with this picture?


I guess it depends on how long you have been reading news and watching
what happens. Your description, worded to sound as silly as possible, is
essentially what has happened after many major disasters.


Major disasters don't usually take out the TV station.

More than 20 years ago, in the early years of the Reagan
administration, loose talk about "survivable nuclear war" created a
huge outcry, here and abroad. ABC produced a TV movie called "The Day
After." While operating within the constraints of network TV, the show
tried to communicate some of the true horror of a nuclear war. The
Reaganites learned their lesson and shut up.


Yes, that's the American way. Stamp out any opinion that doesn't match
yours.

I believe that nearly all of Japan survived their nuclear attack quite
nicely. The uproar came mostly because Reagan was a republican, and most
of the uproar totally ignored everything he said. He was also vilified,
called stupid, accused of being in his dotage etc for saying that the
Soviet Union should tear down the Berlin Wall. But it still happened.


The tonnage of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki doesn't
compare to modern nukes. Who says there were only two nukes?

Now, little more than two decades later, CBS is about to show nuclear
war as something that happens elsewhere, off-camera except for a
mushroom cloud or two on the horizon, nothing that can't be survived by
good people learning to work together in a small town far from Ground
Zero. Yeah, right.


Well, how much show do you get if you put a camera in downtown Denver,
watch the bomb fall, and then go to black? They deliberately chose an
area far enough away from any blast to not be immediately impacted, and
small enough to not become a target itself. That should be obvious even
to someone looking for every possible flaw.

Call me a cynic,


You are definitely a cynic.

but I don't think it's any accident that this show is
airing at the very time that the Bush administration is trying, through
a disingenuous combination of leaks, diplomatic initiatives and
gradually escalating threats, to build support for a preemptive strike
-- possibly with nuclear "bunker busters" -- against Iran. And while
they insist they haven't made up their minds to go to war yet, chances
are -- based on past performance -- they've already made their
decision. It's not a matter of "if," but "when" -- and how to sell it.


You know, I am thoroughly sick of the idea that everyone thinks alike,
and all people are really nice liberals who understand every issue the
same way, and therefore if any idea outside that nice liberal mainstream
surfaces, it is orchestrated by the tiny minority of evil hateful nasty
ignorant stupid people who actually dare to disagree. You don't even
present any backup or evidence for your wild charges. Those charged are
guilty because you say so, I guess.


What makes you infer the poster was presenting charges? Guilty
conscience?

The closest we have come to nuclear war is when JFK had the guts to
stand up to soviet emplacement of nukes in Cuba. But it had to be done,
and he won.


The CIA tried to assasinate Castro and failed and failed and failed.
The attempt to assasinate JFK was more successful.

The neocon strategists know they don't have a snowball's chance in hell
of selling another preemptive war to the public through rational
argument. What they can do, without ever discussing the real issues, is
make emotional appeals to their base, get them worked up, and then use
them to bludgeon political opponents of preemptive war.


  #24  
Old September 22nd 06, 06:44 AM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
Kevrob
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone

norrin wrote:
wrote:

Fallout. Long Island. Uninhabitable.



I haven't watched the show yet, though I may catch the Saturday replay.

As a native Lawn Islander, what always freaked me out was the idea that
the Commies would hit NYC proper with a ton of MIRVs*, which, besides
melting the skyscrapers and flattening the 5 boroughs from the
shockwaves, would produce a particular kind of conflagration known as a
Firestorm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestorm

I had visions of gale force winds sweeping toward Manhattan to feed the
monster oxygen, knocking everything flat in its path, as the ash cloud
hits the upper atmosphere, is caught up in the normal West to East
airflow, and settles radioactive debris all over fair Pomonauk.

At the time, I should have been worrying about the targeting of
Republic Aircraft, Grumman and the Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Before the ABM treaty there was even a NIKE anti-missile site at
Calverton. With almost all the potato farms turned into Levittowns, we
would soon have nothing to eat, anyway.

Given the premise of two cities reported knocked out, it is possible
that those were the only two. That could be the result of terrorists,
or an attempt to destroy electronic communications by an enemy state.
That was the underlying premise of ("Dark Angel.") Perhaps those
bolts were all that actor had in its quiver. There is also the
problem, in post-Cold War scenarios, that it might take the U.S.
military some time to figure out who took a shot at us. A group with a
couple of loose nukes could sea-launch them from a modified freighter
or tanker, and the Russians have even sold other countries subs. If
there's no immediate massive U.S. retaliation, there isn't going to be
any Atomic Fimbulwinter, though there might be something on the order
of what Mount Pinatubo's eruption caused.

What this show most sounds like is the science fiction sub-genre
wherein a town is cut off from civilization. Examples of this are the
creepy "It's A Good Life" by Jerome Bixby, "Island In The Sea Of Time"
and its sequels by S. M. Stirling, or "1632" and sequels by Eric Flint
(and friends.) The Bixby story was made into a memorable Twilight Zone
episode.

Kevin


* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIRV

  #25  
Old September 22nd 06, 06:49 AM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
Steven L.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 99
Default *SPOILER* New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable AndGreat Fun For Everyone

wrote:
http://letterfromhere.blogspot.com/2...thinkable.html


Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Making nuclear war thinkable
[rest of drivel deleted]


From the premiere episode of "Jericho," we don't yet know the extent of
the nuclear attack that has apparently taken place. There was one
mushroom cloud in the general direction of Denver, and apparently
another explosion may have destroyed Atlanta. Two nuclear explosions
wouldn't wipe out America completely, just like the two nuclear
explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not wipe out Japan
completely. So unless you have spoilers to reveal, you can't know
whether the scenario is survivable (nobody has even talked about
"winning" since we don't even know it's a war yet either). We'll see
just how much of a mess the world has gotten itself into, in future
episodes.

Secondly, the mushroom cloud *can* be beautiful when watched from a safe
distance. A hurricane's spiral shape, or a tornado's funnel cloud, can
be beautiful too--even though we know how deadly a hurricane or tornado
can be. Beauty and deadliness *can* go together.

Thirdly, despite your claims, even the premiere episode of "Jericho" has
*NOT* made nuclear explosions look like "great fun for everyone." In
the town of Jericho after the blasts, there has already been panic,
there has been violence, there has been murder, there has been severe
injury, and there has been death. Not to mention the breakdown of
infrastructure services like radio, TV, telephone and electricity. And
that's just the first episode. The promo for the next episode hints
that radioactive fallout is about to endanger everyone there. And the
townspeople didn't seem to be laughing about it.

"Jericho" doesn't come with a laugh track.


--
Steven D. Litvintchouk
Email:
Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.
  #26  
Old September 22nd 06, 07:15 AM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
Fred J. McCall
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5,736
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone

wrote:

quoted, in part:
:
:apparently from
:
http://letterfromhere.blogspot.com/2...thinkable.html
:
: Also, the whole detached observer quality of the photo
: subliminally says nuclear catastrophe is no big deal, something that
: can safely be survived at a distance.
:
:Actually, I don't see how a show like this would convince Americans in
:general that they don't have to worry about World War III. After all,
:it certainly won't convince people who *live in big cities* that they
:have nothing much to worry about from a nuclear attack.
:
:And aren't the people living in the small towns already voting for
:Bush?
:
:No, if there _was_ an evil plot to keep the Republicans in power, it
:would consist of gerrymandering.

I'll simply point out that Elbridge Gerry was a
'Democratic-Republican'. In other words, he was one of the ancestors
of the modern Democratic Party (which is responsible for such things
as the Political Action Committee).

--
"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the
soul with evil."
-- Socrates
  #27  
Old September 22nd 06, 10:44 AM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
Harold Groot
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 34
Default *SPOILER* New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone

On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 05:49:30 GMT, "Steven L."
wrote:

wrote:
http://letterfromhere.blogspot.com/2...thinkable.html


Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Making nuclear war thinkable
[rest of drivel deleted]


From the premiere episode of "Jericho," we don't yet know the extent of
the nuclear attack that has apparently taken place. There was one
mushroom cloud in the general direction of Denver, and apparently
another explosion may have destroyed Atlanta. Two nuclear explosions
wouldn't wipe out America completely, just like the two nuclear
explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not wipe out Japan
completely. So unless you have spoilers to reveal, you can't know
whether the scenario is survivable (nobody has even talked about
"winning" since we don't even know it's a war yet either). We'll see
just how much of a mess the world has gotten itself into, in future
episodes.

Secondly, the mushroom cloud *can* be beautiful when watched from a safe
distance. A hurricane's spiral shape, or a tornado's funnel cloud, can
be beautiful too--even though we know how deadly a hurricane or tornado
can be. Beauty and deadliness *can* go together.

Thirdly, despite your claims, even the premiere episode of "Jericho" has
*NOT* made nuclear explosions look like "great fun for everyone." In
the town of Jericho after the blasts, there has already been panic,
there has been violence, there has been murder, there has been severe
injury, and there has been death. Not to mention the breakdown of
infrastructure services like radio, TV, telephone and electricity. And
that's just the first episode. The promo for the next episode hints
that radioactive fallout is about to endanger everyone there. And the
townspeople didn't seem to be laughing about it.
"Jericho" doesn't come with a laugh track.
Steven D. Litvintchouk
Email:
Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.



I've got a slightly different angle than some others. My guess is
that they are attempting to do a rip-off of LOST.

Oh, I don't expect the "weirdness" angle to be nearly as strong as on
LOST. It's REALLY over the top there. But they seem to already have
some weirdness on Jerico.

(1) Whether 2 cities or 200, you wouldn't find the airways dead. Ham
radio people with their own batteries/generators ought to be all over
the bands. Foreign broadcast stations as well, and Satellite TV and
Radio. Yet the bands were reported as clear.

(2) The animals that were strange (deer running into the bus, a huge
flock of crows killed or knocked out on the ground) are not explained.
The blast of a nuclear bomb 150 miles away or more (roughly the
distance from Denver to the nearest Kansas border) would not be
expected to do either of these things.

So I suspect they are playing fast and loose with real science and are
going to have a group of people marooned in unexplained fashion,
subjected to various inernal and external stresses - just like on
LOST. When something is successful there are immitators very quickly,
and I suspect this will be seen as one of them.






  #28  
Old September 22nd 06, 11:19 AM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
Guy Fawkes
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 30
Default *SPOILER* New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone


"Harold Groot" schreef in bericht
...
On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 05:49:30 GMT, "Steven L."
wrote:

wrote:
http://letterfromhere.blogspot.com/2...thinkable.html


Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Making nuclear war thinkable
[rest of drivel deleted]


From the premiere episode of "Jericho," we don't yet know the extent of
the nuclear attack that has apparently taken place. There was one
mushroom cloud in the general direction of Denver, and apparently
another explosion may have destroyed Atlanta. Two nuclear explosions
wouldn't wipe out America completely, just like the two nuclear
explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not wipe out Japan
completely. So unless you have spoilers to reveal, you can't know
whether the scenario is survivable (nobody has even talked about
"winning" since we don't even know it's a war yet either). We'll see
just how much of a mess the world has gotten itself into, in future
episodes.

Secondly, the mushroom cloud *can* be beautiful when watched from a safe
distance. A hurricane's spiral shape, or a tornado's funnel cloud, can
be beautiful too--even though we know how deadly a hurricane or tornado
can be. Beauty and deadliness *can* go together.

Thirdly, despite your claims, even the premiere episode of "Jericho" has
*NOT* made nuclear explosions look like "great fun for everyone." In
the town of Jericho after the blasts, there has already been panic,
there has been violence, there has been murder, there has been severe
injury, and there has been death. Not to mention the breakdown of
infrastructure services like radio, TV, telephone and electricity. And
that's just the first episode. The promo for the next episode hints
that radioactive fallout is about to endanger everyone there. And the
townspeople didn't seem to be laughing about it.
"Jericho" doesn't come with a laugh track.
Steven D. Litvintchouk
Email:
Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.



I've got a slightly different angle than some others. My guess is
that they are attempting to do a rip-off of LOST.

Oh, I don't expect the "weirdness" angle to be nearly as strong as on
LOST. It's REALLY over the top there. But they seem to already have
some weirdness on Jerico.

(1) Whether 2 cities or 200, you wouldn't find the airways dead. Ham
radio people with their own batteries/generators ought to be all over
the bands. Foreign broadcast stations as well, and Satellite TV and
Radio. Yet the bands were reported as clear.

(2) The animals that were strange (deer running into the bus, a huge
flock of crows killed or knocked out on the ground) are not explained.
The blast of a nuclear bomb 150 miles away or more (roughly the
distance from Denver to the nearest Kansas border) would not be
expected to do either of these things.

So I suspect they are playing fast and loose with real science and are
going to have a group of people marooned in unexplained fashion,
subjected to various inernal and external stresses - just like on
LOST. When something is successful there are immitators very quickly,
and I suspect this will be seen as one of them.


I agree, there seem to be a lot of LOST copycats around lately: Invasion,
Jericho and there will be more.



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from
http://www.teranews.com

  #29  
Old September 22nd 06, 12:06 PM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
Joe Bednorz
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 32
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone

On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 09:36:52 -0700, Jon Schild wrote:

snip a bunch of excellent stuff by Jon


Or, it just could be that the scientific fact is that a nuclear attack
is NOT necessarily as horrible as a lot of people think. During all the
brouhaha over "nuclear winter" some facts got itnored by the general
public, like for instance that the number and size of blasts makes a
huge difference in the result. The way most peace activists of the time
talked, one nuke dropped anywhere on North America would make the entire
planet uninhabitable. It is true that enough nukes would make the planet
totally uninhabitable. But another fact is that two nukes dropped in
Japan created a local disaster only. The attack in this show is
obviously somewhere in between, or there would be no story to tell.

By the way, what Turtletaub says is true. One nuke wouldn't take out
that much territory. It would possibly make that much territory
unlivable for while, not just due to radioactive fallout. The target
coordinates in US ICBMs were not cities, but specific points. A
government center, a major rail yard, a major airport, that sort of thing.


Isn't there a classic SF story along the line of the TV show? A small
town has to adjust to less outside support. The library becomes the
center of learning to be more self-sufficient. I seem to recall it
being done on TV (in the 1960s???) but they changed the ending to
apathetic despair instead of "Well, we'll get on as best we can."

--
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Baen Free Online SciFi: http://www.baen.com/library/
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All the best, Joe Bednorz
  #30  
Old September 22nd 06, 12:11 PM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
Joe Bednorz
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 32
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone

On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 03:13:52 GMT, Scott Golden wrote:

wrote:

http://letterfromhere.blogspot.com/2...thinkable.html
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Making nuclear war thinkable

What's wrong with this picture? To begin with, if it weren't a
Hollywood special effects shot, the guy would probably be blind from
looking right at the exploding nuke -- he clearly didn't duck and
cover.


Let's assume that the blast occured in Denver, as speculated. The Kansas
border is 140 miles away, and no one said that Jericho is right on the
border (I think we can safely assume that it is in western Kansas but
that's all). Someone watching the detonation from that far away will
"probably be blind" as a result? Don't think so.


Not too mention any large energy release will result in a mushroom
cloud. Didn't Heinlein cover this in TMiaHM? The Loonies were accused
of using nukes because of the mushroom clouds resulting from their
strikes on Earth. Manny finally points out that all they made were "big
sparks," which naturally result in mushroom clouds (if they occur on the
surface, in an atmosphere, etc.)



--
SciFi at Project Gutenberg: http://thethunderchild.com/Books/OutofCopyright.html
Baen Free Online SciFi: http://www.baen.com/library/
Baen Free SciFi CDs http://files.plebian.net/baencd/
SciFi.com classic & original: http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/archive.html
All the best, Joe Bednorz
 




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