Just heard that Sir Patrick Moore has passed away aged 89. One of the first programs I remember seeing on telly back at the end of the 50s was 'The sky at night' presented by him and from then on I always had a fascination about space, the planets and the stars. He was surely the last of the great English eccentrics who got into television before you had to conform to looking right and would surely never have got anywhere near a screen these days with just his tremendous enthusiasm and massive personality. It really is the end of an era...
Haven't missed his programme in a long time. He was very frail, last I saw him. Seems he didn't suffer too much in passing, let's hope we're all so lucky. Inspirational kinda guy.
Along with David Attenborough, Patrick Moore has represented everything that's good about the BBC - quality, informative programming that largely gets shunted in favour of the mass produced, throw away output of overpaid Jonathan Ross types. ...and he was excellent as the Games Master. A true scholar and gentleman - RIP.
A National Treasure was Sir Patrick. We'll never see the like of him again. An institution in himself. ( I had written another two paragraphs on him. But in light of my opinion that I posted on the Israel/Palestinian thread.. I decided to delete it. ) I'm surprised that with his view on politics and religion ( Very well documented. ) That the BBC tolerated him for so long. Especially in this day and age. Maybe it was just him being born in a different age. Who knows? RIP Sir Patrick.
Let's just say that he wasn't ' politically correct' Matt. That's not to say that he wasn't good at what he did. He may also have good reason for his leanings. ( For instance ... The one true love of his life Lorna, a nurse and his fiance.. killed by the Luftwaffe during WW11. ) But have a look at some of his beliefs and political quotes and you will get the jist.
He certainly seemed an unapologetic product of the era he grew up in!!! It does show that even the clever ones can interpret facts to fit their personal bias and any valid observations they make get swallowed up by ranting prejudice. Personally, I loathe the dumming down of news - sofas, reading "celebrity" tweets etc but this all happened long after female newsreaders were about (can't fault the likes of Jan Leeming and Moira Stewart) so Sir Patrick may have had the right meaning with a horribly sexist and incorrect misinterpretation. Another example is where Einstein wasted years of his life trying to disprove quantum theory because he didn't like the randomness of it ("God doesn't play dice") despite the fact that Relativity, in part, created it. It would be nice to have that intellect to do what you'd like with it (even if it's misguided) but alas the vast majority of us are just mere mortals.
I Now you've opened a can of worms Matt. Do you think that 'Quantum Theory' has a bearing on our results? Does the fact of the matter have any inference, whether I, you or anyone else attend any given game? Will it affect the result or a passage of play that may do so? Very thought provoking and paradoxical.
