Interesting, what was the name of the show? I might watch it sometime, I actually find this stuff rather entertaining, although like you say, the rhetoric is getting stale.

I've read national geographic for years and still subscribe. From a journalistic standpoint I don't really considered them a "heavy hitter". Some articles can be well researched and very informative, although too often I find them to be more worthy of an op-ed piece (spewing whatever slant the writer has at the time). Sometimes the op-ed pieces are quite good, although they shouldn't be taken as a full disertation on a given situation.

NG recently had quite a flub regarding a native elephant hunt in africa. An astute reader noticed that some of the ivory in the pictures was stamped and notified the editors. The photographer and writer admitted the whole article was canned. The good part is that they quickly admitted their mistake, the bad part was that this slipped by the editors....

I've been a NG subscriber for years, but I have to admit the preaching is getting a bit tiresome. It pretty boils down to the same thing in just about every article -- this place/culture/concept/etc is really fascinating, but humanity is screwing it up. If it's a story about an ancient civilization, there'll be a good chunk on how greedy looters have torn up the archaeological site. If it's about an unusual tribe in some remote corner of the world, it discusses how their lives have been ruined by contact with modern civilization. If it's about a remote mountain climb, it'll talk about litter from other climbers or how global warming is ruining the glaciers. The recently ran an article about how humanity is getting too fat and the problems that's causing. The latest issue has a section from Bob Ballard documenting how people are damaging the Titanic since its discovery. A couple months ago they ran an article on volcanoes in Hawaii, and I figured there's NO WAY they can make humans part of that problem. Wrong. There was discussion of litter problems caused by natives making offerings to Pele.

Bottom line: there's a strong Luddite vein running through it -- the Earth is amazing but unfortunately humanity is ruining it.

Sometimes, refreshingly, it's not the case. But so far they haven't figured out how people are screwing up the solar system. But give 'em time and they'll probably run an article on how space probes are cluttering up Mars.

I thought they did a feature on space junk in low orbit? Granted substituting "low orbit" for "solar system" is a bit of a broad brush....

While I didn't read it in NG, I've been hearing more static lately about Mars junk. One was of the nature that we already needed to declare national parks and such on mars to curtail development. Hmmm....

Another one was that we needed to stop sending probes since they are invariably contaminated with microbes that will survive on mars. Never mind that vast portions of mars are desiccated and irrated beyond anything that could be considered a welcoming petri dish....

You know, I kind of wondered about this myself. Somewhere down the road we'll send a probe to Mars and lo-and-behold! it will detect some microscopic bacteria or some such. LIFE ON MARS! Everyone will shout. But how will be sure that it wasn't something left up there by one of our earlier missions?

Now, I don't think this is a reason to stop sending missions to Mars. It's just a warning that we need to be careful about jumping to conclusions if we find evidence of life there.

Any microbe that can survive months of exposure to cosmic radiation in the vacuum of space at temperatures measured on the Kelvin scale has, in my opinion, earned the right to live on Mars.

But it all illustrates the lunacy of the far-left environmental movement and serves as a warning that no amount of compromise from sportsmen will ever satisfy them. .

Hear hear to that. By God, if you live through cold (deep space) and fire (space and surface based radiation), you've not only earned the right to live but to colonize a planet. Doesn't that almost sound like a pilgrim tale? Space probes: the Mayflower of tomorrow!

Incidentally, I thought deliberate colonization of bacteria on the red planet was a great way to slowly terraform Mars. After all, if you believe natural history they certainly tamed Earth nicely for us.

But how will be sure that it wasn't something left up there by one of our earlier missions?

Assuming intact DNA (or RNA) could be recovered, it would presumably be possible to fit to the dna/rna libraries of known earth microbes.

Ahhhh, but it just might be that a DNA match proves nothing if the strain originated from the Red Planet............................millions of years ago as some believe.

Careful DNA/RNA studies can show decending and acending lines. Even if life was seeded by a random comet smashing life ladden bits of rock from mars to earth, presumably the relationship (what beget what) would still be traceable.

It is possible with careful analysis to show the parental relationship between to families of simple life forms (single celled organisms) that branched 100's of millions of years ago. For example the so-called archaebacteria and the extremophiles.

I havent seen the article or episodeb about anti-hunting. but i have seen a episode on "National Geographic Classic about mountain lion hunting with hounds. NG didnt say anything good or bad they just told a story. thats the way they dipict cock fighting too. i am not agianst cock fighting and living in New Mexico i have been to a couple of matches, but to the faint of heart it is quite gruesome, yet they said nothing for or agianst it.

you wont be dancing when your laying on your deathbed and you relize you wasted your whole life trying to take away the rights of the people who make your lifestyle possible without achieving anything.