computer science

Long Island Medium

Long Island Medium is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Long Island Medium rather than just read about it. In short: Long Island Medium is an American reality television series starring Theresa Caputo, a self-professed medium who claims she can communicate with the dead. Much of the program, which premiered on September 25, 2011, takes place in Hicksville, New York, though it often follows Caputo as she meets with clients in other areas.

Key takeaways

Long Island Medium belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Long Island Medium to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Long Island Medium from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Long Island Medium is an American reality television series starring Theresa Caputo, a self-professed medium who claims she can communicate with the dead. Much of the program, which premiered on September 25, 2011, takes place in Hicksville, New York, though it often follows Caputo as she meets with clients in other areas. Scientific skeptics say mediumship performances are a con, and Caputo's specific claims have been deemed fictitious by critics, including magician James Randi, Inside Edition, and Jezebel.

Synopsis Each episode focuses on Caputo as she conducts private and group readings with both believers and skeptics. Her husband Larry and two children, Victoria and Larry Jr., have learned to live with her mediumship. In a 2011 interview, Caputo claimed she could communicate with dead people: "Things are just there. When I was younger I used to actually see images and hear things. As I got older and shut down, it has changed. Because it was frightening to see people standing there who actually weren't there."

Reception Scientific skeptics say mediumship performances are a con, and that Caputo's seemingly paranormal performances are simply the result of well-known exploits like the Forer effect, cold reading, selective editing of the show, and her subjects' eagerness to believe. In 2012, the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) awarded Caputo its Pigasus Award for being, in its view, the "psychic" performer who fooled the greatest number of people with the least effort in the preceding year. A Pigasus award was also given to TLC for continuing to air the show. In an article published by Wired Magazine the organization's founder James Randi explained why he believed shows like Long Island Medium were deceptive and potentially harmful to its participants:

Why do these pseudo-psychic spectacles bother those of us at the James Randi Educational Foundation? First, and foremost: They are not true. [...] But much more importantly to us, such performances seem to prey on people at their most vulnerable moments — those who have suffered the loss of loved ones — and these mediums use such grief to make a buck. Psychologists tell us this keeps the grieving stuck in their grief, rather than going through the natural stages of acceptance that are healthy. In June of that year, Caputo appeared in a commercial for Priceline.com in which she portrayed herself "connecting" with the late Priceline Negotiator character previously played by William Shatner. JREF President DJ Grothe issued a statement asking Priceline.com to prove that Caputo has the abilities that she claims to possess. Inside Edition examined Caputo's claims of being able to talk to the dead and found them lacking as she performed live, saying they "watched her strike out time and again." Mark Edward, who used to portray himself as a medium, gave his opinion that Caputo does not have supernatural powers and explained several common techniques she could be using to pretend to have such abilities. She responded in a statement: "I respect and understand skeptics. I'm not trying to prove anything to anyone, that's not why I do what I do. I feel, and have been told by my clients, that my gift has really helped them, and that's all that matters to me." Ron Tebo, proprietor of the YouTube debunking channel SciFake, has argued that Caputo engages in several forms of deception, including sending staff members to interview audience members in advance to acquire knowledge to claim communication with the dead. In March 2018, skeptical activist Susan Gerbic published an article in Skeptical Inquirer summarizing several techniques that she says are used by psychics such as Caputo to achieve their effects. While noting that Caputo's claim of special powers "has been questioned", Variety's Gregg Goldstein described her in generally positive terms in a 2012 article, writing, "In an era of hit reality shows about families and denizens of New Jersey, the series' equally big selling point is the dynamic with her husband and two wisecracking teenagers, making it play like a combination of Real Housewives of New Jersey and Bewitched – particularly when their frustrations surface over her random communications with what she calls 'Spirit.'" In a 2019 segment of Last Week Tonight, which featured Caputo as well as other prominent TV psychics, John Oliver criticized the media for producing shows such as this because they convince viewers that psychic powers are real, and so enable neighborhood psychics to prey on grieving families. Oliver said, "...when psychic abilities are presented as authentic, it emboldens a vast underworld of unscrupulous vultures, more than happy to make money by offering an open line to the afterlife, as well as many other bullshit services."

Cast Main

Theresa Caputo Recurring

Larry Caputo Jr. Victoria Caputo Larry Caputo

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2011)

Season 2 (2012)

Season 3 (2012)

Season 4 (2013)

Season 5 (2013)

Season 6 (2014)

Season 7 (2014)

Season 8 (2015)

Season 9 (2015–16)

Season 10 (2017)

Season 11 (2017)

Season 12 (2018)

Season 13 (2018)

Season 14 (2019)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Long Island Medium

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Long Island Medium claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Long Island Medium before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Long Island Medium ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Long Island Medium

In research: Long Island Medium appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Long Island Medium in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Long Island Medium is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2010s American reality television series, 2011 American television series debuts, 2011 English-language television series debuts, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Long Island Medium outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Long Island Medium in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Long Island Medium means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Long Island Medium out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Long Island Medium in simple terms?

Why does Long Island Medium matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Long Island Medium?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Long Island Medium.