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From Hancoll: Jericho and Supernatural Fan
"Today, we're kicking off a new project that's like nothing we've done before. In fact, we're not sure it's ever been done before:
here are lots of different fandoms online, and some of them are in the same boat we're in -- their show is in danger of not coming back, or has already been cancelled. We've all seen 'Save Our Show' campaigns mounted by hopeful fandoms, and some of them seem to be successful. At their core, those fandoms are a lot like us, and they need the same thing we need -- viewers. So we thought, what if we combined our numbers? Why not get fans of a couple of shows working together to support both shows? Both shows will benefit, both fandoms will benefit.
The first fandom we thought of was "Jericho". Last spring, their fans waged a campaign to save their show that was so successful that CBS actually uncancelled the show. The day CBS announced "Jericho" would come back thanks to the fans' efforts, I decided I had to check out the show for myself. Any show that engendered such passion from its fans was a show I wanted to find out about. I watched it, and I liked it. I thought other Supernatural fans would like it as well, and that Jericho fans would probably like Supernatural, and started imagining how both shows could gain from a combined effort. We need to increase our ratings, and Jericho fans need to keep working in hopes that CBS will give them more than the eight episodes they were given."
Read more here.
"US broadcaster CBS is utilizing Facebook Ads to tap into an online community of The Amazing Race fans while attracting new viewers through targeted outreach, word-of-mouth referrals, and viral campaigns aimed at enabling fans to introduce the show to their friends, and their friends' friends."
"Now comes the latest dilemma, and Nielsen is trying to keep up with the times. The recent surge in DVRs (digital video recorders, including TiVo) have led to “time-shifting.” That is, “Lost” may air on Wednesdays, but a growing percentage of the audience is watching it the next day, or even on the weekend.
And how about time-shifting not only a few days, but weeks or months? More and more people are turning to DVDs to catch up with their favorite series. Sure, it takes patience and a lot of coach-potato stamina, but watching a whole season on DVD is what many folks are now doing.
So, the question that needs to be asked is clear: Should a program be punished if viewership is solid, even though people aren’t watching when the network originally airs the broadcast?"
"Sequel to Serenity finally happening? Fantastic if true. Reports suggest there is a chance of a direct to DVD sequel to Serenity, the film that followed on from where the television show Firefly left off. Alan Tudyk, the actor who played the the ship’s pilot, claims Universal has shown interest in the project."
Many thanks to Shootfire1 for this valuable information.
You may ask, how will Pandemic Influenza effect me? I'm young and healthy. Influenza kills the very young, the very old, and the infirm. That's true with "seasonal influenza." Pandemic Influenza is different. Spanish Influenza killed children and adults in the prime of their lives in 1918. The exact death toll of that pandemic is unknowable, but estimates place the worldwide death toll at anywhere from 20 to 100 million. That was in 1918, when there were far less people in the world. It had about a 2% CFR (Case Fatality Ratio), which means that 2% of those infected died. The best guess of scientists is that Avian Influenza currently circulating in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East with human cases, and in Europe with sick birds, is a likely candidate to go pandemic. Indeed, it is considered by WHO (World Health Organization) to be the single greatest threat to public health today. At present, its CFR is 75% among 10-19 year olds. The CFR decreases gradually with age, with the elderly being at least risk of death. The numbers are still very high for all age groups, much higher than Spanish Influenza.
Next you may think, "but medical science has changed a lot since 1918." That's true. Yet there still is no cure for influenza. We have vaccines, but even they are not foolproof. They are based on the best guesses of scientists as to which influenza strain already circulating will be the biggest problem in a given year. The vaccine has to match the virus. If the virus changes, the vaccine may be useless. Even under the best of conditions, there will not be enough vaccine to protect everyone once a strain achieves the ability to go pandemic. Relatively speaking, very few people get influenza vaccinations every year. Therefore, the infrastructure does not exist to manufacture the mass quantities of vaccine necessary to vaccinate everyone, once the virus has become a pandemic strain. It would take 6 months to develop a traditional vaccine, and even then vaccine would not be available for everyone. Vaccinations would be reserved for those in critical positions, whose skills are needed to maintain infrastructure. We have a lot more advanced ways to treat the symptoms of influenza now, like ventilators. Unfortunately, there aren't enough ventilators to go around. Our local hospital has a total of 75 beds. Ten of those are ICU beds with ventilators available. Our town has 33,000 people. If only 1500 were to become sick in a wave, the current CFR would seem to indicate at least a third of them would need mechanical ventilation. They would also probably need it for more than a day. We do not own 500 ventilators. Difficult choices would need to be made about who gets a ventilator and who doesn't.
What does this have to do with preparedness? How can I possibly prepare for a pandemic? Well, there has been a lot of research on the likely consequences of a pandemic. Because of expected high rates of absenteeism, you can expect supply chain disruptions. These supply chain disruptions may be extremely pervasive, even effecting local utilities. Where I live, 50% of our electricity relies on coal. If coal miners, transportation workers, and utility district employees are absent due to personal illness or sick family members, there could be serious interruptions of service. A failure at any or all of these supply chain points would be devastating. Then think about all the people it takes to produce the groceries at your market, to transport them to the market, to put them on the shelves for you to buy... Now, imagine if only half the normal number of people reported to work for an extended period of time.
HHS Secretary Michael O. Leavitt is on the record, repeatedly stating, "pandemics happen." He says there is no reason to believe that one will not happen again. What has changed the most since 1918 in our society is not the ability of healthcare to deal with a pandemic, but with our economy's ability to cope. Since 1918, we have developed a "just in time" economy. We go to the grocery store once a week, or more. Stores rely on shipments nearly every day to keep their shelves full. Hospitals operate at near peak census every day. The supplies on hand are what they need, not what they would like to have in case of a large and extended surge of patients. Indeed, when PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) like N95 respirators, gloves, and isolation gowns run out at the hospital level, the majority of nurses asked at allnurses.com say they would stop coming to work. We have to be prepared to provide care for sick loved ones at home.
On average, a pandemic strikes three times per century. The last influenza pandemic was in the sixties, and it was unusually mild. We are overdue. What's more, we don't store food the way our parents and grandparents did. We are more dependant on municipal water sources, which also rely on just in time deliveries of the chemicals required to make them safe to drink. Storing food and water should be on everyone's minds. The Federal Government has spoken on this issue. Any local government that depends on the them to be a lifeline if they don't prepare is "tragically wrong." The government will not be able to meet your basic needs in the event of a severe pandemic.
Everyone should consider storing food, water, medical supplies, alternate sanitation, means to prepare food, and maybe even a personal supply of PPE. (WHO guidelines recommend at the minimum N95 respirators.) If you haven't done so yet, you should look at your preps to see if you should expand them to cover the specific threat of Pandemic Influenza. Many scientists who are experts in pandemic influenza are making personal preparations. Perhaps you should, too!
There is an important piece of legislation coming up for discussion at HHS.
http://www.newfluwiki2.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1834
These discussions are critical to how funding is spent. It is my opinion that informing the public of the facts needs to be adequately funded. Preparing for a pandemic has to begin at the individual level, and people will not do that if they don't have the facts. Many agencies are hesitant to get the message out there because they think the public will panic. Risk communicators everywhere are struggling with how to inform the public in a way that will get them to take action without causing a panic. On another front, there is a certain political stance that is quick to point to disaster planning as fear-mongering. Unless the informed make their voices heard, a great many people will never see this coming.
http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/55401/
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-06-2007/0004698457&EDATE=
http://readymoms.org/
DIGG chat in Jeritopia
Friday - November 9th - 10 PM est
Everything you always wanted to know about Digg,
but were afraid to ask.
Yes, this is a Jericho chat room but everyone is welcome. You will have to register. Come see why Digg is so important to every fan of every show.
We will also be discussing having a Digg Day with the theme broadened to include topics of importance to and provided by multiple fandoms.
"Just ask the cast and crew of "Jericho" how much losing momentum could be a killer.
Last season, networks experimented with long mid-season breaks, similar to what SciFi Channel had been doing for years with shows like "Stargate SG-1" and "Stargate: Atlantis." Except it happened with disastrous results.
"Heroes" and "Lost" both suffered significant drops in their ratings when they returned after a lengthy mid-season hiatus, and "Jericho" went from being an early season standout to a late-season near-flop, to the point that CBS pulled the plug."
"This November sweeps is like no other sweeps period in memory. There are few of the stunts that the networks famously used in years past to boost ratings of local affiliates for setting ad rates, but there're lots of other issues for media buyers to ponder, and not the least of which is the strike by the Writers Guild of America that began yesterday. ABC is expected to win sweeps because of the high quality of its new and returning shows, and that's not expected to change--primetime shows have been backed up--but it's anyone's guess when it comes to late night, which will see the effect immediately, and daytime, which could be hurting shortly."
"Ultimately, the legacy of a prolonged strike could reduce the audience for network TV at a time when it has already been losing viewers for years to cable, DVDs and the Internet. Numbers from May 2007 show that the combined viewership of the four major broadcast networks - ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox - dropped by 2.5 million from the previous spring.
The last time there was a 22- to 23-week strike [in 1988], the networks lost 10 percent of their audience," says David Bianculli, TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air and tvworthwatching.com. "That's a huge chunk, and they'll lose at least that much now. It's going to be more and more difficult to convince viewers to come back."
"Margie & Edna have a message for CBS"
"Anyhow, since Jericho’s been jerked around all over the place since being brought back for a second season, Margie and Edna are back to talk about loyalty and neighborliness."
Anyone Loves TV
I haven't seen this blog before today.
DIGG chat in Jeritopia
Friday - November 9th - 10 PM est
Everything you always wanted to know about Digg,
but were afraid to ask.
Yes, this is a Jericho chat room but everyone is welcome. You will have to register. Come see why Digg is so important to every fan of every show.
We will also be discussing having a Digg Day with the theme broadened to include topics of importance to and provided by multiple fandoms.
"A History of Fans Getting Their Show Back"
The Monster Fan of the Week is LisiBee.
LisiBee is a Jericho fan who has been an asset in everything Jericho related.
She Diggs, makes wonderful videos, has great ideas, and comments on Jericho articles.
She's always willing to lend a helping hand and she's a true friend to all.
We would all all be lost without her. She is a calm, rational, reasonable voice when times are chaotic, irrational, and unreasonable.
Last but not least, she is the Edna in Margie and Edna. Margie would be nothing without Edna but don't repeat that!
Congratulations and thank you for everything you do.
Here's a little something for LisiBee and other Supernatural fans.
Look here.
From Rich at Copywrite Ink:
"As Jericho fans know, the strike could return Jericho to the small screen much earlier than as a truncated midseason show in January. But as the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for.
Coming back as a Band Aid for CBS would mean limited promotion time prior to a start date (not that CBS seems like it would go gangbusters on it anyway). This also assumes Jericho fans and new viewers will be satisfied with some lower budget solutions that made it impossible to pick up where the season one cliffhanger left off. And, with only seven shows in the can, even if season two was a hit, fans would once again find themselves looking at yet another long wait between seasons."
**I have been blogging Jericho for 7 days a week since May.
It's time to take a break and I've chosen Sundays as my day off.
Thank you all for understanding. Be back Monday.
Do you love Sprague Grayden?
Then go here.
When you are making out your Christmas card list this year, please
include
the following:
A Recovering American soldier
c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue,NW
Washington,D.C. 20307-5001
"Hollywood hunk and actor best known for his portrayal of Malcolm Reynolds on Joss Whedon’s cult-classic FireFly, Nathan Fillion has been keeping busy as of late, but apparently he’s not too busy to lighten his carbon footprint. When asked by The Blue Penny what he was doing as his part for the environment, he kindly sent back a reply that reeked of sincere charm as well as eco-friendliness."
"For season three, the CW television series Supernatural has brought in fresh faces to add to the cast and stir up some trouble. Los Angeles native Katie Cassidy and British actress Lauren Cohan join the cast as Ruby and Bella, respectively. After lessons in gymnastics, piano, guitar, singing and dancing, the 20-year-old Cassidy -- daughter of The Partridge Family star David Cassidy -- decided to pursue a career in acting. Relatively unknown to American audiences, Cohan is excited to be a part of a show that is already showing in England."
