Category Archives: Politically Incorrect

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

I know its politically incorrect to suggest that kids jump up from a sedentary game of chess and partake in a round of active video game boxing, but the latter activity might actually burn enough calories to quality as a form of exercise.

Thats the finding of a study published Monday in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine in which 18 children ages 11 to 15 tried out boxing and dancing on Kinect for the Microsoft Xbox 360. They found that the games increased calorie-burning by 150 percent for the game Dance Central and 263 percent for Sports Boxing, which burned up to 172 extra calories per hour compared with when they were sitting and playing a traditional video game.

Dance Central raised the childrens heart rate to an average 118 beats per minute and Kinect Sports Boxing raised it to 131 beats per minutes, which was more than 50 percent higher than their resting heart rate.

Whether such heart rates are adequate for increasing cardiovascular fitness is debatable, wrote the British studys authors. But most likely theyre comparable to light-intensity exercise such as ballroom dancing, bowling, and walking.

Compared with previous research that measured calorie-burning on the Wii system dance and boxing games, the Kinect system burned moderately more calories, most likely because it involves motion sensors rather than a hand-held controller that limits body movements.

The study was funded by the University of Chester, where the research was conducted -- not Kinect -- so we dont have to worry about biased results. But it was small, so results still need to be confirmed with larger studies.

Very few American kids, as well as their British counterparts, get the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity a day because, well, they spend a lot of their leisure time playing electronic games. Although active gaming single handedly cannot substitute [for] traditional outdoor play or sports, it may bridge the gap in the low physical activity levels currently being observed, study author Michael Morris, of the University of Chester, wrote in an e-mail.

And, no, he doesnt endorse Kinect over Wii, but he does think kids should be encouraged to choose video games that get them up and moving rather than sedentary gaming that, he wrote, typically involves no more than the twiddling of thumbs.

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Active video games such as Kinect burn enough calories to qualify as exercise, study suggests

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The last time another show won the Emmy for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series, its competition included ABCs Politically Incorrect, Bill Mahers previous broadcast gig.

That was in 2002, and in every Emmy show after that, Comedy Centrals The Daily Show has been victorious.

Tonight was no exception as Jon Stewart and crew accepted their tenth consecutive Emmy, beating out sister program The Colbert Report, Mahers HBO show, Saturday Night Live, and late-night talk shows from Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel.

Presenter Ricky Gervais joked not again as he announced that The Daily Show had won. Stewart was then restrained by Colbert and Fallon, who were upset at losing out.

And as expected, Stewart delivered on some comedy in his speech, taking a swipe at the predictability of the Emmy Awards when, in the future, aliens discover a box of these [trophies].

Watch Stewarts dramatic stage entrance and speech below, via ABC:

>> Follow Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) on Twitter

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Jon Stewart Hilariously Accepts 10th Consecutive Emmy for Best Variety Series

The headline was true enough, though it was politically incorrect by today's standards: "Pretty Teen Coed Is First Vote Caster." The Sacramento Bee detailed how Joanne Durbin, that "pretty blonde college student," and a half-dozen other newly minted young voters might change the face of democracy.

At 19, Durbin stepped into the voting booth and cast her ballot in a local El Dorado County election, apparently becoming the first Californian to exercise her right under the 26th Amendment, which took effect July 1, 1971, and lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. Before hurrying off to class at Sacramento State, Durbin surveyed the polling place and noted that no one lined up behind her.

"I guess they are just lazy, like the adults," Durbin, smart kid that she was, told the reporter.

Forty-one years later, Joanne Durbin Testerman is a nurse and a grandmother living in Arizona, where she helps care for her aging parents. She has missed only one election since, though she had a good excuse: She was giving birth to twins. But the youth vote has never materialized.

A product of the Vietnam War era, the 26th Amendment was in place for the 1972 presidential election. We know how that turned out. George McGovern, the peace candidate who sought to mobilize young people outraged by the Vietnam War and draft, won Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, and nothing else.

People described in the newspaper article are now in their 60s. I found a few of them with help from The Sacramento Bee's researcher, Pete Basofin. They all had become regular voters and drilled into their kids' heads the need to vote.

"Politics governs the air you breathe," said Melanie Connors, 61, who spent a career as a child protective services worker. "You need to stay informed and involved."

"I have my two cents. I might as well put it in there. I fought for it," added Tony Kessler. A Navy veteran living in San Luis Obispo, he has voted every time since, except for a few years when he was living in Japan. "I thought things were going to start changing. But nothing happened."

Indeed, four decades later, the vast majority of young people still don't vote. The Public Policy Institute of California estimates that 19 percent of people 25 or younger are likely voters in this state, compared with 74 percent of voters who are 65 and older.

They can't vote if they aren't registered, and they aren't. UC Davis researcher Mindy Romero, project director of the California Civic Engagement Project, has found that a paltry 49.43 percent of eligible voters between 18 and 24 are registered, compared to 77.5 percent in the general population.

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Dan Morain: Promise of youth vote fails to produce at polling places

To see a promo of The Office.

"When we started there didn't seem like there was room for a show like this on NBC because the biggest show on NBC I think when we started was 'Will & Grace' and it was a multi-camera world," said showrunner Greg Daniels during a recent teleconference.

The half-hour comedy, pitched to the American public as a mockumentary, is a TV show as seen through the eyes of a documentary film crew capturing the everyday lives of workers at the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Co. in Scranton, Pa. To achieve that effect, it was shot with a single camera. There is no studio audience and no laugh track.

"And I kind of feel like we somewhat forced our way into the world through just creative excitement over the cast and the different way of storytelling," said Daniels, who executive produced the show for its first five seasons, left to take over "Parks and Recreation" on the same network and is returning for the ninth and final season, which starts Thursday on channel 2, cable 9.

For its final season, Daniels said, the production company is bringing back 15 veteran cast members (no word on whether Carell is included) and tying up loose ends.

This year will be different and "very arc heavy," said Daniels, who adapted Ricky Gervais' British series for American TV.

"For one thing I feel like the last few years we didn't do arcs so much. We were pursuing more episodic comedy. But I think the real heart of the show are these arcs that allow the characters to have ongoing stories. ... It is all going to be set up in the premiere, but there is so much payoff from nine seasons for so many great characters that my biggest concern is just packing in these great ideas ... and making sure that we hit all of them or at least squeeze in as many as we can into the ending."

Fans will also finally get answers to their documentary questions.

"People are always asking, 'Why are they still filming? What are they after?' I think we are going to explore that for comedy and for story effect."

Daniels also provided some spoilers for the final season.

Link:

Last season of 'The Office' starts Thursday

The headline was true enough, though it was politically incorrect by today's standards: "Pretty Teen Coed Is First Vote Caster."

This newspaper detailed how Joanne Durbin, that "pretty blonde college student," and a half-dozen other newly minted young voters might change the face of democracy.

At 19, Durbin stepped into the voting booth and cast her ballot in a local El Dorado County election, apparently becoming the first Californian to exercise her right under the 26th Amendment, which took effect July 1, 1971, and lowered the voting age to 18 from 21. Before hurrying off to class at Sacramento State, Durbin surveyed the polling place and noted that no one lined up behind her.

"I guess they are just lazy, like the adults," Durbin, smart kid that she was, told the reporter.

Forty-one years later, Joanne Durbin Testerman is a nurse and a grandmother living in Arizona, where she helps care for her aging parents. She has missed only one election since, though she had a good excuse; she was giving birth to twins. But the youth vote has never materialized.

A product of the Vietnam War era, the 26th Amendment was in place for the 1972 presidential election. We know how that turned out. George McGovern, the peace candidate who sought to mobilize young people outraged by the Vietnam War and draft, won Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, and nothing else.

People described in the newspaper article are now in their 60s. I found a few of them with help from The Bee's researcher, Pete Basofin. They all had become regular voters and drilled into their kids' heads the need to vote.

"Politics governs the air you breathe," said Melanie Connors, 61, who spent a career as a child protective services worker. "You need to stay informed and involved."

"I have my two cents. I might as well put it in there. I fought for it," added Tony Kessler. A Navy veteran living in San Luis Obispo, he has voted every time since, except for a few years when he was living in Japan. "I thought things were going to start changing. But nothing happened."

Indeed, four decades later, the vast majority of young people still don't vote. The Public Policy Institute of California estimates that 19 percent of people 25 or younger are likely voters in this state, compared with 74 percent of voters who are 65 and older.

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Dan Morain: Promise of youth fails to produce at the polls

Fenech: Brain behind Housos

SBS has commissioned another series of nine episodes of Paul Fenechs politically incorrect comedy Housos.

Production of the new series set in a fictional housing commission block in Sunnyvale starts in Sydneys western suburbs on Monday.

The cast includes Encore columnistJason Jabba Davis, Habib Tahir, Melissa Tkautz, Amanda Keller and Angry Anderson. Narrator Ian Turpie passed awayin March this year.

Since it first aired on SBS, Fenech has also shot a Housos feature film.

Tony Iffland, SBSs director of television and online content, said: Housos became hugely successful with its tongue-in-cheek humour. The new season will continue our commitment to commissioning and supporting Australian content and talent. We are delighted to be working with Paul again on a second series.

Fenech best known for Fat Pizza said: The new season of Housos gives fans the chance to unite and get in touch with their inner-bogan. Whether you have to beg, borrow or literally steal a TV set to watch it, we have enough surprises to make it worth your while.

The first series of the unashamedly unsophisticated show was SBS best performing in its timeslot. The show gained notoriety before it even aired after Nines A Current Affair mistook it for a documentary.

September 9th, 2012 at 4:56 pm

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Paul Fenech’s Housos gets second series on SBS

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Two years ago, Christine ODonnell was the Republican candidate for Senate in Delaware, and her race got some national attention after Bill Maher infamously aired a clip of her on his old show Politically Incorrect, where ODonnell admitted she used to dabble in witchcraft. Maher was unable to get ODonnell on his show that year, but finally, she appeared on Real Time tonight. Maher began the interview by apologizing to ODonnell for how much attention the witch video got.

RELATED: Bill Maher To Chris Matthews: The ODonnell Witch Stuff Isnt Really Important

Maher told ODonnell, I made your life hell and Im sorry about that. He said that he didnt mean for the clips of her on Politically Incorrect to be such a big factor in her Senate race. ODonnell laughed it off and admitted that her campaign erred after releasing an ad where she said Im not a witch. Maher admitted that it did hurt [his] feelings that ODonnell never came on his show during her campaign, but ODonnell said it was just a scheduling issue.

Turning to the events in North Carolina this week, Maher asked ODonnell what she thought of Clintons speech and how well it was received. ODonnell said it sounded like Clinton was running based on how much he referred to policies from his administration. She also disputed the idea that the economy is doing better, saying that Obama had four years to fix it.

Maher told ODonnell that to him, the Republican party is acting like everything in the United States was perfect until President Blackenstein took over, and thats when the country took a dark turn. ODonnell admitted that the Republicans were abandoning the principles they stand for in 2008, but then criticized Obama for continuing to blame the Bush administration.

They concluded the interview by talking about social issues and religion. Maher asked ODonnell why Jesus would be a Republican when he seems to be mostly about helping the poor and the sick. ODonnell denied that she believes Jesus would be a Republican, and noted that there is a conservative atheist working in her PAC.

Watch the video below, courtesy of HBO:

Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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Bill Maher Finally Goes Head To Head With Christine O’Donnell On Real Time

22-06-2009 01:00 ETA: Just posted a minute of a 2010 interview with Eddie in which he talks about this clip. He seems pretty chuffed that it went viral, which is a weight off my shoulders. I thought he'd probably be glad it was out there but couldn't be completely sure. ETA: Thanks for the shout out last night, Mr. Maher! 9/18/10 Well, hello world! Welcome to my channel. Come for O'Donnell and (I hope) STAY for Eddie. This was Eddie's first appearance (of an eventual five) that he made on Bill's late, lamented program. Enjoy.

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Politically Incorrect August 1998 Part 1 of 2 Eddie Izzard Christine O'Donnell - Video

02-05-2009 04:41 with John Waters, Patricia Hearst, Stephen Dorff and Bob Larson. From 2000

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Politically Incorrect with John Waters, Stephen Dorff etc (part 1) - Video

08-07-2009 13:00 Everton v Arsenal Fabregas Chelsea v Hull Drogba Manchester City v Blackburn Aston Villa v Wigan

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Willie Barcena - Hilarious Politically Incorrect Stand Up Comedy - Video