That man could make soggy cereal sound interesting. I love his passion for science. You don't see passion like that much anymore for anything.

I've brought it up before but his Star Talk podcast is pretty good. He does treat it more like a radio show than a podcast but I've learned quite a bit.

Albuquerque shout out! Nice.

Contrabulous Flabtraption: He's not my favorite astrophysicist by a long shot - just the one on TV the most.

I like him. No, he's probably not the best by a long shot, but the best aren't approachable. He's warm and engaging, and can speak with a passion that can get some interested in the core sciences. He's better than any so called "guidance counselor". Get interesting stuff out there, make it sound fun. I especially like that he's good at explaining things to a wide general audience in a way we get. Astrophysics is a mild hobby of mine. So having someone who can explain it and doesn't make me think too deeply about it is sometimes just what I need.


And Alex Fillipenko is on tv/poscasts LOTS more than him.

I like him too.

:)

One of the biggest mistakes that Obama has made is canceling Constellation. Not that it didn't deserved to be cancelled because it was overbloated, because it probably was. The mistake is he did not replace it with something better. A moon base space race would be an economic juggernaut that would get us out of the dismal economy and spur growth for several decades.

he seems cool as shiat but that he rolls by three names makes him a douchebag by association.

NdT is my homeboy!!!! He talks, I listen. Star Talk is great. He is fun to listen to and fun to watch (Nova Science Now). Plus he is a pimp.

Some one please cue up that image of him back in the day with the guns for arms and big sideburns.

I want to get high with NdT. You know that homey smokes some great weed.

I don't want to go to the moon yet. But dammit, I want to send robots to the moon to start digging tunnels, sealing them, analyzing soil, and planning a permanent settlement. I want it bad, like Dr. Tyson does. I want the ability to mine without even the remotest possibility of harming an ecosystem, and getting platinum group elements and helium 3.
I want an observatory on the moon with a spinning liquid mirror that makes Keck look like a Tasco.
I want a place where something truly visionary can be built in one-sixth earth's gravity. I want a thin-film plant making mylar and using it to build reflectors and smelting metal IN SPACE.

But no, all of the new interesting things are going to be more dot-coms. I'm bored with watching movies on my computer and video chatting with people halfway across the world. Dammit, I want people to get together and do something absurdly expensive but useful in the long-term.

But first, I think we should cure viral disease. Or just nuke the poor and bulldoze their bodies into giant trenches, whatever they did in Star Trek to get to their utopia. Let's do that.

Uh oh, another intelligent African-American man.

You know what that means don't you?

He's probably not really American.

mekki: That man could make soggy cereal sound interesting. I love his passion for science. You don't see passion like that much anymore for anything.

I think his genius is in being able to speak in a way that any semi-intelligent person should be able to understand.

Not many scientists can do that effectively.

Eddie Adams from Torrance: treecologist: Uh oh, another intelligent African-American man.

You know what that means don't you?

He's probably not really American.

deGrasse? Sounds like he might be from French Guyana.

WHERE BIRF CERTICFT TYSON? WHER

He's French?

That means he'd just want to surrender our moon base to the Rushins!

Contrabulous Flabtraption: He's not my favorite astrophysicist by a long shot - just the one on TV the most.

Why is there a 1/2-second clip of Seinfeld at the 2:08 mark? WTF?

Mad Tea Party: Contrabulous Flabtraption: He's not my favorite astrophysicist by a long shot - just the one on TV the most.

[weknowmemes.com image 640x495]

lmao.

Private industry works via the profit motive. Where's the profit going to come from with a moon base?

Contrabulous Flabtraption: He's not my favorite astrophysicist by a long shot - just the one on TV the most.

He's taken over the niche that Carl Sagan filled - he's the guy who makes science interesting and comprehensible for the average person. I'm not sure if he's contributed much to the body of scientific knowledge (although as I recall, he was one of the first to bring up the idea that Pluto doesn't meet the definition of a planet), but his contribution to the public awareness of science is very important.

Snapper Carr: Contrabulous Flabtraption: He's not my favorite astrophysicist by a long shot - just the one on TV the most.

He's taken over the niche that Carl Sagan filled - he's the guy who makes science interesting and comprehensible for the average person. I'm not sure if he's contributed much to the body of scientific knowledge (although as I recall, he was one of the first to bring up the idea that Pluto doesn't meet the definition of a planet), but his contribution to the public awareness of science is very important.

Seriously? What space shows are you guys watching?

Minus 1 Charisma: Why is there a 1/2-second clip of Seinfeld at the 2:08 mark? WTF?

Why not?

Minus 1 Charisma: Snapper Carr: Contrabulous Flabtraption: He's not my favorite astrophysicist by a long shot - just the one on TV the most.

He's taken over the niche that Carl Sagan filled - he's the guy who makes science interesting and comprehensible for the average person. I'm not sure if he's contributed much to the body of scientific knowledge (although as I recall, he was one of the first to bring up the idea that Pluto doesn't meet the definition of a planet), but his contribution to the public awareness of science is very important.

Seriously? What space shows are you guys watching?

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Hawking was very active in that role in the 80's and early 90's but as his health has deteriorated, he's become less active. I think he's aware he doesn't have a lot of time left and has concerned himself with doing actual science than educating the public.

Green is good at explaining quantum mechanics (as much as it can be anyway - I think Feynman was right and no one really understands it), but that and string theory is all he really talks about. NDT talks about a much broader range of subjects within the scientific body of knowledge.

treecologist: mekki: That man could make soggy cereal sound interesting. I love his passion for science. You don't see passion like that much anymore for anything.

I think his genius is in being able to speak in a way that any semi-intelligent person should be able to understand.

Not many scientists can do that effectively.

Not just understand but to get that layperson just as excited about the subject as he is and thirsting for more.

Can a brotha get some decent formatting aroun' here?

Jesus, who edits the web pages at MSNBC??

ceo mounted everest
via well acclimated persons' limited gains
still a douche

40 years ago, people who didn't like JFK probably thought that putting a man on the moon by 1970 was probably too grand of an idea.

Cloudchaser Sakonige the Red Wolf: 40 years ago, people who didn't like JFK probably thought that putting a man on the moon by 1970 was probably too grand of an idea.

We call people like that "conservatives" and they should never be taken seriously. They eat poop.

Brian Greene and carl sagan are the best at explaining things.

"would Newt's speech have made the same impact in Albuquerque?" probably not as much as in Las Cruces... where Spaceport America is.

seriously, Bashir's a farking dumbass. "we heard people like richard branson talking up shuttle trips. nothing's happened." yeah man, nothing's happening.

ltdanman44: Brian Greene and carl sagan are the best at explaining things.


You better believe I am.

ltdanman44: Brian Greene

His former high school classmate Lisa Randall is just as good and as a bonus, she's a bit more of a big deal in the physics world.

hey chaps, what's going on in this thread?

And here's a nice hour plus, broken up into five parts, with Edward Witten (new window) Yes he's smart, even physicists think he's awesomely smart.

Watching grass grow is more exciting than that guy. Michio Kaku FTW!

/I know I know

stonelotus: "would Newt's speech have made the same impact in Albuquerque?" probably not as much as in Las Cruces... where Spaceport America is.

seriously, Bashir's a farking dumbass. "we heard people like richard branson talking up shuttle trips. nothing's happened." yeah man, nothing's happening.

I think his point was in asking if people not directly involved with the space program would still cheer for such an audacious return to flight. The farmers and construction workers in the midlands who usually have more down to earth concerns.

That part he got wrong.


Normal people care about spaceflight. It may not be their number one priority, but they want to see us doing impressive things and making the future happen.

The people who are less interested are in the media and on the coasts.
Space exploration has its dull moments with no headlines, and those in the big city don't see it as a cash cow in the same way they might for other programs.

In a way, Gingrich struck a blow in favor of space by making a hot topic again.
Judging by the public reaction to his plan, the interest was always there. Question is if that interest can be returned in votes, or at least be made clear enough so that his opponents step up their game.

If this guy had been around in the 60s we would have never made it to the moon in the first place.

Trackball: If this guy had been around in the 60s we would have never made it to the moon in the first place.

He was around in the 60s. He was 2!

Cloudchaser Sakonige the Red Wolf: 40 years ago, people who didn't like JFK probably thought that putting a man on the moon by 1970 was probably too grand of an idea.

Yes, but they also thought that beating the Russians was more important, so it didn't matter. If/when China starts getting close to manned moon missions, we might see some progress in that area, assuming they don't own us by then.

WhyteRaven74: [paulburton.co.uk image 400x430]
hey chaps, what's going on in this thread?

I came in here to see if Brian Cox had a shout out. Very nice.

When he isn't at CERN he is doing game shows. (new window)

Also, nice Witten link.

I only see this as Newt bad mouthing Nasa so he can cut their funding even further if he gets elected. He seems to think that private enterprise can do better and will claim that he is waiting for the private sector to gear up and get the job done. Of course the private sector will get all kinds of money from the government to get started but it will just be his cronies getting the funds like the Solyndra deal that Obama pulled. He also wants to look like some kind of visionary and make the big world changing speech like JFK thinking that public might buy that BS and actually vote for him.

Tyson is cool and all but

How can anybody take Gingrich seriously on this? Am I the only one who remembers how often the Republican Congress under Clinton cut funding for space exploration and science? Am I the only one who remembers how Gingrich's majority tried to kill Hubble? Seeing Newt biatch and moan about how we don't have a new shuttle when he's the one who cut the program to design one and kicked the project to those do nothings in the private sector, and about how terrible the International Space Station was when it was Congressional Republicans who scaled back our contribution to it, is pretty rich.

And please folks, please, listen to the other side of what he's saying. Gingrich might be boosting space stuff -in Florida, in a town when that's a big industry, during a primary race where every vote counts- but how does he say we should pay for it? By cutting unemployment insurance. By cutting food stamps, and medicare, and medicaid, and Social Security. The same guy talking about how sad it is Obama has cut space science funding thinks Palestinians don't exist and that we should immediately go to war with Iran. He's spinning these fantasies about Moon Bases while calling for more wars, more tax-payer give-aways to the likes of Ratheon and Boeing, and "less regulation"; yeah, because the gigantic fraud perpetrated over the 5 years leading up to the financial meltdown in 2007 was the result of too much regulatory activity. Whatever your feelings about our gov investing in space exploration, please recognize that Gingrich's stated plan for paying that particular bill is the hollowing out of every social program, helping real people stay alive right now, which we possess.

Newt says it with such conviction *eyeroll*

He tried to have a JFK moment there and he is no JFK. Newt most likely said it, heard the words coming out of his mouth and was thinking how in the hell am I going to get the fantasy funded...and fell flat.

I have a better idea. Let's convert the moon into an actual Death Star, that way we can defend Earth from the extinction event asteroids and kill brown people from space.

/No bucks, no Buck Rodgers.

way south:
Normal people care about spaceflight. It may not be their number one priority, but they want to see us doing impressive things and making the future happen.

The people who are less interested are in the media and on the coasts.
Space exploration has its dull moments with no headlines, and those in the big city don't see it as a cash cow in the same way they might for other programs.

In a way, Gingrich struck a blow in favor of space by making a hot topic again.
Judging by the public reaction to his plan, the interest was always there. Question is if that interest can be returned in votes, or at least be made clear enough so that his opponents step up their game.

I'm a libertarian leaning Republican and I'd be cool with a large tax increase if it all went to human spaceflight just because it's human freakin' spaceflight.