Alien refugees in South Africa

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The new sci-fi movie called District 9 tells the tale of an alien species looking for refuge on earth. Their craft ends up above the city of Johannesburg in South Africa. The humans force the aliens to live in a slum (pictured), called District 9. For today’s quiz, we want to know the name of the real-life slum just outside of Johannesburg where the movie was filmed. Geoffrey York, Africa bureau chief of Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper has the answer for you. >>>Click here for a District 9 trailer.

World Books Review: The Old Maid’s Tale

All great anti-utopian novels focus on a disturbing aspect of the present, pushing it to its most horrific conclusions. In “1984,” it’s the panoptic police state. In “Brave New World,” the sexualization and Americanization of England. In “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the subjugation of women through the sanctification of childbirth. In Ninni Holmqvist’s “The Unit,” the issue in question is the way the childless, especially the childless elderly, are looked down upon as irrelevant.