Ellen's Energy Adventure - WRONG!

[cy1229]

OMG! I don't believe I haven't caught this before. Listening to the Requests Stream this morning, I hear the ride-through of EEA and that they're saying dinosaurs are the source of petroleum!

KILLING ME!

Petroleum is the result of marine plants and animals pre-dating the dinosaurs by several million years! Here's a link. http://www.fe.doe.gov/education/energyl ... ormed.html

Now I hate that attraction even MORE. Sorry, this one's really bugging me. Disney, and ESPECIALLY Bill Nye, should have gotten it right!

Gah. I'm such a nerd.

[Amy]

Maybe this exerpt from the script will help you feel a bit better ~ EEA does mention plants, they just sort of fudged on the timeline a bit with the dinosaurs...

Ellen in Dream: Uh ...yeah, this is fun. So where's the energy?

Bill Nye: Oh, it's all around you. You see, these plants and animals are soaking up energy from the sun. When they die and get buried, time, pressure and heat will cook them into the fossil fuels we rely on today like, uh, coal, natural gas, and oil.

Ellen in Dream: Wait a minute. You're telling me that we're filling our gas tanks with, well, with dinosaur soup?

Bill Nye: Well, not exactly. But dinosaurs did live when fossil fuels were developing in the earth... eh. Dinosaurs are just cool! Let's check 'em out!

[cy1229]

Maybe this exerpt from the script will help you feel a bit better ~ EEA does mention plants, they just sort of fudged on the timeline a bit with the dinosaurs...

Ellen in Dream: Uh ...yeah, this is fun. So where's the energy?

Bill Nye: Oh, it's all around you. You see, these plants and animals are soaking up energy from the sun. When they die and get buried, time, pressure and heat will cook them into the fossil fuels we rely on today like, uh, coal, natural gas, and oil.

Ellen in Dream: Wait a minute. You're telling me that we're filling our gas tanks with, well, with dinosaur soup?

Bill Nye: Well, not exactly. But dinosaurs did live when fossil fuels were developing in the earth... eh. Dinosaurs are just cool! Let's check 'em out!

Nope, not much better. They need to change it to read "dinosaurs lived while fossil fuels were developing deep underground." Then it works.

But thanks for trying.

[theBIGyowski]

party pooper!

[cy1229]

party pooper!

Sorry.

I'm like that. When I'm watching a movie that has BAD SCIENCE as its basic premise ("The Day After Tomorrow" and "I Am Legend" come to mind) it just ruins the movie for me. I can't help it.

[theBIGyowski]

party pooper!

Sorry.

I'm like that. When I'm watching a movie that has BAD SCIENCE as its basic premise ("The Day After Tomorrow" and "I Am Legend" come to mind) it just ruins the movie for me. I can't help it.

Yeah...the only thing I liked about "The Day After Tomorrow" was the tornado scene where the reporter gets hit by the sign.

The special effects were cool...but the science was ridiculous. And that pretty much goes for 99.9% of all movies that use science as a basis for the plot.

The exception to the rule being Back to the Future...of course.

[cy1229]

party pooper!

Sorry.

I'm like that. When I'm watching a movie that has BAD SCIENCE as its basic premise ("The Day After Tomorrow" and "I Am Legend" come to mind) it just ruins the movie for me. I can't help it.

Yeah...the only thing I liked about "The Day After Tomorrow" was the tornado scene where the reporter gets hit by the sign.

The special effects were cool...but the science was ridiculous. And that pretty much goes for 99.9% of all movies that use science as a basis for the plot.

The exception to the rule being Back to the Future...of course.

Of course.

And Star Wars.

And Star Trek.

Because they're cool.

[Sharonofwindham]

OMG! I don't believe I haven't caught this before. Listening to the Requests Stream this morning, I hear the ride-through of EEA and that they're saying dinosaurs are the source of petroleum!

KILLING ME!

Petroleum is the result of marine plants and animals pre-dating the dinosaurs by several million years! Here's a link. http://www.fe.doe.gov/education/energyl ... ormed.html

Now I hate that attraction even MORE. Sorry, this one's really bugging me. Disney, and ESPECIALLY Bill Nye, should have gotten it right!

Gah. I'm such a nerd.

I get it! It's just painful to think they could get something like this wrong. Disney seems to do so much research for their attractions. Always determined to be spot on. Always disconcerting when they aren't

[theBIGyowski]

People don't go on that attraction for the science knowledge...












They go to see Alex Trebek with a mustache.

[cy1229]

People don't go on that attraction for the science knowledge...

They go to see Alex Trebek with a mustache.

Or an air-conditioned nap.

If you go back to the original EPCOT Center as it was pitched... it was a place of innovation and learning (albeit sneakily but so what, learning is learning). It was designed to show how future innovations might look. And, it was done in a more realistic way than the stuff in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom. Thus, the accuracy is important in this context.

Of course, now it's kind of all thrown out the window with Mission: Space, but still..................

Ok I'm going to let it go now.

Maybe.

[ImagineerWannabe]

The science in Mission Space is the centrifuge Granted I've only ridden it once (and the non-spinny side at that), so I don't remember the story line or the bad science. I just like that it uses what real astronauts train with.

[lonepalm]

I guess the only "defense" I can come up with is that at the time of the script being written, it was commonly thought that it was dinosaurs? Perhaps it wasn't figured out until after...? Or, it was simply just not consulting with experts

[theBIGyowski]

the expert was probably Bill Nye...who we know today is not really all that smart when it comes to earth science

[cy1229]

the expert was probably Bill Nye...who we know today is not really all that smart when it comes to earth science

Bill Nye isn't an expert on anything except explaining science to kids and teenagers. I know he has a degree, but I don't remember in what he specialized. Regardless, no one could know everything about all things science.

It was known long before EEA was Imaigineered how oil, gas, and coal were formed. I think it was just someone being a little lazy in checking the facts.

To be honest, it would have been more interesting to have a "ride-through" of an "ocean" of the interesting plants and animals from that period. Everyone has seen dinosaur exhibits, but how many have seen renderings of the plants and animals that stretch back hundreds of millions of years before THEM?

[theBIGyowski]

the expert was probably Bill Nye...who we know today is not really all that smart when it comes to earth science

Bill Nye isn't an expert on anything except explaining science to kids and teenagers. I know he has a degree, but I don't remember in what he specialized. Regardless, no one could know everything about all things science.

It was known long before EEA was Imaigineered how oil, gas, and coal were formed. I think it was just someone being a little lazy in checking the facts.

To be honest, it would have been more interesting to have a "ride-through" of an "ocean" of the interesting plants and animals from that period. Everyone has seen dinosaur exhibits, but how many have seen renderings of the plants and animals that stretch back hundreds of millions of years before THEM?

I like where you're going with this.

OK...think about this for a second...

WDI decides to revamp the entire Universe of Energy attraction...razing it to the ground along with the Wonders of Life Pavilion. They then create a new pavilion dedicated to energy and the ways engineers and scientists are coming up with energy for the future. It will be big enough for a headliner attraction as well as maybe 1 or 2 other A or B ticket attractions as well. Heck...you can even bring Ellen back in some capacity in the pavilion since she is still very much relevant in pop culture. You'd want to be as objective as possible of course...making sure you leave politics out of everything. The physical footprint of the new pavilion would be about the same size as The Land including Soarin'.

You don't even have to keep it themed with energy...but with energy being very important this century...I think it would be a great way to both educate and inspire the next generation like EPCOT was originally intended to do.