I was just saying that it was a marvel of the modern capitalist system

[james_davis_nicoll]

that I automatically assume all statements from companies are misleading or outright lies unless I can prove otherwise. This covers a lot of educational programs: Phil Plait cheerfully pushed utter rot on people when he was on TV.

Wil Wheaton just discovered Discovery is owned by a profit-oriented entity.

(I am not making fun of him. I was very peeved over the crap physics on Plait's show)

Comments

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Phil Plait cheerfully pushed utter rot on people when he was on TV.

But it was educational to learn that the reason interstellar travel is difficult is because people can't withstand the acceleration.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Interplanetary, surely?

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

No, I think it was interstellar, although as an explanation for interplanetary travel being difficult it's just as ludicrous.

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

Hmm, is Plait the guy I saw many, many years ago on a TV show (on PBS, maybe?) saying that we couldn't travel significant distances because once a ship accelerated the crew would be "chunky salsa" against the back wall? I remember even seeing "chunky salsa" written on a whiteboard.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Did the episode feature the host zooming around in the passenger seat of a jet trainer? If so, that was him.

Here is the transcript to the episode of "Bad Universe" I was talking about

http://livedash.ark.com/transcript/bad_universe-%28alien_attack!%29/6222/DSCP/Wednesday_October_06_2010/468930/

The whole argument he gives there is utter codswallop, of course. Assuming you could have sustained acceleration of 1 gee (huge if), you could reach relativistic speeds in about a year.

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

I saw some of Bad Universe, probably at the time -- it's not the show I was thinking about, but both were unintentionally hilarious.