Report: 90% Of Waking Hours Spent Staring At Glowing Rectangles | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Report: 90% Of Waking Hours Spent Staring At Glowing Rectangles | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

PALO ALTO, CA—A new report published this week by researchers at Stanford University suggests that Americans spend the vast majority of each day staring at, interacting with, and deriving satisfaction from glowing rectangles.

Sorry about slow blogging.

I thought a short go slow period might be worthwhile.

But I'll be back soon.

The Catastrophe of the Yesterday TV Channel in the UK

As a "professional historian" I used to really enjoy many of the programs on a channel called UKTV History. The programming was based on the huge archive of BBC history programs.

Since it "rebranded" to Yesterday, it has become a disaster. All we get is crud, apparently scrapped together, that seems dedicated to time-filling. There is often in fact more history on the various Discovery channels. The schedulers do not seem to be aware that there were other events in history than the Second World War, and non-stop series about Hitler's generals.

Plus, if drama is to be shown, there is much better stuff in the BBC archives than long tedious hours of Catherine Cookson serials. What about Fall of Eagles? What about Jane Lapatoire in the Viper's Brood about the Plantagenets? Or Glenda Jackson in Elizabeth R? Or I, Claudius?

Or what about present the great PBS series on American history, e.g. the series on Baseball or the American Civil War?

What about a serious effort to show historical films with a discussion about what they mean? What about showing old Chronicle programs? Or all those well research Open University programs.

And what about having programs on at a regular time so that weekly watching is OK?

The programmers at Yesterday seem to have no imagination, and not to care.

It is a disgrace.

Something to Make You Happy

"I shall pull out your arm socket and hit you with the soggy end!"

Just great.