What are you too close to?

If you're a specialist in anything, either by profession or hobby, then chances are that there's something that irritates you whenever it appears in the media because you're just too close to it to ignore the problems. Maybe they always portray it hugely inaccurately, maybe they use ideas or technology that's been out of date for years or even decades, or maybe it's so far out that you have to wonder if anyone did even the slightest bit of research at all. Is there anything that really gets you when it appears in shows, movies, etc., fictional or "documentary"?

For me it's a couple of different things. I'm an archaeological bone specialist, so I've got a fairly wide range of stuff spread across two disciplines. There's the really obvious stuff, like the idea that archaeologists did up dinosaurs or explore huge underground ruins. Then there's more subtle stuff that only someone more familar with particular areas of archaeology might catch, like the Romans invading Britain in AD43 (they were here earlier in a much more complex relationship with the Britons than is ever depicted) or pretty much anything to do with Stonehenge, which neatly leads to druids. Argh, the druids! Even people who should know better have built entire complex systems around a group with almost no contemporary evidence of even existing, but that's nothing compared to all of the mystical mumbo-jumbo about stone circles and Stonehenge (even if they existed at all like it's suggested, they would have had nothing at all to do with the construction of Stonehenge). As a fantasy fan this one comes up a lot!

Then as a boney person I get the added bonus of knowing too much about all the forensics stuff that we're swamped with these days. Any program that deals with bones leads to shouts of "but that technique is only 54% accurate, you can't rely on that", "where did you get the evidence for that?", or far more often "that doesn't even make sense!" It's far easier to ignore on fictional programs, naturally, but it's surprising how often supposedly factual ones generate this sort of response.

So what about you? What are you too close to?

Human nature

Pretty broad, but my primary interest is the human mind and our behavior. So, every day is pretty much a matter of dealing with how things like denial and pride do harm in ways both large and small.

Basically, my primary "proximity issue" is how the, largely emotional, needs of people distort their perception of reality and make them react in harmful ways.

No, I don't exclude myself from that basic human weakness - though I do seem to be particularly aware of it.

Originally Posted by Menigal
Then as a boney person I get the added bonus of knowing too much about all the forensics stuff that we're swamped with these days.

Reminds me of this little video which shows what I'm too close to I suppose, though I find the misconceptions more amusing than annoying.

First of, I'm studying chemistry, and a lot of that can be applied to general kitchen knowledge, like what salt does to the boiling point of water (not a whole lot, really, unless you decide to put a lot of salt in your pasta water). And then there are all these myths surrounding microwave ovens, and what they do and don't do to what you put into them (there was a myth floating around that microwaves would fundamentally change the properties of water, mainly spread around chefs & people who work in kitchens for some strange reason).

And then there is roleplaying games & board games. I've been into these hobbies since the mid 90's, and I have played a lot of different games, so I cringe whenever I hear the popular media talk about these. Be it the D&D geeks in movies, or how warhammer is being portrayed on the news.

Originally Posted by holeraw
Reminds me of this little video which shows what I'm too close to I suppose, though I find the misconceptions more amusing than annoying.

Ah yes, the magic image enhancers. Always good for a groan.

Originally Posted by holeraw
Reminds me of this little video which shows what I'm too close to I suppose, though I find the misconceptions more amusing than annoying.

Zoom in! Enhance! Rotate 180 degrees! Enhance photographer! Analyze DNA! Locate individual on Google Earth! I do love magic computers.

Perhaps there just aren't enough movies about my line of work to get me riled. Usually real life irks me more than any misconceptions about it. I can watch any stupid TV series and have fun, disregarding all the plot holes and errors, but reading the local news generally makes me want to smash something. Or someone.

Then again, there's Numb3ers which had me groan in pain quite often.

fire sprinklers

in the movies, one fire sprinkler goes off and they all do. Someone holds a lighter up to the sprinkler, the bulb or fusible element holding back the water gives way, and all the surrounding sprinklers in the entire building go off as well. This just isnt the way it happens, unless all the bulbs in all the other sprinklers have been magically shattered as well. If you stood on the toilet in a bathroom somewhere and held a lighter up to the sprinkler, you'd get totally doused w/ horrible smelling, stagnant water, and the main alarm would go off. That's it.

Only in the case of open-sprinkler systems, nozzles basically, where the system is tripped by smoke or heat activation and the entire thing cuts loose would that happen. And that's only in fuel storage depot or some other type of extra hazard highly volatile occupancy, certainly not a school, restaurant, or other low-hazard occupancy as depicted in films.

Being a doctor with some training in radiology, and having a master in computer science (image processing), these things annoy me (not very much):

• like many others, "image processing" in movies
• verly fancy user interfaces, for instance login windows
• talking supercomputers who still output text on screen one character at the time
• whenever media confuses viruses with bacteria
• the term "HIV virus", since HIV stands for "Humand Immunodeficiency Virus"
• when old news are presented as revolutionary (I learned about low carbohydrate, high-fat diets for extreme obesity at med. school in 1977)
• premature cover of scientific results, too much emphasis on singular, small studies. I don't know how many possible cures for cancers I've seen
• when "alternative" treatments are claimed to be very effective, with no retraction when it turned out having no substance.
• Similarly, when experimental treatments are presented as state of the art. Typically in why-can't-my-little-child-get-heart-surgery-in-the-US articles.
• The focus on very exotic medical problems in some (but not all) hospital shows
• 4 week old babies presented as new-borns
• AND, approximating level 57 on the real life server, a number of things the young ones do is annoyable: We didn't "lol" when I was young.
• Don't get me started on politics. I'm very left-wing.

Admittedly,I really can't expect journalists to have insight in every detail in subjects I spent years studying. And quite often they also get things right.

BTW: I detested the backwards chest x-ray in "Scrubs" until I learned that it was a deliberate effect (ref. the My urologist episode).

grumpy pibbur who, because of his daughter, knows that doctor's latin is very bad latin

It seems we're actually annoyed with the same things, good old Pib, though you're far more specific about it - and likely far less grumpy

I don't let these things annoy me usually, but the one thing that got to me was how CSI agents can focus on a little piece of hair in the shadow of a seat of a car and such.


Does anyone know what I'm talking about because I can't find a video for it ?

Me, I'm too close to some parts of Palaeontology. Not exactly Dinosaurs, because there's so much new stuff in it every now and then, but rather a) in general and b) in terms of pre-vertebrate animal kingdom. Although not much anymore. I dropped out of it all too long ago.

The "enhance image" thing appears to be universal.

I've got another one. Ever notice how, in any car/motorcycle chase scene, they always upshift thru about a dozen gears, even tho most manual transmissions only have 5 gears? And then, to top it off, they shift into "14th gear", you hear the engine rpm drop, and the vehicle surges like it fired a rocket booster. Presumably, the vehicle is already going quite fast, which means it's well beyond the torque curve, they kick into a higher gear, making the torque problem even worse, but somehow there's a magic surge of power? C'mon, man!

If I knew a lot about cars and good at noticing details, I too would probably be annoyed by that.

For the record: It's not Herbie, Chitty-chitty-bang-bang or Il Tempo Gigante we're talking about here?

pibbur

Pip: Are you aware that Lucas stole the Pod racing sequence from Bjergkøbing Grand Prix? The "Pod racer" of the little "flødeknægt" is Il Tempo Gigante

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Pip: Are you aware that Lucas stole the Pod racing sequence from Bjergkøbing Grand Prix? The "Pod racer" of the little "flødeknægt" is Il Tempo Gigante

Didn't know that. Il Tempo Gigante is also the name of the car constructed by Reodor Felgen (bicycle technician) who won the Flåklypa Grand Prix (sponsored by the Arab sheikh Ben Redic Fy Fasan), all in the weird universe of the Norwegian author Kjell Aukrust. Surprise, Wikipedia has an article about it, providing a few technical details.

A full scale, drivable model was built, pictures here: Il Tempo Gigante

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Are you aware that Lucas stole…

Pretty much anything could go after that.

Somehow it doesn't surprise me that a doctor would find problems with the way tv presents it.

I hate auto-tune microphones and all "singers" who use them. I guess I'm a voice snob

I laugh rather than rail against the old movies where the computer tapes spin & lights flash. One of my clients in the late seventies/early eighties actually had a special program written to spin the tape drives and flash the lights to be run when the management brought a special guest to see the new fangled (yes even in the ealky 80s) computers!

From a psychology perspective there are so many popular myths about the way our mind works that it blows my mind.

No, people do not use just 10% of their brain capacity
No, left and right hemisphere doesn't work that way
No, subliminal messages do not exist
No, lie-detectors doesn't work
No, men are not from Mars and women from Venus
No, low self-esteem isn't the root of most problems and high self-esteem is not easy and isn't a universal solution for everything
No, playing Mozart for your children doesn't improve their intellect

And some more…
* Nature vs nurture is a false dichotomy that usually leads to stupid conclusions
* Person vs society is a false dichotomy that usually leads to stupid conclusions
* Free will vs determinism is a false dichotomy that usually leads to stupid conclusions
* No, morality doesn't come from teaching people right and wrong