Like A Hundred Billion Hot Dogs

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Watchin' Nova's Fabric of the Cosmos. So far it hasn't covered anything I don't know,* but it's fun to see it illustrated with passable CG--even if some of the metaphors are clumsy.**

Also, Brian Greene seems really determined to BLOW YOUR MIND. He starts each segment with a question scientists are trying to answer, and then he always says "The answer ... could CHANGE EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT REALITY." It seems a bit redundant, since you don't need to dress up black holes, time's relativity, possible alternate universes, crazyass quantum particles, or any of that to make them totally mind-blowing.

Of course, I am a giant nerd, so maybe they do have to wave big signs to tell non-nerds that THIS IS AMAZING. So I can't really fault Nova there, I guess.

There are some nice shots of the canyons in the American Southwest interspersed with random animations of clocks and black holes and shit, though. That makes everything better.


*Me being a giant nerd, you see.

**Most hilarious metaphor: Spacetime Is A Loaf Of Bread. But dammit, if I see one more Science Host messing around with billiard balls ...

Comments

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

...

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APPARENTLY NOT.

I can send you to watch the bit, which starts at about 2:40 in this video and goes to about 8:00. It's a really bizarre and tortured way to describe time dilation and the relativity of simultaneity.

[piccolo-pirate.livejournal.com]

We got to watch portions of that in high school chemistry class when there was a substitute! Is there a part about the universe being a teacup on a train? I remember loving the shit out of that, as ridiculous as some of the metaphors are. :)

[piccolo-pirate.livejournal.com]

Nevermind - some googling suggests we actually watched The Elegant Universe, since Fabric of the Cosmos is too recent. But now I have to watch some.

[stormteller.livejournal.com]

I liked it when they used a large pizza to represent space-folding in wormholes.
I think the way they come up with these is that the production team goes out to lunch and points at the first vaguely appropriate analogue in sight, then films it.
Also, kudos for the Eddie Izzard quote.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

There is a fairly high chance that I will respond to any declaration that something is awesome with "What, like a hot dog?"

I once made a 2D model of a cell out of pizza. I think the green peppers were the endoplasmic reticulum ...

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

I love the hell out of the typical Star Trek space metaphor, myself, where it always turns out that whatever effect they're trying to create by maneuvering the ship a certain way is "like a slingshot!" XD

At first I misread piccolo_pirate's comment as having referred to The Elephant Universe. That would have been quite a different show entirely. I evidently need more coffee.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

It'd make a good follow-up to Terry Pratchett's book, The Fifth Elephant.

I still like Zapp Brannigan's application of the slingshot effect: "Ah, yes, comets: the icebergs of the sky. By jackknifing off one after another at breakneck speed, we can create a gravity boost, or something." You just know that's what Geordi LaForge was always thinking.