Wednesday, March 26, 2008
“an unforgettable insight..”
Having spent most of last year filming, I think it would be fair to say that Will Crawley is eagerly anticipating the launch of BBC NI’s natural history series “Blueprint”. - there’s a trailer here.
This major, multi-faceted season across television, radio and online features a series of exciting output which will give the people of Northern Ireland an unforgettable insight into where we live and who we are and change the way they see Northern Ireland forever. Blueprint series editor Paul McGuigan says: “We’re rolling 600 million years of Northern Ireland’s unique past into an exciting series across television, radio and online.”
Now, if someone could remind Northern Ireland’s Culture Minister..
Pete Baker @ 04:01 PM
It is a sad reflection on the state of geological science in Northern Ireland that the BBC saw fit to have two archaeologists as its ‘experts’ in a set of programmes which appears to be significantly geological in nature. This dosent give the series the scientific gravitas it undoubtedly deserves.
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 04:54 PMIn terms of stupidity, talking about ‘600 million years of Northern Ireland’s unique past’ is on a par with Edwin Poot’s creationism.
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 05:21 PMIndeed, An Lochlannach. I know partition is anachronistic, but I didn’t think it dated back that far.
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 05:23 PMPete, why do you suddenly change from reporting great political stories, which you do have a natural eye for, to inferior reports of nature, star constellations and the environment ?
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 05:24 PMWhat is the policy on backhanded compliments?
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 05:30 PMwillis
Everyone’s a critic..
Ulsters my homeland
Is that you, Edwin? ;o)
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 05:45 PMWhat is the policy on backhanded compliments?
Not sure, but I bet you transubstantiation or Apostolic Succession isn’t linked to Stormont ministers in the same way Pete links a young earth with Edwin Poots.
Double standards? you judge?
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 05:45 PMAs Edwin Poots young earth belief seems to be the highlight of Sluggers comedy hour, can you tell me when you will be making a fool of all stormont ministers who believe in the Romanish idea that transubstantiation turns bread and wine into Christ’s body and blood, or the Romanish idea that Apostolic Succession gives Rome authority over other christians, or indeed that Peter even was buried in Rome?
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 06:00 PMI’m told the beeb have already had pre-broadcast complaints from the ‘young earthers’, including some mad threat to have the programme injuncted.
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 06:13 PMUlsters my homeland - I will happliy oblige.
Those ‘Romanish’ (lol) beliefs are just as ridiculous as Poots’ ‘Young Earth’ nonsense. Anyone who believes those things you posted should be openly ridiculed in the same way as young earth creationism beliefs should be laughed at and mocked.
Happy now that someone is explicitly saying their religious beliefs are as lunatic as your religious beliefs, or did you actually have a point to make?
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 06:14 PMThere was I, gently stewing a thought about Great hatred, little room, and how Powell has adapted a Yeats phrase from 1931, and applied it to a very different context.
That led me to flick through the only biography of WBY that I could immediately locate (Stephen Coote’s, from 1997).
In 1881 we find the Yeats family living at Howth, and:
Willie now immersed himself in the works of Darwin, Wallis, Huxley and their commentators. By so doing, he became naively familiar with the most troubling dilemma exposed by nineteenth century thought: the discovery that the universe is ruled neither by the God of Genesis nor by man but instead appears set on a purposeless course where chance alone ensures the survival of the fittest. For a while, fired with adolescent radicalism, Willie could revel in pulling the old structures down. He was, he recalled, ‘hot for arguments in refutation of Adam and Noah and the Seven Days’ of creation. He even took pleasure in taunting a pious geologist who came to look for fossils along the Howth cliffs, telling him that the existence of what the man sought disproved the bible in which he placed his faith. The geologist begged Willie not to raise the question again for he had considered the implications far more deeply than Willie himself and felt that in a godless world it would be impossible to lead a moral life.
Only tangentially relevant, I admit: but I’m a sucker for a good anecdote.
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 06:16 PMPete
On a related issue have you been following the blogstorm over at Pharyngula? The attempts of American biologist and science blogger PZ Myers to see a preview of the forthcoming creationist movie “Expelled” resulted in his exclusion (even though he was a contributer to the movie) although his guest was allowed in. The name of the unrecognised guest? Richard Dawkins.
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 08:05 PMpauljames
I hadn’t been following it, but thanks for the tip.
This post seems to cover it well for anyone else interested
“It’s a movie that blames the Holocaust on Darwin — it’s stupid and foolish.”
Well, that’s almost as ridiculous as blaming Francis Bacon.
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 08:25 PM‘but I’m a sucker for a good anecdote.’
Back in 20,000 BC a distant neutron star in the constellation Aquila (Eagle) underwent a violent cataclysm and belched hard radiation into space hurling an expanding sphere of poison at the speed of light in all directions . For approx 22,000 years it sped through space and hit the Earth over the Pacific ocean on the evening of Aug 27th 1998 . For 5 minutes on that late summer day Earth was bombarded by gamma rays and X rays the lethal twins generated by thermonuclear bombs as well as by the interior of stars . Even after travelling 20,000 light years the energy was sufficient to send radiation sensors on seven earth satellites to maximum reading or off scale . Two satellites were shut down to save their instruments from burnout . The radiation penetrated to within 30 miles of the Earth’s surface and was dissipated by the lower regions of our atmosphere.
This was the first time that such high energy from outside the solar system was detected to have a measurable effecton the atmosphere.
Probably not the first time Earth has been buffeted by energy from interstellar space . Perhaps it was something similar that caused some of the mass life exterminations .
Astronomers believe that the 1998 event was caused by the surface disruption of a kind of star that had only been theorised to exist : a magnetar -a type of neutron star perhaps 20 miles in diameter but more massive than our sun . A thimbleful of magnetar would weigh 100 million tons-matter compressed far beyond the point of human comprehension.
Had the ‘magnetar ‘ been 5,000 light years away instead of 20,000 our ozone layer would have been blown away and we (all animal life) would have been ‘fried ‘ or evaporated out of existence .
We’ve been very lucky these past 4 billion years :). I would’nt push it .
On a more cheerful note only the other day it was possible to see with the naked eye in the wee hours an exploding star a bright blip about 7.5 billion light years or halfway across the known universe . So this ‘blip’ would have actually taken place some 3 billion years before the Earth was formed . It’s a quare place this universe I tell you or as Joxer Daly questions in O’Casey’s Plough and the Stars’
‘What is the stars ‘?
I dont think Joxer would be too enamoured of present day discoveries :) I’m not too fond of those magnetars myself either :)
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 08:31 PMOr even Galileo..
Or even the Jews . I mean if the Jews had listened to what Jesus had to say they would never have suffered and had they become Christians then some other shower could have been holocausted instead :(?
jaysuz wept :(
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 08:38 PMthat’s the first time i’ve seen the word holocausted used. Is there a verb...To holocaust ?
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 10:46 PMFor they(the mere Irish ) took the oul king’s English
And turned it right around
And invented darlin phrases
The invader to confound etc etcActually the first recorded use in English of the word ‘holocaust’ was back in the time of Richard (I’m fond of little arab boys as well ) the Lionheart . Being strapped for cash he had the Jews expelled from England minus their dosh of course . Several hundred were drowned by tidal waves when they were forced to march out a couple of miles to a ‘ship which was supposed to take them somewhere else . Its mentioned in Simon Schamas brilliant series History of Britain.
Richard the Lionheart not content with ‘holocausting’ the Jews went one better by getting himself captured and all England had to pay dearly for his ransom . As a result there was no money for to supply an army to defend England’s territories in France the ‘Angevin Empire’ and thus England became just a small part island Kingdom . Of course as the Scots , Irish and Welsh were soon to find out what was lost in France would be won back somewhere else ! And here beginneth the 800 year war !
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 11:55 PM“In terms of stupidity, talking about ‘600 million years of Northern Ireland’s unique past’ is on a par with Edwin Poot’s creationism.
This is nonsense. If it’s possible to speak of “Ireland’s” 600 millions year natural history, or (for that matter) to speak of “Europe’s” 600 million year natural history, it s just as possible to speak of “northern Ireland’s” natural history. The political term, whether it is Ireland, NI or Europe, is a comparatively recent innovation, but the terms label an area of land and that is the point. If this programme tries to examine Northern Ireland’s natural history, that is perfectly reasonable. There are many textbooks of natural history with Northern Ireland in their titles. We even have a department called the Geological Survey Northern Ireland. Nothing strange about that locution either.
Posted by on Mar 26, 2008 @ 11:57 PMFrom what I’ve read about the programmes, geology is just one of the sciences considered. Seems to take in just about eveything! From island formation to human genetics. You’d need an army of scientists to cover all those areas of science. Choosing two archaeologists is hardly much of a compromise.
What’s the story about the Creationist protest? Are they planning a picket outside the BBC on Monday? that’s what im heariing ...
Posted by on Mar 27, 2008 @ 12:00 AMEdwin Poots has to decide on the budget for the Armagh Observatory. Would you have a creationist deciding if money should go to space research!?
How can there be a legal challenge to a documentary about natural history? Can somebody explain???
Posted by on Mar 27, 2008 @ 12:04 AMMy understanding is that creationist groups across northern ireland are up in arms about this natural history series. the bbc is receiving letters of complaint every day and the programme hasnt even been shown. a solicitors letter has been received threatening legal action on the basis of the use of the license fee to make the programmes. the bbc is now concerned that there may be an organised protest or picket outside broadcasting house on monday morning, the day of transmission. apparently the culture minister has been in touch with the corporation. edwin poots wants the bbc to explain why creationists across northern ireland are about to have their religious views trampled over in this series. looks like the beeb is about to get itself into a fight with northern irelands sizeable fundamentalist community. a game of theological chicken .... who will blink first???
Posted by on Mar 27, 2008 @ 01:16 PMThere is an email campaign by fundamentalist creationists. They have been sending the same email to the bbc. Here is a copy of the email that is being received. This is from a creationist website that is encouraging people to send this email to the presenter:
Suggested email to sign and send to the presenter William Crawley on
Dear Mr Crawley,
In relation to the upcoming series of BLUEPRINT programmes I wish to register my protest to the BBC NI about this offensive abuse of the licence fee money of the many Christians in Northern Ireland who accept God’s account of His own Creation as recorded in His Word in the book of Genesis.
I would ask, for the sake of balance, that BBC NI expend a similar amount of finance and give a platform to Scientists, who are Christians and ‘Biblical Creationists’ to explain the visible scientific evidence that concurs with their beliefs on the origins of the island of Ireland.
Yours faithfully
sign with your namePosted by on Mar 27, 2008 @ 01:44 PMI’m amazed at this stuff. Let’s hope the beeb doesn’t fold in this face of this silliness. BTW, since the creationists are always lording their bogus degrees, they might have had the grace to include crawley’s earned “Dr” title in their email (or do they only use titles when the degree has been purchased on the internet?).
Posted by on Mar 27, 2008 @ 01:55 PMI’m writing this from the US, where we have more than our fair share of creationists, but I had no idea that NI was so prone to this problem as well. We also have courts involved and local school boards trying to push a creationist agenda. Is there anything similar in NI as well? Thankfully, your media don’t seem to be as influenced by creationists as in the US, where there is a lot of political power within the creationist movement. After all, they helped elect a president.
Posted by on Mar 27, 2008 @ 02:21 PM‘of the many Christians in Northern Ireland who accept God’s account of His own Creation as recorded in His Word in the book of Genesis.’
Can these ‘Christians’ prove that God wrote the book of Genesis ? Scientists, geologists , paleontologists , anthropologists must prove their facts , theories , findings based on scientific and mathematical method .
Christians have their faith and their faith is not a science . We who happen to be non religious or atheists or nature lovers, agnostics etc have to suffer while the BBC shows Songs of Praise or RTE bells the Angelus or whatever .
The ‘creationsts’ can do what I do when there is something on the TV that offends their taste . It’s called the off switch .
Posted by on Mar 27, 2008 @ 02:30 PM
