I Think We All Saw This Coming December 5, 2012
Posted by geoff in News.trackback
Remembering that Charles Bolden said this a few years ago:
“When I became the NASA administrator — or before I became the NASA administrator — he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science … and math and engineering,” Bolden said in the interview.
…it’s no surprise that people are saying this today:
NASA is adrift without a coherent vision for where it should be going, an independent panel of space, science and engineering experts says.
But the report by the National Academy of Sciences doesn’t blame the space agency. It faults the president, Congress and the nation for not giving NASA clear direction. At the same time, the report said NASA is doing little to further the stated goal of the White House to send astronauts to a nearby asteroid.
Panel member Bob Crippen, a retired NASA manager and astronaut who piloted the first space shuttle mission, said he has never seen the space agency so adrift.
Oh, the President gave clear direction all right. Yes indeedy. It was just direction that nothing whatsoever to do with NASA’s real mission.
So they don’t have one.
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Innocent Bystanders 
Well done finding the cause of NASA’s lazy drift.
This president tears the heart out of all our greater aspirations.
If he had purposely agitated against NASA, he would have gotten his ass kicked.
Simply leaving the agency missionless- or, rather, giving it a dubious mission that it is ill-suited for – accomplishes the same goal.
This president tears the heart out of all our greater aspirations.
I still can’t decide whether it’s because he runs the government like a social worker getting his inspiration from his old college bull sessions, or because he’s awesomely clever and dismantling American strength on character on purpose.
I’ve always leaned toward the former interpretation, but I’m starting to Weeble my way to the other side.
The reason can be as simple as a visceral hostility and opposition to American grandness.
By what right do we do these things, when others in the world are suffering?
…meaning, “by what right do Americans reach to the stars when other people are suffering here on Earth.” I was not as clear as I could have been.
“by what right do Americans reach to the stars when other people are suffering here on Earth.”
Yeah – that’s the social worker part. Then you add in the *takes a big toke and talks in that breath-sucked-in voice* “wouldn’t it be great if we took all the money from the rich people and spread it around?” */end toke* silly bull session stuff and you’ve captured most of his policy.
Yeah, and that’s in line with this ‘reaching out to Muslim nations’ bull, too.
Turning gifted rocket scientists into social-outreach workers for the third worlders who hate us. Great use of our most valuable minds and resources.
…and really, how many times can you tell someone how great Algebra is? Can’t you just leave a voice mail once a year, or send a card?
Dear Muhammed,
Wow! I can’t believe it’s been a whole year already.
Listen buddy.
Algebra is AWESOME. Thanks so much. We use that shit ALL the time.
Good times, brah.
Love,
Chuckie B.
Ali:
Hope you’re feeling good about your historic contribution to math and science and engineering. Well, not your personal contribution, of course – that would mean you were alive 1300 years ago!! LOL.
But seriously, take some time out from persecuting Jews, Hindus, and Christians to take pride in those contributions, because wallowing in the glories of yesteryear is every bit as valid as doing cutting edge research today. Besides, it’s not like we at NASA will be doing cutting edge work for long – at least not while I’m around!
Be well,
DJ C. Bold
P.S.
Thanks bunches also for translating some ancient Greek texts into Arabic, thus preserving a tiny, minuscule fraction of the knowledge that was destroyed by the burning of the library of Alexandria. Remember, that place you guys torched? Give yourselves a pat on the back for that one.
Dear Arabs,
Did you know al-Khwarizmi was a Persian? ‘Cause he was.
Love,
History
I hate to give away secrets to the other side, but let me offer another explanation – liberals just don’t like space. I voted for Obama and I’ve never really cared for space tv shows, space movies, space books. Any time a story goes into space, I lose interest. (Same goes for robots, “creatures” and dream sequences, btw.)
So could it be as simple as Obama and his cronies just never grokked Star Trek (despite much smoking of weed)?
I really hope he’s kidding about that.
Dear Kids:
I hope you’re excited about a career in math and science. Just think – when you get out of graduate school you can come to NASA and devote your career to getting other kids to take the math and science track.
It’s the Ponzi scheme of math and science education!
C. B.
Space…
the final frontierwho gives a fuck? Gimme my bamaphone!liberals just don’t like space
So, liberals try to destroy what they don’t like or understand?
Good to know.
I was going to say something about how unprecedented it is to say that the executive destroyed the mission of a huge national agency, not because of serious flaws within the agency or the existing mission, but because the executive ‘just doesn’t like space.’ But I have a feeling Mark would just claim he was kidding anyway.
Somebuddy needs to explain to liberals that the reason their iPhone can tell them the location of the nearest sushi bar is because there is expensive equipment in space.
Of course, those space gadgets only work because the Muslims invented algebra. Nobody else would have thunk of that. Einstein would never have gotten beyond his job as a patent office clerk, but for the genius of Muslims. The General Theory of Relativity is just fancy-pants algebra.
Einstein may have chipped in a few ideas of his own.
And, of course, our entire modern economy can be traced back to the House of Medici in Florence, who invented the double-entry bookkeeping system we still use today, and created the banking industry, thanks to the genius of those brilliant Muslims who invented algebra.
Oh wait, that just involves arithmetic. Never mind.
Thanks to the genius those Muslims, George Washington got a promising start in life as a surveyor able to precisely define property lines.
Oh wait, that involves trigonometry. Never mind.
Actually, if you think about it, the basics of algebra are less complicated than feeding a camel.
“If I have seen farther than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of Muslims.”
– Sir Isaac Newton (more or less)
I mean, with algebra you just put stuff on the opposite sides of an “=” sign that are actually equal.
When feeding a camel, you have to avoid being spat upon or bitten.
My Dick = Awesome.
There. See? Anybody can do algebra, or logic, the same thing really.
(Actually, this is an example of the logical fallacy known as argumentum ex silencio.)
We’re Standing on the Shoulders of…well…
Dear Muslims,
Did you know that x^2 + 8x + 16 = (x + 4)^2 ? Ha ha, just kidding, of course you knew that! Here’s a shiny gold star for you, champ!
Love,
Everyone
Michael – I tried that calculation and got a slightly different result:
My Dick > Awesome
Maybe you forgot to round off?
>> liberals just don’t like space
Or any other examples of American exceptionalism and achievement.
Duh.
I took History in college way back before PC.
One book I read (and got tested on) had the letters of a British architect who was tasked with designing a mosque complete with dome.
He thought he would utilize the expertise of the local ”smart” Muslims to design the dome.
Not one of them had any idea….”that’s for our Byzantine slaves to do,” he heard.
So, of course that story had to be purged from modern-day history books.
Basically, anything Liberals love, they want to make mandatory. Anything they hate, they want to ban.
The ‘choice’ argument is deemed valid for abortions but not for anything else. According to Liberals your choice is immaterial when they want to force you to use depressing fluorescent bulbs, tiny tinny cars and toilets that cannot flush down even smallish pieces of Liberals.
I can guarantee you that if Liberals were on the other side of the abortion debate, they would invent hundreds of reasons for how abortion is morally wrong and takes away from collective national betterment and how you are a racist for supporting abortion.
Liberals have no ideology other than power grabbing and endlessly tinkering with every fucking thing with the hopes of one day achieving their fruity idea of utopia.
“The ‘choice’ argument is deemed valid for abortions but not for anything else.”
Even that’s not really true. They don’t think people should choose to have the baby in lots of circumstances. Just ask Sarah Palin about liberal notions of personal choice when the baby might be mentally handicapped.