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Lessons Learned From '90s Sci-Fi Movies


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Graffiti painting of an alien on a wall in Vittoria, Spain.
Another quintessential '90s movie I watched not long ago was the 1996 blockbuster Independence Day. While watching ID4, I couldn't help but think about all the different cliches, characters, storylines and plot devices that were used not only in this movie, but pretty much all '90s sci-fi movies in general. In ID4, you have the GenX-ers out to save the world, the shadowy military and government officials overseeing massive cover-ups and keeping them secret even from their Commander-in-Chief, the West Wing-style White House official torn between duty and family, the jocular fighter pilot out to make the aliens wish they'd never heard of planet Earth, and of course, the aliens themselves in all their shiny FX glory.

And with these cliches and characters come lessons to be learned for Life. "What are some of these lessons," you ask? Here are ten lessons that can be learned from these movies:

1.) Cyberpunks rule! No matter if they're the sexy badass futuristic girl like Lori Petty's Tank Girl or the disease-stricken and hardwired cyberpunks in the 1997 sci-fi hit Johnny Mnemonic starring Keanu Reeves, you can always count on a cyberpunk to stick it to some future totalitarian ruler. Or to hack into supercomputers that are powered by an organic brain. Or to help stave off some deadly worldwide plague as in JM. Despite their freaky, gothic outward appearance, most cyberpunks are extremely intelligent, have a good heart and are the future of the world. So please, give cyberpunks a chance!

2.) Always beware of Big Brother. No matter if it's government officials in our own age hiding top-secret codes in crossword puzzles as in 1997's Mercury Rising, an authoritarian government running a futuristic post-apocalyptic state in the 1995 movie Judge Dredd,  shadowy government agents viciously guarding secret government programs from Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory, or an alien race secretly hotwiring all of humankind in the Matrix trilogy, you've always gotta look over your shoulder. You never know who those creepy, paranoid military guys in the movies are or what they're going to do next...

3.) Always take your laptop with you. You just never know when you'll need it to hack into some highly-advanced alien computer system, as Jeff Goldblum did in ID4, or to protect yourself from big bad government hitmen as Sandra Bullock did in The Net. Of course, if you're a character in '90s movies, you have this magic ability to get online via a dial-up connection when no telephone cord is anywhere in sight.....

4.) Always beware of aliens in disguise. That guy in line behind you at Starbucks or the gal sitting in the doctor's office just might be an ugly alien disguised as a human. Just ask Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones aka Men in Black's Agents J and K. Or Charlie Sheen in The Arrival.

5.) Be compassionate toward cyborgs. Let's face it: some cyborgs are good, while others are not so good. Some cyborgs, like Luc Deveraux/GR44 (Jean-Claude Van Damme) in 1992's Universal Soldier or RoboCop, are really good guys who are loveable at heart and may even still have some humanity underneath all the cybernetic technology. Others, like Andrew Scott/GR13 (Dolph Lundgren) in US, are complete psychopaths who you'll want to steer clear of at all costs. And sometimes, even whole species of cyborgs such as the Borg in the various Star Trek TV series and movies deserve a certain amount of pity and compassion every once in a while. Even if they did turn Jean-Luc Picard into a Borg!

No matter how many times they try to turn the human race into their own kind or cause widespread destruction, always remember this: It's not really their fault. They were just born that way or they were programmed that way by some evil government scientists in experiments gone awry. 

6.)  If you want to be a bad guy in a movie, take shooting courses. It seems like in all sci-fi and action movies, the bad guys can never shoot straight. That goes for not just movies made in the '90s, but also virtually any movies made before and since then.

7.) Learn some martial arts and basic diving skills. That way, even if you're just a college kid working in the science lab or a secret agent who has had her/his memory erased (i.e. Douglas Quaid in Total Recall), you can still have the magic ability to whup all the bad guys when they come storming in with pure black-belt moves and swim away from the subsequent shootout, dodging all the bullets zinging past you as you somehow manage to keep your eyes open underwater.

8.) Generation X and Generation Y, baby! No matter if it's a bunch of young geeky computer hackers bringing down some Cold War-era government conspiracy or saving the world from aliens as in ID4, the future of the world was upon the shoulders of GenX/Y - and our advanced cyber-skills, inclination toward the grunge/goth subculture of the time, and open-mindedness in general.

9.) The greatest movie hacker of the '90s was Angelina Jolie in 1996's Hackers. Enough said.

And finally, the 10th life lesson to be learned from '90s sci-fi movies is this:

10.) If you're facing a worldwide crisis of cataclysmic proportions, Keanu Reeves is the man to save the day. No matter if it's a government conspiracy that's been uncovered on the Internet, aliens plotting to take over Earth, (movie) terrorists causing chaos, or an uber-cool GenXer is needed to have their mind wired into some kind of advanced computer, Keanu Reeves is your man. He played all of these roles throughout the '90s (and well into the '00s) and defined the GenXer cyber-geek movie character in the process. To this day, whenever a young dude saving the world becomes a topic of conversation, it's hard not to think of him as Neo in The Matrix, Johnny Mnemonic, or Klaatu in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

If you can think of any other life lessons to be learned from these '90s classics or if you just want to share your favorites, feel free to drop a line below! Oh, and please remember that this list was written in the spirit of good, tongue-in-cheek fun. I'm just as much of a fan of these movies as everyone else is and watch them very regularly!


Alien graffiti image copyright: Zarateman. Used via Wikimedia Commons.

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A Short, Informal History of Tornado Warnings in the USA


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A scene from the March 25th, 1948 tornado which devastated Tinker AFB in Oklahoma, USA. The first tornado warning ever issued warned of this particular tornado. (USAF/Wikimedia Commons)
First off, I'd like to apologize for not posting on this blog over the past few months. Believe me when I say that I've wanted to post new and interesting stuff since February, but Life gets in the way sometimes. Now that I have more free time, I'll be sure to start posting here again! Anyway, now that that's out of the way, time to get started on today's post...... 

 While watching the 1996 blockbuster movie Twister recently, I couldn't help but notice what is supposed to be a tornado warning from 1969 (which, according to IMDB, might in fact actually be a 1970s-era warning from Tulsa TV station KWTV) airing on the TV in the background while the young Jo Harding (Helen Hunt's character in the film) and her family were taking shelter from the monster F5 tornado headed straight for their house. This led me to wonder: What were the early TV and radio tornado warnings like here in the USA? How accurate were they? And how far have tornado warnings come over the past few decades?

The first official tornado warning issued in the USA was issued by USAF meteorologists Capt. Robert C. Miller and Maj. Ernest Fawbush on March 25th, 1948, as a massive tornado barreled down on Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This warning, which was actually a "tornado forecast" rather than the standard warnings we know today, was issued five days after the second-most destructive tornado in Oklahoma state history hit the base and destroyed a large number of aircraft. During the few day's interlude between the two tornadoes, USAF investigators determined that weather forecasting at the time was inadequate for predicting tornadoes and most importantly, for saving lives. A new warning system had to be devised and implemented to protect lives of personnel and equipment at the base and most importantly of all, to help protect the general public.

Also during this interlude, Miller and Fawbush analyzed the skies, gathering data from the surface and upper-air to predict whether conditions might be similar to those on March 20th. By March 24th, they had identified a number of factors that could predict possible tornadic activity.

On the morning of March 25th, their observations paid off. All weather conditions were favorable for a possible tornado. Alerts were issued across the base and on the radio about "thunderstorm activity" that day and, thanks to what was at the time state of the art radar monitoring, a squall line of thunderstorms was sighted and base personnel and equipment were moved to bomb shelters. That evening, a tornado touched down on the base and caused a considerable amount of damage. Fortunately there were no deaths reported.

Miller and Fawbush would continue to monitor and predict tornadic activity over the next several years and their guidelines for storm predictions became known as the Lifted Index. The Lifted Index would set the standards for tornado prediction for the next several decades to come. However, the Lifted Index - and the alerts they devised - remained a secret limited to personnel at Tinker AFB. A warning system for the public had yet to be devised, mainly because the Weather Bureau (forerunner to NOAA's National Weather Service) didn't want to cause a panic by issuing tornado alerts or ordering Civil Defense to sound the air raid sirens. Needless to say, at that time the technology for storm predictions was still in its infancy.
A radar image showing a tornado-producing supercell on May 6th, 1965. This type of radar image was a typical image from the early days of tornado observation and weather forecasting.
The first public tornado alert - or rather, a "severe weather bulletin" - was issued by the Weather Bureau in Washington, DC on March 21st, 1952. This alert was issued regarding a deadly tornado system which struck several states in the south-central US. Sadly enough, this alert wasn't widely distributed and 150 people were killed by deadly tornadoes. After this tragedy - as well as the deadly tornado outbreak of 1953 (which remains one of the deadliest on record) , calls for a tornado warning system grew from the public and, eventually from Congress. The FCC ban on broadcast warnings continued until the ban was finally lifted in 1954.

However, issuing an accurate alert would be challenging. The technology we use today just wasn't in existence or was mature enough to accurately predict severe weather in the early 1950s. At that time, weather data was gathered mainly by releasing weather balloons into the atmosphere that contained radio sensors which reported back to the Weather Bureau information about temperature, atmospheric conditions, humidity, and other basic data. Storm systems were tracked manually using a tracking map with penciled triangles which identified a potentially severe system.

 The very first televised warning was issued by WKY-TV's (now Oklahoma City's NBC affiliate KFOR) chief meteorologist Harry Volkman, who believed that broadcast warnings desperately needed to be issued over TV and radio to warn the public of severe weather. This warning was an unauthorized rebroadcast of a warning issued by Tinker AFB about a tornado that was headed straight for OKC. After broadcasting the warning (with the blessings of station management), WKY received letters of thanks from people all over the area for giving them a heads-up of the impending tornado and saving their lives. WKY remained at the forefront of storm forecasting in OK throughout the 1950s with their own radar forecasts, which a great deal of TV stations in OK - or anywhere else in the US for that matter - just didn't have at the time.
An antenna for the WSR-57, the NWS's first weather surveillance radar.

 Throughout the rest of the 1950s and 1960s, the weather radars we know and rely on for predicting tornadic activity began to emerge. Throughout the 1950s, the Weather Bureau began deploying radar systems for detecting severe storms. These radar systems - combined with aircraft observations - could instantly report back any storm systems with the potential for tornadic activity. However, unlike the radars of today which gather detailed information about a weather system, they were World War II-era military radars which only detected a wispy cloud and other basic shapes that indicated a tornado was on the way. They were incapable of reporting detailed information about a storm system like the radars of today.

 The 1960s was the decade when the media's severe weather alert system as we now know it began to take shape. According to sources who worked in broadcasting during the period, TV and radio stations continued to issue simple "tornado alerts" during the early 1960s, but after the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak in 1965, TV stations began issuing tornado watches in addition to warnings which alert when conditions are favorable for tornadic activity. During the '60s, the evolving radar technology and aerial observations made it possible to give more accurate, up-to-the-minute severe weather alerts. However, the radar images of the 1960s and 1970s were still being mainly gathered by radars located at remote observation stations rather than at the TV and radio stations themselves. The majority of broadcasters had to rely on images and information passed on by these radar stations to relay storm warnings to the public. Satellite images from the TIROS VIII satellite orbiting the earth helped forecasters gain a better idea of how bad a storm system really looked. 
The NSSL's first research Doppler radar circa 1973.

The ways weather information was relayed to the public - and most importantly of all, tornado research - kept evolving through the 1970s. It was during this decade that TV stations across the US began displaying icon/text alerts about storm watches and warnings during normal TV programming. Also in the '70s, NOAA started introducing to the public (or at least 44% of the American public) their weather radios which broadcast daily weather forecasts and storm warnings from the newly-rechristened National Weather Service on special weather radio receivers. Beginning in 1973, the Fujita scale developed by Tetsuya Fujita and Allan Pearson could measure the size and strength of a tornado. Most significant of all was the advent of Doppler radar technology in weather forecasting. After the NSSL received its first Doppler radar from the US Air Force in 1969, NOAA gradually began establishing its network of Doppler radars across the US. This gave meteorologists all kinds of new insights on the birth and death of tornadoes as well as the storm systems which spawn them. Of course it also revolutionized weather forecasting for TV and radio meteorologists. This revolution and evolution of radar technology continues to the present day.
The deadliest outbreak of tornadoes in the US is without a doubt the Super Outbreak of April 3-4,1974 , which spawned 148 tornadoes over an 18 hour period across 13 states. These tornadoes killed 319 people and wounded over 5,000. During this outbreak, TV and radio stations such as WHAS in Louisville, KY and Dayton, OH's WHIO interrupted the day's normal programming to provide live coverage of these tornadoes and their aftermath, as well as tornado watches and warnings as they were issued by the NWS. Reporters went live in tornado-stricken areas of Kentucky and Ohio showing live reports of the storms' aftermath. The Super Outbreak demonstrated the power of mass media to provide real-time information and warnings about a weather disaster to the public.

In 1980, a new TV channel emerged on American cable TV that has revolutionized weather forecasting up to the present day: The Weather Channel. Through this TV channel, local weather forecasts could be displayed 24 hours a day and severe weather warnings could be broadcast instantaneously through a national feed. The channel has come a long way over the past 34 years, but it - and the other weather channels that have popped up since then - are still relied upon by millions of American TV viewers for the latest weather information, especially when the weather is just right for tornadic activity. During the 1980s and 1990s, TWC also became a vital source of weather info for another group of people discussed below: Storm chasers.

 One relatively new medium of the '80s that exploded in popularity across the US was satellite TV. SatTV allowed people to receive TV service from space without the shortcomings of over the air (OTA) antenna TV reception or cable TV. It quickly became a Godsend for many people living in extreme rural areas of the US who could not get cable TV service due to geographical limitations and were out of range of traditional OTA broadcasts. Thanks to satellite TV, receiving tornado warnings from nearby TV stations or The Weather Channel started becoming a lot easier for some of these people. 

 During the 1990s, weather forecasting started reaching new horizons thanks to a number of different factors. One of these big factors was the advent of the Internet. With the Internet, tornado warnings could be delivered in an instant through websites and e-mail, reaching people who may not have their TVs or radios on. Also with the emergence of the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) into the Emergency Alert System (EAS) in 1997/98, tornado warnings could now be delivered over electronic devices such as pagers and fax machines.

 The 1990s is also the decade when advanced S-band Doppler radars, or Nexrad radars, became the norm for weather broadcasters. Most TV stations started using Nexrad during this time to accurately pinpoint the location of a storm system capable of producing tornadoes and where a tornado might strike, giving viewers advanced warning so they could run for a shelter well in advance. Unlike the older generations of radars, Nexrad radars are also capable of measuring windspeed, precipitation, and atmospheric activity.    
A member of NSSL's Vortex project filming a possibly tornadic storm in Graham, TX in 1994.
Finally, the 1980s and 1990s were the decades when storm chasing started growing in popularity. Storm chasers have proven decisive in providing meteorologists with on-the-ground data from a tornado touchdown and conditions in a tornado or tornadic storm cell. During the week-long tornado outbreak in Oklahoma in May 1999, storm chasers were active across the state, providing much-needed weather reports to meteorologists and helping them to give timely tornado warnings to the public. The Center for Severe Weather Research's fleet of radar trucks known as Doppler on Wheels recorded the highest wind speeds ever recorded at that time when a massive F5 tornado touched down at Bridge Creek, OK on the 3rd of May.

The Internet revolution of the '90s continued through the 2000s and with it the mediums through which weather forecasters issued weather alerts. When social media such as Facebook and Twitter started to explode in popularity, broadcast stations and TV networks were quick to seize the opportunity to reach more viewers and quickly alert anyone who signed up to their Facebook group or Twitter account of any impending storm activity. Likewise, anyone signed up to these groups could post pictures of tornado damage or of the tornadoes themselves.

The power of social media sites was fully demonstrated on May 22nd, 2011 when a super-tornado devastated Joplin, Missouri. Within a matter of hours after the tornado struck, pages such as Joplin Tornado Info and Joplin, MO Tornado Recovery were created that relayed weather info, special statmements from state and disaster officials, and helped pass on information about missing relatives to family members. In the weeks and months after the disaster, these sites and others helped organize efforts to rebuild Joplin and reunited missing pets with their families. At the time of this writing, those Facebook pages are still in existence and are still helping to organize efforts to rebuild what still remains to be rebuilt in the city. Also, they are returning the favors to other communities (esp. in the Joplin/Kansas City area) that have been hit by tornadoes or other weather disasters by passing on severe storm warnings and helping them rebuild after a tornado strikes.    

One group of people who have saved countless lives and helped meteorologists track storms are the volunteer storm spotters of networks such as Skywarn in the US and Canwarn in Canada. These folks have contributed their time and hard work over the past few decades to provide valuable information about weather conditions and anomalies in their particular locations that just might be missed by radar and satellites, such as funnel clouds, lightning strikes, and rotating wall clouds that can produce tornadoes. Much of this information has helped meteorologists issue warning predictions for a particular town or community.

The way meteorologists alert the public has definitely come a long way from the days of the 1950s "tornado alerts" and we now have more ways than ever to stay safe from these deadly vortexes. But what will be the next big breakthrough in weather forecasting and mass communication that will keeps us better informed of tornado watches and warnings? We'll just have to wait and see.

*Please note that I'm not a meteorology expert. I'm just a blogger with a strong interest in this subject! If you note any mistakes in this blog entry or have any personal memories about this period you'd like to share, please share them with us in the Comment section below. Any reminiscences about weather forecasting or broadcasting in general back in the day would be greatly appreciated!

   

External Links:
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_warning (Wikipedia entry on tornado warnings.)
-http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/magazine/tornado_forecasting/#intro (NOAA's 200-year anniversary site on the history of tornado forecasting.)
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFOR-TV (KFOR-TV Wikipedia entry.)
-http://www.retrometrookc.org/wky-tv-collection (History of WKY in the 1950s and 60s.)
-http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/about/history/ (The history of the National Severe Storms Laboratory [NSSL] from NOAA.)
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkWmNamVS2Q (A rare clip of WHIO's coverage of the massive tornado which struck Xenia, OH on April 3rd, 1974. Features the late, renowned WHIO meteorologist Gil Whitney. This seems to be one of the few clips available of live tornado warnings or radar coverage from that day. The studio part of this clip is apparently a remake made for a documentary about the Super Outbreak of '74 some four years later.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/science/31tornado.html?pagewanted=all (A very interesting article from the New York Times about the history of severe weather prediction from the 1950s up to the Joplin super-tornado of 2011....and how much progress has yet to be made in the area of predicting severe weather.)
http://www.ustornadoes.com/2013/04/03/looking-back-at-the-april-3-4-1974-super-outbreak/ (An interesting discussion about the Super Outbreak of 1974 on the United States Tornadoes website. Includes comments from people who worked in the broadcast and weather forecasting industry at the time.)

 (All images are public domain images used courtesy of NOAA and the NOAA Photo Library via Wikimedia Commons unless otherwise specified.)

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Vintage 1980s Kawaii Erasers


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Two '80s era Kstoon erasers
One of the most memorable gifts I received as a little boy was a green refillable eraser marketed under the brand name 'Kstoon'. This eraser was a gift to me from my mom, who bought it - along with two pink and yellow Kstoon erasers - at a mall school supply shop here in the US back in 1984 or 85. On the eraser casing were some pictures of baby kawaii chicks just like on the yellow eraser above. Sadly enough, my green eraser fell victim to a school bully in the third grade, but the other two erasers have survived to this very day.

Recently I found these two erasers while rummaging around in a desk drawer that has been crammed with all kinds of junk for years. Ever since I found them, I've been curious about their origins. They were obviously manufactured during the time when kawaii culture was on the rise in Japan. However, there isn't any mention of a country of manufacture or any other identifying marks on the erasers other than the obscure brand name and a product number. And there is virtually no info available about them at all on the Internet.

The only scraps of info about Kstoon erasers I could find was a picture of identical erasers posted by a person on Flickr (who is apparently an eraser collector). And this is where the mystery deepens. The erasers owned by this person weren't marketed as Kstoon, but as Soundy erasers with the product number 9002 rather than Kstoon's 6002! Otherwise, there is no difference whatsoever between these erasers and the ones my mom bought nearly 30 years ago.

These erasers are obscure little pieces of both early kawaii culture and '80s culture, but they pose some interesting questions.Were they made by a subsidiary of some bigger-name company? Were they intended for the Japanese market or the international market as kawaii culture started to gain worldwide attention? Were they intended to cash in on the growing trend and export "Kawaiidom" abroad? Unfortunately we may never know the origins behind these erasers, but for at least some of us who grew up in the '80s, these erasers brought smiles to our faces and gave us a lot of happy memories as we used these erasers to erase scribblings off the kitchen table or struggled to learn cursive handwriting!

If any of you out there have any background info about Kstoon erasers or have your own happy memories you'd like to share with us, please do so in the Comments below!

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A History of Giant Screens


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New York City's Times Square circa 2005, with the Panasonic Jumbotron in view.
Have you ever been in a major international city (especially a metropolis such as NYC or Tokyo) and caught a glimpse of a video billboard projecting a hi-tech ad or some other kind of programming? Or some other kind of enormous image being projected on the side of a building? Ever wondered about the history of the technology behind these amazing images? Let's have a look at the earliest and most groundbreaking giant screens...

Giant screens in unconventional outdoor settings as a medium of advertising, broadcasting, and relaying information gradually caught on throughout the mid-20th century. These screens enable advertisers to catch the public eye with dazzling, eye-catching ads or commercials (or TV shows and news broadcasts for that matter) and reach a wider audience than with traditional media such as television.

In 1933, the most famous and at one time, most common example of a giant outdoor screen was debuted to the world when the first drive-in movie theater opened in Camden, NJ, USA. This theater, which closed its doors after a mere three years, set the stage for thousands more like it to open across the US. Drive-in theaters would become a pop icon and an important part of the American landscape in the 1950s-60s.

In 1936, the British movie Things To Come (adapted by producer Alexander Korda and H.G. Wells from Wells's novel The Shape of Things To Come) featured a giant outdoor screen over which the public could gather and watch politicians give speeches from a broadcast studio. Ironically enough, this vision of the future was already becoming a reality with the historical developments in television technology made during that time as well the debut of the first drive-in theaters! Things To Come was an early preview of things to come in the world of broadcasting.

On America's Election Day in 1947, a giant screen popped up in an unlikely place: Starkville, Mississippi. This screen was erected on a drug store in town by the owners of the local newspaper to announce the local, statewide and national election results to people attending a large election party in town. As the results were announced (including the election of Miss. judge John C. Stennis to the US Senate - a seat he would hold for 42 years.), townspeople watched them live on the screen. This was a forerunner to Election Day TV coverage, which was just a few years away.

The "ancestor" of the video billboard or video screen as we know them today was created by one of the companies who has made good use of and pioneered it over the past few decades: Sony. In 1961, Sony debuted the Sony Scope, which was a huge movie projector that projected images such as public service ads, manga shorts, and Sony product commercials on buildings owned by the company in Tokyo. The Sony Scope, which was discontinued in 1964, was fired up several times a week at night and was extremely hi-tech when it first came out.

In the 1960s-70s, a new technology was developed which would revolutionize the world of advertising and broadcasting: LED technology. With their bright colors and long life, LEDs have enabled a whole generation of video screens, billboards, and more to be created, ranging from small video displays on store shelves to the gargantuans mentioned in this post! In 2004, what was then the largest LED display in the world was unveiled in Las Vegas, NV at the Fremont Street Experience. Since then, gargantuan LED displays in Suzhou, China and at an Absa bank location in Johannesburg, South Africa have successively taken the title as the world's largest LED screens.

One of the first Jumbotron models at Expo '85.
Sony would create another milestone in both large-screen televisions and giant screens when it unveiled the Jumbotron to the world in 1985 at the Expo '85 World's Fair, which was held in Tsukuba, Japan. This giant TV and video screen is based on LED technology. At the time it premiered, this TV was one of the most state of the art and largest ever manufactured. Five years later, the first Jumbotron was installed at One Times Square in New York City. Throughout the early and mid-1990s, this Jumbotron showed programming such as news, weather, music videos, "infotainment" programs, and The Late Night Show with David Letterman to the masses of people passing through Times Square at any given time. In 1996, Sony shut their Jumbotron down and that was soon replaced with one from their rival, Panasonic. That Jumbotron was in turn replaced in 2010 by one from Daktronics.

Other Sony Jumbotrons were installed elsewhere in the world, including what was, until 2005, the largest in the world at the former SkyDome (now named Rogers Centre) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The Galleria in Seoul, South Korea.
One of most spectacular giant LED screens in the world is that of The Galleria in Seoul, South Korea. This massive screen, which was created in the 1990s, is powered by LED lights and engulfs the entire main building of the mall! It displays LED people, flowers, messages (which seem to be mostly in Hangeul), and more.

At the time of this writing, the world's largest video screen is located at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC, USA. This screen, which is 61 meters long by 24 meters wide (200x800 ft.), is a Panasonic HD set that went into operation in 2011. This screen gives a spectacular view of the race to the audience...and anyone who happens to be within viewing distance of the speedway! However, that screen will soon lose its title this year when the Texas Motor Speedway in Dallas, TX, USA unveils its new "Big Hoss TV"! That screen is a massive HD screen measuring 66 meters wide by 28 meters wide (218 feet wide and 94.6 feet) tall!

Other noteworthy giant video screens include the screens at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, the Dallas Cowboys screen at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas, TX, USA (which was the largest in the world until the Charlotte video screen came along), the Houston Texans' screen at the Reliant Stadium in Houston, TX (currently the largest in the American NFL), and the Tokyo Racecourse in Tokyo, Japan. All four of these screens are Mitsubishi Diamond Vision screens.

Over the decades, giant video screens, video/LED billboards, and more have been used to display movies and other entertainment programs, advertise products, broadcast news and information to large numbers of people, and magnify live events such as sporting events and concerts. Political leaders have reached massive number of supporters (and opponents) with these video screens. The screen in Things To Come has definitely become an everyday reality in our modern world.

Links:
http://www.oobject.com/category/giant-screens/
http://www.urbanscreens.org/ (A website dedicated to giant screens in urban society.)
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/31/business/media-business-advertising-sony-s-times-square-jumbotron-has-begun-attract.html (A New York Times article from 1993 about the Sony Jumbotron.)
http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2005/01/leds-transform-department-store-in-seoul.html (An interesting article from LEDs Magazine about the LED lights of Seoul's Galleria Mall.)
http://www.digitalsignagetoday.com/article/210081/Jo-burg-digital-signage-install-billed-as-world-s-largest-LED-display (Article from Digital Signage Today about the LED display in Johannesburg, South Africa that became the world's largest in March 2013.)

(Image Credits: Times Square: Jorge Royan.  Expo '85 Jumbotron: ころぞう/Ubcle. The Galleria: Christian Richters. All images used courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) 

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Reflections On Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pies


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This morning I was sitting in my chair thinking about a snack food that many of us GenXers/Yers here in the US have craved and yearned for for almost 23 years now. A pastry item that was pulled off store shelves and cast into '90s oblivion just when its popularity was starting to grow. That item was Hostess Cakes' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pies.

When they debuted to the world in 1990, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pies caused a bit of excitement among us kids who were huge fans of the show....and who were lucky enough to have a convenience or grocery store around that carried Turtle Pies in stock! Turtle Pies debuted to the public at the time when the show was the most popular cartoon on TV and the two feature films were out at the theaters. They were cakes/pastries with a fairly hard green sugar shell and glazing and had a vanilla pudding (aka "Vanilla Puddin' Power") filling. Later on some Turtle Pies were issued with a regular yellow shell, but with a green "ooze" filling that resembled the mutagen ooze from the show. You could take a big chomp out of these pies and the vanilla goodness would come gushing out! The commercial that aired during weekday and Saturday morning cartoons showed the Turtle Pie being constructed layer by layer and made us want to go out, buy one, eat it, and get filled with Turtle Power! As the Turtles would say, "Gnarly, dude!"

What made us GenX/Yers want to rush out and buy these pies were not only the pies themselves, but the speical little gift within. At first each Turtle Pie contained a sticker depicting the turtles, but when the second TMNT movie debuted at the theaters in March of 1991, each pie came with a free glossy collector's card that depicted a scene from the movie. There were four issued in total and our friends on the school playground would be happy to trade us some other trading cards, such as a special edition Yo! MTV Raps Vanilla Ice or Marky Mark card, for our extras. If we saved up enough "Turtle Points" from the pie wrappers, we could send them off to Hostess and get a free toy.

Alas, by late 1991 or early 1992, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pies had completely vanished from the store shelves, never to be seen again. Granted, Turtle Pies were essentially Hostess's Pudding Pies stripped of the chocolate coating and dyed green. But pudding pies just aren't (weren't?) the same as Turtle Pies. That green dye and the sugar shell makes a world of difference. There have been attempts to recreate the Turtle Pie, but the authenticity of these recipes has varied. Some recipes have tasted very close to the original; others not so close.

For those of us who were lucky enough to experience the splendidness that were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pies during their relatively brief existence, they may be long gone, but they will live on forever in the hearts and souls of us whose parents bought them for us every time we went to the store. We will never, ever forget eating those pies while watching the show and communicating in Morse Code with our friends or siblings via our toy TMNT communicators! Nor will we forget the taste of the pudding in our mouths as we bit into the pies. Or the excitment of finding a little envelope in the mail (after a 1-2 month wait!) with our special toy inside. Those pies were special little snacks indeed.
   
If you have any special memories of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pies, please share them with us in the Comments section below!

P.S.
For those of you out there who are curious, I saved up my 100 or so Turtle Points and got a set of clicking TMNT "signalling devices"! One of those is still at my mom's house, probably sitting in some forgotten nook or cranny somewhere gathering dust......  

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Neon Crosses: Beacons of Solace in the Night


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The iconic "Jesus Saves" neon cross in New York City.
Today's blog topic is one many night owls - particularly those who spend any significant amount of time on the road - are probably familiar with: Neon church crosses.

Neon church crosses that light up the night sky are one of the most famous symbols of nighttime America. They can be found along many major American highways and interstates and in some inner city neighborhoods. Neon crosses can be found on top of church steeples and on the sides of various other buildings across the country, inviting the public to come to church or acting as beacons of comfort at night for anyone with troubles on their mind. During the Christmas season, they spread a bit of Christmas cheer along dark stretches of interstate highway where Christmas decorations might be sparse. Most importantly of all, neon crosses have become messengers in the night which help spread the message of Christ during the nighttime hours when most people are asleep.

For many centuries, crosses on top of churches have pointed us in the direction of Heaven, lifted the cross of Christ to the world, and much more. Neon crosses have served all of these purposes for many decades now. It's unclear when and where the first neon cross was created in the USA, but neon signs in general became highly popular in the United States during the 1920s-1930s. It can only be assumed the first neon crosses appeared on churches during this period.

For the next five decades onwards, neon crosses would pop up all over America. Many of these crosses have become historical landmarks. One such cross is the famous Route 66/I-55 neon cross over St. Paul's Lutheran Church (also known as the Church of the Neon Sign) in Hamel, IL. This cross was erected in 1946 in tribute to Oscar Brunnworth, a local soldier who was killed in Italy during World War II. This cross has been a source of inspiration and comfort to many late-night drivers driving along I-55 ever since it was erected. Another famous American neon cross is  the foreboding cross hanging over St. Paul's House in Manhattan, NYC which has warned passers-by that "Sin will find you out" for six decades now since it was erected in the 1950s. Also in Manhattan's Alphabet City neighborhood is the iconic "Jesus Saves" cross, which has made appearances in TV shows, movies, websites, and more.

In the 1970s, the number of neon crosses (and neon signs in general) began to drop in the US due to complaints about light pollution and rising electricity and maintenance costs. There are not nearly as many neon crosses now as there once were, but they are still very much a part of the American nightscape.

The Suwon Jeil Church in Suwon, S. Korea.
In addition to the US, there are other countries where neon crosses have become a familiar part of the nighttime landscape. One such country is South Korea. In the ROK, red crosses can be found all over the country. They are on top of virtually all Protestant churches across the country, including in the capital Seoul, which has earned it the informal nickname of "the city of the neon crosses"! These crosses serve very much the same purposes as the neon crosses in America do. And on top of Aegibong Hill near the DMZ separating North and South Korea, a huge electric Christmas tree tower is lit every year for 15 days which broadcasts a visual message of peace to the North through the Christmas season. This tower can be seen as far away as the North Korean city of Kaesong. However, some of the red neon crosses that have popped up in Korea may not exactly be a symbol of traditional Western Christianity......

According to a July 2008 article from the Asia Times Online, some of these red crosses have a meaning that goes beyond traditional Christian symbolism. In Korea, red crosses are also symbolic of the Donghak, or the "Eastern Learning" movement indigenous to Korea. These crosses reflect the "Poguk anmin" ("Protect the nation and secure peace for the people" in English) mantra, which is the call for a return to Confucian ideals and a Korean identity not shaped by foreign influence. In this case, these crosses are a call for Korean Christians to practice a more Korean-specific form of Christianity.    
Shanghai's Muen, or Moore Memorial Church in 2007.

One other neon cross that deserves special mention is the neon cross on top of the Muen Church in Shanghai, China. Erected in 1936 when the church was known as Moore Memorial Church and inspired by the neon crosses in the US, this red cross stood out in the city's nightscape when all around it were neon signs advertising nightclubs, dance halls, and all the other "party hard" establishments that are part of any major city at night. After the Communist victory in mainland China in 1949, all the neon lights - including the Moore Memorial Church cross - were turned off by the authorities. The cross would not be turned on again until 1988. Today the Muen Church is surrounded by office buildings and billboards advertising the latest iPhone, but it still stands out in the midst of the urban hustle and bustle, just as it did in the 1930s and 40s.

Other countries which have their own neon cross traditions include the Philippines, where blue neon crosses can be seen in cities across the country at night; Vietnam, where the neon lights of the Nha Trang Cathedral can only be described as stunning, and the UK, where a blue neon cross adorns the top of the Round Chapel in the Lower Clapton district of London's Hackney borough.

Since they started making their first appearances in the night skies all those decades ago, neon church crosses have been a source of inspiration for many, have become historical landmarks, and have carried Christ's message throughout the night. They have also become a means of guidance (both spiritually and navigationally) and have soothed many a soul, Christian and non-Christian alike.

Links:
-http://route66news.com/2011/01/01/the-old-neon-cross/ (Article about the Hamel, IL neon cross.)
-http://www.religiousproductnews.com/articles/2007-February/Feature-Articles/The-History-of-Church-Steeples.htm (The History of Church Steeples)
-A Protestant Church in Communist China: Moore Memorial Church, Shanghai 1949-1989 by John Craig and William Keating. Excerpt from Google Books about the church's neon cross.
-http://www.idealshanghai.com/venues/3756/ Website about Muen (Moore Memorial) Church.

(Image Credits: "Jesus Saves" pic: David Shankbone. Suwon Jeil Church pic: Zubro. Muen Church pic: Kwz. All images used via Wikimedia Commons.)

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The Mystery of the "Friends" Boxing Kangaroo Poster


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An authentic 1933 issue of the "Kangaroo Boxer" poster hanging on Joey and Chandler's wall on "Friends".

For those of you who are fans of the '90s-early '00s hit sitcom Friends, you've no doubt noticed that on the wall of Joey and Chandler's apartment hangs a poster of a boxing kangaroo. At the top of the poster are the words "Кенгуру -Боксер"and at the bottom "Владимир Дуров младший". If, like many Friends fans out there, you've spent the past two decades wondering what this poster means, you're about to find out!

In Russian, "Кенгуру -Боксер" means "Kangaroo Boxer" and at the bottom of the poster is the name Vladimir Durov, Jr. (Владимир Дуров младший), with "Junior" in parentheses. Vladimir Durov, Sr. (1863-1934) was part of the Durov family, who are Russia's leading "circus family". The Durovs became a huge sensation in the Russian circus during the Tsarist times and their reputation as the nation's most legendary and pioneering "circus family" has continued up to the present day. Vladimir was a very famous clown and animal trainer who zealously supported the Bolshevik Revolution. Many of his performances mocked Tsar Nicholas II and his government and praised the Bolsheviks. Both Vladimir and his brother Anatoly referred to themselves as the "kings of jesters, not the jesters of kings".

At least three members of the next generation of Durovs bore Vladimir, Sr's name, and which one - if any - is depicted in this poster is uncertain. First was Vladimir's own son, Vladimir, who died in 1912. Two other members of the Durov family, Vladimir Griegorievich (1909-1972) and Vladimir Leonidovich, followed in their uncle's footsteps and became circus performers and animal trainers in the Soviet circus. Vladimir Griegorievich eventually became a People's Artist of the USSR. According to author Miriam Neirick's 2012 book When Pigs Could Fly and Bears Could Dance: A History of the Soviet Circus, a Vladimir Durov (possibly Vladimir Griegorievich?) performed at circuses at home and abroad and became a proponent of world peace, often releasing white doves over the audience as a sign of peace and goodwill. This Vladimir deeply loved his motherland and wanted to do his part to help foster friendship between the Soviet peoples and the peoples of the world. He used his performances to overcome international paranoia about the USSR and promote it in a good light, going well above and beyond the propaganda promoted by officials at the state-sponsored circuses to show the good sides of the peoples of the Soviet republics and how beautiful their cultures are.

The logo above the kangaroo's shoulder is the GOMETs logo. GOMETs was the State Association of Musical, Variety Theater, and Circus Enterprises. This in itself was a division of the Ministry of Enlightenment, which oversaw the collectivization and regulation of arts and entertainment during the Stalinist period. GOMETs also administered the Central Administration of State Circuses (TsUGTs) during Stalin's rule. Naturally this poster had GOMETs's seal of approval and the event would be administered by them.

According to MyUSSR.ru, this poster dates from 1933. We can only assume that this poster is promoting a "kangaroo boxing" match held that year, or is just promoting the circus in general. In modern-day Russia, the poster seems to be famous for the same reason it's famous elsewhere in the world: for being the "Joey and Chandler poster"! The choice in using Soviet propaganda and cultural posters such as this one to decorate the walls of the characters of Friends (yep, there were at least two others used to decorate their apartments) has been the topic of discussion on a number of Russian Internet forums and message boards.

Now that the two-decade search for answers behind this mysterious poster is over, it's time to find another mysterious object from a TV show to spend decades investigating and researching, such as the name of the geodes that sit on the shelf behind Jean-Luc Picard's desk on Star Trek: The Next Generation! Or maybe the psychedelic beads in Keith Partridge's room in The Partridge Family. Or the painting on the living room wall on The Brady Bunch. The sky's the limit!

Links:
-http://www.circopedia.org/Vladimir_Durov (Vladimir Durov, Sr. at Circopedia)
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoly_Durov (Anatoly Durov at Wikipedia)
-http://chasingprops.com/friends/joey-chandlers-boxing-kangaroo (A post at the "Chasing Props" blog about Joey and Chandler's boxing kangaroo poster.)

(Poster image credit: rexstar.ru. Poster image used per Russian public domain laws, which stipulate that works of art become public domain 70 years after date of original publication.)


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