• Tag Archives life in cold blood
  • One more reason why David Attenborough is cool.

    David Attenborough doing what he does best.
    David Attenborough doing what he does best.

    For anyone who enjoys nature documentaries, Sir David Attenborough is a household name.? His team is easily responsible for some of the best nature docs ever created (e.g. Planet Earth, Blue Planet, Life in the Undergrowth and of course: Life in Cold Blood).? A stranger to retirement, the? 82 year old documentarian extraordinaire is showing no signs of slowing down.

    His latest doc is on the bicentennial anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth.

    As I have alluded to before,? I find Attenborough and his team’s work on nature docs to be of the highest calibre partly because they don’t hide the science from the viewer. Often, Attenborough’s team works hand in hand with scientists,? which has lead to the filmmaker’s capturing information that has never before been documented by science (e.g. new species, or new behaviours). Well now there is one more neat thing to add to the list. Sir David takes no shit from creationists.

    In an article from the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph,? Attenborough talks about the hate mail that he receives from creationists,? and how he deals with it. Rather than go the brash Richard Dawkins route,? Attenborough seems to prefer a more matter of fact approach.? It’s hard to argue with the results.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/4345830/Sir-David-Attenborough-I-get-hate-mail-telling-me-to-burn-in-hell-for-not-crediting-God.html

    I would be curious to see what – if any – the rebuttals to the eye-boring worm would be.

    ~ Jura – who just checked his arm for devine bot flies.


  • Killing time in Sydney

    I was hoping I would have been back in the saddle by now, but not so much yet. I’m spending the rest of this week in Sydney, Australia (beautiful place, even if I did come at the wrong time of year).

    There still hasn’t been much in the way of herp news. Though there was a recent paper that came out on turtle origins that I feel the urge to talk about. We’ll see though.

    For those still in the U.S. David Attenborough’s Life in Cold Blood series should just be starting up on Animal Planet. Sounds like a ripe time for me to pick up the series on DVD now. On the bright side, David Attenborough’s heavy involvement in the series should mean that American audiences should be treated to the same top notch narration that the U.K. got.

    That’s it for now. For the Aussie locals, I’ll be killing time in Randwick Junction, Coogee Bay, and UNSW. If you guys have any suggestions on stuff to do, please feel free to drop me a line.

    ~Jura


  • Life in Cold Blood causes sale surge.

    From UKPets.co.uk, we have this interesting bit of news:

    Life In Cold Blood Sells Reptiles
    According to the UK pet store chain, Pets at Home, more people than ever are interested in owning a reptile as a pet, thanks to BBC’s Life in Cold Blood series. The company reports that sales of Fire-bellied Newts and Albino Clawed Frogs have more than doubled in some stores.

    Following the debut of the Sir David Attenborough series on 3rd February, and its second instalment[sic] the following week, Pets at Home received a surge of enquiries from customers regarding keeping reptiles and amphibians as pets.

    Follow the link for more. I think that this is just awesome that a documentary can spark the public’s interest this much. it will be interesting to see if an effect similar to this will be seen when the series hits U.S. shores.

    Till then, I wait…and remind folks that while the interest in owning a reptile as a pet is great; do make sure that you have done your homework on the particular species that you are interested in maintaining. After all, we are talking about living beings here; not toys.

    ~Jura


  • Life in Cold Blood

    Life in Cold Blood

    I just found out that David Attenborough’s latest (and possibly greatest) documentary series: Life in Cold Blood is now out on BBC One.

    I remember talking to a fellow who was working on this series, about 2 years back. At the time, he mentioned that the goal was to portray reptiles doing things no one had ever seen before. It sounded great, and now I’m looking forward to seeing how successful it was in its portrayals.

    Unfortunately, as a citizen of the U.S., I’m going to have to wait until it gets released on DVD here, much like Planet Earth, or Life in the Undergrowth…or Blue Planet: Seas of Life…or…you get the point.

    Damn you BBC. Why do you have to make such enticing programming. >:)

    Anyway, for those in the same boat as me, make sure to visit the official site. It features clips and interesting behind the scenes shots. We might not be able to watch it yet, but we can at least whet our appetites.

    ~ Jura