What are you watching?

Looks interesting:

Of course, it will be no surprise if I mention that Derren Brown is high on my list of insufferable TV personalities. Others making the list, again no surprises:

Stephen Fry
Brain Cox
Penn Jillette
Tim Minchin
Ricky Gervais

If arrogance were a form of energy, there's enough in that short list to shift the earth's axis.

More Spiritual Bullshit! 

Dennis Potter's last play, "Cold Lazarus" (1996), written while he was dying of cancer, about a writer who had died of cancer and had his head frozen, only for the head to be revived in the 24th century to become a (metaphorical) football between competing commercial interests:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx5U8o7PJZ4

And before anyone says anything, without wanting to spoil the plot for anyone, it is certainly not written from a materialist point of view.

[Image: lazarus.jpg]

Allan Chapman's 2003 Channel 4 documentary, "Gods in the Sky," about the development of astronomy up to the Renaissance and its relationship with religion:
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/gods.../31220-001

To describe the presentation as flamboyant would be a severe understatement. A British academic clad in bow tie, waistcoat and fob watch travels across Egypt, Greece and Italy, by camel, bicycle and vespa, depicting religious myths using marionettes. Thankfully there is plenty of self-mocking humour. The late Sir Patrick Moore makes guest appearances as the Egyptian god Ra and the Greek god Zeus.

Allan Chapman's 2003 Channel 4 documentary, "Gods in the Sky," about the development of astronomy up to the Renaissance and its relationship with religion:
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/gods.../31220-001

To describe the presentation as flamboyant would be a severe understatement. A British academic clad in bow tie, waistcoat and fob watch travels across Egypt, Greece and Italy, by camel, bicycle and vespa, depicting religious myths using marionettes. Thankfully there is plenty of self-mocking humour. The late Sir Patrick Moore makes guest appearances as the Egyptian god Ra and the Greek god Zeus.

An enjoyably silly romp through the material, yet imparting serious facts along the way. The visuals were impressive at times too.

I was puzzled that Medusa made a couple of brief appearances in the second part, but - unless I missed it - her astronomical significance wasn't explained.

There's a fascinating book by Stephen R. Wilk entitled "Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon" (2000), with all kinds of interesting ideas in it. Partly it connects the myth of Medusa with the characteristics of the constellation of Perseus, including the variable star Algol, which Wilk identifies with the head of Medusa, diminishing in brightness when Perseus puts it into his bag after cutting it off. I wonder if Chapman intended to mention Wilk's theory but didn't have time.

An episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour entitled "The Jar" from 1964, based on a short story by Ray Bradbury:
https://archive.org/details/Alfred_Hitch...he+Jar.avi

A wonderful adaptation of W. W. Jacobs's supernatural short story, "The Monkey's Paw" from 1988. Strangely unknown to the normally omniscient editors of Wikipedia, and virtually invisible elsewhere on the Internet:

UK only, available for 16 days.

From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature
2. A Temperature for Life

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0...e-for-life

This is the second of three programs on the topic of Temperature. Basic science explained vividly using a wide range of topics, from the atom to the universe, feathered dinosaurs, glass-making...


Standstill Operation
What surprised me here was the last few minutes of this programme, from about 51 minutes and a bit. A detailed explanation of cooling the body to about 20 degrees C, draining all the blood to perform surgery.

(No PSI content)