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NASA "Mohawk Guy" To Host Radio Show

Posted by samzenpus on from the it's-all-about-the-hair dept.

An anonymous reader writes "NASA's 'Mohawk Guy' Bobak Ferdowsi, a flight director for the Mars Science Laboratory mission that lowered the Curiosity rover to the Martian surface in early August, will host a two-hour online broadcast on Internet radio station Third Rock Radio at 4 p.m. EDT, Thursday, August 30. The show, entitled 'Getting Curious with the Mohawk Guy,' will feature Ferdowsi discussing his experience with the landing of Curiosity, NASA’s evolving image, and renewed interest in science and exploration."

4 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. What a wonderful face for JPL by wb8wsf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wish Boback the best of luck on this show, and lots more in the future.

    Imagine, if people start thinking of science folks as neat...

    1. Re:What a wonderful face for JPL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      >> the embracing of pop-culture causes me to take the United States of America less seriously, and causes me to question my support of the country

      Yes, clearly a man with a mohawk is what makes America look bad. Not our war on drugs, wars on brown desert dwelling people, repression of gays, electing of disgraceful politicians like Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum [spreadingsantorum.com], or the fact that just weeks ago the civil rights debate in this nation hinged on buying a fucking chicken sandwich?

      What. The. Fuck.

    2. Re:What a wonderful face for JPL by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If I were an astronaut I would want guys in the control room to have the clean-cut NASA-circa-1969 look. I would not trust my life to the guys that were in the control room during the Curiosity landing. I'm sure they are good at their jobs but they just don't look very professional to me.

      I have a picture of my father when he was a NASA engineer for Apollo. Ponytail, beard, work shirt and jeans, which was pretty typical for those in his age group (the older engineers did tend toward the crew-cut-and-starched-shirt look). Yeah, the guys in the control room where the TV cameras could see them looked clean-cut and "professional," but a lot of the ones who actually built the machines and made them go didn't bother with that crap, because they knew--as any sensible person should--that real professionalism isn't something you can put on like a costume. This is as true now as it was then.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  2. Re:Yes by afgam28 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ridiculous isn't it? A bunch of people land a fucking robot on Mars, and everyone's attention is on one of the guys' haircut.