Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Foggy Head And Food Allergy

SKEPTICS TELEVISION





(Here, I begin ... ah, already) In the nauseating sea of \u200b\u200bputrefaction which is the current television landscape comes out, very rarely, an occasional lifeline to which we embrace with the desperation of drowning he believed to be expiring and his penultimate breath (fuck , pulp fiction will start ... better change of tone). What I meant is that, fortunately, we sometimes have the opportunity to find a small oasis ... (No, "oasis" no, this will drive me to take shit from before.) That sometimes you find TV shows that are worthwhile, bucking!

In this case, we speak of Skeptics , A documentary series that began airing in the Basque regional television, ETB. K2000 produced by two types and here we like, journalists José Antonio Pérez and Luis Alfonso Gámez, as primarily responsible (the latter for more credentials, is a consultant to the Committee for Research and founder of Skeptic Skeptic Circle association ).

Gámez Pérez and very strong doubt

is said to be " a program to remove the great fallacies unscientific popular in society." To give us an idea of \u200b\u200bwhat they consider such fallacies, in mint header labels things as "conspiracies", "esoteric", "superstition" or "faith" (yes?, Do you dare? ... Is I put the long teeth at the thought). In his blog, Perez reveals more explicitly some of the issues ones that are designed to address: "Does homeopathy? Are unhealthy electromagnetic waves? What astrology is based? Were we really on the moon? What is a miracle product? What is behind the industry occult ? ". More Statements: "Our goal is to separate the proven facts of the myths and falsehoods concerned, giving clues to the viewer to apply critical thinking. What we do with irony and good humor. And we will walk the streets, as a curious thing detectives looking for demonstrable truth. "With these budgets, it can be considered a milestone, not and because it is a bit more in the poor supply of popular science of the idiot box, but because, to our knowledge, is the first time in this country a television program adopts an explicit approach to focus and frame them in the critical thinking and scientific skepticism (not to be confused with other models of skepticism and clarify this some day). Okay, yes, it is time to recognize it ... are "ours."

So far, there has been only the first episode, broadcast on 1 January. Continuity is not announced immediately, much less a given period (so I guess we can consider the program and seen as a kind of pilot), but released few days ago Gámez via Facebook that have been charged over twelve chapters. Hopefully this forecast is met.

This initial delivery is about the annoying issue of the "lunar conspiracy" urban legend that more than one used to try to be too clever. As we know, is the belief that Americans would never actually reached the moon, but everything was in a sting engineered by propaganda purposes, with the famous TV images of the event filmed on a set that reproduced the lunar landscape. This is one of the favorite delusions who burn with desire to find mysteries where none exist (hello, Iker Jiménez), which do exhibit involuntary passing of a glaring lack of basic scientific knowledge.

It adopts the strategy of removing one by one the "evidence" they repeatedly argue proponents of this theory, showing that not only false, but his rebuttal is so simple to carry out that hardly worth bothering about it. For example, one of the arguments usually given is the following: If the moon does not blow or the slightest breeze, how it is possible that the flag that the astronauts knelt waved at the surface (they must think, of course, that in a film set in a wind blowing inside)? Ah, ah, I've caught! The answer is as easy as that ... no waves, as shown in the allegedly fraudulent images. That's it, plain and simple. Why so many repeats that flies?, Do any of those who have seen the film say that is the subject of your suspicions? Obviously not, why bother?
And a few lines above we said that the position Conspiranoids in question is so ludicrous that hardly worth bothering to rebut it. Why, however, strive to do this? In the program itself are the answer. Street survey not only many citizens are expressing doubts (well, interventions could be selected), not just a group of students eager preteens points to the conspiracy theory (well, you know, the naivety and ignorance of the very young, the romantic view of things at that stage of life ...), but when the driver breaks into a classroom program of a faculty of science and asked to raise their hands who are confident that the Humans have walked on the moon ... Nobody here does! They, the supposed intellectual elite of our society (as himself points Gámez, we suspect that breeching, a few seconds before)! Even one of the students takes refuge in a so-called scientific approach to justify their doubts (we mentioned already at the ready to go, right?, "As scientists we are," says ... anda is you do not or anything to deserve that description). Unfortunately, the ridiculous and unsustainable certain irrational beliefs need not be directly proportional to the lack of dissemination and lack roots in society, that is what forced to fight them.

The inaugural program suffers from certain defects of form (the hazing, inevitably, is paid), as you can blame some weak elements in the argument and been left looking more than a loose end (spoiler facts than usual have already been ordered to crush in various places on the Internet), and even engages in occasional error in the round, as the Soviet leader to represent the time by the image of Stalin, when he, at the time, and had been dead for over a decade (the President of the USSR, in 1969, was Brezhnev). Still, nothing unforgivable, that is not improved in future installments and, of course, small by comparison with the positive aspects of such a proposal. To highlight the contributions of luxury, like those of Pedro Miguel Etxenike and Pedro Duque, to name more names may sound the general public. The end result: Informational while tremendously enjoyable.

And if you're lucky enough to live in Euskadi (the beautiful land it), reception of channels broadcast the program, do not worry, because we have the Internet, blurs the boundaries, is a window to the world and all that. So here sional and stay alert to the emergence of the next deliveries, if you find you before me, let me know.

If you want more, but this time at first hand, I refer to the personal blogs of the perpetrators of the matter, namely here, here and here . Both blogs, of course, interesting and recomendabilísimos for themselves, regardless of the topic at hand. And to complete the menu, even we can offer a making-of shooting. You're welcome.

Posted by admin at 12:31 PM

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