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Reality TV "Astronauts" Lift Off
RJG writes "In the latest reality show on British TV, three British "space tourists" last night succesfully blasted off on a five day mission and are currently orbiting the earth 200 miles up. Or so they think. And to forestall the first question. They aren't experiencing weightlessness due to a combination of being in a low orbit (rather than outer space where the weightlessness is) and a few under-floor gravity generators."
Well, at least it's nice to be reassured that stark raving idiocy isn't an exclusively American trait. Apparently, any prospective 'astronaut' who showed even the slightest glimmer of comprehension of the rudimentaries of physics was automatically disqualified. leaving us with the pick of the litter...people who are stupid enough to believe that 'gravity generators' exist, and that exposure to 'near space' will make you shorter and increase your lung capacity.
Now add to the mix a psycho Russian pilot:
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
The last episode will be the best one, when the TV show fakes a leak in the station and they have five minutes to decide which of the three gets the two working space suits. Sort of like Lord of the Flies in space. I bet they will think it is soooooo funny when they find out it is just a TV show.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
So how long before other reality TV shows start happening in space? I can see it now, people being voted off the space station every week...
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so remind me why it's called that, again? Because it's "real"?
...had to fail a drug test, physics test, and IQ test.
...gravity generators
Sure proof that those onboard deserve to be laughed at, assuming that they aren't paid actors.
and the public laps it up...
At first I was disgusted from the initial appearance of this show, and unfortunately after a few quotes from the profiles such as these: I realize that this will probably be an instant success. It appears to be on a UK channel but I'm guessing it will be picked up and aired in the states.
I guess when you put people like this together, you have a formula for an instant TV hit (like every reality show before it). Am I allowed to hate this show if it's making light of the people I dislike the most in this world?
If you disagree that it's going to be a hit, check out the 9 pages of posts on its bulletin boards.
Also to note, there are posts on the bulletin that this may be a hoax on the viewing public. Just relaying that speculation.
My work here is dung.
I hope they brought an inanimate carbon rod.
The lesson here is the same one as in the U.S. with Jay Leno's Tonight Show: You get to be on TV if you can act like you are really stupid.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
not to mention the fact that a TV show would not be first one to have them for real.. :)
Reality television. 'nuff said...
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
There are 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand this sig, and those that beat up people who do.
"They aren't experiencing weightlessnes due to ... a few under-floor gravity generators." - "gravity generators" like, for instance, the EARTH?
"...rather than outer space where the wightlessnes is"
News for Nerds? I think you can safely assume that the Slashdot crowd understand where wightlessness occurs.
nope. the simulator runs Solaris.
And no matter how low they fly, they'll still be over your head.
If fate makes you a motorcycle, you become a motorcycle.
...if it's not too dear.
blarg.
I wonder if this is how they faked the original Apollo moon landing?
No kidding. We don't need to watch the Capricorn One sequences in which these nitwits are faked out by the producers; just show us the moments when a prospective "space tourist" showed that glimmer of intelligence and skepticism, only to be promptly whisked from the room to avoid contaminating the other hopefuls. As with American Idol (supposedly), the early elimination rounds would be the most watchable.
But I never watched "Idol" because the idea of the early shows bugs me, and I hate this, actually.
A show in which people volunteered to go through a *real* space training program, say the equivalent of NASA shuttle crew training, could have been interesting and would have taught the audience something. It also could easily have put the audience through the same voyeuristic "look at human nature" experience reality shows are supposed to be good for. (Whatever.)
Instead we get yet another show by, for, and about mean and stupid people. What's the point of tricking the dufuses this way, other than to ridicule them and to show you can do it? That's sociopathic programming. Oh, wait... Maybe that's the "reality" part.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
In order for the hoax to stand a realistic chance of succeeding, the Cadets would have to remain unaware of the true nature of the show, even given any production mistakes and implausible explanations. As such, a strict set of criteria were applied to filter out inappropriate applicants:
The intention was to obtain a group of Cadets who were highly gullible, conformist, and ignorant about the show's subject matter; and also ideally suited to appearing in a Reality TV show (e.g. uninhibited extroverts, "wacky personalities", or characters otherwise able to capture the public interest).
We must act immediately to close the Stupid Gap!
Of course the "astronauts" know it's just a show.
Of course they know they're not in space.
What you are witnessing is the first real reality show backlash. The TV programmers have figured out that there are enough gullible people in the world who watch and believe these shows that they can hire a basically competant series of actors who go through the motions of a reality series. Come on, they've been able to study the reactions of reality show participants for months if not years.
The real "participants" in this series are the audience who laugh at "players" they think are stupid enough to believe what they are going through and post messages on blogs and sites like Slashdot being so witty about America not being the only stupid country. The producers can then show all these blogs and the reactions of audience members who they've interviewed before revealing the that the joke is on them.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
they licensed the patent.
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Sorry, 19 year old TV middle-ish attractive chick who whines alot. We've decided that for the greater good you have to bail. You can take it two ways. Either with a helmet where you slowly run out of air or no helmet and it's quick. Your call.
Now that I would watch. What are the 5 stages of reality TV grief?
Begging
Figthing
Urinating
Yet more drama
Hugging
Wins a car
Dammit, if I wanted to watch idiots being fooled by a large corporation, couldn't I just go to the mall?
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
Will be the one where one of the tourists gets ejected into space but manages to hold his breath long enough to make it back inside. Also, thankfully, the gravity generators work outside the ship.
You are who you are, let no one tell you different. But, never close your mind to a new point of view.
At least they're making fun of their stupid people, we tend to put our morons on pedestals.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
*What if the people on this show are just actors? Who would be the idiot then?*
The same people who are the idiots now: The people who watch the show.
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No. Gravity is everywhere. The "weightlessness" is an artifact of being in an orbit. The Earth is pulling you down, but you are also moving perpendicular to the Earth's surface, so the ground falls away from you with the curve of the Earth. It's free fall. You just fall continuously over the horizon. It's falling with style, to quote Buzz Lightyear. ;-)
Build a stationary tower with it's top floor at the level of a space orbit, and you'll just feel the Earth's gravity.
That's how the shuttle gets back down. They do a burn to cut their velocity and start falling toward the Earth instead of over the horizon. Such is the way of all orbits. Move faster to get to a higher orbit. Move slower to get to a lower orbit.
>without GCSE's
this has got to be a typo, surely, "with up to 14 recent GCSE's" is more relevant
low orbit (rather than outer space where the wightlessnes is)
It's a little known fact, but this is why things always fall off the bottom of the moon.
Can they be voted out the airlock? I'd pay to watch that.
Or in the White House....
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Everybody seems to think that these people are really stupid. But firstly, I think people on slashdot are into technology, and therefore know what is and isn't possible. Also, these people have no reason not to believe the producers aren't telling them the truth. The Milgram Experiment show that people will do stuff that they don't want to do, just because some guy in a white suit says that they should. I believe this shows that people are going to believe the guy in the white suit, even if what he says is a little far fetched.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Technically speaking, all objects are gravity generators :).
We're still holding on strong. The whole thing, including the cadets, is a huge hoax on us, the viewers. Though the brits fell for this one too, so we'll call it even.
Ride the skies
What'd be really funny is the computer that they run the "window visual simulation" on get's a BSOD and one of the people sees it.
For all non-UK Slashdotters, this forum will bring you up to speed on what has been happening in the last week. - http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/forumdisplay.p hp?f=139
p so some of the training looked familiar and it brought back some happy memories.
I usually hate reality TV shows, but this one has me hooked, maybe because we have done the fantasic ATX http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/visitKSC/atx.as
BTW, they are either the stupidest people ever.. or brilliant actors.
Jonathan
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You obviously haven't seen any Japanese game shows....
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"And may your days be long upon the earth."
The conspiracy theory is that the "cadets" know the show is fake, and the hoax is actually on the audience. It seems hard to believe that 3 people could really be this gullible, but I suppose if they're carefully fed information, who knows...
Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
"We must act immediately to close the Stupid Gap!"
I assume you mean "Stupidity Gap".
Yes, apparently it's worse than we thought.
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
Somebody should found a religion like that. I'd join.
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Two points to the winner!
I'm surprised no one else had said it..
Now, where exactly would they find something of sufficent mass and density to simulate 1G on something the size of the space shuttle? They wouldn't, and actually be able to move it.
But hey, if they want to believe, they will.
When I was a kid, I went to Space Academy at the Huntsville Space and Rocket center, twice. It was fun. It was geared more towards beginners, but still, it was fun.
Someone else linked This Page, which shows that the folks in the simulation aren't regular kids being fooled. They're actors being paid to act like they believe the whole thing.
The simulation sounds really cool though, if it's as realistic as their site portrays.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Dumb bumbling god fearing pig eyed hicks should not be entertained with the idea they can run countries, let alone continents. D'Oh!
:-(
Still better than the one we got though
Alternately, perhaps the participants know it is fake and choose not to let on. I always suspect this when I see a hypnotism show. I think many of them aren't really "under," but it's a matter of peer pressure, and "hey! I'm on stage in front of everybody!" TV exposure is valuable, and I think a lot of the "reality" shows get overwhelmed by wannabe actors who just want to parlay an appearance into a career in entertainment.
Why bother with the elaborate double-bluff? Why hire crappy actors - one of whom is only known as an extra from some advert, another who only appears in some catalogue of crappy actors - and try to get them to become good enough actors to maintain the pretence?
Wouldn't it actually in the end be easier to just find some authentic idiots? God knows there are enough of them around.
I suspect that what's happened here is that they have on their hands a collection of desperate wannabes. Reality TV can be your launchpad into the glittering world of C-list celebrity. For someone who works most of the time as an electrician and occasionally gets work as an extra in a 'Give Blood' campaign... well, it's the big opportunity to become a star, right?
It just seems... stupid... to do it on purpose. What are they going to do? Tell the watching millions 'sorry, the whole thing has been a fake, they're all actors'? Potentially turn them all off from the entire suddenly-discredited reality TV genre and derail the gravy train? Why would they do that?
You can do what you like to your contestants, but don't insult the public. They'll respond by not tuning in next time, and that's the last thing you want.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
I'm too lazy to hunt, but above this comment there are several links to a page that confirms this. At least two of the non-actors are actors.
Do you really think that journalists dig that deep in entertainment peices? (or any peices nowadays).
How hard is it to dupe the average TV audience? Reality shows have a formula which they follow, based around shallow human emotions. These shallow human emotions are pretty easy to do. It wouldn't be hard to find a cast to act like petty idiots.
This is what people expect. Why would they ever question?
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
I read an article about this show before it aired. They did intensive physiological tests on the contestants to ensure they chose people who were susceptible to suggestion. These people actually turned out to be of *higher* than average intelligence.
Intelligence is not necessarily knowledge of how a spacecraft might behave. They're probably not geeks like us, so they probably have no idea of the state of space technology.
I'm too cool for a sig.
Brilliant! It's a hoax within a hoax. Misleading the public to believe that we're misleading our contestants, eh? Wouldn't that be ingenious?
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Floccinaucinihilipilification - the action or habit of judging something to be worthless
In other words, everything they "learned" about spaceflight from this little "voyage" they will have to unlearn because it's probably made-up hooey to perpetuate their ignorance. Assuming these kids are as dumb as they're playing on the show (which is debatable), what's happening to them is cruel, not funny.
It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.
in front of their televisions, watching "reality tv."
if i'm a grammar nazi, you're an illiteracy nazi.
Now, that would be a good show. Hire a bunch of contestants, and tell them that the whole thing is actually a hoax, and to pretend that they believe that they're actually being launched into space, and then (here's the tricky part) actually launch them into space.
I object to that article, and to the next reply.