WinSmith over at Daily Kos brings up a good point: if it is so impossible for private industry to compete with the government, how public television did not destroy commercial television?
In fact, how come PBS has had such little impact?
Archive for the ‘Television’ Category
This Is PBS
Posted in Health Care, Olympics, Soccer, Television on September 3, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Japanese Game Shows
Posted in Foreigners, Health Care, Television on August 15, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Japanese entertainment typically leaves something to be desired, at least for those of us who are not ADD fourteen year-olds with an abiding love of epileptic seizures, but every so often it comes up with a gem of Dada absurdity. Lady One Question, for example:
I thought of her while watching Lawrence O’Donnell try to get a straight answer out of John Culberson (R-Do You Have to Ask): (more…)
Short Boat
Posted in Miscellaneous, Television on July 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
There are few things as addictive as watching an incompetent crew of environmental activists traipsing around the Southern Ocean looking to throw things at the Japanese whaling fleet. If it’s Friday, it’s time for Whale Wars:
Le Tour
Posted in Sports, Television on July 13, 2009 | 2 Comments »
I hate bicycles.
They have never made much sense to me. I see the world as comprised of three distances – walking, driving, and flying – and have trouble understanding the appeal of a mode of transport that goes twenty miles an hour and leaves you sweaty. If you want to cover a modest distance in comfort and not worry about parking, walk. If it’s too long or you want to stay out of the elements or you have to carry something heavy, drive. The bike is useless for getting to work – it guarantees a disheveled arrival, assuming there is even somewhere to park the bike – and a ridiculously complex method of getting exercise – surely there is a way to work out without crossing several ZIP codes. And the bike is the mode of travel most likely to get in the way of another mode of travel; pedestrians are slow-moving, buses are visible, boats and planes and trains obviously stick to their own networks, but bikes are guaranteed to weave their way on and off sidewalks, between parked cars, and the wrong way down one-way streets. Not to mention that crowds of bikes somehow evoke the poverty of Maoist China. Can’t stand them.
Still, every summer there is something wonderfully addictive about watching the Tour de France.
Cenac Attack
Posted in Television on April 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Good reminder of the dangers facing the nation if the Democrats turn us into some European outpost…
Old People
Posted in Miscellaneous, Television on April 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Sham Wow
Posted in Miscellaneous, Television on March 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Seems the Sham Wow guy should have have just seen what was on the Setai’s TV at 4:00am. Unfortunately – in keeping with Bill Cosby’s comment that nothing good has ever happened between midnight and dawn – Vince Shlomi decided to to get a hooker. There are any number of reasons that could be a bad idea, but in this case, the hooker decided after kissing him that she would bite his tongue and not let go. Which led to Shlomi punching her, which led him to this glamour shot from the Miami cops:
Here is a booking photo of Sasha Harris, the hooker in question. Better than Divine Brown, I suppose, but still hardly worth rabies…
Stay Thirsty
Posted in Miscellaneous, Television on March 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Always a fan of beer commercials – why are they so much better than, say, car commercials – and saw this oldie last night on TV. Chuck Norris jokes pitching a terrible product – I’ll drink to that…
Full Stewart-Cramer Throwdown
Posted in Housing Crisis, Housing Policy, Meltdown, Television on March 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
So Jim Cramer when on the Daily Show last night, and the good people at Viacom are sufficiently pleased with the response that they have decided to post the full, unedited interview. So, in three parts, watch out for some naughty words:
It’s fun to pick on Cramer. He is a jerk, and he did not even pretend to defend himself but rather decided to sit back and let the storm tire itself out. But Stewart’s widely praised rant misses some very important points:
- CNBC is not the SEC, and is not meant to substitute for the SEC. CEOs choose to come on precisely because it is easy; they actively avoid 60 Minutes coverage. Are they trying to pump up their share price? Sure. But when Barack Obama speaks about the economy, he typically is not subject to rebuttal from someone saying “isn’t it true that by keeping AIG on life support you have effectively transferred an enormous amount of shareholder money to third parties without getting anything in return.” We do not have a culture, business or political, that insists on direct challenge – even our presidential “debates” would make for a boring day of Prime Minister’s Questions.
- Effective investing depends on a high savings rate and low-cost, diversified vehicles. But no one wants to see hours of Cramer saying “so, this Friday, remember to put some more money into your Vanguard account.” Folks want conflict and action; they want to believe they can day trade with the best of them. CNBC exists for those folks. Arguing with its efficacy is a bit like saying that because pro wrestling is fake, because a serious opponent would never sit still and let you set up the massive jump off the top buckle, it shouldn’t be on TV.
- The challenges in the investment banking model were considered, analyzed, and dismissed as improbable by plenty of people. Was anyone interested in being told for a decade that firms were undercapitalized for a housing decline? There was no shortage of information that housing was priced to perfection. Krugman wrote this in the summer of 2005. Patrick.net has been on the web for years. People are greedy, prone to herd mentality, and ultimately not particularly curious. They are, in short, human, and that is why so many are in mortgages they cannot afford. It does not mean we should do anything to keep them in the houses they currently occupy.
Rules Change
Posted in Basketball, Television on March 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Just watched the 6-overtime Syracuse-UConn game. It was the second-longest game in NCAA history, and one of those had-to-be-there moments, but it was also a bit odd watching a few tired bench warmers run the floor the last two periods as all the stars watched from the bench. How about this small rules change:
- At the beginning of overtime, move the maximum number of individual fouls from five to six. They are now playing a 45-minute game, after all. Any player who left with five fouls can come back to the floor, capture-the-flag style. Every other period (every ten minutes of game time), add another foul to give, so that in the third OT it would take seven fouls to foul out.
The number is sufficiently modest that a team would not adopt a variant of the Hack-a-Shaq, but should be enough to let the stars play. Plus it would open up all sorts of different last second strategies about playing for the tie versus the win depending on which players could come back in.
One more point – as you watch this video, do you notice anything strange about the court?
The college three-point line is in blue. I assume the coaches and players are told before the game that they are using the blue line. However, all the other lines on the court are white – the baseline, sideline, free throw line, lane. And there is a white line fairly close to the blue line, and there are 18,000 people screaming at you.
Several times during the game – it was a long game, so I lost count – a player between the blue and white lines stepped back behind the NBA line, or looked down to check his feet against the NBA line. If the tournament is important enough that they can paint the Big East logo on the floor it should be important enough that they can paint over the distracting markings.
