He also mentioned that he's a little irritated that, in the mass media, it's the loud, uninformed morons who are getting the loudest megaphones.

Oh irony, thy name is Probst. (Not that I don't love the show, but without loud uninformed morons and the mass media, he'd be out of a job.)

I think the race thing will play out in much the same way that the gender thing has in the past -- carefully edited embarrassing stereotypes from all sides on display for about three minutes before the tribes get reshuffled and everyone moves on and forms new alliances based on rational strategic reasons like who happens to be awake and getting water at the same time as you on the fourth day, and who you think is hot.

So is it being nicknamed Survivor: Apartheid everywhere, or only in the little corner of the web I inhabit.

I like Survivor: Race Wars, which I think came from Gothamist.

Bravo's website is not functioning this morning. I want my Tim's podcast!

Seriously.

The last one's front page article was about how people who oppose the Iraq war are unpatriotic and should shut up, just like the people who opposed the Vietnam war should have shut up (plus a lot of stuff about flag-waving, supporting the president, and how the war was started by our enemies not by us).

Seriously?!?

(Not that I don't love the show, but without loud uninformed morons and the mass media, he'd be out of a job.)

The way he talked about it, I think that irony is not lost on him.

before the tribes get reshuffled and everyone moves on and forms new alliances based on rational strategic reasons like who happens to be awake and getting water at the same time as you on the fourth day, and who you think is hot.

He also made reassuring noises that there will plenty of this, just like any other Survivor.

comparing the Iraq war to the Vietnam war isn't a good way to make the case that war opponents should shut up..

This is what I was going to say. People who opposed the Vietnam War? Hey, they were kinda right! And wait, who negotiated US troops out of that country? A republican! (And who got us into that mess? A democrat! TWO democrats!!)

What a remarkably stupid survey.

“Intermedia.NET believes the findings in this study to be very valuable,” added Bradbury. “Both business managers and IT professionals are quickly adopting hosted Microsoft Exchange, and this research helps us to better understand the mindset of our customers.”

Uh, what did they find? Things like:

The survey also found that despite unhelpful stereotyping such as Apple’s ‘Mac and PC’ commercials, IT and business people are equally likely – at 5% each – to wear dated 1990s spectacles.

I think the race thing will play out in much the same way that the gender thing has in the past -- carefully edited embarrassing stereotypes from all sides on display for about three minutes before the tribes get reshuffled and everyone moves on and forms new alliances based on rational strategic reasons like who happens to be awake and getting water at the same time as you on the fourth day, and who you think is hot.

Right. Last season the four tribes lasted for what, a day? One team loses a member, becomes critically weakened, goes down to two members and then gets absorbed into another team.

I think it'll be interesting, honestly, although I also expect some cringeworthiness over trying to encourage team loyalty-- it always seemed specious whenever people tried to create loyalty to a team before*, but now it has that extra special speciousness of race loyalty.

*IMO divergent individual/team interests is one of the best parts of Survivor.

Have you seen the ad for John Hodgman's new book, and what it's based on?

Last night's PR: I think my favorite garment on that runway was Michael's jacket! Laura's dress was definitely my second favorite--as she said, very Josephine Bakeresque, but a classy cocktail variation on the theme. Nice to see that she can break out of "Laura Style" to do something different, yet consistent with her own sensabilities .

Tom, that ad finally makes me get the Hodgman love. LOVE.

About Survivor, from looking at him, and his hip-hop oriented bio, I'm guessing that Nate Gonzalez is on the "black" team, but I'm wondering where his parents are from. I'm going to guess he's actually Dominican.