How often do we stray from what we would normally do? I rarely sit to watch TV but when I do it’s usually to watch sport or maybe a good documentary. Instead of watching a football game last week I chose to watch the ABC that was showing “Forces of Nature With Brian Cox – Episode 1 – The Universe in a Snowflake”.
I was intrigued by the title and I have always been a fan of good documentaries. Brian Cox is an excellent presenter who shows an unbelievable passion for everything he describes in his shows. The depth of discussion that is presented and the way the program illustrates the diversity in shapes and how the forces of nature create these amazing snowflakes is brilliant.
Of course documentaries are not for everyone, but for those of us who like to think outside the box by trying to understand what goes on around us, this show is excellent.
There is one particular segment on building human towers which is a competitive sport in Catalonia, Spain. A stadium is used with the arena in the middle of the stadium holding hundreds of people who huddle together to create a base for the tallest possible tower of people. It is hard to believe this could be seen as a sport but we often overlook the cultural influences that different sports carry with them. The idea that six or seven levels of humans stacked up to a point could be exciting is hard to believe, but the noise of the crowd inside the stadium suggests otherwise. How the program relates this tower building back to snowflakes and the forces within is brilliant.
Football is such a big focus in my life and of course the college, but it is always good to think outside the football box to appreciate the bigger picture that makes up the rest of the world every now and then…
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