Sputnik's New Writeups

Cadillac Escalade (thing)

2002-11-28T03:33:02Z

A three ton monster of an SUV from the make with a reputation for monstrosities. The 2003 AWD model's 6 liter, 8 cylinder engine adds 13.6 tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere each year. The city fuel economy is 12 mpg. Drivers are perched so high it is difficult to see rearward, necessitating a radar device to assist in parking. Woe betide the Geo Metro driver behind one of these behemoths backing up. They cost 50 grand and won't be much fun once gas is scarce.

Hutchison Whampoa Limited (thing)

2002-09-05T17:52:27Z

A Hong Kong-based conglomerate controlled by billionaire Li Ka-Shing. It's the most substantial entity owned by Cheung Kong Holdings Limited which is in turn the flagship of the Cheung Kong group, of which Li is the chairman. Hutchison Whampoa's biggest businesses are in port operations (Hutchison Port Holdings), telecoms (Hutchison Telecommunications), real estate (Hutchison Whampoa Property), manufacturing (A S Watson), and energy (Cheung Kong Infrastructure).

A controversy erupted when in 1996 Hutchison Port Holdings was awarded the contract to operate ports on both sides of the Panama Canal. Right-wingers warned direly against letting the "Red Chinese" control such a strategic passage, but the deal went ahead and the Panama Ports Company, Hutchison's local subsidiary, has done a great deal of upgrading since taking control.

Hutchison Whampoa was created in 1977 when Hutchison International Limited, fresh off an acquisition spree, merged with Hongkong and Whampoa…

Egg Man (person)

2002-08-14T05:54:59Z

The character played by Paul Swift in John Waters' Pink Flamingos. Divine's movie mother, played by Edith Massie is an overweight old woman (confined to a playpen) with the mind of an infant and a penchant for eggs. These are delivered by the Egg Man, whose arrival Edie is anxiously awaiting when we are introduced to her. Her joy at his arrival is intense and she stares lovingly at him as he demonstrates the variety of eggs he has brought in his briefcase. In the end, he asks for her hand in marriage and the two are wed.

"Oh, Mr. Egg Man, I love you so much! Even if I do love my own eggies just a little bit better."

Rio (thing)

2002-06-12T20:42:58Z

A series of portable mp3 players introduced by Diamond Multimedia (which became SonicBlue after merging with S3). The PMP300 was the first portable mp3 player ever sold, with a price over $100 for a 32MB unit that was only expandable with then-expensive Smart Media cards, and even then only to 64MB. It had a vestigal menu button that just messed up the screen and could only display about as much track information as your average Discman, but they sold well. Other Rio models include the Rio Volt (an mp3 CD player) and the Rio Riot (a hard disc-based mp3 player).

Gary W. Corbin (person)

2001-11-12T18:07:58Z

A street preacher who comes without fail to Harvard Square every Saturday night to embarass himself and his associates. His preferred location is the sidewalk at the intersection of Mass Ave and JFK St., right next to the MBTA elevator. He's a fair-sized white man in his 50s who wears a red baseball cap which reads "Jesus Saves". He carries a bible, from which he reads (randomly chosen, for all anyone can tell) passages in a hoarse, loud, and not very sincere voice. And NOBODY listens to him except for the faithful opposition, a crowd of pagans, goths, and Satanists who have nothing better to with their Saturday nights than to circle around the Screaming Preacher and shout their latest inane taunts and (not very) clever rebuttals of Christianity. He is their entertainment, and they are his. If you try to engage him logically, you will find that he soon resorts to simple denials of anything beyond his beliefs and attempts to ignore you. His…

IUCN (thing)

2001-11-08T23:24:14Z

Acronym for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, a worldwide body of NGOs, scientists, government agencies and other organizations founded in 1948 and dedicated to preserving biodiversity. They are also the publishers of the Red List indicating the animal and plant species most likely to die out in the near future, i.e. endangered species. Their list is assigns species for which data is available one of 6 categories -- Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable (these last three are all referred to as threatened) and Lower Risk. The current list, available at redlist.org, includes 5,428 threatened animal species and 5,611 threatened plant species. The IUCN is headquartered in Gland, Switzerland. Its work is divided between 6 commissions, the largest of which is the Species Survival Commission.