Review of 5 HDTV Indoor Antennas: Mohu Leaf, Terk FDTV2A, Antennas Direct Clearstream 2, RCA 1450B and Rabbit Ears

Cord-cutting is a growing trend to get rid of expensive cable in favor of old-fashion TV antennas and the myriad of streaming services, such as Amazon Instant Video and Netflix (each with free trials). So what's the best antenna to receive the most channels over the air when nearby trees, tall buildings, and weather all affect reception? Here's a quick review of several of the best antennas for 2014 that I found after some online research.

For those wanting to watch Netflix and Hulu on an HDTV check out this review of streaming media players, including: Roku, Boxee, and Apple TV.

Review of Streaming Media Players: Roku vs Boxee vs Apple TV vs Chromecast

Reviewed here are streaming media players; the Boxee Box vs Roku 3 vs Apple TV vs Chromecast allow users to play media from internet web services, like HBO Go, Netflix, Vudu, Pandora, etc. on HDTVs. These are some of the best media boxes around, and each device has its own advantages and disadvantages that are reviewed and depending on what services you're most interested in these devices may help you get rid of your cable bill for good.

Watch a Random Episode for Any Show on Hulu

Sometimes you just want to watch a random episode of a show on Hulu. Select a show and a link to a random episode will appear; click "Get Random Episode" to get a different random episode.

Deathnote & the Ethics of Fansubbing

Viz Media licensed the Death Not in the USA on Thursday this week. Therefore, Live Evil, a principal group fansubbing the series dropped the series and disabled distributing the series via Bittorrent. This follows the self-imposed rules of not selling or renting fansubs and ceasing to distribute animes once licensed, in part due to fear of being sued by American companies who license the series. The self-imposed rules are of course still in violation of the WTO TRIPS agreement. So what happens to a popular series such as Death Note? First, you get the bad news, then the mischief makers, and on the third day, a fansub ready for distribution. Unfortunately for L, justice never stood a chance.

I Heart Kazakhstan

And apparently so do most people according to the 92% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie has made $67.8 million in 10 days and only cost $17 million to create.

But the movie has already sparked one lawsuit by two of the drunken frat boys who make racist and sexist comments in the movie; from personal experience that was the only part of the movie that the audience seemed muted. The lawsuit states that they were tricked and quote:

... engaged in behavior that they otherwise would not have engaged in.

The villagers of Glod ("Mud"), in south-east Romania, are equally displeased by the movie and accuse Sacha Baron Cohen of exploiting them. The villagers believed that Cohen was making a documentary about their hardships rather than being portrayed as rapists, abortionists, and prostitutes. Nicolae Staicu, a local councilor, says he was never told what the movie was about and that the film crew never obtained an appropriate permit. The local vice-mayor, Petre Buzea, stated that

"They got paid so I am sure they are happy. These gipsies will even kill their own father for money,"

in response to whether the villagers were offended by Cohen's film.

In London, Turkish Internet celebrity, Mahir Cagri, who gained through his I Kiss You!!!!! website is considering legal action because he worries people will mistake him for Borat.

"If you (see) this, what you think about me? Mahir is a very bad comedian, Mahir is a homosexual, Mahir may be say the bad things about Jewish people? This is very bad."

Mahir set up his website in the late 1990s to make new friends by offering

Who is want to come TURKEY I can invitate ... She can stay my home.

And in Kazakhstan, "Borat" will not be shown even though it is not officially banned, while in Russia, a government agency believes the film will offend certain groups, and Russian distributors will not be releasing the movie.

Helluva TV Engineer

There are few programs on television today that inspire the minds of young people in science and engineering like the late Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek as documented in the the Discovery Channel's How William Shatner Changed the World. Shows such as Star Trek influenced a generation of scientists, but US science is on the decline with the share of scientific papers by Americans dropping seven percent between 1988 and 2001, and nearly two-thirds of of doctoral degrees in engineering going to foreign born students. Where are the engineering role models on television today?

Characters such as MacGyver and Montgomery Scott aka Scotty have been the quintessential role models for future engineers. Who can forget Scotty yelling over the Enterprise's intercom "I can't change the laws of physics! I've got to have thirty minutes," as he tried to hold her together or MacGyver destroyinng lasers with binoculars and cigarettes or building a rocket-propelled flare out of bamboo, fertilizer, matches, a strip of cloth, a small tin can, a thin metal rod, a funnel, and a wooden spoon?

Last year, Fox debuted Prison Break in which Michael Scofield, a civil engineer, creates an elaborate plan to break his brother out of jail after being sentenced to death for murder the Vice President's brother. Scofield uses detailed tattoos on his upper body containing blueprints and various other pieces of information in his escape. Another show that has recently premiered is Eureka on the Sci Fi channel. The premise of the show is that after World War II, then-President Harry Truman created a top-secret town in the Pacific Northwest where the country's greatest minds could work on scientific advancements without worries or distractions. The first episode introduces the audience to the character Henry Deacon, a jack-of-all-trades NASA engineer, masquerading as the local mechanic.

Some argue that shows such as CSI give unrealistic expectations about its field in science. But that hasn't deterred the increase in the number of students going into forensics-based based majors. West Virginia University has seen the number of students in forensics majors increase from three graduating in 2001 to 400 enrolled in 2004.

The Return of Chef!

South_Park premieres on Wednesday is entitled "The Return of Chef!", but the voice will not be played by Hayes. This comes after Comedy Central pulled a repeat of the episode "Trapped in the Closet" when Tom Cruise threatened to cancel all publicity for Mission Impossible 3.

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Chef Quits!

Issac Hayes, the voice of South Park's Chef, quit saying he can no longer tolerate the show's take on religion. Co-creator Matt Stone said "This is 100 percent having to do with his faith of Scientology... He has no problem - and he's cashed plenty of checks - with our show making fun of Christians;" Issac Hayes is a scientologist. Last November, the episode "Trapped in the Closet" targeted Scientology and its celebrity followers Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

It Was Stress; Not Crazy, No Drugs

Last May, Chapelle left his show in mid-production. In his first interview since leaving Chapelle told Oprah that too many people were trying to control him and the direction of his show, and it was not mental problems or drugs. Comedy Central will be airing 4 new episodes of the show this spring from the material that was taped before Chapelle left. Of course, his appearance on Oprah may be the continuance of a conspiracy against Chapelle enacted by the "Dark Crusaders", a group of individuals who felt the material of his show did not reflect well on the black community.

How William Shatner Changed The World

The Discovery Channel is airing a new documentary, How William Shatner Changed The World, hosted and narrated by Shatner based on his book I'm Working on That. The documentary covers scientists and inventors inspired by Star Trek. For instance, Marc Rayman, chief engineer of NASA's Deep Space 1 project and Martin Cooper, current CEO of ArrayComm, who helped invent the first cell phone.