This Is the Run: Contra - Part 05

I think the science talk is great, and I hope you skimmed through most of the assholes in this thread to find the gems of knowledge. That double slit experiment video will blow your mind!

I love Vinny so much for trying to cure Dan of his idiocy. He's basically Dan's dad.

God bless you Lance Trebuchet & Bill Frontline.

MFW the level 6 Contra Boss appears lol

I think a theory is an explanation of why and how something is true. Not just the fact that it's true. The Earth revolving around the Sun is a fact. Why and how large masses revolve around stars is a scientific theory.

Does anyone else have an issue with the GB video player buffering for a split second? At certain points in a video it will always do it. Even if you go back and watch it again. In this video it happens at 8:09, 8:19, and 8:29.

Vinny is doing god's work. Thank you for trying to better Dan

Schrodinger's Cat means that if you put a cat in a box on a Monday, it is both dead and alive on the first day of the week Dan. It's science.

Dan working people into shoot. A true heel. You da man, man.

Do you guys realize that Dan is brilliant at one thing? He admits what he doesn't know, and ends up asking questions that the ''smart'' guys don't know the answer to. How many times has he stumped everyone with his dumb questions, and then everyone in the chat runs off on a search frenzy to find answers and sound smart. And we all learn something in the process. It really is brilliant.

I love how this is essentially a Vinny and Dan podcast with Contra

@gondokasa said:

I apologize for this. It came off more mean-spirited than I meant it to be.

I always think of Dan's questioning like kayfabe, but it does grate sometimes when it happens over key events in a game and then everyone gets upset because they don't know what's happening...

Dan please take a basic science course. Chemistry, biology, psychology, anything. Just take a night class at community college or something. Tell us what you learn. It'll be great content. Also you'll understand what a theory is.

On topic: I like the idea of this series- it's good to see the crew playing games seriously and attempting to get better at them. Almost all of the time any game is being played on Giant Bomb it's a situation where the person playing doesn't know much about it and isn't very invested and isn't really focusing on it. That can be very frustrating to watch. I like the This Is The Run approach. I'd be down for more goal-directed gameplay content, for sure.

Seems like everyone forgets that:

a) Dan isn't taking everything super seriously and, on a number of occasions, he clearly states that he knows nothing about the subjects they're discussing, and then, "of course I know photons are real things". He is just having a fun conversation and Vinny goes along with that

b) I get irritated when people steadfastly base their opinion based on incorrect facts or ignorance. Therefore, for me, people debating historical events or even current political events irritate me. Dan in these instances is just postulating about what little he understands. When he says "I don't think it's a thing", it seems pretty clear that he knows that it is, in fact, "a thing", that more intelligent/informed people are aware of, but it is not 'a thing' for him.

c) They need to chill the heck out

The Proton Run! Stay Positive!!

I don't think science is Dan's thing. I can get lost down a rabbit hole of wikipedia pages of fun science stuff or facts but it doesn't seem like it's Dan's thing.

My only issue is if you're that curious about a topic you know literally nothing about, you'd spend more than a few minutes researching it before giving up and writing it off. If you didn't do your research, or didn't put in a minimum effort and you still want to talk about the same topic I'm going to think you're disingenuous about wanting to know more about the subject.

It's fine to admit you know nothing. It's fine to ask dumb questions. But if you don't want to put in the effort to find the answers if others don't give them to you, you're going to rub people the wrong way.

@estragon said:

Technically it's an oblate spheroid. It bulges at the equator.

" I think it means things that aren't real"

Vinny/Dan is the best thing I've ever witnessed in TV and/or Online Television, which GiantBomb fucking is, since Carson and McMahon. In this dark, Trump world, thank goodness for these fine men.

Can you guys just invite Neil deGrasse Tyson to sit in on the next video, it would save us a lot of trouble here

This was the best run so far. Their reaction to the new boss they encounter and the ending is hilarious. It's just too bad the comments are ruined by armchair scientists.

Well, those last few minutes were the best bit.

Science wikipedia sucks. It's basically a science textbook.

Couldn't agree more. I enjoy Dan's questions, actually. I mean I know about a lot of the stuff he asks about, but I like hearing the rest of the crew's explanations for them as well. It's fun to hear things broken down (from different perspectives) that don't often get explained in normal conversation.

That double slit video was interesting, too. To me it was sort of a fancy way of saying that we don't really understand atoms, though. The atoms' behavior in the experiment seems like it shouldn't be a real thing that happens, but they actually DO THAT SHIT--crazy. Schrodingers Cat never made a lick of sense to me (i.e. the cat in reality cannot be both dead and alive at the same time just because we can't see it; to me that would be like saying 9/11 didn't happen if I didn't know about it), but this experiment makes so much more sense.

It's nice to see a man who doesn't know how to change a tire, or how to jump a car battery is able to refute an entire branch of science.

Wow, Dan is totally right about the use of the word theory in science. I thought for sure Vinny would know that.

Quantum brings out the fedoras and hairthroats.

Woo, Not surprised this comment section is rough today.

I love the fact that Dan makes at least one ridiculous noise in every one of these. :D

14:15

This was a really great idea for a series. As mastery increases so too does the pain / hilarity of failure.

As a nerd, I will be the first to say that nerds are fucking dicks.

Dan has a healthy curiosity and genuinely is interested in expanding his knowledge. He is upfront about his ignorance and then asks, for the most part, good questions. I honestly wish more people were like him, because in my experience most people would rather act like they know something instead of admitting ignorance and using that as a jumping off point to learn something new.

So basically fuck everyone being a dick about Dan's questions. For someone who comes off as an idiot, he is more open minded and willing to learn then more intelligent people I've worked with in school and at my work(at a laboratory).

@darknezz: @vinny@danryckertSome corrections from what I know from having a bachelors in chemistry. We can prove in the double slit experiment they go through one or all slits / translation that they act as both particles and waves that they interfere with each other like light waves/ no real proof they do all three at once.

Also as I mentioned before the copenhagen interpretation is not the only interpretation (the guy who came up with schrodingers cat didn't believe it) and it is possible that the quantum multistates at once that exist at small level don't exist at a larger particle size - not just that we don't notice them that they don't actually exist.

As for it being useful it may not be yet but higher levels of technology use it. Relativity for example is not useful unless you want to make GPS satellites. Another example is noneuclidian geometry not useful except when you want to go to space. Now I would not use wikipedia for quantum mechanics find a quantum mechanics for dummies. But honestly - do not expect to understand it I know physicists who do not really understand it. But - NOVA and shows like it on that topic may be your best chance.

"GO FORWARD I'M GOING TO FALL IN A HOLE!" is what I want on my tombstone.

same here

Bill Frontline and Barry Bluejeans

Dan "I got a Dink" Ryckert.

Can't get past the first five minutes of this one, I just can't, don't care if it is in fact the run... on to part 6

@generalbison: A shame, one of the more entertaining ones with the banter.

@generalbison: Someone needs to animate this as a voice-over with the two Contra men chatting with each other as they go through the game. Like Nintendo Power Hour.

EDIT: I fuckin LOST IT at "what is this fuckin football player guy???!"

Nad loves sour cream, hates Taco Bell.

The ending was perfect.

"I live in constant fear of the shield guy"

This IS the run

My god this series is epic.

this is your contra, this is your contra on quantum mechanics.

TBH I went to E school and had real like russian CERN physicist explain quantum mechanics to me and I still don't understand it.

This Is the Run: Contra - Part 06

Man GB discussing anything outside of games is always so funny. Dan is the real life more positive version of the antagonist in Grandma's boy. I thought them talking about movies and food was the worst but this is definitely worse. I love it. More cringey GB discussions during video games please!

Their talk about science is always the hardest thing for me. The professor in me wishes I could teleport into the studio and do a class lecture.