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BBC Radio 4, Book of the Week - The Old Ways, Episode 1 of 5

Author Robert Macfarlane follows some ancient routes in the UK and overseas. As well as having adventures on the way - as you do on foot - he ponders the creation of old paths, the people who trod them, and how they resonate in today's landscapes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01k9q6j
 
I've just rewatched an excellent documentary on BBC Four on Turner. The angle on this is how his paintings were a reflection of the raw dynamism of the industrial age as Britain turned from sail to locomotion. Throwing in some references to early theories on cloud structure, the sun itself and magnetic fields, it's definitely worth a watch.
What interested me was how his famous Fighting Temeraire is echoed in the final locomotive painting. The ghostly palette of the ship is applied to the whole landscape in the latter as the black and fiery locomotive thunders over a bridge.
 
I've just rewatched an excellent documentary on BBC Four on Turner. The angle on this is how his paintings were a reflection of the raw dynamism of the industrial age as Britain turned from sail to locomotion. Throwing in some references to early theories on cloud structure, the sun itself and magnetic fields, it's definitely worth a watch.
What interested me was how his famous Fighting Temeraire is echoed in the final locomotive painting. The ghostly palette of the ship is applied to the whole landscape in the latter as the black and fiery locomotive thunders over a bridge.

Did you spot the hare, desperately trying to outrun Progress?
 
BBC Radio 4, Natural Histories, Hare

There is a roof boss in a church in Devon of three hares running after one another in a circle. Whilst three hares can be clearly seen and each hare has two ears, when you count the ears there are only three.What does this motif mean and where else can it be found? All is revealed when Brett Westwood goes in search of the truth about the elusive and magical Mad March Hare, learns about an ancient coin bearing the image of a hare, and has an unforgettable encounter with several wild hares on a Norfolk farm. Producer Sarah Blunt.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08v09c7#play
 
I highly-recommend Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Sandwich Bar, which has ended all-too-soon on Radio 4 UK. A new series is promised soon (very soon, I hope)

Meantime, try this online conduit to his uber-articulate excellence http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b083vq05/episodes/player

(You may need to pledge the BBC a kidney, and membership/non-membership of somethingorother, but just say whatever to get to the good stuff)....
My name is Alexei Yuri Gagarin Siege of Stalingrad Glorious Five Year Plan Sputnik Tractor Moscow Dynamo Back Four Balowski. Me Dad was a bit of a Communist, know what I mean?
 
Ghost stories by H G Wells on BBC 4 extra http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08wb7hr

Thank you! I love HG Wells' supernatural stories. Read them as a child, found them thought-provoking rather than scary.

In the Inexperienced Ghost one there's a Mason who recognises the ghost's hand-passes as Masonic and is able to demonstrate the missing one.
Nobody asks, where have the Masons learned that? It's assumed that the Masons just, y'know, know.

That stayed with me, the idea that the Masons (and other secret societies) might know things that they have no business with, and can get away with it because of who they are. This is what I took away from the story.
 
I highly-recommend Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Sandwich Bar, which has ended all-too-soon on Radio 4 UK. A new series is promised soon (very soon, I hope)

Meantime, try this online conduit to his uber-articulate excellence http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b083vq05/episodes/player

(You may need to pledge the BBC a kidney, and membership/non-membership of somethingorother, but just say whatever to get to the good stuff)....
My name is Alexei Yuri Gagarin Siege of Stalingrad Glorious Five Year Plan Sputnik Tractor Moscow Dynamo Back Four Balowski. Me Dad was a bit of a Communist, know what I mean?
I loved it. Alexei is as good now as he was in his "Stuff" heyday - he works better when he's calm, with only occasional flashes of hysteria :).
 
The History Hour episode covers Roswell, sex scandal in USSR and the first non stop hot air balloon ride round the world.

It's on tonight at 00.06 on the BBC world service or available right now on the Iplayer type thing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p057hsyv
 
BBC Radio 3 - The Essay - An Introduction to the Mabinogion
The Essay, The Mabinogion Revisited Episode 1 of 5

Professor Sioned Davies, Chair of Welsh at Cardiff University and author of the first new translation of The Mabinogion for thirty years, reflects on the ancient tales.

Internationally recognized as the world's finest arc of Celtic mythology, the tales in the four 'Branches' which make up the Mabinogion reveal an ancient world of gods and monsters, heroes, kings and quests. In this series of The Essay, five Welsh writers present a different story or theme from the Mabinogion across five nights.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b082kd7n
 
In the wee small hours of tomorrow morning Talking Pictures will be showing this docu-drama about Bob Lazar and Area 51


Sat 26 Aug 17 3:30 Dreamland 1998. Docu-drama. An explosive investigation into Area 51 and the story of Bob Lazar.

Virgin 445
Freeview 81
Sky channel 343
Freesat 306
Youview 81
 
Punt, PI returns today! BBC Radio 4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00krfns/broadcasts/upcoming

Series 10, The Lost Nukes: In this tenth anniversary edition, Steve's called in to investigate the unlikely disappearance of American and Russian nuclear weapons - with assistance from best-selling thriller writer Frederick Forsyth.

At first, Steve's sceptical - surely no nuclear power could actually lose possession of weapons capable of causing Armageddon. But as his investigation gathers pace, the story starts to becomes rather disturbing.

From an H-bomb lost over Savannah, Georgia to a cache of so-called 'suitcase nukes' which rumours suggest could still be stashed in modern day Moldova, Punt weighs up the evidence - with a little detour via Dorking...
 
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From an H-bomb lost over Savannah, Georgia to a cache of so-called 'suitcase nukes' which rumours suggest could still be stashed in modern day Moldova, Punt weighs up the evidence - with a little detour via Dorking...
By odd coincidence, my Mum mentioned that to me today. Probably because my nephew did a bit of charity work in Moldova.
 
Speaking of Punt P.I., he's on The Archive Hour in fifteen minutes:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b095pjyd

Joined by Jon Ronson and Ian Rankin to discuss why we love mysteries. Sounds great, and the clips are always good on that programme. Available after broadcast at that link.
 
Horizon - How Big is the Universe?

Featuring the largest true colour image of the milky way, created by combining multiple photographs, a 3D rendering of the observable universe & more. The latest theory, arrived at by using fancy triangulation, is that the universe is infinite & 'flat', as opposed to the 'expanding bubble' view.
 
Horizon - How Big is the Universe?

Featuring the largest true colour image of the milky way, created by combining multiple photographs, a 3D rendering of the observable universe & more. The latest theory, arrived at by using fancy triangulation, is that the universe is infinite & 'flat', as opposed to the 'expanding bubble' view.
Infinite? How can they know this? The oldest observable light/heat is just over 14 billion light-years away, which does rather suggest a finite dimension. Unless... the empty space of the Universe existed long before the matter came into being?
 
Infinite? How can they know this? The oldest observable light/heat is just over 14 billion light-years away, which does rather suggest a finite dimension. Unless... the empty space of the Universe existed long before the matter came into being?

Don't ask me, you'd have to watch the prog to find out. It's somehow arrived at by triangulation which takes into account curvature of space. If you made a triangle on earth no matter how large, the angles would add up to more than 180 degrees due to curvature. They don't notice this when measuring triangles made to distant objects which leads to the view that the universe is not a sphere but 'flat', which then leads on to it being infinite. That's as far as my 'understanding' goes.
 
Speaking of Punt P.I., he's on The Archive Hour in fifteen minutes:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b095pjyd

Joined by Jon Ronson and Ian Rankin to discuss why we love mysteries. Sounds great, and the clips are always good on that programme. Available after broadcast at that link.

It's a great listen!

"Steve Punt explores the eternal appeal of a good mystery, drawing on 10 years of experience as Radio 4's resident gumshoe, Punt PI.

Steve's joined by Jon Ronson and Ian Rankin to dissect the components of a compelling mystery. From the case of the handsome lieutenant poisoned by a partridge in the 1930s, to hundreds of children collapsing in a field one summer in 1980, Steve Punt's alter ego has spent the last 10 years travelling the country investigating bizarre cases, crimes and riddles for the Radio 4 series Punt PI. But what is it about an unsolved murder or an unexplained phenomenon that always fascinates us? And what elements does a mystery need to hold our attention?

Historian Fern Riddell, criminologist Elizabeth Yardley and former detective Mark Williams-Thomas also help Steve with his enquiries"
 
It was kind of a greatest hits compilation, but if like me you haven't heard them all it was a very good primer.
 
Good old Jacques Peretti is back with a new series, BBC 2 tonight at eight:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b096sjk2

It's called Billion Dollar Deals and How They Changed Your World, and is about the deals that made enormous profits then had far reaching effects, but never made the headlines.

Tonight's episode (1 of 3) from the description:

In the late seventies, Henry Gadsden, the CEO of a large pharmaceutical company, told a business magazine that the industry had a problem. In treating disease, they were limiting their client base. But by reinventing illness, treating the well and making the taking of prescription drugs as everyday as chewing a stick of gum, they could medicate modern life itself.

From ADHD in children to the way GPs diagnose depression in adults, we look at the deals that have transformed the way we talk about and treat mental health. But what has been their real legacy? Jacques Peretti investigates the deals struck between health professionals and pharmaceutical companies and questions whether Gadsden's dream to medicate modern life has finally been realised.

One for the Conspiracy subforum!
 
That was extremely interesting, from how arbitrary a diagnosis of mental illness can be because the pharma companies have designed the tests to make them profits by handing out the pills, to the news that massive internet companies like Google and Facebook are selling your personal information to them to better place you on their pills. Loads more to it, including some berk who pops loads of pills because he believes they make him some kind of enhanced Superman. At least he says he's happy.

Next week's is about how paper money is being phased out and profits from online transactions are "the new oil".
 
Next week's is about how paper money is being phased out and profits from online transactions are "the new oil".
I've become concerned that cash may be phased out completely. It'll ruin the UK economy if it goes, and it's the poor people who'll suffer most.
 
I've become concerned that cash may be phased out completely. It'll ruin the UK economy if it goes, and it's the poor people who'll suffer most.

Yeah, when profit becomes a motive it means everyone's data is valuable, the person not so much. It'll be interesting to see what Jacques finds out.
 
I've become concerned that cash may be phased out completely. It'll ruin the UK economy if it goes, and it's the poor people who'll suffer most.
An de-facto currency will emerge, potatoes, whiskey, something. I think we're probably wired to barter tangible things.
 
An de-facto currency will emerge, potatoes, whiskey, something. I think we're probably wired to barter tangible things.
True. The black economy will survive some way. It's actually necessary for the smooth running of the economy, as they found in the Gorbachev era in the USSR.
 
That was extremely interesting, from how arbitrary a diagnosis of mental illness can be because the pharma companies have designed the tests to make them profits by handing out the pills, to the news that massive internet companies like Google and Facebook are selling your personal information to them to better place you on their pills. Loads more to it, including some berk who pops loads of pills because he believes they make him some kind of enhanced Superman. At least he says he's happy.

I wish I could relocate a particular very interesting podcast, possibly also on YouTube, by a self-styled 'whistleblower' psychiatrist from the US. In brief, his concerns were precisely about the way drugs for the most infamous psychotic conditions, aka 'the family of schizophrenias', to use the latest jargon, are prescribed.

His analysis went something along the lines of: anyone choosing psychiatric medicine as their career path is considered a bit second-rate by their medical school colleagues, hence once established in practice they are very anxious to be seen as 'proper doctors' with a serious scientific approach - diagnosing and treating real diseases with expertly hand-picked drugs to tweak this and that neurotransmitter. But the foundations of this scientific certainty are a bit shaky: schizophrenia, for example, has always been explained as a chemical imbalance in the brain - at one time dopamine was announced to be the culprit...then when the pharmaceutical companies almost accidentaly came up with a load of drugs related to noradrenaline, suddenly that was the key to the imbalances - and the new pills were dished out accordingly - with some success, but no convincing explanation thereof. He also contended that the 'chemical imbalance' hypothesis has never been tested: the only way would be to analyse the cerebrospinal fluid of patients, yet such a study has never been undertaken (probably not a very pleasant procedure). Blood or urine tests etc. are of no use in this case.

I've discussed his (sorry, can't even remember the chap's name) opinions with people I know who are involved in mental health services, both in the NHS and privately and they were not in the least hostile to his findings - rather approving in fact.

The upshot is that the drugs do seem to help a lot of patients suffering psychotic episodes (although some just get better by themselves, for which there is no medical explanation), but for psysicians to pretend that they really know what is going on is a bit fraudulent. If they'd just tell patients that such-and-such drug has helped people struggling with the same problems and is therefore worth a try that would be a more honest approach.
 
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Not really Fortean (though there's an element of parapolitics), but Ken Burns doc The Vietnam War is showing on BBC Four (Mondays) currently, and is strongly recommended for its clarity on a real mess of a situation. Episodes 3 and 4 are on tonight at ten, the first two are on iPlayer if you want the introduction and lead-up. Not an easy watch, but very well done.
 
Just a reminder, tonight, BBC 2 at 8, Jacques Peretti covers how internet transactions are the new gold rush. Be careful of those payment details!
 
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