NOVA show: Making Stuff Smaller

I was a lot more disappointed with that show than most people probably were. Even more so than I expected to be.

Early in the show, they're doing a bit on wristwatches. He does a brief thumbnail history of the pendulum, which he calls an "oscillator," and when you see a close-up of an escapement, he's still calling it the "oscillator." Then, he segues into making clocks not need a pendulum, and he says the answer was a "mainspring."

Well, that's just crap. The revolutionary thing wasn't the "mainspring," they'd been running stuff off springs for decades if not centuries! The _real_ revolution in chronometry came with the _hairspring_ and the balance wheel, which didn't even get mentioned!

At that point, I thought, man if they're that stupid this early in the show, how credible is anything else he tells me?

And when they got to the segment about silicon chips, after about the third time the guy said, "siliKAHN" I wanted to strangle him.

Thanks for the opportunity to vent; I feel much better now. :-)

Cheers! Rich

I saw a sitcom where some guy swallowed a diamond ring and then crapped in a colander until he found it.

Cheers! Rich

NOVA has become total goo-goo-gaa-gaa science, and is now intended for kids. I wish they would replay the original shows I remember from

ignator

Same with scientific american- they dialed the smarts waaaay back.

Dave

NOVA and Nature (George Page's baby, RIP ) used to be much better shows. Political correctness and less intelligence crept in.

Hey, they have to dumb it down so everyone who didn't graduate from what they graciously call "schools" here now could understand it.

Um, silicon is pronounced "silikahn" while silicone is pronounced "silicone". Silicon (chips) is elemental while silicone (rubber stuff) is a manmade compound. Pronunciation differs. Whassamattayou?

Heavier now, I presume? ;)

-- Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. -- Howard Thurman

That suuuuuure makes me miss watching TV... Well, that one lived up to its name: a shitcom.

-- Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. -- Howard Thurman

I went to the local VA clinic this morning for blood work.

"I dream of Jennie" was on the TV in the waiting room.

Sad...

--Disappointing. Lots of 'they made it smaller' but nothing about HOW they made it smaller. Harrumph.

Yabbut, doesn't that make it even more important that they at least be accurate? "For the chillllldruuuuuuunnnnn," you know.

Thanks, Rich

I used to have a supscription to SA; I dropped it in the 1970's when they went warmingist.

Thanks, Rich

, Titanium: =A0

The first show of the series, about stronger materials, was reasonably good (and far above my expectations for it) although in many places technical details were lacking that should have been included. Stupid, flashing screen cuts and horrid, irritating background music (which have been problems with many of the Nova Science Now programs) were notably absent.

Perhaps he wants them to say it like "silikun", ie, have the last syllable rhyme with gun rather than gone. Ie, "...cone" not an issue.

Pronunciation shown at is "IPA: /?s?l?k?n/", and elsewhere online, "\?si-li-k?n, ?si-l?-?kän\".

For the pronunciation meaning of ? (a turned (rotated) lower-case e) see chart with mid-central vowel, near the middle of . (But note that says, "this symbol does not specifically represent an unrounded vowel, and is frequently used for almost any unstressed obscure vowel".)

I guess it could be. I'm always gritting my teeth when someone says "Hand me the silicon caulk." or that so-and-so is made with "silicone chips". I'm less sensitive to "kun" vs "kahn", myself.

-- Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. -- Howard Thurman

Yeah - the schwa. It irks me no end that the extended ascii guys didn't include that one.

But I did find a lot of words that are pronounced like "silicon" the right way, most notably "carbon." You wouldn't say, "carBAHN," would you? ;-)

Here's a few: abandon apron arson bacon badminton bandwagon baron beacon beckon bison bourbon burgeon button cannon canon canyon carbon carton cauldron chairperson

at which point I quit picking and choosing, because it was getting boring.

Cheers! Rich

In one of Asimov's articles in "F&SF" around the time of the moon shot(s), he was complaining about the NASA talking heads calling everything "looNAHR."

He speculated that it was some kind of thing about "radar" or "sonar" being all modernistic and scientifical and stuff. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

ignator wrote in rec.crafts.metalworking on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 06:09:31 -0800 (PST):

You would like "connections" a BBC production from the 1970s. A little dated, but still good.

Connections was more than good, it was spectacularly good, and unlike the noted current NOVA schlock, it had plenty of detail. There is a book available and I believe you can get it on DVD now as well.

Yes, I concur. James something-or-other, I think. Burke? One of his shows climaxed in "an atomic bomb in a _suitcase_! =:-O"

Cheers! Rich

Hardly, What's sad is Larry. Well, "sad might not be correct. Pathetic is probably closer to the truth.