Robert Newman gets to grips with the wars and politics of the last hundred years - but rather than adhering to the history we were fed at school, he places oil [at] centre stage as the cause of all commotion. This innovative history programme is based around Robert Newman’s stand-up act and supported by resourceful archive sequences and stills with satirical impersonations of historical figures from Mayan priests to Archduke Ferdinand. Quirky details such as a bicycle powered street lamp on the stage brings home the pertinent question of just how we are going to survive when the world’s oil supplies are finally exhausted.

Absolutely brilliant, and very very funny. Link.

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keywords: TV, no-TV, TV, no-TV, etc
mood: defiant
music: وجيه عزيز / قول معايا

(previously on surfing…)

CBCtelevision has been running promos for the upcoming sitcom: Little Mosque on the Prairie, which premieres Tuesday Jan 9th at 2030 EST on CBC. The clips suggest that it could be funny. I am definitely going to tune in, but I’m hoping it’ll only be a half-hour affair, cause the time slot at 2100 is currently reserved by House.

update (Jan 11th): I watched the premiere last night, and it is quite funny — sitcom funny.

Cheers Mo.

Remember Banksy? onegoodmove has a recent report on his work in Palestine and LA, including a brief audio interview with the man.

FreeHugs.

The Office: David Brent (played by Ricky Gervais) giving online dating a try.

(The DiscoveryChannel show he mentions @ 3:10 — I’ve heard similar hypotheses, and they’re interesting enough, but I don’t believe they are the leading theories today. Apparently, men really evolved to … well, I think I’ll save this story for a first date.)

DNA, over at mindbleed, points to a conversation between Chomsky and Trivers about (self-)deception, politics, and sociology. Here is a video of that conversation:

I love the fact that one can do experiments to test such ideas. Trivers talks about a few such experiments (towards the end of the conversation.) How I didn’t go into sociology, I don’t know.

(h/t O)