[PLUG-TALK] Hacking in TV SHows

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Tue, 25 Nov 2014, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
K> Watching those preening peacocks is wasteful, stressful, unhealthy, and
K> stupid, and many people are naturally smarter than that.
 
On Tue, Nov 25, 2014 at 01:04:34PM -0800, Rich Shepard wrote:
R> Wait ... are you writing about politicians now? The elections are over for
R> this year.

Ronald Reagan, Ahhhnold Schwartzenager, Jessie Ventura, Al Franken - screen
entertainers all.  Convergence of politics towards spectacle, and Hollywood
towards courtless enforcement, both funded at gunpoint.

I moved from M$ to Unix years ago because I got a mass-distribution threat
letter from the Business Software Alliance, and refuse to subsidize
force-based business models.  Hollywood's threats are the same.

R> I recall reading that for many (most?) TV viewing occupies 7+ hours per day.

The stats I saw were a population /average/ of 35 hours/week, including babies
in the crib and gorked out seniors in hospice.  Since my wife and I don't
watch TV, some fool is watching 15 hours a day to maintain the average. :-)

Not that reading is necessarily better - it seems like 90% of the books
people read are fiction-by-the-yard ( "Z is for Zilch" ), diet books
("The Endangered Species Paleo Cookbook"), or celebrity biography. 

Our toilet reading rack holds professional scientific books, the Journal of
the American Medical Association, and Winkower's "Portable Curmudgeon".

  "Television Viewing and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease,
  and All-Cause Mortality: A Meta-analysis" by Anders Grøntved, Frank B. Hu 
  http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/305/23/2448.full.pdf+html?sid=5a5b30d5-e6f3-465b-a9ef-e21a7543ac0f
  aka http://tiny.cc/tvkills

> watching TV is an alternative to spending evenings in the neighborhood tavern ...

The most important activities that have fallen away (IMHO) are family,
community participation, entrepreneurial job/product creation, and
learning from nature.  Stellar IQ not required, just a great soul.

With the original McCormick's at the south end of our neighborhood street, 
a steady stream of pre-drunks aimed there on Friday night, and post-drunks
aimed in random directions afterwards, the bar scene adds to the cerebral
and vehicular carnage around here.  The sheriff's office blocks the street
an average of once a year to hunt for shell casings after the latest
shooting - a street with a few $700K homes on it.  So far the mayhem has
been far enough from our home that I have not returned fire.

I wish the neighborhood kids were on my lawn (perhaps pulling weeds for
pay), rather than glued to the tube or squashed on the street.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com