Mythbusters sighting

There aren't any any more.

But as a kid I shue did love Mr Wizard.

cavelamb himself wrote in news:13ktl70pl0ts061 @corp.supernews.com:

A while back one of the science channels had a marathon of those and I recorded all of them on DVD. I'd like to sit down and watch them with the kids but just haven't had the time.

Bill

There is a nice DZ right near my home in Taft.

Watch out for the irrigation canals though.....

Gunner

--Agreed, it's now the best game in town, but lately it seems like a mighty small town, heh. I'm still waiting for the machinist equivalent of New Yankee Workshop to pop up on DIY. Any takers?

Hah. Ultralights with floats have been known to land in irrigation canals in the valley. Don't ask how I know...

I hope your life insurance is paid up. That thing is a CROCK.

Mine is not an ultralight, but I'm building a Pegazair (French Canadian STOL Bushplane).

Piss in my wheaties I proly wouldn't really mind--proly wouldn't even notice. It's the raisins in my raisin bread that aren't really raisins that get me.... :)

Super-excellent Q, with I think an inneresting answer: (Mebbe print this out and read it on the throne, or sumpn...)

First, recall Beakman's World, which I used to watch Sat mornings, along with Ernest P. World (the extraordinarily talented Jim Varney), with the Wife, in my 30's. What a treat! Extraordinarily well/artfully done, interesting and very informative sci-wise, and hilarious.

Reminded me of SnagglePuss, which I think my mom loved more than I did--along with other cartoons that were able to incorporate sophisticated adult humor into childrens' format. Rocky/Bullwinkle (Boris/Natasha), Betty Boop (and those very adult insinuations.... not to mention the subliminal frames of nude Betty, before the censors caught on!), and many others.

The bottom line is, regardless of whether it is science, art, music, whatever, there is basically one right way to do it: With an eye toward the aesthetic high road, that almost invariably

*elevates* the viewer, even if the viewer isn't exactly thrilled with the product. Good food that may not always taste good, but certainly can, when prepared correctly. Iow, a product/result driven by the convictions of the scientist/artist, regardless of the economic payoff. Read: without probing the mind of consumer, searching for the absolute lowest common denominator.

Vs. all other roads, which are basically avenues of some level of manipulation/mindprobing-f****ng. Food that almost invariably tastes effing great, but is invariably bad for you, to one degree or another. Give dat flavor chemist a Nobel Prize.

Which is why jazz musicians starve, whilst Madonna's Borderline (mebbe more recognizable as Bo'do'lahn), without one fukn musician on the track (basically a canned ditty), sold millions. I-IV-V, jack.

There was an era, I believe, when commercial interests could and did coincide with aesthetic truths--altho rarely in finance, but mebbe even then, occasionally the notion of the Greater Good might have snuck in.

Most of published science/research is manipulative shit with unresolvable conflicts of interest. Even stuff in peer-reviewed mathematics journals is suspect, in part due to the very process of peer-review and the turf therein. I read a fantastic expose of the peer-review process, kick myself for losing it.

It is about getting the consumer addicted to junk food in all its embodiments: junk culture, junk concepts, junk art/music/""literature"", junkTV, junk humor, junk science, junk relationships, junk existence, and inurring sed consumer to basically cannibalizing his fellow citizens.

It was one thing when Big Bidniss ass-f***ed us. It's another when we do it to each other, in part by being such willing pawns--think of the self-humiliation in game shows, which started 5 seconds after the first TV broadcast. goodgawd, I'd slit my wrists before I would ever sink to that level....

Which segues (chaotically meanders?) to a final very important point.

Intellectuals are basically road kill for the Fanatic: Yer local KKKmen, Aryan Brotherhood, super religious Christian right, jihadic muslims, the whole spectrm of deranged/fanatic muthafuckas.

But what these deranged groups have, that the Intellectual is sorely missing, is *passion and a call to action*, a willingness/honor to sacrifice for their moronic causes. Which, unfortunately, is fueled by hatred, fear, and multiple hidden agendas/deficiencies, in the groups above.

If Intellectuals had this kind of passion and self-sacrifice, instead of day-trading and talking shit at SoHo art galleries, jerking themselves off in Mensa meetings, sipping fuknStarbucks, and profiling themselves at Lincoln Center, we probably wouldn't be in a cultural meltdown.

Now, the Intellectual can sort of fend off some of the more flagrant efforts of fanatics, and might even be able to get references to God removed from our currency and courtrooms, might be able to prolong Roe v. Wade a little longer, cupla other fav causes.

But they *cannot* fend off the New Moneyed Predatory and Low Class, which is, basically, Congress and the Power Brokers, who relentlessly erode our culture and society, who PV us up to the ileocecal valve and then tell us it's just a colonoscopy, for our collective colonic well-being. Congress is now little more than Mafia children sent to Harvard Bidniss/Liarw School, who in some sense take a few cues from the NYC/Chicago Mafias, and mebbe even from the Aryan Brotherhood.

All because, basically, intellectuals are dickless, determined above all else to preserve their oh-so precious Starbucks lifestyle. And are often corrupt themselves. And/or foot-shooting knowitalls.

It is, in fact, tough to be philosophically astute, and a tough trench/back-alley fighter.

Mythbusters, now, is what is considered entertainment for the quasi-intellectual. And you gotta eat considerable shit for that dubious viewing privilege. goodgawd.... And mebbe a little Charlie Rose, replete with utterly gratuitous blowings of Bob Nardelli (HD carpet-bagger, and savior of modern society), P. Diddy (another cultural savior) et al.

Which will proly all be moot, anyway, because the mind-alteration of our youth is profound and insidious. They are being programmed into a focused egocentric cult that probably can never be de-programmed. It is reminiscent of our bankrupt legal system, where the adversarial ethic is so powerful that we just accept that whoever wins is right, no matter how low either side stoops, and reward them accordingly. OJ raised a few eyebrows, but absolutely nothing has changed as a result. And it dudn't matter whether it's high-profile criminal stuff, or run-of-the-mill civil matters.

The point being, the New Zeitgeist will be totally self-absorbed muthafuckas throwing elbows, jockeying for some/any limelight, and no matter the how/who/where/what/when/price/tactics of achieving it, whoever does achieve it will be thusly communally blown. A la Parisite Hilton.

We have simply lost our discriminatory powers. We all eat at a long trough, filled with slop.

Proly, in nitty gritty terms, the waving red flag of our defunct culture is the extraordinary number of broadcast hours devoted to televised Poker. And tele-evangelism. And abs..... And a garish Paris& Harlots et al... GoodEffingGawd..... I thought televised golf and Bob Hope were bad.... I had no idea.....

Bartender....

"Pre-Meltdown" wrote in news:4eF3j.96$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe08.lga:

I'll dig through the rest of the post later, read it once, scratched head, read it again, smacked head to make sure it was working, read it a last time and decided I needed more time to coagulate it into a cognative thought ;)

I will, on the other hand, discuss Beakman!! Great show, why Bill Nye the Science Guy kept a show a Paul Zaloom did not I'll never know. They are re- airing it on Fox and I've been TIVOing it so my girls can watch it. They love it, especially Lester. My middle kid wanted to write a letter to Beakman and was disappointed when she was told the show was no longer being made.

Bill

Man, you're winding that stem today. Here, put your feet up, relax with that drink, and read a little Tom Wolfe:

I always wanted to go down (from Vacaville) to Taft but as a young SSgt in the Air Force, such trips were not practical. Yolo had a ditch right next to the landing area also. One of my students managed to land right in it, dead center.

Jim

Mitch is out there - hum - CNC mill and welding and 3p and... projects for the new place but on the TV paid for by the show!

Mart> --Agreed, it's now the best game in town, but lately it seems like a

Mebbe if you take some of the meds I was on when I wrote it..... :)

And I think that with just a little more aesthetic concern, and with a little less desire to mind-f*ck the Pubic for fun and profit, we could have many many more efforts like Beakman, Ernest P World, and a cupla others I forgot. There are truly talented people out there, and it must be an exquisite torture to know that you and your comrades are capable of such quality and truly valuable stuff, with nowadays absolutely no outlet for it, no real appreciation of it. Ditto the University experience. I can count on a crooked left hand the professors who were worth a dump. 99% are riding the coattails of the system. Fuck them.

SteveB wrote in article ...

I believe the whole Mythbusters concept has just about run its course.

They - like Mike Rowe in Dirty Jobs - are now strongly soliciting ideas from their audience.

If one can judge from past audience-driven shows, we should not expect award-winning scientific concepts and ideas.

At least the people involved with "Wing Nuts" had the decency to quit when the concept started to go stale, and they did NOT exploit the suicide of one of the main characters.

Imagine what American Chopper would do with the suicide of Mikey or Paul - either Sr. or Jr.