The Night Mail

[Winslow Boy]

38 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

It is of the essence of TV programmes that they are designed to appeal to people who are not interested in the subject. It's part of the Rethian project: how else are such people to become interested in the subject?

Yes but there's interested and then there's actually learning something. The later option seems to be picking up from primary school - this is a red blob, what colour is it?

 

Working down to the lowest common denominator.

Edited August 13 by Winslow Boy

[Hroth]

51 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

That's your cycadian rhythm kicking in. Before you know it your be getting up before you've gone to bed.

 

I'm not sure I have one of those, but a circadian rhythm is certainly a possibility... 🙃

 

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[jjb1970]

One of the things that always seemed bonkers to me was that trains are constructed with expensive fire retardant materials, only to fill up with mountains of discarded copies of free papers after their first turn of the day.

[jjb1970]

For specialised material and subjects I  find YouTube much better than conventional TV. Yes the quality is variable (so is TV) but there are some excellent channels on YT. Although it's gone off the boil in recent months the tank museum channel has far better videos on armoured vehicles than anything I see on TV or streaming services like Netflix.  

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

I'm not sure I have one of those, but a circadian rhythm is certainly a possibility... 🙃

 

 

Are you sure it's not cicadian rhythm? Those blinking cicadas don't half make a racket.

 

 

 

Edited August 14 by AndyID

[BR60103]

Toronto used to have 3 major daily newspapers.  My father had definite political views.  He refused to buy one of the papers because, although it sounded as if it supported positions of his party at times, come election it was solidly behind one of the others (same one each election).  The other two were consistently behind a different party.

 

Someone did a survey of newspaper stories about the Super Bowl (an American football game).  I think that a solid majority did not include the word "football"  which would make an internet search difficult.  Look at stories on other topics.

 

[monkeysarefun]

7 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Not having a daily paper does mean we don’t have paper to line the bin with.  

 

 

Most  newspapers have an online version.  Bring that up in a web browser  and then press CTL-P, that will  print the page off for you  so  then you can use  that. 

 

Its how I line the bottom of Gary The Parrots cage.

[polybear]

3 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

For specialised material and subjects I  find YouTube much better than conventional TV. Yes the quality is variable (so is TV) but there are some excellent channels on YT. Although it's gone off the boil in recent months the tank museum channel has far better videos on armoured vehicles than anything I see on TV or streaming services like Netflix.  

 

The big problem with both YT and TV Channels is that in order to know if they're talking bullox you need to know about the subject already.  For anyone who doesn't know that subject then they can feed you complete cobblers and there's a fair chance you'll take it as Gospel.

 

 

 

[enz]

43 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

The big problem with both YT and TV Channels is that in order to know if they're talking bullox you need to know about the subject already.  For anyone who doesn't know that subject then they can feed you complete cobblers and there's a fair chance you'll take it as Gospel.

 

 

 

 

True, and it's true for most if not all sources of news/information I think. This links back to discussions regarding politicians; they don't have an understanding of many of the subjects they may have to comment on or work on, so they'll take any old cobblers fed as long as it suits them to at the time - they aren't lying, they just don't know ... . True also for managers making contract decisions as well.

[jjb1970]

Even specialized journals now tend to have very few (if any) people who genuinely understand subject material. At one time shipping journals like Lloyd's List had some pretty impressive people writing for them who knew what they were talking about, now LL is a glorified blog which often displays an almost embarrassing lack of understanding.

[jamie92208]

On 12/08/2024 at 09:08, bbishop said:

Jamie, Denis Healey was a beach master.  B

Apologies @bbishop, I did a bit of go ogling.  He was a beach master at Anzio and then spent the rest of the war in Italy.  Having searched my forgettery I know that one senior politician was a tank commander heading for Arnhem.  I think it might have been the future Lord Carrington, who  I also respected. 

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

The big problem with both YT and TV Channels is that in order to know if they're talking bullox you need to know about the subject already.  For anyone who doesn't know that subject then they can feed you complete cobblers and there's a fair chance you'll take it as Gospel.

 

 

 

My eldest often tells me what to do with our pool because he watches a certain YT channel.  The fact that I've now acquired 8 years experience of pool management with only one attack of green Algae, counts for nothing apparently.  I just ignore him. 

 

Jamie awaiting the invasion of 3 females from Leeds, one of whom is an SPT. 

 

 

[Oldddudders]

43 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Jamie awaiting the invasion of 3 females from Leeds, one of whom is an SPT. 

Signal Post Telephone?

[Hroth]

10 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Are you sure it's not cicadian rhythm? Those blinking cicadas don't half make a racket.

 

 

 

 

I think I would have been nudged about the clicking* by now, it would be as bad as snoring!

 

🤪

 

* Properly, stridulation...

 

Edited August 14 by Hroth
disambiguation, as Wikipedia would say...

[Winslow Boy]

8 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

I'm not sure I have one of those, but a circadian rhythm is certainly a possibility... 🙃

 

I thought they were insects that only came out of ground every seven years. A bit like zombies.

Edited August 14 by Winslow Boy
Drat beaten to it. That teach me to go to sleep. Rest is for wimps.

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

Signal Post Telephone?

Small Pink Terrorist ©Dave Hunt. 

 

Jamie

[Compound2632]

10 hours ago, Northmoor said:

 

It's not Reithian, it's media types assuming the public are as gormless as them.

 

Well, I'll admit that Rethian was somewhat in jest but I really don't think lack of gorm leads to success in the media any more than in any other profession. One has to think that the number of people actually particularly interested in, say, Latin and ballroom dancing, is really quite small, so the interesting challenge is to make a Saturday peak viewing time programme that engages the interest of the masses in that obscure subject. I'm sure genuine Latin and ballroom dancing afficionados are appalled by the result.

 

Substitute for latin and ballroom, railway modelling, sheep dog trialling, artistic gymnastics, or what you will.

Edited August 14 by Compound2632

[Winslow Boy]

10 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Small Pink Terrorist ©Dave Hunt. 

 

Jamie

Jamie you forgot to mention what car the SPT was driving at Le Mans

[Winslow Boy]

2 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Well, I'll admit that Rethian was somewhat in jest but I really don't think lack of gormless leads to success in the media any more than in any other profession. One has to think that the number of people actually particularly interested in, say, Latin and ballroom dancing, is really quite small, so the interesting challenge is to make a Saturday peak viewing time programme that engages the interest of the masses in that obscure subject. I'm sure genuine Latin and ballroom dancing afficionados are appalled by the result.

 

Substitute for latin and ballroom, railway modelling, sheep dog trialling, artistic gymnastics, or what you will.

The knack of course is to get it just at the right level that the number of 'interested' viewers grossly outnumbers the aficionados. So waltzing anyone?

[bbishop]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Apologies @bbishop, I did a bit of go ogling.  He was a beach master at Anzio and then spent the rest of the war in Italy.  Having searched my forgettery I know that one senior politician was a tank commander heading for Arnhem.  I think it might have been the future Lord Carrington, whom I also respected. 

Yes, Peter Carington was a tank commander during Operation Market Garden.

[iL Dottore]

23 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

 

Now THAT is impressive! Did you have it put on a T-shirt? 😁

 

The Guardian once reviewed an exhibition I was involved with and described the part I was in as "mostly naff". It made me proud.

I would make that Guardian review quote into a T-shirt and wear it with pride at every exhibition that you attend (something like “the Guardian informs me, I am mostly naff” under the Guardian masthead image).

 

I am afraid to say that the Guardian has a long history of the reviewers writing for their Culture section sneering at those things that an awful lot of people enjoy. So you are not alone.

 

Just as an example: I went to an exhibit about The Dog in Art at the Wallace Collection (a superb, old-fashioned and idiosyncratic museum - highly recommended!); this exhibition was packed out and everybody really seemed to be enjoying what they were seeing. The Guardian review for that very same exhibition bandied words about like “tacky”, “puerile” and many other similar terms. I doubt many of the visitors to that particular exhibition would have recognised it from the Guardian reviewers review.

 

As I said, Phil, you are an excellent company!

[iL Dottore]

10 hours ago, Northmoor said:

Friends, Relatives, reading a book or magazine about it......?

I must have missed the bit at the beginning of Match of the Day, where every Saturday night, they explain the rules of Association Football.

It's not Reithian, it's media types assuming the public are as gormless as them.

Sorry, but you got that completely wrong.
 

It’s media types (plus museum curators & artistic directors of various types) that have decided (note, decided, not assumed) that most everyone tuning in/visiting/watching are complete and utter thickos who have to be spoonfed bite sized “factoids for the under fives“.

 

Thickos, who couldn’t possibly appreciate classical music, ancient history, plays in the established theatre tradition, complicated social and scientific concepts, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. 
 

Rather than remaking great and informative television, such as Civilisation, The Ascent of Man, James Burke’s Connections etc., they’d rather fob us off with “Celebrity jungle baked bean scoffing and farting bake off“ whilst congratulating themselves on how refined and sophisticated they are for being able to appreciate such things as  “Decolonising British history through the medium of interpretive dance” .

 

Even the flagship of British informative television: the various programs narrated by David Attenborough, have been dumbed down over the last decade or so. Just compare the narration David Attenborough gave in those nature programmes made 20 years ago with the narration he gives for his current nature programmes. 
 

Definitely, but thankfully not completely, “simplified” (aka “dumbed down”)

[Phil Parker]

58 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

It’s media types (plus museum curators & artistic directors of various types) that have decided (note, decided, not assumed) that most everyone tuning in/visiting/watching are complete and utter thickos who have to be spoonfed bite sized “factoids for the under fives“.

 

To quote H. L. Mencken (yes, I did have to look this up, I thought it was PT Barnum) - "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." and I don't think the British public has recently shown itself to be overloaded with brains.

[Phil Parker]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

I would make that Guardian review quote into a T-shirt and wear it with pride at every exhibition that you attend (something like “the Guardian informs me, I am mostly naff” under the Guardian masthead image).

 

I am afraid to say that the Guardian has a long history of the reviewers writing for their Culture section sneering at those things that an awful lot of people enjoy. So you are not alone.

 

Hmmm. Bearing in mind the origin of "naff", it being an acronym from Polari, I thought better of it...

 

Anyway, the funny thing with the Guardian review is they missed the point big time. Half of the exhibition was a celebration of creativity from people who weren't "proper" artists. The message being that you don't have to go to art school to be allowed to create - but the reviewer probably believed that only those with an Artists Licence should be allowed imagination and the ability to make stuff. 

[Phil Parker]

4 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Even specialized journals now tend to have very few (if any) people who genuinely understand subject material. At one time shipping journals like Lloyd's List had some pretty impressive people writing for them who knew what they were talking about, now LL is a glorified blog which often displays an almost embarrassing lack of understanding.

 

Knowledgeable specialists want paying proper money, and the time to put together a well-researched article. The readers want everything for free. If you can square that circle, then every media organisation will give you money.

 

We see it in model railways, where people on this forum say they prefer a YouTube review running trains on the carpet and slowly (and loudly) reading the words on the out-of-focus box, over a researched piece in a magazine.