Owls Count

I watched the BBC’s Frozen Planet recently and it reminded me just how good the BBC are at making such programmes. The seven episodes took the viewer on a tour of the polar regions. The team went to great lengths in the filming and the episodes showed some of the methods they used to film in such remote locations.

In the lab we now have OU Frozen Planet Poster on display.

A couple of related links:

• David Attenborough: Going to extremes – DA talks about the Frozen Planet filming and about the polar regions.
• Antarctic’s hidden world revealed – is about BEDMAP, which is the project mapping the rock bed of Antarctica.

The Rugby World Cup started with a ‘shock for the French’. I do not understand why it is being labelled as a shock. Yes, the French have been playing well recently, but Argentina have been steadily improving for years now and have now beaten France in five of the last six games. It was always going to be a close game.

There were three games yesterday. New Zealand started impressively against a reasonable Italian side. Australia ground down Japan in the early part of the game, before running away with it in the second half. England played poorly against a highly motivated USA. Playing as they did yesterday England have no hope of retaining their title.

Today sees Wales and Scotland play, against Canada and Portugal respectively, and also Samoa against South Africa. For those in the UK wishing to watch: ITV is covering the games.