From How It’s Made.
“…quote from How It’s Made…Science Channel…
“Now full of sweet fruit, the worker positions the crust over the pie…”
Discuss. [facepalm]
From How It’s Made.
“…quote from How It’s Made…Science Channel…
“Now full of sweet fruit, the worker positions the crust over the pie…”
Discuss. [facepalm]
Well, one must take sampling into account.
Absolutely! I don’t want to be slaving over difficult pastry-making UNLESS I’m filled with sweet fruit!
Imagine you’re a cable channel, the Whatever Channel. You create some good shows so every cable company will be nagged by their users to carry you. They do. What now? You create the Whatever-Plus Channel. You market it as an upper tier channel. Since you’re a proven channel and the cable companies want to induce their customers to buy the upper tier, they grab it. What do you, the Whatever Channel, do for your upper tier programming? You move the shows viewers love from the Whatever Channel to the Whatever-Plus Channel. Rinse. Repeat. When you’ve saturated the Whatever segment, you move on; cable companies won’t drop channels (unless they’re spectacularly expensive) since each additional channel is a reason for them to charge more. So, of course, the Whatever Channel no longer has any reason to produce quality programming. Most people will just keep paying.
Of course you don’t want to give up your Seahawks (do I have that right?), but broadcast TV is still around (and digital), or you could go to a sports bar for the games, much more cheaply than paying for cable.
Many networks stream free on the internet, or Netflix and the like are available at a small fraction of cable prices. Youtube also hosts quite a variety of channels. I’ll mention just one, but it links to many others.
Vlogbrothers began as an experiment in communication between John Green (auther of The Fault in Our Stars and other works) and his brother Hank Green (producer of SciShow, another Youtube channel); they now discuss just about anything a few times a week. They both create CrashCourse, John doing History and Literature and Hank doing the sciences. Also look for CGP Grey (social commentary) and Vi Hart (recreational mathematics?)
http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers
As you might expect from Youtube, most of these are bite-sized (four minutes or less, generally). The longest are usually no more than ten minutes. TED and TEDx talks are good, too.
Walt, That presupposes you live in an area where there is broadcast reception. In fully 20% of the country, broadcast channels do not have enough signal strength to reach households reliably, as in our small town in Arizona. The closest city’s antenna towers are about 80 miles and two taller intervening mountain ranges away. If it weren’t for cable or satellite we would still be paying each channel for rights to watch their programming on the internet and spending ungodly amounts for WiFi and data plans. Additionally, more than half of this county’s internet is provided by dial-up, or other means of phone line delivery… Very pricey and slow.
Your description of the reason for bad programming on said channels is dead on, but some of us don’t have an alternative. It would be so much more appealing to me if the programming had to be proven to be related to the cable name.
SyFy has more fight/martial arts programming than original science fiction. The best science fiction programs are on BBC America: Doctor Who, Orphan Black, and reruns of ST:NG, with Falling Skies on TNT. The only thing SyFy is currently doing well are Face Off (a reality show about movie make-up) and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop (a reality show about building puppets and fully articulated creatures for movie special effects), plus Defiance, soon to start its’ second season.
Science Channel has more science fiction (Ancient Aliens, Unexplained Files, the Egyptian tomb du jour “mystery”, etc.) than Science. The new Cosmos is on Fox and affiliated channels such as Nat Geo; Life and Planet Earth are from BBC Am; Nova and Nature are on PBS. At least Science Channel has How the Universe Works, and Beyond the Wormhole, but all the flying saucer and ancient aliens horse hockey is making me gag. Why can’t live space coverage from the ISSS be shown on a weekly basis?
History Channel has more “reality” programming and loosely-based on history (Vikings) programming than actual History. Vikings is a great show, but it is only marginally historic in nature. The set design and historical context are great, but it is FICTION based on historic figures. When one recalls Swamp People and Pawn Stars, etc. one is certain that these programming executives wouldn’t know history if it bit them on the ankle. Even history-based fiction such as Ripper Street or Copper would be an improvement over the current offerings.
National Geographic channel has more reality and police shows (Alaska State Troopers and Bering Sea Gold) than travel and geographically pertinent shows. PBS has travelogues, and AAA presents High Roads both of which would be infinitely better. I personally would like to see more geologically based programming, and the movies that are produced by National Geographic Society sponsored scientists and researchers for the Society members to record the researchers findings such as Jane Goodall’s initial research on the chimps at Gombe, Dian Fossey’s gorilla research, and a video presentation on the smallest countries of Europe (ten countries from San Marino, Monaco, and Vatican City to Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Andorra, and Malta)(the list is dated, other small countries have come into existence). I’ve seen these presentations in a live audience format in D.C. but never on television…
I live with the opposite case: broadcast TV is one channel, iffy. I’m about 50 high-interference miles from LA’s Mount Wilson, and broadcast TV channels no longer have any motivation to improve their signal quality, now being paid by cable companies. I included the case because my guess (only a guess) is that Spokane is a strong broadcast area. If I want to watch sports, I need to use a sports bar. (Even if the TV signal were strong, local games would be blacked out.) For network programming, I stream from networks’ free (advertising supported) sites.
PBS still has some good stuff in Nova, Frontline, and Masterpiece; and the traditional channels have more actual content than the cable channels (to my taste).
Without broadband available, then I suppose the only option is cable. So much for the supposedly competitive free marketplace. Still, I’m not sure paying for more than basic cable is worthwhile. As you say, cable offerings are dreck. Netflix by mail might be the better option. (Every year at the end of the “broadcast” season, which I stream, I think about Netflix; so far books have kept me away from that. Huzzah, books!)
Since I have broadband, it’s difficult for me to evaluate non-broadband. Low bandwidth Youtube is pretty poor. Still, there are some resources that work even without high speed, such as Robert Krulwich’s blog, http://www.npr.org/people/5194672/robert-krulwich/archive and many fine newspapers and magazines, worldwide, are on the internet.
Obviously, it’s a personal decision. I tend to annualize my bills; that is, I don’t think of $80/month cable or $120/month cable: I think of $1000/year cable or $1500/year cable. When I think about it that way, I run away from cable. Buying DVDs and donating them to the library seems like a better and cheaper option (to me). Getting books and DVDs from the library, for which I already pay taxes, is even better.
when I see news articles like Comcast bids to buy Time-Warner Cable, it makes me even more averse to getting cable. Those two companies have horrible ratings in customer service, and Time-Warner has raised their rates twice in the past 6 months. Comcast says that the two companies don’t overlap in their service areas, but they do overlap in certain areas of the country.
I know the Justice Department is supposed to rule on any merger in which a significant segment of the market would be affected by the merger. It’s part of the fallout from AT&T in the 1980s. I’ve noticed the trends are coming back, especially when the Big 3 networks are buying up cable channels. I didn’t know that the NHL Network was part of NBC, which is too bad, because I think NBC’s coverage of hockey stinks. I don’t watch the same sports as other guys in my circle of friends watch, so there’s no point in going to a sports bar to watch a game I’m not interested in watching, surrounded by a bunch of screaming people made about a call, a play, or whatever. Heck, I just cancelled the “mini-sports package” I had with DishNetwork, because I’m just not motivated by anything on television. Except for “Cosmos”, and Fox did the right thing by putting it on a regular broadcast network instead of one of the upper tier cable/satellite channels. (You can still see it on those channels, but usually the next night). Dr. Tyson does a wonderful job of hosting the show, especially with his ties to Dr. Sagan as a 17-year old growing up in Brooklyn, NY. The CGI is really nice, too, I often wonder how Stanley Kubrick would have used CGI in “2001: A Space Odyssey”?
My internet connection is DSL, I have an 8MB/second connection, since it’s plenty for what I do, I don’t stream shows, movies, etc., so 8MB is plenty. My cell phone service was reduced from the $80+ month with the Android to about $40 with a basic phone and minimal text usage. I still have my landline, since the DSL also rides that line. When you live from month-to-month that has just one payday, EVERYTHING is expensive. Too bad some of my bills fall due near the end of the month, and I have to ensure that I have enough to cover those. If they were the same amount each month, it would be easy, but if they’re variable, like electric or water, then you can’t always be sure. Fortunately, I’ve gotten the electrical upgrade bill paid, I’m trying hard to get my credit card balance down, and once the hot tub is paid off, then that’s about $525 extra money I’ll have.
Now the internal debate is whether I want to apply for Social Security this summer at age 62, or wait until I’m 67 for the full benefits……with my military pension and VA disability, I can continue waiting, but is it worth the 5 year wait for another $400 per month?
Mostly, I don’t think the visuals of 2001 would be improved by CGI. Kubrick spent a lot of time and money getting everything perfect. You probably know the discovery habitat ring was actually built and rotated as the astronauts ran on the bottom–a giant hamster wheel. Through the star gate, if I may use that term, I think some of the initial effects might have been very primative CGI, flashed by too fast to see. They don’t bear close inspection.
As to SS, waiting until 71(?) gets you 50%(I think) more than par, so if you decide to wait until 67, may as well wait until 71, I think. It’s definitely worth the wait, if you can, unless you expect to die under 80. Get your bills paid and put all your money toward getting that credit card down–there’s no higher paying investment.
I’ll have to stream Cosmos from fox.com.
Where we are, cable is really the only option. There are too many mountainous areas in between Honolulu, where the only broadcasting stations of any strength are, and the rest of the state. Even when I was living at the top of one of the pali above Honolulu with line of sight to the station, broadcast reception was iffy and required rabbit ears. OTOH, about a year ago we got a ROKU box, and it’s been one of the best investments for streaming to our TV ever.
Every series of Star Trek had one exceptional show. In TOS it was “Who Mourns for Adonis”, where the Greco/Roman gods were super-powerful ET’s, shades of Ecclesiastes. In STNG is was “The Measure of a Man”, where the put Data on trial to determine if he had sentient rights, and Whoopi Goldberg put the point on it. I’m sure the others had one too, but I remember those two best. But Nicole deBoer in DS9 was the cutest ensign ever! 😉
“Now full of sweet fruit, the worker positions the crust over the pie…”
Somebody don’t understand English as she is spoke.
Well it’s the Science Channel, not the English Channel.
(So it’s full of hot air rather than sea water.)
That participle is dangling out so far that it looks like Wile E Coyote, just before he looks down at the bottom of the deep deep canyon far below his feet.
ARRrrgggghhhh. Are there NO EDITORS in this world? I don’t actually expect someone on the “Science” channel to actually understand basic grammar. But I do expect there to be an editor, somewhere, in the process.
You mean they didn’t put the crust on the worker?
Hmm, if they leave the crust off, does that go on the adult channel?
I suppose the worker is too full of sweet fruit to want any such activities with co-workers.
—-
It is amazing that a sentence like that got past at least one show writer, the producers, the narrator, an entire team of people, without someone slapping his/her head and saying, “That sentence does not make sense. It confuses the subject and object and the pronoun antecedent. The sentence should be reczst.”
Somewhere, an English teacher is crying in his or her beer, after leaving the campus, of course.
Though it would be tempting to blame the educational system, some things require a degree of thought on the part of the one performing the action, such as, say, composition or narration.
I regularly see and hear things like subject/verb agreement and often, -ly dropping in news coverage and TV these days. I hardly ever see anyone who uses “whom” anymore. I think that one’s moribund. I have a feeling we’re going to lose the grammatical markers for those, or they’ll acquire some other function or legacy meanings, within another couple of generations, if that long.
I regularly saw a large number of other things besides simple spelling errors. If I had a nickel for every time I corrected those….
I would, however, welcome a separate “plural you” form. (I prefer “y’all,” and it appears to be gaining ground in the US, but it’s too early to tell what will happen there.)
One that puzzles me still is “defiantly” used for “definitely,” as if the person thinks that’s pronounced, “deff-in’t-lee” or the like, or as if it’s a spell-checker auto-incorrect that the person didn’t catch, while in too much of a hurry. It really surprised me the first time, so I thought, well, that’s a fluke. — But I have, several times since, seen it happen again, multiple people, enough that it really makes me wonder why.
Apparently, a number of people are much more “defiant” in being “definite” than I would’ve ever thought likely….
Oddly enough, I don’t mind lolcatz-speak or Wiishu-speak or the like. I do notice when it’s supposed to be standard English, and it doesn’t come out right. — I do not mind when it’s a non-native speaker. Often, they are better than the native speakers. This says something about…something. I also know how challenging it is to speak and write in another language. It can be tough to get it right. (And English is admittedly odd about some things; atrocious spelling, for instance.)
:: Shakes head. I’ll be over here with the English and language teachers, and the proofers and editors, crying in my beverage. It’s a Mt. Dew, not a beer, but the principle is the same. ::
So we’re making an upside down pie that’s gonna blurp all over the counter/floor/table when you try to get from the pie plate to your dessert plate. Hope it’s not blueberry. Not frequent bakers I take it.
Hostess pies, anyone?
I confess, when I’ve been on the road for a week, they start looking good…
I did notice the dangling participle, but spending time watching a show about the manufacture of pies? I would say, “Surely, something better was on one of the 100+ channels,” except I am not sure of that at all. I rather doubt it.
I think semantics are more important than syntax; we all break grammar rules often. Even without the accompanying video, we all understand what was meant, no? Challenge: Replace the sentence with something better, and still in chronological order. In other words, the filling of the pie (I assume by a machine) with “sweet fruit” must come before mentioning the worker, and his positioning of the crust must come only after the worker is established. Any takers?
“The crust now full of sweet fruit, the worker positions the crust over the pie…”
‘scuse, got the wrong word in there. ‘The shell not full of sweet fruit’
That’s better than I did, though from a technical writing perspective, that only works if you’ve previously defined shell. If not, you have to use pie twice or have an iffy it.
BlueCatShip, I suspect the reason behind defiantly/ definitely is that they think it’s spelled “definately” (which I’ve seen many times) and they simply typed the letters in the wrong order.
Lately I’ve been puzzled by the frequency of “where” for “were”, “and” for “an” and “to” for “too.” Are we all just typing too fast, or are people really that confused/badly educated?
Auto-correct for the win on definitely/defiantly, and a few others. I KNOW I’ve typed in words, particularly on my cell phone, only to have it substitute an entirely different, far less appropriate word without my say so. At least spell-check just underlines the suspect words and lets me go and correct or not!
Sigh….
There are reasons I call it auto-incorrect. 😀
(Yes, some of those substitutions, whew!)
I think Silverglass has it right, that people think it’s “definately” and they transpose letters on top of that.
I have seen where/were confusion and to/too/two and they’re/their/there a lot. — Although people may type fast and miss it when (IF) they proof their work, I’ve seen several so often that I know they never were sure about which one was correct to begin with; they never learned it or learned why.
Also, some people just aren’t geared for spelling or grammar learning. They’re so immersed in what they’ve grown up with that they don’t “hear” in their head the standard English version and “know” by the sound of it that it’s the correct, standard version.
I once had a customer who *insisted* on changes because it was “proper English” (and the customer was British). — Except it wasn’t correct in either UK or US usage. (UK usage does often differ on collective plurals, for instance. UK English nearly always prefers “collective plural noun” + “plural verb form” where US English nearly always prefers “collective plural noun” + “singular verb form.”) — But the customer wanted something (subject-verb agreement) that was not standard usage, because he thought it should be that way. And so I changed it and got paid, and was glad my name or company name didn’t have to go on it.
And people wonder why there are mistakes in books….
However, usually, the mistakes are there because…someone really missed it and should’ve caught it.
I am (sigh) not perfect either. Rot the luck.
‘now full of sweet fruit, the worker’…
A very well fed worker. About that pie filling, on the other hand…
It definitely explains a number of supermarket pies/bags of chips/crisps etc. that I’ve bought… 😛
? Now full of sweet fruit, the worker positions the upper crust over the now empty pie shell…
I now have an image of a guy with a top hat and monocle being smooshed on top of the pie shell. 🙂
Empty? Two pieces of crust and no filling? Isn’t that a shortbread?
My first thought when I read that: http://wulfricf.deviantart.com/art/The-Grammarian-The-One-Guide-443904724
I want the poster (the paper kind, not the internet kind.)
Conversation with a lawyer friend:
“Hey, I came across this section in the [redacted] Terms of Service,
‘One App to rule them all, One App to find them,
‘One App to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.’ ”
With admirable aplomb, he replied, “Standard contract clause. Nothing to worry about.”
Now I have a desire to make oatmeal-raisin cookies…
You don’t want to fill the worker with sour fruit.
“Now filled with sour grapes, the worker positions the crust over the empty shell. ‘They don’t need the calories anyway,’ he thought grumpily.”
Hmm. Think I have a tense agreement problem here.
All these attempts to unravel it are making me tense! 🙁
In only 20 hours, Peacemaker will be unleashed! Oh, frabjous day.
Oh, and, “Now that the pie shell has been filled with sweet fruit, the worker positions the top crust over the pie.”
Oh, and, “Now that the pie shell has been filled with sweet fruit, the worker positions the top crust over the pie.” — piece of cake!
I want pie and ice cream now. 😀 — I think I’ll do the ice cream tonight. There is, alas, no peach pie or cobbler and no peaches about. I shall have to remedy this.
Amazon sent an email late last night. Peacemaker is now wending its way from Fort Worth to Houston. Hurray! The ebook should be available at the appointed time after midnight.
One is, however, unaware of any glass slippers, pumpkin carriage, or atevi mice that turn into mecheiti. … One wonders if mecheiti are persuaded to pull carriages, wagons, et al. One shall not speculate on who we’d get to wear the glass slippers. Heheheh. Though Deana and Barb are likely to be two of the wicked stepsisters.
Hee. Yeah, I can just see Bren trying to convince Jago of the rationale for glass slippers.
If’n I can’t have blueberry, I’ll take peach without complaining, too much.