I wish. Hey, if cavemen still exist, evolution must be wrong, right?
At least, that’s if your View is that skewed.
See here for how this all started.
Tip o’ the protruding occipital ridge to C&L.
-
About Bad Astronomy
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.
The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.
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October 2nd, 2007 at 12:47 pm
That’s right. That show is premiering tonight. Thankfully, I’ll be watching House.
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:55 pm
I got to see the first few minutes of this thing recently, and it was just awful. Absolutely awful. It’s rare a show jumps the show on it’s pitch, but it’s on ABC, so we should never expect something good.
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Sigh, rather, jumps the shark. That’s what I get for typing faster than I think.
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:48 pm
So what exactly do they reach in U.S. public schools, and why does this take twelve years?(By a process of elimination, my current list is: Basketball;Drivers’ Ed; and something you call Civics.)
*pain*
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:24 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiYD21fnTT8
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:27 pm
This show is gonna crash faster than McCain.
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Ugh. Not only does she essentially get a pass for the previous stupidity, they bring out this guy who while trying to make fun of her idiocy instead makes it funny. She shouldn’t be part of the joke, she should be the joke.
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:47 pm
StarDragon,
My personal opinion of US public school is that a lot of teachers’ energies go into meeting a neverending stream of bureaucratic requirements that have little to do with actually teaching kids anything. “Let’s implement the latest whiz-bang feelgood teaching procedure! It’s totally different from the one we used last year, so it must be better!” “Did you fill out all your homework TPS reports yet? The state bean counters really need them to figure out what our budget will be next decade.” “Sorry, I’d love to help you understand your algebra now that classes are over for the day, but I have to leave and drive 45 minutes to the county school board building for our bi-weekly teachers meeting.” But that’s just based on listening to the complaints of my high-school teachers in the rural US during the 80′s.
The public schools have to teach whoever shows up (i.e., the kids whose parents don’t give a damn). They are sometimes stuck with teaching completely empty vessels at age six; empty meaning, “doesn’t know anything about colors, numbers, or letters, etc., on their first day of school.” When you have to deal with that and a culture in which some people frown upon any desire to know anything other than your job or sports, it’s no wonder it seems to take so long to teach so little.
Just my $0.02…
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Alan:
Agreed. Plus, the quality of education ties in directly to the quality of life and community. The fact that our public education is so bad in so many areas is a sign that we have let things slide way too far down the tubes. Fixing education in the US involves addressing racism, sexism, and poverty–even the best teachers and best schools could only do so much in the face of such systemic problems. Unfortunately, these are issues that most politicians and powerbrokers tend to run away from actually addressing (though they may give them lip service).
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:43 pm
FYI, the scientific term for the massive browridge is “supraorbital ridge”. You probably have it confused with “occipital bun”, a little bump in the back of Neandertals’ skulls, also a sign of archaism in Neandertal cranial morphology.
October 2nd, 2007 at 4:26 pm
as one who *in general* might be confused with one of these losers I do ask that everybody be a little careful when throwing bricks. My teeth are smaller, and I lack the supra-orbital ridge. Furthermore, I have advanced beyond combing my hair/beard with my figers – I have a really keen brush for this chore (though, ok, I have a tad fewer hairs on the fore-part of my scalp than in the past).
Thank you.
Now that’s out of the way. I’m trying to recall the last time a creature from a series of [really stupid ] commercials became the focus of a (planned) series. Nothing comes to mind. I’d suggest that means that Hollywierd is either A) trying something new, for a change, or B ) not learning from the past, as usual, given that the past attempt failed miserably.
My vote is “B”
I suggest we console ourselves, though. It could be worse. Can you see a “series” based on the BK King? That wouldn’t be just lame – they’d have to amputate! (then just plain shoot me – there are very few commercials that annoy me enough to change the channel – that set is, in fact, the ONLY one to ever have done so. How the HECK BK higher ups were convinced to make even one, much less a whole series, flatly escapes me)
What would be much more interesting would be a Dick Cavet type show, with the Gekko as host. Probably wouldn’t sell in today’s market – too erudite for the masses.
October 2nd, 2007 at 5:02 pm
SO what exactly is a cave man then? A normal guy who lives in modern society, has a cell phone an iPod a gas grill and a car and all that, wears jeans and glasses and speaks English…
but he doesn’t shave, has scruffy hair and a sorta rough-ish looking features.
Hey wait a second. Phil is a little scruffy! Is Phil a caveman?
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:05 pm
[...] Source [...]
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:53 pm
You know, ABC is screwed when NBC debuts their new series Priceline Negotiator!
October 3rd, 2007 at 5:08 am
We still have cavepeople today. There is a south American tribe that lives in caves and are skilled craftsmen in working Turquoise. Caves can be good places to live in, if you adapt your cave just right. At the very least they are good shelters.
Or have I missed a point somewhere?
October 3rd, 2007 at 8:00 am
Eh, Lurchgs, you do know that the BK King is getting his own movie ?
http://www.cinematical.com/2007/03/07/the-burger-king-will-have-his-own-movie-sigh/
I’m not sure if that’s better or worse than a TV show.
October 3rd, 2007 at 9:12 am
RawheaD: hey! I have that bump at the back of my head! Does that mean a very far away ancestor of mine was a neandertal?
Also, I find the caveman’s logic good:
-If you suppose that cavemen don’t exist
-AND you think evolution doesn’t exist
-THEN you think cavemen never existed
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:13 am
ioresult: Ha ha, actually I do, too. I guess my post was a little inaccurate. Neandertals have very pronounced occipital buns, which is a sign of archaism. But, the presence of the bun does suggest that we (Homo sapiens) and Neandertals share a common ancestor.
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:59 am
In my state of South Australia* in its northern desert region there’s a town called Coober Pedy (local Aboriginal for “White-man’s Burrow” apparently) where the miners (opal) live in caves underground. Guess that makes them “cavemen” ..
Hmmn .. I slept there overnight (or was it two) on one excursion so that makes me temporarily a caveman. At least I hope temporarily!
Wasn’t ‘The View’ that show where the woman seemingly too stupid to breathe (Sherry Shepherd – as in drunken sheep-watcher was it?) denied not only evolution but the world being round because scientists said it was and not the Bible?
Reminds me of that old – if provocative – quote from John Stuart Mill :
“Although it is true that not all conservatives are stupid, it is also true that most stupid people are conservative.â€
Combined with the cliche : “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Really, do people watch and take seriously the drivel of daytime TV? (Okay there maybe the odd daytime old movie or science show replay but other than that it seems pretty poor fare – at least as we get it in Oz & be surprised if it was different in the US ..) Or much other TV in general to be honest?
——————————————-
*silly name really we’re more ‘middle’ than South, both Tasmania and Victoria are all further south and parts of New South Wales, Western Australia and even southern Queensland are equal in latitude .. But still.
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:11 am
ioresulton said 03 Oct 2007 at 9:12 am :
“Also, I find the caveman’s logic good:
-If you suppose that cavemen don’t exist
-AND you think evolution doesn’t exist
-THEN you think cavemen never existed”
Seems like a poor inference and consequent non-sequiteur (does not follow by my logic.
The premise being
1) cavemen don’t exist
NOT relating to premise 2
2) you think evolution doesn’t exist
in any reasonably connected fashion. (eg. if there were caveman then there was evolution.)
Further logic would argue that in real-world context both are false premises based on evidence clearly showing both Cavemen (defined as both people living in caves now, historically and prehistorically and previous human sub-species eg. neandertals) and evolution are supported by numerous lines of evidence and established as in broad essence accurate. So to think either cavemen or evolution doesn’t exist is taking unsupported, falsified claims over demonstated and confirmed claims.
but a-n-y-h-o-w …
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:18 am
Oppos meant to add above :
Cavemen exist (Premise 1) & evolution exist (P2) are Independent claims not logically connected.
Ie. There could be evolution but no cavemen (& for most of Erath’s long geological history this was indeed the case!)
Or equally, there could be cavemen existing but NOT having evolved (eg. you could say the Republican Party & Religious Wrong are living proof of that now!
) Or less humerouslty that thecavemen were aliens from anotherpklanet were theywereengineered by anotherspecies or (blech!) God made ‘em to foool us or whatever else ..
Actually both propositions are, broadly speaking, true – cavemen exist as does evolution & cavemen as “missing link” are one pice of evidence among a great many others for demonstrating the reality of evolution.
Hope that’s clarified for y’all
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:42 pm
So this clip inspired me to go watch the show’s premier at the ABC website. I gotta admit it struck a chord with me. I actually laughed out-loud several times. It’s mostly just a show about early-20′s single males, which they nail pretty consistently. But you’ve also got the Caveman angle, which I think worked pretty well. They’re less indignant than on the commercials. The cavemen mostly just bear the small amount of discrimination they got with restrained annoyance. The laughs came mostly from the dialog, which was pretty good.
New catch-phrase, relating to fraternization between cavemen and homo-sapiens: “Keep your penis in your genus.” (I laughed, even though we’re actually both in the genus, homo-.)
I’d say overall the show had an efficiency of about 80-82% in the rating system I just made up where,
Eff. = [CPI - (JBS+F)]/CPI, and
CPI = Comedy Potential In
JBS = Jokes that Bombed or were Stupid
F = Friction
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Before some Anthropologist nails me, I think in highschool we learned that cro-magnans were genetically indistinguishable from modern humans, homo-sapiens-sapiens. Whereas Neanderthals
were homo-sapiens-neandertalis. Can I get a ruling on this?
October 3rd, 2007 at 5:11 pm
BlockStacker:
We are the Cro Magnons,my friend/
Will this confusion never end?/
Neanderthal’s the other one./
That’s the gene-pool that’s done./
Sometimes blind evolution/
Weeds out the smart ones/
From the world.
October 3rd, 2007 at 5:45 pm
I don’t know. I thought the Simpsons Movie was going to kill the franchise off, but it turned out to be really good. Maybe Cavemen will be the same way (though I doubt it).
October 3rd, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Seconding BlockStacker:
Having ensured that House would be saved on the DVR, my son (a college sophomore) and myself watched Cavemen and enjoyed it as much as any other new show. I am a dialog fan – don’t like slap-sticky stuff or gimmick shows – and found the jokes witty. Another show we both enjoyed was The Big Bang Theory. Did you get a chance to catch that Phil?
Jim from KSC