Just Go Listen. Just Go Watch.

Two great hours of your life can be had by obeying the following instructions.

1. Listen to this week's On the Media.   If you know me, you already know what a fanboy I am in this regard, but this week's was especially good, even by the very high bar I set for this show. You get Seymour Hirsh talking about breaking the story of the My Lai massacre (40th anniversary of that event is tomorrow), and comparing it to another story he broke: the Abu Ghraib scandal. You get Amar Bakshi talking about his conclusions from an eight-month study of the perception of America abroad. You get a piece on the über war photographer, Robert Capra, and a related interview with Jim Lewis, a guy with a different take on war photojournalism. You get an interview with David Samuels, who is the latest figure not nicknamed McMegan being blamed for killing the reputation of The Atlantic. Finally, you hear what newspaper people love and hate about The Wire. You can stream it or download the MP3.

2. Watch this week's episode of "Science Saturday".   (Fanboy disclaimer, op. cit.) Science writer John Horgan, one half of the regular pairing, interviews a guest, theoretical physicist Sean Carroll. Carroll is one of the greatest elucidators of science I have ever encountered. He's up there with Sagan, Dawkins, and Feynman in making the cutting edge of his field both comprehensible and exciting to the lay audience. Following is a clip in which Carroll addresses the familiar question, "Is the Big Bang theory in trouble?" This might be the best two-and-a-half minute introduction to cosmology ever given. The whole show is available as a video stream, or you can download the video (WMV) or audio (MP3).

BTW, you gotta love a guy who can use PC-speak so ironically: "… the non-crackpot physics community …" Expect to see evidence of my larceny early and often; e.g., Obama supporters will henceforth be referred to as the non-wingnut political community.