Consider this a bonus Quote of the Week, but since it’s not climate/science/weather related I didn’t give it top billing for QOTW this week. That honor went to a study from the Max Planck Institute.
You are probably thinking though that I’m going to write about something related to satellite sensing or NASA GISS. Maybe with Jim Hansen or Gavin Schmidt as topics? No, there’s even more FAIL than those two can muster. It’s about their boss.
h/t to a zillion people who wrote in, but borrowing a bit from Russ Steele at NCWatch:
Charles Bolden, head of NASA, tells Al Jazeera in a video that:
…the “foremost” task President Obama has given him is “to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with predominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.”
Thus, NASA’s primary mission is no longer to enhance American science and engineering or to explore space, but to boost the self-esteem of “predominantly Muslim nations.”
I can think of a few satirical images I could create to illustrate this folly, but they’d probably start a Jyllands-Posten style jihad.
Exploring space didn’t even make the top three things Obama wants Bolden to accomplish. The other two are:
…”re-inspire children to want to get into science and math” and “expand our international relationships,”
See the video below if you find this quote unbelievable.
An important nit to pick: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Note that “Aeronautics” preceeds “Space” in its name and that the agency still has the responsibility of its predecessor NACA for doing aviation research and standards-setting.
Eric Paisley,
As one who was well aware of what was going on back then, I’d add Jimmy Carter’s name to the list of suspects. When Carter convinced the Shah to go into exile, the Shah gave an interview in which he said [going by memory, may not be an exact quote]: “I should have never taken his [Carter’s] advice to stop paying monthly stipends to the mullahs.”
The mullahs were under control because of their state sponsored income. Anyone who spoke out against the government risked losing their paycheck.
Come to think of it, that’s exactly what’s going on today with the government/NGO grant system.
OK, here are my answers…
The country was … Contra.
The October surprise was the U.S. media finally figuring out that Jimmy Carter would probably not be re-elected.
Hey, I had a lot of Iranian friends also at college and never heard of the MI6 success, rather I recall many originally starry-eyed Iranians who returned home for a time in early 1980, dribbling back in ones and twos to Salt Lake City with horror stories of what Iran had become under Khomeni.
David, UK says: “Hey, those guys gave us the abacus, so don’t knock ‘em. I wouldn’t be without mine.”
The abacus far preceded Islam. The Sumerians, Egyptians, Greece, Rome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abacus
‘Pathetic’ is the kindest adjective I can find to describe this. NASA inspired this nation and more to reach for the stars both in reality and our imaginations. Now groveling for mediocrity is the new excellence. I think Kipling exposed the roots in his ‘Gods of the Copybook Headings’.
“Therefore, there is long game value in pointing out very clearly that when we in the european judeo-christian part of the world were doing the Dark Ages, the Islamic world was doing the cutting edge scientific thought, the astronomy, the literature, the architecture, music and all sorts of great works, and that a lot of the science we in the first world are doing today stands on the shoulders of work done by the great Islamic scholars and of the middle ages.”
There were scientists in the Middle East who did great work DESPITE religion, not because of it. The muslim rulers today are the inheritors of an ideology that destroyed science, so please, don’t conflate scientific achievement with anything written in the Koran.
The head of NASA can appeal to children all over the world if he wishes, but to appeal to the “Muslim world” as if the religion has anything to contribute to science is idiocy.
After listening to the video, this whole thread and comments is just one crazy overreaction after another. I think it’s obvious that the guy is giving an interview to the Arab world, and so he is going to emphasize right off the bat the general diplomatic policy of outreach to the Arab world. Is this not frickin’ obvious? And this whole “three things Obama charged me to do” are obviously not the only three things given him to do, they are obviously the three talking points this guy wants to bring to this particular audience. And so of course the first one he brings has to do with the Arab world, since that’s who he’s talking to.
The idea that this means Obama instructed this guy to make these the TOP three things to do with NASA is just nonsense. They are obviously three EXTRA things to do, and there’s no mention of priorities at all, such as these being the top three priorities. You guys are just reading your own political bias into this. Sometimes the smears of conservative politics on this supposedly non-political scientific site are pretty annoying, but this is just over the top.
Smokey
Carter was obviously deeply involved .
The Mullahs were the Shah’s allies. No surprise MI6 replaced the Shah with them. The original 1978/79 uprising was secular.
MI6 were going to put the Mullahs in power in 1953, but used the Shah instead.
***
The Anglo-American operation in Iran in 1953 to remove the popular Mossadeq government, which had nationalised British oil operations, involved plotting with Ayatollah Seyyed Kashani, the founder of the militant fundamentalist group Devotees of Islam. MI6 and the CIA financed demonstrations against Mossadeq, and even discussed installing Kashani – a predecessor of Ayatollah Khomeini – as Iran’s leader after the coup. The Foreign Office noted that in power Kashani “would conceivably accept western money”, but viewed him as “a complete political reactionary”, and therefore not reliable as a long-term asset
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/05/bin-laden-radical-islam-collusion
Mohammad Al Wright and his brother Mohammad ibn Wright invented flight. A capacity later developed by Mohammad Al Boeing of course; and who could forget the M26 Flying Fortress?
When do I get NASA funding for my research on pogo sticks? That will pacify bin Laden …
NACA started out with 12 people and an annual budget of $5,000.
From a speech Obama gave at NASA on 4/15/10:
Noting “the sense that folks in Washington — driven less by vision than by politics — have for years neglected NASA’s mission and undermined the work of the professionals who fulfill it,” the president said the budget increase changes that.
Obama is projecting. Again.
Kevin Kilty, enough with the revisionism. Yes, they are called Arabic numerals but are, in fact Hindu numerals; the muslims took them from the polytheists. And all that astronomical and mathematical learning was taken from the Hindus and Greeks.
Seems unfair to accuse a politician of making political statements. And I’m very proud of all that we American’s do to try to help with rest of the world. In fact much of my opposition to the green movement hings on the fact that it’ll be nearly impossible to lift from poverty the one billion humans who live and die on the edge of starvation if we abandon hydrocarbon fuels.
I know many fine scientists from the Muslim world, even scientists who are devout practicing Muslims. And without question they have a rich scientific heritage. A heritage that forms a foundation upon with modern science rests.
If this site is going to degenerate into a racist-rant site, I’m really going to miss it.
JinOH July 6, 2010 at 2:53 pm
“America: 1776-2010 It was a good run.”
Very clever, JinOH!
dr.bill says:
July 6, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Reply: All your comments are belong to us. ~ ctm
Is BORAT standing in as moderator this evening?
I am not surprised. I am not even appalled. This kind of evil nonsense coming from Washington is to be expected: we let loose this evil, we asked for it.
Our welfare-state civilization is obviously flawed in its very foundation. Perhaps, for any positive change to take place, the surreal, Kafkaesque, self-loathing world of the modern “progressive thinking” must run it course, and collapse under its own weight.
Aliens won’t help, we must be our own enemies. Think of it as of an evolution in action.
phlogiston says: “Muslims dont need us to patronisingly tell them their own history.”
Perhaps they do. This is what they think of themselves today – “In light of the beheading of headmasters, it’s not surprising that, despite a population of over 1.2 billion, modern Muslims contribute so little in the fields of science, art, literature, music, or, for that matter, anything that expands the horizon of human knowledge.”
http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/headmaster-beheaded-in-afghanistan-by-taliban/
Phlogiston, one of the great impellors of the Rennaisance was the fall of Constantinople, taken and pillaged by the muslims in 1458 if I remember correctly. All the scholars who could, escaped to Italy.
[1453. ~dbs]
David, UK says: July 6, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Hey, those guys gave us the abacus, so don’t knock ‘em. I wouldn’t be without mine.
Nope
Invention:
abacus
Definition:
A counting device: a mechanical device for making calculations consisting of a frame mounted with rods along which beads or balls are moved
Inventor:
Chinese in c3000 BC
Doug
Climate related:
So if we add the actual temperatures of Tehran to the anomalies and smooth over a 1500 mile radius we hide the decline.
Not climate related:
Imagine what the jihadists can do with all those satellites.
I think this qualifys as an “EPIC FAIL” followed by a string of profanity involving clowns, gong shows, and cluster—-s.
“Charles Bolden, head of NASA, tells Al Jazeera in a video that:…the “foremost” task President Obama has given him is “to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and ..to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.
Exploring space didn’t even make the top three things Obama wants Bolden to accomplish. ”
At the end of his term maybe Obama can embolden Bolden to “reach out to the Americans and help them feel good about their historic contribution to space exploration”
Maybe he could do this from a Russian Soyuz rocket on his way to the International Space Staion, as the only means for Americans to reach there.
So then, the initials ‘NASA’ actually now stands for the ‘Nation Association of Socialistic Appeasers?’
John Q Public says: July 6, 2010 at 3:28 pm
The longer Obama is at the controls, the more I wonder how he got elected. This guy really hasn’t ever had a real job, has he?
Well John, Oprah Winfrey has a lot to answer for. Maybe she should have given him a job on her show instead –he sure has the talent for that! – might have spared us all a lot of grief. Bring back Dubbya I say. All is forgiven!
Doug