Gerstmann / Gamespot Controversy Update

Its Monday and sadly for CNET and it's site Gamespot, the controversy surrounding the firing of Jeff Gerstmann for the rumored reason of a bad review costing the site thousands in ad revenue continues unabated and seems to be getting worse. The internets exploded over the weekend with comments all over the place, Eidos forums shutdown, and many Gamespot employees past and present carefully providing their own opinions. A list of those can be found here, towards the bottom.

More importantly the mainstream press such as USA Today, The Mercury News, The Guardian, and Dallas Morning News is starting to sniff around the edges of the stories with their own blogs commenting on it. A first step for greater unwanted attention.

Now people have planned Blackout Monday, where people refuse to visit or link to Gamespot and CNET sites. Planned at the last minute, doubt it worked but doesn't means later plans will not. There is also a plan to protest at CNET headquarters in San Francisco from December 8th to 10th.

Gertsmann has somewhat commented further on this controversy with Joystick but remains mum on specific details due to legal reasons. Basically he says he was shocked by the firing, stands by his reviews, and determining what he will do next.

Basically this story isn't going away like CNET wants it to. They need to say something or do something to repair their reputation because at this moment the rumors say that reviews and information can be bought. That makes their sites worthless. I personally have stopped listening to their podcasts and stopped visiting their sites for this reason. I am happy to change my mind but the silence is deafening.

GameSpot Editor Confirms Firing Reasons

The gaming sphere has blown up in the last 24 hours because of the firing of Jeff Gerstmann for a bad review of an Edios title that cost the website thousands in ad revenue. Gamespot, CNET, and Edios have all refused to comment on the story accept to say they did nothing wrong but when pressed for details will switch to "no comment". The end result is readers have no choice but to assume that the line between site business and site editorially simply doesn't exist and that favorable news and reviews are available to anyone who wants to buy them.

Valleywag is now reporting that an unconfirmed Gamespot editor has pretty much confirmed the above assumptions in a post on their forums. The text is reproduced below.

We're very clear in our review policies that all reviews are vetted by the entire team before they go live - everything that goes up is the product of an entire team's output. Our freelancers are especially guilty of making snide comments, but those are always yanked before the review goes live, because everyone in the office reads these reviews and makes sure they're up to our standards before they get put up.

If there was a problem with his reviews, then it would've been a problem with the entire team. Firing him without telling anyone implies that anyone else on this team can be fired at the drop of a hat as well, because none of us are writing any differently or meaner or less professionally than we were two years ago before the management changed. I'm sure management wants to spin this as the G-Man being unprofessional to take away from the egg on their face that results after a ten-year employee gets locked out of his office and told to leave the premises and then no one communicates anything to us about it until the next day.

This management team has shown what they're willing to do. Jeff had ten years in and was fucking locked out of his office and told to leave the building.

What you might not be aware of is that GS is well known for appealing mostly to hardcore gamers. The mucky-mucks have been doing a lot of "brand research" over the last year or so and indicating that they want to reach out to more casual gamers. Our last executive editor, Greg Kasavin, left to go to EA, and he was replaced by a suit, Josh Larson, who had no editorial experience and was only involved on the business side of things. Over the last year there has been an increasing amount of pressure to allow the advertising teams to have more of a say in the editorial process; we've started having to give our sales team heads-ups when a game is getting a low score, for instance, so that they can let the advertisers know that before a review goes up. Other publishers have started giving us notes involving when our reviews can go up; if a game's getting a 9 or above, it can go up early; if not, it'll have to wait until after the game is on the shelves.

I was in the meeting where Josh Larson was trying to explain this firing and the guy had absolutely no response to any of the criticisms we were sending his way. He kept dodging the question, saying that there were "multiple instances of tone" in the reviews that he hadn't been happy about, but that wasn't Jeff's problem since we all vet every review. He also implied that "AAA" titles deserved more attention when they were being reviewed, which sounded to all of us that he was implying that they should get higher scores, especially since those titles are usually more highly advertised on our site.

I know that it's all about the money, and hey, I like money. I like advertising because it pays my salary. Unfortunately after Kasavin left the church-and-state separation between the sales teams and the editorial team has cracked, and with Jeff's firing I think it's clear that the management now has no interest at all in integrity and are instead looking for an editorial team that will be nicer to the advertisors.

When companies make games as downright contemptible as Kane and Lynch, they deserve to be called on it. I guess you'll have to go to Onion or a smaller site for objective reviews now, because everyone at GS now thinks that if they give a low score to a high-profile game, they'll be shitcanned. Everyone's fucking scared and we're all hoping to get Josh Larson removed from his position because no one trusts him anymore. If that doesn't happen then look for every game to be Game of the Year material at GameSpot.

Now this post could turn out to be false but it has an authentic feel to it. Its sounds like the actions a suit would make, where numbers are the driving force and not much else. Its also clear that CNET needs to provide a comprehensive response to this event and a course of action that can restore trust back in their websites. Obviousily the first step is fire Josh Larson for gross incompetence for even creating this pretty predicable PR disaster and the second is create rules that establish a seperation of editoral from sales. Anything less is an improper response to this controversy.

GameSpot Reviewer Fired for Angering Advertiser

Its kind of assumed concept in the world of journalism, whether online, TV or print and that's the journalistic endeavors are separated from the business and advertising goals. In other words, a company may buy advertisement but they are not buying good press. Its also assumed by many that is not 100% of the case and that business goals do leak into journalistic ethics (see Newsweek's love issue to Amazon) but at least its usually blatant enough that you can make a judgement call on what you are reading.

However, there are times when the entire facade is blown away and confirms our suspicions and further erodes the trust between journalists and their readers. That is the case with the controversy surround GameSpot.com who fired Editorial Director Jeff Gerstmann, a 10 year veteran of the company.

The theory is he was fired for his 6.0/10 review of "Kane & Lynch" which resulted in Edios pulling hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad revenue. Information leaked form someone working close to Edios is he was fired for "unprofessional reviews and review practices" and the "tone" of his reviews (whatever that means). Judge for yourself and read the review (here and here) and watch the video version below which was pulled from GameSpot.

Currently these theories cannot be confirmed. Gertzman briefly commented on the story by saying he is unable to comment, "This probably won't come as much of a surprise, but I'm unable to comment on the rumors surrounding my termination."

CNET, owner of Gamespot, did release a short statement that didn't address this controversy directly "GameSpot takes its editorial integrity extremely seriously. For over a decade, Gamespot and the many members of its editorial team have produced thousands of unbiased reviews that have been a valuable resource for the gaming community. At CNET Networks, we stand behind the editorial content that our teams produce on a daily basis."

The news of the firing came about last night as a result of an early release of a Penny Arcade strip that comments on the firing. Tycho later released a statement on the controversy. As a result of the strip, the news of the firing has blazed across the gaming websites everywhere with few pleased with the news. It even resulting in Edios closing their forums.

So to sum up, all that is known is that Jeff Gurtzmann from Gamespot has been fired. The theory is the cause is because of a bad review of a game that resulted in lost advertising dollars but the site owners are claiming the real cause is "tone" of his reviews. Edios, CNET and Gamespot have refused to comment directly on the story and will not allow Gurtzmann to do so either.

Why is this important? Well, this confirms that many of us suspect but don't want to believe, that advertisement dollars drive editorially content and can buy positive reviews of products. This has a chilling effect that post effects current employees of CNET's network of websites and also the readers of the those websites.

For the employees that provide reviews, articles and content for the site, I can't imagine that if you currently work for a CNET owned website that this doesn't have a negative effect on how you review and write about products and companies that do business with CNET or under consideration to do business with them. If Apple buys advertisement does that mean that CNET reviewers need to consult the business end to determine what the iPhone review should be? Oh wait, Nintendo just bought advertisement space, should the next game review for the Wii be a 9.5 or a 10? What if the advertisement arm is trying to pursue new business, does that mean reviewers have to check all reviews and stories through them to verify it will not effect the closing of a sale? If I was currently employed there that would be steps I would consider as not doing so apparently can cost you your job.

For the readers, its an issue of trust. When you look up reviews you want an honest opinion, warts and all of a product so you can make a sound decision. If its an article about a company and what its doing, you want the truth, not spin.

As of now, thanks to this controversy, you can not trust any of the content on Gamespot or any of CNET owned websites and publications. I include all of CNET because we simply don't know if this was a decision internal to Gamespot or is part of a company wide policy for advertisement revenue. Until CNET clarifies and explains exactly what happens (and allows Gerstmann to do the same), defines what the hell "tone" of a review means (because I don't see a problem in the reviews I read or seen), and makes it clear what steps it will take to keep the advertising arm firewalled from the content arm it is my belief that CNET and any of its websites can be trusted as a source of news, reviews and information as we simply don't know what has been bought off and what hasn't.

Amazon's Kindle Released

Amazon announced what it considers to be the re-invention of the book called Kindle (pics). The book is slightly larger but thinner (7.5" x 5.3" x 0.7") then your average paperback (6.9" x 4.2" x 1.2") and comes with a lot of bells and whistles that books don’t have like wireless access to new content via Whispernet (similar to a cell phone network), storage of over 200 books (thousands available, around $9.99 per), and ability to download newspapers and blogs (pricing varies), view email attachments and light web surfing (How to Video). All of this in a $399 device. Compared to most other eBook readers, the Kindle stands on its own.

Does the book need to be reinvented? Sure, why not if it’s an improvement. Based on this first version I don’t think the book has anything to fear. The eBook model doesn’t yet duplicate the feel of getting into a novel and reading faster and faster to get through the exciting story as times passes unnoticed by you. The theory is there with the “E Ink” display, but when you have to wait a second for a page to load, the momentum can shift. Time suddenly gets noticed and suddenly finishing the chapter may not be so important.

Then there is the cost. $400 dollars for the electronics that display the books contents (assuming no pics). Even with the discount of only $10 per new novel (versus $20-$30 it usually costs) that is a lot of book buying to recoup the “savings”. Then there is notion of convienance. I just don’t see people tossing this into a backpack the same way we do books. There is something to be said about the ease of being worried about your book breaking. Sure you will have hundreds of possible books at your fingertips but really how often is that really needed?

The screen is currently black and white, to mimic reading a book, but is that necessary in the digital age? Why not a color screen that can display pictures and content, with it switching to black and white as the books need it? Also why no backlight? One annoying aspect of the book is needing a lot of light to enjoy it (to avoid headaches) so why not make it easy to literally read a book in most conditions such as long car trips or say a wait outside on Black Friday?

All these quibbles aside the Kindle is a good first step in the reinvention of the book. The potential is there, whether its books that get corrected and updated on the fly, the ability to access information anytime, anywhere, or even a college student that has all their books for class literally in the palm of their hand. I could be wrong as don’t have $400 to find out first hand, but on the surface it seems this first attempt at the book 2.0 doesn’t seem worth it, not yet anyway. I will let the early adopters work out the kinks and look forward to Kindle 2.0 (which would benefit greatly from iTouch technology).

Top 10 Ways to Prepare for Black Friday

Using the idea from here, I decided to write my own list of how to prep for Black Friday 2007.

1. Research your deals.
Many sites now provide the Black Friday weeks early. The one I use the most is bfads.net. I also recommend getting your local paper on Thanksgiving Day so can verify those ads.

2. Determine what want and from where.
Reason I recommend this is a lot of places offer the same deals. For instance one place may have a DVD set for $18 but another for $25. So this avoid duplication of effort and figure out what places you want to hit in what order. Some stores provide price matches but they tend to suspend those rules for Black Friday deals so don't count on those.

3. Check for Online Deals
You have your list of much have items and their great prices, now check to see if can beat them online allowing you to avoid waiting in line or focus on new must have goal. In some cases, stores will only have online deals so be sure to create shortcut list and check them frequently on Thanksgiving Day. Just don't count on getting the item as you will not be the only one checking so still have a store waiting plan B just in case can't get what you want online at the price you want.

4. Prioritize your goals.
Stores open early, and with limited quantities so its literally the case of the early bird gets the worm. Unless your in teams or lucky you can't store hop successfully for those high ticket, low item deals. With most stores all having lines, you probably have only one shot at one store to get that huge deal so make it count.

5. Try to work with a team.
Teammates can help with the long lines and wait with tag teaming and supply runs. They can also help hit multiple stores at the same time increasing your chances of success. But remember that its generally one per customer so your bud shouldn't be eyeing that deal too.

6. Get plenty of sleep the night before.
Stores open early, but all that means is you have to get in line even earlier. The better the deals (and more likely the more limited the quantities) the earlier you have to arrive. That means no sleep as between getting up to prep and celebrate for Thanksgiving you may not get that nap that allows you to go from doing the family things to getting in line. Its possible as a result you might be up for 24 hours or more so just be aware of that.

7. Be prepared for the line.
You will have hours of waiting to go so you need some basic supplies. Dress comfortably and for the weather, you will be outside in the elements so add some layers. You can always remove layers but once in line its hard to add them. A blanket wouldn't hurt either. Entertainment is a must such as a book or a gameboy, but note plugs may not be available so don't depend on power for that laptop or DVD player. Be sure to fully charge everything to day before. Also standing is just painful and tiresome so bring something to sit on whether a fold up chair or cushion. All lines are different, don't rely on the kindness of strangers to hold your place during that the long wait so don't over do it on the drinks and food before heading to the store. It doesn't hurt to over prepare but you want to line just enough stuff that will get you through the wait (and pack up quick) but not necessarily require you to have to leave the line to get more. Once you get a feel for how the line is being handled (friendliness etc), trips to the car may be possible. Don't forget your list! It would stink to get there, wait it out, and then forget key items.

8. Leave the kids home.
Seems obvious but you would be surprised how many people will show up with kids and wait hours in line with them. No Black Friday deal is worth the hassle and aggravation to yourself and others in trying to control bored kids for hours or simply just trying to keep up with them. Its also irresponsible as its probably going to be cold. Kids also will divert you from your gameplan and push you to buy items you may not have planned on. To put it bluntly, they will get in the way.

9. Get there early.
Hopefully you have your list, your supplies and an agenda. But its no good if people already wrapped around the building because you showed up just before the store opens. So determine when the store is opening that day and show up even earlier. How early is hard to determine because it can vary wildly but generally the better the deal is the earlier you should show up. Also just how much is your time and effort with it to you to save those dollars. If your saving only 10 bucks maybe not, but if its a few hundred, maybe it is.

10. Be realistic and have fun.
Know going into this that you may not get some or any of the items that you want. Most of the best Black Friday deals are in limited quantities so things could sell out very quickly. Some stores give out "coupons" for the BF items before the store opens so keep an eye on that. If they run out of coupons to the first 10 people in line and your 40 back well you know that your probably out of luck. If your realistic in your goals you can plan better and handle the stress of waiting better. Most people take the waiting and shopping entirely too seriously for mostly unrealistic goals. This can lead to conflict and sometimes violence and really no sale is worth that. If you go in prepared but with proper expectations you can actually have fun doing this. The point is a good deal but also hopefully done in the spirit of giving and if your more stressed about the deal then the pleasure you hope to give then your missing the whole point of Christmas.

So there you go, my Top 10 list of how to prepare for Black Friday based on my experiences from last year. I achieved only a tiny tiny fraction of my goals but I fun in the effort and actually came away with some great presents as a result. Because I went into it prepared and in the proper mindset, it had fun and plan on doing it again this year.

Google's Android SDK Info

Google has released a few details on the SDK for Android, its mobile phone OS its developing in partnership with multiple companies. According to Engadget, the phone will support touchscreen, 3G networks, Java, threaded text messaging, and MPEG-4, h.264, MP3, and ACC file formats (common Apple and Microsoft formats, but apparently not divx). Also it can handle 3D games qith Quake used as an example. A demo of the OS (on a device reference model, not actual product) is below. The SDK can be downloaded here. Also Google has annouced the Android Developer Challenge with a pot of $10 million that will be divided among various winners.

Another iPhone Brick That Can't Call

Userfriendly posted a hilarious strip that covers the recent bricking of hacked iPhones that is sung to Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall."

Special Comment: Conspiracy of Torture

Keith Olbermann closed Countdown yesterday with another scathing indictment (transcript) of the Bush Administration. An administration that seems to know no ends of its depravity.

This special comment was triggered by recent revelation that Bush fired Daniel Levin for daring to disagree with him on American policy regarding torture. Levin was Justice Department official assigned with determining Bush Admins policy on torture. He decided that first hand knowledge would be helpful and experienced Waterboarding first hand. From that experience he declared it a form of torture, very much contrary to Bush's stance on it. For daring to disagree and not do what all other Bush minions do by simply regurgitating Bush's current opinion regardless of consequence or if its good for the nation. As has consistently been the case, for Bush the only thing that matters is what Bush's wants and the nation be damned.

The video can be found here. (couldn't find on youtube at time wrote this)

Legend of Zelda Commercials Compliation

If a fan of The Legend of Zelda through the years (I have em all), then here is a walk down memory lane via commercials some of which are pretty strange. Learned of the compilation via Joystick and edited together by Skullkid700.

Mario Bros Theme on Tesla Coils

Rather then rewrite a solid description from YouTube:

Twin Solid State Musical Tesla coils playing Mario Bros theme song at the 2007 Lightning on the Lawn Teslathon sponsored by DC Cox (Resonance Research Corp) in Baraboo WI.
The music that you hear is coming from the sparks that these two identical high power solid state Tesla coils are generating. There are no speakers involved. The Tesla coils stand 7 feet tall and are each capable of putting out over 12 foot of spark. They are spaced about 18 feet apart. The coils are controlled over a fiber optic link by a single laptop computer. Each coil is assigned to a midi channel which it responds to by playing notes that are programed into the computer software. These coils were constructed by Steve Ward and Jeff Larson. Video was captured by Terry Blake. What is not obvious is how loud the coils are. They are well over 110dB If you look at another You Tube video which is from a different angle, you can hear the echo off the building and get a better idea of how loud it is.

fast Food Calorie Counter

If you eat fast food, you know its unhealthy. If you don't, you have bigger problems. What may not know is just how unhealthy the food is. Fortunately Calorie Counter provided a nice guide to just how unhealthy the fast food is with a little best and worse (relative to each other) for each category.

For Fries, Sonic's is the best, White Castle and Dairy Queen the worse. Basic hamburgers its White Castle and Wendy's best, Carl's Jr the worse. In the other burger varieties, best is Burger King (whopper jr) and White Castle (Bacon Cheeseburger) and the Worst goes to Carl's Jr for the Double Six Dollar Burger and its 1520 calories and 111 grams of fat. Wow.

Lots more information can be found here.

Google Phone, I Mean Android Announced

Today Google announced the development of Android for mobile phones (press release). Android would be an open source Linux based Operating System for new phones that would allow easy development of applications that could work on multiple brands and types of phones as long as have the core OS. This would be a direct competition to closed OS's like Palm, Windows Mobile and iPhone. The expected release date of phones with the new OS is second half of 2008 and the SDK for developers will be available on November 12th.

So far 34 different companies have signed up for the Open Handset Alliance. This includes the top mobile carriers of At&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and others from various countries. On the hardware side, Samsung, LG, and Motorola are also signed on. Nokia oddly staying out despite rapidly losing the cell phone race. Additional companies include Nvidia (graphics for phones) and Skype (voice over IP).

Its to early to say what impact this will have on the market but with the calibur of money and talent being brought to the table, its looks the "smartphone" will become the de facto phones on the market. What this means for Blackberries, Palm devices and the iPhone could be to make them obsolete as users will have the ability to customize their phones to fit their needs rather then work with whatever the developers think you need. The iPhone apparently was just step one of a mobile phone revolution.

I am personally looking for to the variety of choices that may come available. I wanted to possibilities that the iPhone was bringing to the table but as the locked down iPhone combined with being forced to do business with the craptastic AT&T was unacceptable at any price.

VideoSift Open Letter to Viacom

Videosift, a website that tracks popular online videos, has posted an open letter to Viacom and its owned network Comedy Central to work with the Internet. Viacom has started a policy where its most popular internet programming is only available through select websites and doesn't allow sharing via embeds and the like.

The result is no one can easily share the funny and insightful moments from their most popular shows such as The Daily Show, Colbert Report and South Park. Its their anti-YouTube policy of limited distribution from very limited sources. Something I think its idiotic and counter productive to advertising and selling the brand. Out of sight, out of mind is something to be avoided while Viacom seems to be embracing the concept. Personally because of the difficulty is sharing moments from Comedy Central, I simply don't bother to post about them anymore.

Here is the letter:

We love the Daily Show on VideoSift. The Comedy Central video embeds have been consistently some of the most popular voted content here.

So, it’s with a lot of regret - after an extensive community discussion- that we have decided to ban the submission of all Comedy Central videos.

The Internet does not respect national borders and your recent decision to block access to non-US viewers means that 30% of the members on VideoSift see a frozen screen when trying to view content from The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, South Park and other CC programs.

I’m sure you have very good reasons for taking this action - exclusive distribution deals with overseas TV networks, advertisements not meant to be globally broadcast etc. - but we ask you to reconsider your decision – and not just for the obvious reasons.

Programs like the Daily Show do more to create goodwill toward the US than the current US administration has ever done.

If the Daily Show can relentlessly skewer its nation’s politicians without fear of retribution - it gives hope to those living under despotic regimes that democracy isn't quite dead in the US.

Those of us living overseas see Jon Stewart as a face of America- and we like an America that is self-deprecating and willing to highlight her many mistakes. It makes it so much easier to forgive that way.

Of course, you own the content, and who are we to tell you how it should be distributed? Comedy Central has no obligation to send a political message to the rest of the world.

But there is another reason to allow international viewing that has more commercial appeal. When you block dependable access to your videos, you are driving people to illicit sources for their favorite content. (YouTube, Bittorrent etc.) We would try to monitor contraband
submissions on our site, but for you, policing this across the Internet will be like trying to drain the ocean with a teaspoon.

Comedy Central, please think globally and give us our Daily Show!

Respectfully yours,
The Rest of the World

PS. While you’re at it – can you prevent your videos from “expiring” after a few weeks?

Big Teleco To Rule It All

The 3rd US Court of Appeals upheld the FCC's deregulating of the Internet in regards to rules that revoke a requirement for the telephone companies to provide "nondiscriminatory" access to wire lines to consumers to competing Internet Service Providers. This means that the big teleco companies can tell the smaller companies to go to hell legally with massive bills for access.

As has been the case for the last 20 years, the call for "deregulation" has only led to the merging or elimination of competition so that only 3-4 companies are the sole providers. These providers often working together so the illusion of competition is maintained even though there really isn't. In the end, as it has always been, the consumers will pay the price as the teleco can dictate prices and you will have no choice but to accept it.

Colbert For President No Questions Asked

MediaMatters.com posted an excellent commentary that examines the media's reaction to the announced run for President (at least in South Carolina) by Stephen Colbert. This is where the site shines, showing the failures of the media (now if only would expand that to cover all media, regardless of political leanings).

In this commentary, writer Eric Boehlert notes the joy that the political commentators and media have had over Stephen Colbert. They laugh at the joke, sometimes participate in it, and generally just have a high old time without asking the critical questions you would expect from the media. Like is it legal (finally asked here). Is this joke good for the country (not sure yet on that one). Basically, he wonders why they are not doing their job.

I wonder the same thing, especially based on this recent report from Journalism.org that noticed the overall lack of information gathered by the media about the Presidential candidates. Some have focused on the subjective "positive" vs "negative" nature of the articles to paint a liberal media bias which I think is a false question. When reporting that John McCain didn't raise as much money as projected or falling behind other candidates, is that a negative or positive story? Is the expectation not to report it all?

That seems to be the problem though, the press is reporting on the "sexy" news, not the relevant news. Based on their study, "In all, 63% of the campaign stories focused on political and tactical aspects of the campaign. That is nearly four times the number of stories about the personal backgrounds of the candidates (17%) or the candidates’ ideas and policy proposals (15%). And just 1% of stories examined the candidates’ records or past public performance, the study found."

Only 16% of all stories covers what truly matters; what the candidate says they will do as President and what their previous records indicates they will actually do. Only 16% covers this area. With primaries around the corner, how does a voter make a informed decision? How does the strategy to win help make this decision? How does knowing the potential first wives are hot help? What does the usually nonsense about being the son of a farmer blah blah blah have to do with their ability to lead the country?

The problem, as the commentary pointed out, is the media's decision to treat the candidates as celebrities rather then future leaders of the free world. Basically they are treated no different then Britney Spears despite the fact they are different, dramatically different. Britney's decisions effect herself and her kids. The President's decisions can quite literally effect the entire world. The reporting should reflect the difference in scale but doesn't.

As is often the case nowadays, it seems laziness and money is driving how the reporting is done. Research is difficult, collating research even more difficult, but commenting about a haircut, that is easy. Read a blob blurb about it and the reporters are good to go. No effort needed.

Money is driven by readership and viewership and sadly the average American has demonstrated they want the sensational over the factual. They complain otherwise but their actions disprove the words. Of course the media tries to fill that need (hence talk of haircuts). The news though should strive to be more then infotainment. They should strive to inform, even when people don't want it.

The press is often called the fourth branch of government. The ones that watch the watchers. They failed us in the build up to Iraq. Will they fail us again in the quest to entertain?

Wanted Trailer Out

The trailer for Wanted, based off the comic book by Mark Millar, is now out on Yahoo! Movies. From what I can tell, the movie is more inspired by the comic rather then based on the movie. The comic itself was ultra violent and blatantly sexual, definitely a hard R while this movie is a PG-13 (or probably will be). Also the comic was about the son of a super villain who takes over for his father's legacy and decides to destroy the group responsible for his murder. This group is all the supervillains who joined together and killed all the superheroes, then quietly took over the world. Again, an R storyline. So while the movie and the comic don't match its mature theme, it does look like it will be entertaining. (source)

The trailer can be found here.

How to Ask A Question

Microsoft apparently got tired of people's inability to ask direct questions to their computer woes. Being in IT (any jobs out there?) I know just how poorly people are at expressing their issues. Also how quickly they get upset that you can't just translate their nonsense explanation into something usuable requiring the asking of more questions. Which tends to get more nonsense answers.

So for those that don't know how to ask a direct, solid question that provides all the information needed to actually answer it directly and correctly, click here for help.

NBC / iTunes Deal Failure Revealed

NBC accidently revealed why the deal with iTunes fell apart. To the surprise of no one the reason was money. The grand "experiment" of pricing that NBC was prevented from engaging in by Apple was to increase the prices of their shows from $1.99 to $2.99 each. Yep the grand experiment was really "we want more money." Apple told them no so NBC grabbed their toys and started a new sandbox called Hulu.com. Which isn't working and after an initial cheap price will probably go up to the preferred profit price. So there you go, more proof that when business start using words like "experiment" usually its just another way of saying "how can we screw our customers?".

Ready for a FLILF?

The Daily Show yesterday posed an important question: Is America Ready for a FLILF? Or "First Lady I'd Like to Fuck". Yep, there are actual candidates wives out there that are actual knockouts of the highest order. Numero Uno FLILF Elizabeth Kucinich even particpated in an interview with Jason Jones. She had a good sense of humor about the whole thing and with that gorgeous red hair is incredibly easy on the eyes. Even if her husband doesn't go to higher office, some news show should consider hiring her for regular political commentary as people are bound to watch just to take a gander. For me, the answer is yes, big loud yes. Give us a FLILF!

Click here to get video of the hilarious segment.

TV Quick Hits 10/26

Stargate: Atlantis - Blah episode. Shepard goes out and about, gets captured by a group that wants him to control an Ancient ship so they can use it to fight the wraith. Battle of wills ensue and eventually the group gets the ship and Shepard set free. The main problem with the ep is the woman playing the group's leader as she frankly couldn't act herself out of a cardboard box. Almost no inflection and no real acting skill was on display. It reminded me of a high school play. She looked good, real good, but looks are not enough so bad it makes you wonder who she is the girlfriend of within the show). The show implied the character could return, if so hopefully recast.

Friday Night Lights - Problem with this season is two many silly subplots. You have the murdering beauty and the geek storyline. You have the rebellious daughter acting like a jealous 6 year old of her baby sis and trying to nail the older man. Lila, still being the good christian, decides to befriend the hot convict and get him a job. Then there is the wheelchair man going down to Mexico to get shark crap injected in his spine, cause everyone knows Mexico is a haven of medicine. Really the only interesting story is the team as a whole, Coach Taylor, and of course the stunning Connie Britton. Thats a whole lot of dull going on.

Las Vegas - Funny running gag with Piper (lovely and dimpled Camille Guaty) in various Halloween costumes trying to scare the guys and failing. Delinda has to deal with a nutty and pregnant pastry chef. Mike helps his girl from an abusive husband (cause his running "joke" is always dating women with major issues). His solution is to go mano-o-mano and as the police pull up, toss him a gun so it looks like he was going to get shot. Kind of silly but whatever. Sam decides to participate in high stakes poker with the Tom Selleck, gets her rear handed to her and loses her lucky coin (where that come from?). All in all, other ho hum episode.

Women's Murder Club - Mom dies and the obsessive gym trainer did it, accidently cause didn't know about a latex allergy, which he used to tie her up. Not explained well how got there with the "evidence". The mix of serious with the light (mostly relationship related) is handled well. In the relationship part Lindsay agrees to a blind date just to make the ex jealous. Jill gets in trouble for taking in the now orphaned daughter and gets written up by the evil Denise (Linda Park, still looking off). Not idea where going with the evil boss thing as stuff like that gets boring real freaking quick because its so one note. Hopefully its a short term thing.

Moonlight - Rogue vampire killing escorts and Mick must hunt him down, but only realizing this after the initial goal was to find a missing girl. Beth (yums Sophia Myles) gets involved because she correctly surmised the serial killer angle. Pretty good fight on a roller coaster. More elaborate then television usually goes for.

Numbers - On the hunt for a bank robber who donates the loot to charity, the targets loot being gained through various nefarious ways. Helps bust them too. Navi Rawat remains absolutely stunning. Turns out the robin hood was doing it because his brother died fighting a fire for a runaway shelter.

TV Quick Hits 10/25

Smallville - Lana Lang evil? Turns out that Lana was helping to keep Lionel Luther prisoner but sadly he escaped (why not kill him?). The story is a superhero show is filming in Smallville and the starlet is in danger cause a comic fiend takes the comic a little to far thinking the film should mirror by having her die. In the act of saving her a few times, the bad guy discovers Clark's alter ego and decides he too needs to lose a love one to become a true hero (shades of Flash's Zoom). All ends well of course...except Lex visits the guy to hear his story.

Supernatural - Guys goes to a town to stop two demons (and lovers). The female demon has a slight lisp but makes up for it by being absolutely gorgeous. Sasha Barrese plays the bad girl and I couldn't help but notice she would have made a great Bionic Women as far as the visuals go. Anyway the other development is the hint that Sam may have a massive dark side considering he is supposed to take up the mantle of leadership for all demons. Finally the demon gun is back in action thanks to the assistance of the friendly demon blond (the sassy and gorgeous Katie Cassidy). What is her agenda? Me thinks she is Lucifer in disguise. It appears that Supernatural is following the Angel/Buffy model of a season long Big Bad that guides the actions throughout the season until defeated in the season finale. Bout damn time that tradition came back to TV.

Grey's Anatomy - See Bailey missed her son's first Halloween and upset about it. George feels guilty about screwing another women. Meredith helps a boy get ears for free and Alex got his groove on with Ava (the ferry girl) but didn't follow up. So another meh episode. Dr. Hahn (Brooke Smith, attractive to me but not sure why) is back to torment yang

Big Shots - The transvestite black book silliness might be resolved as Terrence bought the book and gave it to Duncan. Course Terrence gets to sack the ex (Paige Turco) so why not. Just glad that storyline (I hope) has been put to bed. Wendy (Amy Sloan) shows off her magnificent body (in lingerie) to have sex with her husband which makes you wonder why he would cheat on such a knockout to begin with. Duncan's daughter (amazingly eyed Peyton List) highers a guy to help her do her job and of course plans to jump him at some point. Course the guy has an agenda of his own. Only on TV can the intern higher another intern to help her. Almost forgot about the other silliness with the Alias guy dressing up in a costume for his kids attention and turns out the ex-wife's boyfriend does the same so they fight.

Survivor - Another tribe interloper goes home, this time Sherea cause they lost a nasty food competition. Like dry heaves gross. On the bright side for the other two interlopers, the preview gave away the merge so the producers goal of a 5 v 5 teams were realized. Good play producers, but could you leave the actually playing to the players next time? Much appreciated.

My Name is Earl - Alyssa Milano guests, still looking fan-freaking tastic and barely looked like she aged a day. She plays the girlfriend of Frank, Earl's inmate friend. Nice to see her sex appeal on display after years of it being suppressed on Charmed. Joy vs Catalina (hmmm) cause of a picture Cat took that shows Joy crapping her pants (being preggers and all). As for the Earl side, his goal was to get Alyssa back with Frank but once he does realizes they need to break up because Frank was holding her back.

30 Rock - Carrie Fisher guests as an ex-writer of a sketch comedy show from the 70s that Liz (Tina Fey) was inspired by. Tina hires her as a guest writer who is more then a bit filthy in her preferences for sketch comedy results in both getting fired (gets job back at the end). Tracy explores his daddy issues with Jack (who ends up playing Tracy's entire family, hilariously). Jenna (the lovely Jane Krakowski) destroys Kenneth's page jack. After sex appeal fails to impress, Kenneth must do a Page-Off to keep his position or get transferred to CNBC. Sadly no page off occurs as everyone ordered back to work.

The Office - Dunder-Mifflin decides to run ads locally. Instead of simply waving their hands like supposed to, Michael tries to create his own which of course gets rejected.

Scrubs - The return of my favorite comedy on TV. Partly because of the ever more gorgeous Sarah Chalke. I swear the girl gets better looking every year. Anyway, the cliffhanger ending is that Elliot and JD where going to do it but that gets resolved in five seconds by them not. Despite not getting busy with JD, Elliot breaks off the marriage with Keith. Preggers Kim (yummy Elizabeth Banks) is still around. The rest of the guys (including Kelso) get involved in helping Joe, the patient with the great smile. The Janitor gets a girlfriend named Lady. Still doesn't have a name...yet. JD realizes he doesn't love Kim but will stay anyway for the child (depressing thought).

ER - Most of it boring but the Morris bit was funny. He's wearing a promise ring, which woman think is a wedding ring. So he is constantly getting hit on, including from some outstanding twins. Suffice it to say, knowing the hotties hitting on him is quite painful. When twins hit on you and you have to so no, can't help but feel for the man.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent - Forgot this show moved to USA Network. Had to hit the internets to get the first three eps. Still as interesting as was in the past. Alicia Witt joins the cast. Freaking gorgeous natural redhead (rare those) and even if didn't like the show probably watch just cause a fan. Her character not so realistic. The girl is too pretty to play a tough, socially inept detective. Pretty woman tend to get too many social opportunities growing up to not learn skills. Its why you have the socially inept, few opportunities to learn. She is there for sex appeal and doing a mighty fine job of it.

TV Quick Hits 10/24

Bionic Women - Jamie goes undercover to find out why a recovered POW went kaka and killed all the doctors that where treating him. As part of the identity, she "takes on" a British accent. Which is her real accent, being British and all. What is it with the British and Australians able to do a better American accent then Americans? Michelle Ryan added a few notches to the sexy meter with that accent. As for the story, bad guy gets caught selling the microchip that allows the programming of people to do actions against their will and all is well, especially since Jaime met a man from the CIA to bump uglies with.

Life - Uh forgot to pay attention. Something about a pimp who managed to surround himself with nothing but knockouts and one of them died.

Criminal Minds - The lovely (but better with long hair) Suzanne Cryer guests as the aunt of a kidnapped girl in a mall that was locked down preventing the kidnapper and girl from leaving. At first the Minds crew thinks its a serial pedophile who kills them within an hour but the right questions and hints, learn that the uncle was molesting the girl and the aunt decided that if the girl was killed it would fix her marriage and husband. The girl lives. Sadly the criminal couple leave behind a boy. Overall, no deaths, maybe a first for the series, but a sad story nonetheless. Well executed as always.

CSI: NY - Second Life advertising fest as an assassin kills a person to claim her popular avatar to give the assassin access to murder a US Senator that was sleeping with the now dead girl. Pretty over the top and convoluted story. Entertaining too. Amazingly enough, the killer gets away. Doesn't happen often on the CSI shows.

Private Practice - Stuff happened I guess. Didn't care enough to remember it so could make snarky comments about it.

Dirty Sexy Money - Brian's wife learns he had a boy with another women, wants a divorce. The twins continue to bicker over the other woman, who isn't really preggers. Nick talks to Simon to figure out what his dad was doing with the rival billionaire, basically comes down to him being an advisor and was about to quit and work for Simon. Jeremy later loses it a bit once confirms the pregger lie cause knows that most of the people in his life want him for his moolah. Considering what a waste of space he is, no one would want the character for his personality. I think supposed to feel bad for him but can't, the writers forgot to set him up better. Also apparently paintings of ants is big money in New York. Don't understand it either.

Teresa Palmer as Wonder Women

Looks like Teresa Palmer has landed the role of Wonder Women for the upcoming Justice League film. Its the first rleased casting for the film and doesn't exactly instill confidence. Not because she is a hot blonde but because she doesn't seem to have the gravitas and athletism of Wonder Women. Think Xena, not Barbie. I personally would have preferred Mary Elizabeth Winstead (last pic) in the role.

Iraq War Money Cost Visual Aid

Crooks and Liars posted a nice visual aid (which the site got from here) to help explain the financial cost of the Iraqi war in terms that are easier to comprehend. Its numbers are staggering. As it stands the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) estimates the war will end up costing $2.7 Trillion. Yes, with a T, not a B.

To see what this like, below is a stack of $9 million dollars compared to a car and a human.

On the same scale, this is $191 Billion dollars ("just" $5 billion short of the $186 Billion is going to spend this year on the war). The tiny dark spot in the bottom middle, that is the car, just to help with the scale.

Now this is $316 billion. Again notice how tiny the car and man is.

Multiple that "building" of money by 7x and you have a true idea of the scope of the money being spent on a country that wasn't a threat to the US and proven to not be involved in 9/11, something that Bush and Cheney reluctantly admitted to. All this money and 3000+ American dead and 50000k casualties so that Haliburton and Bushies could benefit financially from the war. Also so Bush could show up his father for a perceived "failure" of leaving Saddamn in power.

I can't help but wonder how just one's years expense of this war could benefit Americans directly via various programs or just simple give back via tax cuts. Makes me glad I don't have children who will have to deal with this mess, assuming that China just doesn't buy us out since all that money is being borrowed from them.

TV Quick Hits 10/23

Bones - They solved a murder involving bones and proved to a goofy FBI psychologist they make a good team. Go team!! Yep the ep was about as corny as it sounds, but next week's ep has Emily Deschanel in a Wonder Women outfit, so expecting the Halloween ep to be a good one.

House - Survivor continues and another player gets eliminated, this time via a "rose" ceremony. Sadly my favorite one Taub (the non-doctor) was kicked for telling House what he already knew when House wants opposing viewpoints. The case itself was a girl taking moldy bread that acted like LSD. I am going to be sad when the final three are decided to 13, Kutner, and Brennan. Also Eric is back, just hired by Cuddy, since blacklisted as being "House Lite".

Beauty and the Geek - The gang goes to the San Diego Comic-con. The girls have to come up with a superheroine and back story and the guys have to build the costume they will wear for a few comic professionals. The beauties disdain the con while the geeks have an orgasm. To bad the girls are not into reading or they would have known about all the movie stars that showed up to promote their wares. When they find out they are going to be annoyed at the missed opportunity to find the sugar daddies they been shooting for. Jesse and Erin get jettisoned in a pop culture questionnaire.

Reaper - The boys must use a sweater to absorb a slime demon. Gross, but amusing. Especially when apparently freddy kruger claws are needed to extract them from the slimed saturated sweater.

Law and Order: SVU - An episode on torture where a "doctor" helps design "benign" means of torturing women but forgets all about the followup where apparently heart attacks are common. Excellent episode that covers the pro and con arguments to torture. I personally fall on the con as I don't see how torture results in good intel. People are just going to say what they think people want to here. Course the government hides the ratio of good intel vs bad intel that rose from torture, probably because they know the percentage would be unacceptably low.

NCIS - Guy gets shot, turns out the wife, really a spy, did it. The more fun part was the B story of Abby getting a job offer and how the rumor mill escalated the offer.

Fan Made Lego Pathfinder

LEGO master Grey Fang put together a pretty detailed version of a fan made set called the Pathfinder Space Ship complete with bridge, engines, escape pids, various suits, and crew quarters. Its basically a massive fan made LEGO playset.

Full gallery here.

(source)

TV Quick Hits 10/22

Chuck - Chuck helps save the brother if a Chinese spy, screwing his best bud and sister by not spending time with them. Needy folks. The man is getting laid (supposedly) and they trying to interfere. Another good show, about my only complaint is the bizarre half second pause of action here and there. It seemed completely random and did absolutely nothing except making you go "wtf?".

Heroes - Matt (and Nathan) finds his dad, who proceeds to trap him in a nightmare of his own creation but they manage to get out of it. Nici is trying to be "cured" of her power via the company. The New Orleans cousin play with their powers some more. Hiro shows up briefly but nothing really happens. Kristen Bell made her appearance looking better then ever but basically playing Veronica Mars in permanent bitch mode. Her assignment is to hunt down Peter, but no clear if its to capture or kill. Her power is electricty, which explains where Peter got his from ep 2. On the plus side, the Plague Twins didn't make an appearance.

How I Met Your Mother - Another hilarious ep, this time covering how the gang met each other (basically roommate in college and at the bar) while out with a hot but crazy girl at the bar. Its also added something to the pop culture venacular, the "Vicky Mendoza Diagonal", where Hot is on the Y axis, crazy on the X. The line starts from 0 with a slop of 1. Basically plot where the girl lies on the graph (crazy, hot). If the dot is above, then the crazy is worth the hotness and if below the line then the hot isn't worth the crazy. Pretty genius, I hope it becomes a running joke on the show. Another genius is the girl's name "blah, blah" because Ted simply couldn't remember her name when relating the story of the crazy girl.

CSI: Miami - Dina Meyer guests (the wife). Fan of hers, partly because of her role choices but mostly she is gorgeous. Doesn't get much work though. Barely used here. Another guest of interest is Claire Coffee (the reporter) who was looking pretty good in the ep, a look she should keep. Hormonal comments aside, the ep was about a pro football player that is murdered with wife, various lovers, agent, and a ambitious obituary reporter, its discovered that one of his lovers stabbed him for refusing to help his dying illegitimate child and the wife finished the kill 40 minutes later (kind of, by pulling the knife out of his neck causing him to bleed to death).

TV Quick Hits 10/21

Desperate Housewives - Susan pisses off a new gay couple in various ways including dog napping. Bree's ex-dead-husband's mother pays a visit and discovers the fake baby scam thing and interferes by whisking away her daughter. Edie got crabs, gave it to Carlos, who gave it to Gabby, who gave it her husband. Via the use of the crab medicine, Edie now knows Carlos is cheating on her with Gabby. Lynette and her man discover better sex via wigs. Basically a silly episode all around, especially the Susan stuff.

Brothers and Sisters - The army brother is getting addicted to his pain medicine. The wine owning brother is tempted (did, not clear) to cheat on his wife who has taken a sabbatical because their son died shortly after birth (last season). Ally McBeal, 6ft Under and Sally go to a spa...and really nothing happens. Basically a tune out episode with me only vaguely paying attention to what occurred.

Cold Case - The female portion of a pair of grifters dies after being in a coma for 20 years from a gunshot. Obviously her partner and other marks are suspected. As is often the case for this show, it was love that caused her death as her partner (and apparently son) turned on her and the mark killed her in a $3 million dollar insurance scam (that turned out not to be a scam since she actually died rather then the one made to look like her). Convoluted story, more creative then most their stories. Is it me or is Kathryn Morris looking a bit on the creepy side, like her head is now to big for her body? Usually that's a sign of anorexia, which would be a damn shame cause she was a stunner, but skeletons don't look good to me.

Shark - A science building floor goes boom. First the FBI thinks its a student that fits their profile but one of Shark's team say "nay! I say thee nay!!!" after the kids attempts suicide. Ok would have been awesome if said it that way, but anyway turns out a couple goes up that for nooky and the ex-boyfriend wanted revenge for daring to break up with him. Sharks does his legal mumbo jumbo and bad guy goes to jail and poor innocent student goes back to school under the awkward looks of people knowing they screwed up cause despite being in college they forget that accusation of guilt and actually being guilty are two different things.

Kevin Rose On Captain America Cover

Kevin Rose, co-creator of Digg and Revision3, got a little comic book immortality by being on the cover of Captain America The Chosen #6. He is the one with the Diggnation (a podcast about the top "diggs" on digg.com) shirt on. I use to follow him back in the The Screensavers (check out TWIT w/ Leo Laporte btw) and then Attack of the Show days before he hit the gold mine of digg.com. Suffice it to say I am jealous of his successes.

Now the connection isn't made up as cover artist Mitch Breitweiser confirmed the connection and would have added co-host Alex but "couldn't in good conscience because he's a Windows user." Congrats Kevin.

Week 4 New Season 10/19

Women's Murder Club - Jill (Laura Harris) has a new boss Denise who is played by Linda Park, who was absolutely gorgeous in Enterprise but here not so much. Not sure why but something is off about her looks. To thin? Bad hair? I don't know but something is off about her. Anyway, the main story is a subway shooting kills many including a vet and the club must track down the killer. Being a tv show, they get their man and all is right with the world. Considering the material, the show is oddly light but balanced pretty decently. Aubrey Dollar, as Cindy is still channeling Anne Hathaway and looking fantastic doing it.

Moonlight - Vampire gets stuck in the desert (cause sun drains them, not kill them), get dehyrated (lack of blood) and the hottie comes and offers up a wrist to restore him. Witness testifies and bad guy goes to jail. Decent show, modified take on vampires, not bad ep overall.

Numbers - Andrea Roth guest stars. For me thats pretty much all I needed to know. Had a crush on her since her Robocop The Series days (played the ghost). Like fine wine, she has just gotten better and more gorgeous over the years. Oh and the story is about a guy that uses the "mystical" nature of numbers (Numerology) in leaving hints towards his kills.

Friday Night Lights - Being to lazy to look up names, will use nasty shorthands. Lets see, Panthers win first game but barely. The new coach is an idiot cause building the offense on smash. The old coach wants to come back because his family is falling apart (and his ex-team). The wheelchair guy heads to Mexico for stem-cell surgury for the legs (cause Mexico is famous for its breakthroughs in absolutely nothing). The new found choir girl is hot but boring. Oh and the two killers are giving each other nooky cause in fantasy land the hot girl does the nice geek. I guess it will keep fans happy but I thought the show was going for realism but with this couple its jump the shark time already. Oh and Connie Britton, even when trying to look like crap, still looks amazing.

Las Vegas - The concierge girl, cute as a button, teaches a boy how to land a girl. Something about being nice (utter BS). Cooper gets blackmailed for murder but the guys come to his rescue. Deliah thinks that taking care of eggs (like in high school) is a sign of parental skill (ug so stupid). So basically the slide continues.

Stargate: Atlantis - Mini Flash Forward (Disney show from early 90s) reunion today with Jewel Staite and Amanda Tapping (both regulars on that show). The crush I had on Jewel (she also of Firefly, sadly cancelled) since then and continues today as she remains simply stunning. The ep itself was shades of Nightmare on Elm Street as an entity jumps from host to host causing severe nightmares. Its escalates to killing with the death of occasional character Dr. Kate Heightmeyer (beautiful Clair Rankin). Rodney gets infected, so John and him hook up in each others dreams stopping the bad guy. Decent ep, but lots of screentime for Jewel so I was a happy camper

Week 4 New Season 10/18

Smallville - For some reason Chloe is wigging out that she is a freak, even though she only used the power once, its the gift of life, and the only disruption its caused is self inflicted by the bizarre and sudden break-up with Jimmy at the end of the ep. Allison Mack does an excellent job (with a lovely bod) but really this ep was all over the place and pretty crappy setup all around. Dean Cain is played an immortal, one assumes Vandal Savage, but this intro episode was pretty bad. Also, somehow, the Martian Manhunter, knows Kara and her family.

Supernatural - Funny episode involving a cursed rabbit's foot. If own it have insane luck, but lose it and get insane bad luck that could kill. The ep also introduces the stunning Lauren Cohan (with a British accent) for a dose of needed estrogen as a rival bounty hunter. Rival in the sense that she likes to steal cursed objects and sell them.

Gray's Anatomy - Torres (Sara Ramirez, stunning woman) goes off verbally on Izzy (Katherine Heigl, yums too but something about her I don't like) for stealing her man. Other stuff too, but that was the only plot line that interested me.

Big Shots - Duncan decides to give monogamy a go with Lisbeth (drool worthy Paige Turco), and manages to dodge a few tempations including a naked Emmanuelle Vaugier (like any sane man could resist her naked). Lisbeth, on the other hand, decides to jump Terrence (The Dresden Files, hate that got cancelled). Meanwhile James (Michael Varton) gets laid by a consultant making Katie (Nia Long) jealous who loses her mind, in a way out of character as established from the previous episodes. And Karl (Joshua Malina) finds a man for Marla (hmm Jessica Collins), but didn't mean to. Wendy (yums Amy Sloan) remains oblivious of his cheating. Decent ep, but not enough Christopher Titus (still sucks his show was cancelled).

Survivor - Another person gone. This time from one of those annoying "shake things up" producer moves. In this case each tribe was told to pick the best two players of the opposing tribe. Obviousily the Zhan Hu tribe benefits the most from this move and the other tribe not at all. Its the yearly crap move of "how do we rebalance the tribes?" crap. I find it frustrating because the player is jettisoned more because of what the producers do rather then what the player did or did not do. Credit though to Peih-Gee for the brilliant stragedy of coming up with the plan to purposedly throw the next two eviction challenges to eliminate the two interlopers. That way when the merge occurs at 10 or so players (usually but not always), then the tribes will be represented equally (5 each) making for more competitive homestretch to the end. The girls though are horrible at hiding their intentions with an obvious throwing of the challange and then giggling and smiling about it. Gamemanship they do not have. Jeff called them on this move, one of the reasons I like him as host because its not all sunshine and light. As a result, Aaron was kicked and he simply didn't deserve to go.

CSI - Boy with boobs hangs and his neighbor shot to death. They thought he was killed as a hate crime but he just hated himself cause of his man-boobs. The neighbor died because he discovered that the areas drinking water was contaminiated (cause the boy's boobs) and killed by the boy's mother who thought he had caused the boy's depression. A side story is Grissom proposes to Sara, who accepts (but Jorja Fox is leaving the show so guess gets cold feet). The B story is Sara investigates the death of a body found at a contruction site, apparently killed in 196- for trying to dig up info on the mob running a casino at the time. A story interesting, B story pointless.

My Name Is Earl - Goofy episode where everyone decides to make up a short story, all of which are really off the wall and strange. More silly then amusing, I didn't particularily like the episode.

30 Rock - Great episode. Jack thinks he is up for GM chairmanship so much reluctanly part with his large cookie jar collection, since wierd hobbies don't fly in the corporate world. Meanwhile, Jenna is apparently funnier the fatter she is so Kenneth is trying to fatten her up again. Tina gets in a fight with Tracy's wife.

The Office - Michael is working two jobs because the girlfriend (Melora Hardin) is spending all his money and then some. The gorgeous Hardin continues to massive cleavage (how they do that?) continuing the fake boobs from last season. I wonder when she will pop up on Monk again (she is his dead wife). Big fan of the women, another one of those that simply gets more beautiful with age. Dwight has a bed and breakfast and finally gets over Angela with a little assitance from Jim, who explains why he left Scranton that first time (his unrequited feelings for Pam.

Week 4 New Season 10/17

Pushing Daises - Chuck learns her un-death cost the life of another. But the other guy stole from the dead so the guilt is brief. Bizarre episode, Kristen Chenoweth is breathtaking. It was just an ok ep.

Private Practice - Blah blah blah blah. That's all I got from the ep.

Dirty Sexy Money - This show doesn't really interest me that much but the women in it or just so damn beautiful. All of them but I especially Natalie Zea, Samaire Armstrong (looking best ever with that shoulder length hair, and Zoe McLellan (most gorgeous of the bunch and that smile...). In this ep, Karen tries to screw things up with Lisa but fails. King Darling learns from Queen Darling that one of his kids isn't his, but the audience isn't told which one, so Nick has an unknown sibling. Also Nick went to Italy to get a bottle of wine that would get a secret agent man to tell him what work he did for his dad, he apparently switched to a new boss without telling anyone. So forward movements on stories, somewhat interesting, but more sexy Zoe suits me just fine.

Bionic Woman - Sigh. Same complaints. Lots of wasted potential, no imagination, annoying sister subplot continues.

Life - Excellent but also bizarre show. Gay man killed, turns out to be a frame so a wife can leave her husband and keep his money.

Criminial Minds - Creepy ep where foster brothers kill entire families on the theory that its saving the kids from future pain of bad parents and foster care. Tragic episode all around.

Week 4 New Season 10/16

NCIS - Meh episode. Had Stargate: Atlantis' Torri Higginson in a brief guest role as potential paramour for Ducky. Murder committed, murderer found.

Boston Legal - Career military man comes out as gay, gets discharged, sues and wins. Yeah right. But Saffron Burrows looked simply breathtaking throughout.

Beauty and the Beast - The geek makeover edition. Another twosome got ejected. The contests still suck.

Reaper - Hilarious and bizarre show. Our heroes must track down a magician that kills his on stage guests. With a pigeon. Hijinks ensue. I was entertained. Mission accomplished.

Law and Order: SVU - Sad things happen.

The Wilheim Scream

ABC News ran a report that finally gives a little historical insight into the Wilheim scream. A scream you have probably heard often but may not have connected as being the same from its use in Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and 112 other films (see film collage below for some).

The scream is believed to have been first used in Distant Drums (1951) when recorded by Sheb Wooley, but the voice isn't 100% confirmed. The scream was recycled for a character named Private Wilheim (hence the name of the scream) in The Charge of Feather River (1953) when he was shot with an arrow. The scream was reused again in Them! (1954), Land of the Pharoahs (1955) and The Green Berets (1963).

The traditional of the scream was renewed by Ben Burtt when worked together with Richard Anderson on Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Anderson then used it again on Poltergeist (1982) and many other movies after that, most recently Madagascar (2005). So the 55 year tradition of the scream continues, no telling what future movies it will pop up in.

End of the Analog TV at Best Buy

An end of a television era begins as Best Buy is the first major retailer to stop selling analog TVs in favor of LCD and plasma screens.

I am still a user of the analog TV and sad to see it go the way of the dinosaurs. But only because I can't afford to replace my TV with a plasma.

Die Hard 4 DVD with Electronic Copy

20th Century Fox Home entertainment announced its rolling out a new program to make available an electronic copy of select movies for play on portable video players starting with Die Hard 4 on November 20th and Warner Bros will do the same later with Harry Potter 5.

An app called Digital Copy will launch when placed into a computer giving the user the option to play the movie or transfer the movie to Windows based computer or player. The format is made for "PlaysforSure" players so assume it will be wma so iPod users may be left out unless convert first. Of note is the copy is DRM free (but requires a 16bit code similar to computer software), an interesting adjustment from the pirate paranoid member of the MPAA.

Considering that normally getting an electronic copy of a movie can cost up to $10 via iTunes, its a pretty good extra incentive to get the special feature DVD. Also, this will make for an interesting test pilot to see if making movies available DRM free will help or hurt DVD sales. I think the impact will be zero to be honest. Unlike the MPAA's assumptions, I think most users that pirate a copy had no intention of buying one to begin with. Its not a lost sale because there was never an intention to buy to begin with.

Regardless, this is an idea worth supporting. I planned on buying Die Hard 4 anyway, but now I will make sure to get the special edition for my portable player.

Week 4 New Season 10/15

CSI: Miami - Tim Speedle (killed when Rory Cochran decided to leave the show) returns via hallucianations from Eric that eventually lead to the probable firing of a lab tech for using Speedle's credit card. Credit card debt being the theme where apparently college age couple apparently don't understand the concept of "debt" and "credit limits" and how you have to pay that back. So they try to kill themselves. The girl succeeds, the boy chickens out and kills the man that talked them into signing up for the credit card. Bizarre episode overall.

Chuck - I now have decided this is my favorite show of the new season. Highly entertaining and the women, both lead and guest, are just so damn gorgeous. In this ep, Chuck has to help steal a diamond from drug dealer who is keeping it for terrorists. Failure means money for the terrorists groups to do terrorists things. Guns get pointed, people get kicked, Chuck gets propositioned several times and sexiness abounds.

Heroes - The story moves along at a glacier pace. Silar somehow appears from the middle of a rain forest into the middle of a Mexican road and gets picked up by the annoying and boring Plague Twins (whose death count rivals Silar, not exactly something to feel sympathy for). I feel teased by thoughts of him killing them but it doesn't happen. Petrelli and MAtt, working together to clear Angela P, find a picture that shows the leadership of the Company (and 1st generation of Heroes), many that are familiar faces from the previous and current season. Also the girl "reveals" that Matt's father is the "nightmare man" that could be killing the 1st gen heroes. I smell misdirection. Heredity seems to be a theme for powers but not necessarily a requirement. Stuff going on with Uhura (wee Nichelle Nichols), Micah and family in New Orleans, but kind of didn't really care. Claire on a date with dickhead flying boy who rubs me the wrong way. The death of mop head would be a fantastic story development but the 8 painting subplot suggests stuck with him to end of the season. Peter, Hiro, and others took a break this episode.

Journeyman - Rescues a hotty from one of her boyfriends and the crap between his wife gets worse from his disappearances. Meh episode.

Week 3 New Season 10/14

Sunday cartoon and goofy people night. Mostly.

Simpsons - Strange and boring ep of Marge getting held hostage at a bank and agreeing to meet the guy while in prison, but not, so gets kidnapped.

King of the Hill - Another wierd one where locals take over a surfing ride at a water park acting like they are surfers. Bobby and co want to ride but not allowed so Boomhauer has to re-tap his surfing abilities to give them access. Ug episode.

Family Guy - A repeat from last season where the town decides Stewie is possesed by the devil and needs to be exercised so the family moves to Texas (the copyright court morons of the world among other things) and lots of fun making of Texans (apparently deserved if Bush is any indication) occurs. Somewhat funny episode.

American Dad - Stan decides to destroy a man so he will believe in God. Meanwhile Steve is tricked by Roger into thinking he is going to the American Hogwarts but the potions class is actually mixing cocaine together. Basically another odd and only somewhat funny show.

Desperate Housewives - The neighbor still has a secret. Eddy still making Carlos marry her. Bree is still hiding the pregnancy. Basically the main story arc moved not a bit in this ep but the ladies looked good doing nothing.

Brothers and Sisters - Honestly completely forgot most of the episode. Something about the senator being threatend by his ex-wife but his fiance coming to the rescue. Sure other stuff happened but didn't care.

Cold Case - The jealous bully did it. A Elvis-lite is killed in 53 cause the bully wasn't the center of everyone's universe and he learned his mother wanted more then to be a housewife and the dad was cheating. Somehow it was Elvis's fault. Meh episode.

Shark - Coroner kills someone cause apparnetly was discovered fixing cases in what later is learned against innocent people. Apparently she was batting .000 in people she helped put to jail. So just a bad cororner all around.

Week 3 New Season 10/12

Friday!

Women's Murder Club - Stupid title, decent show. Bit slow but the women look fantastic especially the Anne Hathawayish reporter played by Aubrey Dollar. FIrst ep was mostly to establish the characters and of course catch a murderer. Dum dum dum!!! I will sample for a few weeks to see if still like.

Moonlight - Rogue vampire on the loose killing and turning folks. The hero and his intrepid sidekick reporter step in and stop him. Yawn. Not sure if the wooden stake in the heart = frozen but alive vampire is a good idea or a crutch.

Numbers - Street racers do bad things and get busted things to psuedo-math. It was an eh ep, I tuned it out sometimes.

Stargate: Atlantis - Rohan's bud turn out to work for the Wraith. Probably the only ones that didn't see that twist from the first two minutes of the show was someone who hadn't seen it before. Ho hum ep for the first one with Carter as Commander. One plus is Amanda Tapping finally gets to wear her hair long and the improvement in the babe-o-meter is immediate.

Friday Night Lights - Basically the same as the first ep. Just more boring.

Las Vegas - Sam thinks she saw a murderer but everyone thinks she is crazy, course turns out she was right. Yawn.

New Season Week 3 10/11

Little late cause bit behind on the tapes.

Smallville -The new supergirl in a tiny bikini. Still not keen on the face but that body is amazing. Oh and apparently her lack of skill at her powers (yet can fly) almost reveals the to be Superman's secrets. Oh noes, the last five seasons wasted!

Supernatural - Dean has a kid! Of course he doesn't, but makes a useful B-story for the main kid succubus story. But the ex-gf is hot. Never seen her before but damn! Also a return to the family history with the discovery that anyone that knew the heroes mom has been killed in some way over the years.

Big Shots - Its being called a guys Sex in the City (but not as good) but really its more a male-centric Desperate Housewives. The situations are equally over the top, all the women are 10s up and down the age chain (not complaint as 40-something can be more beautiful and sexy then 20-something, see Paige Turco). One guy is worred about a transexual, another is jealous of the friendship his mistress has with his wife, another just seperated and already getting hotties jumping him, and the last is the Teri Hatcher comic relief. Its an entertaining show but I am thinking its days are numbered.

Ugly Betty - Why am I still watching this show? It bores me now. I don't even know what happened. I tried to watch, I really did but I just didn't care. When they get into the Betty family stuff I just cut off.

Grey's Anatomy - The Gray's fight, George leaves the wife and outed as a repeat intern, and Izzy loses an old guy after spending all day with him (cause doctors care that much, mmm hmm). Ok ep, better when gets that ER vibe, not so good when focuses entirely on the personal.

My Name is Earl - The origin of how the cast...er gang got together. It was a decent episode. Origins where hte usual strangeness involving pregnancy, robbery and crashing into FBI vans.

30 Rock - Uh no idea what happened. Didn't pay it much attention.

The Office - Mostly boring episode, funny bit with kidnapping a pizza delivery boy and an inspired bit with the guy from the Daily Show singing ABBA's Take A Chance using Cisco phones as the chorus.

Survivor - I don't know why people don't get the simple rules to last a while in the game. Its real simple. Think of it as a bunch of executives in a meeting that lasts for a month; pretend to work hard, don't order anyone around, and keep the talk light and positive. As soon as you are percieved as not working (its all about perception not actual), as soon as you start to be boss, as soon as start talking in realistic (but read as negative) then you get kicked. Yes, most people need to be ordered and are not self-starters but most of those people don't think of themselves that way so resent people telling them what to do (usually those that resent it tend to be incredibily lazy but if ask them they think they work their tales off). So there you go, if treat Survivor as one long executive meeting, you too have a chance to last to the end.

CSI - Girl kills family after priest tries to go all Excorist on her. Priest then kills her. Pretty gruesome episode all told.

Without a Trace - Reporter disappears cause her son's fiance betrayed him and killed her. I think your supposed to feel sorry for the girl but nope didn't and so was bored. Sympathy takes more then just a sad story to overcome horrible behavior.

Week 3 New Season 10/10

Whee Wednesday's shows.

Bionic Woman - If reports are true, then the musical chairs of showrunner has finally been won by Jason Katims (Roswell). Previous runners included Glen Morgan (X-Files), Laeta Kalogridis (Alexander), and Jason Smilovic (Kidnapped). All of whom have the same thing in common - great at the one big idea that can create a TV show, but not the details that support the show. The result has been a series of shows whose central ideas where often poorly handled and boring, costing them audience numbers. Sound familiar? Yep, once again the lack of imagination reared its ugly head as the hero and the villain Bionic Women supposedly have to help each other out. Someone one can save the other. Details where sketchy on how. Anyway the problem is they are trying to make the villain a sympathetic one. Sure she killed 14+ people, nearly killed Jaime, and killed her unborn baby and fiance, but she is just misunderstood! Basically lack of pre-planning is the problem here. They want to keep the villain but can't figure out how. Making her straight up evil would have been entertaining but she knows so much about everything, you have problems of why she just doesn't do scorch earth as some point so the sympathetic angle. Except her history doesn't fuel sympathy. Flip flopping doesn't work. They need to stick with evil and limit her somehow, wipe her knowledge of Jamie and whatnot, something so can be an effective villain. The gorgeous sister can be her first victim as she does nothing for the show or the lead. Its still a poorly thought out add-on. A familiar theme for this show that has great potential that is being wasted.

Life - Sadly this show is just strange enough that it will probably be cancelled but the more I watch, the more I like. Its goofy but well done and the cast gives excellent performances.

South Park - Bono or "Biddy" vs Stan's Dad for the largest crap in the world. Not kidding. In the ep, its revealed that Bono is the largest crap in the world, birth during a movement. No, still not kidding. Also, some fun is had about their Emmy win. The over the top but hilarious storytelling continues. Pretty sure Bono isn't a happy man though.

Criminal Minds - Ex-psychiatrist uses patients fears to kill them. Interesting ep, for some reason didn't hold my attention.

CSI: NY - Guy robs places dressed like 007. Teammates turn on him. The CSI/cop/detective solves it. The usual.

Pushing Daisies - 2nd episode in and its still very strange. It has it own unique everything. From storytelling, to visuals, to characters and execution. Its actually pretty amazing and very entertaining. Highly recommend. Anna Friel remains drool worthy and its clear a directive came down to oomph her sex appeal as the cleavage was on display (not complaining). Kristin Chenoweth is already walking sex appeal so nothing needed to be done there. The now short hair works, but still prefer her long locks. The goofy story was a car tester dies, people are being killed to be car test dummies, a redhead goes boom (but survives), and a car is fueled by dandilions. Like I said, very unique show.