Tonight, at 9 Central/10 Eastern, it’s time for the second episode in the History Channel’s series on evolution: Evolve – Guts.
It doesn’t just take willpower to survive. It takes guts–in the form of a digestive system that turns food into fuel. Look closely at the role guts have played in shaping some of Earth’s most successful animals: tyrannosaurs, snakes, cows, humans and others. Take a 575-million year journey that begins with the planet’s first multi-cellular organisms and ends at our dinner tables. Watch as live-action natural history sequences, CGI, epic docudrama, and experimental science help to illustrate our and our fellow species’ eternal struggle for survival on earth.
I think I’d rather hear more about the digestive systems of protists, Trichoplax, sponges, and cnidarians than T. rex again, but shall we watch it together as we did last week?
Can we have a program on the guts of Creationists? They don’t seem able to stomach the truth.
Dear PZ, I would be interested in knowing how, or when you became an atheist yourself, or whether you always were, as far as you remember. Did you become an atheist as a consequence of hearing things more or less the way you yourself express them?
Vincent
“protists, Trichoplax, sponges, and cnidarians”
Oh, doc, I love it when you talk dirty…
but shall we watch it together as we did last week?
Yes, please!
@#2
“A longer profile of yours truly”
Underneath his picture. Read and understand. And for the really lazy ones, here is the link: http://citypages.com/2005-11-23/news/the-mad-scientist
Yes, we shall.
anyone able to get the Ray Comfort schmoze fest on to stream for them right now? Or am I off by an hour?
@#5 Oh, I see, his atheism came by itself, as it should.
Yes! I need me some more good ol’ intestinal fortitude. I’ll be watching. Although, I wish they would stop lusting over the T-rex already…
T-Rex sells tickets.
Yes! I need me some more good ol’ intestinal fortitude. I’ll be watching. Although, I wish they would stop lusting over the T-rex already…
Ok got the stream working. Are you starting a thread PZ? These two are already discussing it without Ray even on yet and it’s bad already.
It’s also shaped a lot of successful presidents. And comedians:
Cause that’s where the truth comes from ladies and gentlemen. The gut. Do you know you have more nerve endings in your stomach than in your head? Look it up. Now somebody’s gonna say, “I did look that up and it’s wrong.” Well mister, that’s cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, try looking it up in your gut. I did. And my gut tells me that’s how our nervous system works. Now I know some of you may not trust your gut… yet. But with my help you will. (– Stephen Colbert)
I’ll have to wait for YouTube. *pout*
Well you know PZ they have to keep the simple folk interested too. I bet T-rex will have some part in every episode. You saw how well Jurrasic Park did…well the first one that is. hehe.
I don’t know whether to be happy or disappointed about this:
Last night during the Daily Show/Colbert Report, Comedy Central was running ads about the Dinosaur Fight Night program, which will run right before Evolution. Should I be happy that maybe more people will tune in to watch dinosaurs fighting, and then maybe stay long enough to learn something about evolution? Or should I be disappointed because the advertising people at the History Channel have found that the Daily Show/Colbert Report crowd are more likely to tune into a show about dinosaurs fighting than they are to tune into a show about evolution?
Um, I’m pretty sure that journey ends in our toilets.
I will definitely be watching.
Get used to the idea that “Evolve” isn’t a degenerate presentation of evo-devo on TV; it’s an enlightened presentation of the usual dinosaur fights.
“but shall we watch it together”
I get together (virtually) with a group of friends to watch cheesy movies once a month. We use a live chat to laugh and make comments while the movie is running. Someone should open up some sort of live chat so we can all bring our laptops in and get some sort of live commentary going when these shows air.
They sure get off to T Rex.
and psalm pilot, I’ll give you a hundred dollars and convert if you give an answer to the theorem of epicurus that doesn’t involve impotence, malevolence, and of course involves a theistic god existing.
Psalm Pilot = No Pilot
Flying blind with all the other wackaloons….
Does theological mental masturbation result in hairy psalms?
I liked both shows last week but was disappointed that the next show aired was about the biblical flood.
*sigh*
The liveblog was amazingly fun. ^_^ I would love to do the same, especially since I’ll be at home and able to use an actual COMPUTER to reply this time, instead of my cell phone! Hehe…
Do you suppose they put biology on the History Channel because the Discovery Channel has recently changed to the All Crab Fishing Network?
looking forward to it though. I enjoyed the last installment.
… and if you missed “Evolve: Eyes” last week, they’ve got an encore showing scheduled to broadcast right afterwards at 11:00 PM EDT.
Alas, T. Rex’s appeal to the lowest common denominator…. Sigh. They will, not doubt, throw in several over the life of this series. Ah well, I will still enjoy tuning in to see “Guts” tonight.
Re “Jurassic Fight Club”
I have not seen this show, but I would not dismiss it out of hand. There was a similar show on one of these channels (THC, TDC, or TLC) that created computer and mechanical models of big predators to try to determine which would win a direct confrontation, like Great White vs Siberian Tiger. I thought it was a pretty effective format to present a lot of interesting biology about what makes these creatures such superb predators. I would expect that “JFC” would be similar. Is it?