Asking for television help

I have a very old color television (yes, it has a tube) that finally gave up the ghost: the picture and channel-changing functions are fine, but now there is no sound (yes, I checked that the “mute” button is off). Here it is (the other stuff comprises a tuner and CD player for my nice […]

American professor: “White crime dramas” are a sign of racism. So are black and Hispanic crime dramas

I really should stop looking at HuffPo, as it’s simply the Left’s version of Breitbart: a tendentious and often ridiculously slanted look at politics. Both sites anger me. If you know what subject a HuffPo article is about, you already know what it’s going to say. Or, at least, you know what line they’re going to […]

Steven Pinker on Bill Maher

Steve Pinker appeared on Bill Maher’s “Real Time” show last night, and here’s a seven-minute clip of their chat. (I immediately noticed that PInker was wearing a blue suit, which I’ve never seen—he usually wears black—and is also sporting his cowboy boots.) You may already be familiar with the indices of progress limned by Pinker […]

The Mickey Mouse Club song

I was just talking to our HR Administrator, a friend, and we began recalling—and singing—the theme songs of cartoons and comedies of our era: The Flintstones, the Jetsons, and the Beverly Hillbillies song. When we got to the Mickey Mouse Club song, our memories diverged. She remembered “M-i-c (See you real soon) K-e-y (because we […]

Multitasking to the max: Weather reporter solves Rubik’s cube while giving the forecast

This woman has got it going on. Look how well she delivers the weather report while solving a Rubik’s cube. I am sure that even if I could solve the puzzle (and I haven’t tried), I couldn’t do it while delivering a coherent report. The YouTube notes say this: Reporter Lauren Olesky with Florida news […]

60 Minutes explains CRISPR, neglects important contributors

Not too long ago in the Washington Post, I reviewed (favorably) Jennifer Doudna’s new book on CRISPR, A Crack in Creation, which describes for a popular audience this amazing new method of genetic engineering, a method based on DNA and enzymes that bacteria use as their immune defense against viruses. The development of CRISPR, which […]

Cunk on Britain, part 2

The second installment of the BBC “Cunk on Britain” series is up, and watch it while it’s there. (There will be five parts.) Surprisingly, Part I is still up (here) though perhaps in a different incarnation, so maybe the BBC will for once let us Yanks watch the whole thing—at least for a short while. […]

A parody on Canadian television highlights the divisiveness of religion

Diana MacPherson sent these two videos, one of which is a real commercial and the other a parody. As she says:  I hope you can view these. It’s for “This Hour Has 22 Minutes“, a political and satirical comedy show in Canada. Here they make fun of religion as divisive based on an Ancestry.ca commercial about finding […]

“Cunk on Britain” tonight

Several Brits have written to inform me that the first episode of “Cunk on Britain”, Philomena’s series on her beloved land, plays tonight on BBC Two. There will be five episodes, with two scheduled. The first is this evening at 10 pm England time (don’t ask me what it’s formally called)—about an hour and a […]

BBC One “Big Cats” series starts tomorrow

For those lucky of you to live in the UK, you’ll be able to see BBC One’s “Big Cats” series (so far two parts are scheduled) starting tomorrow at 8 p.m. The Torygraph summary makes it sound pretty cool: Filmed over two years in 14 countries, the crew from the BBC’s Natural History Unit managed […]