Aucbvax.1451 fa.sf-lovers utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!JPM@MIT-AI Sat May 30 06:07:18 1981 SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #124 SF-LOVERS PM Digest Friday, 29 May 1981 Volume 3 : Issue 134 Today's Topics: Administrivia - No Missing Digest SF Lovers - Film Buff Digest, SF Books - 2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future, SF Movies - Outland, SF TV - Dr Who & Rocky and Bullwinkle, SF Topics - Children's TV (Rocky and Bullwinkle and Supercar and Stingray and Johnny Quest and Space Ghost and Fireball XL-5 and Captain Scarlet and Roger Ramjet) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 29 May 1980 18:42 PST From: The Moderator Subject: Administrivia - No Missing Digest There were no Wednesday or Thursday digests this week due to some hardware and software difficulties at the site where the digests are composed and transmitted. Hopefully that is behind us now, and dialy transmissions resume with this (the Friday) issue. Jim ------------------------------ Date: 26-May-81 10:21:40 PDT (Tuesday) From: Hamilton.ES at PARC-MAXC Subject: FILM-BUFFS disappears Several higher authorities believe that the existence of FILM-BUFFS would be pushing the use of the Arpanet too far beyond its research-oriented mandate. Not wanting to jeopardize the lists we have now, I yield to those people's better judgment. Oh, for the day when such strictures disappear! When WORLDNET lets each interested party EFT his $10/yr for "postage", and Large Lists rule the world! --Bruce ------------------------------ Date: 26 May 1981 11:10 PDT From: Kolling at PARC-MAXC Subject: misc. I hope the establishment of FILM-BUFFS doesn't mean that the sf movie reviews will vanish from the SF-DIGEST. Didn't anybody but me waste their youth in comic books? There was a Tom Corbett comic (preceding the tv series, I think), and also an Aquaman (relation to Aquaboy?) comic. ------------------------------ Date: 26-May-81 10:21:40 PDT (Tuesday) From: Hamilton.ES at PARC-MAXC Subject: FILM-BUFFS disappears Several higher authorities believe that the existence of FILM-BUFFS would be pushing the use of the Arpanet too far beyond its research-oriented mandate. Not wanting to jeopardize the lists we have now, I yield to those people's better judgment. Oh, for the day when such strictures disappear! When WORLDNET lets each interested party EFT his $10/yr for "postage", and Large Lists rule the world! --Bruce ------------------------------ Date: 26 May 1981 1708-PDT From: Jim McGrath Subject: Review of 2081 By VICTOR WILSON Newhouse News Service WASHINGTON - The title of the book is ''2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future.'' It is a look at our world 100 years from now - a la Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and Rudyard Kipling. But unlike those fiction forecasters, ''2081'' takes off from the solid scientific knowledge we already possess and merely looks into the predictable future. Developments of the last century that most profoundly affected human life are factory mass-production methods, the automobile, aircraft, the telephone, radio and television and public health techniques which nearly wiped out killer diseases like plague and typhoid. Writing in ''2081'' (Simon & Schuster, $13.95), Gerard K. O'Neill predicts: - Household robots that shop, drive cars, send mail, mow the lawn, and record radio and television shows. - Surgical implants including hearts and other vital organs that will replace many drugs. - Factory work done exclusively by robots. - A three-day workweek. - Air travel at 6,000 mph; land travel at 800 mph via vacuum tunnels. - Climate control by enclosing whole cities in domes. - Millions living and vacationing in solar-powered space colonies a short shuttle trip away. - Pollution-free liquid hydrogen to fuel jets, trucks, buses and cars. O'Neill doesn't write science fiction. A physics professor at Princeton University, he has a B.A. and a D.Sc. from Swarthmore and a Ph.D. from Cornell. He is a researcher in particle physics who conceived the idea of colliding-beam storage rings and conducted the first experiments in the field. In 1969 he developed a space colony theory within the limits of existing technology. He received the Phi Beta Kappa Science Book Award in 1977 for ''The High Frontier'' on space colonies. O'Neill says he endorses the ''guesses'' of Arthur Clarke, noted scholar on space possibilities, and believes that wireless transmission of energy will come by the year 2000. He also expects interstellar space probes by 2025 and a self-producing ''replicator'' factory that would automatically build combinations of computers and other machines by 2090. The author says: ''One of the remarkable features of modern society is that the universality of the laws of nature makes different nations develop almost identical designs for aircraft, automobiles and all other technical artifacts, even though the same nations may be violently at odds with each other on political, religious or other ideological issues.'' Computers, automation, space colonies, energy and communications - these are the five forces ''that will drive the changes of the next century,'' O'Neill predicts. ''The captains and the kings will come and go, but the five will endure and will shape the world, unless we are destined for the final catastrophe in the brief moment of time that lies just ahead.'' Unless we ''do something violently stupid,'' O'Neill writes, ''the eternals of hope and love and laughter will still be there too, and will accommodate all the hope of the five to everyday human affairs just as successfully as they have already tamed the automobile and the jet airplane - and even the telephone.'' ------------------------------ Date: 26 May 1981 (Tuesday) 0038-EDT From: PLATTS at WHARTON-10 (Steve Platt) Subject: Outland and Trank darts Somehow, shooting someone with a trank dart (which must obviously penetrate the suit to work (hypno-darts?)) only to have them die by explosive decompression (remember, the dart rips the suit?) seems a waste of time, as well as possibly non-humane. -steve ------------------------------ Date: 27 May 1981 13:48 PDT From: STOGRYN.ES at PARC-MAXC Subject: OUTLAND and future societies [Enter sarcasm mode] All science fiction movies should start: A long time ago in a galaxy far far away. . .(c) That way its direct association with the history of earth would be remote. Or maybe, it would be better just to provide a disclaimer at the beginning, end, and prehaps one in the middle of each movie stating that: This movie has no significant social value. It does not pretend to predict the future in a realistic fashion, (science FICTION remember). The events in this film will probably never happen. otherwise, those people who just lay back and enjoy may forget that it is just a movie. [Exit fast] Bravo and Amen to Ron (Newman.ES), Mike at RAND-UNIX, Byron Howes, et. al. for reminding us that: . . .technological advances need not go hand-in-hand with social progress. . . .Predicting prostitution in the future is as safe as predicting violence in the future. . . .Social movements do no persist just because people want them to persist. . . Hardware problems are a lot easier to over come than people problems. No one can tell what the future will really be like. No matter how many advances we make today, tomorrow it could all come tumbling down, or better still we could suddenly take a giant leap ahead. . . whatever that may mean to you. To argue over the validity of any future social system would only be a matter of personal opinion, but don't say one or the other cannot be. Here's hoping the future will be all you want it to be, Steve ------------------------------ Date: 25 May 1981 1046-PDT Sender: LEAVITT at USC-ISI Subject: Dr. Who/ DC area From: Mike Leavitt I just noticed that Dr. Who will be on every night in the Washington, DC area at 6:30 pm on Channel 26. Starting tonight. (Monday). Mike ------------------------------ Date: 25 May 1981 22:08:20-PDT From: CSVAX.dmu at Berkeley Subject: Fan mail from some flounder? Rocky is on weekday mornings at 8:00 on channel 2 in the Bay area. If you thought the \prime-time/ commercials were bad. . . David Ungar ------------------------------ Date: 26 May 1981 0649-PDT Sender: ADPSC at USC-ISI Subject: Rocky and Bullwinkle From: ADPSC at USC-ISI (Don) It was with a great sense of disappointment that I found out I could have been watching R&B on Saturday AM's instead of Bugs Bunny. (Who ever reads the TV pages anymore?) It has to be my favorite show of all time, and my recent Saturday mornings have been much more enjoyable. I realize now that the show was aimed at adults, but I feel that it gave me a certain sense of political literacy at 9 years of age. The episode I recall best (in that vein) is when our heroes (who could refer to them as anything else) where in a jet with Captain Peachfuzz when the plane ran out of fuel. Bullwinkle read the Congressional Record directly into the engines. These being full of hot air kept the plane in flight, but put the rest of the crew to sleep. And who could forget their old alma mater, Watzamatta U? For you trivia fans, the theme song for Dudley Doright came from "Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna" by Von Suppe. Until next time... Don ------------------------------ Date: 27 May 1981 12:14-EDT From: Thomas L. Davenport Subject: Rocky & Bullwinkle Many thanks to Lauren for bringing up the subject of Rocky & Bullwinkle! I've always considered the show to be one of the finest and funniest works of art our society has produced. Does anyone know of a source for more information about the show, eg. books, magazines, fan clubs, episode guides, etc.? I saw the Metal Munching Mice episodes a few years ago, and I remember that the moonmen were Gidney and Cloyd. -Tom- ------------------------------ Date: 27 May 1981 15:48:10-PDT From: decvax!duke!unc!tyg at Berkeley Subject: Tom Swift in George of the Jungle Just for clarification, the TS segment in GotJ was about a race driver of that name, not the Tom Swift and his Computer Mailing List guy. tom galloway at unc ------------------------------ Date: 17 May 1981 0847-PDT Sender: GEOFF at SRI-CSL Subject: Re: (Great) Children's TV programs. From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow All this discussion about children's TV in the past brings, has served to jog my memory of the time. What about/Do you remember: SUPERCAR: Was only in B&W as i recall... About a scientist who built a "Super Car" that could fly (maybe do other things?). Was one of four `puppet' done shows the other three being: FIREBALL XL-5: Something to do with a space rocket called Fireball XL-5. STINGRAY: Some type of underwater submarine rescue team. : about a family that lived out on an island and had all sorts of different rockets that were used to avert disasters ... The show started with a count down. Perhaps its name was Thunderball? In the animated department, do you remember: JOHNNY QUEST? One of my personal favorites of the time. Some kid and his dad who spent most of the time flying around in their Lear Jet averting disaster or thwarting super criminals. SPACE GHOST? Some outer space hero of sorts. Thanks to Lauren and crew for jogging the ol' memory with Astro Boy, Speed Racer(of which I remember how everyone went OOOOOHHHHHHH all the time when they were in peril), Ultra Man and the lot. ------------------------------ Date: 18 May 1981 1352-EDT From: Steven Clark at CMU-10A Subject: Fireball XL-5 and Captain Scarlet When I was small these were what I watched. I don't know how Fireball XL-5 started, but I recall they had an alien (teddy bear) who could sense danger in the near future. What I'm really interested in is Captain Scarlet, though. The first manned mission to Mars finds an advanced alien civilization. The aliens are proclaim they are friendly and start aiming a bunch of sensors at the earth ship. The earthmen are so paranoid when they see devices aimed at them that they shoot at them. The Martians let the earthmen go home with the warning that this means war. I believe the Martians go so far as to say they won't use their advanced technology against us because then we wouldn't stand a chance! Somehow Captain Scarlet becomes indestructible because of a mistake of the Martians, and he leads the war against them. Captain Scarlet had a bunch of really neat devices, the one I remember best is this futuristic version of an army tank. The driver inside watches a couple TV monitors that show views of outside; there are no windows. In fact the driver is facing backwards. Can anyone out there tell me more about Captain Scarlet or Fireball XL-5? Do you know who was responsible for creating them? It's possible that they were shown on Canadian TV and not in the US; at the time I lived in a place that received one American station and one Canadian (in good weather). ----- If you ever see Mike Mars (a series of children's SF), pass it by immediately! The one of that series that I read was probably the first SF book I ever read that I didn't like. -Steve Clark ------------------------------ Date: 26 May 1981 1709-PDT From: OR.TOVEY at SU-SCORE Subject: Roger Ramjet he's our man... Is that how the song started? What are the rest of the words? --cat ------------------------------ Date: 26 May 1981 2139-PDT (Tuesday) From: Lauren at UCLA-SECURITY (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Roger Ramjet he's our man... It was something like: Roger Ramjet, he's our man. Hero of the nation. For his adventures, Just be sure to stay tuned to this station. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: 28 May 1981 1654-PDT From: OR.TOVEY Subject: Re: Roger Ramjet he's our man... Thanks! My best guess was Roger Ramjet he's our man, Ruler of creation. Eating deviled eggs and Spam, We hope he's on vacation. --cat ------------------------------ Date: 28 May 1981 1655-PDT (Thursday) From: Lauren at UCLA-SECURITY (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Re: Roger Ramjet he's our man... Uh, not quite! --Lauren-- ------------------------------ Date: 28-MAY-1981 09:06 Sender: YOUNG at DEC-MARLBORO From: KERMIT::PARMENTER Subj: SFL: Roger Ramjet SFL: Vol 3, No. 129 The show was Roger Ramjet and his American Eagle Squadron and they all flew airplanes, like the Blackhawks. The squadron was four kids named Yank, Doodle, Dan, and Dee. Their major enemy was Noodles Romanoff and his Ring. The theme song, to the tune of "Yankee Doodle", was: Roger Ramjet and his Eagles, Fighting for our freedom, Fly through wind and outer space, Not to join 'em but to beat 'em. It was full of puns. ------------------------------ End of SF-LOVERS Digest *********************** ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.