Growing up, I loved Schoolhouse Rock, Time for Timer, etc...
but on a much more serious note...

Those ABC After School Specials were really something.

I can remember one of them to this day,
Hewitt's Just Different, good stuff  ;)

I have a bootleg copy of The Wave on DVD. Bad acting but POWERFUL message.



Cat

I had Schoolhouse rock on VHS, must upgrade to DVD.
I still sings those songs in my head.
It was all good stuff. Conjunction Junction, what's your function?

I had Schoolhouse rock on VHS, must upgrade to DVD.
I still sings those songs in my head.
It was all good stuff. Conjunction Junction, what's your function?



I do have the entire collection on DVD. I bought it with the pretense of playing it for the grandkids but truth be known, I bought it for me.  ;) :D ;D ;D ;D


I'm just a bill and I'm sittin' here on Capital Hill.



Cat

I have a bootleg copy of The Wave on DVD. Bad acting but POWERFUL message.


Now you made me look.  The Wave is actually available on DVD as burn-on-demand via Amazon.  There was also a 2008 movie made in Germany.  I don't have kids, but if I did, both would be required viewing at around the time the kid starts asking what war is.

Cool Story, Bro:  I must have been about 7 or 8 when...

Young Foo: ~walks by Dad watching a weekend morning war documentary that featured footage of the Nuremburg Rally~
Young Foo: "Dad, who's that guy?  What's he saying?  Everyone likes him!"
Dad:  "He's... a very bad man."
Young Foo: ~quizzical-dog look~  "So why's everyone so happy?"
Dad:  (realizing he's gonna have to explain this)  You're going to see some things that might scare you, but I guess you're big enough...

So we spent the rest of the summer watching WW2 unfold, maybe six months at a time.  

Dad must have done something right.  I've been a history buff ever since.  


"I think a society in which people can do and say what they want will also tend to be one in which the most efficient solutions win, rather than those sponsored by the most influential people. Authoritarian countries become corrupt; corrupt countries become poor; and poor countries are weak. It seems to me there is a Laffer curve for government power, just as for tax revenues. At least, it seems likely enough that it would be stupid to try the experiment and find out. Unlike high tax rates, you can't repeal totalitarianism if it turns out to be a mistake.

This is why hackers worry.  The government spying on people doesn't literally make programmers write worse code. It just leads eventually to a world in which bad ideas win. And because this is so important to hackers, they're especially sensitive to it.  They can sense totalitarianism approaching from a distance, as animals can sense an approaching thunderstorm. (emphasis added)

It would be ironic if, as hackers fear, recent measures intended to protect national security and intellectual property turned out to be a missile aimed right at what makes America successful.  But it would not be the first time that measures taken in an atmosphere of panic had the opposite of the intended effect."

 --- Paul Graham, in an April 2004 essay on The word "Hacker"

A few years after learing how bad people could be to each other, I got my first computer, and my life turned out pretty much as you might expect.  When bad ideas win, it's not just the plebes who die by the millions, even the rulers of such societies lose power.  (Any of our rulers ever read this, please stop reading random howlings-in-the-tubes from us plebes, and start reading more history books.)

Now you made me look.  The Wave is actually available on DVD as burn-on-demand via Amazon.  There was also a 2008 movie made in Germany.  I don't have kids, but if I did, both would be required viewing at around the time the kid starts asking what war is.

Cool Story, Bro:  I must have been about 7 or 8 when...

Young Foo: ~walks by Dad watching a weekend morning war documentary that featured footage of the Nuremburg Rally~
Young Foo: "Dad, who's that guy?  What's he saying?  Everyone likes him!"
Dad:  "He's... a very bad man."
Young Foo: ~quizzical-dog look~  "So why's everyone so happy?"
Dad:  (realizing he's gonna have to explain this)  You're going to see some things that might scare you, but I guess you're big enough...

So we spent the rest of the summer watching WW2 unfold, maybe six months at a time.  

Dad must have done something right.  I've been a history buff ever since.  
 --- Paul Graham, in an April 2004 essay on The word "Hacker"

A few years after learing how bad people could be to each other, I got my first computer, and my life turned out pretty much as you might expect.  When bad ideas win, it's not just the plebes who die by the millions, even the rulers of such societies lose power.  (Any of our rulers ever read this, please stop reading random howlings-in-the-tubes from us plebes, and start reading more history books.)



Karma.



Cat

I remember them too! I don't think I remember that one about "Hewitt"... A couple that sticks in my mind, 1. "Joanna's 7 Wishes" a sweet story about a young Afro-Amer. teen girl living in city ghetto with an over worked single mom, concieted bossy older sister, and a spoiled obnoxious (mama's boy)little brother. And to top it poor. Who dreamed and wished so hard enough that out of the blue it called upon a guardian "fairy godmother" she didn't know she had who appeared to her on the tv screen and only when she was alone,maybe except around her little brother(heh heh..who Joanna tried first wish on by having him hush his mouth for once and stop being so loud and noisy). One by one she wished for various things that improved her life. The last wish she gave to her fairy godmother in gratitude who she wasn't going to see anymore with this "mission" finished,(she was old ,she couldn't walk,she was always appeared sitting) who was skeptical that it would work on her, but very well if thats what Joanna wanted. To godmother's surprise it worked and dismissed her self before Joanna on her feet and dancing again like she loved to do before when she was younger,before the tv popped back to regular program leaving Joanna content too.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Another one I remember i can't remember the name,but it starred Melissa Sue Anderson(Mary Ingalls-Little House On the Prairie) and a few other youth stars of the time. She played a teen girl who learned tragicaly some of the conciquences of befriending the wrong people and giving in to certain peer pressures. Something thats STILL happening to this day! Danny