@@g00gleminus96 Metadioxin is fictional - as best as I can tell anyway. Dioxins are a group of compounds - substances made up of two or more different elements - which are very toxic to the human body. The purposeful production of them is forbidden under the Stockholm Convention, but this was from before that.
@@g00gleminus96 metadioxin is fictional as the above commentor says but it does poke fun at the tendency for similarly named compounds to have different toxicological profiles take sodium cyanide and sodium cyanate for example sodium cyanide is well cyanide and sodium cyanate is about as toxic as acetaminophen (1500mg ld50/kg vs 1944 mg ld50/kg ld 50 means the amount needed to cause 50% of the population given the dose to die) not exactly mothers milk but a risk that can be very easily dealt with in general.
I love the novelisation of this episode in the script book because it has Hacker realise that four people who know absolutely nothing about chemistry are discussing chemistry and he notes just how absurd the situation is. It demonstrates how daft government really is, with ministers appointed to run departments they have no knowledge or understanding of. Health ministers with no medical degrees, the Department of Defence minister having no military experience or knowledge, a Minister of Agriculture who knows nothing about farming and has lived in a city their entire life... As Hacker says in this episode, ministers are appointed specifically because they know nothing.
How daft government is? Why? You think private industry is better? Have you ever called a customer service phone line? A bigger cluster of dumbfucks was never assembled.
@@Cryptonymicus Yeah, if you're going to talk about mismanagement and farce in the private sector, citing customer service phone lines which are done on the cheap using the dregs of the workforce is really not the best way to go.
"Well all chemicals are dangerous..." He was about to make a good point. It's the amount that matters. Apples contain trace amounts of cyanide. But you'd have to eat so many, other factors would kill you first. It's possible there is a similar situation with MetaDioxin. It may be a diluted version of Dioxin, so much so, that it's basically harmless.
Both that and Jim agreeing to the public inquiry were good points by Jim, but Humphrey just swept it away because it wasn't furthering his goals immediately. Jim really should have put his foot down for the sake of public health.
More than that, it's inert. Non-reactive. Presumably, safe for consumption. But still, might be worth looking into, just to make sure that it actually is inert.
If a chemist were in the room (and of Metadioxin were a possible compound), or even if Jim Hacker were competent in Chemistry from college, he could give a satisfying answer. "You're confused on the name because you assume that similarly named compounds have similar properties. Chemists name compounds for their molecular structure, and the science of chemistry is so intricate that whatever property gives Metadioxin a different structure from dioxin is enough to ensure a wildly different behavior, so that it is inert. All chemical reactions are born from an instability, when a chemcial substance has too many or too few subatomic components such as neutrons or electrons. The desire to become stable drives most chemical reactions from nuclear fission, the formation of stars, the bubbling of a child's model volcano, and the oxygenation of your bloodstream. A stable compound, by its nature, avoids largely avoids interaction with the environment, and therefore is harmless. The air is filled with an inert gas that goes into your lungs every day without issue- Nitrogen.
@Henry Coy Dunning-Kruger effect then. Lots of people thinking they know better then they do, rather then just pretending they do. Its that whole we've had enough of experts, I know better mentality pushed by high-ranking people such as the entitled anti-intellectual Gove.
Also, "Normal" dioxin is also known as para-dioxin or 1,4-dioxin. Ortho-dioxin is 1,2 dioxin. Meta-dioxin would be 1,3 dioxin. The numbers mean there is an oxygen atom with a second oxygen atom at the second-number position. So, 1,2 has them right next to each other (at 1 and 2). 1,4 has them opposite each other in the molecule (1 at 12 o'clock, 1 at 6 o'clock), and the 1,3 is in between.
Sounds about right. People at the top who can roll off expression after expression in Latin/Greek, but don't understand a thing about science, engineering or anything practical. Wonder how many of the current cabinet have science or engineering degrees? Would be surprised if there are any.
public workers/civil servants don't usually have practical knowledge and generally no actual understanding of what they are doing. in my country they also tend to be home by 14:00.
@@CuFhoirthe88 there are a few words where, similar to super, it is used to mean "out side of, beyond, a higher level of abstraction" etc. Metaphysics, metamagic (spells that affect the behaviour of other spells rather than doing something directly themselves (in some games))
The lessons are as I see: Never go to a politician without knowing full facts of what it is about. And they lie, and short term monetary interests are all they and the market care about and the poisoning of environment is the least of their concerns as that is after many political cycles, something they do not compute.
That's the danger you have with democracy. When you elect someone, there first priority is always to keep their job. Democracy is a sickness which must be cured.
Didn't the cabinet have a specialist in the field to clearly explain that scientific name in plain English and its implications on the environment and health?
Fun fact: Dioxins are implicated in the disastrous health effects re: 'Agent Orange,' a "tactical defoliant" we used liberally in Vietnam. Just in case any of you lovely Brits were under the illusion the American government is any better 🙂
Hard to believe that that's Vera. I wonder what she really sounds like in real life, whether she's posh like she is here, or more blue collar like she is in Vera. _Edit:_ Actually, where you get to the end of the clip and she gets a bit frustrated, you can hear some of Vera leaking through in her voice there.
Wouldn't it be good if the teaching of science and modern languages were given greater priority in schools and if the people running the show actually had some understanding of science and engineering.
I worked in the civil service in the United States. It was more like Yes, Minister than I'd care to remember: My agency, a tax regulator, was headed by a political appointee, a healthcare company lobbyist.
Taki jest cały ten serial telewizyjny. Wiele historii zostało zaczerpniętych z rzeczywistych wydarzeń i prawdziwych ludzi, ale zmieniono je dla uzyskania humorystycznego efektu.
The BBC is forbidden by law from doing lots of things free, or even cheaply. It would be contrary to competition law. For example when the BBC had a few stores selling DVDs and stuff they had to be very careful NOT to undercut local WHSmiths, HMV etc because they could sue the BBC for using public money to compete unfairly. In putting clips on RU-vid I would assume the BBC still pays the writers royalties, but to do so out of licence fee funds for a clip shown on a commercial website would be naughty, and possibly illegal. It's the same reason BBC America has adverts. It would be illegal for the BBC to use licence fee money to fund broadcasts outside the UK public service remit AND other broadcasters in America could sue under competition laws. How could they compete fairly when they have to show adverts and a BBC channel didn't?
I was in the scholarship form, did Classics (Latin and Greek) AND Chemistry and Physics, and I would say that Classics is by far the easiest of the three, which is why I went on to do Physics. Classics is best reserved for thickos like Boris Johnson. And metadioxin doesn't exist.
