Cephalopodcast has found a couple of terrific old films on the 'fish from hell' from the Prelinger Archives. As the Cephalopodcast mentions, it's not the footage so much as it is the accompanying voiceover. It's also an interesting study in our earlier 'science' investigations, and the fact that in these old 'science' films, the scientists tend to kill everything they meet.
We actually have come a long way when it comes to scientific investigation, but not when it comes to mixing science and entertainment. Last week, Cephalopodcast also posted about the letter to Discovery about Shark Week, and the fact that this series has degenerated into nothing more than a "Jaws 101" rather than an exploration of more unknown but perhaps less dramatic shark species.
Then there's the Japanese 'scientific study' of whales, where many of the whales killed are pregnant. Of course, the whaling industry says this is a good thing. Whalers are about the only hunters I know of who would claim that killing pregnant females is a 'good thing'. Perhaps the whaling industry would like to expand into killing baby fur seals, too?
But then, perhaps I'm just being overly emotive. (via Cobbers)
