Discovery Channel "Documentary" is Shameful

It was 2 hours long, I could only watch one. Why would anyone watch 2 hours of fraud once they knew it was nothing but a fraud?
 
Dragoonster said:
Why in God's name would you cite the 1st Amendment? Did either of us claim that the Megalodon show should be illegal? That woo should not be protected as free speech?
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Yes, the 1st Amendment non-sequitur is very Sarah Palin. That is, pathetic and disqualifying.
 
LTC8K6 said:
We will now have more claims of seeing impossibly large sharks...
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What is your definition of an impossibly large shark?

The largest accurately measured great white caught of the coast of Gansbaai South Africa was 5.9m. IIRC.

Here is a link to the urban legend from the 70's relating to the shark known as the submarine, and the following journalistic prank about how easy it would be to fool the general public.

If you read the article you will find comments from the casting director for the Discovery channel asking if any of the commentators would be prepared to appear in the program and relate their stories.

I believe that there could be much larger great whites around (up to about 9m), but would stop short of classifying them as megalodon.

http://fromtheold.com/news/cape-town-shark-attack-was-it-legendary-submarine-2010011316321.html
 
hgc said:
Why do you believe that?
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Why should I believe that 6m is the largest?
Because we have only caught a 6m great white?


hgc said:
Because they're entirely different species?
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They are thought to be of the same genus, although this is disputed.

ETA: http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/evolution/carcharodon_vs_carcharocles.htm

ETA:Megalodon lives?

A number of scientifically untenable - but enormously entertaining - novels have been published, exploring just this possibility.

http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/evolution/megalodon_lives.htm
 
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Dragoonster said:
Why in God's name would you cite the 1st Amendment? Did either of us claim that the Megalodon show should be illegal? That woo should not be protected as free speech?

Why are you on this forum?

I'd much rather a response had been something like:

"You've convinced me. Not all youths are as smart as me and not all their parents immediately saw this as BS. So another several million children and adults now believe Megalodon exists. As a JREF forum member, I find this disturbing."

But as Cleon notes, you don't find it disturbing at all, since Discovery Channel got great ratings and is making $$$. I'm sure Sylvia Browne has too. And Uri Geller. And L Ron Hubbard. Have any problem with any of them? Are you a skeptic? Do you care about a future generation of skeptics? I really have no idea what your motivation is. And/or, based on this thread, why you aren't in all Browne threads defending her because she makes $$$.
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So what? Children and adults are constantly being bombarded with nonsense, what's one more show?

I'm against censorship of speech. And it's disturbing to me how many people are pro-censorship when it comes to their pet issues. See the "freedom of speech in the UK" thread for examples. The proposed UK journalism watchdog group is downright frightening to me.
 
WildCat said:
So what? Children and adults are constantly being bombarded with nonsense, what's one more show?
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I'm anti-nonsense. That's kinda why I'm on JREF.

I'm against censorship of speech. And it's disturbing to me how many people are pro-censorship when it comes to their pet issues.
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Nobody's talking about censorship of speech.

Criticizing a fauxumentary is not "censorship."

See the "freedom of speech in the UK" thread for examples. The proposed UK journalism watchdog group is downright frightening to me.
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That may be a pet issue for you, but is completely irrelevant here.
 
WildCat said:
So what? Children and adults are constantly being bombarded with nonsense, what's one more show?

I'm against censorship of speech. And it's disturbing to me how many people are pro-censorship when it comes to their pet issues. See the "freedom of speech in the UK" thread for examples. The proposed UK journalism watchdog group is downright frightening to me.
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Do you hang out here just to troll and complain, or do you actually have an interest in the subject of critical thinking?

Just curious.
 
Skwinty said:
Why should I believe that 6m is the largest?
Because we have only caught a 6m great white?
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I'm not telling you what to believe. I'm asking you why you believe that they could by 9m long, which is more than 50% longer that the longest ever measured. Do you have an answer, or is your belief unfounded?

If I said that I believe that there could be Great Whites as long as 12m, wouldn't you want to know why I concluded that?
 
hgc said:
I'm not telling you what to believe. I'm asking you why you believe that they could by 9m long, which is more than 50% longer that the longest ever measured. Do you have an answer, or is your belief unfounded?

If I said that I believe that there could be Great Whites as long as 12m, wouldn't you want to know why I concluded that?
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My anecdotal evidence.

In the early 80's I operated a 6m ski boat in False Bay. I did so for 3 years.

I have seen great whites next to my ski boat. Some of these sharks were longer than my ski boat. How much longer I cannot be sure as I had no means of accurately measuring them.

I can say for sure that they exceeded 6 m.
 
Skwinty said:
My anecdotal evidence.

In the early 80's I operated a 6m ski boat in False Bay. I did so for 3 years.

I have seen great whites next to my ski boat. Some of these sharks were longer than my ski boat. How much longer I cannot be sure as I had no means of accurately measuring them.

I can say for sure that they exceeded 6 m.
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Well, I'm certainly not going to gainsay what you saw with your own eyes. Perhaps you'll consider the effects of light refraction on the perception of objects underwater.

Don't you find it peculiar that you have personally witnessed Great Whites longer than the longest ever measured, more than once, in very place where they are studied by scientists perhaps more than anywhere else on Earth? You should alert someone.
 
Skwinty said:
My anecdotal evidence.

In the early 80's I operated a 6m ski boat in False Bay. I did so for 3 years.

I have seen great whites next to my ski boat. Some of these sharks were longer than my ski boat. How much longer I cannot be sure as I had no means of accurately measuring them.

I can say for sure that they exceeded 6 m.
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There have been several documented Great Whites that measured over 20 feet, one caught in 1983 off Prince Edward Island in Canada and a 1945 specimen from Cuba that was 6.5 meters.

There's crazy reports from the 1800s about Great Whites up to 40' but those are likely greatly exaggerated.

It's difficult to measure Great Whites because they shrink once removed from water. It's also illegal to kill them in many places and it's far more difficult to measure a live shark.

Last year a 20 foot specimen was tagged in Massachusetts.
 
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