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These listings cover television programs up to Sunday, June 6.
Greetings, TV viewers!
The media hour discussion in the Greek Theatre Wednesday at
6:30 pm Whyville Time, based on several programs last
week and this week, will be: "What are taxes for?" If you're old enough to be
able to read this, you're old
enough to start thinking about what you want your government to do when they
begin taking away a third or sometimes even a half of everything you earn. I
want to hear some of your suggestions about what's right and what's wrong to do
with public money. (Keep in mind that California, nine other U.S. states, plus the U.K. and
European Union are now considering lowering voting ages to as low as 14.)
For the Media Hour, watch the show(s)-of-the-week, jot down some ideas, then talk about them with me and other citizens (including other City Workers, if they're available) at the Greek Theater, over in City Hall. You'll find that the Theater makes discussions pretty easy, since City Workers are able to direct people's movement and behavior, when we need to, and it keeps everyone's chat bubbles from overlapping too much. We meet for MediaHour on Wednesdays from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Whyville Time (that's the same as Eastern Standard Time).
Monday, May 31
"War Letters" (PBS, 9-10 pm E/P) This documentary is based on the Andrew
Carroll's best-selling book "War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from
American Wars," Covering the period from the American Revolution to the Gulf
War, the film explores love, passion, pain and hope of the men and women who
fought and those who waited at home. At the companion Web site you can learn
more about veterans, wartime service and sacrifice, military actions and U.S.
involvement in foreign affairs http://www.pbs.org/amex/warletters.
Tuesday, June 1
"NOVA: Gamma Rays" (PBS, 8-9 pm E/P check local listings) This science
documentary is a detective story about astronomers to solve the riddle of the
gamma-ray bursts -- the most energetic events ever detected and brighter than a
billion billion suns. Log on and take a tour of the electromagnetic spectrum
-- beginning with radio waves and ending with gamma rays, the potentially deadly
radiation discussed in the program. http://www.pbs.org/nova/gamma.
"Blender" (Discovery Channel, 9-10 pm E/P) This documentary is an episode
of the Discovery Channel's new technology series where they make huge versions
of small things. In this case, it's a 16-foot blender, constructed in five days
for the purpose of making a huge fruit drink It ends up using 1,200 lbs. of bananas,
152 gallons of yogurt and 1,000 lbs of strawberries to make 700 gallons of
smoothie. The program is rated PG.
Wednesday, June 2
"National Spelling Bee and Math Counts National Competition" (ESPN and ESPN2,
times vary) ESPN2 Will cover the pre-championship Bee round beginning at 5
pm ET today. And tomorrow, June 3 ESPN will cover the Bee finals beginning at
1pm ET. The Math Counts National Competition will be covered Tomorrow June 3 on
ESPN2 at noon.
The National Spelling Bee is the nation's largest and longest-running
educational contest. Conducted in the U.S., Europe, Guam, Jamaica, Puerto Rico,
the U.S. Virgin Islands, The Bahamas and American Samoa, it began in 1925. This
year, about 10 million grade school students participated, beginning at the
local level and culminating with 265 spellers in the finals. For additional
information visit: www.spellingbee.com.
Math Counts is a national math coaching and competition program for middle
school students. Each year a new School Handbook about it is provided free to
every U.S. middle school. Competitors utilize these as as they work with a coach
for months, in preparation for the honor of becoming the nation's top
middle-middle school mathematician. In the competition, students represent their
schools in one of over 500 local competitions and the winning Mathletes advance
to the state level. This year, 228 Mathletes competed in the finals held in
Washington, D.C., May 7 -- representing more than 500,000 competitors from local
and state levels. For additional information visit:
www.mathcounts.org.
Thursday, June 3
"Frontline: Tax Me If You Can" (PBS, 9-10 pm E/P) Here's a documentary
about how math is used to avoid paying taxes. The "tax shelter" has been one of
corporate America's biggest hidden profit centers in recent years. Experts
estimate that the U.S. Treasury loses as much as $50 billion each year. And
ordinary taxpayers wind up footing the bill. In this program you'll see how the
big-accounting firms do these deals At the companion Web site learn more about
the debate over corporate taxes and the taxing of capital
http://www.pbs.org/frontline/shows/tax.
"The World Ate My Job" (Discovery Channel, 10 ???11 pm E/P) This
documentary may provide you a glimpse of your future -- or what your future might
not be. If you live in a rich country and look forward to having a white-collar
(or knowledge-based) there may be trouble. Thanks to web-technology, office jobs
are going 'offshore' to developing economies like India, the Philippines or the
Caribbean.
Saturday, June 5
"Lawrence Of Arabia" (TCM Channel, 4-8 pm ET, 1-5 pm PT, also available on
video) Those who have seen this classic adventure movie, regardless of their
age, leave the experience with two thoughts. (1) The want to see it again
whenever the opportunity arises. (2) They think they have a better idea of what's
going on in the Middle East these days. (They're right about that.) Look up the
real person whose life is the basis for this movie at
http://www.lawrenceofarabia.info.
Sunday, June 6
"Dateline NBC: 60th Anniversary of D-Day" (NBC, 7-9 pm E/P) In this
special edition of Dateline, Tom Brokaw marks the 60th anniversary of D-Day with
a largely untold story about the small French town of Graignes, the Americans
who tried to liberate it, the French civilians who joined forces with them and
suffered terrible consequences for doing so.
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