Conference noted::sf

    Comments?  Yeah -- what are you talking about?
    
    					andrew

    
    	I gathered that a new SF movie was coming out based on the "Judge
    	Dredd" character from whatever it's from.
    

    re .0
    
    Yeah, I agree that it is unlikely that Stallone would do the film but
    not show his face.
    
    I don't understand your title "one perp for the cubes". Yes, English is
    my native language although sometimes I wonder. (-:

>    I don't understand your title "one perp for the cubes". Yes, English is
>    my native language although sometimes I wonder. (-:
    
    "One perp for the cubes" is the sort of thing that Judge Dredd would
    say. It uses the invented slang of the comics, and means, roughly, one
    criminal for the cells.
    
    I did hear that Stallone insisted on showing his face.
    
    Peter

Hello Mssr

Judge Dredd is purely English comics phenomena. As you say English is a very
fluid language, the style used in the comics is a, to me, good example of
possible street slang in the future.

PERP (n,sl) : Short form of the phrase Perpetrator of a crime. Usages, All cits
(sic) are potential perps. Stop perp or you are dead. Two perps for the meat
wagon (sic). One perp for the cubes (sic).

CITS (n) : Short orm of the Citizen of the Mega Cities (sic).

CUBES (n) : Modern form of the older phrase Jail or Gaol. So called because they
are featureless metal cubes of metal designed to hold a criminal on isolation
for the duration of their sentance. Also see PSI-CUBES 
 
MEAT WAGON (n,sl) : Common name for a mortuary vehicle used to recober the dead
bodies of criminals killed by a Judge in the line of duty.

MEGA-CITY (n) : After the Atomic wars of the 21st century most of Earth was
blasted wasteland with no law. the Judges took control and enforced a Police
state for the good of the Citizens. Part of the recovery process was to build
huge self contained cities called MEGA-CITY _number_. MEGA-CITY one is the whole
of the eatern seaboard of the old U.S.A from the Great Lakes to Florida
encompassing an area up to 400 miles inland. Other Cities are BRIT-CIT, Cliffs
of dover north to Cumbria. Scotland is a hard labour jail. SOV-CIT, the whole of
Georgia to Lake Bikal or so. NIP-CIT, the whole of the Japan. VAT-CIT (?), the
Vatican. AUS-CIT, the northern coast of Australia, and so on. 

    "Perp", "cit", and "meat wagon" are *not* new or invented slang,
    although the older/current meaning of "cit" is slightly different.
    
    							Ann B.

Judge Dredd is a long standing anti-hero comics character here in England. It is
mostly action based but contains a large element of satire and sometimes farce. 

It is a near future science-fiction tale where the Earth is mostly blasted
wastes. Huge cities contain a populace fed and looked after by the state. A
typical city has unemployment running at over 99% so the few jobs that are
advertised result in riots. Most citizens of the cities amuse themselve by crime
and other illegal activites such as reading Science Fiction, eating sugar,
begging, dropping litter, looking suspicious etc. To control and police the
plebian populace a police state was erected where the Judges are taken at birth
and indocrinated to uphold the law at any cost. A Judge is Judge, Jury,
Executionor and beyond appeal, Courts :-), that is Democratic and therefore
illegal.

Judge Dredd is supposedely a hero in his own life time. He is the best of the
best and much loved (hated) by the people. He truly has the good of the people
at heart even if it means inventing evidence against members of the Democratic
Freedom Party who want an elected government in control. Yes, this guy  is
Fascist but does not care what creed, religion or race you are, criminals are to
hunted and cubed at all costs. If you are daft enough to try and shoot well, you
are dead meat.

Suggest that you see the film it may be good, then again, oh well :-(

DB

Yes you are right,

Meat Wagon is Victorian thinking about it,

Cit has probably been in commn use for years, see Pleb

I honestly thought PERP was though.

What is the Linguistic history to it? You replied fast, you must be in the
Basingstoke CSC somewhere (:-)

DB

    "Perp" is common police parlance; cops are lazy and one syllable
    beats four every time.
    
    						Ann B.
    
    P.S.  Nope, sorry.  I'm from New England, not old England.

    re .9
    
    Hello Ann.
    
    Should check the time stamp :-). You had replied to the note before me.
    I assume that the slang 'perp' is purely American then. I do not think
    the British use it. 

Oh...they've been known to use more than one syllable.

Especially when it suits them.

    re .0
    
    This film opens August 17 here (down under).

    
    	Reports are the film is ok. But is it another Stallone
    	"action epic" or am I mistaken.
    
    						Mike N.

Pure mind candy, plot holes big enough to drive several of the scooters
through side by side, moderate amount of gore, decent special effects
(though to me they screamed "Look at the neat special effect" rather than
being integrated into the action cleanly enough that I was impressed with
the action rather than the effect).

It is worth seeing on the big screen with a decent sound system, but don't pay
full price: wait for the $1.50 show.

-- Ken Moreau
   (who really wanted to like this movie, since it is in my favorite genre,
    but the writing wouldn't let me like it that much)

P.S. Examples of special effects that didn't work include the passage
     through Saturn's rings in "Silent Running", or the speederbike chase
     through the forest in "Return of the Jedi", or the scooter chase
     through the vid screens in "Judge Dredd".  In every case the plot
     was modified to show off this neat effect, and the effect itself
     was unconvincing.

     Examples of special effects that did work are the opening scene of
     "Star Wars: A New Hope", where the big spaceship flies over the screen
     being chased by the **BIG** spaceship lumbering over the screen, or the
     battle scenes (especially the flying into the trench of the Death Star)
     in all 3 of the Star Wars movies.  In these cases you were so sucked
     into the action that you only later realized that it was a really cool
     special effect.

     IMHO, of course.

     >Examples of special effects that didn't work include the passage
     >through Saturn's rings in "Silent Running", or the speederbike chase
     >through the forest in "Return of the Jedi", or the scooter chase
     >through the vid screens in "Judge Dredd".  In every case the plot
     >was modified to show off this neat effect, and the effect itself
     >was unconvincing.
    
    I'm convinced the only reason Douglas Trumbull made "Silent Running"
    was to execute the special effect he couldn't pull off in "2001: A 
    Space Odyssey" -- namely, the aforementioned passage through Saturn's
    rings -- this film was on PBS recently -- it hasn't aged well.
    
    I disagree about the skycycle chase -- I thought it was scary, and
    cool, and it wasn't until the second time I saw it that I thought
    "Hey! How'd they do that?"

    I thought that the comic relief worked well -
    
    "What are we supposed to do - knock on the door and say 'Dead earth
    pizza!'"