Comments on: Looking Back at TWA Flight 800

By: stereoblue

stereoblue — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 00:15:53 +0000

I heard a report on NYC radio that day that said the plane was shot down. I remember that pretty vividly as I was impressed by the boldness of that decision and wondered what sort of political fallout that would have in the days to come (its not everyday the military shoots down a plane full of its own citizens). It doesn’t surprise me that the news was wrong that day, but hearing that sort of report and then the subsequent retraction does lend itself to conspiracy thinking… so I’m also not surprised that accusations of a cover-up still exist.

By: tmac57

tmac57 — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 13:37:35 +0000

Heptron-Nice example! That perfectly illustrates what Bronze Dog was talking about.Thanks.

By: Heptron

Heptron — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 12:53:15 +0000

To reinforce the most recent post of Bronze Dog, this is something I found on YouTube regarding the Pepcon chemical plant explosion from years back. Below are 2 links.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJVOUgCm5Jk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KuGizBjDXo

The first link shows the video of the explosion which seems more raw in that there is no narration or dramatic music. The second video is from the show ‘Destroyed in Seconds’
If you watch the first video first, you can see the shockwave from the explosion spread across the ground, then you hear it. The second video, and any that seemed to be made into a TV production, have the sound sync up with the sight of the explosion.
This always bothered me that they didn’t show the delay between sight and sound because I assumed most people would think that’s how sound works. I guess that’s exactly what happened with Flight 800

By: tmac57

tmac57 — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 22:15:34 +0000

Bronze Dog-Those are some plausible ideas. It might make a worthwhile line of research,if someone hasn’t already looked into it. Who knows how often we are tripped up in our dealings with reality when we are basing our actions on what a Bruce Willis or Lisbeth Salander would do any any given situation beyond our normal experience?

By: Bronze Dog

Bronze Dog — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:05:49 +0000

I do think Hollywood and the rest of the entertainment media have some part in shaping our expectations about uncommon and dangerous events, which can alter our perception when they do happen. Of course, we do have various instinctive intuitions pointed out, but I think the entertainment business has a habit of catering to them for the sake of sensation at the cost of realism.

I did originally have one part I was going to put in about conspiracy theorists and how to me it seems they’re also heavily influenced by entertainment: Disasters don’t happen by accident because there’s always some villain who planned it. A character is “genre savvy” if he recognizes that within the movie and appears clever when his prediction comes true. It seems to me that a lot of conspiracy theorists try to be genre savvy about real life, where movie logic doesn’t apply.

By: tmac57

tmac57 — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:55:15 +0000

Note to self: Proofread twice,submit once

By: DLC

DLC — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 06:26:43 +0000

That’s the problem. no shoulder fired missile could have reached the aircraft (the best of them have about 3 mile range, with a 3 lb warhead meant to take down helicopters. ) and a large ship-fired or surface unit (truck mounted) missile would have been very noticeable for miles around.
Must have been Zeus’ slingshot.

By: tmac57

tmac57 — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 23:38:42 +0000

Bronze Dog makes an interesting point that I hadn’t really thought about concerning the way movies (and TV for that matter) usually don’t accurately portray the sound delay between distant,noisy,events,and the sound delay.For the average person who rarely witnesses an airplane or Death Star blowing up in person,there likely is a ‘cinematic bias’®, that may affect not only the way we perceive an unexpected and rare event,but also the way we reconstruct such and event when recalling it for authorities.

By: BillyJoe7

BillyJoe7 — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 21:22:48 +0000

I’m not sure that Hollywood is to blame. There is always a disconnect when you see something happening in the distance (like someone chopping wood) and hear the sound with a slight delay. It always seems wrong and you have to remind yourself that sound travels slower than light.

By: Bronze Dog

Bronze Dog — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 19:45:04 +0000

Glad I read this. Hadn’t made the connection in my mind about the delay between seeing a distant explosion and hearing it. If I went to see the July 4th fireworks this year, it might have occurred to me. One thing that doesn’t help is Hollywood. In movies, explosions are always seen and heard at the same time, so that’s how we’re made to think of them.