io9 Assesses Bad Movie Physics

Here. Actually I think even this "report card" is not accurate. They claim that 2001: A Space Odyssey has "weird depictions of exposure to vacuum". I thought that 2001 gave the most accurate depiction among all movies so far; namely that you do not explode instantly when exposed in space, but one can survive for a few seconds.

And I also have no idea why Contact has "easy communications with aliens", since the content of Contact was accurately written by Carl Sagan, a pioneer of SETI, one of the few professional scientists seriously considering possible communications with extraterrestrial intelligence..

Do the makers of the report card seem to suffer the same misconceptions from bad movie physics?

DSM 5.0 Beta

Psychology is a popular option as cross-faculty modules, so I guess many should be aware of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. People in the interwebs are discussing the drafting of the latest version (DSM 5.0 beta?)

I always find psychology a tricky field. Some things were used to be defined as a "mental disorder", but cultural shifts eventually "un-define" them as variations in social behaviour. (Famous example: homosexuality)

Avatar

Here are my thoughts on James Cameron's latest movie, "imported" from another forum

I saw the 3D version, which made me a little dizzy. Awesome special effects and beautiful sceneries and flora/fauna of Pandora. My jaw was dropped for most of the movie. I could take any random screenshot of the movie and made it my desktop wallpaper

The story, though was quite simple and cliche. Actually, it could have been set anywhere on Earth. One could imagine an identical story taking place 200 years in the past with British Imperialists. That was slightly disappointing for me, since I liked James Cameron movies for his great storytelling (Terminator, Alien2, Titanic). It appears like for this movie, he started with the "Avatar" concept and wrote a story to support it - instead of the other way around.

My favourite was Sigourney Weaver's scientist character. A strong female character capable of talking down a Marine Colonel (Actually that shouldn't be surprising since this is the same woman that fought Alien Queen). I think she portrays a scientist in a realistic (non-stereotype) manner. Her quote is added to my list of favourites: "must take samples". No spoilers - you'll need to see the movie to understand Ironically, all other characters seem stereotyped. A douchebag corporate executive, blood-thirsty marine colonel, good-hearted natives, etc.

Science-fiction wise, Avatar had many familiar ideas stitched together. Without spoiling, I'd say there was one concept suspiciously similar to a planet in Asimov's Foundation universe. Then there's the armor suit mecha from anime. Their helicopters look very similar to the HKs from the Terminator series (another Cameron movie).

Hello World

Hello World. This is the first post from OCCO. I am a Malaysian working and studying in Singapore, and my trade is in physics. I am also a fan of science fiction and movies, and frequently follow news on the interface of science and society.

Perhaps it is these three things that OCCO will frequently talk about: Physics, sci-fi, and science+society. Particularly about the last one, where more and more I noticed that science is being detached from society. Mostly what I aspire to do is to join the ranks of other scientist/bloggers to be the voice of reason in a world of misinformation.

Sensationalism, Part II

Ready for more sensationalist news? They have changed the headlines from "spaceship" to "sibling of dinosaur killer"

Phil Plait was right, it was an asteroid collision. And now that we know more, those asteroids belong to the Flora family of asteroids.

Even when some media sources finally agree that it's an asteroid collision, they swing in a different direction and says that this is *drumroll* the BROTHER of the dinosaur killer *cue evil music, (maybe the Imperial March)*

News from io9

From Newsdaily

What does "related" in the headlines mean anyway? How many asteroids are actually in the Flora family? The asteroid is just a rock out of billions. I could equivalently post a news with the headlines: "Lim Yen Kheng is possibly related to Barack Obama. Possible tensions to US-Malaysia ties." Why? Because the odds of that are about the same as P/2010 A2 being related to the "Dinosaur Killer"

Sensationalism in News

I came across a recent event that shows off the despicable media habit of over-dramatizing their "news". The event I'm talking about is a Hubble Space Telescope's picture of a suspected asteroid collision. By chance, I surfed to some other sites reporting the same event, but the headline said "spaceship-shaped object" So for the first time, I get to see contrasting behavior side by side, more or less supporting my suspicion. Firstly, here are links to sites containing ACCURATE information: hubblesite.org, the headlines read:

Suspected Asteroid Collision Leaves Odd X-Pattern of Trailing Debris

Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer's own words on the event:

Hubble captures picture of asteroid collision!

Okay. So far so good, right? Here are the "news" reports:
Before It's News it's headlines read:

Hubble Detects Mysterious Spaceship-Shaped Object Traveling at 11,000MPH

Gizmodo.com, same headlines, but with an interesting last paragraph:

"In other words: They have no clue about what this is, and they are still speculating about how this object was formed. Maybe it's time to call Dr. Zarkov."

By "they", they meant scientists. Yeah, right. The scientists have no clue at all, never mind the long blog post from Phil Plait explaining the physics of the event.