…and this is a 
There is a cool program available in the UK only titled Inside Nature's Giants, which is meant to be taken literally — they actually record the dissection of megafauna. The first episode is about delving into the guts of an elephant.
The bad news is that it isn't available outside Channel 4's broadcast area, so I can't watch it at home or here in Germany. You lucky Brits can tune in right now, though. Maybe it will make its way to youtube soon.
The good news is that it is also not available in Smell-O-Vision.
Life Science
Comments
Posted by: MadScientist | June 30, 2009 7:35 AM
I've always dreamed of performing dissections with chainsaws and axes, but noooo - I was stuck with scalpel, scissors, and various bone saws and was told I couldn't bring in my own tools.
Posted by: Andrea | June 30, 2009 7:36 AM
I did tune in - being lucky enough to live in the UK.
I managed to last for about 5 minutes before I couldn't cope any more.
The only insides I normally see are those of computers and they are a lot less er raw!
I know I'm a wuss but I'd rather not see it quite so "real"
The point of it all is to show the origins of each animal through organs and structures in the body.
I'm happy to take their word for it until they come up with a digital representation with less wobbly bits in.
Posted by: Joe | June 30, 2009 7:43 AM
They do a 65ft fin whale next week...
And as to smell-o-vision, an early highlight came when the dissectors punctured the elephant's hide to release the decomposition gases.
Posted by: symball | June 30, 2009 7:43 AM
just to tease you colonials a little more- a reveiw by CB
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/jun/27/charlie-brooker-screen-burn-natures-giants
Posted by: Graeme | June 30, 2009 7:44 AM
Watched it, it was brilliant. Taught me an awful lot about elephants, and when they rolled out the intestines was pretty cool, next week it's a fin whale.
If you get yourself a proxy server you could watch it.
Posted by: Acronym Jim | June 30, 2009 7:50 AM
Not available in smell-o-vision®? Darn!
Mmmmm pachyburgers tartar....
Posted by: Acronym Jim | June 30, 2009 7:55 AM
Next week they're dissecting a whale?
That is sooo 1970s - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_t44siFyb4
Posted by: Morgan | June 30, 2009 7:58 AM
This is wierd - I was going to e-mail you about this.
I watched it with my 10 year old daughter who is showing interest in things like evolution and astonomy which I try to encourage as much as possible - as much to get over any potential streotyping.
Funny - both she and I would be sort of squemish and she is won't eat animals. But once you got over the 5 mins where they were pouring the guts out, it was utterly absorbing. And it's more than just the dissection. They also intercut sections where they have filmed the animal in the wild and show behaviours.
But the mechanical bits - where they showed the construct of the feet and how the animals have adapted to their requirements are really interesting.
Next week is a whale and I know further in the series is a giraffe - not sure what other animals there will be but they are all the larger animals as far as I know.
Added benefit - Dawkins is a contributor and they intercut some sections of him speaking about evolution.
Really good - if you can find it, it's well worth getting (based on seeing the first show). It actually continues a series of really good science programs which have been brodcast by both the BBC and Channel 4 in the UK this year - started off with a number of Darwin specific stuff but has broadened out - and they are showing them effecitively at prime time (9pm last night).
Posted by: Shona | June 30, 2009 8:08 AM
It was really good! It did take a few minutes to get over the gore(it's a pretty shocking thing seeing someone take the skin off an elephant!) but then it was totally watchable.
I particularly liked seeing a cross-section through the elephants foot. It was just so evidently mammal! I don't think I'll ever stop getting that same thrill I got when I was first introduced to divergent evolution. Spectacular.
Posted by: Donald | June 30, 2009 8:08 AM
I found the program very interesting and educational, but any extra BrainPoints I gained from it evaporated at the end when the continuity announcer said "Next on channel 4: Big Brother". Ten metres of elephant gut spilling on the floor I can handle; two minutes into BB had me pojectile vomiting.
Posted by: Damien Trotter | June 30, 2009 8:22 AM
A few years ago, Channel 4 treated we Brits to Gunter von Hagen performing a live human autopsy. (The show was live - not the body. Heh heh.) It was fascinating, though somewhat surprising. I never expected the stuff he did to the body, especially how the upper torso was prised apart to reveal the lungs and heart.
Needless to say, Channel 4 received a lot of complaints - many of which were about von Hagen wearing his (trademark) hat throughout the programme.
Posted by: James W | June 30, 2009 8:24 AM
PZ - it appears to be available on Channel 4's online on-demand service: 4OD.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/inside-natures-giants
Not tried - but you (and any other overseas types) might have some luck with that.
James
Posted by: Salvatore Patrone | June 30, 2009 8:34 AM
I have a vague memory of watching a documentary about a pygmy tribe. There was a bit of footage of someone crawling around inside a elephant that they had brought down. I remember thinking how cool and disgusting that was. I'm sure I remember a head popping out of an ear.
Posted by: Jamie | June 30, 2009 9:00 AM
It was awesome! I'm usually very squeamish but for some reason didn't have any problem watching it (oddly enough my wife isn't usually squeamish but did have difficulty watching it).
I thought it was interesting but wished it could have delved deeper at parts (with the information, not the elephant - I don't think they could have delved any deeper into the elephant). Of course, then it probably wouldn't have appealed to as many people. :(
Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip
|
June 30, 2009 9:43 AM
When I make comments like the headline, the police visit me.
Posted by: Charlie | June 30, 2009 9:45 AM
This guy didn't want to get inside an elephant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be9X9fuVS-c
Posted by: llewelly | June 30, 2009 10:10 AM
MadScientist | June 30, 2009 7:35 AM:
You can blame the jerk who brought a steamroller and said he wanted to help biologists feel empathy for paleontologists.
Posted by: Carlie | June 30, 2009 10:12 AM
Can't find the video, but it reminds me of Luke crawling into the tauntuan to keep warm, memorialized in this sleeping bag.
Posted by: Quidam
|
June 30, 2009 10:39 AM
http://www.uknova.com/wsgi/index
UK Nova is a good place for Torrents of British TV programmes that are not slated to be sold
That's where I found the HD version of: Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life. Stunning.
I can't get there from work, my client has a web nanny, but I'll look this evening.
Posted by: NJ | June 30, 2009 10:59 AM
Wernstrom!
Posted by: The Pale Scot | June 30, 2009 11:09 AM
Aye, its already among the pirate's booty
Posted by: Scott | June 30, 2009 11:24 AM
@12 Unfortunately the Channel 4 on-demand 4OD link says it is only available in the UK, and it is smart enough to notice if you aren't there. Hmm...
Posted by: balagan
|
June 30, 2009 11:41 AM
Just sign up with a British based VPN service and you can watch both BBC and Channel 4 shows..........allegedly.
It works for me in the UAE.
Posted by: XD | June 30, 2009 12:00 PM
#4
Haha, Charlie Brooker is amazing:
#22
If any of you non-Brits can convince a friend at a British university to let you log on to their server, it might fool the 4OD service into thinking that you are in the UK.
Posted by: Ken Mareld | June 30, 2009 12:09 PM
Or,
You could stay inside the world's largest moose. Another weird hotel in Sweden - if they actually build it.
http://www.stoorn.se/_eng/index.html
Ken
Posted by: Matty S | June 30, 2009 12:25 PM
Saw it the other night - my girlfriend couldn't take the dissection and had to hide to hide behind the computer screen. Fantastic!
Posted by: Don | June 30, 2009 12:45 PM
Best thing on telly for weeks. The section on the foot alone was worth whatever the budget was. And it wasn't at all 'cold'. The bit about how elephants 'ritualise' death and the fact that this individual elephant's life was known showed respect for a fascinating fellow creature. Plus Dawkins, yay.
DVD will probably be out soon.
Posted by: Bouteloua | June 30, 2009 1:44 PM
Some uk tv is found on thebox.bz, including this episode.
Posted by: Basset_Fan
|
June 30, 2009 1:48 PM
Newsgroups, folks, newsgroups.
It's available on virtually all premium news services such as Easynews, Usenetserver, Giganews, etc.
It was posted to alt.binaries.mutimedia and alt.binaries.tv
If you know where to look, how to download, how to reassemble and decode, it's there for the taking.
Great show.
Posted by: Dancaban | June 30, 2009 1:57 PM
Good solid tv for a change. No BS and Dawkins on as a bonus.
Posted by: Cain | June 30, 2009 2:35 PM
Here's a link to the torrent, possible NSFW ads.
http://extratorrent.com/torrent/2043900/Inside+Natures+Giants+Elephant+S01E01+WS+PDTV+XviD+PBoy.html
Posted by: blf | June 30, 2009 2:36 PM
they actually record the dissection of megafauna.
I first read that as “they actually record the digestion of megafauna” and thought it would be pictures/film shot by some paparazzi as they were being eaten. Just desserts and all that…
Posted by: blf | June 30, 2009 2:50 PM
Is it your computer screen, the dissection, the girlfriend, or her hiding which is fantastic? (Would the wrong answer get you dissected, possibly into very small bits?)
Posted by: Geoff | June 30, 2009 2:55 PM
@25
That hotel bit my sister.
Posted by: Faithless | June 30, 2009 3:02 PM
I liked the fact that they mentioned at the outset that the elephant had been killed because it was lame and suffering a lot of pain which they could alleviate (although I did almost puke at the use of the work 'euthanase' - do they not understand that euthanasia is a political policy, and not an individual act? bleaccchhh! that's bloody American slash-and-burn approach to the English language for you) and then at the end they showed the knee which had seriously deteriorated - multiple arthritis, full-thickness abrasion of cartilage layers and corrosion of the underlying bone. After the discussion of how much pressure elephants put on their legs, it was quite sad.
I was disappointed that we didn't see the lungs or heart in any detail, but the band-saw section through the middle of the foot was fascinating.
Tonight we have - all at 9pm - a program about last years terrorist attack in Mumbai, a program about conspiracy theories surrounding the terrorist attacks on the London Underground (anything 9/11 truthers can come up with, we can match! Yes we can), and Waking the dead, better than average cop drama. Any other night you look at the entire schedule over 20 odd channels and think - 'shit, not one thing worth watching...'
Posted by: Faithless | June 30, 2009 3:05 PM
Curses!
Actually, they could NOT alleviate the pain. Apologies.
Posted by: Jafafa Hots | June 30, 2009 3:17 PM
cough cough... usenet... cough cough.
Posted by: David Booth | June 30, 2009 7:02 PM
Some kindly chap has put it up on xtshare for all you across the pond.
http://xtshare.com/toshare.php?Id=16718
It really is a truly wonderful, and quite moving piece. At no point is it disrespectful of the poor hefalump.
Posted by: David Booth | June 30, 2009 7:38 PM
Some kindly chap has put it up on xtshare for all you across the pond.
http://xtshare.com/toshare.php?Id=16718
It really is a truly wonderful, and quite moving piece. At no point is it disrespectful of the poor hefalump.
Posted by: NelC | June 30, 2009 8:15 PM
I couldn't watch the Von Hagen shows; I used to put the programme on, but just listen to it, mostly. It's a lot easier to watch an elephant dissection, if only because I can imagine it's butchery, i.e. it being cut up for food.
Random question: I don't think I'd ever heard an American pronounce the word "herbivore" before; is it usual to drop the 'H' in American English version of the word?
Posted by: OurDeadSelves | June 30, 2009 10:43 PM
is it usual to drop the 'H' in American English version of the word?
I'm not sure about the entire country, but here in the Mid-Atlantic states, we pronounce the 'h'.
Otherwise it would just be silly.
Posted by: MadScientist | July 1, 2009 2:23 AM
I feel some inspiration coming on for my next musical plagiarism:
I want to be in an Elephant,
OK by me in an Elephant ...
Posted by: Kitty | July 1, 2009 3:03 AM
The section of the foot was awesome. I've studied drawings of the shock absorber under the heel but to actually see a cross section through it was fantastic. I missed most of the program though as I didn't know about it until too late. I'll have to watch it on catch up. I've set record for the series - not missing the rest!
Morgan - well done for watching with your 10 year old daughter. I'd have loved this at her age - I started to bring home dead animals I found in the hedgerows to dissect and for their bones at about that age - though my mum objected to me using her jam pan as a rendering pot! It set me on the road to being an environmental archaeologist and my collection of small mammal and bird bones made a great reference collection.
Posted by: Morgan | July 1, 2009 6:15 AM
Kitty - the funny thing is that she would probably run a mile from an actual dead body or a dissection. I didn't think she would last through the show but she did - I think mainly cause the content was both interesting and presented in an understandable manner and delivered with obvious enthusiasm. There was a bit of looking through fingers though :-)
I do try to encourage any interest she shows in maths / science etc. We bought the old "Life on Earth" box set and the "Cosmos" box sets and have watched them with her (and my son when he stops with the playstation - lol). I just want to avoid the stereotypical "girls don't do hard maths" thing.
Posted by: katie t | July 1, 2009 9:59 AM
Channel 4 is available through the UK's Sky TV satellite service, and the signal is available in some parts of Germany -- it certainly was in Munich. There were loads of pubs that subscribed to Sky in order to bring in the English/International crowd to view sporting events. If they're airing another episode while you're over there, ask around to see whether any pubs or bars locally have Sky. I suspect if you promise a dozen customers will show up for drinks and dissection, they'd be willing to change the channel for you.
Posted by: Dire Lobo | July 1, 2009 10:09 AM
A reliable link - I am downloading it now!
http://www.mininova.org/det/2726003
Posted by: Bert Chadick | July 1, 2009 3:04 PM
Last Summer it was dissecting a giant Squid. This Summer it's an elephant. 2010? I'm thinking Newt Gingrich.
Posted by: Adam | July 1, 2009 4:09 PM
The mininova torrent is being seeded pretty well and is excellent quality.
I would avoid the xtshare link. Created some malicious pop-ups here.
Posted by: AustinDave | July 2, 2009 8:02 AM
Outside of a dog, man's best friend is a book.
Inside a dog, it's too dark to read.
- G. Marx
Posted by: Glenn | July 2, 2009 5:49 PM
Halfway through watching it but had to pause and say... Brilliant.
Nice one, well done C4.
"The good news is that it is also not available in Smell-O-Vision." - That's a bit smellist isn't it Mr. Myers, sounds almost shrill?
Posted by: Malcolm | July 3, 2009 11:29 PM
Not sure if anyone is still following this thread but:
the four episodes in this series are : Elephant, Fin Whale, Crocodile, Giraffe.
and re Morgan and his daughter - I watched it with my 12 yo a couple of days ago. She's got a friend with us for a sleepover this weekend, and they're watching it now - and with real interest rather than 'just for 'eeew gross' moments, and without any prompting from me.
It's ridiculous how happy that makes me!
Posted by: Mrsbee | July 24, 2009 9:34 AM
If anyone is still checking this thread, I found this link which takes you to three episodes (all except the giraffe), which you can watch online, and is high quality. The whale episode is also on youtube in 5 parts. Just search for it.
This is the link:
http://www.movieshares.co.uk/search.php?searchid=785204
You can also download them if you like. For watching online, you just have to click on the video twice (and close the ad page pop-up) for it to start.