"Braniac"

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In Randi's latest SWIFT commentary at http://www.randi.org/jr/2007-06/061507.html#i5 , reader J. Aaron Mattia writes:

Just wanted to let you know, I was watching a broadcast of the UK TV show "Braniac" on the cable channel G4 on Saturday

"Braniac" sounds like something you'd take if you weren't getting enough fiber in your diet. :eye-poppi

[Ysidro]

Maybe it's a British spelling?

[cyborg]

It's a misspelling plain and simple.

[Ysidro]

It's a misspelling plain and simple.

Oh sure, take all the fun out of things.

[cyborg]

If your idea of fun is to imply your ass-backwards American spelling is better than the obviously-superior-by-virtue-of-being-spelt-that-way-by-the-Queen British spelling then fun away.

[Fnord]

Brainiac: Science Abuse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainiac:_Science_Abuse) is a British science-themed entertainment TV show, aimed at a primarily male audience.

[Atlas]

Superman fans remember Brainiac was the villian who shrunk the Kryptonian city of Kandor and stored it in a bottle that Superman rescued and kept in his Fortress of Solitude hoping to find a way someday to enlarge it back to its normal size. It was filled with inch tall supermen who on rare occasions helped Superman in his battle for truth, justice and the American way.

This is what he looked like when I was growing up. He's received a few evil makeovers since then.


http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:tPDjpx6tlzDdyM:http://www.monitorduty.com/mdarchives/BrainiacCU.jpg

[athon]

I don't think so. Watching that show always gave me the s#!ts.

Athon

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If your idea of fun is to imply your ass-backwards American spelling is better than the obviously-superior-by-virtue-of-being-spelt-that-way-by-the-Queen British spelling then fun away.

Just remember, we have more nuclear weapons than you do.

[Fnord]

Just remember, we have more nuclear weapons than you do.

Raise your hand if you're from a country whose citizens invented the Air Conditioner, the Transistor, and Penicillen.

Now raise your hand if Sir Winston Churchill had ever wished that he had been the first one to say that in your contry's navy the only traditions were rum, sodomy, and the lash. (It was actually Churchill's assistant, Anthony Montague-Browne, by the way.)

[Banbury]

According to the Wikipedia Penicillin was first discovered by a Costa Rican, the Transistor was invented and patented by an Austrian and air conditioning dates back to as early as Ancient Egypt. ;)

[homer]

Brainiac is British ? I'm SO ashamed .

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UPDATE:

The "Braniac" spelling has reappeared in the letter quoted in THIS week's SWIFT.

[Quakeulf]

Get a life, people.

[Damien Evans]

According to the Wikipedia Penicillin was first discovered by a Costa Rican, the Transistor was invented and patented by an Austrian and air conditioning dates back to as early as Ancient Egypt. ;)

And the guy who made penicillin into a medicine was an Aussie

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And the guy who made penicillin into a medicine was an Aussie

Um, there were two guys who discovered how to manufacture penicillin: Howard Florey (an Australian) and Ernst Chain (a British guy).

And of course, the original discovery of penicillin was made by a Scotsman. To quote That Wacky Century! (http://www.rogermwilcox.name/century.html) :

"1928 – Alexander Fleming, another Scotsman, accidentally leaves one of his Petri dishes exposed to the air, and it gets infected with bread mold. When he noticed that the area around the mold was bacteria-free, he proclaimed, "Ach, cap'n, the engines canna take it any more!" Just kidding; he actually proclaimed, "There can be only one!" and decapitated Sean Connery with his claymore. This led to the development of penicillin. That wacky fungal defense-mechanism secretion!"

[Damien Evans]

Um, there were two guys who discovered how to manufacture penicillin: Howard Florey (an Australian) and Ernst Chain (a British guy).

And of course, the original discovery of penicillin was made by a Scotsman. To quote That Wacky Century! (http://www.rogermwilcox.name/century.html) :

"1928 – Alexander Fleming, another Scotsman, accidentally leaves one of his Petri dishes exposed to the air, and it gets infected with bread mold. When he noticed that the area around the mold was bacteria-free, he proclaimed, "Ach, cap'n, the engines canna take it any more!" Just kidding; he actually proclaimed, "There can be only one!" and decapitated Sean Connery with his claymore. This led to the development of penicillin. That wacky fungal defense-mechanism secretion!"

Yes yes yes, we know there were two, but stop ruining my "fun", such as it is

[AgeGap]

Brainiac appears on Sky TV. I think this has some connection to Fox whom I believe made a programme about the Moon landings.

[Father Dagon]

Braniac is the scientific equivalent to Midsomer Murders.

[BillyJoe]

cainairb is a sort of backward version of mythbusters

[MortFurd]

Brainiac is a fun show to watch, though not one to take seriously. I mean, seriously, they compared the flotation qualtities of natural breasts versus breasts with silicon implants by having the girls float on their backs with their breasts above water. It was an interesting experiment (with four very nice breasts,) but of absolutely no use in determining which sort of breast make the better life preserver.

I do sometimes wonder where they get their helpers. They found half a dozen goobers willing to be repeatedly shocked by an electric fence, just to demonstrate insulation and parallel and series circuits. They zapped these goobers a good dozen times - and one poor sap got buzzed at least twice that many times. It was funny, but where do you find people stupid enough (or masochistic enough) to do that kind of thing?

Mythbusters is better, but not without their own problems. Two that I saw last week:
Myth of whirlpools sinking ships. They built a big tub in which they could generate a whirlpool, then launched various models of ships into it to see if any sank. They also dropped one of the Mythbusters guys into the whirlpool to see what happened. The model ships didn't sink, but the guy was nearly sucked under water (and ended up puking his guts out.) The conclusion: Whirlpools don't sink ships - this despite the fact that the much larger person was sucked under. The model ships were smaller and didn't sink, the guy was bigger and would have gone completely under if they hadn't had him supsended on a cable. I don't think you can validly conclude that a whirlpool can't sink a ship that way.

Myth of snow plow blowing over a car. They built an enormous, complicated cable and pulley system to pull a snow plow (with an over sized plow on it) past a car, both at speeds up to 100mph. The system was rigged so that the car and truck would pass within inches of one another. They snow plow didn't cause the car to swerve at all, even at speedss that are completely unrealistic in weather conditions where snow plows will be on the streets. They conclude that a snow plow won't cause your car to flip over. BUT, they did their testing on a nice, dry, concrete paved runway with not a snow flake or patch of ice. They did not measure the air blast acting on the car. Their experiment leaves way too much room to speculate that 1) The car may have slid sideways if it were on ice or snow, then flipped if it hit a curb or 2) The car may have flipped over it hit with plowed snow instead of just the air blast.

Both are fun shows, but I always watch them skeptically.


*** Can you spot the Freudian typo in the first paragraph?

[MortFurd]

cainairb is a sort of backward version of mythbusters
Brainiac is "fun with science stuff." Mythbusters is fun, and tries to be scientific.

[Father Dagon]

Brainiac is "fun with science stuff." Mythbusters is fun, and tries to be scientific.Tries? In what way are Mythbusters unscientific? True, they have their own flaws, but they do response to criticism from the audience.

[MortFurd]

Tries? In what way are Mythbusters unscientific? True, they have their own flaws, but they do response to criticism from the audience.

The Mythbusters apply the scientific method. They do a fairly decent job of thinking critically and trying things out and improving their experiments.

They do, however, have to keep to their entertainment format. At some point, they've got to make a decision so they can wrap up the segment and go on to something else. They also have a slight tendency to destroy stuff just for grins - like the snow plow story. They basically smashed the entire snow plow to bits after they decided that the story was a myth. Never mind that there was still a lot of wiggle room in their decision.

I'm not knocking them, not really. It's a good show. It entertains, and it puts down some myths as well as showing the application of the scientific method. TV is an entertainement media, though, so sometimes the science takes a back seat entertainment.