Category: Television

With German themes, really.  Here.  Some of it is in German with subtitles.  I had never seen these before.

Thanks to Yana for the pointer.

…explore the potential effects of not only making cable tv a la carte, but also requiring that television content providers allow choice in how the consumer pays for the service – either an advertisement based system or a fee that would eliminate the commercials.  Additionally, require that the consumers be given a choice of types of advertisements they would be exposed to (I could choose for example an advertisement-based model, but that I would not want to see ads for children’s toys or cereal, and that I wanted to see no political ads).

Here is my earlier post on a’la carte cable.  The second question is, in effect, whether a cable company should be allowed to own TiVo and similar providers.  Yes, and Grossman and Hart suggest such mergers can encourage joint investments with value specific to that relationship, in this case perhaps computer-TV linkages.  By the way, the net effect of TiVo will be more shows with ads; if they add commercials to The Sopranos, the people who hate ads can take them out themselves.

Buying and selling specific ads?  The people who want to zap children’s ads for sugar are precisely the homes the advertisers wish to reach; I’ll bet the Coasian equilibrium keeps the ads running but involves parental quotas on TV watching.

#08 in a series of 50.

I start with the obvious: he is 51 and never married.  So the "foreign woman" bit probably is an artifice to avoid admitting bachelorhood is his preferred long-run equilibrium.  Beyond that, he should seek out a reliable third party certifier.  One is Uncle Sam; Natasha was a longstanding U.S. citizen when we married.  But if he seeks a non-citizen, parents are possible certifiers.  He should go to India but not even try to meet Indian women.  He should try to meet Indian parents.  Yes he may be given the worst daughter but at least he gets someone who is still part of her family. 

What traits should he look for in a foreign woman?  He should avoid countries which lost the Cold War.  Avoid women met in hotels or hotel rooms.  Avoid countries which generate large amounts of spam.  Hepatitis counts as a minus.  How about a plus for women who work in agriculture?  Any other advice?  Readers, feel free to pile on…

Addendum: Here is an excellent article on seeking a bride in the Ukraine, via Jason Kottke.  It does not refute my hypotheses.

No, it is not Firefly or Battlestar Galactica.  But maybe you, like I, are starved for good science fiction, yet feel that almost everything out there is rot, whether written or on the screen.  For eleven episodes — until cancellation of course — you can pretend that the rest of the world is more like you than it really is.  The premise is that aliens have sent a pulsating fractal signal which is transforming human DNA and turning some of us into evil replicators.  Only a crackerjack team of beautiful women, nerds, bald black career bureaucrats, and midgets can stop them.  The philosophical content is to query whether evolution isn’t repugnant by its very nature, and why we think we are so special.  Don’t expect the sky, but if you are at all tempted, try it, more info here.

TV is not vulgar and prurient and dumb because the people who compose the audience are vulgar and dumb. Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests.

That is from David Foster Wallace.  Here is the link, from Ben Casnocha.

Here is her current world.  I’m also sampling the public choice economics of Rome, and have bought Threshold, which remains unwrapped.

The entire TV series of Milton Friedman’s "Free to Choose" is at www.ideachannel.tv.  Thanks to Paul Winfree for the pointer.

Here, and here is Milton Friedman on YouTube.

Addendum: Here are many more Friedman links.

And here is an excellent Austan Goolsbee tribute; use this to generate the permalink once it is up.

The first episode of Tim Harford’s television show, based in part upon The Undercover Economist, shows on BBC-2 tomorow (7 pm, BST).  If it’s a big hit we can hope for international sales.  In the meantime you can check out how Tim helps people to get dates, jobs and more in this 5 minute clip.

Here are the links, courtesy of Greg Mankiw.  I recall the highlight of the show being Milton’s bits on Hong Kong.  His most difficult point was when Peter Jay pressed him on whether he believes in the intrinsic value of liberty or is simply a utilitarian.

I doubt if this is a selection effect:

It seems that adults in households that have digital video recorders
watch less TV than adults in the general population, according to a
recent analysis by Mediamark Research, an audience-measurement firm.

Here is the story.  I, for one, usually read a library book sooner than a book I buy…

Safe for work, but deeply painful.  I laughed so hard I cried.  No matter what the text says, it is a Japanese comedy team; hat tip to Jason Kottke. 

If you are going to completely ignore one MR post this year, it should be this one.  Here is more of their stuff.

1:15, lots of Cylons.

In December 2005, Cooke’s family learned that his body had been surgically plundered and the pieces sold to different bidders. A body brokerage company had harvested his bones, falsified his medical records–claiming he had died at 85 of a heart attack–to make them more marketable, and then sold them to at least two tissue banks.

Cooke’s was one of more than 1,000 bodies allegedly stolen by the company, New Jersey–based Biomedical Tissue Services. Prosecutors say the company and the funeral home, Daniel George & Son, made millions of dollars harvesting pieces of the cadavers, instead stuffing bodies for burial with broomsticks and piping. An investigation is ongoing.

Here is the full story, and thanks to Bookman for the pointer.