# March of The Penguins
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-of-the-penguins/417350
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 29, 2007, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-of-the-penguins/417350 "2007-08-29T12:53:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@RogueRacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueRacer)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2007, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-of-the-penguins/417350/21 "2007-08-30T14:09:47Z")
[QUOTE=Anaamika]
If they packaged it as purely entertainment that’s one thing.
[/QUOTE]
I certainly don’t remember it being packaged as a pure documentary either.
---
### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2007, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-of-the-penguins/417350/22 "2007-08-30T14:20:06Z")
[QUOTE=Anaamika]
A little touchy, aren’t we?
[/quote]
Looking over what I wrote, I can certainly understand why it came across that way. I really meant it more with a friendly nudge to the ribcage. I’m sorry.
> [@](#):
>
> If they packaged it as purely entertainment that’s one thing.
Well, I don’t know about “purely”, but that’s what it essentially was. Or at least, entertainment is how my wife and I took it. We know that penguins have no cerebral cortex, but analytic intelligence isn’t required for the primitive emotions that come from the amygdala. They suffer and fear in a real sense, just as much as you and I do. It’s just that they don’t associate it with metaphors. As humans, we can feel these things just by reading about them in a poem, or seeing them in a movie.
> [@](#):
>
> Besides, I simply think it couldn’t hurt for people to know _more_.
I agree with you there, which is why I defended DrLeth in her recent pitting. She had tried to explain that so-called atomic bombs operated at a nuclear level. She caught hell for it.
---
### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2007, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-of-the-penguins/417350/23 "2007-08-30T22:37:21Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal]
What’s wrong with anthropomorphizing? It’s just metaphors. Every single goddam thing doesn’t have to be a science textbook, does it?
[/QUOTE]
Um, no, but nature documentaries do.
---
### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2007, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-of-the-penguins/417350/24 "2007-08-31T01:56:21Z")
> [@](#):
>
> …this penguin movie anthropomorphized too much…
You’ll be happy to know that my brother agrees with you 100%
(He’s on the AMPAS documentary committee, and voted **against** it being put on the Oscar ballot.)
---
### Author:  [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2007, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-of-the-penguins/417350/25 "2007-08-31T04:15:25Z")
[QUOTE=tdn]
But what they failed to impart is just how many penguin species there are. I think there are 7 or 8.
[/QUOTE]
[This site](http://www.penguins.cl/penguins-species.htm) says 17.
> [@](#):
>
> Did you know that they are in South America, Africa, and Australia?
And [New Zealand](http://www.penguins.cl/new-zealand.htm).
> [@](#):
>
> And as far north as the Galapagos Islands?
Which means they are found in the northern hemisphere (just barely).
---
### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2007, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-of-the-penguins/417350/26 "2007-08-31T10:18:52Z")
[QUOTE=lissener]
Um, no, but nature documentaries do.
[/QUOTE]
Sorry, but bullshit. Every description of nature that isn’t a mathematical equation is a metaphor. Even physics. “When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry.” — Niels Bohr.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/march-of-the-penguins/417350.md?page=1)