- High ratings for the first episode or two are nothing unusual for a new show. The obvious curiosity factor is in play and people will tune in to find out what the show is all about before checking out if they really don’t like it. Sustaining those lofty ratings from Week 1 to Week 2 and beyond is the measure of a successful show and AMC’s “The Walking Dead” measures up well. The sci-fi series just completed its first season, which lasted a short six weeks. Based on its success thus far, AMC is probably kicking itself for not ordering more episodes and riding the wave of support. Still, the numbers for the season finale were truly record-breaking, as the episode garnered six million viewers, according to the network, and it received the highest ratings of any basic cable show, ever, in the coveted 18-49 demographic. By comparison, October's season finale of "Mad Men" had an audience of 2.44 million. The numbers skew a bit if you factor kids’ shows into the mix, as a post-"High School Musical 2" episode of "Hannah Montana," with much of its audience under 18, averaged 10.7 million viewers. But amongst programming that doesn’t make anyone with a maturity level of older than 12 want to bash themselves in the head with a hammer to make it stop, “Walking Dead” is definitely distinguishing itself. Its average 18-49 viewership of 3.5 million for this season makes it the most watched drama series in basic cable history in the demographic. The problem for AMC will be keeping those fans locked in and invested in the show with the impending 10-month lapse between the end of this season and the start of the show’s second one, which is expected to begin next Halloween. That plan worked this time around, but forcing fans of a returning show to wait nearly a year for a new season can often be a recipe for failure…….
- Is it blind hope or smart, forward-thinking prognostication for easily the most impoverished continent in the world? That’s impossible to know for sure, but the idea that Africa could be able to feed itself in a generation is encouraging on some level. That prediction comes from a new study being presented to five African presidents Thursday. Long a net-food importer, Africa has the potential to not only meet its own needs, but to become a food exporter through a combination of modern technology, improved infrastructure and better technical education, according to the study. The study comes from the place where most smart-people thinking comes from: Harvard. Calestous Juma, professor of the practice of international development at the Harvard Kennedy School in the United States, led the research, with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funding it. Juma and his team postulate that transforming from a consumer on the world food market to a seller would necessitate a shift in focus from exporting raw materials to developing the agriculture sector.
"Seventy percent of employment in Africa comes from agriculture, so you can argue that in Africa agriculture and economy are synonymous," he said. "In effect, you cannot modernize the economy in Africa without starting with agriculture." Many of the study’s findings are staggering, especially the fact that food production in Africa has fallen 10 percent since 1960 while the population has increased. Furthermore, production levels are so low that one third of sub-Saharan Africans are chronically hungry and most nations have made no real investment in their agricultural development. Technology could alter those realities, according to Juma. Modern communications would allow farmers to keep up to date on market prices and weather conditions. Additionally, biotechnology, including genetically modified seeds, would improve agricultural yields and in mitigating the effects of climate change by making crops more pest-resistant and weather-resistant. "South Africa, Burkina Faso and Egypt already have GM crops and we expect in the next few years Kenya and Tanzania to follow suit," said Juma. "In the cotton industry, people couldn't afford pesticides and now suddenly you have new seeds that don't require use of pesticides or use a lot less pesticides. That's starting to make cotton production commercially viable. There is also the prospect of growing drought-tolerant crops, especially drought-tolerant corn, because corn is very widely consumed in Africa.” Even with increased production, nations would still need to improve their infrastructure to distribute and export crops more efficiently than their current capabilities. “It's really important to note that raw materials, especially minerals, have very little knowledge content," Juma said. The facts are there, so now it’s up to Africa and its leaders to take them and act………
- Have a few days playing in the NBA Developmental League (NBADL) fixed what ails New Jersey Nets guard Terrence Williams? That will be determined by the answer to one simple question now that Williams has been recalled by the Nets: Does he show up on time for practices, meetings and games? The Nets didn’t send Williams down to play for the Springfield Armor of the NBADL because they had questions about his ability. Coach Avery Johnson and his staff simply grew tired wondering when Williams’ shadow would darken the doorstep of their locker room on game days and before practices. While Johnson has made a point of saying that sending Williams down was primarily about him getting playing time, it’s no mystery that the troubled guard had shown up late for multiple meetings and practices, been warned by the team and then went on to repeat the behavior. Figuring out whether the demotion has changed him can't be discerned by his statistics in Springfield, although those numbers were certainly impressive. In three games, he recorded two triple-doubles and averaged 28.0 points, 11.3 rebounds, 10.7 assists and 1.3 steals a game. He torched the mighty Maine Red Claws on Sunday, scoring 36 points, grabbing nine rebounds and handing out seven assists. Those number underscore the fact that this guy doesn’t belong anywhere near the D-League, not for a team like the Nets, with whom he is clearly better than Anthony Morrow or even Travis Outlaw at small forward. The Nets lack playmakers and Williams fits that description - if he can get there on time. In the eight games he did play before his demotion, he averaged just 19.9 minutes a game off the bench. Probably not what the Nets expected when they drafted him11th overall out of Louisville in 2009. He hasn’t done himself any favors with his constant tardiness and some bizarre, head-scratching rants on Twitter. Putting all of those distractions behind him should allow Williams to make use of his incredible athletic ability, solid shooting touch and good defensive skills. But if he can’t keep his head in the game, then he’s simply going to become another example of this world’s most common commodity: talented, unsuccessful people……….
- For a long time, I have argued against the abolishment of the Guinness Book of World Records. It’s not that I have a problem with Guinness; in fact, it’s a huge part of Irish culture and I love that fact. However, the GBWR is like flypaper for morons. Its collection of random, obscure and asinine records inspire a non-step parade of losers with nothing better to do with their pathetic lives trying to gather a new record-high number of people to play “Smoke on the Water” together, do the Macarena or eat fish tacos at the same time. They forget that accumulating the world’s largest ball of yarn or growing the longest fingernails ever measured doesn’t mean a person has talent or is interesting; in fact, it means just the opposite. If you were interesting or had talent, then you wouldn’t need to do those things to get attention. Bearing all of this in mind, let’s visit for a few minutes with the ass hats in Lubbock, Tex. who will attempt to make the world's largest snow cone beginning on Dec. 7. If the cone reaches its goal size, it will be as tall as a typical house and weigh as much as an 18-wheeler. Leading this charge of fools will be a local ice cream stand called Bahama Buck's. "Just had a crazy idea to build the world's largest snow cone," said owner Blake Buchanan. "This thing is insulated just like a cooler would be so it's going to hold the temperature very cold because for it to be a Guinness World Book of Record it's got to be completely edible." How very inspiring of you, Blake. I have no doubt that when you opened Bahama Buck's in 1990 while a student at Texas Tech, this was the very sort of meaningless, hollow and stupid feat you aspired to. On Monday, Buchanan and his helpers put finishing touches on the "cup" that will hold 4,500 blocks of ice and 14,000 pounds of syrup. The cup measures 11 feet tall, eight feet in diameter and has a circumference of 26 feet. To put that all in perspective, that’s approximately 60,000 times larger than a normal ice cream cone. If the Bahama Buck’s team can finish off the ginormous snow cone, the finished product will weigh around 30,000 pounds and stand 16 feet tall. "We brought in 9,000 pounds of Imperial Pure Cane Sugar just for this event so we really thing this things going to be huge," Buchanan said. The original idea was merely to break the previous world record made in 2000 by Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort in California, but Buchanan hopes that the effort will draw in people who want to support The Children's Home of Lubbock. For $10, a person will receive a block of ice they can shave to be put into the snow cone. The ice-shaving will take place from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday and the announcement of the cone’s potential record-breaking status is slated for Thursday. Personally, I’d just donate $10 to the children’s home and not have any part in one of the single-most imbecilic efforts ever to be undertaken in human history, but that’s just me……….
- Google rolled out the newest version of its smartphone operating system, but the big reveal for the day turned out to be Android head Andy Rubin giving the assembled media at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference kickoff event a preview of Google’s next big gadget, a tablet computer that it is working on with Motorola. "This isn't due out for a while," Rubin explained before showing off chunk of black plastic that bears an eerie resemblance to Apple's iPad. The software appears very similar to the iPad as well, but the Android tablets currently in development mostly feature screens that measure 7 inches diagonally, significantly smaller than the iPad’s 9.7-inch display. However, Rubin’s mystery device seemed significantly closer to the size of the iPad. What’s unique about the prototype tablet is the absence of the signature four buttons used to navigate the Android system. The exclusion was intentional, Rubin stated before explaining that rotating a tablet in different directions causes the screen to shift its orientation to cater to the user. Fixed buttons on the hardware obviously can't change positions, so even having one button, a la the iPad, causes you to “still get a little lost," Rubin said. On top of tweaking the design and removing fixed buttons, Android's developers are working on ways to simplify the software, Rubin said. That would mean removing steps from basic tasks and not forcing users to sift through menu after menu to accomplish something. Rubin admitted that Android as it now exists is still a phenomenon that most consumers haven’t embraced. "I would probably characterize Android today as an early-adopter platform," he said. When he fired up the tablet, Rubin showed off its colorful screen and navigated around with his index finger before displaying a Google chat application that had video icons throughout. App icons on the home screen appeared to be about the same size as buttons on a typical smartphone. The tablet also has a new version of Google Maps that can navigate in three dimensions using two-finger gestures, an app that will be available for Android phones "in a matter of days," Rubin said. The overall design of the tablet shows that a) the iPad’s dominance in the tablet field in influencing other computer companies and b) Android is going to be the main focus of Google’s product push in the weeks and months ahead………
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