Dateline on Bullying: ‘My Kids Would Never….Bully’

Posted on March 4, 2011 at 8:56 am

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Thanks to commenter Barbara Gibson for suggesting that I recommend this important Dateline episode about teen bullying. Parents get some surprises when they watch as hidden cameras reveal their children reacting to different bullying situations they think are really happening. Even children who know what is right can succumb to peer pressure and the insecurity inherent in adolescence makes teens vulnerable to picking on others to feel superior. This is a good opportunity to watch as a family and start some important conversations.

Dateline NBC – My Kid Would Never … Bully

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Parenting Television

The Sunset Limited

Posted on February 22, 2011 at 3:42 pm

Tommy Lee Jones directed and co-stars with Samuel L. Jackson in “The Sunset Limited,” an HBO movie based on the play by Cormac McCarthy (“The Road,” “No Country for Old Men”). Jones is a professor who struggles with despair so deep that he tries to commit suicide by jumping in front of the train in the movie’s title. Jackson is the janitor, a man of profound and committed faith, who rescues him and brings him back to his apartment for a conversation about God, purpose, meaning, and what we can know about life.

This is a rare production that is willing to engage on issues of faith. Whether you think of it as a literal conversation between two men or as a metaphor of a Jacob-like character wrestling with an angel, it is a moving experience — and a chance to see two of our greatest actors at their best.

Featurette

The Sunset Limited

Bar Karma Lets the Viewers Tell the Story

Posted on February 20, 2011 at 6:43 pm

“Bar Karma” is a new series on Current TV set in “a place at the edge of the universe, a venue that’s behind time and before space, a watering hole where the tab you run up may never be paid – in this lifetime, at least.” Anything can happen. Really, anything. Because the show is “crowd-sourced.” The audience gets to decide on the story. Wired reports:

Four short months ago, a web programmer from Barberton, Ohio, named Jason Lee Holm had an idea for a TV show that sounds like something right out of a vintage episode of The Twilight Zone: What if a man, worried that his soon-to-be published book will cause a global meltdown, rectifies the problem by traveling to the future and hashing out the dilemma with a 20,000-year-old bartender?

That’s Bar Karma.

Every happy hour one lost soul wanders through the bar’s doors, finding themselves at a karmic crossroads in his or her life. The Bar Karma staff guides their patrons using eerie glimpses into the past, present and many possible futures. What would happen if you could change your fate? That’s the question Bar Karma sets out to answer. The show may begin with “a guy walks into a bar…” but Bar Karma always ends with someone’s life being changed…forever.

Try out the very cool Storymaker application to Wiki your way into Bar Karma’s storyline and guide its direction. Or just visit the Create Episodes site to vote on what goes on the chalkboard, why Dayna leaves the bar, or whether the woman played by Genie Francis of “General Hospital” has multiple personalities or is a twin? (Hmmm. If there’s a “both” option, I just might try it.)

Human vs. Machine on Jeopardy Tonight

Posted on February 14, 2011 at 3:58 pm

Tonight’s the night! IBM’s Watson computer is going to take on two of the all-time greatest “Jeopardy” champions. “Jeopardy” has been on television since 1964. It was created by singer and talk show host Merv Griffin, who wrote that unforgettable Final Jeopardy jingle. It was Griffin’s wife who came up with the idea of giving contestants the answers and having them come up with the questions. Watson will compete against Ken Jennings, the all-time “Jeopardy” champ, whose winning streak lasted for six months and won him more than $2 million, and the runner up, Brad Rutter.

Washington Technology writes:

Watson is powered by 10 racks of IBM Power 750 servers, running Linux. It uses 15 terabytes of RAM and 2,880 processor cores.

To prepare for “Jeopardy!”, it has been loaded with a huge amount of information about books, movies, history, plays, music, current events, and the list goes on.

…

For some questions, one answer will have a high confidence level. This is when Watson is most likely to buzz in. For other questions, none of the answers will have a high confidence level and Watson will not buzz in.

“That’s the interesting thing,” McQueeney said. “The machine knows when it doesn’t know the answer.”

For each question, Watson evaluates information from about 200 million pages of content, or 1 million books.

Unlike Big Blue, Watson’s chess-playing brother, this challenge is about more than simple math. It’s more than simple information. “Jeopardy” questions involve puns and unexpected twists. Contestants must also evaluate their confidence levels with their bets on the Daily Doubles and Final Jeopardy. I love computers and am excited to see what the people who created and programmed Watson have accomplished. But I’m rooting for Ken and Brad.

Check out Slate Magazine’s piece on the most frequent Jeopardy categories.

Jeopardy!

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Television

Pioneers of Television

Posted on February 8, 2011 at 3:59 pm

I am a big fan of the PBS series “Pioneers of Television,” and I am especially looking forward to tonight’s episode about the early days of local children’s TV featuring Willard Scott, Stan Freberg, Jim Henson, Larry Harmon (“Bozo”) and Nancy Claster (“Romper Room”). Before national programs like “Sesame Street,” “Captain Kangaroo,” and “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” television for children was developed locally. “Romper Room” and “Bozo the Clown” appeared in nearly every market, but they were franchised so that some cities could produce their own versions.
Be sure to watch for some surprising history and some familiar faces.

Pioneers of Television