The New Survivors

I've Mentioned the original Terry Nation Series before along with the remake. The original version is one of my fav programmes of all time since I fantasise about living in that world in my more misanthropic moments.

Anyway, the Beeb has begun to run the Second Series of the remake. I have to admit a curiousity since they left the first series as a cliff hanger. Not that it was a really exciting cliff hanger, but it did have me curious as to what was happening. I would have been screaming at Tom Price for wasting ammo as he shot in Derek's direction ("you don't have a good shot, dimbo"). But this Tom Price is supposed to be sociopathic.

Anyway.

I like how the site boasts an interview with the creator of Survivors: No, not Terry Nation--Adrian Hodges.

Hodges didn't create Survivors, he made a crappy remake of the series. Series two is total crap with no continuity between the two seasons (what happened to Derek?). And, yes, it is an evil pharmceutical firm that caused the "plague".

Give me a break.

Paradoxical paranoia

Yes, I must be mad since I am still watching this, but it is addictive in a strange way (not Strangeways which is a Prison in Manchester). For some reason the show's producers hook you in with titilation about something to do with the MoD. There is a clip, which unfortunately is only available in the UK, where Christian, the Scientist, and DI Flint (Tamzin Outhwaite) discuss the fact that the source of the images may be the Prometheus Satellite with hints that the MoD is behind it all.

For some reason, conspiracy theories are taking over BBC Sci-Fi. The 2008 remake of Survivors is terrible because it hints at secret labs and black helicopters starting the plague. Add in that it happened as the media were whipping up hysteria about H1N1 when it came out. The problem is that the original series had the plague run amok, rather than be controlled by evil government (big business?) scientists. That makes the remake seem really bad along with the fact that the show collapses a lot of the story lines within the original series. Not to mention Talfryn Thomas played Tom Price in the original as a bit of a clown whereas Max Beesley's Tom Price is an armed robber.

But that's an aside that I wanted to get off my chest since the "evil MoD" aspect is contrasted with these images could be a message from God. Not sure what message God is trying to convey here, but...

We are seeing the surly scientist being a bit more helpful, but still off in his own world while the three cops try to figure out what exactly is going on here. This is a truly complicated puzzle that only having a good scriptwriter could make work (somebody find a good scriptwriter--pronto). To be honest, this is not a show you can just start watching since you need to come at the plotline from the beginning. Sorry, no spoilers for you, but plot lines run like the images from the future and blend in to make this a bit confusing. One plotline will go through at least three episodes (we have had images of the future on this in the form of the previews at the end of the show).

This might be one show that having a US remake might make a bit more comprehensible. And if I am saying a US remake could make this bearable, this sucker is baaaaaad.

It's not easy being green!

Just in time for the Copenhagen Summit.


Let's start with my carbon footprint. I have no effing idea what exactly the number is! I assume it's low since Ilive an environmntally friendly lifestyle. It was small when I estimated it.

I no longer have a car. I'd love to say it was due to various green reasons. In reality, I did that after it was broken into in an allegedly secure garage. Although, various other green reasons (convenience of public transportation, cost of running the thing, the fact that I usually walk, and so on) did factor in to the decision.

I recycle so much that my house feels a bit like Alice's Restaurant where they "didn't have to take out their garbage for a long time". Well, I have to, but I am recycling all this paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, and whatever else can be recycled.

I haven't flown in ages, preferring trains to planes. High speed trains are the thing anyway!

I am amazed that people can be scammed about Global Warming:

In the climate field, there are a number of issues which are no longer subject to fundamental debate in the community. The existence of the greenhouse effect, the increase in CO2 (and other GHGs) over the last hundred years and its human cause, and the fact the planet warmed significantly over the 20th Century are not much in doubt. IPCC described these factors as ‘virtually certain’ or ‘unequivocal’. The attribution of the warming over the last 50 years to human activity is also pretty well established – that is ‘highly likely’ and the anticipation that further warming will continue as CO2 levels continue to rise is a well supported conclusion. To the extent that anyone has said that the scientific debate is over, this is what they are referring to. In answer to colloquial questions like “Is anthropogenic warming real?”, the answer is yes with high confidence.

Anyway, it seems that James Hansen, who heads the earth sciences division of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, is critical of so-called "cap and trade" plans that would allow industries to continue burning fossil fuel as long as they offset their excesses by purchasing credits that would go to reducing carbon emissions elsewhere. He says that wouldn't do the trick. What needs to be done is a shift in the sources of energy production from carbon based (coal and petroleum) to renewable sources. "Energy isn't the problem, carbon is the problem."

The science behind climate change isn’t a fad and it isn’t new. You might be surprised that it started back with Joseph Fourier. Of course, some people doubt evolution as well: "It's just a theory".

This video is super, but you need to watch it all the way through.


Hey, I've supported the Centre for Alternative Technology for nearly 30 years! I am sorry thet The Earth Centre in Doncaster is no longer fucntioning as a similar site. The Earth Centre's most famous bit was that it appeared in the remade version of the BBC television series Survivors (2008 & 2009). I wish that alternative and ecology education centres were much more common.

Anyway, it seems that a lot of people are dragging their feet on the environmental movement because they are being conned by a highly charged right wing media machine. Contrarians employ such rhetorical devices such as arguing that the “science is settled” (what science is ever settled?). They are pushing public policy solutions that ignore the unsettled parts of the science namely all the uncertainties around the scope and net impact of AGW and downplay the tremendous costs and risks associated with such policies and the highly debatable long term benefits of keeping the environmental status quo.

Anyway, I haven't been too impressed with the US leadership, in particular, Barack Obama. The British government has been slightly better. For some reason, the right wing fringe elements are not as powerful in the UK as they are in the US (Lord Monckton aside. But the whole world needs to get on board here as the future of the planet is at stake.

Michael's dream

Bob Dylan's dream is where he was the only person alive after the nuclear war. My dream is that I live in a world like the Survivors, not the thing on these days, but the 1970s BBC series written by Terry Nation (Dr. Who). The concept is that biological warfare has killed off 90% of the world's population courtesy of air travel. The people left over have to create a new society.

Actually, I would prefer a bit more selectivity as to who lives and dies. Maybe a bit more Lathe of Heaven here than Survivors.

Anyway, the premise is interesting. Despite the average US survivialist's dream, The series shows people trying to recreate civilisation, which makes more sense to me. The reality is that hunter gatherer civilisations are nomadic as opposed agrarian socieites which are static. Most civilisation comes from agrarian economies.

I just like the lack of people.