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![[F]](../_images/site.gif) New York Times on the Web Forums  Science
Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's
war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars"
defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make
the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an
application of science be successful? Is a militarized space
inevitable, necessary or impossible?
Read Debates, a
new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every
Thursday.
 
  (1991 previous messages)
lchic
- 05:31am May 4, 2002 EST (#1992
of 1998)
Marketing - Perception - America/UK
What strikes me about her book is the differences in how it
was marketed to the U.S. and the U.K. Hicks was perceived quite
differently by the two nations --
in the U.K. he was stopped on the streets for his autograph,
and yet in his home country he was censored off television.
The American cover is a photo of Hicks sitting in a chair, in
front of an American flag. On the U.K. cover, Hicks is lighting
his cigarette from a burning American flag.
The U.S. back cover runs a quote from Dennis Miller. The U.K.
back cover prints an excerpt of the pro-life/Christians routine
that was cut from Letterman's show.
The U.S. version features a forward by Janeane Garofalo, a
recognized Hollywood name, but it doesn't really introduce readers
to the text. The U.K. edition carries a forward by Irish
comedian/writer Sean Hughes, who describes the first time he saw
Hicks take the stage at an Australian comedy festival.
Hicks himself would have pointed out the differences, that the
U.K. readers understand the wit and irony, and
good old
literal America, his home and birthplace, still needs to have
everything explained very simply. And safely.
The United States thrives on "protecting" its citizens, and
despite the Land of the Free hokum, if you dare to speak your mind
and have more than 10 people ever hear it, you'll encounter offers
of compromise.
You'll hear unqualified taste-makers in every industry say the
same things: Where can we fit you into what we're doing? No, no,
no, we don't care what you think or how you feel. Can you do what
this other guy did, only slightly different? How about a
combination of x and y? Can you tone this down, beef this up? Can
you be edgy? (A magazine editor once told me to make an article
sound "undergroundy.")
And if we pretend to embrace our job so we'll always have a
job, it's fairly easy to pretend to embrace the rest of the
nation, right? Even if it's ironic. Once you place yourself in
that proper frame of mind, it's a snap to live in America and get
excited, even if it's cheap irony, over the daily distractions of
unnecessary celebrities, unnecessary TV shows, unnecessary "news
you can use," unnecessary electronic gizmos, unnecessarily large
vehicles and the rest of the sh!t culture we gleefully produce,
consume and export around the world.
lchic
- 05:56am May 4, 2002 EST (#1993
of 1998)
"" .... not require the presence of the Palestinian leader,
Yasser Arafat, whom George Bush still refuses to meet, and with whom
Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, insists he will not
negotiate.
Though the participants have not been chosen, they are likely to
include, in addition to the "quartet" that met at the State
Department on Thursday, the five strategic Arab states of Morocco,
Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, as well as representatives of
Israel and the Palestinians.
The diplomatic drive began yesterday with talks at Camp David
between President Bush and Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of Spain,
the holder of the EU's rotating presidency. Next week, Mr Sharon and
King Abdullah of Jordan will be in Washington, while the newly
liberated Mr Arafat is likely to attend a meeting of Arab foreign
ministers in Cairo.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=291711
 (5
following messages)
   
New York Times on the Web Forums Science
Missile Defense
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