General – Page 4 – Mark Shead

Space Cadets Television Show

In 2005 British television aired a reality show called Space Cadets. The show put out ads for “thrill seekers” and then ran them through a process to identify the most gullible individuals with the least knowledge of spaceflight, science or (it would seem) any form of common sense.

The individuals were told they were going to be part of the first reality space tourist television show. They were flown to Russia and launched into space and spent five days aboard the Space Shuttle.

In reality they were flown over the ocean for several hours and landed right back in England where they were surrounded by actors pretending to be Russians. They spent their space time in a mockup of the Space Shuttle that was used in the movies Armageddon and Space Cowboys. The shuttle was set inside a simulator showing views of earth.

After five days they were to go on a space walk at which point the hoax was revealed and the door opened up into the studio where their family and friends were waiting.

Obviously the simulator wasn’t able to recreate weightlessness so they were told that they were in a very low orbit where they had only 70% gravity, but the Space Shuttle had gravity generators that made up for the other 30%. Actually any object in orbit is going be weightless because orbiting is simply falling fast enough that you never hit the ground. (The ground curves away before you hit it.)

From the clips I’ve seen, the producers seemed to have pulled it off incredibly well. They put a lot of effort into the simulator in making it as realistic as possible–well other than actually being weightless. In one scene before they were “launched” they were interviewed by members of the press. However, to make sure no one was caught smiling, the “press” all had to wear face masks presumably to keep them from spreading germs to the cadets.

The show’s selection process along with the actors playing the pilots and even a planted “cadet” who was in on the hoax helped insure that their suspicious were minimized.

Another show that used a similar technique of duping the participants was Superstar USA. With a format and style similar to American Idol, it attempted to find the worst singers possible while telling them that they were talented.

How to Publish a Book

I bought a copy of John T. Reed’s book called How to Write, Publish & Sell Your Own How-To Book. It is an interesting read, so I wanted to review it. Basically John Reed thinks selling through bookstores and through Amazon is a huge waste of money because so much of the profit ends up in other’s pockets. He makes some good points and he gives lots of examples of how he makes significantly more money by not selling in bookstores.

The style of the book is interesting. It often reads more like a rant than what you’d expect in a book. At the same time, he backs up what he says with data and experience so it isn’t like he is just pulling ideas of out the air. He really likes subheadings. Pretty much every paragraph contains its own subheading. At first this seemed a bit odd, but it does make the book easy to scan and find just the portions that you want to read. Continue reading “How to Publish a Book”

Saying Goodbye

In movies and television, no one says “Goodbye” at the end of a phone call. Have you ever noticed this? They simply hang up when they are through talking. How do they know that the other person is done talking? Even if they are calling to tell each other “Goodbye” for the last time the conversation usually ends up with something other than “Goodbye”. Maybe Hollywood thinks that it would be too annoying to hear “Goodbye” at the end of every phone call or something. Maybe they are trying to show that the characters are “too cool” to follow such social norms. I don’t know, but I do know that if you try this in real life, it will drive people crazy!

In college a friend of mine and I decided to follow the movie model and stop saying goodbye. We’d simply hang up when we were through talking. I can tell you it positively makes for the most annoying telephone conversations you’ve ever had. You are talking back and forth, your friend says something and then “click”. You don’t get a chance to reply or say anything–they were done so they hang up. You can call them back if you have something else you want to say. You end up with conversations like:

A: Hey do you want to go get some lunch?

B: Yes CLICK

A: [Redials B]

B: Hello?

A: Um did the phone disconnect?

B: No I was just done talking.

I think the calling back thing would make movies a bit more realistic. When someone hangs up without saying “Goodbye” (and thus giving the other party a chance to finish up any important business) the person who was hung up on, should immediately call back and say, “Wait, I wasn’t through talking!” or “Did you hang up or did the call drop?”

Garbage Mystery

For the past month, we have had a trash mystery at our house hold. The trash pickup that we pay for picksup every Friday morning and requires that we put the garbage can on the side of the road.

The mystery occurs every Thursday morning. Someone pulls into our driveway, retrieves the garbage can, empties the contents and leaves without a sound. That’s not all. The service we pay for will only take out the bags in the garbage can. We had several items in the bottom of the can that weren’t in bags that had been there for several weeks. The mystery garbage pickup service cleaned out the trash can as well!

Don’t Teach Her That!

We were driving home from Kansas City and Haley mentioned she needed to make a phone call. Our two year old then asked…

Katy: Who you gonna call?
Mark: Ghostbusters!
Haley: Don’t teach her that!