🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <C0puFv.Dro.1@cs.cmu.edu>, "UTADNX::UTDSSA::GREER"@utspan.span.nasa.gov writes:
|> Here is a report on the upcoming Shuttle mission from Francis
|> Slakey of The American Physical Society.  Is it just me, or does
|> anyone else think that NASA's Shuttle people engage in a little
|> too much hucksterism?

    No. I do think that "WHAT'S NEW" has a longstanding vendetta
against NASA (even after Robert Park stopped writing it), and this is
just another case. It's not materially different than the distortions
in Proxmire's Golden Fleece awards. "WHAT'S NEW" makes no pretense of
objectivity and is unworthy of a so-called professional society, IMO.

    The "Toys in Space" stuff may sound silly when presented in APS'
patronizing fashion, but having seen some of the videos NASA has made
in the past from such activities, I think it can produce excellent
educational material in basic mechanics. The dynamics of springs
(slinkys), magnets (marbles), airflow (paper airplanes), etc. in 0-g
are a lot closer to the idealized models in physics books than one
sees on Earth. I'd be surprised if Francis Slakey had ever seen these
videos, though.

|> I especially find the wake-up calls to
|> raucous music annoying - do those people really find that amusing?
|> Do they do their Christmas shopping at Spencer's Gifts?

    Why do you have such a big problem with a humorous tradition?
They're not playing the wakeup calls for your benefit, and it's not as
though there aren't enough real problems with NASA that people have to
invent silly excuses for bashing like this.
--
    Jon Leech (leech@cs.unc.edu)    __@/
    Brice: "How many people don't know anything about it?"
    Andy: "About what?"