I haven't used this icon in a while...
...but 
schneefink asked me to talk about "your field of study/work/specialization/a hobby and how a book/movie/series/canon got it terribly/hilariously wrong?"
I have a MS in meteorology (atmospheric physics) and I work in climate modeling. I really loved the SGA episode "The Storm", but auggh storms don't work that way. There is a single big wave - a tsunami - that crashes over Atlantis. But tsunamis are generated by earthquakes, not by atmospheric storms. Wind-driven storms create waves, but not single waves like that. (I mean, there are sometimes rogue waves many times the height of other waves around them. But a single wave does not form in an otherwise calm sea!)
(This actually led to my jokingly creating a Mary Sue who would be an actual meteorologist on Atlantis, because heaven knows they needed one, who showed up briefly in one of my SGA fics.)
The other thing I notice is that movies don't accurately portray NASA and NOAA research scientists. (I have seen this many times - I specifically remember Twister, which a friend of mine actually consulted on, and The Day After Tomorrow, which was ludicrous in every respect.) At least from the 1980s on, we don't wear lab coats, and we don't dress up at work. We wear nice jeans and hiking boots and button-down shirts (okay, sometimes t-shirts or sweaters) and we don't call each other Doctor This and Doctor That. Everyone calls each other by their first names. But I suppose the makers of movies want to ensure that the audience knows these are Sciency Scientists who Science.
(I'm not doing a formal December Talking Meme, but you can ask me a question if you like - in the comments here, if you like - and I will try to answer it sometime in the next, uh, *waves hand around*)
Crossposted from isis at Dreamwidth where there are
comments. | Comment at Dreamwidth
schneefink asked me to talk about "your field of study/work/specialization/a hobby and how a book/movie/series/canon got it terribly/hilariously wrong?"
I have a MS in meteorology (atmospheric physics) and I work in climate modeling. I really loved the SGA episode "The Storm", but auggh storms don't work that way. There is a single big wave - a tsunami - that crashes over Atlantis. But tsunamis are generated by earthquakes, not by atmospheric storms. Wind-driven storms create waves, but not single waves like that. (I mean, there are sometimes rogue waves many times the height of other waves around them. But a single wave does not form in an otherwise calm sea!)
(This actually led to my jokingly creating a Mary Sue who would be an actual meteorologist on Atlantis, because heaven knows they needed one, who showed up briefly in one of my SGA fics.)
The other thing I notice is that movies don't accurately portray NASA and NOAA research scientists. (I have seen this many times - I specifically remember Twister, which a friend of mine actually consulted on, and The Day After Tomorrow, which was ludicrous in every respect.) At least from the 1980s on, we don't wear lab coats, and we don't dress up at work. We wear nice jeans and hiking boots and button-down shirts (okay, sometimes t-shirts or sweaters) and we don't call each other Doctor This and Doctor That. Everyone calls each other by their first names. But I suppose the makers of movies want to ensure that the audience knows these are Sciency Scientists who Science.
(I'm not doing a formal December Talking Meme, but you can ask me a question if you like - in the comments here, if you like - and I will try to answer it sometime in the next, uh, *waves hand around*)
Crossposted from isis at Dreamwidth where there are
comments. | Comment at Dreamwidth