Wipe The Smile Off Your Dial
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday April 6, 2000
Insight, 8.30pm, SBS: Rail commuters, tired of being approached on a daily basis by touts for the mobile phone industry - surely among the most rapacious of the new technologies - might be tempted to purchase a phone plan just to get it over with. To join all the other drearies who enjoy "dialling" one another on a whim to make such penetrating observations as: "I'm on the train, I'll phone you later." But so-ooo comforting for those who hear voices in their head and bravely disguise the fact by posing with their cellular. Now other voices are being heard outside the cacophonic babble of digital communications, suggesting that not only do walkabout phones cause unpleasant social situations, they may not be as safe as they need to be. Laboratory rats - who don't use telephones under normal circumstances - have been shown to suffer cell damage when exposed to electro-magnetic emissions ... bad news indeed for people who enjoy walking about with a tame rat in their lughole. Tonight's Insight program asks: Who sets the standards? The Herald's Cellular Phone Writer, Dr Gavin Owlpoke of the Ponds Institute, did not return our call ... An ominous sign, surely?
Neighbours, 6.30pm, 10: Are a fool and his money soon parted? Only a very silly person would squander half an hour finding out, as Lou, eschewing the temptations of the blue sky share market, invests $1,000 on the outcome of a cricket match. How very Australian! Others have been known to pay this much for an opinion about the weather. Meanwhile, in Emu Springs, there's a good deal of excitement over a game of darts.
Soccer, 10pm, SBS: Oi! Iss ver UEFA Champions League. Tonight at Stamford Bridge, London, Chelsea trot out to have a shot at cracking FC Barcelona ... unbeaten in 12 UEFA league games. The Spanish side are missing their aces, Rivaldo and Ronald de Boer, but they have Patrick Kluivert on hand. The man to watch? Chelsea's Gustavo Poyet.
Stargate SG-1, 7.30pm, 7: If ever there was a system designed to weed out the drones and the trite suburban corsets ... a system that would empty Summer Bay and Ramsay Street in a twinkling, it's the Triad system obtaining in Tollan society. As SG-1 members discover when they are invited to attend an ancient Tollan judicial ceremony. Bless my soul and astrophone if the person on trial isn't Skaara. It seems Skaara is inextricably bonded to his host personality, Goau'uld Korel, and has applied for an amnesty under Tollan law. The Triad panel have to decide which of the competing personas will be given perpetual control over the host body. Will it be Korel or Skaara? Doubtless, Lou Carpenter would enjoy a flutter on this engaging example of choreo-graphed personality disorder.
© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald
