Entertainment

Via Digg, from a Forbes.com article of the same title from late November by Michael Learmonth:

Comedy Central has made a good living out of skewering the political right. Now Fox News Channel, a primary source of material for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, is teaming with the exec producer of "24" to try its hand at a news satire show for conservatives to love. Joel Surnow, co-creator of "24," is shooting two half-hour pilots of a skein he described as " 'The Daily Show' for conservatives," due to air in primetime on Saturdays in January.

"There will be some elements of 'The Daily Show' and some of 'Weekend Update,' " Surnow said.

"This Just In" is the working title (Wikipedia, www.thisjustin.com), and it's supposed to premeir this month. I haven't heard anything more definite yet.

The "In the Womb" series on the National Geographic Channel continues this Sunday night at 8 PM eastern with "In the Womb: Multiples."

The process by which multiples develop in the womb is fraught with complications and dangers. But, it is also a fascinating world where humans first interact with their siblings before entering the world outside the uterus. "In the Womb: Multiples" follows the development of double-egg twins, sometimes called fraternals, and identical or single-egg twins. We also follow the development of triplets and a very rare set of identical quads in their quest for survival. Using revolutionary 4D scans, we witness unique footage of multiple fetuses interacting with each other before birth: reaching, touching, fighting and even engaging in game-playing that can continue after they are born. Ultimately, "In the Womb: Multiples" tells us not only about the extremes of human reproduction but the limits of human design.

Via Techcrunch, this looks interesting...Amie Street:

Amie Street, which launched in July, has a brilliant DRM-free music sales model. Bands upload music, which can then be downloaded for free by users. As songs become popular, the site starts to charge for it. They start at $0.01 and go up to $0.99. Users looking for popular new stuff go right to the more expensive songs.

Via TV Barn, this week The Sopranos come to A&E and The Wire comes to BET. Both are on Wednesday at 8 PM eastern. Both are popular series from HBO. Lisa and I have enjoyed the former but haven't watched the latter, so I'm going to set a season pass for The Wire. If you haven't watched The Sopranos, try it out. This edited for basic cable version may be more palatable to some than the HBO/DVD version with its graphic violence, frequent F-bombs, and scenes inside the Bada Bing.

My "Depressing Documentary Film" fest continued today with Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers:

During the last half-century, Cambodia has witnessed genocide, decades of war and the collapse of social order. Now, documentary filmmaker Rithy Panh looks at an irreparable tragedy that is less visible, yet no less pervasive: the spiritual death that results when young women are forced into prostitution. Angry and impassioned, PAPER CANNOT WRAP UP EMBERS presents the searing stories of poor Asian women whose lives were violated and their destinies destroyed when their bodies were turned into items of sexual commerce.

I give it 4 out of 5 for doing a great job of communicating a real sense of the hopeless lives of these women in their own voices.