Did Not Do The Research

[Archedgar]

Teeth.
Teeth are not bones.
Teeth are organs, like your lungs, heart and liver.



Get it right.

 

[wildpeaks]

I'm not an expert but I know a little - example watching Terra Nova last night and when they FINALLY got round to correcting the HUGE flaw (different time streams) I relaxed a little - this shows a modicum of understanding and respect - I shall see if you develop into a real show or a stinking dog turn and/or get canceled after 1 season

At least Terra Nova (afaik) didn't even try to get time travel quirks working, but brought some alternate universe, unlike "reboot the universe" type of bs that Doctor Who brings on a daily basis in the new series (no that the old one was any better [in that respect][as I love both the old and new series], but at least it didn't take itself so seriously).

 

[kebab4you]

I guess this:
And in general when movies uses *bip* *bop* sounds when people are coding. You would go nuts if that happen.

 

[Moontouched-Moogle]

The following pet peeve is admittedly minor, but I can't help but notice it every time it comes up:

Nearly every time an actor is "playing a video game" on TV or film they're manically hammering every button on the controller like their hands are having an epileptic fit. It's particularly amusing if the game they're playing is supposed to be more complex than a simple button-masher. Anyone who's bothered to observe their hands when utilizing a game controller knows that the movement of the digits are calculated and precise.

Or better yet when the actor is say... holding a N64 controller as a xbox system is sitting in front of the TV and their playing a REAL on the screen game... that was only released on the ps2... all while NES era sounds are playing.

Oh man, I've seen bad examples of this. I was waiting to get my new ID card when some Disney show was on TV. In it, a guy and his friend brought the guy's little brother a "new" game... for the Nintendo 64.
They all proceeded to play it... by hammering away like maniacs on the controllers. Which weren't even plugged in.
After a few seconds, the console started to sputter and release tons and tons of smoke. Because N64s were SO notorious for spontaneously combusting, right?
After that, the mom said the older brother would have to buy a new console, to which he replied that it would be way too expensive. Really? A refurbished N64 runs about $40 on eBay. That's $20 less than the average console game today. Not even joking: Link [http://www.ebay.com/ctg/Nintendo-64-Gray-Console-/100236331?LH_ItemCondition=2000%7C2500&_catref=1&_dmpt=Video_Games&_pcategid=139971&_pcatid=814&_refkw=Nintendo+64#]

 

[Queen Michael]

The following pet peeve is admittedly minor, but I can't help but notice it every time it comes up:

Nearly every time an actor is "playing a video game" on TV or film they're manically hammering every button on the controller like their hands are having an epileptic fit. It's particularly amusing if the game they're playing is supposed to be more complex than a simple button-masher. Anyone who's bothered to observe their hands when utilizing a game controller knows that the movement of the digits are calculated and precise.

Or better yet when the actor is say... holding a N64 controller as a xbox system is sitting in front of the TV and their playing a REAL on the screen game... that was only released on the ps2... all while NES era sounds are playing.

Oh man, I've seen bad examples of this. I was waiting to get my new ID card when some Disney show was on TV. In it, a guy and his friend brought the guy's little brother a "new" game... for the Nintendo 64.
They all proceeded to play it... by hammering away like maniacs on the controllers. Which weren't even plugged in.
After a few seconds, the console started to sputter and release tons and tons of smoke. Because N64s were SO notorious for spontaneously combusting, right?
After that, the mom said the older brother would have to buy a new console, to which he replied that it would be way too expensive. Really? A refurbished N64 runs about $40 on eBay. That's $20 less than the average console game today. Not even joking: Link [http://www.ebay.com/ctg/Nintendo-64-Gray-Console-/100236331?LH_ItemCondition=2000%7C2500&_catref=1&_dmpt=Video_Games&_pcategid=139971&_pcatid=814&_refkw=Nintendo+64#]

Let's not forget lines like "I just defeated the hyper-wizard and got a million bonus points!"

 

[AdumbroDeus]

Glass. As usual. The whole "glass is a liquid!" thing.
The one argument: There are a few windows from like 200 years ago that look like that!
Well, considering we have glasses from even further back that look like they did then...
"But it's a VERY slow process."

Just... Bothers me. EVERY time. Expecially since few accept counter arguments.

huh?

Seriously, who flunked basic science enough to think that?

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Obviously... Video Related.
At first I thought you were someone who was asking for help because you didn't research something.

I have seen top 8 of those on cracked. While this is really bad, two people hacking (read: randomly pressing buttons on keyboard very fast) on one keyboard is what made tears come down from from eyes.

WARNING! IF YOU HAVE SPENT MORE THEN 1 HOURS IN YOUR LIFE ON COMPUTER, FOLLOWING LINK CAN MAKE YOU CRY OR CAUSE UNCONTROLLABLE RAGE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
This:
http://www.cracked.com/article_19160_8-scenes-that-prove-hollywood-doesnt-get-technology_p1.html

I remember that article, that was a painful read.

 

[Aleol]

Swords, Swords and swords. Nobody seems to understand how longswords work; even though they clearly have two sharp edges and a pointy end, most people think their heavy club-like metal sticks. Seriously? Also, katanas are seriously overrated. They're no better than any other sword

Also armor. Why does armor seem to be made of paper and heavy as a steel beam in movies and videogames? A guy in a full plate harness is not going to go down easily at all, and yet most depictions of it have blades going straight through it. Even stabbing through plate was difficult. and there are other armors too that are given the shaft. I don't mind it in games so much (unless it's a goddamn cutscene), as it's mostly just visual aesthetic, but movies have no excuse. Also, their maille must be really bad quality, because apparently swords can cut through those as well (they can't) maybe a hard stab, but not a cut.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArmorIsUseless

Katana's were pretty crappy swords really. I mean I think they WERE sharp, but the edge dulled pretty fast if it was used pretty well, and it was fairly brittle to be using against metal armor or to be striking against other weapons. As I understand it it was largely a symbolic weapon, used as a status symbol, in duels and against unarmored peasants. The samurai's real combat weapons were spears, other pole arms and bows. (Pretty sure most of this is incorrect but I'm not sure if all of it is.)

I believe western swords, or really any blade could cut through armor.... eventually, and given enough force but it would largely wreak havoc on the edge( dulling the every loving SHIT out of it) and probably damaging the structural integrity of the entire weapon... unless they were specifically designed to counter armor. As said stabs would be much more likely to work as most were generally designed to foil slashes rather then trusts.

Typically you looked for gaps in the armor (joints typically as you have to be able to move), used a blunt weapon which could possibly do even MORE damage on someone wearing armor than someone who is not (crushing through plate to the point the owners own armor is stabbing them into something vital or crushed in so heavily that they suffocate), or use arrows which have all that inertia to help them penetrate the armor.

Yeah, I know. Most people don't know though.
Katanas were essentially dueling weapons.
European and middle eastern armor is largely underrated. Plate armor was extremely tough and not easily pierced. It's actually been used quite a bit in the last 300 years in wars to protect soldiers.
Swords aren't exactly armor breakers. It usually took a specialized weapon (warhammer, pike, halberd, mace) but the sword itself was quite versatile, and often soldiers held the blade such that they could use the pommel as a hammer (with protection of course) Axes were also quite effective.

I am personally ashamed for using the wrong form for "they are" in my original post.

Eh grammar mishaps happen. Yeah the funny thing even I didn't know is that good plate didn't really start getting made in any kind of amounts until the flintlock was invented. That's right kiddies. Plate armor stopped BULLETS. Granted it was late plate and early ass bullets, besides if you had more than a breastplate, maybe a cuirass(I forget exactly what it all entails so that may be the wrong word) you were largely too immobile in a battle to be useful, during the early gun days, and a fat lot of good being immune to small arms fire is when someone can get annoyed, fall back and manage to hit you with a bloody cannon, because you are too slow to avoid it.

Also plate armor wasn't THAT heavy. It was like.. what 44-80 lbs maybe? When a modern soldier is generally expected to carry like 180-200 lbs? Granted the armor now is much lighter but apparently the brass thinks that you ought to be your own bloody pack mule so enjoy marching carrying all the bullets you will need for at least the next few battles.


Disclaimer: I may be incorrect with a few facts but I believe I was fairly close in most of them, feel free to correct me in a non hateful manner with current assured facts if you have them. For example, if you are currently serving you would be more familiar with your typical battle load out due to weight, not to mention the details of them. Speaking of which if we have any, do combat rations (not MREs though those might count) still taste like regurgitated ass left in a fridge for a month?

Yeah, plate armor is around that much. The weight around the legs causes fatigue a little more easily, but for the most part, plate armor allowed for considerable flexibility and near-ultimate protection.

I say near ultimate because I'll be damned if crossbows and (really the only bow powerful enough) English longbows didn't cause some problems. Not too many problems mind; Crossbows were very unwieldy and only the soldiers who could afford servants on the battlefield would be able to fire quickly enough to cause any number of soldiers any trouble (and even that is pretty slow) and longbows, while having no real shortage of soldiers trained from birth, were very expensive, and not entirely guaranteed to pierce the armor at range. Plus there were the whole crushing/piercing blows thing. The armor did get heavier and heavier as gunpowder weapons got more advanced, though.

 

[BookBeast]

Well, I do remember a certain parody of horrible research:

Similarly, the little bit about how mankind "only uses 10% of their brain" tends to aggravate me to no end. (Details why here).

Oh God me too. It's not like you only use 10% of your brain ever. You use the bits of it you need for any particular thing (e.g., solving a math problem, playing tennis). As I like to point out, if you actually used 100% of your brain at any given time you wouldn't have superpowers, you'd be dead (or at least in serious deep doo-doo).

 

[Fidelias]

Every single fictional movie and TV show I've ever watched where the characters are driving a manual gearbox shows them grinding the gears with every single god damned shift.


That. Is. Not. How. It. Works! Gears only grind like that if you fuck the shift up, so what it's saying is that the character is completely destroying the gearbox....how were they supposed to catch the bad guy when they've ruined their gearbox!?



..Blah. That one really grinds my gears for some reason.

Ha, I see what you did there!
Yeah, I noticed that too, it's kind of annoying. It always makes me cringe, especially when you see someone in a Corvette or other sports car driving along, chase music playing, and GRRRRIIIINDD!!!! GRIIINDDD!

Also, two examples in NCIS:

In one episode, McGee and Abby team up to defeat a hacker by typing on the SAME KEYBOARD! Explain to me how THAT works.

In another one, a character that happens to be a video game geek, somehow manages to get the "High Score" in every modern MMO created.

First off, you don't get high scores in MMO's.
Secondly, even if you COULD, just being the best at ONE MMO would mean you had no life and can't sustain any kind of income, let alone being the best at multiple MMO's.

But, even though it does irk me a little, I don't get up in arms about it. It's a fictional TV show, it can't do extensive research on every hobby and activity it uses in it's plot, or it wouldn't be able to run a new episode every week.

 

[AlphaEcho]

Anything reported by Fox ever.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Glass. As usual. The whole "glass is a liquid!" thing.
The one argument: There are a few windows from like 200 years ago that look like that!
Well, considering we have glasses from even further back that look like they did then...
"But it's a VERY slow process."

Just... Bothers me. EVERY time. Expecially since few accept counter arguments.

huh?

Seriously, who flunked basic science enough to think that?

I think they actually used to teach this in schools -- it's certainly what they taught my dad. The question is whether it was a misinformed high school science instructor, or whether the distinction between an amorphous solid and an extremely viscous liquid is a relatively new one, and the "glass is a liquid" thing was at some point considered scientifically accurate.

 

[spartan231490]

Glass. As usual. The whole "glass is a liquid!" thing.
The one argument: There are a few windows from like 200 years ago that look like that!
Well, considering we have glasses from even further back that look like they did then...
"But it's a VERY slow process."

Just... Bothers me. EVERY time. Expecially since few accept counter arguments.

This bothers me as well, simply because it is obviously and provably false. Someone told me this and I was Like: So, what you're telling me is: you're an idiot.

One that's bugged me for a long time, is when people call someone who digs up dinosaur bones an archaeologist. No, they are a Paleontologist.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

Well technically you're wrong. The first person to ever do space marines was Robert A. Hienlen (God I know I'm spelling it wrong.)

In fact, he did it like such a boss he didn't even have to call them space marines. They're called Mobile Infantry. If you look at what they did in combat, they were marines though... in space.

It's "Heinlein" BTW n.n

And yes, I am aware of that, but I chose to focus on a specific instance. If you want to be really, really obscure the first Space Marines were Galactic Marines from E.E. Smith's Lensman series all the way back in 1937.

However, this is the argument that crops up all the time, and my point still stands - Starcraft fanboys especially say GW is ripping them off. This is especially apparent as most Space Marines in gaming seem to borrow rather heavily from them.

While we're on the same subject -

Halo Fanboys - this show was made and released in 1999. If anything, Halo is ripping IT off.

 

[Berethond]

One slightly glaring problem with Mass Effect is Liara. She is a Xeno-archeologist (someone who digs up and categorises the remains of unknown civilisations) and yet is listed as an 'Asari Scientist'. Archeologists do know a smattering of science (it does help with digs) but they are firmly in the HUMANITIES camp and are not SCIENTISTS, as they study the works of humans. I think the confusion probably set in as it is possible to gain a doctorate in both history and archeology which does give them the right to stick 'Dr.' in front of their names.

This may sound pedantic, but as a humanities student, this is such a collosal error I'm amazed that none of the writers pointed it out!

But archeology is a branch of anthropology which is considered a "social science", so they are still technically correct.

It may not be a more "pure" science like physics, but it is still science.

 

[Not George Carlin]

This made me cry: http://i.imgur.com/4mjrW.png

More a joke than DNDtR.

I wouldn't know it, I didn't even watch it. Even so, it's not funny, that's like saying you like Half Life and holding up a copy of Silent Hill. No one would laugh they would just assume you should be put into a small box with a book and a helmet.

 

[Jadak]

One slightly glaring problem with Mass Effect is Liara. She is a Xeno-archeologist (someone who digs up and categorises the remains of unknown civilisations) and yet is listed as an 'Asari Scientist'. Archeologists do know a smattering of science (it does help with digs) but they are firmly in the HUMANITIES camp and are not SCIENTISTS, as they study the works of humans. I think the confusion probably set in as it is possible to gain a doctorate in both history and archeology which does give them the right to stick 'Dr.' in front of their names.

This may sound pedantic, but as a humanities student, this is such a collosal error I'm amazed that none of the writers pointed it out!

There is also the possibility that Asari civilization does not follow the exact same standards for terminology regarding such things... And for a species that can live for something in the realm of a millennium, even if educational / certification systems were identical, for all you know they could all be fully qualified doctors in all kinds of things and their chosen profession comes after the fact.

But seriously, best not to point at alien species and complain about their usage of terms not matching, it's a kind of a given anyways.

 

[Pegghead]

-Snip-

The more I see clips like that, the more I'm convinced STRIPES was a documentary (obviously meant with no offense towards those in the armed services).

But on topic: Beyond the usual "Cartoons are for kids, videogames are for slackers, what in the world is a internet" mindset I've come across in my travels, I gotta say that for ages upon ages my friends would freak the hell out whenever I came in with margerine on my sandwiches.

First off, margerine is fucking awesome on a good sammich. Secondly, there is no single, conclusive, scientific link that has ever shown margerine to contribute to degeneration of eyesight (and you could do alot worse for your heart). For a while the more tabloid like tv news programs went on and on about how margerine was the anti-Christ (apparently nothing else was happening) so yep, I got an earful every, fucking day.

And it's like who cares? It's fucking margerine, a sandwich spread.

 

[Yopaz]

OK let's start with the basics. We got 3 different states that a substance can be in. There's gas, liquid and solid. Now take water. At temperature below 0 Celsius it is solid. In the are 0 to 100 it's liquid, after that it's gas. If we are in a room where the temperature is below 0 (let's say -10) will you be able to determine if the ice cube I am holding is in a solid or liquid state?
It's actually quite easy. If it is not viscous and does not allow easy movement of molecules when you touch it the molecule is a solid.
Glass, composed of silicates in an intricate pattern creates advanced networks (not at the level of carbon) and thus got an extremely high melting point compared to what you would expect form the polarity of the molecules involved. Even the glass with the lowest melting point requires more than thousand degrees before it melts. When we refer to something as a liquid, we mean that it is liquid at STP (standard temperature and pressure), oxygen exist as a liquid, do you refer to oxygen as a liquid or a gas?

What I was trying to get across is that glass gradually passes into a liquid.
Where ice and other melty things lose their crystalline structure at a certain temperature range, glass gradually pass into a liquid state.
Its crystalline structure gradually bends out of shape rather than unbinds itself completely at a heat threshold, like ice.
To say wether glass is solid or not boils down to semantics.

Water got little in common with silicon. Silicon got metal-like capabilities. Take steel. Is steel a solid? Would anyone you know deny that steel is a solid? However heat it up until it gets close to the melting point and it will get softer as the atoms get freed more easy movement rather than the solid organized structure in room temperature. Adding much more temperature you can get steel in gas form. Glass that is close to melting will usually indicate quite clearly that it is melting because the properties change at a whole.

When we refer to something as a liquid it has to be liquid at STP Which is 1 atmosphere pressure and 293K as the temperature. Glass is not a liquid at these conditions. Glass is not a liquid. This is not semantics, this is the basics of thermodynamics.

 

[Agayek]

All the Engrish in anime. For instance, in Yu Yu Hakusho, one of the characters is going to see a band called "Megallica." You'd think they could have gotten it right, unless they were changing the name for copyright reasons, but then why is the font and everything exactly like Metallica's?

I don't really know of any others at the moment...

Because it was a direct reference to Metallica, but they didn't want to pay licensing fees...

OT: My favorite Did Not Do The Research moment is probably a segment in CSI where they take crappy security camera footage, "enhance" it, then zoom in sufficiently to get a reflection off someone's eye and use that to find the culprit. Here's the clip:


If I have to explain why this shouldn't work to anyone, I swear I'm going to go find an orphanage and explode it.