# Questions about The Dome **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 26, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-dome/664541 "2013-07-26T01:03:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-dome/664541/21 "2013-07-27T06:00:05Z")
It’s also the same cow that curiously appears and disappears from the same scene with Barbie when they show the dome coming down. They’ve replayed this scene a lot. In [one version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlDW1m7QkGs#t=0m36s), there’s a herd of cows getting surprised, no cow bisection. In [another version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfNE1fATjnI), it’s the same herd of cows, but with one added CGI-cow getting cut in half. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-dome/664541/22 "2013-07-27T14:11:46Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > The guy whose hand print it is had just gotten shocked by touching the Dome, and he’s standing next to half a cow that was split in half by the Dome’s initial creation. He dips his hand in the blood and presses his hand on the invisible wall. > [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > The cow that had no internal organs or bones. 😉 Butcher’s Delight breed of cow. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-dome/664541/23 "2013-07-31T19:55:00Z")
> [@Cartoonacy](#): > > Absolutely right. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But as a hard science fiction geek, I’ve always been more intrigued by the mechanics of the gimmick than the personalities of the characters. I need to at least superficially understand the rules of Sam Beckett’s quantum leaping, the principles of Green Lantern’s power ring, and the theory behind the U.S.S. Enterprise’s holodeck to fully enjoy the shows. To me, in any science fiction, even the “personalities of the characters” aspect is harmed by characters’ lack of curiosity about the particular story’s particular odd phenomenon. It makes it all kind of fake and pointless (and in my view, lazy writing). If this actually happened, there would be at least _some_ people who would be completely focused on the question of What The Heck This Is. The only sort of story that can get away with inattention to the whats and whys and hows of the Odd Phenomenon, is (perhaps) allegory. And this series, at least, is certainly not being presented as if it’s allegory. ---
**Author:** ![Roadfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@Roadfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadfood)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-dome/664541/24 "2013-07-31T21:23:09Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > Folks, the book and the mini-series are called _Under the Dome_ for a reason. The story isn’t about the dome itself. In the book, very little time is spent exploring the dome’s limits, properties, or even source. The TV series seems to be spending even less on that. The story is about the society that is cut off from the outside world. The TV series has them even more cut off by having very little direct communication between inside and outside. In the book, cell phones and internet work. They even watch CNN. If a writer wants to focus on what would it be like for people in a town suddenly cut off from the outside world, that’s fine. But is it about real(istic) people or not? Because real people have curiosity. In a town of a few thousand, quite a few people would be spending all their time trying to find out as much about that dome as possible. If the writer doesn’t want to make those people the focus of the story, fine, but it’s just poor writing to not even mention them. To ignore them makes it harder for me to engage my willing suspension of disbelief. It wouldn’t take much (in the way of written words, and even less visually) to show that there are people under the dome experimenting with the dome, talking about what the heck it is, where it came from, why it’s there, etc. By including them, even in passing, it gives the whole scenario that much more three dimensionality. Lord knows the characters in the TV show are pretty one-dimensional as it is. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-dome/664541/25 "2013-08-01T07:41:25Z")
Anyone interested in starting up a thread about how we Dopers would do things if whatever town the latest doperfest was held in got domed? I’d do it, but I’m not sure how “what if” threads are managed - loosely and humorously in Mostly Pointless, or with pragmatic considerations and cites in Great Debates, or perhaps as a role playing exercise in the Game Room? ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-dome/664541/26 "2013-08-01T12:12:38Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > Anyone interested in starting up a thread about how we Dopers would do things if whatever town the latest doperfest was held in got domed? I’d do it, but I’m not sure how “what if” threads are managed - loosely and humorously in Mostly Pointless, or with pragmatic considerations and cites in Great Debates, or perhaps as a role playing exercise in the Game Room? I know you probably want to start a new thread, but [THIS](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=347029) thread makes for an interesting read. It’s one of my favorite threads. It’s not quite UTD, but very similar. (It’s about how prosperous would a Dopers only society be.) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-dome/664541/27 "2013-08-01T13:58:37Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > Folks, the book and the mini-series are called _Under the Dome_ for a reason. The story isn’t about the dome itself. In the book, very little time is spent exploring the dome’s limits, properties, or even source. The TV series seems to be spending even less on that. The story is about the society that is cut off from the outside world. The TV series has them even more cut off by having very little direct communication between inside and outside. In the book, cell phones and internet work. They even watch CNN. This would be a great premise for a plane crash on an uncharted island somewhere. The writers could even throw in some weird shit like arctic animals that don’t belong in the tropics or crazy E/M phenomena. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-dome/664541/28 "2013-08-01T15:51:07Z")
I still don’t understand why the government would care about the Dome affecting butterfly migration and magnetic fields. Can someone please explain Barbie’s comment about that? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-dome/664541/29 "2013-08-01T16:44:54Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > I still don’t understand why the government would care about the Dome affecting butterfly migration and magnetic fields. Can someone please explain Barbie’s comment about that? I’m no agriculture expert, but I thought the explanation given was that butterflies are important for crop pollination and that disrupting their migrations could have an adverse effect on agriculture. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-dome/664541/30 "2013-08-01T16:49:07Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > Anyone interested in starting up a thread about how we Dopers would do things if whatever town the latest doperfest was held in got domed? I’d do it, but I’m not sure how “what if” threads are managed - loosely and humorously in Mostly Pointless, or with pragmatic considerations and cites in Great Debates, or perhaps as a role playing exercise in the Game Room? cite? ---
**Author:** ![Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/43a26b/32.png) [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pine_Fresh_Scent)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-dome/664541/31 "2013-08-01T22:32:05Z")
In the book only the first touch results in a shock. Then the character is “immune” to further shocks (King’s term). This show is really good cheese. I don’t know why, but I keep watching. OK, Dean Norris is probably 80% of it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-dome/664541.md?page=1)