Exactly what the title says. This is really well done and worth 60 seconds of your time:
All articles in category: "Television,Videos"
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Doctor Who Battlestar Galactica
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Insurance companies secretly fund political speech
Who exactly didn’t see this one coming?
Just as dealings with the Obama administration and congressional Democrats soured last summer, six of the nation’s biggest health insurers began quietly pumping big money into third-party television ads aimed at killing or significantly modifying the major health reform bills moving through Congress.
That money, between $10 million and $20 million, came from Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Kaiser Foundation Health Plans, UnitedHealth Group and Wellpoint, according to two health care lobbyists familiar with the transactions. The companies are all members of the powerful trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans.
The funds were solicited by AHIP and funneled to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to help underwrite tens of millions of dollars of television ads by two business coalitions set up and subsidized by the chamber. Each insurer kicked in at least $1 million and some gave multimillion-dollar donations.
No, seriously, who didn’t see this happening? This is exactly why there needs to be clear legal requirements with criminal penalties–not just financial, CRIMINAL–that such paid-for shilling political speech be attributed back to whomever is paying for it. This is shameless deception, where they tried to make it look to the public like they themselves weren’t paying for advertisements full of misstatements designed solely to upset uninformed people (see: Tea Party) and enhance the success of their businesses interests. It would be a tragic waste if the Justice Department didn’t investigate them fully because of this, to prosecute any and all laws that may have been potentially violated here.
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Sarah Palin to host on Fox News? Really?
Sarah Palin to Contribute to Fox News – Media Decoder Blog – NYTimes.com
Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska has signed on as a contributor to the Fox News Channel. The network confirmed that Ms. Palin will appear on the network’s programming on a regular basis as part of a multi-year deal. Financial terms were not disclosed.
What a completely unsurprising turn of events, that Palin is now going to be a pundit on Fox News. What, again, are her qualifications for any of this? She’s a pseudo-religious political bobblehead figure for the Tea Party crowd and ultra-Right to latch onto. Yes, she was Governor of Alaska (briefly). Yes, she was selected without much vetting to be a Vice-Presidential candidate.
The most frightening thing here is how she’s either being maneuvered, or in turn is maneuvering herself, for a full Presidential run in 2012. While the sheer comedy of her trying to debate Barack Obama live on television would be a joy, and would give us absolutely killer comedy throughout the campaign–they couldn’t keep her isolated from the press as a full candidate unlike the nonstop trainwreck of McCain’s campaign–the possible end result is terrifying.
The absolute last thing we need is a fundamentalist religious personality in the White House. Especially, God forbid, one who as evidenced in the 2008 campaign cycle wasn’t even aware of what little things like the Bush Doctrine were, or what the Cold War meant. It would be like having our own Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the White House, but a Christian lady instead of a Muslim man. We’d be the laughingstock of the world, if some random country like Mexico didn’t just invade us to put us out of our misery.
For a good review on the value of Palin as a contributor and journalist (or the lack thereof) read this article here. It goes on and on and on at exhaustive length on Palin’s accuracy.
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For the other Cash Cab fans
One of the shows we love watching whenever we catch it over dinner is Cash Cab. If you’ve never watched it, it’s a bizarrely addictive game show where an actual New York City taxi driver (who happens to also be an actor and stand up comedian) picks up passengers, turns on a bunch of flashing lights, and subjects them to an impromptu trivia television game show… in the taxi cab, while they drive to their destination. If they lose, they’re tossed out wherever they happen to be. If they win, they get a free ride and could walk away with a couple of thousand dollars. There’s an article here about the experiences of some of the contestants.
Well, the short answer is no, it’s not rigged. The more complicated
answer is: eh, sometimes sorta. Mixed in with my narrative below,
you’ll find seven first-person accounts I scooped off the Web to give
you a clear understanding of how the show, er, rolls.So what about the contestants? Well, basically about ½ of them are
pre-screened and abou ½ are actually randoms off the street. In fact,
if you look closely at the credits at the end, you’ll notice the line:
“Some contestants have been pre-screened prior to their appearance on
the show.”So let’s tackle those contestants first. Here are a couple excerpts from first-person accounts.
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Doctor Who D&D alignments
Via @9freak9 and box-in-the-box on LJ.
This is kinda accurate, innit? Click image for full size.
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Beware beavers
I love that this official CBS News video actually goes back in the Break.com/Failblog.com slow motion “See what happened!!” style for a follow-up. The Internets has now infected mainstream media with it’s very mannerisms. Watch it through the advertisement–it’s worth it.
Click here in case it’s not displaying the video on Facebook.
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Comcast porn
I was thinking about what happened to our Comcast service when we first moved to Seattle, after our recent slight mix ups with their digital conversion. We moved into our new apartment, and mysteriously, Comcast on every channel is just one thing: hard core, and I mean REALLY hard core porn. Specifically, the audio is nothing but flesh slapping flesh for minutes on end combined with screaming. I have no idea what channel it was, and while it was fun for a few jokes and “Wow, is this for real?” moments, we wanted regular TV in the end.
The field lady that come out to investigate–the Comcast dispatcher thought we were kidding–took one look at it, handed me a replacement box to hold a moment while she bent over to undo the old one from Connecticut–and said:
“I don’t see a problem with that,” and couldn’t stop laughing, but neither could we. It was the first time I ever had fun with someone coming out to fix something. Win! The local Seattle staff for them has always been awesome. National, definitely not so much, but with 100,000 employees I suppose it has to be a dice roll there. But local Seattle staff? Always fantastic.
Update: It turns out our recent problem was also caused by the fact that our older Series 2 Tivo apparently doesn’t play nice with the Comcast digital conversions and most “standard” Tivo setups with Comcast converter boxes. That’s now a 3rd or 4th very nice Comcast trip out to our place in as many years. Sadly, no incredibly cute/hot repair lady to chuckle over porn, but this last guy totally looked like Alan Tudyk (Wash from Firefly).
Mainly, this is since S2 Tivos have only internal analog converter cards. We use the infrared controller, that Tivo supplies, so this lets us control the Comcast channel changing via our Tivo remote. We can still control and run the operation, but had lost most of our basic cable because of this. Reformatting the Tivo into old school single tuner mode (AKA, “The Fancy VCR”) let us get the channels back. The problem is that a lot of the magic firepower of Tivo is with the dual tuner, to let you record two things and watch a third, and that is now gone on the S2 models. We ended up biting the bullet and ordering a Series 3 Tivo because of this, and because Tivo had a conveniently priced (and timed!) upgrade offer for old-timer customers like us. All digital, three signals again, and we can stream Netflix directly into the new one.
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Just sent to my state reps on copyright law
A letter I just sent off to my state senator and representatives. If you’re in Washington state, I suggest you do likewise.
Hello,
Thank you all for your continued hard work and service.
I came across this news story, about the TVW and Dow Constantine situation. If you are unfamiliar with this, I implore you to read the below news article. This is troubling for all Washington state taxpayers.
Background: TVW is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation, not a government agency. It is governed by an independent board of directors. The majority of TVW’s operating cash – approximately $2.5 million per year – comes from the Legislature via a contract-for-service through the Secretary of State. TVW receives more than $11 million per year in the form of in-kind contributions of channel space from Washington’s cable television industry.
The story about TVW and Down Constantine is here: http://publicola.net/?p=17512
Politics aside, I am troubled by the fact that materials produced by money levied from taxes paid for by Washington citizens are being held in some form of “copyright” claim by a private entity like TVW, or anyone else. Many US state governments (and many foreign governments) are moving toward any materials produced by the government being “free”, in the public domain or under what is known as a Creative Commons license, which is increasingly popular year over year.
For example, this is a list of state-level US agencies and some Federal that issue content under Creative Commons:
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Government_use_of_CC_licenses#United_States
Virginia’s stance is particularly strong:
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?091+ful+CHAP0791
Washington is a leading state in the fields of technology. We have many prominent tech corporations, innumerable technology start-ups, and are known nationally on this stage. The ideals of ‘open sourcing’ and free licensing are a core component of the ethos of many of these corporations. Our state government should at the least be in compliance with what is becoming nationally standard.
What I would like to request is consideration for a bill like the above Virginia one, but with stronger language, that any goods “produced” with tax funding in a fixed form: written text, visual recordings, maps, videos, audio, anything official to come out of Olympia or local government, state and local laws, a random video the City of Spokane may make, etc. be required to be produced and released under a license such as the Creative Commons licensing that simply requires “Attribution”.
This link details the specifics of the licensing I think would be best:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/
Washington state would still ultimately retain ownership of all the content in this scenario, but by law it should be mandatory that any government-funded (in any way) materials should be freely available, with no copyright restriction beyond attribution. I have zero problem with an entity like TVW turning an ultimate profit from what they’re doing, that originated with state dollars. Anyone is welcome to do that–good for TVW for coming up with a successful model. But they, nor anyone else, should have exclusive claim over content *I* paid for.
What I’m upset about is that any organization then leveraging copyright claims to squash what is protected “fair use” of their materials that were paid for by my tax dollars. In the wake of the Constantine fiasco posted about on Publicola, they are now going after a political blogger for reposting the now notorious video on another “video sharing” service, as detailed at this link: http://horsesass.org/?p=21640
Please help Washington state be a leader in the realm of intellectual property law, and allow us to do better than other states, such as Virginia. Please initiate legislation based on the Virginia example above, but with stronger language than the “preference” tone they set. Make it mandatory, to allow Washington state tax payers to always have free access to what we have already paid for with our taxes.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Joseph Szilagyi
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Regular TV viewing
What do you regularly or irregularly watch, these days? Our current list, in no real order and with no regard for regular or irregular hiatuses:
LOST
Stargate Universe
Vampire Diaries
The Soup
Web Soup
Family Guy
The Simpsons
Doctor Who
Robot Chicken
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
Heroes
How I Met Your Mother
Destroyed in Seconds
Eureka
Glee
10 Things I Hate About You
Big Bang Theory
The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
FlashForward*
Caprica*** We just gave up, and will try again later on DVD.
** Yeah, this one will be a given. -
Fox News rides the UK Wahmbulance
Just when you thought that reality couldn’t get any more surreal, now another Murdoch is attacking. This time, it’s the BBC they’re going after in the United Kingdom. This time it’s Rupert Murdoch’s son, but the entire line he’s selling is, frankly, preposterous.“The expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision,” he told the Edinburgh Television Festival.
A lot of the quotes if you look at them make it sound like News Corp and their people are concerned about freedom and journalistic independence. This is complete nonsense. Why? In another article, in the Wall Street Journal, that News Corp owns, it’s even more of a rah-rah “American style capitalism good” spiel if you look closely:
Mr. Murdoch described as “chilling” what he called the BBC’s improper expansion and influence in the U.K. media industry. The BBC produces many TV and radio programs and owns a popular news Web site.
Seems innocuous, doesn’t it? But it’s all just them unwilling to say that they see the BBC as an untouchable competitor, whom they cannot beat fiscally. But so what? The United Kingdom sets their own rules, and if the local populace and UK citizens dislike that, they can change the law, and take away government and tax-based funding for the BBC. How is the opinion of an American-by-way-of-Australian company of any value or significance? It’s absolutely, positively not. News Corp is railing against the BBC because they want more money, more profits, suppression of values foreign to their own, and suppression of competition. It’s nothing to do with freedom or journalism. And that’s fine–that’s what corporations do, and what they have to do in our broken global system to attract investments, funding, and capitalization. But the laughable attacks on the BBC, saying that the BBC somehow stifles journalism? Please.
Anything from folks connected to Fox can be safely disregarded as propaganda, on this subject. This is the company that owns Zondervan (a Christian Evangelical book publisher) and HarperCollins; 124 newspapers in Australia, 3 newspapers in Fiji; one in Papua New Guinea; 6 in the United Kingdom, another… well, you get the picture. Just click here for the full list. They even own the Dow Jones financial index itself! A company with $32.996 billion in income in 2008, and $5.38 billion in profits in 2008–and why should anyone feel the slightest iota of pity for them?
Keep in mind, this is the company that owns Fox News in the United States, which endorses and provides air time for Glenn Beck. That could be seen as a barometer of their corporate ethos and ideals.
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What is wrong with people?
You can watch this short video for an answer.
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James T. Kirk is dead, and we have proof
From my friend Andy K. on twitter:Bear with me: Captain Kirk had an older brother, George Sam Kirk. In the new movie, Kirk has no older brother. He’s the first born.(1)
Simple: The altered timeline resulted in a scenario by which the Kirks named their firstborn James Tiberius Kirk instead of George Sam Kirk.(2)
As such, I submit to you the film’s James T. Kirk is in fact GEORGE SAM KIRK. The true Jim Kirk will NEVER BE BORN.(3)
William Shatner played George Kirk, James’s brother, in his only on-screen appearance. It’s therefore totally reasonable to assume that older Spock Prime would have mistook the younger once-George for unborn James. Sure will be a mindfuck for now-James when and if Spock Prime ever tells him the truth.
Will angry nerds burn a J.J. Abrams effigy in front of the Paramount backlot now?
Click here to Digg this and spread the gospel of the False Kirk According To Andy.
UPDATE: Apparently that little kid that young “James” drives by in the stolen car in the beginning of the film–according to the original script–was supposed to be George Kirk. According to IMDB, there is no George Kirk in Star Trek beyond the very dead one that fathered False James. Director’s cuts don’t count in my book.
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Batman: The Brave and the Bold
I don’t know if I like this. I need to see the whole episode… the characters seem down-pat, for what they should be, and I like the art and animation, but I can’t tell if the old-school vibe is a put-on or homage…
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Modern supervillains
Via Warren Ellis, you should read this. Warning: some comic, television, and Quantum of Solace/Bond spoilers.
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Folk Songs of South King County
So Andi has me watching reruns of Almost Live!, an comedy show that ran locally in Seattle from the 1980s to the 1990s. It’s got some famous alumni, like Joel McHale, who is now The Soup on E!. This bit kills me. May be not be as funny to folks not living in or from Seattle:
Helpful stalking
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Latest nonsense
Darwinian site guide
advertisements America American Taliban bit torrent BP British Petroleum comic books didn't see that one coming Draconian use of fear and subterfuge Evil explosions fail family fun fury future Games Gulf Oil Spill helpful guides History idiocy implausible junkbucket my eyes my own politics my personal timeline narcissism national security not very helpful Politics quantum physics Republicans seriously? simply awesome socialist sunlight The Awful Truth The Future this is what we're up against totally awesome unlikely very cute violence what are you thinking what is this whoaBox of old stuff
Vague categorization
Friendlies
- A Dash Of Bitters
- Andi Szilagyi
- Andrew Sullivan
- bradley’s almanac
- Brian Wood
- Dennis Culver
- Feminist Gold Digger
- Gary Ploski
- Horse's Ass
- Kelly Sue
- Last Night's Dinner
- Making Light
- Matt Fraction
- Neil Gaiman
- Nerdist
- Publicola
- Reuben Negron
- Stranger Slog
- Talking Points Memo
- WA Community Action Network
- Warren Ellis
- Wil Wheaton
Objects of arguable value
Joe Szilagyi, circa 2050.
