# Medical Doctors watching TV shows with almost naked actors... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 5, 2003, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-doctors-watching-tv-shows-with-almost-naked-actors/146778 "2003-01-05T15:49:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LoN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cab0a1/32.png) [@LoN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LoN)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-doctors-watching-tv-shows-with-almost-naked-actors/146778/21 "2003-01-06T07:32:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by UES Guy \* > \*\*Yeah, my wife did that as well. Becoming a nurse pretty much ruined her ability to suspend disbelief when watching ER. The “doctors” would be cracking open someone’s chest, and she’d start shrieking “For God’s sake, they’re not even wearing _masks_!” > > As a software engineer, though, I can relate – as soon as I see a TV or movie character using a computer, usually the whole illusion is shot for me. I can still remember seeing that Sandra Bullock movie _The Net_, in which her character was developing a supposedly state-of-the-art game program. When they actually show off her game, it was just Wolfenstein 3D, a game that was already three years old (!) when the movie came out. Bam…disbelief no longer suspended. \*\* Not to mention the fact that John Carmack had longer hair… The fact that I could make that joke makes me sad. ---
**Author:** ![Forbin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@Forbin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Forbin)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-doctors-watching-tv-shows-with-almost-naked-actors/146778/22 "2003-01-06T07:52:42Z")
I see a lot of movies about furniture and cabinets. Most of the time there are people in the movies too, but they aren’t the part that matters. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-doctors-watching-tv-shows-with-almost-naked-actors/146778/23 "2003-01-06T08:49:49Z")
I watch films for clues that they were shot in locations other than where they were set (variations in flora etc), or look out for items such as foodstuffs that were not available in the location/era of the story. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-doctors-watching-tv-shows-with-almost-naked-actors/146778/24 "2003-01-06T09:21:48Z")
I always watch movies ready to see bullshit. My area of expertise is computers, so I notice the moronic things computer-related in movies and TV so often it’s background noise to me now. Gotta floppy? Yeah, stick it in that iMac, right. OS? Naw, it’s all _fully-compatible_ now, and every moderately bright four-year-old can crack NSA passwords. Autistics can factor 1024-digit numbers in their sleep, too (_Red Bile Rising_). Gotta computer screen? Yep, _every_ computer can do realtime 3d rendering just to navigate a directory structure, _every_ monitor is bright enough to cause glare, and people _always_ use ten-inch-high typefaces that can be read from across the room. Gotta run? No, don’t bother _saving_ anything or _shutting down the OS_. Just flip a switch. HAL’s tape drives were classic, too. And the fact that Asimov extrapolated vacuum tubes into the distant future. That is forgivable, however, because Clarke and Asmiov were bright men _of the 1950s and 1960s_. No matter how visionary someone is, he must still see things he knows and understands. What _isn’t_ forgivable is blatant ignorance like that described in my second paragraph. I don’t expect them to get things exactly right, but it’s important to try. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-doctors-watching-tv-shows-with-almost-naked-actors/146778/25 "2003-01-06T13:58:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by stuyguy \* > \*\*Unfortunately I’ll have to be sketchy with details because this took place, oh, about 10 years ago and I didn’t follow it too closely even at the time. I bet someone chimes in with the complete story soon, though. > > There was a famous news photo that got wide national exposure at the time. The subject of the shot was (I believe) someone or something at a ballgame. In the background crowd were the unidentified hands of one of the attendees. Someone (a doctor?) saw the photo and alerted the media claiming that the guy’s hands or fingernails supposedly indicated that he was at risk for some disease or ailment. As a result there was a minor nationwide manhunt to warn the guy. IIRC, they found him and he was not at risk after all. \*\* [**Bart Giamatti**](http://www.pubdim.net/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/G/Giamatti_Bart.stm), baseball commissioner. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-doctors-watching-tv-shows-with-almost-naked-actors/146778/26 "2003-01-06T14:05:53Z")
To elaborate a bit: After Giamatti died of a sudden heart attack, the above mentioned photo (which I cannot at the moment locate a link to) was discovered. A doctor saw a pair of hands whose fingernails exhibited the ‘classic signs’ of imminent heart failure, and assumed they were Giamatti’s hands. This led to a lot of 'Oh, well, he should have known, his doctor should have seen" type of speculation untill someone looked a bit closer at the photo and realized, lo and behold, the hands belonged to _someone else_, who, as noted, after being tracked down, was found to be perfectly sound. Giamatti, however, is still dead. (And _his_ hands showed none of the ‘classic signs’, either.) ---
**Author:** ![the\_O-man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9f8e36/32.png) [@the\_O-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_O-man)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-doctors-watching-tv-shows-with-almost-naked-actors/146778/27 "2003-01-06T14:51:36Z")
_Jeffersons_ costar Paul Benedict (Mr. Bentley) was diagnosed with acromegaly by a doctor who saw him perform on stage. He was able to get treatment for it in time, as the disease can shorten one’s life if it goes unchecked. You can read about it here: [http://www.bestbuy.com/movies/Artist.asp?cid=1951&m=270](http://www.bestbuy.com/movies/Artist.asp?cid=1951&m=270) ---
**Author:** ![SandWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8491ac/32.png) [@SandWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandWriter)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-doctors-watching-tv-shows-with-almost-naked-actors/146778/28 "2003-01-06T16:16:38Z")
Thanks for the responses. That answered my question. However, now that we are in the cafe society, can you tell by Janet Jackson’s sixpack that she has stopped menstruating? I’ve heard that if a female loses too much body fat, i.e. less than 14%, that they stop menstruating. ---
**Author:** ![Loneraven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c0e974/32.png) [@Loneraven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loneraven)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-doctors-watching-tv-shows-with-almost-naked-actors/146778/29 "2003-01-06T18:11:08Z")
Nothing to do with Janet Jackson. But my father is a medical doctor, and while he usually thinks it’s the best researched show on TV, he did have a quibble with M_A_S\*H the other day. Stupid, stupid mistake… he spotted Hawkeye carefully inspecting an X-ray that was upside down! ---
**Author:** ![Kn\_ckers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/96bed5/32.png) [@Kn\_ckers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kn_ckers)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-doctors-watching-tv-shows-with-almost-naked-actors/146778/30 "2003-01-06T20:35:08Z")
This post is a bit GQish, but **Sandwriter** asked… I’ll preface this by saying I’m not a doc, just a pathetic little Bio BA, but I’ll give the Janet Jackson question a shot (those who know better, please do correct me if I’m wrong). I don’t think you could tell by looking at someone whether they’re body fat is too low to menstruate. I believe healthy body fat is generally 15%-20% for a woman, and well below that, you’re at risk to stop menstruating, lose bone density, etc. But there’s no hard and fast rule, like ‘under X-percent of fat, and no more Tampax for you’. Menstruation doesn’t have a strict relationship with body fat - more with overall health. If you’re body’s too stressed, it will stop menstruation to conserve more vital functions. Low body fat can be one form of stress, but if you’re low-fat and otherwise healthy you aren’t necessarily going to lose your period. There are, after all, a wide variety of healthy body shapes. Hope that helps in some way. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-doctors-watching-tv-shows-with-almost-naked-actors/146778/31 "2003-01-06T21:37:05Z")
Most of the medical stuff in movies and TV is off the mark. I often notice discrepancies between my ER and _ER_ or what-have-you. I don’t go out of my way to notice these differences but I don’t make a point of mentioning them to others enjoying the show. I’m not that pedantic, and I guess I bore enough people with the facts as it is. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-doctors-watching-tv-shows-with-almost-naked-actors/146778.md?page=1)