Smart!Gremlin with the glasses and the snooty accent.

Voiced by Tony Randall, no less. I like 2 better than the original, because they didn't even try to make it serious and just went for the gags. And John Glover as a benevolent cross between Ted Turner and Donald Trump was a riot as well.

Accord permits generic drugs

US pharmaceuticals lose monopoly rights

The World Trade Organisation yesterday sealed its agreement to allow poor countries to import cheap copies of patented drugs to fight killer diseases such as Aids, malaria and tuberculosis.

article

Eta, the agreement is not without it's critics however ...

The accord, hammered through the WTO's 146-member executive General Council, seeks to reassure patent-owning multinational firms their rights will be protected, while helping poor states fight diseases that kill millions each year, mainly in Africa.

"Today's WTO agreement that is ostensibly intended to get drugs to the poorest countries does not provide a workable solution," Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors without Borders (news - web sites)) and Oxfam said in a joint statement.

from yahoo article

Hey, kismet. I've just been re-reading Fences and Windows.

the agreement is not without it's critics however

I'm not entirely clear on what their criticisms are. Is it that they feel that if WTO implements 'soft' reform they can get away with not instituting more radical reform?

In other news, has anyone been watching the kids program Bootleg on ABC? I stumbled across it last week, and it's really clever and interesting. I'm not actually sure if it's set in Britain or Australia, because it's one of those joint productions. The idea is that a radical health party is in government and have banned chocolate. It's a brilliant scenario, and the writers have taken it and really run with it, exploiting any possibility for satire or parody. I mean, it practically screams USE ME IN THE CLASSROOM TO FOSTER DISCUSSION!!!! but I don't care, because I love that shows like this are getting made.

The idea is that a radical health party is in government and have banned chocolate.

Chocolate facists. Dear lord, the horror. And it's not like it's an easy thing to smuggle, y'know? There would be significant melting issues, methinks.

Chocolate facists. Dear lord, the horror. And it's not like it's an easy thing to smuggle, y'know? There would be significant melting issues, methinks.

Mmmmm, melted chocolate.

Belated heads up for Aussies: I just noticed that Miracles is on tonight in Buffy's old time slot, 10.30pm on Channel 7. Can someone remind me what the ME connection is? Is it David Greenwalt?

Ayup. I think it's really odd that 7 even bothered to buy that though, what with its early cancellation and all.

Greenwalt is about the only connection to Buffy -- I caught like two of the episodes and it wasn't half-bad, in an early X-Files way, with more of a focus on the religious side of the phenomenon. I'd advise not getting too fond of it, because there ain't going to be no more.

I think it's really odd that 7 even bothered to buy that though, what with its early cancellation and all.

As I understand it, shows like that come as part of package deal, it's like "pay us seventy squillion dollars for 24 and we'll throw in Miracles and a free set of steak knives."

with its early cancellation and all

Oh, okay, I didn't know this. Anyway, I taped it, just to see what it's like.

it's like "pay us seventy squillion dollars for 24 and we'll throw in Miracles and a free set of steak knives."

Heh. I want a squillion dollars just so I can lay claim to the grand title of 'squillionaire'. This is now my goal in life. (...and if someone would inform me that, in fact, a squillion dollars is something approximate to, say, fifteen bucks, that'd be a great help.)