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Oolon Colluphid · 03-01-2002, 03:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Per Ahlberg:

The last few seasons of 'Horizon' have increasingly gone for a rather low-brow, sensationalist take on science.

It has been very infuriating. It used to be such a good programme; now Channel 4’s Equinox (if it’s still running) is often far better. Again and again, narrators have said things like “but how could they turn the theory into a fact...?” and if one more bitty piece of evidence ‘proves’ something I’ll scream

Quote:

(Oolon may have seen last week's programme, which featured the controversy around the alleged bird-dinosaur intermediate "Archaeoraptor" from China, that turned out to be a composite pasted together from different fossils.

Yup, thread on it <a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=58&t=000287" target="_blank">here</a>.

Quote:

Again, there was the same problem: the Archaeoraptor story itself was treated quite nicely, but there was no hint that numerous feathered dinos and dino-like birds (Sinosauropteryx, Caudipteryx, Protarchaeopteryx, Archaeopteryx, Rahonavis, etc.) are known from China and other parts of the world. The viewer was given the idea that Archaeoraptor provided the only evidence that birds evolved from dinosaurs - which is both untrue and highly misleading.

Really annoying. Much was made of how ‘controversial’ the dino-bird link was, as if it was the least likely of the possible origins, not front runner. Over and over, it was “the missing link”, as if even old Archaeopteryx didn’t look like a small theropod

Quote:

In the end they agreed that birds probably ARE descended from dinos, and showed that the Archaeoraptor forgery had actually been stitched together from a couple of different but genuine dino-bird intermediates, but I still felt the subject had been misrepresented.

Me too. They like to build a drama, so they misleadingly built up how important Archaeoraptor was, so they could knock the idea down with the big ‘reveal’. But the twist in the tale, which was overall far more important, was relegated to the last ten minutes or so, and under-emphasised.

Remembering back to ‘your’ programme, it was the same format: wheel out Duane Gish to say how there’s no intermediates, then show that there is one (rather than thousands). But at least that was funny. Shame they didn't get him to comment at the end...

And the same last night, with the build-it-up-to-knock-it-down item on John Money’s pure-nurture gender determination (see <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/boyturnedgirl.shtml" target="_blank">here</a>).

Oh well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the new digital BBC4, with its tag-line of "everybody needs a place to think".

Cheers, Simon

Kosh · 03-01-2002, 06:03 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Oolon Colluphid:
<strong>

Me too. They like to build a drama, so they misleadingly built up how important Archaeoraptor was, so they could knock the idea down with the big ‘reveal’. </strong>

Maybe we shouldn't be surprise by this. Afterall,
Hollywood did create the "Strawman" (reference
to Wizard of Oz for those not steeped in American
films).

Oolon Colluphid · 03-01-2002, 06:16 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kosh:
<strong>

Maybe we shouldn't be surprise by this. Afterall,
Hollywood did create the "Strawman" (reference
to Wizard of Oz for those not steeped in American
films).</strong>

Yeah, but this is the BBC! The BBC, ferdarwinssakes!

Oolon

Per Ahlberg · 03-06-2002, 04:19 AM

If I can be permitted a blatant (but non-commercial) plug, the British Natural History Museum is putting on a "Dino-birds" exhibition in July, featuring a range of Chinese feathered dinosaurs and primitive birds, along with our very own Archaeopteryx. It should be a good show.

Per

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03-06-2002, 04:19 AM	#24
Per Ahlberg Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 582	If I can be permitted a blatant (but non-commercial) plug, the British Natural History Museum is putting on a "Dino-birds" exhibition in July, featuring a range of Chinese feathered dinosaurs and primitive birds, along with our very own Archaeopteryx. It should be a good show. Per

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