(Before we begin I would like to point out that Honeycrisp Apples are amazing. It's like a cross between a Macintosh and a Gala and comically oversized. I have never seen them on the East Coast, but damn you guys are missing out.)
The "Edge of Space" jump: A corresponding fall to a schoolroom globe begins 1 millimeter above its surface. I'm just saying. -Neil deGrasse Tyson
I honestly lost a lot of respect for him at that instant in time. I get that he's all about far off planets and galaxies. I get that a lot of space people really hate it when the "lame-stream media" talk about vaguely high stuff in the atmosphere as being in space, when in fact what really matters about space is velocity. But while he's been busy preaching off his high astronomy horse, I think he's missed his own message.
STEM encompasses a really large number of fields. As much as Neil loves astronomy, he'd be well to remember that not every little kid that loves LEGOs or a telescope will grow up to be an astronomer. I love old airplanes, and I love talking to people about them -- but I do not expect everyone to walk away an old airplane freak. What I do hope people walk away with some small bit of inspiration.
In short, some crazy Austrian guy jumping out of a balloon at 125k feet is cool. Really fucking cool. So cool in fact, some little kid might get interested and start googling, and end up the next Tony Nuzzo, Tyler Beaulieu, or Ian Curtis. (yes, I dig the Oxford comma. Interestingly enough, most British writing standards actually advise against its use) And to diminish that with some offhanded mark is really counterproductive.
To end on a positive note, I think Adam Savage is the world's greatest role model. He's just so passionate. His pursuit of minute details on his prop replicas is something I really respect, and you get the feeling that he is one of those people that it is just interested in everything. If I don't know about it, I might be interested. And even if it's not my pressing concern at the moment, it might be useful down the road.
His TEDtalk does such a good job of summing up my world view.
tested.com has some really great videos of his workshop, but you've got to scroll through a bunch of pointless crap to get to.
I think you're spot on Ian, pushing your own interests on people has its limits. Not everyone is going to be an astronomer but hopefully they'll appreciate the folks that are and maybe their work will help them out someday.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a friend posted on my wall and said I reminded them of Adam Savage and I was really flattered by it actually. I'm not sure if they meant for it to be meaningful but I definitely appreciate a lot of qualities he exhibits.
Yeah, that was not Neil's most tactful statement and I back you a large amount on this.
ReplyDeleteThat being said I have an in to hang out with Neil back stage in a couple of months. So in case of internet crawling super spies, "HOW COULD U IAN?!?!? NEIL TYSON IS GREATEST EVRAR!"