General TV thread

Justice4243

Wanna talk about a TV show, but maybe not so much you want to give it it's own thread?

Here is where you post.

So, my PS3 will grace my TVs with shows off my  PC through the network depending on the format and Deudliest Warrior is one of the shows.

I'm slowly watching it from the beginning. It can be an entertaining watch while I do step aerobics with a baby attached via harness.

Especially if I keep the PS3 remote to 1.5X it past the guests trash talking each other.

Spoiler blocked, in case anyone really cares:

This was a long winded setup to say that after watching Alexander the Great vs Attila the Hun AND the shows Aftermath (a round table where they answer questions and talk about the episode) I felt that they may have gotten the results wrong + didn't give Alexander that chance he deserved (one of his weapons was siege weapon, and kinda useless in the fight).

Usually, I can agree with the results, even if I don't like it. But it really seems a better weapon and a few more tests would have shown very different results.

It helped that it was pointed out in the Aftermath that Alexander would "lead from the front" and got into all kinds of fight, where Attila mostly just directed troops and helped murder the odd village of peasants here and there.

Justice4243

I dug out a couple of GURPs books, because I remembered that their where stats for both figures, and I'm a huge nerd.

They're pretty close, points wise. Alexander has a good 50+ points on Attila, but if you take away their wealth and status, they're very, very close (Alexander had more money and status than Attila).

Their advantages and disadvantages are REALLY similar! They actually share a couple.

Alexander has higher stats except for dex, which is the same for both. However, Attila has more points in combat skills, so much that his resulting score in many weapons is higher than Alexanders.

One thing my books don't mention is armor, Alexander looks to have the better armor of the two. And I wonder how this would factor.

More show talk: One thing they didn't test was how well the armor took arrow shots. My books and their tests show that Attila might be able to easily take Alexander out with his composite bows from Horseback, but if this required Attila firing from  Horseback, trying to aim at an opponents weak spots while he was also on armor, closing the distance. I wonder if the usefulness of the weapon would be greatly diminished. 

Justice4243

I continue to talk to myself!

Used GURPS again to see if an arrow fired from a composite bow could penetrate a bronze armor.

Outlook not good for the arrow. Not that it matters, Alexander likely wore another armor entirely:

http://news.discovery.com/history/how-the-alexander-mosaic-was-used.html

A Kevlar-like armor might have helped Alexander the Great (356–323 B.C.) conquer nearly the entirety of the known world in little more than two decades, according to new reconstructive archaeology research.

Presented at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Anaheim, Calif., the study suggests that Alexander and his soldiers protected themselves with linothorax, a type of body armor made by laminating together layers of linen.

"While we know quite a lot about ancient armor made from metal, linothorax remains something of a mystery since no examples have survived, due to the perishable nature of the material," Gregory Aldrete, professor of history and humanistic studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, told Discovery News.

"Nevertheless, we have managed to show that this linen armor thrived as a form of body protection for nearly 1,000 years, and was used by a wide variety of ancient Mediterranean civilizations," Aldrete said.

Indeed, Aldrede and co-investigator Scott Bartell discovered that linothorax was widely mentioned in ancient records.

"Currently we have 27 descriptions by 18 different ancient authors and nearly 700 visual images on objects ranging from Greek vases to Etruscan temple reliefs," Aldrete said.

The main visual evidence for Alexander wearing linothorax is the famous "Alexander Mosaic" from Pompeii, in which the Macedonian king is depicted with this sort of armor.

Indeed, in his "Life of Alexander," the Greek historian Plutarch states that Alexander wore "a breastplate of folded (or doubled) linen" at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 B.C. This battle a was a huge victory for the Greeks and led to the fall of the Achaemenid Empire.

According to the researchers, there is further evidence that linen breastplates were standard equipment in the Macedonian army.

"When Alexander was in India, and received 25,000 new suits of armor for his army, he is described as having ordered the old worn-out suits of armor to be burned. This would only make sense if they had been made of fabric rather than metal," Aldrete said.

In order to determine how wearable this armor was, and how effective it would have been in protecting its wearer from arrows and other battlefield hazards, Aldrete and Bartell reconstructed several complete sets of linen armor using only material that were only available in the ancient world.

"The hardest part of the project was finding truly authentic linen. It had to be made from flax plants that were grown, harvested and processed, spun and woven by hand," Aldrete said.

The other key ingredient was glue, which was placed over various layers of linen. The researchers chose to work with two simpler glues that would have been available everywhere: a glue made from the skins of rabbits and another from flax seeds.

Tests included shooting the resulting patches with arrows and hitting them with a variety of weapons including swords, axes and spears.

"Our controlled experiments basically dispelled the myth that armor made out of cloth must have been inferior to other available types. Indeed, the laminated layers function like an ancient version of modern Kevlar armor, using the flexibility of the fabric to disperse the force of the incoming arrow," Aldrete said.

According to Heidi Sherman, linen expert and professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, the researchers have achieved some very convincing results.

"One cannot know with complete certainty how close the model is to the linen armor used by Alexander the Great's army, but several layers of fused linen can indeed withstand quite a rigorous battering. They would have provided ample protection under rather extreme conditions," Sherman told Discovery News.

You mean these ass-hats didn't even giver Alexander the correct armor? And said armor was specifically good against arrows?!

Spoiler: Fuck that episode. Also, I am a huge nerd.

Icalasari

TV? You mean the thing that can be used as a monitor for a computer?

Haven

Used GURPS again to see if an arrow fired from a composite bow could penetrate a bronze armor.

Well then I'm going to use Mutants and Masterminds to find the Higgs Boson.

Justice4243

^^ 'cause it's not like people download shows on their computers, or buy DVDs, or anything.

Ace Rimmer

The IRA vs Taliban Deadliest warrior is still banned because its against the law to mention the terrorist scumbags called the IRA

Gelzo

If you guys are curious, the standard TV channels in Japan are 30% cooking shows, 20% weird and boring game shows, 40% celebrities eating food and saying it tastes good, 5% badly dubbed American shows, and 5% movies that might be interesting if you could understand Japanese.

Tachyon

>The IRA vs Taliban Deadliest warrior is still banned because its against the law to mention the terrorist scumbags called the IRA

That doesn't sound right.  What's the specific law?

I assumed that episode was banned purely for being horrendously insensitive to the victims of terrorists.

Ace Rimmer

I think the specific law was the Broadcasting Act (1981)

Tachyon

But that didn't prevent them mentioning the IRA, it only prohibited the IRA members themselves from speaking on TV.  The BBC were even allowed to read out IRA statements on air.

Also the restrictions have since been considerably loosened.

Justice4243

"I assumed that episode was banned purely for being horrendously insensitive to the victims of terrorists."

Watching the experts root for their side was pretty uncomfortable. It was understandable, a bit, for the IRA, because I think one or both dudes where descendants of IRA members. It was WAY worse for the Taliban guys, because they where, like...anti-terrorist people who studied and fought against the Taliban in some capacity. Yet somehow, the Taliban was their horse and they did cheer for it to win the race...

The only one worse, that I've seen was the one with the Waffen SS...yes, their dudes cheered for them, too...

"But that didn't prevent them mentioning the IRA, it only prohibited the IRA members themselves from speaking on TV. "

I'd say, given the experts, that the episode would at least come close to falling under this.

Tachyon

Ah, right.  I haven't seen the episode in question, but I can definitely see that being a problem.

To be honest, although I have watched (and been kind of entertained by) a little of it so I can't really talk, that show's premise creeps me out a bit.  It's like a weird hybrid of gladiatorial combat and the way teenage boys sometimes idolize vikings and gangsters and samurai and such.  Seeing organizations like the Taliban and the IRA being viewed the same way drags the nastier side of it into focus, like a reminder that, you know, the guys they're mythologizing and cheering for on this programme killed real people.

And of course Nazi fetishism is never not creepy.

Justice4243

I'd be fine with the show (save for the creeper elements, as mentioned) if the experts would chill the fuck out and stop arguing with each other. 

Watching grown men quibble about the amount of misfires something has had and explain that THEIR dude would have killed the other dude five times by now is just sad...

Justice4243

Since it seems we have enough people who have watched the show to keep this topic rolling...

Anyone bother to go to Spike.com and watch the Aftermath? 

It can be a bit insightful. Though, sometimes it's a bit uncomfortable when they have one of the looser on and he's obviously butt-hurt because his long since dead, hypothetical horse did not win the fancy dead horse murder spree.

The looser of the SWAT VS CSG9 fight wins the biggest whiner award. Spoiler: Also wins the dumbest comment award. He mentioned he felt the show was biased, because the Americans won. He said had the show been in Germany, the CSG9 would have won...which has the possible unfortunate implication of suggesting the Germans also would have been biased. 

The looser of the episode I first mentioned was actually pretty calm and accepting of the whole thing. He seemed like a much nicer guy than the person who won. This might have helped me decided the entire episode wasn't done well. Between him and the questions, he probably helped convinced me that something was wrong and it didn't even seem like that was his intent. 

Misery

Is To A Catch A Predator still on? I miss watching that show.

Tre

I recall the guy getting into a lawsuit over his own relationship with his wife for cheating, though I'm not sure if that led to its cancellation or not.

Either way it's been off since December '07, so.

Salix Babylonika

I hate Deadliest Warrior. Loved it when it came out, but it's become a fountain of topics for people at my school to bitch about, plus I no longer have cable, so....

Gelzo

^^^I heard that show was in murky legal waters.

Bunny

Given that they hire people to pose as jailbait so that they may lure predators to houses and arrest them, To Catch A Predator has been accused of harassment.

Haven

I'd be fine with the show (save for the creeper elements, as mentioned) if the experts would chill the fuck out and stop arguing with each other.

Watching grown men quibble about the amount of misfires something has had and explain that THEIR dude would have killed the other dude five times by now is just sad...

I get the feeling that drama is probably part of the attraction for a lot of the audience. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if someone was backstage saying "Let's do that scene again. You guys were too civil with each other, no one comes to Spike to watch people having a polite, objective discussion".

Unknown

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Justice4243

^^ This is true, if this was on "Discovery" the cast would be like "Dudes, what the fuck? Chill out, we're just doing Science!"

^It's actually more "supposed 13-year-old's". Considering how...just wrong some of the people where, I have no doubt that Chris Hansen and crew thought they where doing a service.

But Deathonabun pretty much pointed out the problem, eventually enough people pointed out the dubious legality of To Catch a Predator that they had to stop.

I think most to all cases got dropped. Though, no one could really undo the suicide that happened because of the show.

Interestingly enough, NBC claims they just stopped because too many people recognized the show so it was harder to catch Predators...Making me think that maybe it's better it stays canceled, because further shows might be just about making TV then making arrests. 

Unknown

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Imipolex G

TV is a wasteland.

Is Jerry Springer still on?

Viani

Family Guy

lee4hmz

It's also not the first time Dateline has gotten into trouble for legally-questionable ratings stunts posed as "journalism". Remember the exploding GMC Truck scandal...which happened pretty much right after the show premiered in 1992?

Obā-san

And of course Nazi fetishism is never not creepy.

But they're Sooooo Fabulous!~

Justice4243

"Is Jerry Springer still on?"

I'm fairly certain he is not.

Anonus

No, it is.

In Denver it's been on KWGN-TV for the last year or two. Pisses me off, makes it evident that KDVR wants KWGN-TV to be the "shitty" station (CW affiliation, no newscasts on weekends, etc.); them treating the oldest TV station in the state like shit upsets me (though the writing was probably on the wall when Tribune dragged them into The WB back in 1995).

Imipolex G

*checks* No sir, you are incorrect. Springer's show is still on.

DER SPRINGER

^DER NINJA

lee4hmz

Springer is fun to watch if you want to see a fight and don't feel like watching old episodes of Dynasty. XD

Anonus

Do people even like that show these days?

I'm reminded of a VHS I have that includes a June 1994 airing of Dynasty: The Reunion, and I wonder why ABC (still on KUSA at the time) would trot that out three years later...probably summer filler.

Justice4243

It is still on?

I wonder when they air it.

I guess I'm don't watch TV that much anymore unless it's off the net and I don't channel surf like I used to.

lee4hmz

AU: Most of the people that watch it now do so because it's so campy. It was taken entirely seriously back in the 1980s, though!

It was one of the first things CBS posted on their website after they got the rights, oddly enough. XD

As for the reunion movies, CBS did exactly the same thing with Dallas. Indeed, WBTV is bringing it back this summer, though this time, it'll be on TNT.

Justice4243

Watched more Deudlist Warrior.

Comanches vs Mongols

I was a bit surprised by the results in this one, but it was a close match with some really interesting weaponry. One thing the show seems to subtly be getting worse about is testing the armor properly. Which is strange because, as they showed in one of the recent one's I've watched, armor can completely and utterly tip the scales towards one warrior or the other.

The tested armor somewhat, but not with arrows (again), which surprised me because BOTH warriors where both all about the arrows and if on armor was more effective against arrows than the other warriors (bows and arrows scoring the most kills) it probably would have carried them the day.

But even if the the tests revealed the armors where more or less even, this would be nice to at least show and wouldn't soak up more than a minute or two of air time.

Haven

armor can completely and utterly tip the scales towards one warrior or the other.

To say nothing of the chains or the plates.

Justice4243

Chain is always interesting because it seems really good against slashing, but almost useless against impaling attacks. The opponents almost always has something that will stab right through it. This probably was a big factor in Viking vs Samurai as the Samurai had vastly superior armor despite the lack of shield.

Plate is simply ridiculous because it completely negates almost all attacks save for some black powder weapons (they never have a cause to test modern firearms against it, not that it'd do much). The battle I was talking about before was the Ming warriors vs Musketeers. Spoiler: The Musketeers plate armor could be shot with the Ming firearms and just have some nice dents.  Armor was also used in Pirate vs Knight, but a couple of the Pirate black powder weapons could actually pierce it.

Justice4243

Started on Supernatural Season 3.

Spoilers: The Seven deadly sins? Really?

Now, there are demons for the seven deadly sins.

Trouble is, they are some of the most recognizable demons in the entire world, and I'm not just talking occult circles: 

Associations with demons

In 1589, Peter Binsfeld paired each of the deadly sins with a demon, who tempted people by means of the associated sin. According to Binsfeld's classification of demons, the pairings are as follows:

• Lucifer/Satan: Pride (superbia)
• Mammon: Greed (avaritia)
• Asmodeus: Lust (luxuria)
• Leviathan: Envy (invidia)
• Beelzebub: Gluttony (gula or gullia)
• Amon/Behemoth: Wrath (ira)
• Belphegor: Sloth (acedia)

This contrasts slightly with an earlier series of pairings found in the fifteenth century English Lollard tract Lanterne of Light, which differs in pairing Beelzebub with Envy, Abadon with Sloth, Belphegor with Gluttony and matching Lucifer with Pride, Satan/Amon with Wrath, Asmodeus with Lust and Mammon with Avarice.

These all seem a tab beyond Sam and Dean, at this point. And probably would have put up more of a fight then those lot.

Justice4243

Actually, Why I'm on the subject of Supernatural (major season 2 spoilers):

Why the FUCK did the demon forge new bullets and reload the one weapon that could kill him?! 

Who the fuck does that?! Are magic gun locks that require gun keys so weight sensitive that they need to be loaded with magic bullets?!

They should have spent an episode of two showing Sam or Dean finding out how to make bullets in case they get the gun back! That way he would have been caught completely off guard instead of digging his own grave sitting in in the hole while asking Sam and Dean to poor the dirt on!

Misery

Man, I miss watching the Steve Wilkos show. My mom won't let me watch it for some reason lol

Tre

Morbid_Forest said:

Steve Wilkos

STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVE

millercross

So, the Avengers cartoon is like someone decided to animate Stan Lee's comics. Like, not just adapting them, but...like...adapting them, you know? shitty dialogue included.

And I love it. It's fun and big and explodey and heartwarming and it has Hulk fighting gravity. 

I miss superhero cartoons that actually made me this excited

*looks dejectedly at Young Justice*

Misery

^ Yeah.

Eelektross

I love the Avengers cartoon too.

Janet grows on you, doesn't she?

millercross

I've always loved Janet, actually. I dunno, I'm just a sucker for underpowered members in superteams. Green Arrow is my favourite JL member, after all. 

Eelektross

At least she has actual superpowers.

(Lame superpowers, but still)

millercross

Hey, man, shrinking down can be used for very important things like sneaking into the men's locker room and see Captain America buck-naked.

Eelektross

But Cap is a skrull! D:

millercross

goddamnit shouldn't have highlighted that why did i do that

lee4hmz

The Legend of Korra really deserves its own thread, but I'll talk about it here. 

Man, the last two episodes have been like Act 5 of Homestuck all over again. From bad to worse, I mean.