A: This Watson doesn’t back up Holmes, he plays Jeopardy.

The NY Times has an interesting article about IBM’s efforts to build a Jeopardy playing super computer.

It was just the beginning. Over the rest of the day, Watson went on a tear, winning four of six games. It displayed remarkable facility with cultural trivia (“This action flick starring Roy Scheider in a high-tech police helicopter was also briefly a TV series” — “What is ‘Blue Thunder’?”), science (“The greyhound originated more than 5,000 years ago in this African country, where it was used to hunt gazelles” — “What is Egypt?”) and sophisticated wordplay (“Classic candy bar that’s a female Supreme Court justice” — “What is Baby Ruth Ginsburg?”).

As a computer scientist, this would be interesting work.

No 13?

The season finale of House, a popular TV show for Fox, was filmed entirely with the new Canon 5D Mark II.

I’ve got a closet full of Canon’s, included a Mark 1D Mark II and the newer 50D. The 50D does excellent video and stills.

What I’ve not seen how they handled is audio. I’d be surprised if the DSLR handled that very well. I’ve no doubt it could handle the images well:

@Drdiagnostic: How was the quality as compared 2 the traditional camera used in shooting?

GY: i loved it and feel it’s the future. cameras that can give you these looks

House is a major show, – it is the biggest TV show in the world right now. I quite like it, although with the DVR I rarely watch it as it happens. I may check this one out on the 17th live though.

Note that it isn’t just a 5D on a tripod… you have a lot of other things hooked in:

VSA HDDSLR Still & Video Shoot – Images by Vincent Laforet

I’ve never really watched the show, but this is funny by cultural osmosis.

News reports will say that Glen Beck “made” 32 million dollars last year.

ACTUALLY… his company had REVENUES of 32 million dollars. A tidy sum, but hardly what he ‘”made”.

And no matter how much he took home, the government took home more.

And it’s coming at a time when the 3amET show is seeing big ratings in the A25-54 demographic – even topping CNN prime time last week

We don’t stay up and watch it, but it is on our DVR.   I like the parts, called “Robots”, where they have political characters of the day in a sauna with computer generated voices.  My wife thinks their every Friday guest, Mike Baker, is dreamy.  I now know she married me only because I once had a job offer from a lettered intelligence agency. (-:

Caution: The show is PG-13+, including the video at the link.

I wonder how many saw the Audi Green Police advertisement ask “how long til it gets that bad”…

BTW: I looked at the A3 TDI just this week. Too small a back seat. WAY to small.

In case you didn’t know, “24” started up again. I’ve suffered through  two two-hour kickoff episodes and one regular hour episode.

Yawn.  Jack still wants perimeters. CTU still can’t make a good one.  Chloe still hacks computers but gets caught at it. The President still is almost as moronic as our actual President. And the CTU director hunches over all the time – get some posture dude!  And why doesn’t CTU block cell phone calls at work? Nothing good comes from them! Finally, the continue their knack for putting characters in harms way that I hope get harmed.

I’ll DVR it and save it for a rainy day when I’ve got no ambition to do anything better with my limited time on earth.

Why the title?  Well, they’ve managed to take 24 hours and make it seem like 27.

What if a TV show took on the issues of the day with an audience full of those who oppose the host’s and guest’s views, but with no yelling, no talking over each other, and where the folks in opposition are happy and clapping hard at the end?

No “what if” anymore… just watch Stossel on the Fox Business Channel on Thursday evenings.

Last night’s show focused on how Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, while prescient in its time (50 years ago), didn’t envision how much farther government intervention in our lives would actually be these days.

Stossel has a unique style. He talks less. He asks probing questions and lets his guests answer. He explicitly seeks out hostile audience members and then takes a polite, deft, stiletto to their views. They squirm but know he treats them fair.

Stossel educates with wit, intellect and facts.

Watch it!

And if you don’t get Fox Business… ask your cable / satellite provider for it.
And if they won’t, switch.
And if you don’t switch… well, I guess you can read his columns.

My wife watches the show, but I can’t stand it. Some of the ladies are pretty but they offset it by acting very petty and stupid frequently. At least that is what I know from walking by when its on.  Perhaps my samples don’t show a true picture – like climate data.

Fox News Business hired away John Stossel from ABC News recently. His new show, Stossel, began airing this week.

I’ve watched two episodes and recommend it highly.  His show entertains, informs and does not descend into guest over-talking shout fests. He also takes time to cover an issue in detail. 

For tonight’s show on climate change he had two guests and packed the audience with climate change faithful.  Polite, informative, discussion followed. The climate faithful, including a number of climate science students, gave it their best shot but he and his guests countered effectively in ways that clearly made them uncomfortable about the views they held.  And everybody was happy at the end.  And I didn’t feel like throwing a remote control into the TV.

Well done Mr. Stossel!

Learn more here; http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/stossel

One of my favorite new shows, “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” has been canceled by Fox.

It’s their network, but I wouldn’t have canceled it.  Perhaps the SciFi or another cable channel will pick it up. Fingers crossed.

On a good note, “Chuck” has been renewed, but for a limited run and with some of its actors and writers cut.

Also, Bones, which I do enjoy, was renewed for two seasons.

Two years ago I couldn’t have told you what was on television. Then I had an accident and was laid up for a long time and I found out that when combined with a DVR and a nap, it isn’t so bad.