I watched American Idol in the first season and have been a loyal fan ever since. Like many Americans, I get sucked in by the hilarity of the bad auditions and the honest talent of the good ones. The next thing I know, I’m watching the finale and enjoying the hell out of it.

The X Factor is similarly addictive. The show parades a collection of hopefuls, some good, some bad, some atrocious and we, as fans, pick a favorite and settle in to root them on. However, if The X Factor is, in fact, too similar to American Idol, it’s the few differences that make it truly engaging.

Unlike AI, anyone over the age of 12 can audition for The X Factor, that means that not only do old people like me get to see their peers compete but the untapped talent pool of people over thirty finally have a place to show their talents.

The other big difference is that contestants can audition in groups and duos as well as by themselves. This is especially good for true music fans because it opens up the field of songs to more interesting arrangements than the usual simple ballads on Idol.

Sure, the audition process is a grueling exercise in manufactured drama and overproduced emotional outbreaks but isn’t that a small price to pay to see Paula and Simon reunited and doing the only thing they were ever any good at?

Hear more from the King of TV on The Paul Goebel Show podcast and at his website, www.TheKingofTV.com. You can also follow Paul on Twitter @PaulGoebelShow.

Paul referenced the special features on the Bender’s Game DVD, and the guys talked about a number of math-specific inside jokes.

Presented below are some links which highlight and build upon the math in Futurama that Paul and the guys discussed.

• Dr. Sarah’s Futurama Math – http://mathsci2.appstate.edu/~sjg/futurama/
• List of Mathematical References on Futurama – http://theinfosphere.org/List_of_mathematics_references
• Got Futurama – http://www.gotfuturama.com/

The topics include menstruation, malaria, smoking, drug abuse, and sexually transmitted diseases. Most Perspectives readers will have seen “Donald Duck in Mathemagic Land” before, but the other 5 may be new to you.

Now, as un-Disney as these videos may seem, we are sure that at the time they seemed completely appropriate. Disney was (and still is) a trusted source of entertainment for children. Educational films were quite common through the late 70s, and Disney’s animation studios is one of the more respected production houses.  The videos may be made by disney, but they are generally mature and serious in tone, and it is certainly easy to see why someone would feel like producing, purchasing, or sharing these would be a good idea.

Like the actor who made zit cream commercials before becoming an action hero or the rapper who was class president back in the sixth grade, Disney has these videos in their past.

Are they not what we’d expect from Disney today?  Sure. Are they a bit odd, of course… but, no more so than those big bow ties and strange hair cuts from the 50s.

Check out the article at io9.com when you have a chance.

http://io9.com/5830596/dwarves-vs-malaria-and-cartoon-menstruation-the-weirdest-disney-educational-films

The premise is simple enough. Two teenage girls discover they were, in fact, switched at birth and proceed to get acquainted with their birth families and since that premise is clearly spelled out in the title, the show wastes no time getting the action started.

In the first scene, one daughter, Bay, gets her blood tested as part of an experiment in science class. This is where she learns that her blood type, AB, is very rare. So rare, in fact, that it is impossible that she is the natural child of the parents that raised her. This prompts Bay to get a DNA test and confront the hospital about the mix up Bay’s family then contacts her birth mother and they all meet along with the other daughter, Daphne who is revealed to be hearing impaired. All of this happens in the first five minutes.

What follows for the rest of the show is pretty much what you would expect. The parents are emotional and concerned about their new family members. Bay’s big brother is equal parts sensitive and aloof and the girls at the center of it all are made to react as different as possible.

Daphne seems to be smarter than everyone else, as if she always knew that there was something odd about her and after finding out she was right, she seems unphased by the whole thing. Bay, on the other hand, immediately acts out. She gets a nose ring, tries to start smoking and even breaks up with her African-American boyfriend when she realizes that dating a black guy isn’t near rebellious enough.
I wanted to like this show and hoped that it would be something I could watch with my kids. Unfortunately, it’s too heavy-handed even for them. The cacophony of sounds Bay’s dad hears and realizes he has been taking for granted. The clueless and awkward way, Bay’s brother learns about living life as a deaf person. Daphne’s “accidental” run in with Bay’s ex- boyfriend. Even Bay’s brush with the law and her Banksy-esque guerillas art all seems to hyper-realistic to be believable. Obviously, I can;t imagine what it’s like to have something like this happen, but I do know that kids and teens, left to their own devices, will always do what is best for them. Whether they’re deaf, hearing, redhead, brunette, Puerto Rican or Caucasian, teenagers are dumb and finding out they were raised by the wrong parents wouldn’t make them any smarter

If I can say one good thing about the show, I enjoyed seeing Lucas Grabeel in a more appropriate role than that High School Musical crap I was forced to sit through.

Hear more from the King of TV on The Paul Goebel Show podcast and at his website, www.TheKingofTV.com. You can also follow Paul on Twitter @PaulGoebelShow.

1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1-1+1+1+1+1+1+1×0 =?

As of noon PST on Tuesday June 14, the correct answer was NOt the most popular answer.

781,143 people believe the expression is equal to 0.

[These people are forgetting their order of operations. The 0 is multiplied by the final 1 and this takes place before any addition or subtraction.]

185,218 people belive the expression is equal to 16.

[These people are simply being careless and not noticing that there is a minus sign mixed in with the addition signs.]

34,805 people believe the expression is equal to 17.

[We can only assume these people miscounted the number of ones or counted all the digits. Either way, the answer is wrong.]

Only 663,922 people (barely 40% of the sample) would make their math teachers proud because they recognize the correct answer to be 14.

The most troubling part to us is the fact that the question is treated as an opinion problem as opposed to having a single correct answer.

Today, Sea Shephard shared this video interview.

Whether you agree or disagree with Sea Shephard’s efforts and methods, we felt it was important to share this because it seems to lend some credence to Parent X’s concerns.

What are your feelings about letting the internet create a record of your child’s beliefs, causes, and interests?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/225236/forge_your_own_path_with_delightfully_twisted_hommage_a_escher_font.html

4 of the 6 children, including the youngest, had no problem opening a childproof pill bottle.
All 6 of the children were familiar with the push-before-turning mechanism, but only 4 of the children could actually implement the move and successfully open the bottle.

This raises a number of questions.

1. Are childproof bottle caps truly worth their cost?  Most likely the answer is “yes,” in that they did stop 2 of the 6 children from opening the bottle and we were working with a very small and unScientific sample.
2. Is there a more effective childproof cap to be developed? Again, the answer is most likely “yes.” There is no excuse for our 4-year-old to have been able to open the bottle. Similarly, it is sickening to hear someone assert that “if she is smart enough to open the bottle, she is probably smart enough to not mistake the pills for candy.”
3. Are childproof bottle caps environmentally sound? They have an extra layer of rubber or plastic or some such thing inside the threads. One would assume there is more plastic involved in the creation of these bottle caps than in others.

You can find many examples of mini-experiments testing the effectiveness of childproof caps online. For example, we found this 2009 report from Seattle’s King 5 News. Their results were, sadly, similar to ours.

What are your experiences with childproof caps on medicine bottles?  Please share your thoughts below.

The Lemonade Game was a very, very early precursor to the Sim City-style games of the turn of the century. And, for those of use in Ms. Safran’s 4th Grade G&T pullout class, it was the best reward she could ever offer us.

About ten years ago, I found the Coolmath4kids website, and the first thing I did was play a 30-day game of Lemonade Stand. It only took me three “days” to recall my trademarked secret recipe with the perfect ratio of lemons to sugar to ice to make almost any day a profitable day.

The memories this rekindled alone were fantastic, but the game play remains fun and challenging enough to promote it on this site.

Whether you are someone old enough to have played the game when you were young or you work with young people aged 8 – 18, I suggest you check out the game (and the rest of the coolmath4kids site).

You can play the Lemonade Game at http://www.coolmath-games.com/lemonade/index.html.

“Elephant theme?” I asked. “Why elephants?” She explained that instead of the party guests bringing her son gifts, they were being asked to contribute a small dollar amount that would be pooled and used to “adopt” an elephant calf at the San Diego Zoo. With a minimum donation of $35, children can adopt an elephant calf. The funds are used for medical care, food, and enrichment items for a baby elephant. The child who makes the donation receives an adoption certificate, a photograph of their adopted elephant, and an animal fact sheet so they can learn more about the animal.

When I heard about this, I thought, “What a great idea!” Every time I host a birthday party for my daughter, her well-meaning friends give her lots of little trinkets and toys, AKA more junk! She doesn’t have room for any more toys in her bedroom, and chances are, she won’t play with them after the first week anyway!

The mom explained to me that this is something she has done with her children for the past few years, and although they were reluctant in the beginning to give up getting birthday presents, they have since learned how good it feels to give back and to help someone or something in need.

This is something I have tried to instill in my own children for a long time, without much success. I want them to know how fortunate they are to have a safe home, food on the table every night, clothes in their closets, and a family that loves them. Sometimes I wish I could take them to third world countries to see how people live with so much less. When they complain about how unfair it is that Suzy at school has the newest iPod or smartphone and all her clothes come from the designer stores at the mall while theirs don’t,  it makes me want to scream! I have come to realize that my children are spoiled.  My efforts to provide a comfortable life for them have resulted in children who always want more and better, and can never seem to be satisfied with what they have.

So I am left to ponder, what can I do now to change this? Perhaps they should volunteer their time to give back to society – feed the homeless, work in a soup kitchen or shelter, give to the less fortunate. I can have them give a portion of their allowance to charity, or raise money for victims of a natural disaster like the recent earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan.  I will definitely change how I plan the next birthday party – I will have her start researching now where she wants her birthday donations to go. I will encourage my children to be more compassionate, more giving, and less focused on themselves as they become young adults.

“Studies show that participating in charitable activities can help boost your children’s self-esteem, build confidence and help shape their values. Doing charitable works is enriching, valuable and self-perpetuating; kids learn that helping others can be fun and makes them feel good.”
(Derek Ferriera and Martin Johnson, 2010)

You can learn more about the San Diego Zoo’s Adopt an Animal program here – http://www.sandiegozoo.org/adopt/animal.html