Now a word from our sponsor....

Suppose you could eliminate television commercials but still had to fill the time slots. What would you choose to replace the commercials?

I hear they're actually doing this all over Europe using government-funding to take over the time slots. The would-be commercial time is instead displaying useful information to supplement traditional education. Right now it's all kind of random, I think. You might be watching Melrose Place in France, and then get a five minute dose of Poisson statistics. Or maybe between dramatic moments in the latest Survivor series when your in Germany you'll get a quick lecture on the history of the automobile.

Like I said, this is a great idea, but it definately can be improved upon. The first inclination would be to make these lessons related to the programming. I think this is actually the wrong way to go about it, though. What we need to do is fill in the gaps in the viewers education. If he's watching animal planet, the last thing he needs to learn about is biology. Let's teach this fellow about fractals. If someone's watching the history channel, then during the break they can learn about photosynthesis, or how a Carnot engine works.

Europe's on the right track, as usual. But also, as usual, we Americans can do it better.