Occasionally I watch “America’s Got Talent,” a show where the grammatically-challenged title probably indicates the mind-numbing incompetence of either it’s audience or it’s producers (or both).

That audience includes me, so I guess I can’t talk too much trash. Besides “Does America Have Talent?” is a stupid title.

One of my favorite acts is Kashif, some random Indian Pakistani guy from Chicago who dances and lip syncs. It’s strangely captivating. A good friend from work pointed out that his first performance is to a song that was very popular in India several years back.

So for comparison purposes, I give you his first performance AND the original dance that it is based off of:

It’s like me going over to India and dancing to “Rico Suave”… how can you not love this?!

Shannon and I don’t have cable, so my television viewing choices are slightly more limited than what most Americans are used to. Therefore, when pilots for new shows finally come around it can be exciting to see the new shows. I happened to catch a few pilots tonight:

• Knights of Prosperity (ABC): I found this show to be a bit like “Oceans 11″ meets “Dumb and Dumber”, with a hint of “Rat Race” thrown in. The chemistry of the characters, particularly the large black man and the Indian, was particularly funny. Wish it were an hour instead of just 30 minutes long.
• Wired Science (PBS): A fantastic scientific television show that explores recent advances in science and technology in an interesting and entertaining manner. You can even watch episodes online, proving once again that public broadcasting just does it right.
• In Case of Emergency (ABC): A fairly good start to what could be a great show. I like the premise, but it danced a fine line between Scrubs quirkiness and a more serious drama. Despite it’s misleading title the show is about single high school friends reuniting in their 30’s (not about doctors or medical cases). The title comes from each of them missing that one person who can be put as their “emergency contact.”

It doesn’t matter if you live in New York City or Humptulips, WA - chances are your local action eyewitness late-breaking chopper doppler news station sucks. Here’s proof you’re not alone:

• The obligatory flasher - Classic example of what the local news usually captures: local people doing stupid things just to get on the news.
• Investigative piece on dangerous “leet” speak - Honestly, can anyone take these people seriously? It’s like listening to cave men who are warning us about the dangers of using fire to cook: they only grasp the very basics and thus make the false assumption that everything unfamiliar must also be incredibly dangerous.
• Snake in a car - Like all bad news stories this sounds excellent, but turns out to be an unconfirmed story with no useful information.
• British news bloopers - Why can’t we be more like the Brits?

At least local news is usually harmless. I can’t say the same about Fox “news”, which evidently supports racial profiling. Scary, scary stuff.

A short while ago I found a great list of downloadable or streamable television shows available for free online. If I ever miss an episode it’s the first place I turn to try to find a freely available copy.

“Saturday Night Live” has a funny sketch about Hermione returning to Hogwarts after the inevitable puberty has struck [49mb]? Enjoy.

Note that this sketch isn’t technically new, but it is one of the few “recent” SNL sketches that actually made me chuckle.

Holy CRAP: Stephen Colbert actually won the contest to have a Hungarian bridge named after him! It was just announced on his show about 10 minutes ago: the (real) Hungarian ambassador was even there to give him a Hungarian passport and read some official paperwork.

There isn’t much online about this confirmation (this is the only thing I could find), so you’re on the bleeding edge of the news :). Looks like Wikipedia updated their entry on Stephen Colbert:

On September 14, 2006, the Hungarian ambassador to the U.S. gave Colbert a Hungarian passport, Hungarian forint (equivalent to approximately $50 U.S.), and announced that a bridge in Hungary would likely be named after him. Stipulations presented by the Hungarian ambassador, however, included that Colbert must be fluent in Hungarian and must also be deceased.

Click here if you have no idea what I am talking about.

Enjoy a shiny bit of comedic gold as Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell debate religion (Islam vs. Christianity) in a bit they call “Even Stephvens”:

Stephen Colbert is trying to get a Hungarian bridge over the Danube River named after him, and he needs your help. Here’s what to do:

1. Go to http://www.m0hid.gov.hu/vote
2. Search for “Stephen Colbert” on the page and select the appropriate radio button
3. Go to the bottom of the page and click the button labeled “Elkuld” to cast your vote

Well folks, if you’re a regular reader of this blog you knew about Vincent Ferrari’s troubles with AOL six days ago. This morning’s “The Today Show” finally picked up the story and interviewed Vincent:

This national exposure is indicative of the power that blogs (and the internet in general) can have. Some guy gets “wronged” by a billion dollar company, he blogs about it, and a few days later Matt Lauer is interviewing him. Score 1 for the little guy.

Not sure if this is legal or not, but PeekVid is offering quite a few (slightly older) episodes of popular television shows online. There aren’t any annoying ads and you can watch them right in your browser (maximize the playing window to go full screen). The site is well organized; it appears that the content shown is simply garnered from usenet postings using Guba.

There are, of course, legal alternatives; Channel Chooser (70 channels) and wwiTV (1000+ domestic and international channels) are the first that come to mind. Makes me want to run ethernet to the television upstairs (wireless is just too slow)… but I’m going to wait until we know for sure where we are going to be living in 3 months.