This week’s deconstruction of Fringe will be delayed a few days as Polite Scott and I will be attending a comic and entertainment convention in Chicago this weekend with friends. It should be up either late Sunday night or Monday evening.
Archive for the ‘Television’ Category
Fringe Docnstruction Delayed This Week
Posted by Karl Withakay on April 15, 2010
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Deconstruction Review of Fringe, Episode 16, Season 2, Olivia. In the Lab. With the Revolver
Posted by Karl Withakay on April 8, 2010
As usual, an episode synopsis can be found over at Scott’s Polite Dissent.
I’m Mentioning Cytotoxins Just for the Search Engine Hits
Epidermal blistering and tissue necrosis do indeed match the symptoms from cytotoxins, and so this section is designed solely to increase my search engine hits for this Deconstruction review of Fringe.
While I’m at it, I’ll just mention that Sarcoma appears to be related to connective tissue cells and not the skin, where a cancer would be more likely to be melanoma. UPDATE: see Polite Scott’s comment in the comments section where he corrects me on this point.
Refraction/ Reflection/ Fluorescence/ Whatever
As he shines a black light across the first victim’s body, Walter explains what he’s looking for:
“The cells near the point of origin of the cancer should show more progression and hence refract a different color light.”
Walter appears to be a little confused about what he’s doing with the black light. Refraction is the phenomenon of light bending (changing direction) as it travels from one medium to another, such as from air to water (rainbow) or from air to a glass or plastic lens (optics). Reflection is what happens when light (or any wave) bounces back off of the interface between two media (mirror). However, because Walter is using a black light that does not include all the colors of light in the visible spectrum, and is seeing colors not present in his black light source, what he is observing is actually fluorescence.
I’ll leave it to Polite Scott, MD to determine if he wants to address the idea that the more progressed cancer cells would fluoresce differently under a black light than less progressed ones.
Quote of the Week, Sort Of
By Walter:
“When you open your mind to the impossible, sometimes you find the truth.”
To which I have three replies:
“Or you find yourself knee deep in Woo-Woo.”
and
“There’s a difference between being open minded and being credulous.”
Legal Malpractice Suit, Aisle Five!
Olivia to a partner in the Law firm where the first victim worked:
“Can we take her files on the Intrepus case?”
The partner in reply:
“Uh, of course, yeah.”
Um, those files are confidential files and subject to attorney-client privilege. I’m not sure even a court order could get them in the FBI’s hands without the consent of the client. By turning the files over to the FBI without either a signed client consent/ release or a court order (if Olivia could get a judge to issue one), that law firm is committing gross legal malpractice and that partner could be disbarred or at least face severe disciplinary action by the state bar association. Additionally, since the partner mentioned that the case was worth “north of eight figures”, the firm could face a civil liability big enough to financially ruin or severely cripple most law firms in the country.
Isn’t the Fringe Unit Supposed to Be On the Lookout For Things Like This?
Five deaths over twenty months from Chicago to Hartford due to previously unheard of ultra-rapid onset of cancer, specifically sarcoma on the skin, and it never register a single blip on the Fringe unit’s radar until one happened in Providence? Did they just get lucky to notice that one?
Didn’t We All Know That Already?
It seemed so obvious that the killer was one of the Cortexiphan subjects (once the Cortexiphan link was established) that I assumed that was everyone’s working theory, but apparently it took Olivia until 48 minutes into the episode to come to that brilliant conclusion. I really think the Fringe unit is where the FBI hides all the Zippo lighters without any flints.
Skills and Decision Making Ability of a Ninja…Not
Confronted in the hallway outside her apartment by a man she believes can kill her with a single touch, an armed and presumably well-trained FBI agent does what?
A.) Draws her weapon, points it at the suspect and orders him to stay back, get on his knees, and put his hands on his head, NOW.
or
B.) Turns her back on the suspect, attempts to retreat back into her apartment, and looses loses possession of her firearm attempting to close the door against the efforts of the suspect.
Guess which one Olivia did? The wheel is turning, but there’s just no spark.
Got Cancer, How About Coma Therapy? Maybe They’ll Find a Cure While you’re Out!
Why would a medically induced coma have any effect on the progression of the guy’s cancer? Is it a special kind of cancer that can only grow when you’re conscious? Does it require chemicals or hormones only produced by your body when you’re awake?
Posted in Fringe, Quotes, Science, Television | 7 Comments »
Deconstruction Review of Fringe, Episode 15, Season 2, Peter
Posted by Karl Withakay on April 1, 2010
As usual, an episode synopsis can be found over at Scott’s Polite Dissent.
A light episode in terms of material for Deconstruction, mostly due to the fact that this episode was mostly a story telling episode. For the sake of my blog, I’m hoping that next week’s episode is more ripe for Deconstruction.
You Can’t Copy What You Don’t Have the Technology to Manufacture
Even if Walter had the exact plans for the cell phone from the other universe, including the exact details of every single integrated circuit, there just wasn’t the technology to make the integrated circuits for it in 1985.
Moore’s law is really only indirectly about the growth of processor power, per se. It really states that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. This limit on the number of transistors is due to manufacturing ability, not integrated circuit design. Processing power is directly related to the number of transistors, and so Moore’s law deals with growth in processioning power as well as transistor count in integrated circuits.
We couldn’t make Motorola Razr phones in 1985 mostly because we didn’t have the technology to make the chips, and not so much because we couldn’t think up how to design them. This is a bit of an over-simplification, but my point is that transistor size (and thus the number of transistors you can fit on an IC) was the main limitation.
Back to Eric Stoltz
Eric Stoltz was indeed originally cast as Marty McFly, after Michael J Fox turned the part down, due to scheduling conflicts. Apparently Stoltz and the filmmakers “mutually decided” he wasn’t right for the part, and so they managed to persuade Fox to work out a schedule that allowed him to star in the movie after all. I have a hard time imagining Back to the Future with Stoltz, who appears to have gone to the Richard Gere school for stoic, unemotional acting. I’m so glad I don’t live in the alternate universe… or do I????
A+ for Techno-Babble
“Rupture the fundamental constants of the universe”, it sure sounds sciencey.
Oh snap! What happened to the universe? I just measured the ratio of this circle’s circumference to its diameter and got the number 4.23, and I just transmitted that information 267,000 miles in one second, what gives?
If You Don’t Know What Coin it is, is it Still Lucky?
That was a silver Walking Liberty Half Dollar, and not a silver dollar, at least in this universe. The alternate universe provides the show runners a defense against certain criticisms, such as that really was a silver dollar in the alternate universe. At some point in the other universe, either the dollar was worth less, or silver was worth more.
Walternate Not Into Alternate Universe Research?
It’s interesting that Walternate is so similar to our Walter, but he is apparently either doing no research into our universe, or is way behind our Walter’ progress in that field, despite his Motorola Razr cell phone. (In the alternate universe, do they just call it universe research or primary universe research?)
Posted in 80's Episoide, Fringe, Science, Television | 5 Comments »
Fringe Renewed for a Third Season!
Posted by Karl Withakay on March 9, 2010
OK, between work, several recent XBox360 video game releases, and the winter break for Fringe, I haven’t made any posts lately, but you can look forward to another season of Cordial Deconstructions of Fringe, as Fringe has been renewed for a third season.
It remains to be seen whether the Doomsday Clock will avoid the zero hour, allowing Scott to continue to do his reviews. If Scott gives up on Fringe, traffic to this site will shrink dramatically since nearly all my traffic feeds off of his links to my site in his reviews, for which I am very grateful.
Hopefully, I will have time, energy, and motivation to do more non-Fringe related posts in the not too distant future.
Posted in Fringe, Heads Up, Science, Television | Leave a Comment »
Deconstruction Review of Fringe, Episode 14, Season 2, Jacksonville
Posted by Karl Withakay on February 4, 2010
As usual, an episode synopsis can be found over at Scott’s Polite Dissent.
When You Have All the Time in the World, You Rarely Need It.
It’s a pretty light Deconstruction tonight, which is annoying. I’m taking tomorrow off from work, and could stay up as late as I want, and this is the earliest I’ve ever finished writing a Fringe Deconstruction. It’s not even 10PM (Central Time) yet, although the fact that I watched the show in real time also had some influence in my finishing before 10.
There’s No Woo Like Quantum Woo
Describing a “Quantum Tectonic Event”-
Walter:
“Imagine a sudden momentary disturbance at a subatomic level. The energy disperses the atoms, literally tearing the very fabric of reality itself.”
Peter:
“Meaning that all the atoms come apart, but when they reassemble, they come together all wrong.”
It’s got the word quantum in it, so it must be science, right?
It sounds like Walter and Peter are describing a spontaneous transporter incident to and from the same location without the Heisenberg compensators to keep things from going badly awry.
Riding In Style
Does the FBI really use Lincoln Navigators? I guess the Fringe division is not getting its budget trimmed or frozen. A few Lincoln Navigators here and there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.
Mass-Energy Deferred?
So the sum total of mass-energy in each of the two universes must be conserved, but just like momentum, that conservation can be deferred.
I Wonder What the Significance of Those Numbers Could Be?
5-20-10 (5,20,10 or 5 20 10 to help the search engine searches)
Walter:
“Five, Twenty, Ten. I always use the same combination, but I can’t remember the significance.”
Perhaps Walter should check Fox’s schedule for Fringe. This was the winter finale for Fringe. The final eight episodes of this season will begin airing on April 1, which puts the season finale on May 20th, 2010. Coincidence? I think not. I smell something big coming for the season finale in May. (That reminds me: I need to find something else to regularly blog about for a few months)
Building Without People?
That building didn’t look like it had been abandoned for more than one year, let alone 25 years. I watch Life Without People, and they regularly feature actual buildings that have been abandoned for that long, and they look far worse than the rooms in that building did. The rooms in the show had a relatively light layer of dust and some cobwebs, and looked no worse than the workroom in my dad’s basement. Buildings featured in Life Without People that have been abandoned for 20 years have much thicker dust, leaking roofs, faded and pealing paint and wallpaper, broken windows, mold, etc. You can’t hardly believe how badly a building can decay in only 10, let alone 25 years.
Is That Regular or Diet?
That IV of cortexiphan looked a lot like a bag of Cherry Coke.
Quote Of the Show
Broyles:
“There are times where the only choices you have left are bad ones.”
I Must be Psychic, and So Can You!
Hands up anyone who didn’t predict Olivia would see Peter shimmer as soon as that plot point was mentioned. No hands? I didn’t think so.
Posted in Fringe, Quotes, Science, Television | 1 Comment »
Deconstruction Non-Review of Lost: Season 6, Episodes 1 &1 LA X (Parts 1 and 2)
Posted by Karl Withakay on February 2, 2010
Probably No Regular Deconstruction Reviews Like for Fringe
Well, the more I thought about it in the days leading up to the season premiere, the more I came to realize that Lost wouldn’t prove to provide the same wealth of Deconstruction worthy material that Fringe does to fill a regular Deconstruction post. If I come across something Deconstruction worthy, such as last season’s detonation of the spark plug from the Castle Yankee Jughead without a nuclear primary, I will post about it. Maybe I’ll find at least one thing to post about each week, and maybe I won’t, but I won’t force it just to create a blog post.
Regarding this week’s episode(s): Season 6, Episodes 1 &1 LA X (Parts 1 and 2)
I will just observe that this episode is strongly implying that the bomb detonation was successful, resulting in the universe splitting into two branches, one where flight 825 did not crash, and one where it did. The survivors in the universe where the plane did crash stayed in that universe after they used the bomb to create the split. It’s an interesting take that I’ve always would make more sense, in order to prevent something similar to the grandfather paradox. If the plane never crashes, no one will ever detonate the bomb to prevent the plane from crashing, therefore, the plane will crash. The resolution of the paradox whereby the persons responsible for altering the past stay in an unaltered time line makes far more sense than what typically happens in science fiction where the show jumps to the time line where X never happens, but there’s really no explanation why X never happens like it originally did, sense nobody should know to do anything different to prevent it. Stargate Universe actually covered this issue in a similar way to what Lost is doing in episode 8 of season 1: Time.
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Followup Deconstruction on Fringe, Episode 13, Season 2, The Bishop Revival
Posted by Karl Withakay on February 2, 2010
Every time I see the title to last week’s episode of Fringe, something comes to mind I just can’t stop thinking of, even though I forgot to mention it in my original Deconstruction review.
So, without further adieu, I present: The Bishop!
Posted in Followup, Fringe, Monty Python, Television | 2 Comments »
Lost: The Final Season Sarts On Tuesday, Feb 2
Posted by Karl Withakay on January 28, 2010
The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray, but I plan to blog on each episode of Lost this season, much like I am doing for Fringe.
Keep that in mind if you’re hungry for regular new Deconstructions after next week’s winter finale of Fringe.
I’ll have to fiugre out how that’s going to work; currently Tuesday is the night my friends and I play Borderlands on XBox360 together.
Posted in Heads Up, Lost, Television | Leave a Comment »
Deconstruction Review of Fringe, Episode 13, Season 2, The Bishop Revival
Posted by Karl Withakay on January 28, 2010
As usual, an episode synopsis can be found over at Scott’s Polite Dissent.
Intentional Play on Words?
I’ve heard of blue bloods, but never blue bloods with blue blood.
Enhance!
Another show where we create resolution out of thin air and enhance a blur into recognizable image.
Scientific Method or Bust?
Walter:
“A wedding is the perfect laboratory. You have the target group, the Stakers, and you have the control group, everyone else.”
Olivia:
“You think this was a science experiment?”
Hardly the perfect laboratory. The conditions are essentially uncontrolled, and confounders are innumerable. I think Walter is not talking about a typical scientific experiment conducted in a controlled environment such as a laboratory, but is actually describing a field trial.
Later Walter says:
“A scientist always tries to recreate his results.”
Well, technically a scientist conducts an experiment to determine whether to accept or reject the null hypotheses each time they do an experiment, and I think I know what Walter means, but intentionally trying to recreate your results is likely to result in success, but not good science. I also suppose one could argue that a scientist does not “always” try to validate his results through repeated experimentation, and that ultimately results can only be truly validated by other researchers repeating the experiment independently.
Try Rephrasing That, Peter
Peter:
“You may have to rework your hypothesis, Walter. Maybe this toxin isn’t transmitted genetically.”
Walter’s hypothesis was that the toxin targeted victims with specific genetic traits, not that the toxin was transmitted genetically.
Wow, Nice Tinker Toy Set
That was a REALLY complicated and massive molecule Walter was displaying on the screen, as in HUNDREDS of atoms worth. I have a hard time believing a molecule that heavy could be quickly disseminated through the air, if it could be airborne at all.
Three Chances to Get it Right, & Two Were Wrong.
It sounded like Walter said “das seepferdchen” (neutral gender), but the closed captioning said “die seepferdchen” (feminine gender). The correct form is “der seepferdchen” (masculine gender). And some people say English is a gender biased language.
1-29-10 NOTE: See comments section below that corrects my mistake regarding the correct form of the article “the” in German used in this context.
Das Herrenvolk
A toxin that kills all non pure-blood, ethnic Germans (whatever a pure blood, ethnic German is supposed to be) might not have worked out to well for old Adolf.
Coincidence?
So the one guy who buys Walter’s rare German book just happens to be an artist obsessed with the Nazis?
Oh Boy, Chemistry!
The reaction for producing chromium trioxide from sulfuric acid and sodium chromate is: H2SO4 + Na2CrO4 → CrO3 + Na2SO4 + H2O. The other products are water and sodium sulfate. The other toxic mentioned is good old hydrogen cyanide HCN.
Safe, I Do Not Think That Word Means What You Think it Does
Listen closely to me: Just because you do not currently detect any poison gas in the air of the suspected hideout of a poison gas creator, does not mean it’s safe to take off your gas mask, OK?
1-29-10 Followup: Intentional Play on Unspoken words?
Scott pointed out that I forgot to bring up the Prussian blue blood. I forgot to review my notes after finishing the post, because it was in there. I don’t have time to deconstruct the absurdity of the blueness of the blood, but do have time to cover the unspoken play on words:
Prussian blue, Prussia, Germany, Nazis…Access to East Prussia was one of the pretenses for the invasion of Poland by the Nazis in 1939, get it? Is there anyway the color was intentionally Prussian blue to make us think Germany & Nazis?
2-3-10 Update
I made a followup post to this Deconstruction: Followup Deconstruction on Fringe, Episode 13, Season 2, The Bishop Revival
Posted in Fringe, Science, Television | 6 Comments »
Deconstruction Review of Fringe, Episode 12, Season 2, What Lies Below
Posted by Karl Withakay on January 21, 2010
As usual, an episode synopsis can be found over at Scott’s Polite Dissent.
It’s Late, So Forgive Me If This isn’t Well Proof Read
I was out late seeing my friend’s band perform at a local bar/club.
Scott Will Have A Lot Of Material to Blog About
Two nose bleeds, some CPR, and mention of vasculitis & arterial fistula in the first seven minutes. I’m sure he will mention the current thoughts on compression only resuscitation.
When in Doubt, Quarantine
Considering the air gaps I saw around the door, Walter and Astrid should have been isolated as a precaution.
Proper Safety Protocol Part I
There is no way that Walter would have been allowed to take samples back to his lab to work on. This was an unknown, fast acting, highly deadly pathogen of unknown transmission method for which no vaccine or other treatment existed. Bio Safety Level 4 biocontainment procedures would be required and no work would be performed outside a BSL-4 lab.
From Wikipedia:
“This level is required for work with dangerous and exotic agents that pose a high individual risk of aerosol-transmitted laboratory infections, agents which cause severe to fatal disease in humans for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other various hemorrhagic diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time.”
Proper Safety Protocol Part II
It probably wasn’t such a good idea for Peter to wash the blood off his hands in the sink either.
Also from Wikipedia:
“All air and water service going to and coming from a biosafety level 4 lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.”
Not So Far Fetched
Walter describes a virus that behaves with intelligence to alter the behavior of its victims in order to facilitate its transmission to new hosts. While intelligent viruses are the stuff of comic books, the concept of a pathogen or parasite modifying host behavior to facilitate transmission is not pure fiction. In nature there are numerous examples of this type of phenomenon: Hairworms and grasshoppers, Toxoplsam gondii and mice, Cordyceps fungus and ants are all examples of parasites altering host behaviors to perpetuate their life cycles.
Level Six Eradication?
I couldn’t find anything on a level 6 eradication using google. The closest I got was a reference to level 6 pandemics in a Wikipedia article on pandemics.
Pandemic Infection Simulator
The computer simulation of the virus outbreak reminded me of the uber-cool Zombie Infection Simulator. On a side note, can the deepest depths of Africa and Greenland really be overrun by infection in two weeks as was shown in the simulation?
Has Walter Ever Heard of Aerosol Transmission of Fluids?
Walter takes off his helmet, remarking that it doesn’t matter because the virus isn’t airborne and is transmitted by bodily fluid such as blood and saliva. OK, but early in the episode, he witnessed a victim die and expel a spray of blood colored droplets form their mouth in an aerosol like mist, so maybe short range airborne transmission is a transmission vector. He and Astrid weren’t very careful handling the body either, there was a lot of potential for splash/splatter of fluids.
Quote of the Show
From Walter: “I can’t let Peter die again.” Not that there was any doubt left, but this confirms that this is not the real Harry Kim, I mean Peter Bishop.
Sulfur
Not all glycosides contain sulfur. Ones that do are called thioglycosides. Horseradish contains singirin, which is a sulfur containing glycoside. None of the neuraminidase inhibitors listed on the Wikipedia page contain sulfur, but I suppose their could be a “sulfur based” one.
Fentanyl, Is that Such a Good Idea?
Fentanyl may have been the agent used by Russian authorities to subdue Chechen separatists that took over a crowded theater in 2002. It didn’t work out too well in 2002, and many people were probably killed by the gas. (Similar to tranq darts, which I’ve covered before, anything delivered in such an uncontrolled manner that is capable of acting that fast is going to have a big chance of being lethal) Still, it’s better than just killing everyone in a “level 6 eradication”, I guess.
Posted in Fringe, Quotes, Science, Television | 3 Comments »
Cordial Deconstruction 