I am watching Mythbusters right now and I remembered the idea I had to get Jaime and Adam to test spook County's climax on the show. I think it would be a great Myth to test becuase it has several components all of which are difficult/interesting to replicate and involves danger and gunfire.
But, what really occurred to me tonight was the viral potential for this. If the Mythbusters could be contacted I am willing to bet at least one of the cast members out of the five are a Gibson fan. They all like sci-fi and seem to have otaku leanings. Now, if Gibson's book got on Mythbusters I'm fairly certain he'd see a big jump in sales for a bit. This would ultimately serve what I contend is the essential function of this site which is to promote his work.
I am therefore enlisting your help for ideas. My first inclination is to see if Tiger would contact the show and bounce the idea off of them. I really think one of those four guys or single girl would be up for a Gibson myth. He's huge in sci-fi, huge in pop culture, he's got to have a fan on that show.
They film in San Fran, so they may be hip to The Bridge Trilogy if nothing else. I can see Bill on the damn show looking appropriately and mildly interested in seeing his book replicated on screen. About the enthusiasm he mustered in Wild Palms.
Anyone interested in making this a reality?
--- "I knew their tastes were very different and because the french like Dick a lot." -W.G.
Posts: 8900 | Location: A grue's belly. | Registered: February 20, 2003
I think it has potential, but am not sure whether they'd be interested in a myth that needed quite a bit of description before it would be meaningful (e.g. why a containerload of cash, etc) and could potentially get very political very quickly (given the vanishing containerloads of cash in Iraq and such). Probably worth contacting them yourself, though - I'm sure their web site would have a section for contributing show ideas.
________________________ differently mediated
Posts: 12362 | Location: all up in ur netwurx | Registered: January 11, 2003
Originally posted by Bravus: I think it has potential, but am not sure whether they'd be interested in a myth that needed quite a bit of description before it would be meaningful (e.g. why a containerload of cash, etc) and could potentially get very political very quickly (given the vanishing containerloads of cash in Iraq and such). Probably worth contacting them yourself, though - I'm sure their web site would have a section for contributing show ideas.
I did that, but I have no "presence" there. I see your point about explanation but I don't think it would get nixed because of that. They do Myths that aren't even myths or well known, they just have to be bandied about enough on the site from what I've seen.
It's about getting buzz around the idea. I can't get it going over there becuase I haven't any established persona there. However, if we got it going here, I think Tiger could contact the producers directly.
Or. we could all invade the Myth site and discuss it. Though that's kind of Astroturfing which is nauseating. '
--- "I knew their tastes were very different and because the french like Dick a lot." -W.G.
Posts: 8900 | Location: A grue's belly. | Registered: February 20, 2003
Originally posted by Archie: It would be interesting, but it would involve changing the whole premise of the show.
No it wouldn't/ They do movie myths all the time. They are doing a MacGuyver show right now. Increasingly they are taking myths from TV and Film rather than Urban Legend and the like. The last episode (which got pushed back) was looking at YouTube videos and seeing if they were real. This is right in the mix with that, the only drawback is it s literary. But the value isn't in the fame of the myth but in whether or not the myth would make and interesting and entertaining show.
This would: you have radiation, firearms and money! It's bleeding Americana.
--- "I knew their tastes were very different and because the french like Dick a lot." -W.G.
Posts: 8900 | Location: A grue's belly. | Registered: February 20, 2003
Can you get a series of perfect penetrations on a container with the proposed gun and ammo at the distance and angle proposed? Most gunheads say yes, so not much interest on confirming that.
Will the caesium load scatter satisfactorily on hitting wads of money, while leaking very low amounts of radiation? That would require several assumptions on how the bullets were constructed, getting hold of controlled radioactive substances in a significant amount, and irradiating at least a container and (if WG is wrong and some caesium or gamma radiation escapes out) possibly the test area.
Can a series of magnetized discs both reduce radiation outside the container and disguise the impact holes?
Only the first and part of the third can be tested with some ease, and those are the ones that seem quite straightforward from outside. So I don't see this happening.
Retired
Posts: 3000 | Location: I am behind you | Registered: May 27, 2003
From what I know about finely divided salt (sodium chloride, which is quite similar chemically and physically to caesium chloride) dust, you want to plug those holes, or you may have some collateral damage on radioactive containers, which probably will cost someone innocent a lot of money, something the Old Man does not want. And it says so anyway, when the objective is "both sealing and, we hope, concealing them".
quote:
“I punched our nine holes through the box. Leaving nine small but painfully obvious bullet holes. When the box was craned down from that stack, today, and put on a flatbed trailer, those nine holes would have been glaringly obvious. Aside from which, with them open, there was the possibility that a sensor in the facility would register the cesium. Except that Tito climbed up and stuck custom-made magnetic plasters over each hole, both sealing and, we hope, concealing them.â€
As for the spoilers, I feel it is time enough to stop worrying about them, with the paperback out. So I disagree and keep my posts as they are.
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Posts: 3000 | Location: I am behind you | Registered: May 27, 2003
there are certainly people who won't read the book till paperback. though i expect anyone reading this thread will indeed have read the book before the thread.
I agree that waiting till the paperback was published was necessary. But the day after, what are they doing reading the board if they have yet to finish Spook Country. And if Spook Country is less important than the board, then the spoilers are negligible.
How long did the big spoiler take to become widespread in The Sixth Sense or The Crying Game? A few weeks?
We know that starting threads outside Random Thoughts means only fifteen people see them, and five will post, at most.
Retired
Posts: 3000 | Location: I am behind you | Registered: May 27, 2003
What big spoiler prob? Just say that Gib's new book posits idea that x # of radioactive bullets can penetrate x gauge/form steel from x distance at x angle and thusly contaminate x-volume papermoney so well it becomes financially null-to-fatal.
Say nothing else.
Also, they could do it quickie-style (instead of their reality TV de rigeur stretching of an idea forever) and combine it with a few other Bondesque conceits.
