Science History Channel: Blow asteroids to bits

ar81

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In the show "Earthshocks" History Channel said that humans will have to develop missile technology to get rid of incoming asteroids. :rofl:
Sounds like a joke? It is not.
I am considering not watching their documentaries, or just watch to spot mistakes.
 

Usquanigo

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They make mistakes, but on the whole they do well. Most of that stuff is aimed at the average joe. Kinda like when I'd watch stuff on Wings and "correct" them about model designations and armament of various WWII fighters. On the whole they were ok, just certain minutuea.

And in this case, Michio Kaku is in the audio as a voice over saying that blowing it up would be the worst possible idea ever.

This whole week is armageddon week. Looks to be a good TV week (finally!). :)
 

ar81

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They made another mistake in "How Earth was made".
They pointed out that in 15,000 years we will have an ice age.
It pointed out global warming as a time for life to flourish like in the era of dinosaurs.
In a conference I attended with PhD Lara Hansen, biologist and toxicologist who works for WWF in the climate change area, she pointed out that trees in Canada are already dying because of global warming, and that is hurting wood industry.
When I talked to BBC director Nicolas brown pointed out that what he saw around the world made him to worry. Amazon forest rivers getting dry and having wild fires.
So if life will flourish probably History Channel wants cockroaches to live forever.
 

Usquanigo

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They made another mistake in "How Earth was made".
They pointed out that in 15,000 years we will have an ice age.
It pointed out global warming as a time for life to flourish like in the era of dinosaurs.
In a conference I attended with PhD Lara Hansen, biologist and toxicologist who works for WWF in the climate change area, she pointed out that trees in Canada are already dying because of global warming, and that is hurting wood industry.
When I talked to BBC director Nicolas brown pointed out that what he saw around the world made him to worry. Amazon forest rivers getting dry and having wild fires.
So if life will flourish probably History Channel wants cockroaches to live forever.

Well, trees in Canada are made for cold weather, so naturally you'd expect them to have issues if it got warm (like puting a salt water fish in a fresh water tank).

However, I can't say I'd shed a tear if every single old-growth logger died of starvation. Any time I saw those bastards getting hurt on Extreme Loggers I cheered. If they were real tree-farms, that's a different story, but many are too busy hacking down nature to make or work farms.

But they do have a point about warming. The dinosaur age was about the warmest there was, and life not only flourished, it was HUGE (as a result). The abundant plant life led to elevated O2 levels and giant arthropods as a result (Spiders as big as large dogs or bigger, centipedes that could rear up and stare a 6 footer in the eye, Dragonflys that could carry a Husky away for dinner, etc).

Life today is set up for the current climate, as it changes, there will be a dieing off as evolution takes place. That is inevitable.

One other way to look at it - where is life more teeming, in the tropics, or at the poles?

One other wild card is man's ability to change and destroy it's host, just like the virus Agent Smith likened us (accurately) to. That will wreak havoc on the natural order of things and throw the balance out potentially impeding the evolutionary transition. And don't forget the single biggest aspect now too - touchy-feely-ness combined with 24/7 news and measuring. Every little thing will get blown way out of proportion and turned into a crisis, even when it's not. (nobody cared when we came out of the little ice age, mostly because nobody really knew, or had the means to spread the info - or really had time to worry about it, they were too busy trying to live lol)
 

spcefrk

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I'm getting progressively more and more disappointed in the History Channel. They keep encroaching on topics not really related to History at all; and they don't do it nearly as well as the Discovery Channel (who doesn't do a great job to begin with). It all leads to documentaries discussing the mystical powers of Nostradamus and the existence of Alien conspiracies and bigfoot etc...

The History Channel wants to branch into the sciences and then they just pick up pseudo science. Throughout my undergrad years my roommate and I would watch them for laughs.
 

pattersoncr

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I'm getting progressively more and more disappointed in the History Channel. They keep encroaching on topics not really related to History at all; and they don't do it nearly as well as the Discovery Channel (who doesn't do a great job to begin with). It all leads to documentaries discussing the mystical powers of Nostradamus and the existence of Alien conspiracies and bigfoot etc...

The History Channel wants to branch into the sciences and then they just pick up pseudo science. Throughout my undergrad years my roommate and I would watch them for laughs.

I'm with you. I'm getting tierd of all the crap on the History Channel and Science Channel which is neither history nor science.
 

Urwumpe

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I like the stuff on the German station Phoenix... much better as the few shows from discovery or history channel which leaked into German TV. They have problems with getting the space stuff right, but they are still better as the alternatives in Germany.
 

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What-ever-happened to superb productions like COSMOS... and The body HUMAN...?
Some of the animations on these new shows you mentioned... are so bad it has to confuse the neo-scientist-apprentices...

There are some gems if you look for them tho. Netflix the "In the shadow of the Moon". It is most excellent.
 

Usquanigo

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What-ever-happened to superb productions like COSMOS... and The body HUMAN...?
Some of the animations on these new shows you mentioned... are so bad it has to confuse the neo-scientist-apprentices...

There are some gems if you look for them tho. Netflix the "In the shadow of the Moon". It is most excellent.

I'd like for them to re-air all 3 Connections and The Day The Universe Changed.

But I do like The Universe and Modern Marvels, Extreme Trains is interesting at times, and Cities of the Underworld is really interesting more often than not.
 

Pilot7893

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I remember me and my sister were watching something on the History Channel about historical meteor impacts. At one point, they talked about how one meteor was too small to have survived reentry. They were scratching their monkey heads for a full 45 minutes, trying to figure out what happened, while me and my sister had this "crazy" idea...maybe, it started out big, and then, OMFG, lost mass during reentry! Those numbskulls should stick to history.
 

Usquanigo

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I remember me and my sister were watching something on the History Channel about historical meteor impacts. At one point, they talked about how one meteor was too small to have survived reentry. They were scratching their monkey heads for a full 45 minutes, trying to figure out what happened, while me and my sister had this "crazy" idea...maybe, it started out big, and then, OMFG, lost mass during reentry! Those numbskulls should stick to history.

lol!

A lot of that stuff isn't produced by the channel itself. That stuff tends to be more historical and more accurate. All in all, it's really a damn good channel. And look at it this way - better for people to learn even what they can from that channel than remain as clueless as they currently are. Much if it is aimed at idiots (err, I mean the general population).

The thing I'd really like to see them drop is all this UFO crap. That's really disconcerting.

Sometimes I wonder if they are making a concious effort to over-expand beyond history to both capture market share, becuase the sheeple just don't care about history, and to try to shrug off the moniker "The Hitler Channel". They ought to have stuck to their older formula IMO. But people are so sensitive about perception these days.
 
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