The History Channel program, EVOLVE: Eyes that I mentioned before but then disappeared has reappeared — it was delayed, but is now scheduled for broadcast on 29 July.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
I can’t wait.
Rats. I can’t get the History Channel here in Italy. (Armed Forces Network doesn’t carry it.) Hopefully, they will offer it on iTunes soon. Otherwise, I’ll end up having to wait for the DVD.
EVOLVE is scheduled to start at 10PM. Is it on this late so young children don’t see it?
I’m strongly in favor of teaching evolution to young children. I didn’t know what evolution was until I was in my 20’s and I didn’t have a very good understanding of it until much later. I think my life would have been much improved if I started learning the scientific explanation for the diversity of life in First Grade. Instead all I learned was God-Did-It.
I recently found this quote from Richard Dawkins which I of course agree with:
“I should love to have everybody taught about evolution from a fairly early age, because it is so important, so exciting. It answers so many questions and mysteries; it solves so many problems. Until you know about it, you’re wandering around on this Earth looking at trees and birds and flowers, not knowing why any of them is there. Evolution is the answer to that riddle, so you’re not really a whole person if you don’t know where you come from and why you exist. And it’s not difficult. It’s not like relativity, it’s not like quantum theory – it’s something teachable to fairly young children.”
http://tinyurl.com/5v735v
Awww, not having cable SUCKS! Someone record it and send it to me, please.
Same day as the first day of the Minnesota bar exam. I smell a conspiracy to keep would-be lawyers like me from learning about science!
(Just kidding. But it does suck that I’ll be so stressed out after day 1 of the exam that I won’t want to watch anything fun on TV before day 2.)
I own an antiquated device known as a Video Cassette Recorder. (It’s more Cylon-resistant, like my phone-with-a-cord.) May I use that?
And I agree with what Bob said about teaching evolution early. I got a good introduction to it in ninth-grade biology at a public school in Indiana; the publisher-supplied tests even had questions (albeit multiple-choice) about the epistemological classification of evolution as a theory, guess, etc. We got the standard explanation of the mechanics of natural selection, complete with the peppered-moth as an illustration. It made intuitive sense to me, and I understood that there were fossils and other evidence for it. So although it took me longer to grow out of the white-bread, muddle-headed, mainline Protestantism I grew up in, I at least recognized creationism as a red flag that marked groups as ignorant or crazy. This actually helped insulate me against the fundie nutters that nipped around the edges of the social group I hung out with in the school’s choir program.
Ohhhh, exciting!
Waitaminuite…It’s on the History channel and it’s not about ghosts, UFO’s, a rerun of Ice Road Truckers or an expose on the Nazi’s obsession with cults?
Impressive. DVR is set!
#8: Don’t forget about Modern Marvels. I loved their show on the stapler.
The EVOLVE will be on right after Jurassic Fight Club, a new History Channel series about dinosaurs and other prehistoric critters… um… well… fighting. But the scientists involved DO try and get some science in there as well as the fighting: let’s hope those comments make it past the cutting room.
I googled Jurassic Fight Club. One of the episodes is apparently called “Deep Sea Dinos.” I’m not so anal as to insist they call it Mesozoic Fight Club, but damn – deep sea dinos?
copy and paste the following (direct link won’t work)
http://tinyurl.com/5jgfqy
BobC, one of the first books I remember owning was this great children’s book about the evolution of the horse. Perhaps growing up with stuff like that is why, much later, I was baffled when I heard people describe evolution as counterintuitive. The first was a creationist on Slashdot, only a few years ago, who demanded I admit that when I first heard about evolution, I was incredulous — since apparently that was his reaction, and I guess he couldn’t imagine another — to which I, quite surprised, said that no, I thought it was obvious.
Evolution still seems obvious to me, and I still find it strange that people — even on our side — call it counterintuitive. But maybe it’s just that what you call “intuitive” depends largely on what you learned first.
Jurassic Fight Club?
Sounds a bit obtuse but considering their streak of fine quality programming …yeah.
Can’t say I won’t give it a peek, just for the visceral entertainment value.
I used to work at a gaming shop that had a trading card game put out by the History Channel called “Anachroisim” (i think that was the name). The whole thing was about pitting famous military leaders (Genghis Khan etc) and cliches (ninja, samurai, pirates, etc) head to head. This whole fighting dinosaurs thing doesn’t seem too far off that premise.
Soooo the History Channel has a little Jurassic Fight Club flash game on the shows website. It’s about what I expected.
Jurassic Fight Club: TURF WARS Only two dinosaurs are available right now, looks like the others will be available in the near future.
It’s pretty cheesy and no where near as good as Bible Fight! (Virgin Mary isn’t as easy as she looks!) or Off-Road Velociraptor Safari (which, by the way, might be the most fun you’ll ever have while running dinosaurs over with a jeep).
Whats with those TIVOs in the U.S.,are they so widely used to be the synonym for “device to record stuff off the telly” nowadays?
I have never met,seen or heard of anyone that has a TIVO here in Australia,or in Europe,for that matter.
If you subscribe to the commercial TV here they give you a decoder that can record and has an EPG,which amounts to the same thing in a way,or if youre smart you have your PC set up as a PVR…
Don’t forget about Modern Marvels. I loved their show on the stapler.
I’m glad they’re back to doing modern things, even if they’re a little unglamorous. I quit watching after “Modern Marvels: The Great Pyramids” and “Modern Marvels: Termite Mounds”. I would have thought they had moved on to something like “Modern Marvels: Earth” by now.
Speaking of introducing children to evolution (my 11- and 9-year-old have received intros on the subject…) I found it interesting that the program is rated “TVPG”. The website defines this as:
(Parental Guidance Suggested — This program contains material that parents may find unsuitable for younger children.) Many parents may want to watch it with their younger children. The theme itself may call for parental guidance and/or the program contains one or more of the following: moderate violence (V), some sexual situations (S), infrequent coarse language (L), or some suggestive dialogue (D).
Because there’s no modifier, the program’s “theme itself” must be the reason for the PG rating. Is this because the network doesn’t want children exposed to the pernicious idea of evolution without the buffering presence of the children’s parents present? Did some religious group lobby for the rating, to help bolster eroding membership?
Hey, for all I know, it could be a very disturbing program. It just seems funny that it is rated the way it is…
If EVOLVE: Eyes ends up being terrible, may I suggest the title EMOTE: Oye.
Designoid!
Whats with those TIVOs in the U.S.,are they so widely used to be the synonym for “device to record stuff off the telly” nowadays?
Almost, except I don’t think they’re that widely used.(I’ve never seen one, and none of my friend have owned one.) However, they were around for several years before the comercial TV here caught up. Plenty of time for TIVO to become the default noun and verb when it comes to digitally recording TV.
First time poster here, though long time lurker – hi all.
Here in the UK we DO have the History Channel both on satellite and cable – but it’s a UK version of it. And guess what? Evolve isn’t on here in the UK.
And they wonder why people torrent….
clinteas, the reason you have never met anyone in Australia who has a Tivo is that they are not for sale here yet. It appears some people do have them, but that those are overseas models which have been hacked.
http://apcmag.com/Content.aspx?id=2627
When I started seeing ads for them earlier this month I poked around a bit and it looks like they do have significant but not majority market share in the USA but seem not to have had so much success overseas (as distinguished from ‘in other countries’ – they seem to do okay in Canada). It does look like they have reached a point in the USA for the brand name to become synonymous with the generic product, since I see that name mentioned more often from there than any other brand or the term ‘DVR’ – at least that I notice.
@ Karley: The press release you hit was from 2007, and written by PR folks before the project had been filmed. The official site is here, and the episode list is here.
I won’t say that it is the greatest science documentary since Cosmos, but it is better than that 2007 announcement made it sound!
TiVo has a virtual monopoly among third-party DVRs in the U.S., but the majority of DVRs in use nowadays are those rented from cable or satellite TV providers rather than sold on the open market.
july 29th is my birthday. Anyway that this show is on the history channel tells me there will be parts that are super bad…my TiVo will probably pick this up on it’s own.