All I wanted to do was share a funny “Downton Abbey Meets Spike TV” skit that was on Saturday Night Live this week. Unfortunately, there’s no authorized version of the sketch online from NBCUniversal. That made me hesitate, but apparently it wasn’t a problem for iVillage, an NBCUniversal-owned site. Nor was it an issue for Time, owned by internet piracy hating Time Warner. Come along. This is a sad tour of failure all around.

NBC: No Skit For You

You’d think the sketch would be available on the SNL site itself. You’d be wrong. Here’s what I see at the moment on the video page:

The skit’s not listed.

Hulu: No Sketch For You

Well, how about Hulu, which has the awesome ability to let you share particular segments out of a full-length episode. Here’s the “full-length” episode of SNL from this weekend at Hulu, with this message at the bottom:

The message reads:

Full episodes of SNL consist of material that is cleared for online streaming. Some sketches and musical performances may be omitted due to various restrictions.

As it turns out, the Downton Abbey skit appears to be one of those omitted sketches. I went through the episode that Hulu provides and couldn’t find it.

Is It Available Anywhere?

Oh dear. I’m unable to share that sketch legally, it appears. Or at least share it in a way that wouldn’t get challenged by NBCUniversal as not being fair use. You know, like this example that was put on YouTube:

That, of course, hasn’t stopped others from doing so. Here are plenty of places the video is available, as found through Google Video:

Time (Of Time Warner): We’ll Give It To You

Look at the second listing. See the URL, newsfeed.time.com. Yes, as in Time.com. As in Time, the magazine and online web site owned by Time Warner — which backed the SOPA anti-piracy bill. What do we find there? This:

There’s the skit! It’s not hosted by Time (of Time Warner) itself. Rather, it’s hosted on Google’s YouTube. Time is simply embedding the clip, on a page with Google ads at the bottom (those are the “Sponsored Links” that are showing).

So Time is helping support the same type of unauthorized posting of content that its parent Time Warner is concerned about — and happy to blame Google for — and doing all this while earning some money from Google.

More Media Outlets Will Give It To You

Hmm. If Time Warner-owned Time did this, could any other media outlets have done so? Yes. Here’s a short list:

• The Huffington Post
• Perez Hilton
• MSNBC
• The Los Angeles Times
• The Philadelphia Inquirer
• Radio Times
• TV.com (owned by CBS)
• iVillage (owned by NBCUniversal)

iVillage (of NBCUniversal) Will Give It To You

Wait. iVillage is owned by NBCUniversal? You mean that NBCUniversal might be argued to have helped pirate itself?

You betcha. Here’s the page:

There’s the unauthorized video, embedded at the bottom of a story on an NBCUniversal web site.

But Back At NBC: No Skit For You

Hey, how about watching the skit as part of the full-length episode that NBC provides on its own site? It doesn’t appear you can do that, either. I’ve gone through it (and sat through the same “Star Wars: The Old Republic” ad about 10 times in doing so). That sketch doesn’t appear to be there. Why not? Apparently, it didn’t air on the West Coast — that might be part of all this.

The Fail Recap

Have you kept up with all the fail going on here? Let me recap:

• No one can watch the sketch as part of the episode NBC/Universal provided for free on broadcast TV, because it’s been cut
• No one can share an authorized version of the sketch, because NBC/Universal hasn’t yet provided one
• Those paying for Hulu Plus can’t even view the clip through one of NBC/Universal’s authorized channels
• Media outlets wanting to write about it, not having an authorized version, effectively said screw it, we’ll link to an unauthorized one
• One of those media outlets was owned by Time Warner, a major opponent of online piracy
• Another of those media outlets was owned by NBC/Universal, so effectively helped promote piracy of NBC/Universal’s own content.

Now Enjoy Until It Gets Pulled

Now go watch the sketch while you can, which was damn funny. Three daughters. One hot. One way hot. And the other one:

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s time for my annual “How To Watch The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade From Abroad” post. If you’re outside the US, trying to watch this traditional way to start Thanksgiving, here are my tips.

Perhaps someday, Macy’s and/or NBC will realize there are millions of Americans outside the US who would love to view the show live. Sadly, 2010 is another year of being forgotten. There’s a webcam option, however.

NBC & Macy’s – No Support

NBC is broadcasting the parade and has an information page up here. As usual, there’s nothing about how to watch it live through the internet. Perhaps they’ll show a live stream tomorrow from the NBC home page, but that’s typically not the case. Chances are, they’d also likely block any streaming to those outside the US.

NBC has affiliate stations that carry the parade. Some of them might live stream the parade, but I doubt it. Here’s a list, in case you want to check on the day.

Macy’s has its own page about the parade – and as with NBC, there’s nothing about how to view from outside the US.

EarthCam To The Rescue!

It looks like EarthCam is once again going to be your best bet. EarthCam runs live webcams from various locations along the parade route. You won’t get any of the commentary, and the music can be hard to hear. But you’ll see the parade, and without commercials.

You’ll find the parade streamed on EarthCam here. For a sense of what it’s like, see my Watching The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade From Abroad post from 2006.

You might also try CNN’s live feed. In 2007, they broadcast the parade. Maybe that’ll happen again.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear non-Californians upset that California re-elected a Democratic senator, elected a Democratic governor and is otherwise doing things you might not like. Tough shit. OK, that’s my initial reaction to some things I’ve read recently. My more thoughtful reaction is scapegoating one state isn’t the answer to America’s issues.

Last week, the LA Times featured letters from non-Californians upset with the way we do things in my native state. Today, someone named Allysia Finley (no real idea who she is or her background, sorry — googling her isn’t much help) chimes in with a Wall Street Journal opinion piece with a nice linkbaiting headline calling California the “Lindsay Lohan” of states.

Everyone’s tried to help poor Lindsay California, Finley writes — but she won’t listen. And eventually, when Lindsay California crashes and burns, don’t expect “us” to help you out.

How about a little perspective. It’s easy to write the state off as nuts, if you assume that it is the lone nut among the other 48 states, which is what Finley does in her opening (New York gets excluded):

The other 48 states—your cousin New York excluded—are sick of your bratty arrogance. You’re the Lindsay Lohan of states: a prima donna who once showed some talent but is now too wasted to do anything with it.

Flip it around from a population perspective. California, with 37 million people, represents 12% of the entire country. Now it’s no longer that the state is some type of odd outlier going against the other 48. It’s a double-digit percentage. Add in New York, and you’re getting up to 18% of the population.

But hey, that’s still not the majority — plus, not everyone in California voted the same way. Sure — and not everyone in all the other states votes the way Finley probably assumes they should, either.

But you know what? A state like Wyoming, with less than 1% of my state’s population, still gets 2 US Senate seats, just like California. Senate seats which can help contribute to blocking federal legislation that Calfornians might like, might believe in and — who knows — might even be correct on. Blocks that people in California might think are equally nutty.

Note to those from Wyoming — I’m not saying that your senators have done this. I haven’t even looked, and I mean no offense. You’re just the smallest population, so I’m pulling you as an example.

Personally, I wonder if California might be in a better place now, along with the entire United States, if way back in 2000, the strange election system in one state — Florida — hadn’t caused George W. Bush to gain office and oversee the launching of two different wars. Aside from the tragic loss of life, there’s the huge amount of wealth that has flowed out of the country as part of this.

Perhaps some of that wealth might have been used to help the country recover from the financial meltdown that happened under the watch of that same president? Or perhaps someone else might have helped prevent that before it started?

Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. What I do know is that the US is founded on states having certain degrees of representation within the federal government and certain degrees of independence within their own borders. It’s a system built on compromise. It’s a system built on all states contributing to a greater whole.

I have no idea if California, over its time as a state in the union, has contributed more or less to the United States as a whole. At some times, it has almost certainly contributed more (consider, if only, the huge amount of legal immigration from other states California has received, people leaving those other states looking for jobs and new opportunities). Maybe at times, it will have contributed less. The same, almost certainly, can be said for any other state in the union.

What the US doesn’t need, right now, is a campaign to somehow scapegoat one particular state as a supposed barrier to progress. It certainly doesn’t need someone suggesting that a state can’t elect its own internal and federal leaders in the way it wants. What it needs is more cooperation. Scapegoating and fearmongering is easy. Compromise and admitting that one view doesn’t fit all is much harder.

As for the crash-and-burn assumption that Finley makes — and her prediction that the state will need a federal bailout — I can’t evaluate that. Her piece tosses a lot of allegations without any real analysis behind it. I’m sure others on both “sides” of the political spectrum will argue both ways. Time will tell.

There’s no doubt California has problems, just as Lindsay Lohan does. But people overcome their problems and go on to success — hence my proposition that California may be more like Robert Downey Jr — heading into recovery and regaining its former success.

Postscript: I’ve now found some figures that are interesting reading:

State budget issues, 2009-2010: From the Sunshine Review, an easy way to see estimated budget shortfalls for each state. California has by far the biggest shortfall for the two fiscal years listed ($20 to $40 billion). But as a percentage of the general fund budget (19%) , it is not out of line with other places like South Carolina (18%) and below places like Alaska (21%) or Arizona (24%). That page also lists stimulus money received by each state on a per capita basis. California is down around 26th with $31 per person. States like Alaska ($379 per person) or Washington ($339 per person) or Idaho ($314 per person) were well above in this type of “bailout” fund.

Federal Taxes Paid vs. Spending Received by State from the Tax Foundation shows federal taxes paid by each state versus amount received from 1981 through 2005. The last time California received more from the federal government than it gave was 1985 ($1.03 for every $1.00 spent, and it was never higher than $1.08). For the last year on the chart, it was $0.78 received for every $1 spent. In contrast, a state like Tennessee received $1.27 for the last year and was always above for every year on the chart. Utah was always up. West Virginia, in the last year, was getting $1.76 back for each $1 spent. This chart has full rankings for 2005 — top was New Mexico ($2.03 per each dollar spent) versus California, which at $0.78 was 43 on the list.

Via the Don’t Mess With Taxes blog, I came across the US Census publication, Fiscal Aid To States for Fiscal Year 2009 (PDF) that was published this past August. Here’s a picture of who gets the most federal money — the darker the color, the more they get. I guess you could call those the Lindsay Lohan states:

As you can see, California is at the low end of money received on a per capita basis.

Here’s another chart rank ordering the states that get the most, plus showing what they get money for:

That’s over $5,000 per person for those in Alaska. Over $4,000 per person for those in Wyoming. California gets about $1,500 per person, well under the US average.

The Christian Science Monitor has its own top ten list of which states get the most money per person from earlier this year. States like Vermont (lots of Medicaid spending) and Alaska (lots of transportation spending) led the list. New York and Massachusetts came next, again with Medicaid or programs to help the poor causing the spending. Louisiana was 6th, with money spent to help the state recover from Katrina (anyone want to complain about the rest of the US paying for that that “bailout?” Because I sure don’t). Tennessee came 7th with high Medicaid spending, followed by Maine, New Mexico and Mississippi.

The Daily Beast did a “hypocritical states” view of the data, looking at where Tea Party support is strong (and often against government spending) with which states get the most spending. California was 33rd on the list of those getting the most federal funds per person.

Even if it’s in somewhat mock seriousness, The Daily Show’s Rally To Restore Sanity has me fired up! But tapping into the official news about the event through social media, well, that’s been a bit disappointing.

The Rally & Twitter

When I hit the rally’s web site the day after it was announced, it pointed me to its Twitter account:

Problem was, it wasn’t the rally’s Twitter account listed. It was one for the Daily Show. How about an account just for the rally?

That came yesterday, @Rally4Sanity. Good! Bad — it’s still not listed on the main rally site. (POSTSCRIPT: This was fixed a day or two after this post went up).

The Rally & Hashtags

Meanwhile, as I tweet about the rally, what hashtag should I use? The rally site hasn’t put an official one out there, so you see people using things like:

#r2r
#rtrs
#rally4sanity
#rallyforsanity

I’ve seen tweets suggesting that the first two are official. They’re not. I can’t track anything down about this. I like either of them, because they’re short. But c’mon Rally To Restore Sanity, pick something and get it out there.

The Rally: Invisible On Facebook

Meanwhile, there’s Facebook. Here, the mess is more down to Facebook than the rally. Looking for official rally information on Facebook? Here’s what you get:

None of those are the official rally page. Drill in, and it gets worse:

There currently about 25 matching pages so far, and none of them are official ones.

What’s wrong? For one, the rally doesn’t have an official Facebook page. But it DOES have an official event page on Facebook, here:

That page might as well be invisible on Facebook. This is despite being far more popular than any of the Facebook pages listed (over 65,000 people currently say they’ll attend, 100,000 people overall if you count those saying they might attend). Still, Facebook still only shows Facebook pages by default.

You have to think “Hmm, did the Rally do an event page?” and then deliberately hunt for it, if you want to find it on Facebook.

Of course, the Facebook event page is linked to from the Rally’s web site — but if you’re on Facebook and looking there, that doesn’t help.

Ideally, I’d like to see the Rally To Restore Sanity create a Facebook page in addition to its event page. Then it would be more visible.

I’d also like the Rally To Restore Sanity to have an event in Southern California, too. I’ve got a Facebook page of my own about that

I don’t know if Sarah Palin rolled her eyes at the teacher in the video below or not. The pregnant pause was sure weird, though. But more important, her boots! When I watched this yesterday, I saw her wellies at the end and thought woah, those are pretty cool.

OK, I don’t wear wellies (short for Wellington Boots) that often since I moved back from Britain to California. But years and years ago, you just got green. I still have a pair in my garage. Then galoshes started coming out in different colors and patterns.

Palin’s boots, featuring a skull, a heart with “Rock” and “Roll” and birds take things up a notch. And don’t those birds remind you of Twitter?

Andrew Sullivan somehow figured out from the video what the boots were and posted a larger image. But he didn’t say their name, or where to get them. And were they hugely expensive? I did a little searching, and here you go.

The boots are made by Chooka and are called “Tattoo City: Turquoise.” Chooka’s got a pretty awesome collection of other rain boots, too.

Want a pair? They go for $30 to $60 on Amazon — here’s a link to the product page (and yeah, I earn a little if you buy them that way).

As for the eye rolling. Palin confronted a woman who was protesting her visit with a banner that said “Worst Governor Ever” when she was in Homer, Alaska. When Palin asked the woman what she did, she responded that she was a teacher. Whether she rolls or eyes at this or not is under debate. The weird two second pause and head turning is sure strange.

Here’s the New York Times article about it, and here’s the video itself:

Palin writes it all off at her Facebook page on the LSM, which I’ve learned is the Lame Stream Media, but she also links over to the video.

Shannyn Moore has a great written account about the visit and the banner’s ultimate demise. It was torn down by someone in the Palin camp, apparently.

Any American living abroad has their own horror story about trying to open a US bank account without having a US address. Banks often incorrectly use the Patriot Act or other excuses to refuse providing service. Now two members of Congress are urging for hearings on the matter. There’s a petition drive to make this happen.

American Citizens Abroad has been working with the Americans Abroad Caucus in Congress (see here and here). I didn’t even know there was one! The caucus (created in 2007) is cochaired by Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Joe Wilson (R-SC). In April, they sent a letter (PDF) formally requesting that the House Committee on Financial Services hold hearings on banking issues impacting Americans abroad.

Apparently, the letter wasn’t enough. So ACA is asking people to petition the committee by filling out a simple online form here at the committee’s web site. They have this suggested message:

Dear Chairman Frank and Ranking Member Baccus,

As an American living overseas and a supporter of American Citizens Abroad, I urge you to take note of the letter sent to you on April 21,2010 by Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Joe Wilson, the co-chairs of the Americans Abroad Caucus.I join in requesting prompt hearings on the difficulties encountered by overseas Americans in opening and maintaining bank accounts in the United States and abroad. We are counting on the Committee on Financial Services to investigate these issues and ensure that overseas Americans have access to necessary financial services under reasonable conditions.

Regards,
[Your name and location; for example, Thomas Smith, Brussels, Belgium]

Hey, it’s just a recommendation. You can submit whatever you want, as long as you make it clear that you’re pushing for a hearing on banking issues.

The form, naturally enough, assumes that you live in the US. Americans living abroad apparently never need the help of the committee, so there’s no provision for your non-US address. ACA recommends using the city and state where you’re registered to vote or the city and country (for state) where you live.

If you fill out the form, I’d also suggest asking for a review of the 90-22.1 filing requirement. After all, the deadline for that yearly nightmare is coming up at the end of this month for Americans with overseas bank accounts. It needs major reform. For more, see my past post, It’s Form 90-22.1 Time Again For American Expats, The Annual Waste Of Time Exercise.

Maybe the committee might be able to help with the US Census not counting Americans abroad (see Collectively, Americans Abroad Are 21st Most Populated “State”). There’s a full ten years to fix that problem.

Headed cross-country and worried about a new law that might get you stopped by the police in Arizona because you look like an illegal immigrant? Not to fear! Google has now added an “Avoid Arizona” option for those generating directions.

Google’s other options have been super helpful. You can get directions suited for taking public transit, walking, bicycling or by car. Now the Avoid Arizona option gives you directions that route you around that state:

Yeah, the option’s a joke I made up, if that’s not obvious. The law, unfortunately, is real.

Forget Democrats and Republicans. There’s a different Blue State, Red State divide — that between which states have In-N-Out Burger locations and those that have Dunkin’ Donuts.

As you can see in the map above, much of the western half of the United States lacks Dunkin’ Donuts. Meanwhile, I constantly hear from visitors to California that they crave In-N-Out whenever they come out here. I take them for granted. I’ve got got one less than two miles away from me; six are within 10 miles.

NOTE: Oregon apparently has a Dunkin Donuts. I might update the map later to reflect this.

Really, while President Barack Obama might think that this political map is the Red State / Blue State divide that needs to be bridged (picture from Wikipedia):

I submit it’s the food divide that needs to be shattered. What does it say about our country where there are only three cities in total where you can have both an In-N-Out burger and a donut from Dunkin Donuts at the same time: Mesa, Arizona; Tucson, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada?

By the way, In-N-Out makes it pretty hard to get a state-by-state view of all their restaurants, but I did my best working off this list on their site. Dunkin’ Donuts doesn’t provide any easy-to-read list at all. Instead, I found a list of all restaurants as compiled by the good people at the new Factual search engine. I filtered that to Dunkin Donuts locations. It might not be perfect, but it was the best and most convenient data I could find.

NOTE: Michael McCulley tweeted me this list of more Dunkin Donut locations, so I’ve updated the map. Texas

Also big thanks to the awesome US Map Maker program from John Adamson at Texas A&M. It made it super easy to produce this map of America’s fast food divide.

A few years ago, I did a post called Watching The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade From Abroad, which talked about how hard it is to view the parade from outside the US. I thought I’d do a little update.

NOTE: Please see Watching The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2010 From Abroad for the latest info.

I think it’s still hard to watch the parade outside American, given some feedback I received from people last Thanksgiving. It’s ironic, because you’ll constantly hear from parade commentators how people are supposedly watching the event worldwide on television. It’s a mystery how that’s happening.

NBC — which broadcasts the Macy’s Parade in the US — has a page about the event here. It says nothing about watching the show online, nor does the NBC home page have info. Typically, I don’t think they’ve done live streams. However, some NBC affiliate stations in local markets might do this. Here’s a list to check. Be aware that if you’re outside the US, they might detect this and not stream video.

Macy’s itself also has a page about the parade. And sadly, it doesn’t offer a live broadcast, either.

Your best option is probably the one I outlined in my original post, EarthCam. Their webcam of the event returns for 2009. In fact, you have a choice of 11 different cameras, one in HD. You’ll find the page leading to them all here. You won’t get the commentary or the music, but it’s something.

Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you may be celebrating the American holiday. Belated Thanksgiving greetings to Canadian readers

Postscript: Please see Watching The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2010 From Abroad for the latest info.

My fifth grader is having to learn US geography — in particular, to look at a blank map and write in the correct name for each of the states. I think that’s great. I love maps and geography. But that’s a lot of states. I’ve been sharing with him a number of ways I’ve somehow remembered where states are located, and I’m curious to hear what others have to say.

California is easy. I grew up in the state, and he’s already learned it simply because I’d always point to it so much. But look at the shape. See how it’s kind of like a C? So it’s C for California.

Texas is another “letter” state for me. It kind of makes a T shape. Next to it, Louisiana looks like an L.

Then there are states that look like objects. Oklahoma, I always remembered it as being the state that looks kind of like a frying pan. Kentucky always looks like a chicken drumstick to me, appropriate when there’s Kentucky Fried Chicken out there. So that was another one easy to remember.

As I mentioned in a similar post on this topic from 2005, I learned from Laurie Keller’s great book, The Scrambled States of America, that Michigan has a glove shape.

I really got put to the test in helping him with his own real test, however. For some states, it was simply running him through those on the map. Damn, New England has a lot of states! I suggested that Alabama kind of looks like an A. That since he knew at a glance where Florida was, and it began with an F, the state above was the next letter — G — for Georgia.

Getting him to recognize either North or South Dakota or either North or South Carolina also meant he pretty much could get the other. The same was true for Virginia versus West Virginia.

So far, he’s gotten 100% on his two tests (he’s learning by region), so the repetition seems to be working. Still, I wish there were more tips or tricks or funny ways to look at a blank state on a map and know what it is.

I did find some interesting US geography online tools here, and there are some other tips here on how to remember state names and capitals. But those are more ways to remember lists, rather than locations on a map. Heck, it’s just easier to remember the Fifty Nifty United States song (written by Ray Charles, no less!). For those who don’t know it, here you go:

Anyway, if you live in a particular state where you’re taugh a particular way on how to memorize it, I’d sure love to know. Last time I tried this, I learned from a reader that aside from looking like a glove, folks in Michigan also remember their geography by thinking “The High Five State.” That’s cool.

Next, how to memorize the Gettysburg Address. Can you guess which homework lessons fall to me around the house?