|
|
Greetings, TV viewers!
Some broadcast and cable programs contain material included
in the public school curriculum and on standardized examinations. Here are home
viewing suggestions for January 24 - January 30, 2004.
Media Hour is cancelled for this week, though a City Worker may come by and host something.
What do you think of the new format for
the Media Menu? We're continuing to make improvments, so if you have ideas about
what would make it easier to use, read, etc, let us know in the BBS below.
Remember to come to Saturday's Media Hour prepared! Watch the shows and really
read the related websites, so you can help us focus our discussion. Explor what
everyone thinks and remind us to think about what was in the shows and
on the websites. Come to the Media Hour prepared and you will be invited down
on stage, and you may earn clams, too!
What's the Media Hour? Watch the show(s)-of-the-week, jot down some ideas, then
come and talk about them with me and other citizens (including other City Workers,
if they're available). We get together at the Greek Theater (next to
City Hall), every Saturday morning at 9 a.m., Whyville Time. You'll find that
discussions are easier in the Theater, since everyone's chat bubbles overlap
a little less than in other rooms, and City Workers are able to direct people's
movement and behavior, when we need to.
Monday,
January 24
9-10:30 p.m. E/P |
HBO |
Social
Studies |
High
School |
|
"Dirty War" |
|
In a post-9/11 world, how do you prepare for the unthinkable?
Is it possible to stop a coordinated radioactive-weapons attack by determined
terrorists in an international city? And what, if anything, should the
public be told about such a threat? This HBO-produced movie shows how
a "dirty bomb" attack might be planned and executed in London,
despite the best efforts of police and intelligence forces -- as well as
how devastating the consequences of such an attack could be. A fictional
thriller, it features intrigue, espionage and action and is based on extensive
factual research about the planning and execution of a "dirty bomb"
terrorist attack.. Warned by a number of sources that both terrorists
and materials used for radioactive weapons have entered Great Britain,
members of Scotland Yard -- including an Islamic undercover detective and
several high-ranking terrorism experts -- do their best to identify and
apprehend the perpetrators before their dirty bomb is constructed and
detonated, but their efforts fall short. When the bomb goes off in the
heart of London's financial center, the city's inadequate emergency-services
plans are put to an immediate test -- with disturbing results for a population
ill-prepared to understand or obey anti-contamination and quarantine orders.
|
|
Log on to http://www.hbo.com/films/dirtywar.
|
Tuesday,
January 25
9-10 p.m. E/P |
Travel
Channel |
Economics
& Technology |
Middle
& High School |
|
"World's
Best: Fun Food Factories"
|
|
Here's
a behind-the scenes look at where the most popular food snacks come from
-- the assembly line. From Wonder Bread and Skippy Peanut Butter to
marshmallow peeps and interactive Pez, find out how these confections
get from the factory floor into the lunchbox.
|
|
|
Tuesday,
January 25
8-9 p.m. E/P |
PBS |
Science |
Middle
& High School |
|
"NOVA Science NOW" |
|
This new science
program has teamed the award-winning producers of NOVA with veteran reporter
Robert Krulwich to cover the timeliest developments in science and technology
today. Among the topics in this initial broadcast are Mirror Neurons.
According to provocative recent discoveries in brain imaging, inside our
heads we constantly "act out" and imitate whatever activity
we're looking at. If we're watching a basketball player shoot hoops, our
brains will register a pattern of brain activity similar to the athlete's,
as if we were jumping with the ball ourselves. Another report, Life on
the Edge, is a video profile of MIT scientist James McLurkin. When he
builds robots, he finds inspiration in his ant farm. The Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency asked McLurkin to make a swarm of small, disposable
robots which can spread throughout the interior of a building, mapping
the unfamiliar space and searching for intruders. Also, McLurkin teaches
underprivileged kids science in a program called SEED and discusses with
other black MIT engineers the challenges of being a minority in science.
Another report is: New Orleans: The Wrath of a Killer Storm, with correspondent
Peter Standring is about how direct hit from a hurricane could inflict
one of the biggest natural and economic disasters in United States history,
submerging the French Quarter up to the rooftops and brewing a toxic soup
of sewage, petrochemicals, alligators and dead bodies, causing 100,000
casualties. Could meteorologists one day pull off the ultimate trick of
stopping a killer storm in its tracks, or diverting it to a less lethal
path?
|
| Log on to
http://www.pbs.org/nova/sciencenow. |
Tuesday,
January 25
10-11 p.m. E/P |
PBS |
Social
Studies & World History |
High
School |
|
"Frontline: Al Qaeda's New Front" |
| Mosques burn and a filmmaker is murdered in a culture clash
between Muslims and Christians in the Netherlands. A series of bombs tear
apart commuter trains in Madrid. Al Qaeda terrorist cells are uncovered
in the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain. This news program investigates the
new front in the war on terror: Europe and is accompanied by a website which
compares European and American approaches to fighting terrorism. |
| Log on to
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/.
|
Wednesday,
January 26
5-6 p.m. E/P |
History
Channel |
World
History & Technology |
Middle
& High School |
|
"Modern Marvels: The St Lawrence Seaway" |
| The St. Lawrence Seaway is a monumental stairway in water, lifting
massive ships hundreds of feet over thousands of miles. It's the world's
longest inland waterway, a system of rivers, lakes, canals, dams, and locks
that stretches 2,400 miles. And it's one of the greatest engineering triumphs
of the 20th century, pulled off against the violence of raging water and
extreme winter. An essential part of the commercial infrastructure of the
U.S. and Canada, it provides direct access from the Atlantic to North America's
heartland, enabling ships packed with trade to stop at any one its 65 ports
-- from Montreal to Duluth. From the 16th century, when French explorer
Jacques Cartier searched for the legendary Northwest Passage, to the modern
Seaway, built in the 1950s, the program traces the creation of this waterway. |
| |
Wednesday,
January 26
6-7 p.m. E/P |
Discovery
Channel |
Science
& Technology |
Middle &
High School |
|
"Monster Garage: Hot Air Balloon" |
| At the annual balloon festival in Albuquerque, over 1,000 balloonists
launch their airships. In a five day flurry of fabricating, the hosts of
this program will turn a Chevy GEO Tracker into the quickest launching hot-air
balloon and chase vehicle packaged into one. |
| |
Wednesday,
January 26
10-11 p.m. E/P |
NBC |
Social
Studies & Health |
High
School (This program is unrated, but parental discretion is advised) |
|
"Katie Couric -- The 411:Teens and Sex" |
| In this NBC News Special, reporter Katie Couric talks to teens
about their sexual attitudes. Because programs produced by the news divisions
of U.S. networks are not TV-rated as to content according to FCC rules,
this broadcast has no Parental Guidance designation attached to it. But,
considering the subject matter and the hour of the program parents may decide
not to have anyone in the family watch it -- or parents may decide to
watch it without children present. On the mater of teens and sex, Couric
says, "There's a dramatically different paradigm -- it's more matter-of-fact
and we wanted to make sense of it." So she spent a November weekend
in Key Biscayne, Fla., with 20 youngsters (ages 13-17) from around the country.
In her opinion, this broadcast is a primer for parents. "It was designed
to help parents understand what kids are thinking and doing," she says,
"and how best to deal with it." The starting point of the program
will be the findings from a groundbreaking national survey of young teens
commissioned by NBC News and People Magazine, Couric's special explores
how teens are coming to terms with their sexuality and how they deal with
cultural influences, peer pressure and the abstinence. Parents of the teens
also will talk about their concerns with two adolescent specialists and
explored ways to better communicate with their teens. |
| Log on to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6839080/. |
Thursday,
January 27
8:30 p.m. E/P
|
History
Channel |
Science |
High
School |
|
"Modern Marvels Nature Tech: Tsunami" |
| The devastation
wrought by the recent tsunami prompted many to explore what natural forces
created these gigantic waves. Tsunamis are generated by offshore earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions and landslides. This seismic activity creates a large-scale
underwater displacement of sediment on the seabed and produces a massive
underwater wave -- or series of waves known as a "wave train."
Technology has enabled scientists to predict more with more accuracy when
a tsunami might strike. But computerized buoys, wave simulation machines,
satellites, shake tables and 3-D models do not allow for definite forewarning.
Traveling to locations in Hawaii, Japan, Oregon, Seattle and California,
this program highlights the latest state-of-the-art technology used. |
| |
Thursday,
January 27
6-7 p.m. E/P
|
History Channel |
Science |
Middle &
High School |
|
"Nature Tech: Lightning" |
| Since time immemorial,
flashes of light have startled our senses and piqued our imagination. But
it's only in recent years that we've begun to unlock the secrets behind
this terrifying phenomenon, as we learn in this high-tech look at how man
has tried to control nature throughout history. Lightning kills nearly 100
people yearly in the United States and injures hundreds of others. Meet
men and women who look for new ways of detection, prevention, and how to
save lives when Mother Nature strikes. |
| |
Thursday,
January 27
8:30 p.m. E/P
|
Nickelodeon |
World
History & Social Science |
High
School |
|
"Nick News With Linda Ellerbee: Never Again? From the Holocaust to Sudan" |
| This Nickelodeon
special broadcast airs on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz,
where the Nazis had operated an execution camp during WWII. Ellerbee comments
in the program: "The Holocaust was no more of an accident than what
is happening ion the Sudan is an accident. In telling these stories we remind
ourselves of these events and promise ???Never Again'. We realize
that if we have nothing else, we each have a voice and every voice counts."
Included in the special are interviews with kids who are taking matters
into their own hands and helping victims of the Sudanese genocide. |
| |
|
Friday,
January 28
9-9:30 p.m. E/P
check local listings
|
PBS |
Social
Studies & Science |
High
School |
|
"NOW" |
| Anchoring
this new version of "NOW" is David Brancaccio, who joined "NOW"
after a decade as host of public radio's "Marketplace." NOW pursues
aspects of stories overlooked by other news and public affairs broadcasts
-- issues that impact working people. Topics announced for coverage
in this in edition of the program are the new immigrants to the U.S. and
the safety of America's 140 nuclear power plants. |
| Log on to http://www.pbs.org/now. |
Saturday,
January 29
5-6 p.m. E/P |
TCM
-- Turner Classic Movies |
Art
and World History |
High
School |
|
"Agony and the Ecstasy" |
| In this
movie, also available on video, Charlton Heston plays Michelangelo Buonarotti,
the Florentine painter, sculptor, architect and poet, one of the greatest
and most versatile artists of the Renaissance who exerted an extraordinary
influence on Western art. The story, based on the Irving Stone best-seller,
covers the period during Michelangelo's life when he painted the ceiling
of the Sistine Chapel for Pope Julius II, the greatest art patron of the
papal line and one of the most powerful rulers of his age. The movie is
preceded by a short documentary about the range of Michelangelo's work
includes The Creation (Adam and God); The Pieta of St. Peter's; The Colossal
David; and The Moses. |
| Log on to http://www.michelangelo.com/buon/bio-index2.html.
|
Sunday,
January 30
6-7 p.m. E/P |
Travel
Channel |
Geography
and World History |
Middle
& High School |
|
"Travel Channel Presents World's Best: Ancient Cultures Countdown"
|
|
Are there some ancient cultures still in existence today? Yes, they have
had little or no contact with the modern world. This program is about some
people who have never seen cars, CDs or fast food restaurants. They still
live their ancient ways -- the Dreamtime which aborigines have celebrated
for over 60 millennia, the Samurai world of Japan and ancient ethnic practices
in India, the Inuit and Navajo peoples. From the Arctic to remote Pacific
islands and onto the Amazon jungle, viewers get to know the hidden tribes
of Africa and Papua New Guinea and finally come into contact with the extraordinary
world of Central Asia, the land of Genghis Khan and the remote kingdoms
of the Himalayas. |
| |
Sunday,
January 30
8-10 p.m. E/P |
A&E
Channel |
Social Studies |
High School |
|
"See Arnold Run" |
| This movie about
the current Governor of California is rated TV-PG. Below is a weblink which
parents may wish to consult before having any younger members of the family
join them in viewing this program. Jurgen Prochnow plays Arnold Schwarzenegger
and Mariel Hemingway plays wife Maria Shriver in this biographical movie
about the muscleman who became a Hollywood superstar and then a superstar
politician. It follows Schwarzenegger's campaign for governor of California
in a recall election of 2003, looks back at his pursuit of an unprecedented
4th "Mr. Olympia" body building championship three decades ago,
and shows how his ambition and personal charisma have brought him to the
top. |
| Log on to http://www.aetv.com/seearnoldrun/.
|
Sunday,
January 30
9-11 p.m. E/P |
Discovery
Channel |
Ancient
History |
High
School |
|
"Pompeii: The Last Day" |
|
Because this program is a good way to find out about Roman history and it's
airing at the same time this day as some other programs worth watching,
it might be a good idea to tape it or tune in on one of the days when it
will be repeated -- February 1 and February 5. It dramatizes historical
events when Mount Vesuvius showered the ancient Roman city of Pompeii with
ash, smoke and rock. What exactly did happen that summer day in A.D. 79?
The program looks at the latest scientific findings from a city lay undisturbed
under volcanic debris for more than 1,500 years. It presents a detailed
account of the city's final 24 hours, based on this buried evidence. |
| Log on to http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/pompeii/pompeii.html.
|
|
