Rlvlk

Factual error: In the warehouse when Indy and the Soviets open the crate with the alien's body, all the overhead lights are pulled towards it. If the magnetic field was that strong, the lights also would have been pulled towards the box before it was opened. (Put a toy car on top of a table and pull it with a magnet from under the table to see the field in action).

Rlvlk

Who Shot Sherlock? - S5-E11

Factual error: Brown and Stokes mix up enough ballistics gel to make a life-size dummy to test their theory. The entire production (getting a mannequin, making a mold from the mannequin, etc,.) takes place in one shift. Ballistics gel needs to cool in a fridge, or on ice, (32-41°F) overnight. That alone eliminates the possibility that it was done in one shift. http://www.recguns.com/Sources/XD3.html.

Rlvlk

Who Shot Sherlock? - S5-E11

Factual error: Brown and Stokes are investigating a mysterious fatal accident involving a Jeep and a downed power line. They state that the driver would have been safe if the Jeep had made contact with the power line because the tires would have insulated the Jeep from the electrical current. Wrong. First, a car is a Faraday cage, that is an electrical current would pass on the outside of a car on the way to the ground. As long as you don't touch the outer surface, you are safe. Second, tires are (almost always now) steel belted radials and conduct electricity nicely. Lastly, it was an open top Jeep. The power line made contact with the roll bar thereby electrifying the inner surface of the Jeep. The driver is in contact with the inner surface. This is a list, from one year from one utility company, of people that died from contact with power lines. You will see that tires exploded from the contact and some caught fire. http://www.sigalarminc.com/HistoricalNotes.htm.

Rlvlk

Cool Change - S1-E2

Factual error: There are some majors problems with the "jumper's" crime scene. The girlfriend bashes the boyfriend on the back of his head. He bleeds out all over the balcony (she cleans up the blood with towels) but the body leaves absolutely no blood behind on the carpet (It's white\off white so blood would stain badly). She drags his body across the carpet and carpet fibers get stuck in his watchband by the adjustment knob. Dragging a body across the carpet would snag fibers on the opposite side. The CSI crew experiment and conclude the boyfriend was pushed. The blow to the head killed him instantly (coroner's report): therefore, the girlfriend would have dumped the body. Dumping a dead body over a rail would provide a different trajectory than pushing a live person and would not have matched their experiments. Finally, the boyfriend is fairly muscular and heavy. The girlfriend is petite. It would be an extremely difficult task to stand a lifeless body up at the balcony rail and flip him over. (If she could have lifted him up and over the rail, she should have been able to carry him to the balcony instead of dragging him.)

Rlvlk

Chasing the Bus - S2-E18

Factual error: The CSI crew set up an experiment. They put some chloroform into the tire, set the bus on a dynamometer (or some other testing platform) and wait for the tire to fail. The tire fails in the experiment in the exact same amount of time as it did in real life. Problem: They have no idea how much chloroform was used and it would be impossible to match it by luck. More chloroform used would equal quicker failure. Then, there is the heat. The tire traveling over the hot asphalt road would build heat faster then on their testing platform. More heat would mean a quicker failure, too.

Rlvlk

Chasing the Bus - S2-E18

Factual error: Sara calculates the time needed to sabotage the tire at a minute to a minute and a half. That is, remove the valve core, allow the majority of the air to escape (cannot pour anything into the tire while the air is escaping) pour in enough chloroform to sabotage the tire, replace the valve core, and air the tire to pressure. Even with an industrial air compressor, it would take over 2 minutes to air that tire to full pressure.

Rlvlk

Forever - S3-E21

Factual error: Grissom does a quick analysis on the rough diamonds (chemical or laser) and immediately identifies the region of origin for the diamonds. He and Catherine then postulate that the diamonds are conflict diamonds. There is no way to identify the country or region of origin through any type of analysis. The United Nations and the world's diamond industry are looking for a way. http://www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/conflictdiamonds.htm http://pubs.acs.org/hotartcl/cenear/010212/7907sci1.html http://www.whitefirejewelry.com/wfbb/viewtopic.php?p=88&sid=b0e62206a64d98c81e53b600e053582f.

Rlvlk

Pirates of the Third Reich - S6-E16

Factual error: The Titan arum, corpse flower, has some problems in this episode. First, the flower grows naturally in the tropical forests of Sumatra. It is not very likely to survive sitting on a bench in the arid desert sun of Nevada. Second, Brown and Stokes track the smell of decomposing flesh to the flowers on the bench. The question is asked who would have a corpse flower besides someone trying to cover the smell of a decomposing body. To start with, none of the plants shown are flowering. The corpse flowers stench comes about when the flower opens. Then there is the rarity of the bloom itself. The botanical gardens around the world with corpse flowers make a very big event out of the bloom. Also, the bloom lasts no more than 36 hours. And then there is the stench of the bloom itself. That stench lasts no more than 8 hours. All this makes it useless to try to hide the smell of dead bodies with this plant and makes it impossible for Brown to state the plants are giving off the odor of decomp.

Rlvlk

31st Jul 2007

Mad Men (2007)

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - S1-E1

Factual error: When the new secretary is being shown around the office, the cover is slipped off an IBM Selectric typewriter. She is told not to be afraid of the new technology, it was made easy enough for a woman to use. The episode takes place in March 1960 (a calendar is shown) and the IBM Selectric wasn't introduced until 1961.

Rlvlk

31st Jul 2007

Mad Men (2007)

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - S1-E1

Factual error: The ad team is trying to come up with a new campaign for Lucky Strike cigarettes, since all health claims must be removed. With a stroke of genius, the slogan "It's toasted" is created and approved. "It's toasted" was the ad campaign that debuted in 1917. In the early 60s, it was "Lucky Strike separates the men from the boys, but not from the girls".

Rlvlk

Overload - S2-E3

Factual error: Grissom sets up a little experiment to see if the deceased's blood is conductive to electricity. All are amazed when the blood does conduct electricity. All blood is naturally conductive. As a matter of fact, cardiac output is measured as a function of blood conductivity.

Rlvlk

Overload - S2-E3

Factual error: Several problems surround the electrocution death and the investigation. First, there is the insinuation that the boots should have protected the victim from the electrocution because of the rubber soles. Regular shoes and standard work boots will not protect anyone from electric shock. You are still grounded. You have to wear special electrician's boots to insulate you from electric shock. These boots cost about triple standard work boots. Second, the CSI crew found a nail embedded in the boot. They theorized that is how the boots were grounded out. The problem there is the nail had to be pushed all the way through the sole and through the insole for it to work (the close up of the boot showed the nail in all the way). Even if the nail was barely through the insole, the victim would have felt the nail poking him at every step. With the nail all the way through, he wouldn't have even walked two steps before puncturing his foot on the nail. Third, there is the nail itself. When Grissom is examining the boots trying to find why they failed (failed to prevent the electrocution), he poses the question "What is the most common item found during construction?" The answer is a nail, and the nail in the boot appears to be a roofing nail. The construction site is for a multi-story prison. Nails aren't used in the construction of multi-story urban buildings: concrete and steel are. Carpenters come in after the building is erected and work on the interior, but there are no roofing nails.

Rlvlk

Blood Drops - S1-E7

Factual error: The show falls into the Hollywood myth on polygraphs. Jesse is given a polygraph test after pleading guilty to the 4 murders. He answers all questions, except the last one, honestly. The 4 traces on the polygraph show no real movement on these questions. On the final question, Jesse lies and all 4 traces spike. If polygraphs actually did that, they would be admissible in court. But the reality is, it is the opinion of a highly trained operator that decides if there is a lie. The average person could not look at a polygraph results and point out a lie. There is no huge, visible spike. The producers could have replaced the 4 traces with a red\green light: Green is an honest answer and red a lie.

Rlvlk

Iced - S5-E23

Factual error: The murderer kills the two students by drilling a hole through the adjoining wall of the victim's room at floor level, placing 40lbs of dry ice next to the hole, and allowing the sublimating carbon dioxide to pass through the hole into the victim's room and creating a toxic atmosphere. Since the two rooms are at the same air pressure, the only possible way for the CO2 to move from one room to the next is to be pumped through. As neither room has an excessive level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere the sublimating gas would fill both rooms until the CO2 levels in both rooms was the same.

Rlvlk

Shooting Stars - S6-E4

Factual error: The CSI staff repeatedly refer to the murder weapon as a tire iron. It is a crow bar or demolition bar. It had a nail pulling head, not a socket for the lug nuts.

Rlvlk

Factual error: Peter McCabe escapes the operating room partly by turning his oxygen supply into a flamethrower. 100% oxygen makes everything extremely flammable, but it cannot be lit like a flamethrower.

Rlvlk

It Wasn't Meant to Happen - S2-E20

Factual error: Gabrielle visits Dale, her adopted child's natural father, at his high school and interrupts a pep rally for the football team's upcoming game. Dale, the team's Quarterback, even says that in the last game, he threw for 260 yards. The problem is that it is spring. Dale has just returned from a week in Florida for Spring Break. Football season is over. Basketball season should be over or ending soon. There couldn't have been a pep rally if the season is over.

Rlvlk

4th Aug 2005

Wanted (2005)

Rush - S1-E1

Factual error: When Rose is introduced to the entire team McGloin shakes her hand and says that he (respects or admires) anyone that has survived the POW school. She smiles, nods and walks away. McGloin then explains to the last remaining teammate that all NIOs attend the POW school and explains briefly what it is. First: It is the SERE school. Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape not really POW. Second: Not all, not even most, NIOs attend SERE school, just some.

Rlvlk

One Wonderful Day - S1-E23

Factual error: This is for one episode 1-23. In the beginning, there is a shot of a calendar for March 1990. It shows March 1st being a Wednesday. March 1, 1990 was a Thursday.

Rlvlk

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