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The Tuskegee syphilis experiment[1] (also known as the Tuskegee syphilis study or Public Health Service syphilis study) was a clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama, by the U.S. Public Health Service. Investigators recruited 399 impoverished African-American sharecroppers with syphilis for research related to the natural progression of the untreated disease, in hopes of justifying treatment programs for blacks.[1]
The 40-year study was controversial for reasons related to ethical standards, primarily because researchers failed to treat patients appropriately after the 1940s validation of penicillin as an effective cure for the disease. Revelation of study failures led to major changes in U.S. law and regulation on the protection of participants in clinical studies. Now studies require informed consent (with exceptions possible for U.S. Federal agencies which can be kept secret by Executive Order.[2]) , communication of diagnosis, and accurate reporting of test results.[3]
By 1947 penicillin had become the standard treatment for syphilis. Choices might have included treating all syphilitic subjects and closing the study, or splitting off a control group for testing with penicillin. Instead, the Tuskegee scientists continued the study, withholding penicillin and information about it from the patients. In addition, scientists prevented participants from accessing syphilis treatment programs available to others in the area. The study continued, under numerous supervisors, until 1972, when a leak to the press resulted in its termination. Victims included numerous men who died of syphilis, wives who contracted the disease, and children born with congenital syphilis.[4]
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, cited as "arguably the most infamous biomedical research study in U.S. history,"[5] led to the 1979 Belmont Report and the establishment of the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP).[6] It also led to federal regulation requiring Institutional Review Boards for protection of human subjects in studies involving human subjects. The Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) manages this responsibility within the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).[7]
Some of the Tuskegee Study Group clinicians. Dr. Reginald D. James (third to right), a black physician involved with public health work in Macon County, was not directly involved in the study. Nurse Rivers is on the left.
The venereal disease section of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) formed a study group at its national headquarters. Dr. Taliaferro Clark was credited with its origin. His initial goal was to follow untreated syphilis in a group of black men for 6 to 9 months, and then follow up with a treatment phase. When he understood the intention of other study members to use deceptive practices, Dr. Clark disagreed with the plan to conduct an extended study.[clarification needed] He retired the year after the study began.
Representing the PHS, Clark had solicited the participation of the Tuskegee Institute (a historically black college (HBCU) that was well-known in Alabama) and of the Arkansas regional PHS office. Dr. Eugene Dibble, an African American doctor, was head of the John Andrew Hospital at the Tuskegee Institute. Dr. Oliver C. Wenger,a caucasian, was director of the regional PHS Venereal Disease Clinic in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He and his staff took a lead in developing study procedures.
Wenger and his staff played a critical role in developing early study protocols. Wenger continued to advise and assist the Tuskegee Study when it turned into a long-term, no-treatment observational study.[8]
Dr. Raymond H. Vonderlehr was appointed on-site director of the research program and developed the policies that shaped the long-term follow-up section of the project. For example, he decided to gain the "consent" of the subjects for spinal taps (to look for signs of neurosyphilis) by depicting the diagnostic test as a "special free treatment". Vonderlehr retired as head of the venereal disease section in 1943, shortly after penicillin had first been shown to be a cure for syphilis.
Nurse Eunice Rivers, an African-American trained at Tuskegee Institute who worked at its affiliated John Andrew Hospital, was recruited at the start of the study. Dr. Vonderlehr was a strong advocate for her participation, as she was the direct link to the community. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Tuskegee Study began by offering lower class African Americans, who often could not afford health care, the chance to join "Miss Rivers' Lodge". Patients were to receive free physical examinations at Tuskegee University, free rides to and from the clinic, hot meals on examination days, and free treatment for minor ailments.
As the study became long term, Nurse Rivers became the chief person with continuity. Unlike the changing slate of national, regional and on-site PHS administrators, doctors, and researchers, Rivers stayed at Tuskegee University. She was the only study staff person to work with participants for the full 40 years. By the 1950s, Nurse Rivers had become pivotal to the studyher personal knowledge of the subjects enabled maintenance of long-term follow up. In the study's later years, Dr. John R. Heller led the national division.
For the most part, doctors and civil servants simply did their jobs. Some merely followed orders, others worked for the glory of science.
By the late 1940s, doctors, hospitals and public health centers throughout the country routinely treated diagnosed syphilis with penicillin. In the period following World War II, the revelation of the Holocaust and related Nazi medical abuses brought about changes in international law. Western allies formulated the Nuremberg Code to protect the rights of research subjects. No one appeared to have reevaluated the protocols of the Tuskegee Study according to the new standards.
In 1972 the Tuskegee Study was brought to public and national attention by a whistleblower, who gave information to the Washington Star and the New York Times. Heller of PHS still defended the ethics of the study, stating: "The men's status did not warrant ethical debate. They were subjects, not patients; clinical material, not sick people."[10]
The study began as a clinical trial of the incidence of syphilis in the Macon County population. Initially, subjects were studied for six to eight months, then treated with contemporary methods including Salvarsan, mercurial ointments, and bismuth. These methods were, at best, mildly effective; the disadvantage that these were all highly toxic was balanced by the fact that no other methods were known. The Tuskegee Institute participated in the study, as its representatives understood the intent was to benefit public health in this poor population.[11] The Tuskegee University-affiliated hospital effectively loaned the PHS its medical facilities. Other predominantly black institutions and local black doctors also participated. The Rosenwald Fund, a major Chicago-based philanthropy devoted to black education and community development in the South, provided financial support to pay for the eventual treatment of the patients. Initially, study researchers recruited 399 syphilitic Black men, and 201 healthy Black men as controls.
Continuing effects of the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression led the Rosenwald Fund to withdraw its offer of funding. Study directors initially thought this might mean the end of the study, as there was no funding to buy medication for the treatment phase of the study. They issued a final report.
In 1928 the Oslo Study in Norway had reported on the pathologic manifestations of untreated syphilis in several hundred White males. This study was a retrospective study; investigators pieced together information from patients who had already contracted syphilis and had remained untreated for some time.
The Tuskegee study group decided to salvage their work and perform a prospective study equivalent to the Oslo Study. This was not inherently unethical; since there was nothing the investigators could do therapeutically at the time, they could study the natural progression of the disease as long as they did not harm their subjects. They reasoned that the knowledge gained would benefit humankind. In the end, however, they did harm their subjects, by depriving them of appropriate treatment after it had been discovered. The study was characterized as "the longest non-therapeutic experiment on human beings in medical history."[12]
Ethical considerations were limited from the start, and rapidly deteriorated. For example, to ensure that the men would show up for the possibly dangerous, painful, diagnostic and non-therapeutic spinal tap, the doctors sent the 400 patients a misleading letter titled, "Last Chance for Special Free Treatment" (see insert). The study also required all participants to undergo an autopsy after deathin order to receive funeral benefits. After penicillin was discovered as a cure, researchers continued to deny such treatment to many study participants. Many patients were lied to and given placebo treatments so that researchers could observe the progression of the fatal disease.[11] In 1934, the Tuskegee Study published its first clinical data, and issued their first major report in 1936. This was prior to the discovery of penicillin as a treatment for syphilis. The study was not secret; it issued several published reports and data sets appeared throughout its duration.
By 1947 penicillin had become standard therapy for syphilis. The US government sponsored several public health programs to form "rapid treatment centers" to eradicate the disease. When campaigns to eradicate venereal disease came to Macon County, however, study researchers prevented their patients from participating.[13] During World War II, 250 of the subject men registered for the draft. They were consequently diagnosed and ordered to obtain treatment for syphilis before they could be taken into the armed services.[13]
PHS researchers prevented them from getting treatment, thus depriving them of chances for a cure, service to the nation, and gaining the benefit of the GI Bill for education, passed after the war. At the time, the PHS representative was quoted as saying: "So far, we are keeping the known positive patients from getting treatment."[13]
By the end of the study in 1972, only 74 of the test subjects were alive. Twenty-eight of the original 399 men had died of syphilis, 100 were dead of related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected, and 19 of their children were born with congenital syphilis.
[edit] Study termination and aftermath
Peter Buxtun, a PHS venereal disease investigator, the "whistle-blower".
In 1966 Peter Buxtun, a PHS venereal-disease investigator in San Francisco, sent a letter to the national director of the Division of Venereal Diseases to express his concerns about the ethics and morality of the extended Tuskegee Study. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) (which by then controlled the study) reaffirmed the need to continue the study until completion (until all subjects had died and been autopsied). To bolster its position, the CDC sought and gained support for the continuation of the study from local chapters of the National Medical Association (representing African-American physicians) and the American Medical Association (AMA).
In 1968 William (Bill) Carter Jenkins, an African-American statistician in the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS), part of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), founded and edited The Drum, a newsletter devoted to ending racial discrimination in HEW. The cabinet-level department included the CDC. In The Drum, Jenkins called for an end to the Tuskegee Study. He did not succeed; it is not clear who read his work.[14]
Buxtun finally went to the press in the early 1970s. The story broke first in the Washington Star on July 25, 1972. It became front-page news in the New York Times the following day. Senator Edward Kennedy called Congressional hearings, at which Buxtun and HEW officials testified. As a result of public outcry, in 1972, the CDC and PHS appointed an ad hoc advisory panel to review the study. It determined the study was medically unjustified and ordered its termination. As part of a settlement of a class action lawsuit subsequently filed by the NAACP, the U.S. government paid $9 million and agreed to provide free medical treatment to surviving participants, as well as to surviving family members infected as a consequence of the study.
In 1974 Congress passed the National Research Act and created a commission, to study and write regulations governing studies involving human participants. On May 16, 1997, President Bill Clinton formally apologized and held a ceremony for the Tuskegee study participants: "What was done cannot be undone. But we can end the silence. We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye and finally say on behalf of the American people, what the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry ... To our African American citizens, I am sorry that your federal government orchestrated a study so clearly racist."[15] Five of the eight remaining study survivors attended the White House ceremony.
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study significantly damaged the trust of the black community toward public health efforts in the United States. [16] As a result, many distrust the medical community and are reluctant to participate in programs such as organ donation. The study may also have contributed to the reluctance of many poor black people to seek routine preventive care.[17] Two groups of researchers at Johns Hopkins debated the effects that the Tuskegee Study has had on blacks and their willingness to participate in medical trials.[18] Distrust of the government because of the study has contributed to persistent rumors in the black community that the government was responsible for the HIV/AIDS crisis by having introduced the virus to the black community. "In 1990, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference conducted a survey among 1056 African American Church members in five cities. They found that 34% of the respondents believed that AIDS was an artificial virus, 35% believed that AIDS is a form of genocide, and 44% believed that the government is not telling the truth about AIDS."[10]
[edit] Ethical implications
Unbalanced scales.svg
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The ethics of the early stages of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study can be considered in contrast to developments after the use of penicillin was verified as valid treatment. In 1932 treatments for syphilis were relatively ineffective and had severe side effects.[19] Researchers knew that syphilis was particularly prevalent in poor, black communities.[20] Prevailing medical ethics at the time did not have the exacting standards for informed consent, which is now expected. Doctors routinely withheld information about patients' conditions from them.[citation needed]
After penicillin was found to be an effective treatment for syphilis, the study continued for another 25 years without treating those suffering from the disease. After the study and its consequences became front-page news, it was ended in a day.[19] The aftershocks of this study led directly to the establishment of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research and the National Research Act. This act requires the establishment of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) at institutions receiving federal grants.
Rainbows End
Rainbows End is a 2006 science fiction novel by Vernor Vinge. It was awarded the 2007 Hugo Award for Best Novel.[1] The book is set in San Diego, California, in 2025, in a variation of the fictional world Vinge explored in his 2002 Hugo-winning novella "Fast Times at Fairmont High" and 2004's "Synthetic Serendipity". Vinge has tentative plans for a sequel, picking up some of the loose threads left at the end of the novel.
The many technological advances depicted in the novel suggest that the world is undergoing ever-increasing change, perhaps destined for a technological singularity, a recurring subject in Vinge's writing (both fiction and non-fiction).
"Your hack was noticed. Back when I was young, you could have got a patent off it. Nowadays"
"Nowadays, it should be worth a decent grade in a high-school class."
Plot summary
The novel introduces us to Robert Gu, a man slowly recovering from Alzheimer's disease thanks to advances in medical technology. As his faculties return, Robert (who always has been slightly technophobic) must adapt to a very different world, where almost every object is networked and mediated-reality technology is commonplace. Robert, formerly a world-renowned poet but with a notoriously mean-spirited personality, must also learn how to change and how to rebuild relationships with his estranged family. At the same time, Robert and his granddaughter Miri are drawn into a complex plot involving a traitorous intelligence officer, an intellect of frightening (and possibly superhuman) competence hiding behind an avatar of an anthropomorphic rabbit, and ominous new mind control technology with profound implications.
As in Vinge's other work, the concept of security in such an increasingly digital/virtual world with ubiquitous computing is a major theme of the novel. It examines the implications of rapid technological change that empowers both the disgruntled individuals who would threaten to disrupt society and those that would seek to stop them, and the implications for the age-old "who watches the watchers" issue. Although 9/11 is only mentioned once, having been supplanted in the minds of the characters by more recent history, its overall impact is unmistakable; Bob Gu muses offhandedly, "Chicago was more than a decade past. There hadn't been a successful nuclear attack on the U.S. or any of the treaty organization countries in more than five years."
[edit] Characters in Rainbows End
* Robert Gu former Professor Emeritus of English, Alzheimer's survivor and Fairmont High School pupil
* Robert Gu, Jr. (Bob) Robert Gu's son, Lieutenant Colonel and Officer of the Watch in the US Marines
* Alice Gong Gu Bob Gu's wife, Colonel and Auditor in the US Marines
* Miri Gu Bob and Alice Gu's daughter, Fairmont High School pupil and Robert Gu's co-conspirator
* Juan Orozco Fairmont High School pupil and Robert Gu's technical advisor
* Alfred Vaz head of India's External Intelligence Agency
* Günberk Braun European Union Intelligence Board agent
* Keiko Mitsuri Japanese Intelligence agent
* Mr. Rabbit/Mysterious Stranger unidentified intellect, appearing as a rabbit to Vaz, Braun and Mitsuri, and as a voice only to Robert Gu
Belief circles and augmented reality
In the novel, augmented reality is dominant, with humans interacting with virtual overlays of reality almost all of the time. This is accomplished by wearing smart clothing and contact lenses that can overlay and replace what the eye would normally see with computer graphics, using advanced virtual retinal display (VRD) technology. In addition, haptic feedback is possible by overlaying graphics onto a physical machine such as a robot. This augmentation of reality is used for a variety of purposes:
* Commercial (large gaming areas sell gaming environments mixed with haptics). The Cheapnet, a free entry-level service offered by commercial vendors of gaming solutions, can in principle also be used to coordinate networked augmented reality representations across the globe. However, jitter and latency are considerable problems with this basic network when long distances are involved. In the novel, Robert Gu develops an algorithm that partially compensates for these technical deficiencies, and might ultimately allow the inclusion of haptics.
* Functional (maintenance workers, for example, have access to a blueprint or schematic of practically any location or object in their responsibility area)
* Communication (characters in the novel use live video chat and can send and receive "silent messages", an action known as "sming", through their VRDs). Individuals can be reached through a globally implemented unique personal identifier, the ENUM.
* Medical (doctors have access to a patient's vital signs)
There are characters who choose not to "wear" these virtual overlays, instead using laptops, considered relics in the novel. A user's skill in managing and producing augmented reality manifests itself in the details of the augmentation. For example, a character might project himself into a different room, but the shadows cast by this apparition, or the collision between the character and the furniture in the room might give away the apparition.
There are many realities to choose from in the novel; however, the largest and more robust of them are built by large user bases in the manner of a wiki or Second Life. The confederation of users that contribute to the virtual world is called a belief circle. Several belief circles are presented in the novel, including worlds based on authors such as H. P. Lovecraft, Terry Pratchett, and the fictional Jerzy Hacek. Also mentioned are worlds based on the artwork of M. C. Escher, and fictional entertainment companies such as SpielbergRowling (presumably a manager of the merged fictional universes of Steven Spielberg and J. K. Rowling). The Egan Soccer set piece can also be seen as a type of subscribed Belief Circle.
[edit] Reception
* Hugo Award winner, 2007[1]
* Locus Award winner, 2007[1]
* John W. Campbell Memorial Award nominee, 2007[1]
Trivia
* Rather than the traditional book dedication to a person or group of people, Vinge dedicates the novel "To the Internet-based cognitive tools that are changing our lives Wikipedia, Google, and the others of their kind, now and in the future".
* In "Fast Times at Fairmont High", Miri Gu's father and grandfather were called Bill and William. In Rainbows End, they are changed to Bob and Robert, so Miri's parents have the names Alice and Bob. These are the main placeholder names used in cryptography thought experiments. That this reference is intentional is confirmed by the later appearance of a a government official named "Eve Mallory", the names used for eavesdroppers and other malicious agents respectively. Carlos Rivera's first name may also be such a reference.
* Vinge makes several references to works of other science fiction authors, such as Robert watching kids playing virtual "Egan Soccer", similar to Quantum Soccer from Greg Egan's short story "Border Guards".
o Vinge makes a passing reference to his own 1992 novel, A Fire Upon the Deep: "Who heard of Tines anymore, or the Zones of Thought?"
o Vinge also refers to True Names: "That is science fiction! There was even a movie"
Really Long Link
Junkfood Cinema: The Running Man
Welcome back to Junkfood Cinema: voted #1. Every week I force-feed you hot spoon-fulls of hot garbage from my personal celluloid landfill. These stinkers may have fallen short of technically proficient from the time their scripts were greenlit, but they nevertheless occupy a special, greasy part of my heart. To make matters worse, my specialty as it turns out, I also provide a themed suggestion as to the tastebud-pleasing, artery-clogging snack item you should be cramming into your gullet as you watch the flick. If you are anything like me, you poor bastard, then you giggle with glee when you ponder the greatest decade on the timeline of world history: the 1980s. Some of the absolute worst/best films of all time cast their hour upon the screen between 1980 and 1989; theres a reason why 40% of the entries in this column boast that glorious chronological distinction. Todays film is not for the faint of heart, but rather reserved for true juggernauts of crap. Todays film
is The Running Man.
The Running Man takes place in the distant future of
seven years from now. The United States has essentially become a police state with the government, at every level, devolving into a host of permanent bedfellows of privatized industry. The Constitution is abandoned and basic freedoms are cast aside in the name of order. In an effort to placate the masses, a series of ultra-violent game shows have been instituted; the most popular of which is being The Running Man. This despicable contest pits prisoners against maniacal mercenaries in a last-man-standing display of brutality. If the competitor makes it to a certain point, after a certain period of time, they are granted their freedom. Most of them dont make it past the first round and end up as casualties of the almighty Nielsen rating system. Enter into the fray, Ben Richards, a former air force pilot who refused to murder a crowd of non-violent protesters and then, after being relieved of command in that operation, was framed for their murder that was carried out by his successor. Through further twists of fate and immeasurable bad luck, Richards ends up as the next contestant on The Running Man. Does he have what it takes to survive? Will he be this weeks corpse? Is that the dude from The Family Feud?
What Makes It Bad?
First off, this is a Schwarzenegger vehicle. If you are unfamiliar with Arnold Schwarzenegger, he is one of the greatest actors of his or any generation. His auteur, introspective performance skills are dwarfed only by his total mastery of the English language. And if you are unfamiliar with me, I am a chronic liar. Arnolds meteoric rise in the 80s is indicative of both his beef-headed charm and that decades obsession with like-jawed piles of muscle. Seriously, large quantities of meat could be expertly sliced on his jawline. For all his innumerable faults as an actor, I love Arnold. It has always been clear to me that Arnie consistently puts forth an absurd amount of effort regardless of the project and he is incredibly fun to watch. That being said, I think he should only ever be in action films; he and comedy go together like oil and
people allergic to oil. But Ill be damned if hes not good at punching, delivering one-liners, and running (as it were).
Speaking of, I dont want to say this is where Arnolds quips were born, but it is very clearly where they came to die. The Running Man is just about the punniest film ever made. I wish I could adequately describe just how terrible these lines are; fairly sure they were written on a dare. Allow me to paint a picture for you. You are running for your life from a rather large, wholly homicidal man wielding a razor-lined hockey stick. You manage to evade the thrash of his weapon and wrap about a yard of barbed wire around his neck. As he lies dying, both from asphyxiation and the loss of blood from his torn-open jugular, you must decide how to appropriately respond. Most of us would stand shaken, aware that we had taken a life in the more heinous of fashions. I would estimate that another large portion of us would simply not be able to deal with it and run silently, furiously away from the scene. Schwarzenegger, while jogging comfortably away, turns to his compatriots and says, what a pain in the neck. This round clearly goes to Arnie. They even insert taglines from his other, more wildly successful films into this one. I wish I was exaggerating, but at one point, just as hes about to be jettisoned into the playing field, he turns to Richard Dawson and says Ill be back, completely straight-faced. Wow! Really shows how confident the director/writer was that this film had the ability to stand on its own strength.
The concept itself isnt bad, but does demonstrate a glaring fallacy of dystopian films. No matter how well you prod the deeper social and ethical ramifications of how our faults as human beings may one day subvert all that we hold sacred, films like this always succeed in immediately and irreversibly dating themselves. What do I mean? Well in the 80s version of a dark future, which from their vantage point is 30 years removed from the release date, people still listen to music on cassette tape. Yup. This is either an instance of extreme shortsightedness or a rather strange form of arrogance; surely no one will ever be able to improve upon the perfect achievement that is the cassette tape. Also, moratorium on jumpsuits being the trademark of future fashion, people . Im not just talking about alternative future movies from the 80s either, but it doesnt help that Arnold looks like a roided-up Twinkie with his bits on display.
The problems dont stop there. If youve ever thought to yourself, its been far too long since Ive seen Jesse Ventura in spandex sporting a Backstreet Boys haircut, then The Running Man is a God send. Personally, Ill stick to calling this scene nightmarish and life-altering. Theres also the fact that the film tries to shell out a great deal of exposition on a shoestring budget that doesnt work out too well. The shocking opening therefore looks as though Ben Richards is making a moral stand against slaughtering a crowd of
amorphous, 8-bit spots. There are unarmed civilians down there, he grumbles. But its hard to buy him as a hero when he heroically saves a gathering of Lite Bright pieces. Also, I like Richard Dawson, but his role in this makes me sad. Never have I seen so bold a piece of stunt casting as the casting of game show host as a game show host. Whats the matter Running Man, Bob Barker not available?
Why I Love It!
The aforementioned concept is not only interesting but also damned familiar. A futuristic society where the government has anesthetized the masses with violent entertainment and meanwhile eradicated human rights and decency? Sound familiar to anyone yet? How about it being headlined by a charismatic, over-the-top host and the existence of a resistance group trying to shut down the event for good? Ok fine, replace the last-man-standing kill fest with a kill-or-be-killed road race. There you go! The Running Man is essentially Deathrace 2000 for the producer who cant afford cars. I am a rabid fan of Deathrace 2000 and I relish any opportunity to see its central idea crossbred with something like The Most Dangerous Game. I can only imagine that Richard Bachmann, the writer of the story on which the film is based, has to be a fan of one or both of those films. Man, someone should introduce that Bachmann guy to Steven King; their writing styles are remarkably similar. Wait, you dont think
nah! I also liked the idea of every branch of the government being inextricably connected to show business; the justice department having an entertainment division and the President having an agent.
The best reason I can think of to watch The Running Man is the cavalcade of stalkers who pursue our contestants with deadly intent. These guys resemble a line of the most insane, macho action figures come to life. Seriously, I half expected the audience to have to remove them from their plastic/cardboard packaging before each scene. They have names and gimmicks that would make Vince McMahon very happy. We have Buzzsaw, a brutish slab of bulk brandishing a chainsaw. Then we have Fireball, a pyromaniac played by the incomparable Jim Brown (another of my blaxploitation heroes). Hes as badass as ever, despite the fact that he clearly took his hair style advice from the extremely gay character from Mannequin. We also have Sub-Zero, an Asian hockey player with a sharpened stick and enough mass to qualify him as a small moon. Because seriously, if there is one sport with which I associate Asians, its hockey! And finally theres Dynamo. Ok, bear with me here, Dynamo is an immensely fat (theme here) opera singer covered in Christmas tree lights who has harnessed the power of electricity and wields it with lethal accuracy. If anything I just said makes you want to see this movie, you are officially invited to my G.I. Joe-themed birthday party. This kind of reckless character construction is tantamount to the genius of the 80s; if they couldnt be good, they would make bad fantastic. It was like Arnold had to systematically take down bosses from the various levels of Mega Man.
As campy and silly as it is, my God is The Running Man violent. Sure its goofy and full of one-liners, but when push comes to shove, the film can really kick some ass. I mentioned it previously, but the scene where Arnold dispatches Sub-Zero is decidedly nasty, and very cool (oh no, the puns are contagious). If thats not enough for you, you can always fall back on the loudest castration ever captured on film. Just when it looks like Buzzsaw has Arnolds number, he turns the tables and introduces the whirring blades to the mans genitals. Ouch and a half! Theres also an amazing head-exploding scene that is both entertaining and exceedingly well done as far as effects are concerned; best part being that the headless corpse gets a few more paces in before collapsing. And though he never follows through on his vicious threat, I would have loved to have witnessed Arnold ramming his fist into Richard Dawsons stomach and breaking his goddamned spine.
There are a lot of minutia things to love about The Running Man. First of all, there are a few background, satirical nudges that would also make Robocop (released the same year) so indelible. There are promos for shows like Climbing for Cash, wherein a man grabs money as he climbs away from hungry rottweilers, as well as posters for shows like The Hate Boat. I also loved the references to the fascist kids club that promises its young members double points for turning in members of their own families. Also, this is the third Junkfood Cinema film to feature Yaphet Kotto (go figure) and he is just as disproportionately good in this as he was in Truck Turner and Eye of the Tiger. Or how about the fact that they found a co-star for Arnold who is even more unintelligible than he is? Seriously, Maria Conchita Alonso may be serious eye-candy, but I cant understand a bleeding word she says.
Junkfood Pairing: Jawbreaker.
Turns out Schwarzenegger isnt the only one with a pronounced mandible. The Running Man is jam-packed with razor-sharp jawlines. So it only makes sense that you should slowly enjoy this methodically delicious treat as you watch the parade of chin-straps, I mean actors strut across the screen. Jawbreakers are also colorful and fantastically absurd; much like the film. This pairing has the added bonus of being impossible to swallow, much like the puns that find their way out of Arnies enormous face.
Like all wars, the American Civil War had its share of abnormal, freak and uncanny occurrences. What follows are some of the more fascinating ones. Selection criteria: I limited this list to the better-known ones that are citied and verified in multiple places. Ive listed the sources for some of the events. Note: Forget about the much-ballyhooed list of Lincoln/Kennedy coincidences, because some of those so-called coincidences are utterly bogus. Not all are, though, but you can force coincidences to apply to almost anyone and any situation
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