TV

Just looking at random stuff tonight, but this is sad.

Poor girl doesn’t have a chance, 14 and wearing hot pants on Letterman. We all have a good sense of how this ends.

No causation is implicated in the article; just correlation:

What Happy People Don’t Do

I watched Frontline’s 2-hour PBS documentary “The Choice” tonight (and you can, too). If someone’s an undecided voter, this docu won’t sway them, though it will inform them. If someone hasn’t been paying attention, then this will fill in most of the necessary bio/character info. (One detail not addressed: Barack is a poker player, and John is a craps player. Enough said.)

The Kerry/Bush side-by-side Frontline did was amazing; even a dork like me didn’t know the depth of the differences between the lives of those two men. I still refer to points it made in conversation. This election cycle’s docu was more forgettable, though solid. And, simply due to the timing of its production, it doesn’t examine anything post-conventions, which has clearly (Palin, the economy) been pivotal.

Huh. I was totally riveted to the screen tonight, even deferring a trip to the bathroom. A program like this is like porn for wonks. Yet this post is not a glowing endorsement of the show…

…maybe satire is the best way to examine this election. More power to the court jesters: Fey, Stewart, Colbert, hopefully Grier’s new show, and boy do I miss Chappelle.

Levi’s has been on my mind due to the mesmerizing woman in this commercial (her name is Julia Jones and she’s now a castmember on ER).

But now, there’s this most incredible and incredibly inappropriate 501 website. Which is your favorite?

Dr. Horrible

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y5eBRWQerY

That dapper band in the background is “Pulp.” Shatner covered this song (Common Peoples) on his 2004 album “Has Been.”

This has been your VH1 popup video moment of the blog.

“Walking as bad as driving for global warming” was the headline on Glenn Beck’s show.  This ‘news’ was based off this article:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2195538.ece

“Driving a typical UK car for 3 miles [4.8km] adds about 0.9 kg [2lb] of CO2 to the atmosphere,” a calculation based on the UK Government’s official fuel emission figures. “If you walked instead, it would use about 180 calories. You’d need about 100g of beef to replace those calories, resulting in 3.6kg of emissions, or four times as much as driving.

“The troubling fact is that taking a lot of exercise and then eating a bit more food is not good for the global atmosphere. Eating less and driving to save energy would be better.”

Ok, sure let’s not bring transport into the equation for gasoline, but just for food.  That makes sense.  Secondly, beef, milk?  Both inefficient ways to get calories.  What about the energy use of the treadmill that wouldn’t get used that day?

Point is, this article uses terrible ’science’ – an actual, thorough comparison was not done.  And Glenn Beck just reported it that way without actually doing any journalistic research.  Brilliant.  The message was “Why do anything?  Everything causes global warming.  Don’t let those liberals fool you that we can make any difference.”  Frankly, the reporting was so irresponsible I was disgusted.

Why is it that reality TV and gossip magazines are the new scapegoats for all the country’s troubles? Five years ago it was video games, before that it was rap music. This BBC article claims that people who watch reality TV or read gossip rags are either not interested in, or have no time for environmental issues.

Hmmm, I know several people whose careers are dedicated to environmental issues that also watch reality TV and/or read celeb magazines. After 40+ hours a week thinking and working on tough problems, a person just needs a break. You need some mindless entertainment to recharge. And if it’s not these things, it’s something else. I get no hangover from this guilty pleasure – which makes it easier to get right back to work. So why is celeb-watching and reality TV the new bane of existence? To me these arguments are simple-minded group-think.

Of course it is a problem when “reputable” news agencies spend hours a day reporting on celeb gossip. I haven’t watched CNN in a long time so I’ve been pretty shocked that more often than not when I flip it on lately, they’re discussing Britney Spears or some such. Whaaa? And some poor people get all their news from local newspapers and the 10 o’clock news. These outlets have always been full of fluff. That’s a problem