Getting a closer look how German TV is made

ZDF Fernsehgarten

Last Friday I had the opportunity to go to Mainz in Germany to visit the ZDF studios. ZDF is a German TV channel which is also known as "Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen" ("Second German TV Channel). It has studios all over the world, from New York to Toykio, and also one in every German Bundesland. But the main studios are in Mainz and I was so much looking forward to this, because I like many shows on that channel and I just love to get a closer look how German TV works and how some shows are produced. So I was excited, and it was very intersting. I learned a lot about how the make their daily News Show and how stressful this job is, I saw some sets and studios, the control room, storage place for all the costumes and so much more.

From May till October ZDF shows the Fernsehgarten which is a show that contains music and acrobatic acts; beauty, cooking and gardening tips, sports talk and much more. I mostly love it because the whole show is filmed outside, and I love such summer shows. It has a variety of different things, so it's one of those shows you can go to with your whole family and everyone finds something she likes. There are not many shows like that on TV.

Normally the Fernsehgarten is shown every Sunday, but not today because of "Wetten, dass...?", the most popular German TV show (I already wrote twice about Samuel Koch who had a bad accident on the show in December 2010). The summer edition of the show takes place in Palma de Mallorca, and many people from ZDF had to fly to the Spanish isle to prepare the show and so there were not enough people this week for the Fernsehgarten.

pics from the place where the ZDF Fernsehgarten is filmed

"Wetten, dass...?" is about different bets. So everyone who can do something incredibly, whatever it is but mostly some kinda crazy (because this is TV and you want people to talk about you) can place a bet. If he gets invited to the show, the contestant tells something about himself, shows his bet and has the chance to win a car. 4 bets are shown in every show, plus one children bet.

I really love such summer shows which doesn't need a studio. I like it more when it's outside and I really liked yesterday's show. My favorite bet was the man who jumped into his pants. So now if you're a man, this is how you have to put on your pants :D

Have you already made a studio tour? Which shows do you like on TV? Do you prefer shows filmed in a studio or outside? Please leave a comment below.

The android next door

'I feel that I feel, but compared to how deeply humans feel, it seems very superficial to me and that makes me sad sometimes.'

Bina48

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2175721/Rise-Machines-Meet-Bina48-robot-tell-jokes-recite-poetry-mimics-mankind-startling-ease.html#ixzz271JbgZOh

Yesterday I saw a TV contribution about Bina48. Have you already heard of her? She is an android, but decides on her own what she says and she looks and acts mostly like a real human being. Bina is a copy of a real existing woman, you can talk to her by speaking into a microphone, and you get a response that fits to your question. She just 'thinks' and choose what to say. She choose the words real humans put into her head, but she finds what's suitable and then she talks and talks and talks and doesn't like to stop. Real woman like, isn't it?

Bruce Duncan works with her for two years now, and 'she' still surprises him. He is sure that one day everyone can have such a human looking robot, which is therefore called humanoid. Currently she costs about $ 125,000. A lot of money, and it's really a great thing that robots become more and more human. But in the other hand, wouldn't it be strange when you, one day, maybe in about 50 years, can't be sure if it's an robot you are talking to, or an actual person?

Imagine you live next door with an android. You greet it, you see it as a 'normal' person. Maybe one day everyone has a robot to do everything for them - but what will be left for us? Do we sit in a chair and get served all the time? Of course this sounds great, and for sure the humanoid robots are a brilliant invention and shows that the technical knowledge developed very well in the past few years, but it wouldn't it be boring for us one day if the robots will do all our jobs? Or will we then have other things to do? Will we start building more robots, than bringing actual babies to life?

I don't wanna complain, as I said I love the robot, and I also love the amazing work of these brilliant minds like Mr Duncan's, but I'm just thinking. I mean, it can be scared in some way, right? And imagine someone can create an android who looks exactly like you. It's great that if your family lives far away and then you can have a copy from your parents all the time with you and the best thing is they can't die, but wouldn't it be also strange to know that another you is out there somewhere? And that some guys who love all that one actor or singer, all want to have such a robot and then the film industry don't know anymore who of them is the real actor?

The Daily Mail (UK) wrote this great article about Bina48. You can read it here.

Or watch that video, of 'that guy with the robot', Bruce Duncan, who presented Bina48 to the TEDxHarlem audience. It's really impressive:

To forget how to forget

We can forget so many things. I don’t know why. So many things I wanna keep in mind, but I simply can’t. Why is it like that? What is working wrong with my short-term and long-term memory? Why is it easy for someone to remember something that I can’t? Or I can remember something that she can’t?

The brain is a big mystery. It can do so many things, and is so complex. With the computer we try to copy it in a way. To come close to it, with saving things. Nowadays when people wanna know more about the brain, especially young people, they try to explain it the other way round. So they use the computer and tell them, based on that, how the brain works.

But unlike us, the computer forgets nothing. Even the internet remembers everything. The brain is not like that. So many things we forget. But is the information really lost, or can we just not remember? Some things will never be ‘transported’ from the short-term into the long-term memory. Some things we just saw, but never paid any attention on. It might will come back once as part of our dream but then we just can’t remember to remember it. I mean when we see something like a person in our dream, we can be sure that we have seen him or her before in our real life because our brain is not able to create new persons, or surroundings.

our brain is like a net with lots of connections

So we can remember even things we can’t remember. That’s the miracle of our brain. We can forget everything, except how to forget. That’s what will be different between our brain and the computer. We can forget, but never forget how to forget things, and we can remember things we don’t remember.

The Einstein Approximation Sequel

Do you know that when you try to figure out something and therefore you can’t sleep? You always think about the same, the whole time, over and over again? Or you think about the dream you had the night before? Sometimes it is just a name or any sort of irrelevancy that don’t wanna come into your mind.

I had this not only once. I walked into my room, and before I did that, I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but in the room I had no clue. I thought and thought and thought but couldn’t remember. Or I made a crossword puzzle and the correct answer was on the tip of my tongue but I couldn’t say it. Do you know what I mean?  Or I tried to understand a simple equation like in maths. Or I wrote a word, the computer “said” it’s wrong and I looked and looked at it but couldn't find the mistake. And then someone came, and without thinking, solving the equation, writing the word correctly on which I was thinking about for such a long time. And he or she solved that in a blink of an eye and I thought: why haven't I figured it out?

I found this on the internet. When I read that kindergarten children can do this easily but a professor can’t, my first thought was that this is impossible. In fact, I have to say, I hadn’t figured it out when I first saw it. I thought about it, but couldn’t find the logic. Maybe we have learned too much, think too abstract, I don’t know. Here is it, maybe you find the right solution. Think about it and please write me your solution. I finally figured it out and so know its logic now ;)

click on the picture to enlarge it

The genius in us

There has to be dumb people in this world because otherwise no one could ever be identified as a genius.

What makes a genius? Can even I become one? Is it only genetic? Heritable? Well, just a little bit. About 50 - 60 %, and the rest is quite on us. What we do with what we got. Even smart guys has to train their brain to know everything related to his or her specialty. It also depends on the people we spend our time with, our parents and friends. Do they encourage us? Are they curious as well, try to figure out new things? Then we also want to prove we can keep up with them.

So being a genius, we all can be one. We have to find the thing we are most interested in, we are good at and having fun with. Some find this pleasure in physics, some in music, some in writing, some in acting, painting or anything else. Whatever it is, if you love it and do your best, you can become a genius at it. I mean, what actually is ‘a genius’? A smart person, of course, but what is the definition of it? Does this mean having an IQ of more than 100, which is the average in the United States? *

Well, if you have ever made an IQ test, you probably know that intelligence is not only based on knowledge. You have to think logically, you have to have visual thinking. You simply have to be better than others in something, and that makes you a genius. So, go out into the world, find some guys who are less smart and smile: a genius is also depending on who looks at you. Some will give you a glimpse and others will gaze in amazement. But being only surrounded by people who are, let’s call them ‘different-smart’, will maybe bring you to do less for what you’re good at and love to do. So you have to find someone who can look up to you, so you maybe inspire him or her for reaching the same you did, but you also need someone to whom you can look up to. That you never stop going on, never stop working because not even a genius knows really everything.

Certainly we are not Einstein and never will be. Figure out what you’re best at, that’s the first step: you have to know your ability. Second: work on it, improve your skills. And third: do not count the number of people knowing and liking you, do it for yourself, to prove yourself that you are someone special and be happy with even a less amount of guys who are able to see you.

* See on this website a list with the average IQ of different nations. In my opinion this is very interesting: http://sq.4mg.com/NationIQ.htm