SciMon Diary: Day 13

I'm a day late in posting this, but for completeness feel I should write something. Yesterday's shift involved quite a lot of going in and out of lock. There were a few seismic spikes that may well have been caused by the wind, which had picked up considerably yesterday. This wind made the drive home a bit more fun as I had to battle against it a bit and avoid the tumbleweed flying across the road.

I've not really got anything more to say about the shift, so I'll just add that yesterday evening I watched an episode of Stargate Universe. I've not really watched any of the other Stargate franchise (well I've seen the original film, and caught the odd episode of the original series), but I thought this was very good. From what I've seen I think this is rather darker than the other Stargate spin-offs, and more in the mould of BSG. I don't think there will be many light and fun episodes, with rather more emphasis on lurching from one seemingly hopeless situation to another. Unfortunately I caught episode four (and most of episode five), so I think I'll be having to download the first three (which sort of form a three-part opening episode) when I get home. Robert Carlyle is very good in it too.

Plug

After my last post about science on TV I just thought I'd plug my friend Michelle's appearance on last night's episode of BBC's The One Show - she can be seen here demonstrating how science shows that you can break a plank of wood with your hand (whether she'll thank me for pointing out her appearance or not is another thing!)

Can we make... an inappropriate cut scene?

I wasn't really planning on watching tonight's episode of Horizon, but I was sat in front of the TV and it came on after MasterChef, so I stayed seated and gave it a look. Now the reason I hesitate to watch Horizon is that I (like many people I've talked to) have got more and more frustrated with it over the last few years. It's gone from a respectable science program that was informative and inspiring, without being too stuffy and impenetrable, to a gimiky show that is more about fancy computer graphics, wierd camera work, controversial titles, and very little (and also badly presented) science content - this may be just the way you have to do things in TV these days (and I probably have a rose-tinted view of some of the way it used to be - in fact I generally preferred Channel 4's Equinox), but I doesn't seem a good method to present science to the public (and actually get them to be interested and learn something) to me.

Tonight's episode was entitled "Can We Make a Star on Earth?" and was presented by Prof. Brian Cox - the BBC's current go-to guy for physics related programming (he's already got at least a couple of other Horizon's under his belt). The program was essentially about investigations into using nuclear fusion as a future power source, as well as a fair amount of the background science leading up to fusion and our energy needs. I actually was rather surprised as I thought the program was pretty good, but with some reservations. The science content of the program covered a good deal of topics at a nice level and was generally well presented. The scientists that were interviewed were well chosen and did a good job explaining and enthusing about their subject. The experiments were impressively presented and you got a good idea of the challenges that they face. So the general things that I liked about how Horizon used to be were there. The problems came when they did pieces to camera - they just didn't work or add to the program. We don't need the bizarre camera angles and weirdly positioned shots (including strange almost subliminal close-ups of his food) and cut scences. We don't need the opening minutes of random pointless musings, which almost made me switch off. When Cox was just there as a narrator, or interviewing others, all was rather good and he can do it well, but when he's on screen they decide to take it too far. In reality I don't really think Horizon requires having a presenter - a good narrator can convey all the information as well as adding awe, excitement and perspective about the science being presented.

Seeing as I know exactly how the show should be I think the BBC should ask me to take over. I'm sure it would be easy... ;)

Not the 9 o'clock news

In my apartment in Hannover I have access to a variety of TV channels (I don't know if it's satellite or just plain digital TV) in which I have two English language news networks: CNN and Sky News. In the past I've occasionally flicked past Sky News, but I've never really watched it for an extended period. Until now. It really is bad, despite proclaiming itself "News Channel of the Year". It's like the Sun, but on TV - even having right-wing pundit, Sun columnist and talk radio host Jon "Gaunty" Gaunt doing its newspaper review. This probably isn't surprising given it's ownership by Rupert Murdoch's News International, but it is slightly disappointing (I at least want BBC World and even that's pretty shit.) It's only saving grace is that it has that nice Eamonn Holmes presenting its breakfast show.

Waxy Monkey Tree Frog

It's been a while since I've watched a David Attenborough wildlife show on the beeb (I didn't see any of Planet Earth and only caught a bit of Blue Planet - the last thing I remember watching properly watched was Life in the Freezer [I remember those evil, wickedly smiling, Leopard seals eating the lovely penguins - bastards!], which was apparently aired back in 1993!), so this evening I decided I get back into a bit of natural history by watching his new show Life in Cold Blood. As the name suggests this is all about your cold blooded beasties - the reptiles and amphibians. I enjoyed the show, which essentially follows the general BBC natural history format of showing lots of weird and wonderful animals doing their thing with Attenborough occasionally saying hello to them (all animals love Attenborough - it's programmed into their genes), watching them court each other and then copulating. There was real science content in the program, with the odd smattering of CGI animals internal organs, but I was mainly absorbing these facts without really knowing it - there was however a slightly shoehorned in bit about dinosaurs. It never tried to go into too much detail, with the main point being to show that the animals are pretty cool (excuse the pun.) I particularly liked the Waxy Monkey Tree Frog (in part for it's name, but also because it secreted it's own sun tan lotion/wax), the tortoise trying to right itself after losing a fight, the lizard that curled into a ball by biting it's own tail, and the really, really, really tiny Pygmy Chameleon. That said I wasn't as impressed by the program as I've been by, the admittedly viewed long ago, other series'. Maybe it's just that cold blooded creatures aren't as cute as birds and mammals, or there weren't any big action set pieces - watching two tree frogs fight isn't quite the same as a pride of lioness's taking down an elephant - or maybe I now need a higher level of science content from my natural history programming. But I'll see how the series pans out as Attenborough's looking pretty old now (although still spritely) and he may no be doing too many more.

Returning heroes

What do I make of the first episode of series two of Heroes? (No major spoilers) Well, it carried on pretty much as it left off (albeit 4 Months Later.) We're reintroduced to the majority of the previous characters and what's happened in their life since we last saw them (there's a lot of dialogue devoted to the standard exposition of what's gone on), with a couple of new faces put in there (in what'll probably be the new Nikki Sanders-type story.) Due to the who'll catchup nature of it there's a lot packed into the episode. But, I think the show has kept its style and pace really well. The opening episode has certainly asked a whole heap of new questions, some of which seem glaringly obvious, but others are more intriging. I certainly really enjoyed it and am now eagerly anticipating the second episode.

I've also watched the first episode of series four of House (Spoiler for end of series three if you've not seen it yet). I'm not quite sure why I persist with watching House, as, in classic medical drama style (well even more so in this case), it repeats very similar stories over and over. You'd think I'd be bored of it ny now. I think I just enjoy watching Hugh Laurie play House, while the same predictable things happen around him and his work colleagues seem duller and more annoying. At the end of the last series House's three employees either resigned or were sacked (and don't appear in this episode despite all the actors names being in the opening credits) and here we see him trying to solve a case himself without the help of his team. The whole point of the episode (as Cuddy and Wilson keep telling him in ever more irritating ways) is that he'd do better with I team and he should employ some people, but I didn't really get why as he solves the case perfectly well on his own (the main point of the entire show being that he's really bloody good at what he does.) I'll keep with the series, as I do perversely enjoy it still, until the supporting characters really do drive me insane.

There are a long list of other shows that I have in the pipeline to watch (some of which wee-n-sarcastic mentioned) including: Reaper, Bionic Woman, Life and of course, in the hopefully not too distance future, BSG. I'll review these as I get round to watching them.

Moores law

In another very brief astronomy related post the head of the Astronomy & Astrophysics group at Glasgow Prof. John Brown and my friend Fiona were on the Sky at Night last night. I've not watched it yet, but will try and catch the repeat or download it. From what I've heard it mainly consisted of John doing magic tricks - he links in astronomy with his magic as part of public outreach - but I'm intrigued to see how it comes across on the TV.

Giving in to killer TV

For the last few months my flatmate has been bugging me to watch the TV show Dexter, which he'd started watching last year and really liked. I finally gave in to his nagging and have so far watched the first two episodes. The show, the first series of which finished last November when screened in the US, is based around the character Dexter Morgan. As far as antiheroes go this guy goes right into top spot. He's a serial killer. He's also a forensic scientist working for the police. The show has a dark humour about it, which it gets away with despite the very grisly situations that are presented. You kind of like the character of Dexter for the reason, I think, that the whole thing is presented from his perspective (with an overlying narration by him) allowing the viewer to connected with him if not really understanding and certainly not condoning what he does - or maybe just I think the character has a likability a everyone else thinks psycho! Like I said I've only watched the first two episodes, so will need to watch some more to form a more full opinion, but so far I'm liking it. I'd recommend it to people so long as you're not too squeamish about mutilated bodies - there're a lot of them!

Show it like it is!

This autumn the US TV channel CBS will be airing a new sitcom called "The Big Bang Theory" based on geeky male physics types trying to deal with matters relating to the opposite sex:-

"The Big Bang Theory" is a comedy from the Emmy Award nominated Co-Creator and Executive Producer of "Two and a Half Men" Chuck Lorre, about brainy best friends Leonard (Johnny Galecki, "Roseanne") and Sheldon (Jim Parsons "Judging Amy"), who can tell you anything you want to know about quantum physics, but when it comes to dealing with everyday life here on earth they're lost in the cosmos. Neither fully understands that scientific principles don't always apply in matters of the heart - until they meet their sexy new neighbor Penny (Kaley Cuoco, "8 Simple Rules...") on "The Big Bang Theory." Penny is a friendly screenwriter/waitress from the midwest who also happens to be newly single. She quickly makes an impression on the other members of Leonard and Sheldon's geek squad on "The Big Bang Theory:" Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"), who portrays himself as the Casanova of Cal Tech, and fellow whiz kid Rajesh Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar, "NCIS"), who is rendered speechless around anyone unprepared to converse about the Theory of Relativity or other scientific jargon.

The chemistry between this gaggle of geniuses and a delightful damsel is about to undergo a stimulating series of inter-personal experiments on "The Big Bang Theory."

Obviously much hilarity is bound to ensue from all the whacky situations that these nerds get themselves into as they try to woo their attractive neighbour (you can see a clip here.) The promo blurb for this show is critiqued here and doesn't exactly leave you anticipating great things from the show (however, to be fair, in the comments section of the linked blog post one of the shows producers does make a good effort at defending it, and no-one's actually seen it yet to really judge it.) I just wonder whether it can be as bad as Supernova!

Season finales

The last week has seen the end of seasons for many US TV shows that I've been watching. For some the end of these has come too soon, but other couldn't come soon enough. I'll attempt to review, or at least give my opinion on, these shows whilst keeping spoilers to a minimum (there are a few thought, so read on at your own discretion).

24 - Season 6
The end of the last series saw Jack Bauer being kidnapped and shipped off to China, so it was going to be interesting as to how they got him back to take part in this series. Needless to say he got back and just in time to. This time round the terrorists of choice were militant Islamists (from an unnamed middle-eastern country) and their weapon of choice was the good old nuclear bomb (in the form of suitcase nukes). Of course this was just the tip of a whole conspiratorial iceberg that would involve a familiar face from the past.

The seasons main theme saw Jack Bauer dealing with many family issues - although Kim wasn't involved. It started off with all the usual fast paced action we expect and kept the implausibility scale rising throughout - this is something fans of 24 have come to expect and can't really complain about. 24 will often, towards the end of the series, attempt to wrap up the seemingly main story-line by bringing out some overarching conspiracy, so it shouldn't be a surprise that this series follows the mold. Unfortunately this time round I just couldn't be bothered with this extra bit of story - for which the implausibility scale was really going through the roof. It was just a big anticlimax and pretty dull to boot, however I don't think that they could have sustained the main story for a whole 24 episodes. This leads me to think that 24 has pretty much run its course. They've already had to recycle storylines, so I don't really see where else it can go. Sorry Jack, I think your days are numbered.

Overall opinion: A good effort to start with, but becoming to stale and generally stupid towards the end.

Score: 6 dead terrorists out of 10.

House - Season 3
At the end of last season Dr Greg House had been shot, which would seem a bit of a downer to most people. The start of this one, however, saw him seeming rather happy, but would it last - unlikely. Being a medical drama we're presented with a variety of medical situations, but these can start to become a tad repetitive. In House the diagnosing of the illness is a large part of the show, but obviously to keep people interested we have to delve into the lives, and relationships, of the main protagonists.

Hugh Laurie still does a great job playing House, and provides one of the most likeable complete bastards that TV has ever seen. You still find yourself siding with him in the majority of situations, because for the most part everyone else seems to be a bit wussy. This season sees someone trying to compete with House for the title of chief bastard, but that storyline does drag on for a bit too long. The rest of the relationships within the show provide enough amusement to keep you entertained, but you can tell that there's nothing more to really add within the group. I think that this has been seen by shows writers/producers and it could be all change for the next series.

Overall opinion: An enjoyable series that's provided plenty of amusement, but ready for a change. It's still sustained by Hugh Laurie's performance, but that's no bad thing.

Score: 7 cases of Lupus out of 10

Lost - Season 3
The last season of Lost saw several of the main characters kidnapped by the mysterious Other's. This one left off exactly where the last one ended. The series was split into two halves (in between which there was a two month mid-season break). The first half focussed on those held captive by the Others and in my opinion it dragged. There was a lot going on, and you learnt a reasonable amount about the Others, but it didn't hold my interest.

After a few slow episodes the second half of the series really picked things up again. Lots of things started happening obviously leading up to some kind of head, which brought back a lot of excitement to the series and meant that I was eagerly anticipating the next episode.

I'm not really sure if I can say that any of the general mysteries of the series were explained this season, but many new things did come to light. The level of crazy was certainly ramped up to a high level by the end of the series.

Overall opinion: A slow start, but it pulled it back at the end leaving things very interesting for the next series.

Score: 7 planes crashes out of 10

Heroes - Season 1
Heroes was a new show so I had no prior expectation except the recommendation of my flatmate. The premise of the show can be seen in my post here. I was hooked on this show fairly early on and this early enthusiasm didn't ebb as the series went on. There were about 5 story threads that came together at various moments in the series. Not all of the threads were as interesting as each other, and certain parts didn't sit as well within the overall story, but they each provided something different and nothing seemed overly strained. One of the outstanding characters in the show was the Japanese nerd Hiro. He was used for different effect throughout the show, not just as comic relief for the whole thing (although when he was used for comic effect it worked well and didn't seem stupid or out of context). Some of the other characters were fairly stereotypical, but that's to be expected from a popular TV series.

The end of the series did wrap up pretty much everything that it brought up, but left a couple of teasers for the next season. The whole premise of the show seems to be made so that new characters can be brought in easily, and old characters got rid of, so hopefully things can stay fresh. I'll be looking forward to seeing how the next series pans out.

Overall opinion: An exciting new series that I enjoyed throughout. Despite seeming to just take the plot of the X-men this managed to make it seem new and is well worth checking out.

Score: 9 mutants out of 10

Driving nowhere

The last couple of times I was in the US I saw quite a lot of adverts on Fox TV for a new show called Drive. It looked as though it could be decent, so when I got back here to the UK I started downloading and watching the show. It stars Nathan Fillion of Firefly fame, as the character Alex Tully, and is also produced by one of Firefly's producers, Tim Minear. The premise of the show is that various people have been asked to become involved in an illegal cross country roadrace, that's been run for many years by a shady, unknown, organisation. There is a prize of $32 million for the winner, but the various characters have their own, generally more personal reasons for competing (e.g. to rescue their kidnapped wife in Alex's case,) and the races' organisers seem to have their own agenda's for the people they've picked to take part. I've fairly enjoyed the first four episodes of the show, and was starting to get into it, but little did I realise, until I tried to download the latest episode, that the show's been cancelled by Fox! Apparently they might air the remaining two episode at some unknown time in the future, or they might just release them online. Nathan Fillion and Tim Minear must be wondering why Fox (or at least the American public who apparently weren't watching the show) hate them so much as to cancel two of their shows!

In other TV related opinion:- I've been enjoying the latest series of Lost again. It's come good after a while where I was just getting a bit tired of the whole situation. The end of season 6 of 24 can't come soon enough in my opinion, as it's just got completely stupid - and I mean stupid even by the usual standards of 24! And what can I say about last weeks episode of Heroes (ep. 20 - Five Years Gone) other than it was fucking ace!

Rush hour

Copied from my post at Phys. Rev. X:

Yesterday evening a new sketch show was shown on BBC3 - well according to the website it was first shown on 19^th March, but I first noticed it last night. BBC3 sketch shows can be a bit hit and miss (generally miss) as they'll put out almost anything until they hit upon a winning formula with something decent that they can then go and push big time onto BBC2 (or the golden realm of BBC1), a la Little Britain. This new show is called Rush Hour and it features a few of fairly recognisable comedians, e.g. Adam Buxton (of Adam and Joe fame) and Frankie Boyle, plus many who I've never seen before. One of it's writers is Charlie Brooker, who's a regular Guardian columnist as has written on things like Brass Eye and Nathan Barley - a fairly good pedigree. As I said above, BBC3 (in fact pretty much any) sketch shows can be fairly dire for the most part, with the occasional one or two funny sketches per show. Rush Hour was a pleasant surprise. As the title may suggest the sketches focus around people driving to work, or on the school run, say, during rush hour. In the one show I've seen there was a good variation between the characters, and they were also fairly fresh i.e. they mainly weren't rehashes of characters from other TV sketch shows (with one major exception of the lecherous boss character, who just seemed very familiar). The comic acting was at a fairly high standard, with the one sketch including Frankie Boyle as a policeman driving his young daughter and a classmate to school, being particularly well done. But the most important thing was that it was funny. There was nothing side-splittingly hilarious, but it was all good quality comedy, with no moments when you had to cringe and wonder why someone though a particular sketch would be a good idea.

I'll watch next week to see if anything starts to really annoy me. If two episodes have been decent enough then it might be onto a winner - with me at least.

It's here

I've been quick out of the blocks and have already downloaded the last episode of BSG. Too bad I've got to go to work. I'll have to build up that anticipation level some more and watch it later.

[Update: so I watched BSG last night and without giving anything away I can only say "guuh hhuuhhh whhaa baah... what the fuck!" I also now reckon that I'm probably a Cylon (just noticed that you can't write Cylon without the word looking like it should be the name for a washing detergent). It's the only thing that makes sense.]

TV times

To update you on my present location I did finally arrive in Baton Rouge for my meeting on Saturday evening, after having no further flight complications. This meant I only missed a day despite all my travel problems!

There's been one slight advantage to being in the US in that I got to watch BSG live. I got to see it a full, probably, 16 or so hours before I'd have seen it, after downloading, in the UK. That said, I had to put up with the endless bloody adverts - I far prefer watching the torrent, in which people have kindly edited these annoyances out. With last night's episode being the penultimate one of the season it's getting pretty good again and ramping up the action. Can I wait till next week for the final episode? - I just don't know if I can, I'm that excited! The problem with the season ending is that it will be the first time I've had to wait all those months before getting a new series to watch. I think I'll have to find another show to fill the time.

Celebrity zoo

It seems like it's impossible to walk around London and not bump into celebrities these days! Well, maybe that's an exaggeration - ok, it's definitely an exaggeration, but yesterday I did indeed walk passed a famous person on Oxford Street. Who was this megastar that I casually strolled passed without being overcome by starstruck awe? Well let's look at the clues. After being a Cambridge footlight he initially rose to prominence when him and his comedy partner won the 2001 Perrier Comedy award. Since then he has gone on to co-write and star in a string of cult Channel 4 comedies. Above his mantel piece he has a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank, who lives in a house like... ok, that's enough.

Those in the know will have guessed that it was none other than star of Darkplace, The IT Crowd and Man to Man, Richard Ayoade. The encounter went like this: When he was approaching me I was like "Hey, that looks like Richard Ayoade, star of Darkplace among other things", and then he got closer (close enough even that if I'd reached out my hand I could have touched him) and I was all "Hey, that is Richard Ayoade, star of Darkplace!", and then he went passed me and I was totally "Hey, you know who that was who just like walked passed me on Oxford Street, it was Richard Ayoade, star of Darkplace." The rest of London, however, went on as if nothing had happened! They just don't know how good they've got it, what with vaguely famous people walking on the very same streets that you or I can tread.

One to watch

After a bit of pushing from my flatmate I've started watching the new (well newish as it started last September) NBC sci-fi show Heroes. I'm three episodes in and I'm hooked - this adds to the list of House, 24, Lost and of course BSG that I (or my flatmate) have to download each week. The basic premise of the programme is that there are a disparate group of people who have special powers, because they're the next step in human evolution! They're only just beginning to know about these powers, or start to feel that there's something special about themselves, and they're each coming to terms with it in different ways. This is all building up to some climactic event (which is pretty much spelled out early on in the series) during which I expect all the protagonists will be forced together and the full extent of there powers revealed. It's kind of a mix of the X-men (maybe a rather large part of the mix) and Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear. As I said I've been sucked in now, so will be eagerly anticipating each new episode.

Hammy's return

Top Gear returned to our screens this evening after a longer than normal break due to the injury of little Dicky Hammond. The show offered us its usual fair of fast cars and general piss-taking between the hosts. Most of the features in the show were filmed last year before the accident, and included them relaying a road in a day and driving around in a Jag. At the end of the programme we got shown footage of Hammond's crash. This involved him being essentially strapped onto a jet engine and then attempting to break the British land speed record. He actually made two attempts at this before the crash happened and we got to see him go through the fear and exhilaration of these two attempts. He even made, what would turn out to be, some rather prophetic statements. The final, and ultimately rather unfortunate, run was made because they had the airfield for another half hour. Despite the pretty extensive injuries he suffered Richard, thankfully, seems to be his usual self and was on top form in the show - all the best to him.

Masters

The final of the snooker Masters this evening saw a blinding display by Ronnie "The Rocket" O'Sullivan. Ronnie was playing the young, up-and-coming Chinese player Ding Junhui, who's had a great tournament so far. At the start of the match Ding set off very well taking the first two frames. Recently Ronnie has been one of the most unpredictable players around and you never know if he's just going to get frustrated with himself and fall to pieces. However today he was at his very best and was completely unstoppable when he got in the balls. He chalked up high break after high break. Up until today every time I've seen Ding play he's been unflappable and not shown any signs of pressure no matter what the situation. This time with Ronnie completely controlling the game, and an annoyingly vociferous crowd shouting out for Ronnie all the way through, Ding finally broke. With the game at 8 frames to 3 for Ronnie, Ding was completely dejected and walked out at the mid-session interval having to be consoled by the Rocket. Ronnie won it 10-3. Overall it was fantastic to watch Ronnie on his top form and when he plays like that you know that he's the best in the world.

A day in the life

24 is back in a sixth series following a day in the life of, some time, CTU agent Jack Bauer. The first four episodes have been shown and were quickly downloaded in my flat. I won't give (m)any spoilers, but will just say that the format is the is the same as ever. The ever present torture aspect is still firmly there - I think they lasted about 20 mins into the first episode before any knives were stuck in places you wouldn't really want. As they've covered pretty much every aspect of terrorism in the previous seasons there's a very familiar feeling about the things happening at the start of this series, but it's still kept going along at a really fast pace and so maintains the excitement. I'm just wondering how many episodes the initial terrorist storyline will last into this series, until we find out the real situation and inevitable, completely different, uberplot that is always present. Bet's on as to who's the mole in CTU this time round!

Christmas lectures

One of the highlights of my Christmas time viewing (along with The Worlds Strongest Man and the World Darts Championship) are the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. This year the lectures were by Oxford University maths Professor Marcus du Sautoy on various areas in maths. Unfortunately this year five, who are now showing the lectures, decided to put it on in an evening prime time slot of 7.15 pm and start showing it on Christmas day. This was not good for me and meant I ended up only seeing half of one lecture. This was annoying as I generally really enjoy the lecture series. Its previous approximately midday slot when it was on BBC2 and, briefly, Channel 4 was far better for me. In fact one of the RI Christmas Lectures from 1993 partly spurred on my interest in physics. It was called the Cosmic Onion and was given by Prof. Frank Close and covered in a really well done way pretty much everything from subatomic particles to the entire universe. The RI Lectures are designed for kids, but I think they are pretty much the best pieces of science programming on each year for any age group. I still think that the Cosmic Onion lecture is the best physics lecture I've ever seen - I still remember parts of it quite vividly - and if there exists a copy of the lectures on video I'd recommend it be shown in every secondary school science class to inspire the children.