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.
Interesting link Smokey
“If by doing great things, people are inspired, well then that’s wonderful,” Griffin said. “If you get it in the wrong order … it becomes an empty shell.”
Griffin added: “That is exactly what is in danger of happening.”
He also said that while welcome, Muslim-nation cooperation is not vital for U.S. advancements in space exploration.
“There is no technology they have that we need,” Griffin said.
The former administrator stressed that any criticism should be directed at Obama, not Bolden, since NASA merely carries out policy.
End
In other words,what is there to praise about Muslim technology?
Next somebody from Obama’s cabinet will be telling us that women are respected in Muslim nations..oh wait.
Al Jazeera is a well-known anti-semitic organization. I would think that Bolden, a smart guy would have understood this by now, but the Jew haters in the White House and the State Department overruled him. Sad to say the least, because Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton deserve the overwhelming majority of the blame for this fau paux.
I think it’s clear from the link Smokey posted that what Bolden was talking about was NASA’s public outreach priorities, not its internal functions and scientific priorities.
Much ado about nothing.
~snip~
As a Canadian, I must register my offence. When it comes to other nations who should be made to “feel good about their historic contribution,” surely Canada must rank first in order of merit. By providing the feet of the lunar lander and the arms of the space shuttles, we have proven ourselves to be valuable limbs to the body of space exploration — at least back when NASA was its acknowledged head, and not its butt.
Oh, that’s just what the people in charge say to keep their appointments. The guys who actually do the work at NASA are charged with fixing Toyotas.
NASA = Not A Science Agenda
But hey- we can hope they’ll change – maybe ask those in charge to do something. They got us this far. More money always helps. A new ministry is ever-ready to investigate. Welcome to the casino, friend. Political Style Fun for all! You’re guaranteed to enjoy it – if you fail to enjoy your fleecing, come back for another one.
You can have anything and everything you ever dreamed of! *
(*in your dreams)
GeneDoc:
I agree. General Bolden is a career Marine, there is no way he is going to disobey an order from his Commander-in-Chief.
How did we get someone in the office of the president with such misguided priorities?Simple; the people were fed up with the Republicans so they threw them out and put in Democrats. Judging by the current mood of the country, this November they’ll throw out the Dems and put Republicans back in. So we’ll be right back where we started. This is like watching a ping pong game. Why don’t we throw out both of them and put in 3rd party candidates and/or independents?
JinOH says:
July 6, 2010 at 2:53 pm
America: 1776-2010 It was a good run.
——
I’m sure you meant 1776-2008.
[do not spam multiple threads. one post on tips and notes please. ~ ctm]
Ken Haylock says: (July 6, 2010 at 3:16 pm) 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 …
There is pause for thought in this evangelically enthusiastic biker’s response. I do not believe it should be anything like a NASA priority, but as an outreach to American (and beyond) kids of the religion it could well prove an inspiration. Realising they were not coming from original ignorance but from a previous time of knowledge that is going through its own dark ages may be enough to give some inspiration — and even the smallest “some” is a step towards a general enlightenment.
Imagine working for NASA under these new marching orders. The first question you’ll be asked about that scientific proposal you’ve worked your heart out on is, “Will this project make Muslims feel better about themselves?” Better be ready with a snappy salute to “The Religion of The Sword” if you plan anther step up the NASA career ladder, boys and girls.
Claude Harvey
@stevengoddard says:
July 6, 2010 at 2:54 pm
“…In the rankings of what inspires children, presidential speeches come right near the very bottom. Suicide bombers, shoe bombers, underwear bombers, bus bombers, plane bombers, school attackers and hotel attackers rank even lower….”
Actually, what I read tells me that these things rank very high in the current Muslim world – they are the aspirations of Muslim boys everywhere (and lately some girls, although the ones who actually carry these things out seem to have been mentally challenged, but hey, girls don’t count for much at the very best).
[I don’t disagree with a word of that but this is not the place. ~ ctm]
Snip away, dear Charles.
[I did. ~ ctm]
The man said “Yes, we can!”, he never said what.
As an American citizen, I’m thinking I should plan my NASA burka outfit now.
Oh, and for you astronomy fans, Charlie Bolden flew the mission (as pilot) that deployed the Hubble.
Hate to see what we have done and are doing to NASA. It’s acute now, but it’s been going on since the early 70s. Encapsulated in the concept that “we should be spending all that money on problems here on earth.” Such short-sighted nonsensical thinking.
Looking at the photo I thought this was going to be a kludge fixer upper:
http://thereifixedit.com/
But then I watched the video… now I am just confused. What does NASA stand for? North American Synergies with Arabia?
Thomas: “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.”
So what? Should NASA’s first priority be to promote these ‘many fine scientists’? Even if this is true, why should NASA care?
And let’s quantify these “many fine scientists” here a moment. I agree that Nobel prizes are an unreliable indicator. So let’s look at patents. Surely a society brimming with math and science would be inventing all sorts of things.
So here’s a list of “patents granted by country”: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_pat_gra-economy-patents-granted . You’ll notice right off that the top 25 are all non-Muslim countries. The US is #3 with 289 patents per million people. The bottom countries on the list have only 1 patent per million people. Iran is one of these. What you might not notice is that a bunch of Muslim countries are not even on the list, including: Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, and more. Saudi Arabia established a patent office in 1990 and granted its first patents in 1996.
I’d say if NASA’s top priority is to help Muslim nations “feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering” they’ve got their work cut out for them, no wonder they have no time for space exploration.
I believe the good president has confused Muslims with Arabs.
The Arabs have contributed a great to early science, Islam has not.
But so have the Sumerians, the Greek, the Egyptians, the Romans etc etc.
Obama from day one pursued a startegy based on Muslim anger toward the west being the west’s fault, and that extending a hand a friendship through his speech in Cairo, he really did think that the tension would all go away and people would suddenly sit down and negotiate in good faith instead of engaging in hijackings and suicide bombings. Despite having his initiative rebuffed at every turn, he forges on with new tactics to tackle what he his certain much be the case, that Muslim anger is “our fault” and so we should apologize and appease.
The fact is that the only people who are capable of giving Muslims some sense of pride in terms of their scientific accomplishments is their own teachers and leaders. Any culture incapable of doing this for themselves, or unwilling to, is not going to suddenly change their direction because of anything NASA can do. I wouldn’t expect NASA’s opinion the historical perspective of science to be accepted anymore than if they documented tradional dance through the centuries for them. Who are they going to believe? The things NASA says about Islamic scientific history or the local Imam raving at the evil that is America where everything is a lie?
North American Sycophantical Administration
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Anthony. I realise this was probably a political post regarding a government entity which historically was at the front of science but it has evolved into a denigration of people of another faith. The armchair bigots came out in force to spread opinion and ignorant invective in full. I also realise you can “modify the policy as needed, including on an event basis” but this – words fail me, is horrid. when I met you in Adelaide recently you would not have known I was Muslim and I doubt it would have mattered much.
This site is about dispelling myth and ignorance. This entry belittles this otherwise fine site.
Patrik says: “I believe the good president has confused Muslims with Arabs.
The Arabs have contributed a great to early science, Islam has not.”
The “Golden Age” of “Islamic science” was between the 7th and 13th centuries, during the time of the (West) European “dark ages”. But the reasons for this have absolutely nothing to do with the Islamic religion which actively discourages knowledge outside of itself, as it considers its holy book to be the ultimate repository of all knowledge.
This period was also the time of the greatest Muslim conquests.
Many of the scientific advances credited to Islam, like the zero, were actually borrowed from other cultures conquered by the Muslims. Conquered populations contributed greatly to the history of “Muslim science” until gradually being decimated by conversion to Islam. The increase in Muslim concentration within a population was directly proportional to the decline of scientific achievement. In the last 600 years the Muslim world has run out of new civilizations to cannibalize and has contributed little towards science.
Getting back to the science…
Abu-Musa Jabir Ibn-Hayan, 103-200 Hijri/ 721-815 AC
Jabir is considered the founder of experimental chemistry.
“Jabir used to say about this experimental method that ”the condition for perfecting this craft, is work and experiment. He who does not work or experiment will achieve nothing.”
Also, in the first article in the great book of properties he says: ”In this book we mention the properties of what we have seen after experiments and tests regardless of what we have heard or read. And thus we mentioned what proved to be right and we refused what proved to be wrong and we also compared what we discovered to what people mentioned” ”
Observation compared to opinion.
“His procedures can be summarized in three steps:
The first: the chemist has to set an assumption through his observations so as to explain the phenomenon he wants to explain.
The second: to deduce conclusions based theoretically on his assumptions.
The third: to take these conclusions back to nature and see whether it will support his new findings or not. If they proved to be true, the hypothesis changes into a scientific law that can be relied upon in detecting how nature will react under certain circumstances.”
I wonder what Jabir’s opinion would be about the “scientific” method of those who use and prefer (climate) models to real world observations, especially when the observations demonstrate shortcomings in the models. I suspect he would have approved of old NASA and old CSIRO, when they stuck to the science.
Steven mosher says:
July 6, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Third and perhaps foremost?
who friggin talks like that?
nice shot