Devil in the details

[Quexos]

can't think of any specific annoying mistakes right now. The only ones I can think of being of books written a long time ago describing a future which is now present or even past. But such mistakes are obviously forgivable. e.g. 2001: A space odyssey where a permanent moon base is supposed to exist in the moon since the late 20th century

What bothers me are mistakes that should be easily avoided and such mistakes happen often in movies. e.g. in James Cameron's Titanic when they try to avoid the iceberg by steering the ship to the left and the guy screams starboard which is "right" when he should have said "port".

Also impossible situations bother me. In Mission Impossible when Tom Cruise is on the roof of a TGV, a high speed train going at more than 350 kph and he jumps from it towards a helicopter as if it was something possible. In reality at such speeds you'd fly away totally out of control like a dead leaf falling off a tree in high wind.

[PKFFW]

Originally Posted by Quexos

What bothers me are mistakes that should be easily avoided and such mistakes happen often in movies. e.g. in James Cameron's Titanic when they try to avoid the iceberg by steering the ship to the left and the guy screams starboard which is "right" when he should have said "port".

It is my understanding that there is no mistake in the movie with regards to this scene.

Ships used to be steered by tiller and therefore steering directions seem "backwards". ie: if the master of the boat said "hard a port" that meant "turn the tiller to port so the boat will turn to starboard" and vice versa for "hard a starboard". After the steering wheel was introduced to ships things changed in that turning the wheel to port would make the boat turn to port and vice versa.

Here's where it gets tricky.........at the time of the Titanic disaster, orders for steering were still given in accordance with the old tradition. Therefore when the guy screams "hard a starboard" this means "turn the damn ship to port(left) or we are screwed to the sh!thouse!". Therefore the guy in the wheel house starts spinning the wheel counter clockwise which will turn the ship to port.

[Kumabjorn]

I just love the level of expertise available here.
Also relieved that I'm not totally anal, or at least not alone about it.
Out of curiosity, what is the difference between a clip and a magazine?

I realized that the reason I got very annoyed was that after reading the mistake, the next few pages were a blur because i was thinking "how can he not know that Spain is a monarchy"?

[taosaur]

It doesn't say much for the author's intellect or breadth of knowledge that he would assume Spain has a president. That he doesn't know is one thing, but that he just assumes countries are headed by presidents and doesn't even consider looking it up would make me seriously reconsider whether I should be letting this person's words in my head.

[alsaan]

I don't think that's a mistake. In Spain, the head of government is actually referred as "president". The words "prime minister" are never used, except when speaking of foreign leaders.

Quoting Wikipedia:

Some countries with parliamentary systems use a term meaning/translating as 'president' (in some languages indistinguishable from chairman) for the head of parliamentary government, often as President of the Government, President of the Council of Ministers or President of the Executive Council.

However, such an official is explicitly not the president of the country. Rather, he is called a president in an older sense of the word to denote the fact that he heads the cabinet. A separate head of state generally exists in their country that instead serves as the president or monarch of the country.

[...]

The Prime Minister of Spain is officially referred to as the President of the Government of Spain, and informally known as the "president". Spain is also a kingdom with a reigning king.

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by alsaan

I don't think that's a mistake.

I guess there's something to be said for taking the OP's word that a mistake was made without bothering to look it up, too.

[Kumabjorn]

Actually Folsom also makes references to the prime minister of Spain and they are clearly two different persons. Just to make clear.

[alsaan]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Actually Folsom also makes references to the prime minister of Spain and they are clearly two different persons. Just to make clear.

In that case, oh well.

[Pinecone]

There is another thread around that I started in a similar vein.

Some mistakes I can deal with, but others are just too over the top. Also the number of mistakes can make it simply annoying or downright impossible to read.

One book I recently read had a creature that came from a high gravity planet, and on earth, could "swim through the ground like water." However, it left tunnels. I don't know about you, but when I swim through water, I don't leave a tunnel.

[Apache]

Being from a high gravity planet would not give you the ability to swim through a solid.
And remember Star Wars referring to Parsec as a unit of time and not distance.
Apache

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Also relieved that I'm not totally anal, or at least not alone about it.
Out of curiosity, what is the difference between a clip and a magazine?

A magazine has a spring in it that delivers the ammunition to the feed for the chamber. A clip simply holds the ammunition so it can be loaded into the receiver or magazine. A clip may be either discarded at the time the receiver is loaded or after after it has been fired. Discarded doesn't mean thrown away. Most clips are reusable. Discarded means removed from the firearm. The M-1 Garand is a classic rifle that uses a clip that discards after the ammunition has been fired. Most modern firearms use a magazine. The M-16 is strange in that it uses a magazine, but the ammunition comes in a clip to allow easy loading into the magazine.

Greg Weeks

[gweeks]

The latest Dan Brown drove me nuts with this. The electromagnetic interference was so important that they didn't run power lines in and used a fuel cell, but they used cell phones.

At least one of the Clive cusslers did this to me as well. No cell phone coverage, but they used the "Walky-talky" modes on their cell phones.

Greg Weeks

[Kumabjorn]

So you can't load ammunition directly into a weapon using a clip? It has to first go into a magazine? or is that oversimplification in the other direction?

[DustyDisks]

Originally Posted by gweeks

A magazine has a spring in it that delivers the ammunition to the feed for the chamber. A clip simply holds the ammunition so it can be loaded into the receiver or magazine. A clip may be either discarded at the time the receiver is loaded or after after it has been fired. Discarded doesn't mean thrown away. Most clips are reusable. Discarded means removed from the firearm. The M-1 Garand is a classic rifle that uses a clip that discards after the ammunition has been fired. Most modern firearms use a magazine. The M-16 is strange in that it uses a magazine, but the ammunition comes in a clip to allow easy loading into the magazine.

Greg Weeks

A tad off topic!

Love the "Ping" the clip makes as it ejects. Own a M1 garand plus a M1A and people do get the term Clip vs.magazine for rifles and handguns mixed up all of the time. The movies and some writers do not help with the mix up at all.

[DustyDisks]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

So you can't load ammunition directly into a weapon using a clip? It has to first go into a magazine? or is that oversimplification in the other direction?

What you maybe referring to is called a "stripper clip" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripper_clip

Some help load ammo into a detachable magazine quickly and then are thrown away. Or help load a rifle with a built in magazine quickly.

With the M1 the clip holds 8 rounds and the whole thing is inserted into the rifle, and as said in another post when the last shot is fired, the clip is automatically ejected and the rifle is ready for another clip. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1_Garand

Sorry for the bend in the op topic!

But these are "Details"