Did Not Do The Research

[Ghoti]

I remember watching an episode of L&O once, back in the early Det Logan days… He was talking to a computer operator who was calling up info from a database supposedly similar to IAFIS: he clicked on this menu item, then this, and bing up pops the ifo screen with the bad guy’s data.

The program was the old DOS version of Harvard Graphics, and dude was going through the menu items to preview the slide show.

 

[Ghoti]

Another problem I have now with suspension of disbelief…

The old trope of someone being bopped on the head and losing consciousness, then when they come to, telling the cops that someone bopped them on the head…

According to cops and medical types I have seen on documentary and news programs, if you are hit on the head hard enough to lose consciousness, you will also lose your short-term memory…not only are you not going to be able to remember being hit, you won’t remember a number of minutes leading up to the strike, since your brain didn’t have time to move anything from short-term to long-term memory (apparently your brain “saves” less frequently than Word). Detectives say that anyone who “remembers” being knocked unconscious is viewed with some suspicion.

I personally only know of two people knocked unconscious, both by a fall to the ground (one only for a second-or-so blackout): both denied that they had struck their heads, despite witnesses to the contrary (e.g. me), and neither remembered the incident leading up to the strike, only that one minute they were standing, the next they were on the ground, wondering how the heck they got there.

So now, whenever there is a scene where someone tells the cops, “I was minding my own business when BAM! I was knocked out and woke uip later on the floor,” I’m rolling my eyes and throwing up my hands.

Ignorance is often bliss, especially when dealing with works of fiction.

 

[Pacbox]

I guess it comes down to budget: Why fly to and film in Portland/Encino/Podunk when you can just find a local neighbourhood that has the same “flavour”, and no one outside the residents will know diff?

One thing I have noticed is that in the opening sequence/establishing shots for a movie, the more they focus on specifically “American” things, the more likely it was filmed in Canada. Like if there’s a street scene in suburbia…and the camera pans across a US mailbox…and then the Stars & Stripes in front of a building…and the “New York” plates on a vehicle…then it was shot in Toronto. It’s like they try too hard to convince you, “Hey! Look! We’re in America! See? Inside that house is a baseball-playing mom baking apple pie!”

I know, at least with Criminal Minds, they will shoot on location or at least near enough to location. I understand about budget but take a moment to look up the location with Google and actually read. Just don’t hold up a map and point your finger and go “That’s the place!” and be done with it. It rains in Portland. I don’t mean once in a while. I mean days on end for months on end. That’s what gets me the most when they use Portland. And it’s a city surrounded by other cities but it’s also urban wilderness meaning lots of trees and the danger of wildfires.

Oh, and Portland does not have nice wide open streets downtown. They’re narrow, one ways that have high rise building on each block and if you missed the street you need to turn on, sorry but you’ll need to go several blocks out the way to even remotely get back in the right direction (I had an interview in downtown Portland last week so that’s how I know that and from other times I’ve had to drive in Portland). And road construction that’s half going on with the signs up but the construction workers may not be in sight. And coffee shops are on every corner. (Okay, may be not but there are a lot of coffee places and they are almost right on top of each other).

I know Toronto and Vancouver are two of the bigger Canadian cities used for shooting shows that take place in the US. There’s a scene in an episode of Stargate SG-1 where they show Carter’s house but it’s set far back from the street. Not typically done in the US (not sure if it’s never done but definitely not typical). We know it’s shot in Vancouver but really, do a little research about housing. And not everyone has a nice house, with a nice manicured lawn, with nice even if they’re murderous neighbors.

The way characters dress especially in regards to police shows. The women wouldn’t be allowed to show that much flesh especially if they were working in a lab. Laboratory safety standards don’t seem to apply.

 

[Sabda]

Another problem I have now with suspension of disbelief…

The old trope of someone being bopped on the head and losing consciousness, then when they come to, telling the cops that someone bopped them on the head…

According to cops and medical types I have seen on documentary and news programs, if you are hit on the head hard enough to lose consciousness, you will also lose your short-term memory…not only are you not going to be able to remember being hit, you won’t remember a number of minutes leading up to the strike, since your brain didn’t have time to move anything from short-term to long-term memory (apparently your brain “saves” less frequently than Word). Detectives say that anyone who “remembers” being knocked unconscious is viewed with some suspicion.

I personally only know of two people knocked unconscious, both by a fall to the ground (one only for a second-or-so blackout): both denied that they had struck their heads, despite witnesses to the contrary (e.g. me), and neither remembered the incident leading up to the strike, only that one minute they were standing, the next they were on the ground, wondering how the heck they got there.

So now, whenever there is a scene where someone tells the cops, “I was minding my own business when BAM! I was knocked out and woke uip later on the floor,” I’m rolling my eyes and throwing up my hands.

Ignorance is often bliss, especially when dealing with works of fiction.

I passed out one time and it was interesting to discover just how unrealistic the movies are compared to those real life episodes. For one thing my eyes stayed open the whole time and for a few minutes I was up walking and talking before I actually went down. Also when I went out everything went white not black like they always talk about.

 

[didymus]

That reminds me of 24, where supposedly, in one episode, Jack went to Portland.

Well, he was either in the wrong city or the creators of the show had never seen Portland before.

Here’s how easy it is to find out what Portland looks like: Google

There a WW2 propaganda movie with John Wayne (he’s a factory manager) supposedly set in Pittsburgh but all the street scenes are in Los Angeles.

New Yorkers have pointed out to me cop shows where the police foot-chase a suspect two blocks e.g., from 6th Ave & 42nd St to 5th & 48th. Or a character walks one or two blocks from one well-known site to another & only a native would realise they are on opposite side of Manhattan.

 

[Ghoti]

There a WW2 propaganda movie with John Wayne (he’s a factory manager) supposedly set in Pittsburgh but all the street scenes are in Los Angeles.

New Yorkers have pointed out to me cop shows where the police foot-chase a suspect two blocks e.g., from 6th Ave & 42nd St to 5th & 48th. Or a character walks one or two blocks from one well-known site to another & only a native would realise they are on opposite side of Manhattan.

At the risk of derailing the thread, I must add this, since your post reminded me of it…

Back in the late 70s/early 80s, Participaction (the fitness program from Health Canada) had some commercials on TV. Their ad campaign slogan was “Walk a Block a Day.”

So in the commercials, they “interviewed” people about their reaction to this campaign.

In the middle of the commercial they went to a man standing in the road in front of a grain elevator somewhere on the Saskatchewan prairie. He said:

“It’s a plot against the West! Out here, our blocks are a mile long. Back east, they’re about as long as a cat’s leg!” (He starts to chuckle)

Thanks for triggering a fun memory.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled ranting…

 

[didymus]

In the middle of the commercial they went to a man standing in the road in front of a grain elevator somewhere on the Saskatchewan prairie. He said:

“It’s a plot against the West! Out here, our blocks are a mile long. Back east, they’re about as long as a cat’s leg!” (He starts to chuckle)
…

Thanks, Ghoti.
It’s nice to know that other countries have their own eastern effete elites, or at least anti-eastern effete elite sentiment

 

[survive]

How do starships maintain pressure over the centuries, BTW?
And, doesn’t the food replicator grab atoms from the air, perform powerful exothermic reactions and produce stuff to eat and drink? Why isn’t it very hot?
Where does its exhaust go?

 

[didymus]

How do starships maintain pressure over the centuries, BTW?
And, doesn’t the food replicator grab atoms from the air, perform powerful exothermic reactions and produce stuff to eat and drink? Why isn’t it very hot?
Where does its exhaust go?

Details, details!
First defense is Clarke’s Law: any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Second, I never thought those things were “replicators” but recyclers – i.e., they took whatever’s grown on board plus, um, waste organic compounds and made it into food.

 

[Ghoti]

Details, details!
First defense is Clarke’s Law: any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Second, I never thought those things were “replicators” but recyclers – i.e., they took whatever’s grown on board plus, um, waste organic compounds and made it into food.

According to a Trek novel I read once, you are partially right – ships also carried a load of something called “CHON” (Carbon-Hydrogen-Oxygen-Nitrogen compound) which was easily mixed into almost any potable organic substance; I imagine recycled waste of varying varieties provided other “flavouring” agents (sulfur, calcium, sodium, etc). I think the energy used to do the reactions came from a combination of warp-reaction waste and transporter technology.

From watching the show and reading the novels, what I posit happens (at least on Federation ships in Star Trek) is: a sample foodstuff – say, Tribble Kiev – is put on a transporter pad, and partway beamed (discombobulated, but not recombobulated) and then stored in the pattern buffer. So, anytime anyone wants a plate of Tribble Kiev, the replicator completes the transport using the data in the buffer as a template and the CHON mixed with the recycled waste as the matter. Since the transporter can move molecules and atoms around without technically “breaking” bonds and releasing humongous blasts of energy, you don’t really have to worry about exothermic reactions or small thermonuclear explosions in the mess hall.

If there was any such excess energy, given that a starship is a closed system, that energy might be channeled into a recycled waste-energy reservoir, possibly used to maintain room-temp shipwide while in the cold vacuum of space. Anything completely unusable or over the safety limits (for example, if your Hot Pockets happen to fission) could be vented out the same way warp-reaction waste is ejected (and leave warp trails for some sensors to pick up).

I must stop now, I’m getting geek rash and an overwhelming desire to move into Mom’s basement.

 

[Ghoti]

If there was any such excess energy, given that a starship is a closed system*, that energy might be channeled into a recycled waste-energy reservoir, possibly used to maintain room-temp shipwide while in the cold vacuum of space. Anything completely unusable or over the safety limits (for example, if your Hot Pockets happen to fission) could be vented out the same way warp-reaction waste is ejected (and leave warp trails for some sensors to pick up).

*I mean, by design. You don’t want your starship “eroding” in space by giving off too much matter/energy with no way to replenish it.

Reminds me of one of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers books: There was a planet where so many tourists were taking stuff (like rocks, souvenirs, etc) off-planet that the world was slowly dissolving. So they decided to “close the system”: masswise, you could only leave the planet with what you came with. So the guide suggested that every time you go to the bathroom, get a receipt.

 

[tee_eff_em]

I must stop now, I’m getting geek rash and an overwhelming desire to move into Mom’s basement.

tee