The Governator

With Rocky donning the boxing gloves and dancing around the ring like it was 1976, media attention has turned to other aging mega super stars to find out newsworthy events which happened recently.

Another former action hero of yesteryear (now turned California Governor) has fractured his right femur while skiing with his family in Sun Valley, Idaho, during the weekend. Arnold Schwarzenegger underwent a 90-minute operation in which cables and screws were used to wire the broken bone back together. Arnold could be heard yelling, "I'll be back" (somewhat reminiscent of his role in Terminator), while under heavy medication and being rushed into surgery.

"Luckily any Collateral Damage from the accident was contained better than his movie of the same title. ," said Dr. Kevin Ehrhart, who performed the operation at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, and also repaired former President Reagan's broken hip in 2001.

Officials have not said which trail the governor was skiing at Sun Valley when he broke his leg. The resort has a black diamond trail dubbed "Arnold's Run" in honor of Schwarzenegger. The resort is considering renaming the bunny hill "Last Action Hero". Best Wishes to Arnold for a speedy recovery...maybe Stallone could give him some training tips?

North Korean Army Gains R-E-S-P-E-C-T...Aretha Style!

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is reported to have found a rousing way of boosting morale among his troops - by giving them karaoke machines.

North Korea has one of the world's largest manned armies, but levels of training, discipline and equipment are reported to be low.

"I plan to send more song-accompanying machines to the People's Armed Forces," Kim Jong-il was quoted as saying by the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the Workers Party of Korea, according to Japan's Kyodo news agency.

He told a meeting of military commanders that "the atmosphere changed completely" among troops when they started to sing along to the tunes on the machine. He also noted that soldiers and officers competed with each other to get the highest scores.

Kim keeps track of the number of karaoke machines sent out to each troop division by writing it down in a notebook, according to the Rodong Sinmun. Let's hope he doesn't lose that notebook in Karaoke Bar!

You're analog

A new episode of the absolutely fabulous show Rewired is up at our main site www.bionicbuddha.com. In this episode, the good professor Brown examines the benefits of the rollercycle and leads you to find old school analog and rotary type phone plug-ins for your cell phone. It's pretty cool stuff. As always, the professor is a charmer. Not as much can be said for his sidekick Steve. You can check out the episode on our homepage as it is featured there or go to the episode and television page for the latest installment here. Enjoy.

Satanklaas

We at bionicbuddha recently came across some interesting tidbits about the muddled origins of Santa. The oriniginal Santa was Dutch and known as Sinterklaas. Back in the day, about 325 AD, good old pious St. Nicholas and his sidekick "Black Peter" would roam the country side rewarding good children with candy, while whipping or beating the bad ones. There are also indications that the dynamic duo would also paint the faces of the bad children black. Make of it what you will, I've seen Roots and it sounds like Santa had a whole lot of slave labour, if you catch my drift.
Is Santa really that bad a guy now? Here's more, the original Dutch name, again that's Sinterklaas, means Klaus of the sinders...which is another name for Thor. To the church, Santa is known as Saint Nick, while Thor on the other hand was known as old Nick. Old Nick is also the name for someone else that's awfuly fond of red...the underworld (not born slippy), fire and brimstone...anyone?
Finally, before 1931 the image of Santa ranged from big to small and fat to thin. What happened in 31 you say? Artist Haddon Sundblom created the image that we all accept today as being Santa for Coca Cola. Now, have a Coke and a smile and enjoy Christmas.

Top 5 Game Shows of All Time

The Price Is Right

Who can forget Plinko, contestant’s row, and of course the Showcase Showdown? Bob Barker, in his prime could have easily run for congress and won. "Oh, and by the way, you’ve just won a new car"!

Jeopardy!

I’ll take Game Show trivia for for $500, Alex. That’s what makes “Jeopardy!” such a treasure. I perosnally think that Ken Jennings incredible 74-game winning streak was a conspiracy to win back some of the game show marketshare from Regis...but it sure worked. He took home over $3 million in total prizes and the country was glued to the set.

Let's Make a Deal

I don’t care how much I need a new dining room table, I’m not dressing up as a chicken on national television. It could be a grand piano or a box of macaroni and cheese. And who could resist a "Monty Hual"?

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

“Do you want to use a lifeline?,” “Should we ask the audience?,” “Is that your final answer?” When the $1 million was won the first time, it made the front page of USA Today. Of course, ABC, began to show too many episodes and the game soon lost its appeal...but it did have a good run.

Press Your Luck

"Big Money. No Whammies!" The phrase became a mantra for a generation (OK that might be a bit ambitious); but it was good entertainment value. The game show actaully was responsible for launching the career of day time talk show host Jenny Jones. It also introduced Michael Larson, a self-described unemployed ice cream truck driver who became famous for using a VCR to beat the network and show producers. Larson discovered that the presumed random patterns of the game board were not random; instead, they lit up in one of only five preset patterns. Larson identified two spaces on the gameboard where the Whammy would never appear and which always contained money plus a free spin, allowing him to increase his score and also retain control. Larson was able to memorize the sequences to help him stop the board where and when he wanted. On the single game in which he appeared, Larson hit a Whammy on his first spin, but then spun 45 times without hitting a Whammy, earning a total of $110,237. His total was a record for a single appearance on a daytime network game show up to that time. Stick that in your pipe, Bob Barker!!

SansL'BacT'esRiens

This new video goes out to our friend Freak Magnet. Check out bionicbuddha.com and V5TV's latest episode of Vsides it features a music video from French guitar sensation Karl Bourdin and Bob from Watcha. The song is called, SansL'BacT'esRiens. Watch it on the homepage at www.bionicbuddha.com or check out the episode page here.

Life Imitating Art

Chief Joe Winkle, of the Muncie, Indiana police force, has suggested Erik Estrada has put himself in a good position to become a reserve police officer. I wonder if those years of filming are going to come in handy for the former CHiPs star in terms of previous relevant experience? Workplace hazzards for an actor in Hollywood might be more related to over exposure of UV rays as opposed to over exposure of gun shots on the tough streets of Muncie.

“He’s doing well. He’s 57 years old. He never stopped on the mile-and-a-half run. So we were impressed,” Winkle told a local radio station. “He also knocked out the push-ups pretty easy. So for 57, he looks pretty good.” That sounds like a glowing recommendation to me...he might even be a candidate for the olympics, or at least a Rocky sequel.

Apparently, the actor who played "Ponch" Poncherello is in a group, trying out for the Muncie force for an upcoming reality show, including La Toya Jackson and Wee Man. Jackson failed part of the physical strength test and will get some additional training. I guess she may not quite be the physical speciman that "Ponch" exudes. Perhaps next time they could try to get William Shatner as a potential partner for Wee Man...I'm not sure which of these would strike more fear into the street hoodlums of Muncie.