Choose the New PBS Science Show 143
chinmay7 writes "PBS has posted three different pilots for a new science show, and they want viewers to weigh in and help choose one as the regular science feature. All three pilots are viewable as vodcasts. Wired Science aired on January 3rd. The pilot certainly is polished, as one might expect from Wired Magazine, and deals with interesting topics: 'Meet rocket-belt inventors, stem cell explorers and meteorite hunters.' Science Investigators (air date: January 10) seems to be the most 'science' show: 'The investigators examine 30,000-year-old Neanderthal DNA, vanishing frogs, mind-boggling baseball pitches and more.' 22nd Century (air date: January 17) is pretty gimmicky and loud for my taste, but delivers interesting content — 'In the coming decades will all our brains be wired together like networked computers?' So watch and vote."
Wired Sucked (Score:4, Interesting)
Why is this necessary? (Score:5, Interesting)
If they really want a new show, they need a resurrection of Newton's Apple [imdb.com], and target younger audiences. For that matter, they should resurrect 3-2-1 Contact [imdb.com], too. If they need to find a free slot, they could get rid of Cyberchase [imdb.com], one of the lamest shows pretending to be educational I've seen, besides some emo girl clown sitting on a couch [imdb.com].
Saw them (Score:4, Interesting)
More NOVA!! (Score:5, Interesting)
Why not just make more original episodes of Nova, dangit!
OTOH, there's tons of coverage of natural science, physics, applied science and anthropology, but in general not many shows on IT; this is remarkable considering how unlikely it is for the average person to see the Tevatron, but that person probably deals with computer viruses, data encryption and slow internets on a daily basis. There should be a Secret Life of Machines for computers. You could have:
And so on. I don't think Hunkin would do it, so we'd have to find someone suitably cheeky but computer-friendly and having an artistic streak. Maybe Woz.
Re:Anything educational please. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wired Sucked (Score:3, Interesting)
If they eliminated the irrelevant (and oddly boring) destruction of more electronics equipment, and focused a bit more on fewer stories, it could be respectable.
Re:Anything educational please. (Score:3, Interesting)
Science does not "requires that nothing be published without peer review and approval" - that's the most rigourously painful, while still truthful, definition I've seen. Science is the Scientific Method: Observe, Hypothesis, Test, Repeat.
Re:Direct link to 22nd century (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, the QuickTime versions seem to work better.
wget http://www.pbs.org/media/22ndcentury/22ndcentury_3 84.mov [pbs.org]
mplayer 22ndcentury_384.mov
wget http://www.pbs.org/media/kcet/wiredscience/wired-p ilot-full_480.mov [pbs.org] -O wired_pilot_full_480.mov
mplayer wired_pilot_full_480.mov
wget http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/si/video/chapter_1_300. mov [pbs.org] -O ch1.mov. mov [pbs.org] -O ch2.mov. mov [pbs.org] -O ch3.mov. mov [pbs.org] -O ch4.mov. mov [pbs.org] -O ch5.mov. mov [pbs.org] -O ch6.mov
wget http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/si/video/chapter_2_300
wget http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/si/video/chapter_3_300
wget http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/si/video/chapter_4_300
wget http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/si/video/chapter_5_300
wget http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/si/video/chapter_6_300
mplayer ch*.mov
They don't seem to have that last one as one big file.
Bill Bill Bill Bill! (Score:1, Interesting)
That is all.
Re:Anything educational please. (Score:1, Interesting)
I've never found science-fiction fans to be at all more literate of the scientific process than fantasy fans. It's very rare for people to go on to voluntarily go on to further the basic skills they learned as a kid. As a result, teach bad science and you're going to get a population with a bad grasp of science. As for computer science, and I say this as someone who majored in it, it's very rarely taught as science rather than an engineering discipline.