Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely.
General BBC-related comment thread!
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ipreferred | 14.10.08 – 11:06 am | #
I have to agree with the sentiment. Though of course there is the small matter of priorities.
I have no problem with my kids getting a foundation in environmental good practices (so long as they are ‘good’ – at the moment there is a major debate raging, and I mean raging on the topic of recycling over on Gaurdian CiF right now) so long as the basics do not suffer.
I can get them up to speed on civic awareness and community service quite well as a parent thank you, and without LA targets and BBC agendas creeping in to ‘enhance the narrative’. And especially against funded yet commercially competitive websites such as BBC Green now vying for audiences with mine, yet trotting out some rather dodgy party lines.
My kids know that much in green can be great, but also to stop any mantra they get dead in its tracks with a few apposite questions on how, exactly, it does help the planet and their future upon it.
You’d be amazed how many ’emerging truths’ stumble at this point.
I may be off beam here but it seems obvious that the Brown plan was one of desperation not inspiration.
Unless the taxpayer ( a better word than the Government I feel) took shares in the failed banks then why would anyone lend to them without this cast iron guarantee of tax revenue support.
So without any democratic debate this Brown has committed us to an open ended liabilty to support with our taxes failed, not failing, banking institutions.
If it goes wrong and the chances are about even then he will have gambled our taxes- our labour- on nothing.
If this is democracy then I’m from the planet Zog
Brown says British people should trust his housing policy for the future because it has failed up until now!
Or, in this BBC headline:
“Brown’s housing market confidence”
[Extract]:
“The UK property market is likely to bounce back before those of other countries because ‘we failed’ to build enough houses, Gordon Brown has said.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7667284.stm
A few myths need corrected on here:
Peter Mandelson was cleared of any wrong-doing in the Hinduja passport affair.
Gordon Brown is not responsible for the current global economic crisis. Please note the use of the word global. Reflect on that word. Unless he is ruler of the world, then you cannot blame him.
Last night’s Panorama was scrupulously balanced and dealt (somewhat nitpickingly) with all of the controversies and criticisms associated with the Obama campaign.
And as for the Story of Numbers – it was indeed the Muslim tradition which gave us algebra.
That is all.
Whilst the beeboids here are happy to show that islam made some contributions to algebra.
Let`s not forget what islams` lasting contribution to society is :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/14/saudiarabia-middleeast
lurker – i don’t anyone has said mcbroon created this but the beeb see him as a saviour and he clearly is not.
we have the most debt ridden country in the western world.
too many britons have huge personal debt, our companies are too highly leveraged and mcbroon has been on a spending spree which has racked up PSBR to 50% of our GDP.we are now borrowing money to pay the interest on our borrowing.
If you go to the Americas page on BBC Online, which story do you think might still be prominently there despite being posted Saturday, 11 October 2008 08:19 UK?
Yep, this one…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7662820.stm
Now, any chance that that story might move aside so that they can find room for the Tim Mahoney scandal? After all they did report the Mark Foley kerfuffle.
Or does it make a difference with al-Beeb if one is Republican the other Democrat?
BBC report:
“Iraq PM vows to shield Christians”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7665830.stm
‘Jihadwatch’ report:
“UN stops talking about ‘Islamophobia’ long enough to notice plight of Iraqi Christians”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/023081.php
Something I have been wondering about for some time:
I don’t know how many people on this thread know that Gordon Brown is a strong supporter of Israel. I have noticed that the BBC tries to keep this fact very quiet indeed, sort of like not advertising an embarrassing indiscretion of a good friend.
When Brown addresses the question of Israel his support is frank, unequivocal and from the heart.
But I generally hear about this from sources other than the BBC.
i look forward to bumping into you on littlegreenfootballs.com in about 3 years time.
archduke | 13.10.08 – 10:52 pm
I think that gave whitewineliberal such a shock he didn’t appear again on the thread until this morning.
I don’t know how many people have seen this:
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/oct/12/obamas-kenya-ghosts/
It’s the most comprehensive and damaging report I’ve seen on Obama’s support for Odinga and on the latter’s subversive designs on Kenya.
Lurker.
So you confirm Peter Mandelson was guilty of mortgage fraud, something for which most “ordinary” people would have been prosecuted for.
I thought Gordon Brown abolished boom and bust. It was just that this master economics tactician, as he time after time presented himself to us, hasn’t quite lived up to his rhetoric, has he? I never remember him saying that “benign” world economics were why he was so good, rather it was all down to him. He cannot have it both ways when world economics turn sour on him.
bryan – I wouldn’t frequent lgf with yours. deeply unpleasant.
I didn’t see it myself, but someone on Guido’s blog saying they saw the Jane Hill interview with Prof. Tim Congdon on BBC News 24 just after 10.30. Apparently he took Jane Hill by surprise when he completely destroyed the al-Beeb line being pedalled that Gordon’s plan was a master plan now being taken up by America and the rest of Europe, and explained in detail why the US plan is different, why the Spanish plan is different and superior and why the British plan will cause great damage to the banking sector in the long term.
And as for the Story of Numbers – it was indeed the Muslim tradition which gave us algebra.
That is all.
Lurker | 14.10.08 – 1:01 pm
Not so!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebra#History
While the word “algebra” comes from Arabic word (al-jabr , الجبر ), its origins can be traced to the ancient Babylonians,[1] who developed an advanced arithmetical system with which they were able to do calculations in an algebraic fashion. With the use of this system they were able to apply formulas and calculate solutions for unknown values for a class of problems typically solved today by using linear equations, quadratic equations, and indeterminate linear equations.
[…]
Later, the Indian mathematicians developed algebraic methods to a high degree of sophistication. Although Diophantus and the Babylonians used mostly special ad hoc methods to solve equations, Brahmagupta was the first to solve equations using general methods. He solved the linear indeterminate equations, quadratic equations, second order indeterminate equations and equations with multiple variable.
The word “algebra” is named after the Arabic word “al-jabr , الجبر” from the title of the book al-Kitāb al-muḫtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-ğabr wa-l-muqābala , الكتاب المختصر في حساب الجبر والمقابلة, meaning The book of Summary Concerning Calculating by Transposition and Reduction, a book written by the Islamic Persian mathematician Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-khwārizmī in 820. The word Al-Jabr means “reunion”. The Hellenistic mathematician Diophantus has traditionally been known as “the father of algebra” but some Islamic scholars now claim that Al-Khwarizmi, an Arabic mathematician who lived some 500 years later deserves that title.
Broadcaster John Simpson: ‘The BBC is in its last stages… and I expect to be sacked soon’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1077522/Broadcaster-John-Simpson-The-BBC-stages–I-expect-sacked-soon.html
One can only hope, in that case, that, for once in his wretched life, John Simpson is actually right about something.
GCooper | 14.10.08 – 3:03 pm:
Hear, hear!
Lurker: Fine. But if Mandelson had been prosecuted for fiddling his mortgage he would NEVER have had the chance to be sacked twice.
Our banks have been more exposed than others because the snot gobbler took regulation from the BoE and gave it to the FSA. Even on Newsnight last night they quoted Bliar as saying the FSA was a joke.
Northern Cock and the Branford and Bingley were nothing to do with the global meltdown as you call it. Simply bad business models that Gordon Brown allowed to take place under his watch.
Brown is the man who took the plaudits for the so called economic growth (I don’t ever remember him thanking the world for the economic boom, do you? if so please provide a link) so he should be man enough to take the failures as well.
Biodegradable/lurker
B, as you say, we do get our word “algebra” from the Islamic world but, again, as you say, and as “lurker” misunderstands, the technique we know as “algebra” predates the Islamic mathematicians by hundreds of years. As I implied in my earlier comment, there’s little point in denying (who would?) the contribution of Islamic mathematicians to mathematics, it’s just that their active contribution wasn’t that extensive and was overshadowed by the earlier Chinese and, to an even greater extent, the Indian work. Bigging up their contribution, as de Sautoy does, serves only to detract from the real work done and the valuable transmission service contributed under the Islamic empire.
But, you see, the BBC can’t help itself. Press the “Muslim” button and the BBC turns somersaults to prove the endless, unique and overwhelming benefit to the world of everything Islamic. What’s worse is that de Sautoy’s programme bears the imprint of the Open University. Unfortunately, this programme is not only mendacious in its twisting of the facts to support a political agenda, it’s aimed at the LCD of intellectual thought. If this is “university” level education (which it appears to be) then we are well and truly f***ed.
I wouldn’t frequent lgf with yours. deeply unpleasant.
whitewineliberal | 14.10.08 – 1:58 pm
Yeah, but your three years are not up yet.
Comments on LGF can get a bit rough but the articles are generally comprehensive and to the point. They must be doing something right because all the anti-American subversives hate them.
Update for BBC on Labour’s unelected Baron MANDELSON; doubtless, the BBC will be keen to discuss this …sometime:
“Fresh evidence links Mandelson to oligarch”
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23572497-details/Mandelson%2C+the+billionaire+and+a+growing+mystery/article.do
AND:
“Can a man really lord in fur?”
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23572395-details/Can+a+man+truly+lord+it+in+fur/article.do
whitewineliberal:
bryan – I wouldn’t frequent lgf with yours. deeply unpleasant.
whitewineliberal | 14.10.08 – 1:58 pm
WWL, did you mean equate? Otherwise I don’t get it.
I have been thinking about Peston’s delivery. You know, why it gets on people’s nerves. The reason it gets on mine is not that it alternates between a very rushed sped-up section and, abruptly, a stretched-out bleating one – what I think is wierd is the way he pronounces the word ‘That’ to rhyme with Put or foot- “thut” and the enunciation of the “th” sound is preceeded by an Ugh sound so that the whole word (ugh- thoot) is more of an expletive than just a tiny word.
Pardon me for being so personal. And trivial..
P.S.
Instead of saying “Comment successfully published”, it should sometimes say
“Stupid comment succesfully published”
(Where appropriate.)
I mean “posted”
WWL, did you mean equate? Otherwise I don’t get it.
Sue | 14.10.08 – 4:20 pm |
its a reference to whats between a blokes legs.
Some heartwarming news in the Telegraph today … perhaps a new thread for this one?
“BBC ‘in its last stages’, warns John Simpson”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3196221/The-BBCs-future-is-bleak-warns-John-Simpson.html
Umbongo: Sorry, you are only partially correct. It is true that prior to the “Islamic Mathematicians” (whatever they might be) there was *some* understanding of a sizeable amount of algebra. Mathematicians in the arabic world took that knowledge and extended it in ways unimaginable to the Indian and Chinese mathematicians that came before them and in particular developed algebra that is familiar to what we think of algebra being today (for example, studying Algebra as a subject in itself rather than just as a useful tool). Likewise, all the mathematicians who came after them took their work and extended it, and developed mathematics in ways unimaginable to Arabic mathematicians. And so it continues to be; most students of mathematics today would see a lot of ancient mathematics as trivial (eg do we need the number zero?) but at the time it was groundbreaking.
The program did nothing to devalue the work that went before Arabic mathematics or try and credit previous work to Islam. It clearly described what had gone before and how it was developed. In fact it was, as with the previous week, a celebration of the developments that had come from all cultures looking at how mathematical thinking developed through time (and quite rightly barely mentioned religion anywhere). The reason Leibniz’ development of Calculus where not mentioned last night is that he appeared hundreds of years after the dates covered in the program, not because he happens to be non-muslim.
The program also never claimed to offer “university” level education as you accuse. It is an introduction for non-mathematicians to the history of the subject that now underpins all of modern physical sciences. The presenter is a well-respected mathematician who has a desire to make mathematics accessible to the general public.
To suggest, as some have done on here, that it was made to promote Islam and denegrate other religions is utterly bizarre. Still why let the facts get in the way of a good rant! Mathematics has nothing to do with religion and neither did the program, you don’t learn how to solve equations in the Quran or the Bible.
Alex
It’s hardly the stuff you want to agree with – Simpson says
The veteran correspondent, whose career at the BBC spans more than 40 years, said the corporation was paying the price of the licence fee being “chopped away”.
He wants -more- money to be taxed from us to pay for the left wing monolith….
btw, does John Simpson ‘do’ optimistic in any of his reports?
oh yes, so he does (when talking about Mugabe)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7470483.stm
Lurker
Mandelson may have been exonerated over the Hinduja affair, but the bottom line remains that they contributed £1m to a project the Labour party was trying to get itself associated with and for which he was responsible. The brothers, their wives and their pets today travel on British passports (c/w Mohammed Fayed who still has an Egyptian passport).
Although the fraudulent mortgage has been mentiooned above it is worth repeating that, at the DTI Mandelson was responsible for investigating the business affairs of Geoffrey Robinson, after having been loaned a substantial amount of money by the subject of that investigation.
Gordon Brown is responsible, to a very large degree, for the severity of the problems the UK is suffering in the current global problems; it was Brown who decided inflation was a price worth paying to build his client state; it was Brown who gave the MPC an inflation target based on the CPI intead of the more appropriate RPI; it was Brown who allowed government borrowing to increase out of control while he was chancellor, and who made sure most of that borrowing was off balance sheet (Enron style). Seeing Mrs Balls (an acknowledged expert in home finance herself) claiming the Labour had reduced government borrowing on C4 news last night I wondered whether she is stupid or a liar; if she understands and still says borrowing has fallen she is lieing; if she doesn’t understand she is stupid.
Talking about Wogan’s comments, Simpson observes that “If you take someone’s money, you owe them a certain debt of loyalty”.
That’s bizarre from a Beeboid. Can the British telly-taxpayer, mulcted of £3.2 billion each year expect “loyalty” to what until recently were regarded as British values? Maybe a drama that shows Christians in a positive light perhaps? A history series which celebrates the British contributions to civilisation?
Thought not.
History of Britain did the latter. Vicar of Dibley’s not funny, so must be a drama. Dot Cotton. The Priest in The Lakes was pretty fly.
Give us some cool atheists in a drama, then i’ll gladly pay my licence twice.
RR
Simpson and other Beeboids see the BBC as their employer – so they owe loyalty to the BBC village, the cocoon.
They do not see any loyalty towards the people who are actually paying for the BBC and thereby for their wages. We can just sodoff, what the hell do we matter.
And how much of Other People’s Money does it cost to keep Simpson in the style to which he has been accustomed. All-up cost approaching a million a year, I’d wager.
JohnA | 14.10.08 – 5:29 pm
And how much of Other People’s Money does it cost to keep Simpson in the style to which he has been accustomed.
And less and less in return for the money each year.
MarkE | 14.10.08 – 5:12 pm:
Mandelson may have been exonerated over the Hinduja affair, but the bottom line remains that they contributed £1m to a project the Labour party was trying to get itself associated with and for which he was responsible. The brothers, their wives and their pets today travel on British passports (c/w Mohammed Fayed who still has an Egyptian passport).
Quite right – and you’ve struck an issue which really shows Mandelson in his true, bleak light.
The fact is, the 1997 general election strategy of which he was the architect, upon which he, Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell, Martin Bell, the BBC, the Guardian, and the cosy Westminster lobby colluded/acquiesced in order to facilitate the Labour landslide – the “cash for questions” affair – is proved to be utterly bereft of any cogent evidence to support it; is proved to be supported by wholesale perjury and forgery; and is, accordingly, provably, wholly, bogus.
That the affair was able to happen in the first place because a particular Tory minister refused to abuse his office by helping the abovementioned rich Egyptian businessman acquire British citizenship, says much about the state of British society.
1) The Guardian, Fayed, and their associates, committed perjury and forgery. However, thanks largely to the BBC’s utter dominance and institutional leftist bigotry, they won national acclaim
2) An honourable Minister of the Crown acted with absolute propriety. However, thanks largely to the BBC’s utter dominance and institutional leftist bigotry, he was driven from office in disgrace, forever branded as corrupt.
George Orwell eat your fucking heart out. Not for nothing did he model the Ministry of Truth on the fucking BBC.
That, for an entire decade, the BBC should rebuff continual requests to examine copious hard evidence unearthed by two freelance journalists proving all the above, says everything about the BBC in one hit that this blog was instigated to expose.
Still, some people are wising up. http://forums.mirror.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=1349932#1349932
That was a spurious segue. Do you have a view on Oliver Kamm Jonathan?
whitewineliberal | 14.10.08 – 6:13 pm:
As segues go, it was anything but spurious. Indeed, IMHO, it was right on the button.
Oliver Kamm? Do I have any views on him? I know he doesn’t think much of me…
he’s bell’s nephew i think. just wondered whether you’d crossed swords.
WWL:
If he, you, or anyone who’s not hamstrung by bigotry would like to examine our research, I’d be delighted to be of service.
Mathematicians in the arabic world took that knowledge and extended it in ways unimaginable to the Indian and Chinese mathematicians that came before them and in particular developed algebra that is familiar to what we think of algebra being today…
harpy | 14.10.08 – 4:44 pm
Sorry, but you’re wrong too. Interestingly this timeline has now been deleted from wikipedia:
* Circa 1800 BC: The Old Babylonian Strassburg tablet seeks the solution of a quadratic elliptic equation.
* Circa 1600 BC: The Plimpton 322 tablet gives a table of Pythagorean triples in Babylonian Cuneiform script.
* Circa 800 BC: Indian mathematician Baudhayana, in his Baudhayana Sulba Sutra, discovers Pythagorean triples algebraically, finds geometric solutions of linear equations and quadratic equations of the forms ax2 = c and ax2 + bx = c, and finds two sets of positive integral solutions to a set of simultaneous Diophantine equations.
* Circa 600 BC: Indian mathematician Apastamba, in his Apastamba Sulba Sutra, solves the general linear equation and uses simultaneous Diophantine equations with up to five unknowns.
* Circa 300 BC: In Book II of his Elements, Euclid gives a geometric construction with Euclidean tools for the solution of the quadratic equation for positive real roots. The construction is due to the Pythagorean School of geometry.
* Circa 300 BC: A geometric construction for the solution of the cubic is sought (doubling the cube problem). It is now well known that the general cubic has no such solution using Euclidean tools.
continued…
* Circa 100 BC: The Bakhshali Manuscript written in ancient India uses a form of algebraic notation using letters of the alphabet and other signs, and contains cubic and quartic equations, algebraic solutions of linear equations with up to five unknowns, the general algebraic formula for the quadratic equation, and solutions of indeterminate quadratic equations and simultaneous equations.
* Circa 150 AD: Hero of Alexandria treats algebraic equations in three volumes of mathematics.
* Circa 200: Diophantus, who lived in Egypt and is often considered the “father of algebra”, writes his famous Arithmetica, a work featuring solutions of algebraic equations and on the theory of numbers.
* 499: Indian mathematician Aryabhata, in his treatise Aryabhatiya, obtains whole-number solutions to linear equations by a method equivalent to the modern one, describes the general integral solution of the indeterminate linear equation and gives integral solutions of simultaneous indeterminate linear equations.
* Circa 625: Chinese mathematician Wang Xiaotong finds numerical solutions of cubic equations.
* 628: Indian mathematician Brahmagupta, in his treatise Brahma Sputa Siddhanta, invents the chakravala method of solving indeterminate quadratic equations, including Pell’s equation, and gives rules for solving linear and quadratic equations.
* 820: The word algebra is derived from operations described in the treatise written by the Persian mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Ḵwārizmī titled Al-Kitab al-Jabr wa-l-Muqabala (meaning “The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing”) on the systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations. Al-Khwarizmi is often considered as the “father of algebra”, much of whose works on reduction was included in the book and added to many methods we have in algebra now.
* Circa 850: Persian mathematician al-Mahani conceived the idea of reducing geometrical problems such as duplicating the cube to problems in algebra.
* Circa 850: Indian mathematician Mahavira solves various quadratic, cubic, quartic, quintic and higher-order equations, as well as indeterminate quadratic, cubic and higher-order equations.
* Circa 990: Persian Abu Bakr al-Karaji, in his treatise al-Fakhri, further develops algebra by extending Al-Khwarizmi’s methodology to incorporate integral powers and integral roots of unknown quantities. He replaces geometrical operations of algebra with modern arithmetical operations, and defines the monomials x, x2, x3, … and 1/x, 1/x2, 1/x3, … and gives rules for the products of any two of these.
* Circa 1050: Chinese mathematician Jia Xian finds numerical solutions of polynomial equations.
continued…
* 1072: Persian mathematician Omar Khayyam develops algebraic geometry and, in the Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra, gives a complete classification of cubic equations with general geometric solutions found by means of intersecting conic sections.
* 1114: Indian mathematician Bhaskara, in his Bijaganita (Algebra), recognizes that a positive number has both a positive and negative square root, and solves various cubic, quartic and higher-order polynomial equations, as well as the general quadratic indeterminant equation.
* 1202: Algebra is introduced to Europe largely through the work of Leonardo Fibonacci of Pisa in his work Liber Abaci.
* Circa 1300: Chinese mathematician Zhu Shijie deals with polynomial algebra, solves quadratic equations, simultaneous equations and equations with up to four unknowns, and numerically solves some quartic, quintic and higher-order polynomial equations.
* Circa 1400: Indian mathematician Madhava of Sangamagramma finds iterative methods for approximate solution of non-linear equations.
* Circa 1450: Arab mathematician Abū al-Hasan ibn Alī al-Qalasādī took “the first steps toward the introduction of algebraic symbolism.” He represented mathematical symbols using characters from the Arabic alphabet.[4]
* 1535: Nicolo Fontana Tartaglia and others mathematicians in Italy independently solved the general cubic equation.[5]
* 1545: Girolamo Cardano publishes Ars magna—The great art which gives Fontana’s solution to the general quartic equation.[5]
* 1572: Rafael Bombelli recognizes the complex roots of the cubic and improves current notation.
* 1591: Francois Viete develops improved symbolic notation for various powers of an unknown and uses vowels for unknowns and consonants for constants in In artem analyticam isagoge.
* 1631: Thomas Harriot in a posthumous publication uses exponential notation and is the first to use symbols to indicate “less than” and “greater than”.
* 1682: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz develops his notion of symbolic manipulation with formal rules which he calls characteristica generalis.
* 1680s: Japanese mathematician Kowa Seki, in his Method of solving the dissimulated problems, discovers the determinant, and Bernoulli numbers.[6]
* 1750: Gabriel Cramer, in his treatise Introduction to the analysis of algebraic curves, states Cramer’s rule and studies algebraic curves, matrices and determinants.
* 1824: Niels Henrik Abel proved that the general quintic equation is insoluble by radicals.[5]
* 1832: Galois theory is developed by Évariste Galois in his work on abstract algebra.
Notice that about the ony reference to Islam and algebra in the invention of the name itself.
is in the invention of the name itself.
Apologies. The timeline has not been deleted, it’s been given a page of its own:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_algebra
harpy writes: “To suggest, as some have done on here, that it was made to promote Islam and denegrate other religions is utterly bizarre”
I see the BBC’s rebuttal unit is in full flow, complete, in this case, with a classic straw man.
No one has claimed any such thing. What is being asserted, however, is that the Leftist liberal media routinely kowtows to Islam and Moslem opinion, either by affording undue deference to what are perceived to be Moslem sensiblites, or (as in this instance) by grotesquely over-emphasing Islamic input in whatever field is under discssion.
We have only recently witnessed the edtor of Radio 4’s Law In Action making a fool of himself by allowing a Moslem propagandist to broadcast a lengthy piece claiming that English Law owed a great debt to Islamic law.
That will explain the frequently found piles of amputated limbs in the Inns of Court, no doubt.
Simpson thinks the BBC is underfunded. What would he like the licence fee to be? £250, £350? £3.5 billion not enough for the BBC then? £6 million per year not enough for W*nker Ross? What an out of touch prat Simpson is, though after 42 years at the BBC that’s hardly a surprise.
Has he not cottoned on yet- the more cash the BBC gets the more trash it makes.
That maths programme pushing the fashionable line about non-westerners discovering things long before anyone else was such a cliche – the BBC trots out such programmes with the same tedious regularity as it gets the Jane Austen costumes out of the wardrobe. We’ve heard it all before many times. Why is the obvious question never asked? If all these wonderful people in India and China were so smart before everyone else why are they such awful, poverty stricken places now, mostly full of poorly educated peasnt people running their lives on the basis of superstitious beliefs like Hinduism, Islam and Communism?
Pete: They also fail to recognise that maths and science would have been quite advanced in Britain to enable them to build places like Stonehenge.
Problem is they can’t find written evicence of how a lot of the stuff like Stonehenge was done, but it clearly required as much knowledge of maths and science and engineering as anywhere elese in the world.
As others have pointed out most of the world had some form of religion. To single out Islam is just pathetic.
I would argue that Islam has simply kept the people of the middle east living as they did 700 years ago.
harpy
I think bioD has made my point about timing of the invention of algebra pretty well.
Also:
1. I did not say that the programme was made to “promote Islam” and I can’t find anyone else who said this. I wrote that the contribution of Islamic mathematicians was overstated as is frequently the case where the BBC deals with things Moslem.
2. I wrote that this dumbed-down intro to maths is a production of the Open University. Unless the OU has changed its policies this programme would be used in one or more of its courses (as well as in the BBC’s general programming). If so, then the standard of intelligence expected of university undergraduates is even lower than the 10 year olds this programme appears to be aimed at. This is a pity because maths is a fascinating subject and presenting it as a scenic and undemanding world tour does nobody any favours: least of all those who wish to learn something about the subject.
The BBC’s John Simpson, jokily bemoans ‘falling standards’ at the BBC, as though he bears no responsibility:
“The BBC’s future is bleak, warns John Simpson”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3196221/The-BBCs-future-is-bleak-warns-John-Simpson.html
As World Affairs Editor, Simpson is the arch propagandiser of the BBC’s covert ‘multiculturalist’ agenda world-wide. He condones the biased political output of the likes of Plett and Doucet.
“Clean out the BBC” (Hugh Fitzgerald).
http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/11670
The area of political bias which he has overseen at the BBC as World Affairs Editor has been documented and criticised on this site for years. As Simpson has shown, e.g. in reporting Ahmadinejad’s Iran, his political outlook is similar to that of his boss , Thompson, when it comes to reporting Islam:
“BBC chief: Reporting of Islam is over-cautious out of fear of offending Muslims”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/020655.php
The BBC has had a free run with its subsidised multicultural political propaganda for far too long; end the licence-fee now.
Okay, so here in Canada we have our election today. Very important but nothing on BBC about it. I remember they had a HYS on the Austrian elections, another one on both R/D conventions, etc., but nothing on Canada?
Phil
Yes; the BBC’s minimal level of coverage of Canada is scandalous.
As I said in a comment here at 11:30 am, in comparison the BBC pushes Pakistan all the time.