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Sunday, February 21, 2010

Day 3.042: Bangs and 'more bangs?'

We've been watching a TV show called Fringe recently - it's basically The X-Files for the 21st Century. I see it has been aired on Sky1 in the UK - where, presumably, not too many people were fooled into thinking it was about hairdressing.

Here, what we know as a fringe is called 'bangs' and thanks to a Christmas gift I have a copy of They Might Be Giants' hymn to that hairstyle-choice:
Bangs - are that on which the world hangs
I'm only holding your hand so I can look at your...bangs

Bangs were also in abundance at the Museum of Science on Friday. We were at the Theater of Electricity for one of their shows using the largest Van de Graaff generator in the world (it was built by Dr VdG himself). The show was preceded by repeated warnings about the noises and as a result of that and the general overcrowding, Exile #2 took E5N1 away to look at some other things in the same room, but further away from the action. Once the show started and the ever-increasing sparks were each preceded by further warnings about the noise, she tried to get him to cover his ears in case it was too frightening for him.

Indeed, on the other side of the room, Exile #4 declared the show 'scary' while Exile #3 considered it 'cool'. Here's a view of the generator with the presenter approaching it inside a (Faraday) cage. A shot of him touching the bars to prove his nerve (and his science!) and a shot of the finale when the generator is wound up to generate a million-volt lightning storm (real lightning can be one hundred million volts apparently).


Exile #2 needn't have worried - at the end when silence fell, E5N1 said wistfully, "More bangs?"

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