11/28/2009

Neil Postman in The Daily Show

It's not that I don't like Rob Corddry and his ridiculously ridiculous ideas that make us laugh hard. But I really wished they payed more attention to my favorite scholar, Professor Neil Postman, author of the book Technopoly. His ideas are great warning and are worth spreading.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Lies of the Machines
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorHealth Care Crisis


I am glad that they showed both sides, but I'd still be happier if Jon Stewart would have done that interview. Well, there are other interviews with Neil Postman out there...




8/19/2009

The Daily Show on Health Care Reform and Obama PR

Funny comments on Obama's comparison of post-office and FedEx:
The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
PR
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorHealthcare Protests



Heal or No Heal: town hall meeting with unreasonably reasonable guy

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Heal or No Heal - Medicine Brawl
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorHealthcare Protests

8/18/2009

Suggestive questions in US TV public opinion polls

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Poll Bearers
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorSpinal Tap Performance

8/06/2009

Chipms or Orangutanes?

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Human's Closest Relative
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorSpinal Tap Performance
"When humans lost all these hair, did we retain a single stripe of the hair on the top of the head?"

8/04/2009

Obama kills a fly, Stewart is a wuss

News of the day (about month and half ago)?

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Obama Kills a Fly
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorJoke of the Day

America versus Iran: Who knows whom better?

And, a bit surprisingly perhaps, Iran wins, answering all the questions about United States of America with flying colors. Jason Jones is frustrated admitting even the goat shepherds know his country fairly well.



The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Jason Jones: Behind the Veil - Ayatollah You So
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorJoke of the Day


Other Behind the Veil episodes.

And in this episode of "Behind the Veil", Jones investigates why Iranians are so evil.


The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Jason Jones: Behind the Veil - Minarets of Menace
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorJoke of the Day





If you like these, you will surely love John Oliver's travelling interviews.

It is not all just fun, though:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Jason Jones: Behind the Veil - Persians of Interest
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorJoke of the Day

7/31/2009

President Obama is "Roseta stone of racial understanding"

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
White House Beer Simulation
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorJoke of the Day

7/09/2009

US media crazy about Twitter

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Twitter Frenzy
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorHealthcare Protests

"This new technology sounds adorable! Here is how Twitter works: I have no f***ing idea!" As Samantha Bee says: "Young people love it, according to reports about young people made by middle-aged people."

"Because we're rotting corpses grabbing for any glimmer of relevance,” eplains Sam why all the politics and media truckle towards young people with facebooks, tweets and similar gimick.

6/30/2009

CIA is hiring

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Spy Low Sell High
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorJason Jones in Iran

5/31/2009

Milgram experiment and Asch's experiment

One of the most famous psychological experiments with, for me, very disturbing results and implications. In Milgram experiment, participants were instructed to ask other participants series of questions. If "student" reply was wrong, they were instructed to administer an electric shock. This experiment was to test how many people are willing to knowingly push a switch causing someone a pain or even endanger their life - simply because an authority told them to.


I really recommend to read the full Wikipedia article about this experiment, this is just a brief description.

Of course, no real danger is present, but participants do not know that. We must assume that the behaviour they show is similar to how they would react in real life. And the thought is quite scary.

When Milgram asked his coleagues, experienced psychologists, how many percent of participants will administer the lethal shock (450 V), they estimated noone would ever do that. In reality, more than 60 % of participant did. Two thirds of people were knowingly causing a threat of death just because an unknown authority told them so.

Many variants of this experiment in 1961 and following years showed that this was not a random behavior, but rather significant phenomenon - people are tought since their childhood to follow authorities' orders, even if they seem strange. They don't feel like decision-making people then, but rather they think of themselves as mere tools.

Sources: