Have you had your Whyville account hacked recently? Check out Wednesday's show on the real thing, and be glad you didn't have somebody like that coming after you!

Also this week, I've got people using fertilizer to blow stuff up, to sell automobiles and fake stocks, and a show on cattle ranches -- sounds like it's Cow Week!!

Watch the shows and let me know what you think!
Email me, the MediaWiz of Whyville!

Friday, July 20

"Mother Bear Man" (CNBC, 8-10 p.m. E/P) The lead segment of this National Geographic Explorer documentary about bears shows how 3 orphaned black bears were raised by a New Hampshire zoologist, taught, via an interspecies version of tough-love, about life in the wilderness and eventually released there. The other segments, also presenting an unsentimentalized view of the species, are "Bear Attack" and "Bear Bandits", show what to do if a bear comes after you or your garbage.

Saturday July 21

"Explosions" (History Channel, 2-3 p.m. E/P) Ammonium nitrate is a dangerous type of fertilizer with a bad history. Used in the Oklahoma City bombing, it caused over a hundred deaths and resulted in the execution of the perpetrator of that crime. But it was also responsible for over 500 deaths in Texas City, Texas about 50 years ago when a shipload of it exploded due to bad corporate safety practices. Nearby oil tanks then burned and the town was destroyed.

Sunday July 22

"Extreme Hawaii" (Discovery Channel, 9-10 p.m. E/P) Tourists in America's island paradise should probably not get involved in the activities in this documentary -- such as diverting 2000-degree molten lava flows into molds to create a sculpture, or riding a 50-foot wave set called "Jaws" or joining the battle against invasive plant and animal species that now threaten to overrun the islands. On the other hand, taking a look at the stars through the most powerful telescope in the world, Hawaii's Keck Observatory, might be alright.

"Close Up: Tides Of War" (National Geographic Channel 10-11 p.m. E/P) Humans weren't the only casualties of the Gulf War. Nature took a hit, suffering what may turn out to be permanent damage. This documentary shows the lingering effects of purposely-set oil-field blazes, bombing raids and mechanized ground-warfare and other unnatural catastrophies on desert and coastal environments of the Middle East.

Monday, July 23

"Automobiles: A Marathon" (History Channel, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. E/P, repeating 2-8 p.m. E/P) Explore how technology and commerce merge when cars are made and marketed. Featured vehicles in these hour-long reports are Cadillac, Mustang, VW, Jeep, and Mercedes.

"Selling The Dream: Stock Hype and Fraud" (A&E Network, 10-11 p.m E/P) For Whyvillians interested in maybe expanding their business activities beyond the realm of clams and into other places in cyberspace, this documentary might be instructive. The best segment in it describes a web-vigilante named "Pluvia" who hunts fraudulent companies on the net. In the other segments, definitely in the category of "don't try this at home", there are chilling interviews with people who were sent to jail for selling bogus stock.

Tuesday, July 24

"Dare To Compete: The Struggle of Women in Sports" (HBO, 1-2:30 p.m E/P) This is a documentary about a new branch of social science, politely called gender studies. (The impolite name is something like "Boys Are Toast".) Among the 40 examples cited where female athletes became stars in a previously male-dominated sports world are tennis legends Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova and WNBA star Lynette Woodard.

"Runaway Universe" (PBS, 9-10 p.m. E/P) Watch as two rival teams of astronomers search for exploding stars, mapping out gigantic cosmic patterns of galaxies, and grapple with the question, What Is The Fate Of The Universe? (Their shared opinion is something like, "We're all toast".) For additional opinions and data on this topic log on www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/universe.

"Cattle Ranches" (History Channel 10-11 p.m. E/P) There's an old saying, "If you're interested in politics or sausage, stay away from campaigns or sausage factories." Well, this documentary starts with the glamorous part of beef production -- million acre ranches, cattle drives across the plains, roping, branding, etc. -- and quickly gets into biology. That means breeding cattle via embryo transplants, genetic engineering, cloning and other means to produce a steer with a consistently juicy, low-fat carcass.

Wednesday, July 25

"Hackers: Computer Outlaws" (The Learning Channel, 10-11 p.m.) Hacking began on day one of the computer era in the mid-1900's and has remained a positive as well as negative contribution to technological advancement. You'll meet pioneer hacker John Draper, credited with originating the phenomenon, Steve Wozniak, the genius behind Apple, and Kevin Mitnick, the "most wanted" man in cyberspace.

Thursday, July 26