anthroblogia

Do any of you remember the cartoon Wacky Races? It was about a car race of wacky cars


And the bad guy was always trying to sabotage the others, but ended up coming last each time although he had the fastest car…


It ran from 1968 to 1970, but I remember watching it in French as a kid, probably around 1977-8.

1975 saw Death Race 2000


It had a pre-Rambo Sylvester Stallone in it – who (surprisingly enough) has a role that involves wielding a machine gun and killing as many people as possible with his car. I guess some things never change

Well, Death Race, which just came out and which I got to see thanks to Nuffnang, is a remake of Death Race 2000, and I couldn’t help thinking of Wacky Races too, when I was watching it. Perhaps they all reflect America’s obsession with cars and violence… It’s strange, although this movie has its fair share of violence and gore, I think that Death Race 2000 – where you have old people being run over to score points, and one scene where nuns were run over – was more gratuitously violent than this one, where the race is on a closed race track on ‘Terminal Island’, only other prisoners (i.e. bad guys anyway, except for our hero) get killed.

It’s an action movie, set in the future where America is beset by unemployment and crime, and all the prisons are run by private corporations. Profit is the major motive, and the warden of Terminal Island prison has come up with the ultimate reality show – a race to the death between prisoners driving heavily armed souped-up sports cars.

Continue reading "Death Race - a review"

**Sticky post until 13/08/08 - Scroll down for new posts**
In a way, it’s a story about blogs – you know how you randomly spot something in PPS or Innit, then click here then there, and end up somewhere you never expected?

It all started with a post by yinhao – through him I came to Nikkiko who was promising a link to anyone who posted a photo showing how not to use plastic bags. So, I did, and also set up a space in my sidebar for Bloggers who hate plastic bags.

Then I got a comment and an email from The Tiny Tapir: she has this online shop full of great enviro-friendly stuff, and was asking me if I wanted to review some reusable bags! Cool! My first review, and for environmentally friendly stuff summor

So, I’ve been using them for a couple of months, and here it is… Oh and you can win one, details at the bottom!

The first thing I noticed, was how small they pack up; the manufacturers say “our patent pending enclosure system enables three bags to roll up to about the size of your cup of coffee.” Actually, the ‘patent enclosure system’ is a couple of velcro straps sewn onto the top, but they work very well and the bags arrived in one A3-size envelope, delivered two days after ordering online.


Radioactive Man vs. RuMe!
Continue reading "RuMe review and giveaway competition! Get a free reusable bag!"

In American academic tradition, archaeology falls under the general discipline of anthropology. So, since Indiana Jones is American, and I taught in the American Degree Program, that kind of makes him and me colleagues!


See the resemblance? No? Try squinting hard, even closing your eyes!

OK, maybe he’s a bit more ‘athletic’ than I am… But I also went on a quest, braving danger and near death, just to look for answers to impending environmental disasters

Crawling through caves…

almost drowning in hidden water traps…

and then, when the summer equinox sun shone at 12pm through the hidden grove...
Continue reading "Indiana Julian and the Temple of Earth"