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AE on Telly News (NEW CONCEPTS)
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Mick Harper
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One thing that interested me in episode one is how East Africa is such a great place to find fossils. The population density is very low so it hasn't been built on. It's very dry so the fossils can survive undisturbed on the ground for thousands of years. You can also pay Africans a few dollars a day to wander around the bush looking for pieces of skull. What luck that we evolved there!

This absolutely distorting factor is mentioned in THOBR where it is wondered why human beings always seem to come from places they would never dream of going to.
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DPCrisp


In: Bedfordshire
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I'm never quite sure what they mean by "fossils". "Proper" fossils where organic material has been replaced by hard minerals need to be submerged, which suggests you probably would have dreamt of going there back then. But then there are hard remains like teeth and bones that just haven't been destroyed yet and might be best preserved in an "inert" environment, like under a thick later of dry dust; in which case you wouldn't dream of going there. (Should there be fossils from all stages in between?)

So what is it they're picking up in East Africa?

Plato mentioned the unusually preservative properties of Egypt in regard to records of Atlantis, by the way.
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DPCrisp


In: Bedfordshire
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Look at the website of the organisation behind the documentary
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/

It's a bit scary because they are clearly promoting a religion.

Where are you getting that from, Grant? I didn't see anything promoting-a-religion-y in a cursory glance over the website.

I don't hold with this "science is better, religion is bad for knowledge" type stuff, myself. What's scary about it?
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Grant



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DP Crisp wrote

I don't hold with this "science is better, religion is bad for knowledge" type stuff, myself. What's scary about it?

I got the impression from the website and the TV programme that they would be very disappointed to find evidence that modern man evolved in Europe. For instance, what about this quote on the page about Stephen Oppenheimer:

Early Europeans were not the first to learn to paint, carve, develop complex culture and speak, and do not represent a major biological advance. Evidence indicates that humans must have arrived in India already painting and fully 'modern'.

But there is no evidence from Africa of any art earlier than about 10,000 years ago, whereas the Chauvet cave art in France dates from 30,000 years BP.

Out of Africa suits our modern religion of liberalism and multiculturalism. And I think religion is bad for knowledge, whether it's the religion of the Pope or the secular religion of Dawkins and Gould.
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Grant



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Been watching Wimbledon on telly - was there ever a more boring sport apart from cricket? The only thing which diverted me from the boredom was noticing how muscular most of the players are now, both men and women.

Now, when I was a puny 20 year old I used to lift the odd dumbell in a pathetic and futile attempt to be more attractive to women. I gave up when I read that the maximum amount of muscle you could put on in a year just by lifting weights was nine pounds (also that women were more interested in the size of a man's wallet than his biceps). And to achieve that you had to practically live in the gym.

But so many of today's players have rippling muscles as though all they do is pump iron. And some of them go from puny to strongman in a year or two.
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Grant



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Let's apply epistemology to this.
- There appears to be a drug problem amongst all professional athletes who require either power or endurance, ie most sports.
- Tennis requires both power and endurance.
- The drug-testing regime is laughable in tennis.
- Many tennis players drop out through injury before magically appearing just before a big event.
- Therefore, tennis must be riddled with drug cheats. In fact, it would be more surprising if there were no cheats.
But what gets me is that no-one writing about the sport or commentating even hints at this. The reason is that no-one wants to rock the lucrative boat, whether it's the TV station which has paid for coverage or the washed up ex-star commentating.
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Grant



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According to the press, we now have 55,000 swine flu cases in the UK. But only a tiny number have been verified by blood test because potential swine flu sufferers are told not to go to the doctor. Instead, the doctor checks whether you have at least three of the following symptoms: fever; aching limbs; runny nose; cough; headache; sore throat; fatigue; vomiting; diarrhoea. If you have, he puts you down as a potential swine flu victim and asks you to send a "flu friend" to pick up Tamiflu.

Now my question to AE'ers is given that a mere phone call to your GP gives you a holiday in the middle of the summer with a worried employer saying "please don't come back for at least a fortnight," how many of these cases are genuine?
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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Grant wrote:
Now my question to AE'ers is given that a mere phone call to your GP gives you a holiday in the middle of the summer with a worried employer saying "please don't come back for at least a fortnight," how many of these cases are genuine?


LOL!

Brilliant.
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DPCrisp


In: Bedfordshire
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How big are the swings compared to the roundabouts, in your experience?

We hear about laziness and absence costing us dearly, but we also hear that most people prefer to stay at work, or go back to work early, when they're actually sick but reckon they can still do something useful.
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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The odd thing is why anybody is worried. It has already been established that swine flu is exactly like all other types of flu, ie the average sufferer is mildly ill for a week, off work for a few days and very occasionally dies. The central scare headline "100, 000 a day will succumb" is about average for the flu season, as is "10,000 will die". We don't normally notice because it is strictly background, about as significant as the annual deaths-on-the-road figure. Now, if you die of flu, you get name-checked on the national news! The whole thing is very weird.
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nemesis8


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Mick Harper wrote:
The odd thing is why anybody is worried................Now, if you die of flu, you get name-checked on the national news! The whole thing is very weird.

That's exactly the point, people worry about what is in the news. The fact that Swine Flu is "NEWS" is the absolute proof that in reality people have no need to worry about it.
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DPCrisp


In: Bedfordshire
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The media will turn their attention elsewhere... people will suddenly notice they haven't heard about it for a while and think it's all over... but the flu will still be running its course as normal.
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TelMiles


In: London
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I had swine flu.
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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You had the flu?
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TelMiles


In: London
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Many times, but saying I had swine flu sounds sexier.
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