Ground Zero 1945: Pictures by Atomic Bomb Survivors. Astonishing works created more than 25 years after the event, many accompanied by artist's comments. [disturbing, possibly NSWF artworks] [more inside]
posted by fire&wings on Jun 28, 2009 - 71 comments

Sophie Tucker, thought dead for four months, has been surviving alone by living off of feral goats on a deserted island.

Not the actress. She's still dead.
posted by miss lynnster on Apr 6, 2009 - 50 comments

Menorahs glowed in almost every living room window during Hanukkah. Hasidic Jews streamed down the streets on Friday night and Saturday morning, walking to and from synagogue services. "There was total freedom," marvels Magda Brown, 81, who survived Auschwitz. But inside their homes, at night, the survivors—and their families—were roiled by their pasts. The rest of Skokie did not know the troubles that stirred behind the immaculate facades of the close-packed houses.

[more inside]
posted by scody on Dec 14, 2008 - 5 comments

And then there was one.
posted by pjern on Nov 8, 2007 - 10 comments

It sounds like a bad Newfie joke: the Newfoundlanders who had never seen a black person before and tried to scrub the colour off his skin. But the story is real: in 1942, Lanier Phillips was the only black survivor of the wreck of the USS Truxton off the coast of Newfoundland. Like the white survivors, he was half-dead and covered in oil when he arrived on shore, and the women nursing the survivors were puzzled when they could not clean the black colour off his skin. What happened next affected Phillips' self-perception and prompted him to push for equal treatment in the US Navy. He went on to become the first African American US SONAR technician, and continues today, at the age of 84, to speak across the US about his experience with the people of St. Lawrence. [previously]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl on Aug 28, 2007 - 39 comments

Road Closed for Tribal Council: Vunivutu Villagers Latest Beneficiaries of the Survivor Boomtown Effect
The hit "reality" TV show, Survivor, premieres tonight on CBS in the United States. Over the past year, a sleepy village on Vanua Levu, the second largest island of Fiji has been hosting the production crew—and reaping the benefits. 150 villagers have been employed by the crew to work about 10 hours a day, seven days a week, for USD 5.00 per hour (and double time on Sundays and holidays). For some it was their first experience in any form of paid employment. This article from the Fiji Post, reposted by a Vanua Levu blogger, gives some behind the scene details. Meanwhile the island's new eco-resort village is putting finishing touches on their community hall. Globe-trotting gap year students and reality TV junkies, look north. Vanua Levu is for lovers. [Survivor Maps, Vorovoro, the eco-resort with a difference, Vorovoro's new bure (community hall), Google's hires satellite image of the area]
posted by rschram on Feb 8, 2007 - 3 comments

Survivor: Cook Islands' 20 castaways will be grouped by race, with competitors divided into four tribes consisting of whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics. If your reaction is "oof," you are not alone. But host Jeff Probst says, "I found it to be one of the freshest ideas we’ve had going back to the beginning of this show."
posted by amro on Aug 23, 2006 - 102 comments

Oh, the irony. This season of Survivor (premiering tonight!), CBS will offer $1.99 video downloads of each episode on its own site, bypassing middlemen such as iTunes and Google Video. The catch? Your download "survives" only 24 hours after you buy it. Remember how well DIVX did?
posted by mkultra on Feb 2, 2006 - 35 comments

A thin, white garment embroidered with flowers. This was the only possession of Lola Rein as she hid for seven months in a hole in the ground to escape the Nazis, and the only connection to the mother who had made it for her.
posted by scody on May 9, 2005 - 20 comments

"Survivor" winner Richard Hatch didn't declare his million bucks to the IRS. He'll be arraigned Jan 24.
posted by CunningLinguist on Jan 18, 2005 - 53 comments

Let me on survivor!!! Oh the lack of justice! Canadians make up 10% of the Survivor audience and yet the show doesn't want to allow canadians to be on the show. This young courageous man wants to change the rules, and he thinks he qualifies to be a good survivor. Because after all 'Canadians live in igloos 50% of the year, so we're perfect for outdoor survival reality-tv shows '. So he's on a crusade to be the first canadian citizen on the show, and ask people to sign his petition.
posted by Sijeka on Dec 17, 2004 - 40 comments

           This November
  Voters Will Go To The Polls
       And Elect A President
       But More Importantly
       They Will Also Select
        The Supreme Court

 And now, the ultimate reality show

     Supreme Court Survivor

     (courtesy of Michael Bérubé)
posted by y2karl on Nov 1, 2004 - 4 comments

Republican Survivor The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has created a cartoon "Republican Survivor." Read the profiles of the contestants. You can vote them out after each "episode." The National Republican Committee says that they are just "Playing with cartoons." But I think it's friggin hilarious.
posted by aacheson on Jun 9, 2004 - 3 comments

Blog-a-Log. Nerve crosses blogging/personals with Survivor.
posted by dobbs on May 17, 2004 - 1 comment

The Quest announced by LitKicks marries sudden fiction (and poetry, and nonfiction) workshop dynamics to a survivor-like competitive format, starting October 1, with six winners to be published in a book featuring the best work from the Quest. It's open to all, costs $20 to enter, and requires a free membership in the LitKicks site, which is a thriving online literary community as it is. More info in the FAQ. I think this may work better for me than NaNoWriMo would.
posted by xian on Sep 16, 2003 - 4 comments

Survivor Sucks A nice little site which rips every reality show apart quite nicely, but my favorite is the "Off Topic" section where threads on any subject offer up some of the best trolling/flamebait and some very funny comments. More inside...
posted by Mack Twain on Apr 15, 2003 - 9 comments

Sims Survivor: Season Two 8 Sims left to their own devices in a Survivor/Big Brother parody. The original was posted back in March.
posted by juicyraoul on Sep 3, 2002 - 2 comments

Sims Survivor - 8 contestants left alone in a house. When the food runs out, who do you think will win? Follow it day by day. Great idea!
posted by Jubey on Mar 19, 2002 - 14 comments

Survivor III Finale Flawed. If there's any doubt still that this show is a complete waste of time, check out this "news" tidbit that CBS is doing a good job of squashing. Turns out the ending was flawed; the other finalists have now been paid handsomely to behave.
posted by Fofer on Feb 22, 2002 - 13 comments

New Survivor 4 Contestants Announced Sixteen back-stabbing, over-competitive, fame-seeking, hunger-loving castaway wannabes were announced this morning on CBS' Survivor site. Fewer people watched the mother-of-all-American-reality-TV-shows in it's last incarnation in Africa - will this one in the Marquesas continue the ratings slide?
posted by stevis on Feb 6, 2002 - 10 comments

The East Coast knows... Survivor Africa is over. You may not have noticed it ever starting... But Kim, Lex, Ethan, or Tom won. I'll let someone else spoil the surprise for those West Coast viewers.
posted by jacobw on Jan 10, 2002 - 11 comments

Survivor 4 Completes Filming in the Marquesas
    Supposedly this was a big secret, but if you live in Tahiti and the Marquesas, it was public knowledge that the next Survivor series will be set in Nuku Hiva, in the Marquesas Islands (Map: French Polynesia).
    Of note, people have been trading gossip about the show's many secrets. This site release regular reports on what's afoot on Nuku Hiva, and speculates on the content of next season's show. Unlike the last settings for Survivor, Nuku Hiva is convenient for tourists (Map: Nuku Hiva Amenities), and is densely populated by Marquesans and Tahitians. This must have been the leakiest Survivor ever.
    It may be worth watching next year, just for the scenery! (Scroll down for pics.)
posted by rschram on Dec 28, 2001 - 19 comments

CBS posts 'Survivor: Africa' cast profiles If reality TV is even marginally relevant to anyone anymore, the bios of the latest Survivor contestants have been posted. My questions are: 1. are these people representative of the American population at large? Almost all of the women list In Style magazine as their favorite and one picks "shopping and ads" as her favorite section of the newspaper... and 2. will more or less people be watching Survivor post-WTC tragedy?
posted by popvulture on Sep 25, 2001 - 26 comments

online reality games go straight to the gutter first survivorer, then survivorblog, then survivorblog 2, then survivorcam, then survivorer 2, then puppetmaster... now another incarnation of survivorcam. how much more can we take? flame me now. kthx.
posted by notoriousbhc on Sep 21, 2001 - 141 comments

Jerri from Survivor poses for Playboy - with her burning man pendant hanging around her neck... ...and not much else.
posted by cadence on Jul 25, 2001 - 55 comments

As a sort-of follow up to yesterday's discussion of "whatever-happened-to-the-Big Brother (UK) Housemates", here's a funny little story about what Rudy Boesch is up to these days. We all (may) remember Rudy as the politically incorrect ex-Navy Seal from the first edition of Survivor (US), won by Richard Hatch. Nice to see fame hasn't changed him.
posted by msacheson on Jul 12, 2001 - 0 comments

Name That Tune, Mr. Spock! Finding two of the same unforeseeable thing online entirely by accident raises an eyebrow. Can you name all the tunes in Glenn McDonald's Audiotests or the equivalent faux-Survivor task by Ron Yeany et al.? (The latter links directly to an MP3 file. See contest page.) ¶ Also, Glenn (ibid.) has an hilarious photo album. And who can explain the reference in the title of this posting?
posted by joeclark on Jun 17, 2001 - 4 comments

"He doesn't say please, he doesn't say thank you." Yeah, it's Survivor, British-style. A natural leader with survival experience emerges, gets his tribe organised, and is promptly voted out in the quietest of revolutions. My American girlfriend, who'd watched Colby marshal his people through the Outback season, is visibly gobsmacked. ("I really couldn't do psychology in this country.") Different levels of power distance at work?
posted by holgate on May 22, 2001 - 12 comments

Survivor begat SurvivorBlog, which begat SurvivorCam!
posted by owillis on May 15, 2001 - 7 comments

Are the Conservatives actively trying to lose votes amongst the 18-24 demographic? Whilst executives at the BBC are rapidly losing their nerve when it comes to home grown programming, Channel 4 has consistently experimented with new formats and programming styles. The intent of the Blue party seems to facilitate the blanding out of television. Would a privatised C4 have the nerve to show its excellent history programmes in primetime? You can expect it will only lead to attitudes like those expressed by the producers of the US version of 'Survivor'.
posted by feelinglistless on May 10, 2001 - 18 comments

Somehow We Survived Survivor 2 "Sunshine" Tina wins, for those who care and for those who don't. Poor Bryant Gumbel... I can't believe he got conned into hosting last night's "special." And we'll never understand why Colby didn't pick Keith to go up against in the final vote, which would've all but guaranteed his own win of the $1 million grand prize. And now, back to your regularly scheduled summer reruns...
posted by yarf on May 4, 2001 - 30 comments

It's almost over! and just a few thousand moments too late for most. Unfortunately Survivor 2 isn't the end. With the impending writer's strike still looming over Hollywood, reality programming will become even more commonplace, and may sound the death knell for television. Unless they actually start getting good. [more]
posted by ZachsMind on May 3, 2001 - 15 comments

The winner of Survivor II may have leaked... but CNN and other media won't report it. "Everyone wants to do it," one exec said, "it will just come down to who has the guts to do it first." Possible spoiler? Misinformation?
posted by tranquileye on Apr 30, 2001 - 11 comments

Survivor is filled with crap for sale - so why can't I find that groovy Panama hat Colby wears for sale, anywhere?
posted by subpixel on Apr 29, 2001 - 3 comments

Survivor: Monster Island Destroy All Monsters takes on Survivor with a cast of monsters from Japanese films. This looks much more exciting than CBS's show, and the quotes are better to:

Ghidorah has aspirations beyond mindless destruction. "You know what I always wanted to do? Musicals. West Side Story. This 'harass the human race' stuff gets old after a while, ya know?"

posted by DragonBoy on Mar 27, 2001 - 10 comments

What is with the word 'Survivor' lately? First there was the book by Chuck Palahniuk, then came along the "reality" television show (Don't forget the Survivor Soundtrack) and now there is Destiny's Child new album and single called, yep, "Survivor". Oh, and don't forget the "Survivor" movie based on the book coming out later this year. Last, but not least is the owner of Survivor.com, Survivor Software.
My question is, how come there are not hundreds of lawsuits being thrown around for rights to this name?
posted by Mark on Mar 20, 2001 - 15 comments

Casting call goes out for Survivor III CBS issues a cattle call for idiots to broadcast their idiocy on national TV this fall. Is it me, or are the two current cast members who work in the computer industry total dolts or what? Who's the bigger embarassment to the high-tech industry, this guy or this guy?
posted by darren on Feb 16, 2001 - 19 comments

Stacy sues Survivor. She claims that producer Mark Burnett urged Dirk and Sean to vote against her rather than against Rudy, in hopes that the last older contestant would not be booted.
posted by rafeco on Feb 6, 2001 - 17 comments

dear debb- we're all going to have sex with each other and you're not invited! -kucha

[you're all bitches. -debb]
posted by palegirl on Jan 28, 2001 - 20 comments

24 hours to go. Am I the only one who can't wait for the new tribes to square off? Place your bets at SurvivorDeadPool.
posted by Basta on Jan 27, 2001 - 13 comments

SurvivorBlog2 - Crazier than the first time around Now, if only Yahoo would add this as a module for my start page. For those who followed SurvivorBlog1, all the old contestants are back in the peanut gallery and there's a heap load of drama, cat fights, & smack talking going around for SB2. Sick, twisted, embarrassingly addictive.
posted by jujubee on Jan 26, 2001 - 9 comments

"Space Survivor" deal is cut to the tune of 40 million. Watch in drooling wonder as perky americans from every age/race/sex demographic go though the trials of a "Survivor" race to be an astronaut- on Mir!! Wasn't Mir supposed to be ditched in the ocean years ago?
posted by metasak on Sep 12, 2000 - 7 comments

Not seen on TV! Survivor Episode.
posted by tamim on Aug 30, 2000 - 0 comments

SURVIVORblog. . . It had to happen eventually.
posted by iceberg273 on Aug 30, 2000 - 1 comment

{{{Spoiler Alert}}} The exercise in broadcast shame has crowned an evil queen.
posted by Awol on Aug 23, 2000 - 6 comments

"And you're little dog, too!" (via Taken Outtacontext in an unrelated post). Finally someone puts this whole Survivor nonsense into terms I can understand. The PC-types are going to be all over Stuever on this one, but damn it's funny!
posted by m.polo on Aug 23, 2000 - 4 comments

CBS said NO! Reebok said yes.

If you have watched survivor, many of you may have noticed the ads for Reebok that push the limits of your imagination... somewhat. Now, watch the ad that CBS won't air. But Reebok has kindly put up on their website.

Is this a new low for TV? Or just another barrier being breached?
posted by da5id on Aug 7, 2000 - 1 comment

One of the best media manipulations of modern times: CBS and Mark Burnett fool everyone about the ultimate Survivor. For weeks now, it's been more or less common knowledge that Gervase was going to be the last one standing on the island. Why? The two main reasons: An unused graphic discovered in the bowels of CBS.com's site showing all the contestants with Xs over their faces, except for Gervase; and a quick snippet of a Tribal Council in the opening credits a few weeks back showing only four people, one of whom was Gervase. There have been other bits of evidence conveniently popping up lately, such as reports that Gervase has been seen driving around Philly in an expensive new sports car. So guess who got voted off last night?
posted by aaron on Aug 3, 2000 - 13 comments

Babe in a Bottle? One could only hope so!!! Will Jenna from survivor pose nude for Playboy? Will Colleen change her mind from "no" to "yes"??? Who would you like to see in Playboy??? Does anyone here besides the sexist men care?
posted by da5id on Aug 2, 2000 - 7 comments

For you Survivor fans, this is how it REALLY ought to be done. (Is anyone surprised that John "Daikatana" Romero was first to die? Who do you think will be the last man standing?)
posted by Steven Den Beste on Jul 19, 2000 - 5 comments