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And by the way, guys can get breast cancer too

Yup, just like Ryan O'Reily

Games and Movies and Music oh my!
Games and Movies and Music oh my!

We can't be exposing our youth to violence and smut now can we?

Won't somebody please Think Of The Children?

Nobody under the age of 18 is allowed to read this post.

But apparently there is money in writing columns discussing stuff that most people don't really care about.

Or maybe they don't care about it as much as they think.

While I'm personally a big fan of privacy, and my usual place to reference in a discussion like this would be to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), I found the following counterpoint quite insightful as to why there's been so little public outcry:

"Oh, please, Americans don't want privacy. They want attention. They'll put a camera in their shower and show it on the Internet! To get on television, they'll marry strangers and eat a cow's rectum, and ice dance with Todd Bridges. They're trying to get on a show called 'Big Brother'.

"We are a nation of exhibitionists 'me' to shining 'me.' And what we really fear isn't that someone's listening, it's that no one's listening. This whole country is one big desperate cry for somebody to listen. 'Listen to me. Photograph me. Google me. Read my blog!' 'Read my diary. Read my memoir. It's not interesting enough? I'll make shit up.' "

--Bill Maher, in the 17-Feb-2006 New Rules segment of his cable TV show, Real Time with Bill Maher

I've excerpted only a portion; see the site for a more complete transcript of the monologue. Or watch the show. It's very hit or miss, so some episodes are really dull and tedious--but others are very interesting. Bill or, just as often, one of his guests makes good points like this with just enough frequency that I'm willing to slog through the rest of it... Kinda like C-SPAN, but occasionally more funny.

And don't tell me That's just television because no, sir, It's not TV, it's HBO.

And don't tell me That's just television because no, sir, It's not TV, it's HBO.

Yeah, except leave out the "could" part.

Lots of people refused to leave the Black Zone, and the government didn't make them. Lots of the ones left behind died of cancer or thyroid problems. But lots didn't. They farm land that's so radioactive the crops have problems, but some of them are still alive. People have children in the black zone, and only 15-20% of them DON"T have serious health problems.

Next time you're in the aisles of your favorite bookstore, take a peek at some of the fiction aimed towards women. You know the type I'm talking about.

Now take a look at a book aimed more at a male audience.

Which one of these has the lurid sex scenes, do ya figure?

I loaned LoTR to my wife. After reading part of it, she stopped. Why? No sex. If she can't read a classic with a little sex in it, she'd just as soon read something cheesy with a lot of sex in it.

Or compare the typical cheesy male-targeted TV series' content to something that draws a lot more women.

If you want more women, you need more romance. And by "romance," I mean "sex."

This whole "no sex in entertainment" thing is really a male chauvinist guy thing.

The Bittorrent method is illegal

Is it?

I'm being serious here. If I'm paying my local cable co to get extended (extended == over the air-available channels + normal basic addons - espn, scifi, etc) and I own a DVR (replayTV in my case) I can record the show at will. I can watch it whenever. I can skip the commercials if I choose.

So what about bittorrenting a show is illegal? That I have to share the bits that I've already downloaded with others who are trying to download? And they may not have legal access to that show? It would seem to me that downloading a show that I've paid to have access to already, because my kids deleted it from the DVR, or it screwed up the scheduling, or the power was out or I did something bad and God's punishing me so I can' get my weekly dose of crack, er, uh, 24 on fox.... well, you get the point. If I've already paid for it, I fail to see how it can be illegal for me to download it again.

As far as people downloading the bits from me - if they haven't paid for it, then they're breaking the law by downloading it.

Which is why, although I would love to watch the HBO Rome series, I don't download it tho I've seen it torrented. I don't subscribe (ie pay for) HBO.

If I did, and I missed an episode, I'd have no problem with grabbing it from a torrent.

Article is contrary to what they said on The Sopranos last night. Too bad Aaron Aarkaway didn't have one of his narcoleptic episodes while he was standing there. That would have been funny.

Rome is getting a second season at least.
HBO has renewed its epic drama series ROME for a second season, it was announced today [09.12.2005] by Carolyn Strauss, president, HBO Entertainment. Production of the 12-episode second season will begin next March, with the debut set for 2007.
We just have to wait a while for it.

Ok, so we can easily find anomalies caused by nature, but how about anomalies caused by us?

Well, dunno if you'd consider any of this as an anomaly, but it's an equally topical use of Google's map technology (season premier is tomorrow, kids).

Maybe someone can find Jimmy Hoffa?

How can any list of the year's ten best shows not include HBO's Rome?

I mean - the dude watches BSG and he doesn't watch Rome? I'm sensing some serious cognitive dissonance here.

But when HBO does produce their own content they produce really good content.. HBO has also made some excellent movies. When I had cable I found that the only channels I watched were HBO and FoodTV. I cancelled because I couldn't justify paying for 300 channels and watching only 6 of them.

As I sit here, drinking a DITE COKE , reading slashdot... I'm asking myself, why don't I have a TIVO And if I did have one, which network would I choose to record... HBO ? Hmmm.........

Yes, if only someone thought of that...

I'm not saying downloading Rome is right, just that HBO might more effectively spend their money finding a way to make the show available at a price and via a medium that the current pirates would buy.

HBO shows available at a price and medium that many current pirates would buy.

But you make a good point. I do ultimately see many content providers using alternate avenues of getting to content (see "Everybody Hates Chris" on Google video, for example). There's a lot of pitfalls, however--in addition to the overhead of setting up the machines to serve files, payment systems, and websites, you also have to make sure that people don't share the downloaded file that they've purchased, etc.

I can go to the supermarket and eat cheese for free. I don't have to steal it or nothin'. They even slice it up for me. They find that by simply giving cheese away they end up selling more cheese than if they don't.

True, but they don't let you take the whole 10 pound block of cheese home for free.

Perhaps HBO should consider, instead of interdiction, simply giving the first few episodes away to induce subscription, that is, of course and ironically, if the show isn't too cheesy.

HBO isn't selling you a block of cheese, or a single show, they're offering a service where you get a lot of movies (well, a few movies played a lot of times) and a few HBO-only shows. Perhaps your cable operator occasionally runs a free HBO weekend promo.

If they don't feel inclined to give me a free sample, at my convenience, I'm afraid I'd be inclined to believe there's something about it they don't want me to know.

You could probably go to this link and "watch a clip of the new episode". At your convenience, of course.

I've got fully legit paid for HBO but lately I've been too busy to watch Rome so I've just been d/l-ing them. I wonder how that falls under fair-use?

According to HBO's copyright protection rules, which you enter into agreement with when you sign up for their service, you CAN create a single copy of the show for yourself but NOT distribute it to others. For bittorrent to work though, you have to upload as well as download, thereby breaking your service agreement with HBO regarding not distributing your copy to others.

What?! I think if you are going around, shooting weddings, and making profit off of this grisly business, solid state drives are the least of your concerns. I would be more worried about things like: law enforcement, two families revenge, and Kaiser Sose.

In related news, you may want to do us all a favor and put down the violent video games. Thanks!

Side note, solid business model:

1. Shoot weddings

2. Take pictures of the shootings

3. Profit.

That is an adaptation of this:
http://www.hbo.com/alig/harvard.html

"Following Adi Roche, founder of Ireland's Chernobyl Children's Project, CHERNOBYL HEART opens in the exclusion zone, the most radioactive environment on earth. From there, Roche travels to Belarus, home to many of the children she seeks to aid. The film reveals those hardest hit by radiation, including thyroid cancer patients and children suffering from unfathomable congenital birth and heart defects. "

Because people who dont use open source apps suck cock by choice

"Respek. Today's episode is about respek. There be so little respek in deh world today dat if you look up deh word behind me [points to RESPEK] in the dictionary, you'll see that it's been taken out."

(Apologies to Ali G.)

Before we know it, the damned Mafia will be glorified on television! We've gotta stop these nerds! To the Good Old Days Mobile, and bring lots of Scooby Snacks!

Yo, you need be watch more Ali G on whatever channel I think it is HBO in the US it will give you more inside dope into how you is writing an article for readers that is hip hop TV generation and knowing the net not for old lamers what don't know nothing.

Peace, out...

I believe the channel you're speaking of already exists.

I can change your mind with one word. Deadwood

Cheers

Reverend Billy Bob

Are you sure it didn't adapt to your watching preferences?

This reminds me at a very funny episode of The mind of the Married Man". I think it was Episode #12

You can start by watching the movie "Strip Search"

Too many people in this country believe in the myth of the meritocracy. It's true that we have more social mobility than say, Feudal Japan, but the idea that anyone can bring themselves from rags to riches is pure fantasy. Only a select few, the ubermench among us, are capable of this.

I'd also like to recommend the film Born Rich, made by Johnson & Johnson heir Jaime Johnson. I took a personal interest in this movie, having at one time been on his father's payroll (very briefly). He stops short of analyzing the sociatal implications of hereditary wealth, but the film is telling - not a single one of his super-rich friends did a thing to earn their vast fortunes (including the ones who are considered "new money").

I'm waiting to hear this report from Borat before I make my judgement. He will lead the way in making our world safer for our children.
See Borat refining his speaking skills here. Select the "Rekognize" video clip.

/I keed. I keed.

I have not watched much of the show, but I don't much care for shows that wrap everything up in a neat little box and make people think that all crimes are solved in an hour, give or take commercials.

How true. IMHO, the best show on television is The Wire on HBO. If you want a program that avoids the simplistic cops good/crooks bad theme and that pervades the network pap then this program is for you. Quality acting, directing, scripting and writing all played out over 12 one-hour (no commercials) segments--it will leave you counting the days until the next episode.

We've been hooked on this show since season one and apparently the critics have begun to take notice too.

Like many other things in life, if it's worth trying and even if it's not, we've tried it in California. We already have a city without borders, we call it Los Angeles. Joking aside, even as an idea or culture, one could argue that Los Angeles is world wide.

You probably have no idea how much you're right on that one. If you live in a country as different from California as possible - Eastern Europe, for example - you are still somehow aware of various LA-specific cultural phenomena. For example, if you are a frustrated teenager with no clear weather forecast for the labor market, you express your frustration in terms of "South Central ghetto", even if you are actually white in a 100% white nation. It was perfectly parodied in the hilarious Ali G show. But it goes further, even if you are NOT a hip-hop music fan. Popular Dreamworks 3D cartoons like "Shark Tale" or even "Shrek 2", expect from the viewer to understand at least the basics of LA reality. Actually, many Hollywood filmmakers are just too lazy to ever move out of the city, so some popular LA (or rather "within 2 hours driving from Beverly Hills") vistas and locations are ubiquitous in Hollywood movies. Which, in turn, are ubiquitous in cinemas in such remote places as Kosice, Slovakia or Tigru Mures, Transilvania. Kids and teenagers learn how to live in a multi-racial sprawl-infested megalopolis even before they start to learn how to live in their own community. I find it scary, sometimes.

I have never had a problem with my Firefox crashing (ever).

Yesterday Firefox crashed numerous times on this page (great show BTW) after I clicked on a character and then clicked the 'character bio' link. I got to the page by clicking a link in an email in Outlook 2003. I've had this happen occasionally while browsing. I can't really compare IE, since I rarely use it. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with Firefox--they probably just need to clean it up a bit.

...I've never heard that "the majority" or "nearly all of them" do...

It's true. Nearly all priests have used pornography during their priesthood, and the majority use it consistently. Actual numbers are hard to come by, but when anonymous independent polls have been conducted of celibate priests, nearly every one shows more than 50% are or have been involved in long-term affairs (more than 1 year). Some will find even more shocking that the priesthood tends to attract a slightly higher proportion of gay men than are present in the population. Since being gay and being religious causes a deep internal conflict, those gays who are devoted to religion oftentimes see the priesthood as a viable option in life since the alternative is either lonely or what they themselves see as deviant. There is some evidence that even suggests that gayness combined with the deep-seated stigma propagated by the Catholic church about all sex, particularly homosexual sex, coupled with the psychosexual stunting of those who enter seminary in the early stages of puberty can result in extreme, unhealthy mental pressures that result in the pedophilia scandals that have plagued the church for the past 50 years. Even more telling than the studies is how the church has handled these cases over the last several decades--a complete and total unwillingness to deal directly with them belies something a bit deeper in the shared psychology of church officials.

Obviously, this is a very sensitive topic that most of the public doesn't particularly want to know or think about, so it's not out there in our faces every day. But if you dig a little, it doesn't take much to start turning up evidence that, guess what, priests are actually people too.

You know, maybe we will fuck up HHGTTG, but dont knock mos def as an actor. He's really rather good, i was surprised when i saw Something the Lord Made on HBO with him in a major role. I'm not sure about him as Ford Prefect, but hey, who knows.

There are plenty of real-life examples of party crossovers among couples. Such as:

- Democratic adviser
James Carville and his wife, Republican adviser Mary Matalin.

- Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver.

- John Kerry and Theresa Heinz-Kerry. (Zing! Heinz-Kerry was married to a Republican senator before he died, and made public deragatory comments about Democrats back then)

The most important thing is that you have more important things in your life than politics, that you can discuss politics with your S.O. without getting enraged, and that you both have a good sense of humor to take the gentle barbs that are sure to be shot back and forth.

(I'm a Libertarian and just started dating a Democrat, if you're interested in labels.)

I recommend Oz.

What about Deadwood?

Here is the website for The 2004 UK Big Brother Awards, for those of you who want to skip over that puny Register article. My thoughts on this subject is that it's a great idea to shine a huge spotlight on those who would infringe upon privacy, to give them a taste of their own medicine. Of course I don't condone tapping their phones, blackmailing the execs or sending boxes of poo to their doors (like on Six Feet Under's recent arc). This award show will do just fine, in an almost biblical manner of sinning the sinner.

Those of you who watch The Sopranos might recognize New Paltz as one of Paulie Walnuts' collection stops.

I've actually been there, nice little town.

Bear in mind that Bill Gates owns a large percentage of a waste management company. So every day is Be Nice To Microsoft Day. If you know what's good for you.

Perhaps in Europe everything is opposite (well, having been there, it'd come as no surprise to me if this was true :-) ), but I do know one thing: There's a great deal of broadcasters in North America who lack any form of commercials.

Some of them are paid directly by people who subscribe to the programming, for example, HBO, and FSTV. Some of them broadcast for free and have absolutely no charge attached to them, for example, PBS, and, to some degree (if you live outside of Ontario) TV Ontario. FSTV also has a station without commercials.

Commercial free stations such as TV Ontario, PBS, FSTV, and the various religious stations regularly broadcast content which a great many would find objectionable if they didn't keep their TV sets glued to stations they actually enjoy. In fact, in spite of the fact the BBC forces a license upon people in the UK for their content, PBS manages to give away many of the exact same programs developed by the BBC themselves, and has continued to do so for years. Also, I am certain that the content broadcast on FSTV is FAR more objectionable to many than just about ANY other station I know of, especially the BBC.

Why it is that there are more commercial free programs being broadcast that I can pick up in North America for free than there are in the UK under forced licencing will always remain an unsolveable enigmah to me.

Ali G's still on HBO in repeats, but there's no mention of the promised Season 2. Has it been cancelled? Google's not telling me anything useful.

...more people understand what a tremndously heroic thing all those soldiers did can only be a good thing.

For those of you who have never seen "Saving Private Ryan" or "Band of Brothers", I recommend them. Remember, freedom comes at a price, and we should all be very thankful to all those who have paid it, and one way is by learning about, and appreciating the sacrifices made. As this archive will only further add to our accuracy or the historical events, this can only be a Good Thing.

Why hasn't there been a reality TV show yet, like "Who wants to be a Senator?"

Stupid Campaign Finance laws, probably.

I thought there was supposed to be one though, but the closest I could find was this: HBO's new series, Candidate 2012, will follow the journey of one curious and compelling young American as he or she travels across the country in an attempt to figure out what it will take to become President of the United States in the year 2012.

Not sure how they'll get around the soft-money laws, though.

I really hope they didn't take six feet under too seriously.

Have you watched the HBO series OZ? It's just fiction but gives a chilling look into prison life. After watching it you just have to wonder if some of that stuff REALLY goes on in some prisons. From the sound of her research it may be even worse.

...but but but...but I LOVE my DirecTV!!! Please don't hurt them. *simper* DON'T hurt them. Me likes to watch...me NEEDS to watch Six Feet Under and Simpsons and Mr. Show by sweet tasty tasty all digital satellite! What's wrong with a little RICO underhandedness? It's good for the soul. No hurt them...please?