McDonald’s Advert

This McDonald’s (South Africa) advert is new on TV. Forever Young was shot - in part - in our neighbourhood over at the Ouetehuis. It’s not bad and we’ve certainly come a long way…
 

 

Speaking of Q&A… What Happened to Cardinal George Pell Last Night?

The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney had a shocker of a debate with the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. He went as far as saying that the Biblical story of Adam and Eve is but a mere myth, a mythological account:

“It’s a very sophisticated mythology to try to explain the evil and the suffering in the world.”

When you make such admissions, you’re as good as done in debate. Australia… Australia… you’re dropping the ball down-under.

The headline in the Sydney Morning Herald says it all: Dawkins shades Pell in battle of belief:

In the great showdown between God and the godless, it was the silver-haired professional agnostic in the middle – calm throughout, pointed in his questions, and thankful that his warring guests were “not grunting” – who emerged victorious on the ABC’s Q&A last night.

Billed as a kind of final countdown, a day of reckoning for the chattering classes, the exchange was often not much better than a feral snarl-off. Pell ran circles around his own arguments (frequently of the how-many-angels-can-you-fit-on-the-head-of-a-pin type)…

But as the exchange wore on and Dawkins sank into exasperation with the vapidity of some of the questions, Pell became more expansive. And the more liturgical rope he was allowed, the more thoroughly he hanged himself.

God picked the Jews to prove his existence, he said, even though they were just a bunch of shepherds and intellectually inferior to the Egyptians…

Pell’s argument during an exchange over evolution was downright baffling. He started by saying he “probably” accepts that humans descended from Neanderthals.

“Neanderthals?” piped up Dawkins, jumping disdainfully on the slip. “They were our cousins. We can’t be descended from our cousins.”

“These are extant cousins?” shot back Pell. “Where will I find a Neanderthal today if they’re our cousins?”

Dawkins: “They’re extinct.”

Pell: “Exactly. That’s my point.”

“Your point is that because they’re extant they can’t be our cousins?” Dawkins asked, by now incredulous.

“I’m not really much fussed,” said Pell.

“That’s clear,” said Dawkins…

If you missed it, ABC has it here.

You can download it in mp4 here.

You may also wish to visit Doubting Dawkins. A far better set of challenges to Richard Dawkins.

 

South Africans Spend More Time with Mobile Phones than TV

South Africans spend more time on their mobile devices than they do watching television to listening to the radio, according to a Mobile Media Consumption survey.

Times Live:

On any given day, mobile web users spend 30 percent of their  media time on mobile devices, 29 percent on television and 20 percent listening  to the radio, mobile advertising network InMobi said in a statement.

“Availability, ease of use, and privacy are the top three driving  factors to be on mobile,” it said.

“Social media, entertainment, and games are the top three mobile  media activities among mobile web users. This popularity will continue to grow  in the next 12 months.”

More here.

 

Icasa takes Top TV Porn Channel to Court

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) has applied for a court interdict to stop TopTV from launching a 24-hour pornography channel, it says.

Good!

Icasa spokesman Paseka Maleka said the application was lodged on  Monday and TopTV was given until the close of business that day to file its  answering affidavit.

He said he did not know if it had filed.

TopTV was not immediately available for comment.

The case was expected to be heard in the High Court in  Johannesburg on Friday.

Maleka said Icasa would hold public hearings about a pornography  channel on Monday.

Last month, the Family Policy Institute said some Christian  organisations planned to boycott TopTV after it announced the launch of the  channel.

It said they would also boycott TopTV’s advertisers and  sponsors.

Pray that this destructive trash stays off our TV’s…

 

Joel Osteen’s to Star in own Reality Show!

Pastor-celebrity-cult-status seeking. Sinful me-sim:

More than 10 million people watch Joel Osteen’s television broadcast each week, and soon viewers will be able to see how the pastor of America’s largest church lives outside of Lakewood.

A new reality show will follow the Osteens’ ministry as they serve and inspire people across the U.S., Lakewood confirmed.

TMZ broke the news, with details from the show’s producer, Mark Burnett:

“Survivor” producer Mark Burnett is teaming up with Joel Osteen for a primetime network show in 2012, TMZ has learned.

Burnett tells TMZ, the premise of the show is that ordinary people will give up several days or longer to go on a mission with Joel Osteen, one of the most popular pastors in the world. All of the missions will be in the confines of US soil to “start fixing things.”

Over the years, “just about every studio in Hollywood” has pitched show ideas to the Osteens, but they’ve always turned them down, until now, said Don Iloff, Lakewood spokesman.

The Osteens have been friends with Burnett and his wife Roma Downey, who are Christians and have visited Lakewood in the past, and they trust Burnett’s vision and expertise in the reality TV medium.

The program is in its early planning stages and has not secured a network to air it or even a name yet. The Osteen ministry team hopes it provides uplifting, positive programming that will bring families together to watch…

From Hollywood’s perspective, it’s not necessarily about the content, but the marketability and profitability of such programs, said Richard Flory, an expert in American Christianity at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California.

“It’s a different twist on this kind of short-term mission trip evangelicals have done for a long time,” said Flory of the proposed Osteen show. “It turns it into an entertainment model, where you feel good watching it, people feel good doing it and Joel Osteen gets exposure.”

Perish the thought! I mean, who the heck cares what Osteen does in his own time. He ain’t Jesus! Gosh, it’s enough to drive any God-fearing person to throw away the TV, for good! The whole Osteen idea makes one sick, to the gut! Forget about him and prime time TV. Your time is far better spent reading your Bibles! Please!!!

 

Pamela Anderson to Play Mary in Christmas Show

Yes, the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus:

Former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, famed for nude photo shoots and a homemade porn video with Tommy Lee, is to play mother Mary holding baby Jesus in her arms on Canadian TV this Christmas.

Anderson, a native of Canada, will headline A Russell Peters Christmas Special for CTV and The Comedy Network, where she will appear in a sketch comedy scene set in a Christmas manger with Canadian funnyman Russell Peters, who is hosting the one-hour special to bow here on December 1.

A Russell Peters Christmas Special will also star Michael Bublé, Ted Lange (The Love Boat), Saturday Night Live alumnus Jon Lovitz and Scott Thompson (The Kids in the Hall)…

HT

If TV News Existed in 1200 BC

Okay, time for something more light-hearted: If TV News Existed in 1200 BC

A TV Advert that Talks to your Dog!

If you already think your pet is a fussy eater, be prepared for an even pickier pooch as pet food makers have launched a TV ad only dogs can hear.

Nestle has made an advert using a high-pitched sound, like a dog whistle, which is beyond human hearing range.

The commercial, which also includes an audible squeak like the sound of a dogs’ toy, will be screened for the first time in Austria this week.

Nestle said in a statement that the idea came from an award-winning campaign in Germany that featured ‘sniffable’ posters to attract dogs.

The company is one of the world’s biggest makers of pet food, with its Petcare division accounting for almost 12 per cent of the firm’s revenue.

The 23-second advert Beneful dog food was created using the help of U.S. experts in pet behaviour, who researched what would appeal to dogs.

‘The television commercial aims to reach both the pet and the owner, supporting the special one-to-one relationship between them,’ said Xavier Perez, brand manager for Beneful in Europe.

The advert shows a dogs pricking up its ears and ends with the words ‘So delicious, so healthy, so happy’ in German.

Georg Sanders, a nutrition expert at Nestle Purina PetCare in Germany, said: ‘Dogs’ hearing is twice as sharp as humans. ‘They can pick up frequencies which are beyond our range and they are better at differentiating sounds.’

Nestle’s Petcare division have this year reported first-half sales of £3.4billion.

Source

HT

How To Watch Reality TV

Source

HT

Sponge Bob Square Pants a Bad Influence?

Never! This can only be something that evil Plankton thought up!

A research study has found that watching even nine minutes of the fast-paced cartoon can have immediate negative effects on a preschooler’s brain function.

Compared with children who watched a sleepier cartoon or children who watched none, four-year-olds who watched the frenetic show did significantly worse on a series of tests measuring the brain’s executive function, the umbrella term for the collection of skills including attention, working memory and self-regulation that are strongly associated with academic success…

In the experiment, psychology researchers at the University of Virginia asked three groups of four-year-olds to either sit and draw, watch part of a PBS show “about a typical U.S. preschool boy,” or watch part of an episode of a “very popular fantastical cartoon about an animated sponge that lives under the sea,” the authors wrote in the paper. (While the SpongeBob reference is obvious, Dr. Christakis says the PBS show is likely Caillou.)

After a number of cognitive tests, children who watched SpongeBob scored about 10 per cent lower than the other two groups.

Dr. Christakis says the likeliest explanation is overstimulation. The slower show changed scenes on average every 34 seconds, while the speedy clip changed every 11 seconds. Dr. Christakis calls this “supernatural pacing.”

“You’re asking your brain to process something it’s not well suited to. And it’s tired,” he says.

Dr. Christakis notes that more research is needed to answer many questions, including whether these effects are long lasting.

“At a minimum, parents shouldn’t have their kid watch SpongeBob before they take the kindergarten entrance test,” he jokes.

(HT)

I’ll go on record here and say that I for one think Sponge Bob is such a cute little fellow, and he is about the only thing really worth watching on those terrible little screens that they have on the seat in front of you when you’re sitting on a long flight.

Oh and by the way, his fan club is here.