All the workers for Fusionpolis are accounted for; there've been no further deaths or injuries. One of the dead was a foreman who was on leave, but had ducked back to his office to see his boss and was asked to show several new hires around. Several MPs have started a fund for the killed and injured workers; only eight are still hospitalized. And the Secretary for Manpower is busy noting the rate of fatal industrial accidents was halved from 1997 to 2003.
Meanwhile BBC World have added an irritating news ticker to their screen, I suppose because the blissful peace of seeing a story without the distraction of updates on that enormous sheep in New Zealand was too good to be true. Their report on the Google IPO, including a demonstration of how Google makes its money, simulated a search for ``sausage''. I think they're being funny.
Disney Channel cancelled an airing of Hunchback of Notre Dame 2: Even Our Animators Weren't Watching When We Made It in favor of FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Cheech and Chong's unsuccessful comeback vehicle. That's a step up movie-wise, yes -- the fairies fly pretty cutely, and it's filled with an improbably diverse set of animals which nevertheless overlooks coatis -- although I can't say I work up much sympathy for Crysta, who's Princess Ariel without the charm, or Zak, who's the kind of guy who needed ham sandwiches explained to him twice. Robin Williams's Batty, victim of typically vague scientific research, kept reminding me how much better that Reverend Jim ripoff mouse in Rescue Rangers was. And of course Tim Curry's Nexxon continues the cliché of the evil liquid-morph. There's only the Shmoo, Gloop and Gleep, and Odo making the case for good liquid-morphs; why the stereotyping? Somebody work on that, please.
I'm not sorry for spending the time watching it (sort of watching it, anyway; I was also hip-deep in LaTeX, which isn't as fun as it sounds) but I'd rather they have shown more of how the fairy world works and the various animals wandering through it, and less of Zak the personality-draining glob. It should be easy to fall in love with an enchanted rain forest; they made it too much work to try. And they forgot to give the supporting fairies anything to say or do.
Trivia: The library of English King Henry V consisted of six handwritten books, three of them on loan from a nunnery. Source: 1421: The Year China Discovered The World, Gavin Menzies.
Currently Reading: The Second World War, John Keegan.