Subsidized spin: military scientists go Hollywood.ROBERT BARKER barker a term for an animal that does not usually bark which makes a violent respiratory effort, often during a convulsion, accompanied by a sound which roughly resembles a dog's bark. , a program manager at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, says the portrayal of scientists in popular films is "downright down·right adj. 1. Thoroughgoing; unequivocal: a downright lie. 2. Forthright; candid. adv. Thoroughly; absolutely. insulting." In light of the declining numbers of U.S. students pursuing science and engineering degrees, he also thinks it's a national security concern. So the Pentagon is spending $300,000 over three years to send mid-career scientists, researchers, and engineers to a workshop at the television and screenwriting school run by the American Film Institute American Film Institute (AFI), nonprofit organization established in Washington, D.C., in 1967 by the National Endowment for the Arts to preserve and catalog American films and television, to provide work grants for new and established filmmakers, and to increase . Their mission: to portray por·tray tr.v. por·trayed, por·tray·ing, por·trays 1. To depict or represent pictorially; make a picture of. 2. To depict or describe in words. 3. To represent dramatically, as on the stage. their field--and themselves--as cool. The hope: that working scientists will be inspired to produce screenplays that, in the words of the institute's Joe Petricca, don't paint "scientists as losers." |
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