Static

Machine Project is throwing a party this weekend.

farewell to analog tv

Friday June 12, 2009
10pm : lecture
midnight : countdown to digital tv

Join us on Friday June 12th at 10pm for a talk by Jason Torchinsky about mechanical televisions, to be followed by a countdown to the demise of analog TV.

At midnight (Friday night/Sat morning) all the old analog television broadcasts will stop, to be replaced by digital signals. That means old TVs without converter boxes won’t work anymore. In memoriam of the TV we all have known and loved/hated, we’ll be gathering a pyramid of old TVs together for a countdown as they go to static, all at once.

In theory, we can save a lot of carbon by getting together with neighbors to pile our tvs in pyramids and BYOB closer to home. We don't need to drive over to hipster neighborhood, Silverlake! It sounds interesting, but I hope to be asleep then.

Read about it at Machine Project for maps, etc.

MPAA Rating and Parental Complacency 2

Remember MPAA Rating and Parental Complacency, the post that propelled Bad Mom to the top of the Google search engine rankings for "parental complacency"? Unlike some of her playmates, Iris has seen things that are not rated G. In fact, she has seen many PG and some PG-13 movies.

She has even been lobbying to be allowed to watch R-rated movies. "It will be fine because you know I don't repeat bad words." I wonder how much she has seen already? Mark has quite the DVD collection (that list is badly outdated). He's seen and rated over 1000 movies in his Netflix profile. We don't lock up any of the movies around our house. She knows how to work the TV/DVD player and also how to watch DVDs on the computer when she doesn't want to watch what Mark is watching. Hmm.

Their latest obsession is the new Battlestar Galactica series (rated TV-14). Mark loves the political intrigue and the hot women. (In space, everyone is much better looking.) Iris loves it because of the references to Greek mythology. Battlestar Galactica is definitely not a kids' show and only very bad, lax parents would allow their children to watch it. We told her not to talk about the show at school lest any of the other parents find out how bad we really are.

Asides:
When I found out that I made #1 for "parental complacency" in 2006, I emailed all my friends to type the phrase into the Google search engine and then click through. Alas, I did not have enough friends and I lost the distinction in a day. I need more friends.

Mark says that, at least, he didn't show The Omega Man to a 4 year old like someone we know.