Directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá. With Téa Leoni, Tim Daly, Keith Carradine, Patina Miller. Elizabeth is torn about presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom to someone who may not deserve it. President Dalton doubts his ability to return to leadership despite being cleared by doctors.
Category: Watch
📺 Ricky Gervais: Humanity | Netflix
Live performance of British comedian Ricky Gervais filmed in London's Eventim Apollo.
I watched this in pieces over the last two evenings and finished of the tail end at lunch today.
I’ve often thought of Gervais simply as a crass entertainer, but there are so many interesting new dimensions which come out in “Humanity”, they give me newfound respect for who he is and what he’s doing now. This is far more complex than just simple comedy, he’s doing something much more significant with this particular performance.
I also haven’t laughed this hard in quite a while. Tears, literally tears. Perhaps most interesting is that he’s got a much wider range of emotions which he’s playing off of here than just the humorous.
Gervais has some really interesting philosophy hiding in here among the dark humor. He has an interesting take on comedy and what it does and doesn’t target. The bit at the end on social media was particularly interesting. His take on “The Commons” is quite solid and is something I don’t suspect many could expound upon so eloquently.
During the portion in which he talks about his favorite Twitter response ever, he looked down at his phone to quote the tweet. I was reminded of some of the comedy greats I’ve seen at clubs late at night reading out of their beat up notebooks to try out new material. For a moment I thought, “perhaps Gervais is trying out some new material live here.” If it’s the case, then he was genius, though I suspect now that it was just a useful prop to add to the narrative of the joke. Either way, just brilliant. I wonder when we’ll see comics at clubs reading off of phones instead of the old spiral bounds? I wonder if it’ll play an better than the index card or notebook?
His closer with the story about his mum’s death and the wonderful prank on the poor vicar put a wonderfully fine point on the entire piece. It is humanity indeed. If there were a god, I’m sure he’d bless Ricky Gervais.
📺 “Cooks vs. Cons” Fry, Fry Again! | Food Network
Directed by Luke Riffle. With Geoffrey Zakarian, Alex Guarnaschelli, Simon Majumdar. The pros and amateurs must use pineapple in their fried chicken dish for the first round; the cooks and cons make potato dishes in the second round; Alex Guarnaschelli and Simon Majumdar are the judges.
📺 Som procautions. Dramatic reading #8″ | YouTube
Ryan Estrada from YouTubeArtists who won't work for free make today's subject cry.
📺 Zeynep Tufekci: We’re building a dystopia just to make people click on ads | TED
Zeynep Tufekci from ted.comWe're building an artificial intelligence-powered dystopia, one click at a time, says techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci. In an eye-opening talk, she details how the same algorithms companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon use to get you to click on ads are also used to organize your access to political and social information. And the machines aren't even the real threat. What we need to understand is how the powerful might use AI to control us -- and what we can do in response.
📺 Won’t You Be My Neighbor? – Official Trailer | Focus Features
Watch the official trailer for Morgan Neville's new movie, Won't You Be My Neighbor? #MrRogersMovie
From Academy Award® -winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom), Won’t You Be My Neighbor? takes an intimate look at America’s favorite neighbor: Mister Fred Rogers. A portrait of a man whom we all think we know, this emotional and moving film takes us beyond the zip-up cardigans and the land of make-believe, and into the heart of a creative genius who inspired generations of children with compassion and limitless imagination.
This looks like the type of salve the world could use right about now. I wonder if reruns of his show are available anywhere?
📺 Cobra Kai Trailer Season 1 (2018) Karate Kid Series | YouTube
Original stars Ralph Macchio and William Zabka are back as karate rivals Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, and as the teaser above shows, they’re still nursing wounds from the old days. Johnny is reviving his old dojo Cobra Kai, and Daniel isn’t about to let him without a fight.
This looks like an interesting potential series, but the plot through line of this trailer makes me wonder if they can get to the 3rd episode. Johnny seems to have the more interesting character here. I’m also curious about the financing and set up for this being a YouTube Red series. Could be an interesting move in the streaming video space.
📺 Zeynep Tufekci: Machine intelligence makes human morals more important | TED
Zeynep Tufekci from ted.comMachine intelligence is here, and we're already using it to make subjective decisions. But the complex way AI grows and improves makes it hard to understand and even harder to control. In this cautionary talk, techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci explains how intelligent machines can fail in ways that don't fit human error patterns -- and in ways we won't expect or be prepared for. "We cannot outsource our responsibilities to machines," she says. "We must hold on ever tighter to human values and human ethics."
📺 Zeynep Tufekci: Online social change: easy to organize, hard to win | TED
Zeynep Tufekci from ted.comToday, a single email can launch a worldwide movement. But as sociologist Zeynep Tufekci suggests, even though online activism is easy to grow, it often doesn't last. Why? She compares modern movements -- Gezi, Ukraine, Hong Kong -- to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and uncovers a surprising benefit of organizing protest movements the way it happened before Twitter.
📺 "The West Wing" On the Day Before S3 E5
Directed by Christopher Misiano. With Rob Lowe, Stockard Channing, Dulé Hill, Allison Janney. While the White House is hosting a gala dinner for Nobel Prize winners, Leo and the president learn of a suicide bomb in an Israeli cafe that took the lives of two American students in Tel Aviv for a soccer match, and the staff attempts to manage the president's first veto, of a House bill eliminating the estate tax, and the threat of an override the same night. Sam and Toby first try to sway a contentious Dem. From Tennessee who wants a whole list of farming and ranching concessions in exchange for his vote and three proxies; after a pep talk from Leo, they devise a substitute plan that may prove even more effective, if it works. Josh takes the governor of Indiana into a private meeting to determine if the man plans to challenge Bartlet in Democratic primary. C.J. takes heat from a smarmy Dallas entertainment reporter who is in town for the Nobel dinner but winds up having to cover the veto and override vote, but after the reporter embarrasses her during a live stand-up, C.J. one ups the woman in front of the press corps. Later, Sam, Toby and Josh try to help the president decide what to say to the parents of the two murdered students.
👓 Mutating DNA caught on film | Science | AAAS
Study in bacteria shows how regularly DNA changes and how few of those changes are deadly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi38IqxkW68
This is a rather cool little experiment.
h/t to @moorejh via Twitter:
Mutating #DNA caught on film https://t.co/UyUbPQsDY2 #genomics pic.twitter.com/Em3degXUWU
— Jason H. Moore, PhD (@moorejh) March 16, 2018
Bookmarked on March 16, 2018 at 12:15PM
🎞 Black Panther (2018)
Directed by Ryan Coogler. With Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira.
T'Challa, the King of Wakanda, rises to the throne in the isolated, technologically advanced African nation, but his claim is challenged by a vengeful outsider who was a childhood victim of T'Challa's father's mistake.
An awesome movie, well told, generally well acted and directed.
📺 “The Good Doctor” Pain | ABC
Directed by Allison Liddi-Brown. With Freddie Highmore, Nicholas Gonzalez, Antonia Thomas, Chuku Modu. When the team treats a patient who has to decide about getting a dangerous surgery that could change his life, the man asks Dr. Murphy what he would do.
🎞️ What If (2013) CBS Films
Directed by Michael Dowse. With Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Megan Park, Adam Driver. Wallace, who is burned out from a string of failed relationships, forms an instant bond with Chantry, who lives with her longtime boyfriend. Together, they puzzle out what it means if your best friend is also the love of your life.
A cute enough movie. I might suggest that this is a slightly new flavor of romantic comedy flavored by a dash of the Millennial generation. It took a bit to get past the melange of accents of the characters to realize that the story was set in Toronto, but in general there were some reasonable performances by all involved. The plot was a bit too vanilla and no one really took any chances to up the ante of the concept which could have made this much more memorable. In general, it was entertaining enough to sit through once, but I wouldn’t give this a second screening.
The dreadful release date gives me more of a clue why I’d never heard of this. I suspect it’d have done better as a limited release in the Spring or late Fall instead. This wasn’t a great movie, but was better than it’s box office performance indicated. The studio left some money on the table with this one.
📺 Beauty and the Beast (2017) | Walt Disney Pictures
Directed by Bill Condon. With Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Josh Gad. A selfish prince is cursed to become a monster for the rest of his life, unless he learns to fall in love with a beautiful young woman he keeps prisoner.