The good side of Television.

Documetaries are so comforting. Sometimes they push the edge and emphasize conservation, saving entire ecosystems from the onslaught of man. Sometimes they tackle unconfortable subjects like mental health, eugenics, and genetic enginering. I sppose this is why I prefer the pure nature docu's (e.g. Lemurs of Madagascar) and history docu's (e.g. Ancient Egypt mysteries) to some of the others more prone to raise ethical turmoil in my own head. I know I'm dodging it, but it's one of my few pasttimes and I have the right to watch what I want. I don't completely shy away from distrubing programmes, but on the whole I watch things that bring out that "Gee-whiz" feeling which, to me, science is all about.

I remember wandering the halls of the LA County Museum of Natural History as a child being absolutely transported into the land of the dinosaurs, or the large mesozoic herbivores. Here, right before me was something that was unimaginably old, yet was once alive. It blew my mind then and in a much smaller way it still does today. Plus the gift stores at places like that are awesome. I remember being told my my mom I could pick out one book, and after what seemed like an hour of whittling and narrowing, I finally settle on "In Search of Schrodinger's Cat," by John Gribben. It immediately stoked my interest in the world of the very tiny, and how the strange, chance laws underpinning matter and energy at that scale somehow how morphed (now we call it emerged) into the deterministic large-scale universe we see around us. It also introduced some basic nonintuitive aspect of quantuum physics that puzzle and bother me to this day. Who'd have thought a simple book, now earmarked and falling apart from use, would have led me into a such an exciting and largely misunderstood field? But at its base, good science writing for the intelligent layperson, such as low-mid-technical books that tell a story while imparting the subject's essence using methaphors and illustrations to make the concepts cleaer, whilst avoiding all but the most necessary jargoon, are a treasure.

I'm fortunate to be able to download my TV programmes from the UK as well, and the plethora of educational documentaries constantly flowing from the BBC has enouraged me that the 'intelligent' documentary, as opposed to adrenaline feuled, quick-cut format lacking much in the way of actual science that the US channels seem indundated with, is alive and. David Attenborough and John Lynch are aging but still alive. Hopefully they are the kind of people who prefer to work until they die, and I wish them both the longest, healthiest lives possible. My existence would be immeasurably poorer but for the escapist, high-quality masterpieces these gentlemen and other producers bring us on a almost nightly basis. Britain seem to be leading in quality by far on average, but contribution from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, and other countires are doing their part, if not in such a stately, refined way, Vive le documentaire; Apart from a good book, it's my preferred choice of entertainment on a night alone.