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Survivor Meets Junkyard Wars for Scientists
MyNameIsFred writes "Stepping back to Gilligan's Island, PBS has a new "reality" show Rough Science where "five scientists are challenged to put their collective scientific knowledge to practical use. Transported to isolated locations, they are presented with a series of tasks, with two notable restrictions: they must complete their work within three days and, with the exception of a rudimentary tool kit, must use only indigenous materials." Could the Professor really build all of those things? We'll soon know." Check out the Episode guide.
They start voting on which one to eat first within a week. Scientists weren't designed to survive outside of a lab. =]
Karma: Dyn-o-mite!(mostly affected by Jimmy Walker reading your comments)
"scientists"?
"practical use"!?
They're doomed.
But then again, I could be wrong.
... first aired a couple of years ago. It was a great idea and made for some good viewing. Can't remember which station it was on though :o(
Highlights for me included the making of photographic equipment and a compass.
- This and all my posts are public domain. I am a Physicist. I am not your Physicist. This is not Physically advice
This reminds me of the show they had last year called "Frontier House", where a family was put onto a 19th century homestead to see how they'd do. On hone hand that show proved very interesting, but on the other, the way it was made kind of emphasized scandal, and played down achievements of the more successfull family. I hope this doesn't happen with the new show, since PBS seems to be venturing into traditional network TV territory with these reality series, and I hope they don't sink to trash TV level while doing it.
Ñ'
Too bad Mary Ann won't be in it.
That said, its still worth catching if you've nothing else to do.
Why not take the 'Gilligan's Island' concept to it's logical conclusion: put the scientists on a remote island, not knowing their location or how much ocean surrounds them, with no supplies, and leave them there (with a camera crew of course). The scientists would have two challenges: survive off rudimentary supplies and the island's natural resources, and eventually escape to the mainland. The first scientific team to find their way to a major city wins. Of course, you could add in interesting challenges along the way such as those in this show or in Survivor, where the scientists could complete some useful task (dye a flag, as mentioned in the episode guide) in return for a tool or supply. THAT I would watch.
The fact that PBS is sinking to the level of regular TV and airing 'Yet-Another-Reality-Series' or that it will probably work.
Are the scientists going to get voted off? Will they make alliances with each other and scheme to get the other scientists? Will they have to cook rats over their Bunson Burners?
Questions, questions.
The Anti-Blog
"Look guys! I made this helicopter entirely out of bamboo and coconuts!"
(I don't understand why Gilligan's Island went so long, I mean the Professor came up with these brilliant inventions every episode. Why couldn't they just make a raft and have the Prof build a small nuclear reactor to power it?)
Sheepdot: Open Source good, Closed Source baaaaaaad!
there's nothing realistic about yanking scientists/engineers out of their normal habitats, putting them on an island somewhere, and having them build stuff.
Please, almost as realistic as the real world, or survivor. Reality tv? That would be too boring. Call it what it is:
What would happen TV TM
Sent from your iPad.
"Gee whiz, profesor, it's a good thing this moderately sized aircraft crashed in this remote location with key components intact! Now we can build our submarine!"
Wah!
"Will they make alliances with each other and scheme to get the other scientists?"
They're academics, aren't they?
Steve
Ginger! Not Mary Ann!
Infuriate left and right
Dr. X: They mocked my research! But I'll show them, I'll show them all!
Announcer: Fascinating. What scientific principle have you applied?
Dr. X: Leverage.
Announcer: I see, and how are you going to use your invention... what's it called?
Dr. X: A big stick.
Annonucer: Yes, your stick. Dr. Sullivan has succeeded in making charcoal a furnace. How does your invention compare to that?
Dr. X: I will use it to leverage his cranium.
Announcer: That science-speak is too much for me.
Dr. X: Let me demonstrate. [Smashes announcer's head in.]
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
.. start a fire or catch a fish, then they would have beaten every person that has been Survivor.
Every season of Survivor is the same with the same cast of idiots starving because all they can find to eat are coconuts that practically fall out of the trees and hit them on the head and maybe some snails that crawled into their sleeping bags.
Pick up the damn fishing pole and catch some fish!
Live web cams
The professor has a pretty impressive list of scientific / engineering accomplishments - i doubt anyone can top him:
- a bamboo lie detector (hooked up to the ship's horn and the radio's batteries)
- a coconut shell battery recharger
- a bamboo telescope
- a Geiger counter
- jet-pack fuel
- a bamboo xylophone
- keptibora-berry extract to remedy Gilligan's double vision
- an assortment of tonics, antiseptics, poisons, "spider cider" (to kill off gargantuan morning spiders)
- soap made from plant fats
- shark repellent
- a pedal-powered bamboo sewing machine
- lead radiation suits and make-up (protection from a meteor's cosmic rays)
- a helium balloon (rubber raincoats sewn together and sealed with tree sap)
- a strychnine serum that temporarily paralyzes Gilligan
- an electrode linked to to a pedal-powered generator
- pedal powered washing machine
- pedal powered water pump
- pedal powered telegraph
- Mr. Howell's roulette wheel and pool table
We're all familiar with describing someone as a 'smoothie'. A person with a certain amount of charm, or who at least thinks he has charisma. A related term is 'smooth operator'. Such people might typically be working in marketing or public relations, or perhaps as politicians or a certain type of PHB.
It doesn't take much thought to realize that the word 'smooth' comes from an association with being clean-shaven. After all, it is applied only to men. If you want more evidence, how about the epithet 'smoothychops'.
Now consider a theoretician or a Real Programmer. Surely the first image that comes to mind is the possibly-overweight and heavily bearded man in loosely-fitting clothes. In a typical technology company, these people are at the opposite end from the marketroids; but despite their strong technical knowledge they may not always be able to apply it practically (to the end of making money, at least).
So we have at one end the clean-shaven, 'smooth' but superficial and essentially useless marketing half of a technology company. At the other, the -bearded but also somewhat unrealistic technical side. But in the programme 'Rough Science', competitors are expected to have theoretical knowledge and also to apply it successfully. The title refers to the several days' stubbly beard growth a typical male scientist will get after a few days stranded on the island. This 'rough', newly-grown beard is a blend of the two facial hair types.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
Sounds like TLC's Junkyard War's spinoff Escape from Experiment Island.
I've always wanted to see a futuristic version of Survivor where they're placed in a postapocalyptic environment (think Mad Max, Waterworld, etc.) where they have to build the same sort of contraptions as Junkyard Wars, all the while battling for food and clean water, fending off pirates and thieves, and whoever doesn't make it off the island or outside the perimeter before their machines break down loses.
...or does this sound like reality-MacGyver? Oh yes with this shoestring, hydrosulfid and my pocket knife(tm) I can solve this problem in a pseudoscientific way. Good luck, but I think I'll stick to the notsoreal version, at least there things "work".
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
What did you expect? Nova? Talk about preaching to the choir.
As part of my work I have:
Slept in a snowbank (ambient temp -30C)
Advanced course on thermodynamics.
Scaled ice covered rock faces with 30 kilos of equipment
Laboratory assignment on mechanics for post-graduate students.
Faced bears and wolves unarmed.
Armed with Occam's razor -- survival course for graduate students.
Hiked alone in the Amazon rain forest.
General relativity theory, and how amazons manage to procreate anyway.
"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them." -- George H. W. Bush
Anybody else find it disturbing that the task of making soap only comes in at the last show?
Stinky scientists...
You can't take the sky from me...
Would be great if it were a Scientist, Engineer and Economist.
With the economist running around with crackpot assumptions that have nothing to do with reality and the Engineer to save them all!*
*adapted from an old joke
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
Sure, he's a moron for not filing a cruise plan (er, the boating equivalent of a flight plan...whatever it's called) with the Coast Guard (but then, who really wants to voluntarily tell the gov't their every move?), or telling friends where he was going and when he'd be back...but he was a true survivor.
And,. although he was very happy to see the US warship, he wasn't looking for a free ride home: he asked them to repair his mast and he would sail home on his own. That's freakin' impressive.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Why scientists? We should be sending politicians, lawyers, CEO's, and telephone sanitisers to these islands. I bet they would accomplish a whole lot more than scientists would...
<CEO> ever since we adopted leaves as legal tender we've all become immensely rich.
I would think that a team of engineers would be more interesting than scientists. Who knows.
metric
"This is not news!!"
No sig for the moment.
You have done poolboy work, havent you?
No sig for the moment.
I repeatedly uttered "fascinating" while watching this episode from the viewscreen on the bridge.
I did read about this. He spent alot more time seeing how much he could eat than getting his ass back to land. Catalina Island is only 25 miles out and he drifted 2500 miles to Costa Rica without getting back to land. If your going to blue water sail, you have to learn how to survive dismasting and by survive I don't mean drifting into the southern ocean.
I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you
Create weapons and turn on the film crew, using their tents, electrical equipment and food to effect their escape to the mainland.
All kings is mostly rapscallions. -Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
"Martin, draw a plan for a coconut radio, and if possible, a coconut Nintendo system." --Bart, "Das Bus"
My wife works for DuPont. This is their press release which gives information about where it will be aired:
Rough Science - DuPont will be the corporate sponsor of the BBC production "Rough Science" in which 5 scientists on a remote island are challenged to solve science problems through their collective wits, scavenged items and the natural resources of their surroundings. The program will air on PBS stations in many of the top markets including LA, NYC, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas & Washington D.C. Air dates and times vary by market. Major funding for the program is provided by the National Science Foundation. DuPont is the only corporate sponsor and our 15 second messages will appear at the beginning and close of each segment.
Remember... ZG9uJ3QgZm9yZ2V0IHRvIGRyaW5rIHlvdXIgb3ZhbHRpbmU=
He was out there for 3.5 months and he didn't get scurvy?
I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing. -- Thomas Jefferson