Argumental is a great BBC TV Show based on the good old British tradition of the debate club.

Sorry Keith I had to abuse you …

The first thing the West always sends in an Emergency to help are reporters. They will mobilize the Public at home. The Public then will pressure the Politicians “to do something” to help these poor people.

The Politicians only really care what happened in some shitty place somewhere because their voters do. The Politicians then pledge to send some help now and loads of money later (which usually never arrives).

Then the Reporters will report back and show nice images about the help coming from the Country they are representing. This makes the Public at home feel good and generous about themselves for being such nice people.

The West loves Poverty Porn: we love watching starving children while having Dinner. We also love the Pop Concerts triggered by Poverty Porn.

Madame Billionaire Extraordinaire Oprah has announced her departure and the end of her show. Good riddance!

But she is hardly alone and the brainless noise of tears, celebrity arse sniffing and shameless product plugging will continue anyway.

Are women (or better say house wives) really that desperate that they watch any crap that "touches" their puny minds and strokes their egos by reassuring that their dumb lives are worth something – if they buy the right cream?

I am afraid we are a stupid species …

Casting Shows are made to ridicule you and other contenders – so the producers make loads of money. These shows are not interested in making you famous or “give you a chance to become successful”.

Oh, the pain! Oh, the drama! We are uncovering all the lies in your relationship …

Since the early 80’s there has been a Tsunami of afternoon talk shows filled with social drama and pain.

And we are loving it!

It is amazing how the Queens and Kings of "honesty" and "self righteousness" are police, judge and executioner in one person. Oprah made Billions of Dollars with her tears, Jeremy Kyle currently tries to do the same in the UK.

But the real question is: Why do we frenetically watch and love Social Porn?

Every tear is worth a million dollars …

It all comes down to us being social animals. When you look at many fellow mammals they have social hierarchies like us with different ranks. Everybody knows what an alpha-male or alpha-female is.

But one essential feature of social networking (the real thing, not the simulation on Facebook) is watching other "animals" in the tribe. Watching the "others" allows us to spot opportunities to climb the social ladder, make new friends, know who our enemies are and our enemies’ enemies are.

The most important part of watching others is to learn where you stand in the tribe’s hierarchy and your chances to climb higher or fail …

Yeah, you might be bigger, but my social ranking is higher …

For some animals this is much easier: dogs sniff other dogs arse or even sample their urine or poo – and can analyse from this the status and current health of the fellow canine.

We primates have developed the face as the main social interFACE. Compared to most other animals the primates’ face has the more muscles and expressions than anyone else on this planet. Ape and human faces have an incredible range of "gestures" – which work even across species.

Our faces tell complete stories without words. We can socialize simply by looking at each other. You usually can see in an instant if someone looking at you likes you or hates you; if there is a chance for a better social contact or if that other person might even attack you …

So by watching and gossiping with others about others we learn what’s going on in the group, what the other members strengths and weaknesses are, and which tactics are successful or devastating.

I’ll scratch your back, if you …

Being successful in climbing the social ladder increases our chances of mating and spreading our genes. Yes, Ladies & Gentleman, it all comes down to mating once again …

And watching social porn on TV confirms this: it’s mostly about sex and cheating.

When we watch these dramas, we learn how to "protect" our own social involvement and genetic "investment". Of course we want partners, who are safe for our offspring and support them. We don’t want cheats that are a danger to our sperm or egg investment – and therefore perpetuation of our "selfish gene".

Social Porn on TV is a highly valuable lesson to "spot" cheaters and avoid failures in reproduction.

Wait a minute! Is that critter really mine?!

So watching social porn on TV and gossiping about relationships has an important biological benefit. We learn how to be successful animals and mating mates …

But there is also a strong social and moral component to it. We humans have transformed many "biological mechanisms" into social rules like married people do not engage in sex with strangers. Based on these social rules we have created moral and religious restrictions as well.

"You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife (or husband)." is simply a biological need (protecting your sperm & eggs from invaders) turned into a social and moral rule.

So Social Porn also enforces these "morals" when cheaters and liars get booed by the audience and judged by the presenter. That is why the Ladies in the audience hiss, when a boyfriend cheated on his bitch – it’s a violation of the biological contract of only breeding exclusively together.

This social pressure is once again there to protect our biological investments.

We love watching Alpha-Couples, especially when they are media whores and on twitter.

The biological background also explains why we love watching alpha-animals of the global tribe and their relationships. Like good herd animals we learn from watching the strongest and fittest of our flock.

That is why so many people know more about the life’s of celebrities and their relationships than their neighbours living in the same house. Our biological desire is to swim ahead in the genetic pool and score the most adorable eggs or sperm available. That is why some ladies fantasize about sleeping with Bruce Willies, while Guy virtually impregnate Megan Fox.

That’s Social Porn in it’s most basic form and desire. Women and men do it equally.

Honestly, I often wonder how kids survive that mixture of high fructose sweets and this kind of TV?!

No surprise that kids are all mental and hysterical these days. How can you be a calm and centred person after watching this kind of stuff for years?

Cooking shows have always been a part of the TV diet. But in recent years cooking shows – crossed with the madness of reality tv and gaming shows – has become a whole need breed of televised craziness.

I think the whole madness started with Iron Chef:

It was TOTALLY over the top and removed from “normal” cooking. It pleased poor people as well as gastro snobs.

Programs like Top Chef and Hell’s kitchen are often rude and more like a soap than a cooking show. It’s no longer about food, but just competition and kicking someone’s arse.

It all Big Brother these days: people watching other people living and doing their job. Social porn at it’s worst and nevertheless very successful, because everybody can relate to it.

Where are all the TV shows were you could learn something or get inspired? Where are the TV shows that show the better side of humanity instead of nasty competitions and slimy fights? Don’t we have already enough of that?

But I guess such shows are a relief to many suppressed viewers, because they can “identify” with those onscreen bastards and act out their fantasies while wasting their lives in front of the telly …

Cracks me up every time.

Another familiar screen face gone. I always like Malden, he was a unique actor.

Amen! Bye bye Karl …

BBC News: Kung Fu star Carradine found dead and Obituary

And another one of my childhood heroes departs this planet. David Carradine was amazing in "Kung Fu", which introduced many Westerners to the more serious and spiritual aspects of Martial Arts – in contrast to all those cheesy action movies before.

David Carradine was often wasted in many bad movies himself, but somehow he kept his dignity and aura of the Kung Fu Master.

Rest in peace O-Sensei!

When this Mini-TV was introduced everybody thought it’s a stupid idea. Small transistor radios sold well, but nobody believed in the idea of "portable television".

Today the screens on iPods, cell phones with video and other portable video devices are hardly bigger, but people are mad about watching clips, TV episodes and whole movies on such tiny screens.

Madness!

But once again the quality technology is not important, as long as it is convenient and the content is good. People are willing to put up with technological limits if they are captured by good shows and stories.

Bigger screens, THX and all that nonsense is simply an added bonus, but not the most important thing about listening to a good song or watching an excellent video.

Star Trek has been remastered and rereleased for eager Fans to consume. It is amazing to me how "real fans" will buy the same movie or TV series again and again, just because a tiny aspect has been changed.

Blade Runner – a great movie I adore – has been released in a gazillion forms. George Lucas has reedited his own saga way to many times. But each time the fans bought the "new" edition.

It is amazing how dumb "real fans" are, especially they know each episode by heart and recite the damn show without seeing it anyway.

Once again every shitty country in Europe sent it’s "best" songs to compete with each other in the Eurovision contest.

And like every year the songs were mostly terrible and the voting was as idiotic as ever. Slavs voted for Slavs, Nordic countries for fellow Nordic countries. The Turkish Diaspora produced a high rank for their nations terribly tittie twisting song – Turkey could put someone like Mr Methane on stage and still score a Top 5 position.

The winning Norwegian Song is mediocre at best and I am sure all of Europe’s 12 year Girls must have voted for that charming übergifted little shit.

I hated it and will so until I die.

Of course I will watch next years Eurovision. I love to hate the trashy competition. And I will once again hate the winner, since only bad songs win – not really good ones. But everyone expects that anyway …

Another masterpiece by Mr Brooker and his team – plus an extra section by the revered Mr Adam Curtis.

Once again some great insights and humor.

Charlie looks at the evolution of news anchors and compares them to their US counterparts, including Bill O’Reilly.  Enjoy!

Some excellent insights on how the News have changed and the Age of Interaction is now a pest.

It’s a bit Brit-centric, but his findings are universal.

I especially like his comment on viewer’s comments – the so called "idiot magnet".

All so true … and sad!

This is pure pleasure: Charlie Brooker’s nasty and satirical comment on how the (British) Media coped with the credit crunch.

Some people have compared his television shows with Jon Steward’s Daily Show, but I think they are very different styles.

PS: Warning some nasty and dark British Humour ahead.

I love (pseudo-)historical shows like the Tudors, one of the view entertaining ways to look back in time. Sure – this show is not perfectly accurate, which I find a shame, but at least it’s entertaining.

I actually thing that many old real stories are far more entertaining and spooky than most stuff Hollywood can make up. I am still waiting for great TV series about Ancient Greek or Rome (that are accurate). There is enough blood and drama to keep even the Twitter-Generation entertained …

More? Official Site

Colbert channel Glenn Beck and the End of the US of A! Watch the episode online (about 5 minutes into the episode).

I love Maestro Colbert’s surrealist humor and activism. His fictional character, his storylines, his wordplays, his enemies and his interviews are simply brilliant.

NASA is currently allowing the public to name a new module of the ISS. Scientology tried to get in first and the name Xenu was on top of the list. But now Colbert got into the race and unless NASA pulls the plug the next ISS module will be named after him …

I already love him for his "Dirty Jobs", but this lecture is insightful, amusing and deeply honest.

Highly recommended.

Roy, Jen, Moss and the Boss.

There are currently two nerdy shows on the telly: The IT Crowd and The Big Bang Theory. Booth are very different.

The IT Crowd is British and it’s humor is often very dry, satirical and even nasty. How often do you see a nerd comedy show that makes fun of Gays or people in wheelchairs?

I love those two underdogs Roy and Moss. The slacker nerd and the anti-social computer genius. They are the It department of Reynholm Industries – and their department head Jen has NO clue about computers.

They get into all sort of trouble in the Office and their private lives.

Sheldon, Leonard, Penny.

The Big Bang Theory is more the usual American sitcom style – although it’s humor is very witty and nerdy. A real treat for the generation net.

Sheldon and Leonard are young scientists, hardly able to cope with normal life and social relationships. Leonard falls in love with his rather dumb, but socially adept neighbor Penny.

Personally I prefer the IT Crowd for it’s nasty depth and it’s awkwardness and characters.

The Big bang Theory has the better Nerd humor and insider jokes (mostly science and nerdom based stuff).

So if you are a bit of a nerd (and I mean that in a good way), than watching these might be fun.

You might be scared like me finding out how much of these nerdy jokes you actually understand and even find amusing …

Women’s desire for perfect pleasure bots could be the end of us all …

Political debates are hardly a modern invention – I think it started already with Caveman arguing who will lead the clan.

In Athens all males could simply join the political debate themselves, by simply turning up and speaking.

With ever bigger Kingdoms and Nation States being there personally didn’t work anymore. Sure you could visit your national parliment and maybe listen to the talks.

With the invention of the newspaper and journals political speeches were once again accessible to the masses. If you read some of Abraham Lincoln oral masterpieces you would be surprised who eloquent, deep and highly educated these speeches were. Simply amazing – I bet most modern journalists are hardly able to write the way Lincoln could simply speak to his voters.

But most importantly: speeches were reduced to words. What the candidates said was more important than their looks, gestures and personality.

Even with the advent of radio this didn’t change much – apart that you could ‘read’ more the personality of each candidate by listening closely.

Today the debates are no longer debates anyway – because the format has devolved into a simple phrase exchange.

But the candidate himself is the message today – not what he / she is saying. It’s all about image, not about content.

I have tested many tools and websites that promised to stream TV perfectly. I think I finally found one that works: Livestream.

It’s cross platform, small, easy on your systems resources and delivers good quality. As usual with new contenders in the field the variety of GOOD channels is a bit weak. But I am very happy with the small number of news channel – which suit me perfectly (Al-Jazera, BBC World News, CNN and C-SPAN).

Since I download all other TV shows either via iTunes or Bittorrent I only need news (as it happens) anyway. Why wait till something I like is broadcast at a certain time – I want to control my video consumption and not follow the linear programming of a TV station.

So it’s highly recommended for news junkies.

www.livestream.com

It is a shame: Obama should have wiped the floor with Grandpa McCain. Instead Obama was to stiff to get an advantage. Isn’t he supposed to such a brilliant speaker? Where was the passion? Where was his gut?!

A big chance missed to take the lead after McCain had such a bad week. He failed all week to show he is on top of current events like the banking crises.

So both have failed.

More? MSNBC article and videos

It’s not very often that I am impressed by anything that’s produced for television, but HBO’s ‘John Adams’ was simply brilliant.

Laura Linney’s and Paul Giamatti’s performance was especially heartwarming, touching and excellent. I am very happy they got each an award for their work.

I am a huge fan of Bill Maher. His and Jon Stewards wits helped us bloody foreigners to believe that the progressive and intellectual heart of America hasn’t died.

Being progressive means making progress – moving forward. But already during the last season the jokes were stale and predictable, the outrage had turned into professional satire.

Most of all: many funny guests were rather “unhelpful” by being totally disconnected or adding stupidity instead of sharp and witty remarks.

The new seasons started last weekend – and it seems more of the same. So I expect many old faces from last season as well as the same lame comments and jokes.

Like Keith Olbermann Bill Maher seems to have founds his audience and is raking in the praise he deserves. But please don’t fall asleep …

Video / 55 Minutes / Spiegel TV

Especially in our modern mass media world and after the 2008 Beijing Propaganda Olympics it’s scary how little TV has changed – or that the Nazis already had figured out the basics of TV brainwashing.

Scary.

I don’t get it: why would I want to watch some people playing Poker on TV? The suspense? Nah. Watching them loose or get rich? Nah. The tactics? Hardly.

It’s all a mystery to me.

I am a big fan of the American liberal TPM media, because they look at the details of American politics and media interaction. Today the media is so self obsessed that it creates it’s own politics around politics. So called experts and pundits are framing the issues where there are none – and create a storm of media attention where it is wasted. Big issues like the war in Afghanistan get under-reported.

The clip above perfectly illustrates how one false citation can keep the cable network news happy and busy for a whole day. The pundits simply create work for themselves. This is not journalism, but simply a propaganda business that has nothing to do with the real needs of people and essential political issues.

God bless America and TPMtv!

Isn’t it amazing that so many movie and TV series deal with magical relationships: mortal boy meets witch girl.

Woman are complicated enough already – why would anyone want to added bonus of being magical as well?

There is not much TV (via the Internet) which is worth watching, but "30 Days" is a great show. It is TV at it’s best: showing people other people and their way of life – so we can learn from each other and gain insights that are usually hard to achieve.

All "30 Days" episodes are built around the same mechanism: one person has to live with another group of people – with a contrary lifestyle or opinion. For example a bible thumbing guy has to live with a San Francisco gay dude or a meat munching hunter lives 30 days with a vegan family.

Most reality TV is built on "stupidity sensationalism" – which means they show the stupid sides of people and their actions and make fun of them. Jerry Springer talkshow is a typical example of this breed of television.

Morgan Spurlock and his team try to keep it real and show both sides of the argument / lifestyle. They never preach, they never portrait any side as better or superior – and they don’t use any cheap television effects to dumb it down.

I really hope there will be some day an international version of these – because it is obviously very US-centric – but nevertheless good.

More? 30 Days – Official Site and Wikipedia

You can only get as smart as the programs you decide to watch on the telly. Most people chose crap – so they stay stupid. But also most so called educational broadcasters like Discovery or History Channel are pretty dumb. Fancy computer graphics are no substitute for excellent researchers and writers.

Hmmm, isn’t the X-Files hype already a bit old?

Don’t get me wrong: I was a huge X-Files fan – it was one of the best things that happened in the 1990’s and it even made me buy a TV to watch the video tapes I bought for a lot of money (note to kids: that was before bittorrent gave you all these shows for "free").

But ten years after the first X-Files flick "Fight the Future" it all feels a bit stale and disconnected. Please Mr Carter don’t turn this into another media zombie like Star Trek that refuses to die.

And putting a comedian – the great Billy Connolly – into the movie as a serious character is not a great indicator of great wisdom. Maybe a less well known face might have been better?

More? Trailer @ Apple.com  and the Official Site

Finally a sport you don’t need slow motion action replays.

*Thanks to Jason for that nasty image*

Got 90 minutes to kill?

Watch some British Humor "Trigger Happy". They play nasty tricks to unsuspecting people with their weird humor and hidden cameras.

*Thanks to Edosan for some more fun in my life*

In the Age of TV families shared quality moments together in front of the screen. In the Internet Age we sit quietly in our rooms and maybe chat via AIM together. Computer screens don’t provide the same social glue as TV screens.

Several people fighting for the remote control was bad enough – but a consensus could be reached which show to watch for an hour or two. But you can’t have four people controlling a computer and surf different websites at the same time.

TV serves as the radio today – it provides the noise to our life, but it is the computer with it’s highly individualized interaction that grabs our FULL attention.

So our media experience is more and more individualistic – and all these digital toys and gadgets (especially cell phones and instant messaging) keep us “busy” and distracted all the time.

In front of the TV the whole family could switch off – today that switch has been lost. We are always “ON” …

Is it just me or are these TV presenters get hotter every year, with even bigger red lips and tantalizing outfits? Can’t we have simply ‘normal’ women not dress up dolls as presenters?

Watching the underclass, the addicted and the stupid getting busted. Doesn’t that make you feel superior?

It is amazing how many shows there are on TV that deal with justice, law and order. It doesn’t matter if it’s reality TV like Cops or fiction like those many CSI shows (all these different offspring of the same formula are a phenomenon in itself). Each country seems to have it own mixture of court TV, forensic documentaries, lawyer dramas and car chases …

In all these shows one topic prevails: the law wins, the bad guys are caught and punished.

One would think that we would want to watch something relaxing in the evening or ignore other people’s problems – instead murder and minute details of investigation seem to be more interesting than some simpler forms of entertainment.

I’ll give you blood, you give me better ratings!

But behind all this is our natural (?) desire for social porn: to participate in what’s going on and staying informed about the newest gossip of the global tribe. It doesn’t matter if it’s a real event like O.J. Simpsons trial or such trivial crap like Paris Hilton going to jail for being a drunken pussy. We want to be informed and we want to ‘relate’ – and it doesn’t matter if it’s a petty criminal or a superstar – or even fictional character.

It doesn’t matter if it’s other humans killing each other or making love to each other – we love to watch and learn intimate secrets behind it all.

But there is another layer to this lust for justice. It’s a double sided affair of the same mechanism of ‘violence’. We all have been victims of social, emotional or even criminal violence – so we want justice, revenge or just the reassurance that we will receive justice and protection. But deep in our fantasies we are also thieves and murderers – we all had the impulse / moments in our life’s to cause mayhem to others out of anger or a simple case of road rage.

Science and bad scripts to the rescue – we bring justice on a weekly basis.

So on one side we want protection from violence – but we also love to explore and participate when others were violent or even killed. For a few minutes we can dive into the mindset of the killer, the victims and the justice system – and compare it to our own inner world. It a mental carnival in which we can play every role and explore their good and bad sides while munching potato chips.

Scientists have shown many times that we mentally and emotionally emphatize on a deep level with other people – no matter if we watch something happening in reality (like driving by a traffic accident and everybody gloats) or a fictional event (we cry when made up characters die or model our lives on their behavior).

Especially in our hysterical media world plus criminals and terrorists at each corner we welcome ’security’, ‘justice’ and ‘protection’ – even when it’s just artificial. Soothing our minds is almost as important as real justice, protection or security.

So watching violence and how others deal with it or are doing terrible stuff helps us to cope with violence in our own lives and shows us new, different or frightening ways to deal with this topic.

But real crime and real violence is no ‘game’ to explore. Especially in fictional crime the dead always return in another series and lethal injuries can be overcome with a good script. Even court TV, recreations or documentaries do not really show the blood, pain and horror or real crimes. So can’t really emphatize, we always only get a filtered nicer version of reality.

Even celebrity victims are pretty dead after being murdered by their celebrity husbands.

Before I finish the empathy aspect of the Justice Porn: it is amazing that we do not really hunger for justice. In many fictional and real stories we are rather fascinated by the dark and evil characters. Some murderers have become celebrities or have a weird cult following. It is more of a social consensus that the bad guys have to loose, not because we love justice, but because we don’t want to be on the receiving end of a bad persons action without protection and the moral high ground against ‘evil doers’.

Since we all can relate to pain and suffering we all agree / empathize that we don’t want to suffer from it. This has nothing to do with justice, this is simply egoism and self preservation.

It’s good to be the king …

One last aspect is the God-complex in all of this. Sitting there and watching the crime like God watches masturbating sinners – we ’see and know’ more than the real or unreal protagonists. We are TV Gods, we know it all – and we also judge the people in the stories and events we watch on screen.

It’s truly pornography of power for the powerless. It’s an illusion of power and simpler version of sitting on a jury bench yourself (just without any responsibility). Most of all ‘all of our couch potato opinions’ don’t have any serious consequences. The law and justice are thankfully no longer bound to popular opinions or people’s anger and rage – at least in most countries.

And that’s a good thing. Instead of ropes for lynching and stones for stonings give them TV.

I just found these clips and remixes from Wonder Woman. Since I didn’t grew up in the US of A I wasn’t ‘blessed’ witch such a highly intellectual TV series.

But I am sure it makes great masturbation fodder if you are twelve years old, male and free porn on from the Internet hasn’t yet been invented.