Google
 

Global Warming caused by Plasma Screen TVs?

July 3rd, 2008 by Scott Marks

Global Warming: Coming soon from a TV set near you.

Remember when your parents told you not to sit too close to your new 25″ Zenith color TV for fear of radioactive contamination? You ain’t seen nothing yet! A gas used in the making of flat screen televisions is being blamed for damaging the atmosphere and accelerating global warming. Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) is estimated to be 17,000 times as powerful as carbon dioxide.

ABC News reports that NF3 is not covered by the Kyoto protocol as it was only produced in tiny amounts when the treaty was signed in 1997.

Levels of this gas in the atmosphere have not been measured, but scientists say it is a concern and are calling for it to be included in any future emissions cutting agreement.

Professor Michael Prather from the University of California has highlighted the issue in an article for the magazine New Scientist.

“One of my titles for this paper was Going Below Kyoto’s Radar. It’s the kind of gas that’s made in huge amounts,” he said.

“Not only is it not in the Kyoto Treaty but you don’t even have to report it. That’s the part that worries me.”

He estimates 4,000 tons of NF3 will be produced in 2008 and that number is likely to double next year.

Almost half of the televisions sold around the globe so far this year have been plasma or LCD TVs.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Filed Under News

Dig A Hole: Character actor Henry Beckman, Hollywood cop

July 1st, 2008 by Scott Marks

Henry Beckman

Clockwise: Cmdr. Paul Richards in Flash Gordon (1955), Peyton Place’s George Anderson (1964) and as Alf Skully in Check It Out (1985)

Character actor Henry Beckman, a prolific 50s and 60s television staple, died June 17 in Barcelona, Spain. He was 86.

Mr. Beckman appeared in hundreds of TV shows, movies and commercials in the U.S. and Canada. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he served in the Canadian military during WWII and survived the Normandy invasion. After the war he married Cheryl Maxwell, a one-time actress and Broadway producer. She remained his bride up until the time of her death in 1998.

His first television appearance was in the Pretend I Am A Stranger episode of The Philco Television Playhouse (1951). Following their 1955 marriage, Henry and Cheryl eventually purchased The Dukes Oak Theatre in Cooperstown, New York. Two years after that, they sold the theatre and moved to Hollywood where Henry pursued an on-camera career.

His first recurring television role was as Cmdr. Paul Richards on six episodes of the ultra-cheapo TV version of Flash Gordon (1955). His two longest running TV hits were roles as George Anderson on Peyton Place and Colonel harridan in “McHale’s Navy.

Mr. Beckman was known for playing heavies or small roles that required regional dialects or foreign languages. Great gunsel that he was, Henry was at his best when he wore a badge and answered his call on the Hollywood squad roll. He played just about every type of hard-line lawman one could imagine: a Motorcycle Cop (Niagara), a Beat Cop (The Twilight Zone, Tashlin’s The Man from the Diner’s Club, I Dream of Jeannie, Sweet Charity), Lieutenants (My Favorite Martian and the mind altering Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre), Sheriffs (Mannix, The Rockford Files, Quincy), Detectives (Hitchcock’s Marnie, The X-Files), a Narc (Breakfast at Tiffany’s) even the D.A. in an episode of The Monkees!

In 1977, Henry and Cheryl were awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal for “contributions to Canadian culture and the esteem in which they were held by their peers”. (I wonder what the Queen thought of his performance in David Cronenberg’s The Brood?) His work in Canada earned two Canadian film awards in best-supporting actor category including a Genie in 1978 for Blood and Guts.

1979 the journeyman actor wrote and published How to Sell Your Film Project, a guide on how to make and market independent films.

Beckman also wrote film scripts, and was a member of the Writer’s Guild of Canada, the Screen Writers Guild of America, SAG, AFTRA, ACTRA and the Director’s Guild of Canada.

He is survived by two sons, Brian and Stuart.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Filed Under Obituaries

SCTV Cast Members Reunite for Charity Benefit in Toronto

May 2nd, 2008 by Scott Marks

sctv-logo.jpg

It’s been twenty-five years since SCTV left the airwaves and for many of us it remains the sharpest and funniest comedy show in the history of television.

Based on a fictional TV station located in the equally fictional Melonville, each week the show’s creators brought us a day’s worth of programming compacted into half-hour installments, later expanded to the SCTV Network 90 format. In Chicago, SCTV aired immediately following Saturday Night Live and not a week passed where comparisons weren’t invited. SCTV consistently won hands down.

Emulsion Compulsion loyalist Bushido John sent a note informing me of an SCTV reunion next week in Toronto that will bring together Joe Flaherty, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Martin Short and big shot Harold Ramis. After doing some of his finest work on the show, Ramis quit SCTV for a career in Hollywood. When last scene he was adding exceptional support to Knocked Up.

In an interview with the Canadian Press’ Lee-Anne Goodman spoke with Joe “Count Floyd” Flaherty about the series’ amazing following. “It’s tremendously uplifting and one of the greatest rewards, to hear your peers, and these really great comic minds, saying they look up to us,” the U.S.-born Joe Flaherty, 66, said Wednesday from his home in Toronto, where he’s lived since the early 1970s.

According to Flaherty, the gang will only have one rehearsal. “We’re doing some SCTV characters, we’re doing some stage stuff that we all did on stage at Second City, and we’re doing some improvisation. It should be interesting, that’s for sure, but the best thing is that it’s put us all in touch again.”

Links:

SCTV photos

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Filed Under News

Miley Cyrus flashes her bra in new Disney photo scandal

April 21st, 2008 by Scott Marks

miley-cyrus1.jpg

miley-cyrus2.jpg

miley-cyrus3.jpg

Remember the good old days when everyone would talk about how big Mouseketeer Annette Funicello’s boobs were without actually seeing them unsheathed? Or when Walt Disney, eager to protect his studio’s reputation, had a conniption fit after his protégé Hayley Mills expressed an interest in playing Lolita?

Were Uncle Walt alive today he’d be desperately kicking and scratching at the inside of his cryogenic chamber. Disney’s house the Mouse built is turning into a chicken ranch for young sluts. First Britney, Christina and Lindsey traded in their lollipops and sasparilla for Camel Lights and Cristal. Last year nude photos of High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens, then 18-years-old, surfaced on line.

Now it’s squishy-faced Miley Cyrus’ turn. Publicly, the 15-year-old Hannah Montana star espouses her Christian faith and vows to remain celibate until marriage. Just like her role model Britney Spears. In an interview with Barbara Walters, the teen phenomenon said,

“For me, as I know that some people don’t have a family to fall back on like I have. And that’s when something greater comes in and that’s faith and that’s what I have. For me, that’s what keeps me strong. And I think a lot of people do have Christian families and they’re just not seeing that they’re so much greater than the materialistic things that are there right now like going out and that parties and whatever.”

Forget about Jesus. What would Uncle Walt say if he saw the recent photos of Miley flashing her bra and assuming a seductive pose with a male friend that are now flooding the internet? And what about her mullet-headed father Billy Ray Cyrus? Is he poised to achy-break the neck of the young stud putting his paws all over daddy’s little meal ticket?

She’s fifteen-years-old, for Christ’s sake! How much lower is the age for sexualizing nymphets going to drop? Can we expect views of a bare Elle Fanning or how about shots of Suri Cruise strapped to her crib with a red ball in her mouth? As for using religious faith as a shield, it only works for Republicans.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Filed Under News

Bob Hope interfered with the thought patterns of millions of Americans

January 21st, 2008 by Scott Marks

do-not-stare-too-long-at-this-photo.jpg

In all honestly this should have been the very first post on Emulsion Compulsion. The facts were made known to me eighteen years ago by the brilliant Jennifer DeSplinter, a former student who, after reading the following letters, understood the root of my borderline unhealthy preoccupation with Bob Hope. For years I had misplaced the vital documents I am about to detail. I pray that it’s not too late to help others afflicted by the immeasurable mental anguish inflicted upon them by Bob Hope.

God bless Sally Fox. Were it not for her brave disclosures who knows how many others would never have been made aware of the true source of their recurring head trauma. Even to this day, years after his death, Bob Hope continues to interfere with the thought patterns of millions worldwide, myself included. A high level industry source confirms that all of the RH2 DVD releases of Hope’s film and television work are electronically encoded with telekinetic thought transponders. These invisible carriers not only assault the memories of those who purchase and watch the videos, but all who enter their domiciles as well.

The man is indeed more dangerous dead than he ever was alive. Mr. Hope was set to leave us in January of 2001 after helping to inaugurate the second reign of the anti-Christ, but was kept alive until after war was waged against Iraq. (President Bush declared war on Iraq on March 18, 2003 and Mr. Hope was finally taken from us on July 23, 2003.) Am I the only one that finds it odd that “Hope” and “Atta” have 4 letters in their last names and both Bob and Mohammad had secretaries with the surname Kennedy? Coincidence? I think not.

The following correspondence was first brought to light by Harper’s Magazine in December of 1991. They detail the ignoble humiliation and cerebral decimation Ms. Fox underwent after seven years’ exposure to Bob Hope TV specials. Some may ask, why not just watch something else or leave the TV off altogether? We can’t. The power of Hope compels us.

Ms. Fox’s first plea for help was addressed to the investigative reporting staff of CBS News, NBC news, ABC News, CNN, 60 Minutes, United Press International and The National Enquirer, which shockingly failed to run with it.

June 17, 1988

Gentlemen,

I am involved in a phenomenal situation which I believe merits investigation.

The whole thing started about seven years ago when I began to “see” Bob Hope (the comedian) when I would close my eyes and concentrate. Through study, I learned that the reason I could “see” Bob Hope was because he is violently insane and uses abnormal thinking processes which introject and project others’ egos.

When this problem began, besides worrying about my mental health, I also felt that my civil rights were being violated by an other person’s insanity, so I began to write letters to the FBI. At first, the FBI thought I was crazy, but a year or so later, the FBI told me that they had been getting 800 to 900 complaints a day from people all around the country saying the same thing I was: Bob Hope is crazy and interferes with their normal thinking. The FBI told me they were investigating.

I told the FBI agent, and I am telling the press, that I believe, as a victim of this situation, that nothing will ever come of the investigation because Bob Hope is Ronald Reagan’s friend, and should it ever be proven that Bob Hope is insane, the President’s reputation would be at stake.

Because the FBI seems to be participating in a cover-up, I am begging the press to get involved.
Thousands of people are suffering, and we need help.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Sally Fox

Continue reading Bob Hope interfered with the thought patterns of millions of Americans

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Filed Under Rants