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News Briefs 09-12-2014

By Gregon

Short and sweet so that I can sleep!

Quote of the Day:

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.

Alan Watts

Greg
Editor
Greg is the owner-editor of The Daily Grail, as well as the author of a number of books including Stop Worrying, There Probably is an Afterlife.
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17 Comments

  2. Surprising…human
    I’m glad you posted this article Greg. And I’m glad that the article brings up the fact that more people are concerned with the fact that logically a major TV network wouldn’t let their host actually get eaten and not give a shit about the snake. An anaconda MAY be able to swallow a man, but it would kill itself in the process. Hell even swallowing an alligator or croc would be a difficult struggle for the snake. But man, that host must feel like his life is worthless when all the 12 year olds on Twitter post “When I watch a show called “Eaten Alive” I expect someone to get eaten alive.” Yeah…insurance won’t let you do that which is why he was decked out in a suit of armor and a two-way radio.

    [quote=]However, the only hazards anyone mentions in the special are the potential dangers to Rosolie and members of his crew, not the dangers this stunt poses to the snake.[/quote]

    If someone with Animal Planet is reading this post can you please stop repeatedly proving that you no longer give a shit about animals and only care about humans? Just change the name to Human Planet and get it over with because you’re making my misanthropy swell uncontrollably. I actually care about snakes a lot and have saved many a “creepy crawly” from my gutters and under my house and after years of growing up alongside them I’ve learned that snakes are not to be hated. They are animals, like everything else. I have more to fear from the rutting deer than a 3 foot long pine snake. It’s a shame that an entire generation of young people will grow up with your current programming and not know the importance of animals. I think I’ll go sit in the corner now and weep for the children ;_;

  3. Surprising…human
    Somewhere, Steve Irwin is twirling in his grave.

    I’m glad you posted this article Greg. And I’m glad that the article brings up the fact that more people are concerned with the fact that logically a major TV network wouldn’t let their host actually get eaten and not give a shit about the snake. An anaconda MAY be able to swallow a man, but it would kill itself in the process. Hell even swallowing an alligator or croc would be a difficult struggle for the snake. But man, that host must feel like his life is worthless when all the 12 year olds on Twitter post “When I watch a show called “Eaten Alive” I expect someone to get eaten alive.” Yeah…insurance won’t let you do that which is why he was decked out in a suit of armor and a two-way radio.

    [quote=]However, the only hazards anyone mentions in the special are the potential dangers to Rosolie and members of his crew, not the dangers this stunt poses to the snake.[/quote]

    If someone with Animal Planet or Discovery (it’s the same company) is reading this post can you please stop repeatedly proving that you no longer give a shit about animals and only care about humans? Just change the name to Human Planet and get it over with because you’re making my misanthropy swell uncontrollably. I actually care about snakes a lot and have saved many a “creepy crawly” from my gutters and under my house and after years of growing up alongside them I’ve learned that snakes are not to be hated. They are animals, like everything else. I have more to fear from the rutting deer than a 3 foot long pine snake. It’s a shame that an entire generation of young people will grow up with your current programming and not know the importance of animals. I think I’ll go sit in the corner now and weep for the children ;_;

    1. Eaten Alive

      That's basically the state of major TV networks, but what they're actually eating… is their own tail.

      It's the logical conclusion of attempting to lure audience ratings with stunts more suitable for a carnival show –"watch this bearded lady be eaten alive in front of your eyes! Not suitable for the faint of heart!"– after they managed to exhaust the cheap bag of "reality TV", because focusing on the original premise in which the network was founded –providing educational content– just doesn't cut it anymore.

      And I'm personally worried over the fact that a few close friends of mine are actually trying to pitch shows to some networks. IMO they should instead try to pursue a different avenue, instead of catering to the whims of short-sighted caretakers of a dying medium. Netflix and Amazon are pointing the way to the future, friends. Let's pay attention to where the wind blows.

      1. There is nothing inherently
        There is nothing inherently bad about the TV box, and there are a few very good channels and shows yet on it (LinkTV, The Documentary Channel, HBO Movie, AMC Movie, and Pivot come to mind) though the distinction between TeeVee and Netflix for instance grows fainter by the day since there are many people who use the box solely to stream downloaded video of course. Whether or not the streaming thing is going to maintain without its own editorial/commercial pressures and intrusions remains to be seen. The silliness of most of commercial TV can be ignored even if that leaves one with very little to watch for what you pay monthly for the service, but then how much of value is there available on Netflix, and what are the probabilties that such services will escape pushing and featuring rampant, shallow silliness as well? That is a rhetorical question.

        It should be noted too that Animal Planet does put out some good stuff here and there in spite of sensationalist stunts. AP has done a lot to raise ecological awareness for instance, even if it sometimes contradicts that message. You can not generalize about Animal Planet based on the swallowing snake episode. It is mostly silly and lightweight, but not entirely so. They also created “The Haunted” which is one of the best paranormal shows using witness interviews and well done reneactments alongside to illuminate some of the more amazing hauntings known. That show is mostly in re-run now because it is too expensive to make in today’s straightened economy and more sparse advertising dollar. Reality TV is of course much cheaper to produce,a nd there is a lot of it which means that more “mistakes will be made.”

        1. re:
          RPJ: Because it’s all about the Benjamins baby. While I can’t speak for your friends, whom I’d like to believe are smart enough to pull themselves out of the breech before it swallows them whole, so to speak, I can say that a lot of the pandering networks are doing today is because they know shock and awe gives them ratings and therefore more money.

          Emlong: You are right not ALL programing on Animal Planet/Discovery is awful or out to get ratings. I still love Mythbusters and River Monsters, but I miss some of the WAY they had their old programming as well. I understand shows come and go, but the style/format is what has changed for the worse. The Haunted isn’t even on anymore and that was not a bad show. They are exactly what they are trying to become, “Surprisingly human.”

          I watch TV I’m not immune to the “junk food” series of any channel they have on now. My point to both of you being, per my first comment, I don’t care in the end what type of show you want to focus on (because it’s not going to change), but dammit if you are going to call yourself any kind of Nature related channel, you can’t go around pestering wildlife just to make an “edgy” episode. The way they treated this snake is appalling and it pisses me the hell off. Or making any show featuring ridiculous information that just makes a species look bad. A whole lot of panda-ering.

          1. The Haunted
            Both “The Haunted and “A Haunting” still run quite a bit in reruns – at least in my DirecTV package on Animal Planet and one other channel I can’t remember the name of.

          2. Haunts
            I don’t know since I don’t have DirectTV and from what I can see on my DVR it’s not on, so maybe it’s just certain providers?

      2. Who’s really the source of TV programming travesties . . .
        It’s the viewers who tune in in large numbers to watch this garbage.

        Let’s be brutally honest, a rare few want to see Mozart’s Don Giovanni staged live, but a hell of a lot of us want to watch a man swallowed by a snake or some fake Kardashian family drama, while sitting in front of the TV with a six pack, Doritos, and Slim Jims.

        Television is only giving us what we, the audience, have demonstrated we want to watch. If we want to blame anyone for the sorry state of TV programming, we must first look in the mirror.

        People are actually upset because a man didn’t get eaten by a snake on camera. What does that say about us as a species?

    2. The tribute quote at the end
      The tribute quote at the end of today’s articles recalls Alan Watt’s “Tao – The Watercourse Way” – the last book he wrote. I was given a hardback of it by my mother in 1975, and it remains one of the dearest books in my library. It is a small, exquisite little thing that also includes a wonderful essay on Chinese written characters. This is really a series of meditations and not necessarily an academically rigorous exposition of Taoist philosophy. It is what Watts personally “made” of Taoism.

      http://www.amazon.com/Tao-The-Watercourse-Alan-Watts/dp/0394733118

  4. Debunking Randi
    Odd how the author of this article says that “Carlos” was Randi’s partner, Deyvi Pena, when actually it was Jose Alvarez. At least that’s what his passport said at the time of the trip to Australia.

    1. The Truth Wears Off
      Speaking of The New Yorker Magazine I bumped into this earlier article about the crisis in scientific empiricism. Can’t remember whether TDG already posted this:

      http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/12/13/the-truth-wears-off

      “The (statistical) decline effect is troubling because it reminds us how difficult it is to prove anything.”

      **************************************

      There is probably something much deeper going on here – perhaps having to do with so called “morphic resonance.”

    2. Fake identity
      The fake identity of Randi’s partner, and how much he may or may have not known about it, has been discussed previously here at the Grail:

      http://www.dailygrail.com/Skepticism/2011/9/Randis-Partner-Arrested-Identity-Theft

      http://www.dailygrail.com/Skepticism/2011/10/Randis-Alien-Problem

      http://www.dailygrail.com/Skepticism/2012/5/Randis-Partner-Avoids-Prison

      I seem to recall that in a NYT article, the man was using his original name as a signature in his paintings. Meaning he’s embraced his original identity.

      1. So Randi bent conspired to
        So Randi conspired to bend the law for a lover – it happens. The only interesting thing about it for me anyway is that it gives Randi a dose of his own medicine – “association fallacy” – a rhetorical technique he sometimes uses against his adversaries and victims.

  5. Randi and Carlos
    I still don’t care a bout the “channeling” hoax—apparently it was about the gullible media, but it does not mean anything.

    It should be no surprise that Randi is a hypocrite on social issues.

    I’ve made it a New Years resolution that I won’t keep trying to criticize Randi because nobody cares about Randi at all.

    He’s preaching to the choir and folks no longer care about his ‘debunkings’ (he does not put folks out of business anymore because now there’s more than 3 channels of TV)

    Although his ‘challenge’ is discontinued, folks are still allowed to try for it and plenty have been tested (true, its only the preliminaries but same thing)

    I don’t think anybody can just “do” esp or whatever—-IF there are such folks it “happens to” them and would not work under test conditions.

    1. Randi . . .
      Ironic how paranormal bloggers and Websites keep promoting him by regularly condemning him. Remember that old phrase, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” So true when it comes to the paranormal community and Randi.

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