No wonder science coverage is so bad on TV. Babwa Wawa. (1 Viewer)

[Jack Briggs]

On the Friday-evening ABC-TV telecast of World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, there was a human-interest story about actor Christopher Reeve's recent progress in overcoming his paralysis. The segment was excerpted from a Barbara Walters report that would air in its entirety later that evening on 20/20.

What caught my attention was a statement Ms. Walters made concerning Reeves's use of hydrotherapy. By submerging his legs in water, Reeves is able to excercise himself in a way. According to Ms. Walters, this is because—and I am not making this up—there is less gravity under water!

So, here we are, in possession of a magic "anti-gravity" fluid all along! After all, water has "less gravity"!

Leave it to a vastly overpaid network "news personality" to confuse gravity with bouyancy! Nice to see you've done your homework, Babwa Wawa. ...

 

[Christopher P]

Maybe that's how they made Reeve fly in Superman...filmed him all stretched out in front of a blue screen underwater.

Chris

 

[Nathan*W]

filmed him all stretched out in front of a blue screen underwater

Don't you know ANYTHING? When you film Superman underwater, you DON'T NEED a bluescreen because the WATER IS ALREADY BLUE!

 

[Darren Davis]

*starts twirling in pool water set to "Blue Danube Waltz*

I'm catching up, Kubrick!


I understand how badly worded and unresearched these things are. I was at msn.com the other day and one of the main articles read "Teen Hacker Tells All." I started to read the story and found out it was about some kid who bought laptop computers and resold them on Ebay, saying they were so-and-so Mhz faster than they really were. Hacker?!? Oh well, maybe this is the reason I find it hard to digest a lot of news somedays.

 

[Max Leung]

Next thing you know, people are going to sell magnetized wrist bracelets with "magical healing properties, scientifically proven" in drug stores everywhere...

 

[Dennis Reno]

I can vouch for the magical gravity defeating properties of water. Once, after enjoying several adult beverages, I dove into the deep end of a pool without checking the drawstring on my swim trunks (sorry, I left the Speedo banana hammock at home.) After coming to the surface I noticed my swim wear FLOATING on the surface next to me! I was in awe!
Thank God Ms. Walters finally provided me the explanation I have searched for!
BTW, speaking of magical properties, has anyone yet identified the filter they film the Babwa Wawa Specials through??? You know, the "looks like they smeared Vaseline on the lens in an attempt to make Barbra look younger" filter? Just curious.

 

[Scott_G]

I've never understood why she gets interviews. Never asks a difficult question, can't speak english, and let's not get started about here looks.

I quit listening to her interviews a long time ago.

 

[Bill_Weinreich]

Thier [the media]line of questioning just keeps getting worse. i.e. Katie Couric's question to the lead investigator of the Buffalo 5: "But what, other than the fact that they trained at this camp, do you all have as evidence in terms of their being terrorists or being a part of the terrorist cell?" ??????????????

Bill

 

[Ashley Seymour]

Bill, don't get me started on Katie. And she has been looking so hot and slutty over the last couple of years.

Regarding Babwa, not to worry on these puff pieces. We all know that the networks do a great deal more reasearch and thoughtful debate when presenting nightly features on world events, national politics, the economy, crime, etc. Ahh, we all do know that don't we?

 

[Cees Alons]

But she's famous! The way I heard the story was this:

Ms Walters discovered the truth about gravity and water when she was looking for a piece of soap that fell out of her hands in her bath tub. She was about to step in, but when it came floating to the surface, she got so excited, she ran outside her house, running through the streets (sorry to say) stark naked, soap in her hands and shouting "I found it! I found it!".

You're saying this wasn't true then?

Cees

 

[Seth Paxton]

According to Ms. Walters, this is because—and I am not making this up—there is less gravity under water

O
M
G

Time for me to move off this planet. I wonder how people feed themselves sometimes.

 

[SteveGon]

I'm constantly chastising myself for not being educated enough, but when I read about things like this, I have to think that maybe I'm not as dumb as I thought!
Less gravity under water? Yeesh!

 

[Steeve Bergeron]

, Cees!

 

[Cees Alons]

Steeve,

You seem to be familiar with that story!

Well, to be frank, it doesn't end there. A guy who just made a little bit of an illiterate impression on me, told me that some of the many people who saw her from their windows (and went totally blind later, all of them), actually opened their windows and shouted "No, you didn't! You're too stupid for science. You certainly didn't find anything!", and so on.
That angered her so much, that from that point on she changed her tune, so to say, and kept shouting (he swore):

"You reckon! You reckon!"


Cees

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Last night I caught about 5 mintues of the Crossing Jordan show that's apparently about a medical examiner (wife was watching it) anyway about a minute in they (two ME's) determine that the 'girl' they have on the table must have been a man because she/he has a disease that is only carried on the "X" chromosome...now I admit its been a few years since I completed my B.Sc in Biology but shouldn't they have said that she/he had to me a man b/c it was only carried on the "Y"

 

[Cees Alons]

Female: XX
Male: XY

No doubt, Andrew!

Cees

 

[Patrick Sun]

And yet Barbara Walters makes a whole lot more than probably all of us (combined) who responded to this thread, thus proving the adage:

It's not what you know, but who you know.

 

[Dennis Reno]

It's not what you know, but who you know.

Or, in the case of the entertainment industry, who you did!

 

[Andrew Pratt]

yuk thanks for a nasty mental image

 

[Chris PC]

I don't like insult people for the sake of insulting, but it is amazing how little general science knowledge people have, be they reporters or whoever.