James May's Man Lab
Discussion
Dunk76 said:
Having a browse of May's columns in the Telegraph website, it would appear this series is connected to his new book
Well, judging by the standard of the 'show' I can't imagine he's done much for his book sales. I assume the book must be one of those 'in time for christmas' type things with lots of large bright pictures , little content and designed to catch the eye of passing grannies so they can buy it because it's got 'that nice man from Top Gear'.I wouldn't say May has sold out, but he's definitely cashed in
The Times' tv guide at the weekend gave the show a thumbs-up and were suggesting that it was good to see an intelligent show being made and said May was 'didactic', so it was with high hopes I set my Sky+ box and series-link for the show.
I watched it last night. It was disappointing. By rushing through so many topics - UXB, trainset, concrete kitchen, guitar tuning, shoe shining, remote control picnic table (FFS!), some sad sap singing in front of a council block, etc. - they only seemed to cover the UXB topic in any sort of detail.
They would have been better off trying to be more serious and making it more like a bloke's version of one of these home makeover shows and turn their large empty warehouse space into a "Man's House" that Tim 'The Toolman' Taylor would envy. So, forget the silly railway but instead make the "Man's Kitchen" by making a full sized kitchen out of the concrete and fit in some gadgets like a big fridge, ice machine, flame grills etc.
I watched it last night. It was disappointing. By rushing through so many topics - UXB, trainset, concrete kitchen, guitar tuning, shoe shining, remote control picnic table (FFS!), some sad sap singing in front of a council block, etc. - they only seemed to cover the UXB topic in any sort of detail.
They would have been better off trying to be more serious and making it more like a bloke's version of one of these home makeover shows and turn their large empty warehouse space into a "Man's House" that Tim 'The Toolman' Taylor would envy. So, forget the silly railway but instead make the "Man's Kitchen" by making a full sized kitchen out of the concrete and fit in some gadgets like a big fridge, ice machine, flame grills etc.
S. Gonzales Esq. said:
skeggysteve said:
He did mention some guff about the wire colours and then got the the old colours wrong - he said balck was the live!
The fact that that fact slipped through unnoticed probably tells you all you need to know about the production team.It shows they really are just reading a script / auto-cue and brain is in neutral.
@ James May, Neutral, that's the blue one.
HTH
@ Ja
I got as far as half way through, when they finished the concrete worktop. I want the half hour back. His other series have been good, Big Ideas had the history of the things he was talking about, the Toys series had a challenge that went from planning out to the finished thing, this was just random stuff. I remember the blue wire left brown wire right thing to wire a plug, and I'm about as technical with DIY stuff as a sausage.
thinfourth2 said:
I've never understood why an AC circuit has a live and negative to be honest
Because for a current to flow, one wire has to supply the current and another take it away at and given point in time to complete the circuit - alternating or not... The 'live' wire can't 'push' charge into the appliance and then 'suck' it back out when it alternates - the 'neutral' (I've never understood why it's called that - makes it sound far too inert for my liking) has to provide that flow! 
Ultuous said:
Because for a current to flow, one wire has to supply the current and another take it away at and given point in time to complete the circuit - alternating or not... The 'live' wire can't 'push' charge into the appliance and then 'suck' it back out when it alternates - the 'neutral' (I've never understood why it's called that - makes it sound far too inert for my liking) has to provide that flow!
It needs two, but he meant why is there a need to differentiate between the two.IanMorewood said:
Watched it, thought the format was rather too jumpy but some of the bits where quite good, I would say good concept bad execution.
Have just watched Sea Patrol UK and they were jumping between incidents, but it worked, in that they were jumping between different groups of people. Jumping back-and-forward between, well, the same person, doesn't work. Please take note BBC. agent006 said:
Ultuous said:
Because for a current to flow, one wire has to supply the current and another take it away at and given point in time to complete the circuit - alternating or not... The 'live' wire can't 'push' charge into the appliance and then 'suck' it back out when it alternates - the 'neutral' (I've never understood why it's called that - makes it sound far too inert for my liking) has to provide that flow!
It needs two, but he meant why is there a need to differentiate between the two.(ok thats what I'm asking)
As for the programme it had promise but just failed.
When he said at the begining in a generation we have turned into a bunch of useless idiots (words to that effect) I think he is correct.
When I think of what my Father and grandfather could do it is really embarrasing and I am fairly hands on to an extent.
men younger than me generaly do not know how to do anything (massive generalisation). As for wireing a plug people have come to companies I have worked at for jobs such as mantenence Engineer requiring electrical and mechanical knowlage and not been able to demonstrate how to wire a plug despite having impressive quals.
Edited by Pesty on Tuesday 2nd November 23:10
Pesty said:
agent006 said:
Ultuous said:
Because for a current to flow, one wire has to supply the current and another take it away at and given point in time to complete the circuit - alternating or not... The 'live' wire can't 'push' charge into the appliance and then 'suck' it back out when it alternates - the 'neutral' (I've never understood why it's called that - makes it sound far too inert for my liking) has to provide that flow!
It needs two, but he meant why is there a need to differentiate between the two.(ok thats what I'm asking)
The neutral is not live as such. The live wire is though, hence why it's fused. It alternates between +240 and -240 volts (realtive to the neutral wire or the earth wire). The neutral stays 0 at all times relative to earth. You can use earth as neutral but you still need a live.
Gassing Station | TV, Film, Video Streaming & Radio | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff