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Bill Nye 'the Science Guy' Urges Letters To Obama To Restore NASA Budget Cuts
MarkWhittington writes "Bill Nye, once known as 'The Science Guy' for his 1990s PBS educational television show, has cut a YouTube video in his current capacity of CEO of the Planetary Society urging people to write to President Obama to restore cuts to planetary science. The budget cuts were enacted by the president last February, causing consternation in the scientific community. Nye writes, 'If that proposal continues the steep decline in funding to NASA's planetary program it will gravely endanger the unique capabilities and outstanding people that have delivered U.S. leadership in space. We will lose a capability that took decades to develop and may never be replaced.'"
Write them both, either could be president in January, and maybe they'll bring up NASA funding around job creation during the election.
the acting guy... just saying.
Maybe Bill Nye the science guy would have more of an audience if he didn't talk about creationism and religious doctrine under the guise of science and stuck with science.
I'm afraid this might backfire with religious groups now associating NASA with anti-religion because of his earlier comments and create a backlash against the government wasting money on NASA.
NASA was impressive, when it was committed to human exploration. They already lost that legacy. They replaced it with the shuttle, and then started doing an endless stream of space research.
Sometimes you have to shoot the scientists and turn it over to the engineers.
Bill Nye needs people to write to restore dementia cure funding. I can't figure out what's up with him lately. Get a life.
You could wait until January.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
He's no more of a "scientist" than most of us are. He's an engineer/comedian/entertainer/spout-his-opinions-as-if-they-are-fact guy. Like most of us.
Hideo Kojima gets involved with NASA somehow.
Bill Nye "The Science Guy" or Bill "The Science Guy" Nye? http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/08/28/1624231/bill-the-science-guy-nye-says-creationism-is-not-appropriate-for-children
The House is the body responsible for spending authorizations. If you want an increase in NASA's budget, write to your local congressman/woman first. The nice thing about the House is that with 435 members, it's theoretically possible that you might get some sort of response if there is enough constituent interest on the issue.
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
excuse me but, NASA is a private government corporation. they don't do anything for the public besides showing us some bullshit screenshots. How do we know how much information NASA is holding from the public? they are obviously allowed to do this. we shouldn't let NASA do the exploring for us, we need a public NON government corporation for the people, by the people. I want a website of a LIVE video camera that shows what these telescopes in orbit are showing these scientists looking in deep space, like the Hubble telescope. These observatories are completely capable of showing us by video LIVE everything they are looking at. Today If I want to explore space I have to buy a bullshit cheap telescope, google edited videos, documentaries, and screenshots. This isn't space exploration, and I shouldn't have to be a millionaire. so funk NASA.
I think Mr. Obama has made it clear that his priority is to support PBS and Big Bird, rather than NASA and planetary science.
It has been decided that we will be staying here. We will pray to our Gods for nice weather and the forbearance of asteroids.
Nye writes, 'If that proposal continues the steep decline in funding to NASA's planetary program it will gravely endanger the unique capabilities and outstanding people that have delivered U.S. leadership in space. We will lose a capability that took decades to develop and may never be replaced.'" ...And we will never get a chance to meet our gods - the Ancient Astronauts who built the Pyramids!
He was "Bill Nye the Science Guy" back when he was a role player on "Almost Live!", which was a Seattle-area comic sketch show in the 80s and 90s.
Most of the time he was just a stock player, but occasionally he'd do a science-comedy mashup; and for each year's New Year's special episode he'd rig up some Rube Goldberg sciency contraption that'd be used to count down to the new year.
Although I think I liked him best as Speed Walker, who fought crime while adhering to the conventions of the International Speed Walking Association.
#DeleteChrome
Here's a better idea.
How about NASA setup a portal where citizens can donate money directly to NASA, in exchange for priority access varying on how much they contribute every month. Then NASA is no longer subject to the whims of congress, but by how much people value NASA.
If people want NASA, they'll be willing to pay for it directly, instead of indirectly through taxation.
Though the Air force is used for military means rather than exploratory means, it's pretty clear that most of the prototypes in the AF pipeline are space and air...not just air. So many of the advances of shuttles etc that NASA has been pushing toward are being propagated into the Air force portfolio, NASA should just become a sub-arm of the Air force...basically. Then it can get military money (which we know is massive and won't be cut.) It just makes sense. NASA can deal with the interplanetary means of the air force and piggy back off of their funding AND their new air craft hybrids of space and air vehicles.
Thanks to Dubya and Obama, the US is no longer a major world player. It's no surprise the states is falling way behind in all branches of sciences. Don't worry though, give it a couple of years and major science will be done by the new superpowers. It looks like china and india are going to be the ones to take over.
If you don't like it just go back to watching american idol and cnn on your ipads like the rest of the uneducated american voters who allowed this to happen.
The Republicans hate James Hansen because he is one of the main cheerleaders for catastrophic anthropogenic global warming.
Get rid of Hansen and the climate stuff and the Republicans will be a lot more supportive.
Bill Nye 'the Science Guy' Urges Letters To Obama To Restore NASA Budget Cuts
"Restoring cuts" sounds like NASA getting less money.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
More ESL (or even E3rdL) summary writing/editing.
The headline is pretty much the opposite of what Bill Nye is urging.
Wtf? Socialism 101! "A" doesn't want to give money to "B" so ask "C" to force the money from "A" and give half of it to "B" and keep half for himself.
This is what science out of taxpayer's pocket means. Robbery by third-party invitation.
Unlike just about every other branch of government, NASA routinely either broke even or even made money, thanks to all of the stuff they invented. Heck, if they had patented all of it, the government would have a huge cash cow in NASA.
It seems harsh, but the old ship (NASA and the fed gov't) is rotted though. Let planetary science sink. Wait a couple years with low funding. Spend the money to right the rest of the gov't (i.e., reduce debt). Then, once the people who don't know how to launch a satellite without a billion USD have found other things to do with their lives, restore funding and see what the next group does. I work in the space industry and the whole old guard is rusted though with layers and layers of bureaucratic red tape added over the decades. Nobody in charge tries to take it away. Lower funding is the only incentive to be cost conscious and remove the dead wood. After a few years, reinsert the funding. I know. It sounds harsh, but if we are serious about long term space expansion, the only way is to dump those who have taken us nowhere (relatively speaking) in the past several decades.
Which departments are funded and how much funding they get is up to congress and not the president.
The president is not king or emperor and people need to stop treating the position this way. It is very dangerous because if we do this for too long the president will become emperor.
The majority of power must always reside in the legislature. They make the laws, they set policy, they debate the issues, they cut the deals. The president just runs the show after he's been given the rules.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Private sector.
The private sector is ALWAYS more efficient and more creative than any government program.
The best thing the government can do is bow out gracefully and create incentives for
the private sector. The rest will follow. If you don't believe this, look at the history of the
era of exploration on earth. Governments are slow and stupid and must pander to some
degree to the peasants. The private sector can do whatever it decides makes sense, as long
as funding is available.
AND no one will have health care then as well and mitt may even get rid of the law saying that the ER must treat you law.
Then the only choice will be jail / prison care where you have to fail back on the bill of rights cruel and unusual part to get care.
Wait until you see who wins the election. Then write that person. No need to write the loser as he is packing his bags.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Bill Nye may be an enthusiastic science guy, but that doesn't mean he understands economics or politics. In order to restore NASA's budget or to expand it (hey, why not?) someone has to pay for it. I think it would be hard to find either Democrats or Republicans that don't like the idea of a space program. However, they're much more likely to not like the idea of paying for it. That can be said for pretty much anything; conservatives aren't against healthcare for all Americans, they're against being forced to pay for healthcare for all Americans. So, if we pay for NASA's budget, what gets cut? Roads? Military? Education? Intelligence gathering? Something has to go -- or taxes have to increase, but if that stalls the economy, then increased tax rates might mean lower taxes collected anyway...
As far as my comment about Nye not understanding politics, it's important to remember that Congress has control over the budget. It's not up to the President. If Congress wants to go to war, but the President doesn't, the President doesn't send the troops (no war). If Congress doesn't want to go to war, but the President does, Congress can withhold all funding (no war). It's the idea behind our checks-and-balances system. What some call gridlock, our forefathers called checks-and-balances. Regardless, asking the President to restore NASA's budget is going to be about as effective as asking me to increase NASA's budget. You're asking the wrong person...
I appreciate what Bill Nye is trying to do, but asking Obama (or Romney) to increase the budget is simply wasting everyone's time. Sure, in theory Nye could motivate the president to address the people and use his superior oratory skills to convince the public and "force" the hand of Congress, but that's not Obama. It's not going to happen.
The 'climate' thing is a major irritant to the Republicans. http://www.eenews.net/public/climatewire/2011/02/14/2
IMHO, some Republicans are willing to totally bork NASA just to get rid of Hansen.
Moderating the parent to -1 is an example of someone, who doesn't like the message, shooting the messanger.
For less than the cost of 4 space shuttle flights, SpaceX has developed an entire, successful space transportation program.
Between 1981 and 2011 the shuttle flew 135 times. At a conservative $450 million per launch we taxpayers spent $60,750,000,000.00 (almost 61 billion dollars) on shuttle launches.
The Space Shuttle Disasters, all 135 launches + program development, was simply a cash cow for contractors, much like ULA is.
Someone belongs IN JAIL!
I am not now, nor I have I been, a fan of interplanetary exploration as a priority.
The funds and brains used to explore Mars and Europa should be tasked with helping us understand and engineer solutions to the problems inherent in our use of THIS planet before we tackle the problems and spend the billions necessary to satiate our little egos by pursuing such ambitious goals.
Besides, if heads of industry really believe they can benefit from such undertakings, then they can damn well employ some of the trillions they've sequestered from use here and build the facilities wherever they damn well please. In the mean time, with high unemployment and an anemic economic recovery staring blankly back from the excesses of the 80's and 90's, we have more practical matters to deal with here on earth.
I will NOT be supporting Nye's priorities.
Except for the couple of years immediately after the president insisted we needed to go to the moon, where NASA consumed more than 4% of the national budget (but still wasn't very much), it has almost never accounted for a significant part of the budget in any way. For the entire life of the agency, the average budget (in 2007's dollars) has been something like $17,000,000,000/yr.
Hell, since 9/11, we have spent TWICE as much conducting war in the middle east as NASA has spent in its entire fifty-five year live time, in which it developed rocket technology. Developed shuttle technology. Helped improve countless other technologies (including those for the military). Helped generate entire new private industries. Shot a man into space. Shot around the moon. Landed men on the moon several times. Built space-suit-jets for men in space. Conducted space walks. Built a space car. Built and deployed a telescope to see to the beginning of time. Built and manned a space station. Built one (wait, two?) little RC cars that we landed on the surface of Mars. Then built an SUV that we landed on Mars. Not to mention the satellites above our heads. The satellites far out in space, exploring the universe for decades, now. . .
All of that is in *today's* dollars.
So, let's not fool ourselves into believing NASA has ever had a "ton of funding". But, just think what we could accomplish if we blew up a few less brown people or facilitated a few fewer corporate (Haliburtin, KDR, etc) contracts in Afghanistan or Iraq with government resources and just funneled that little bit of money to NASA. Maybe push 5% of that "searchin' for WMDs" money over to NASA. Who knows what fucking amazing shit we could do?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Private industry yadda yadda. That'd be fine, if we apply that consistently. But if we're going to be debating what's worth funding, how the fuck is pursuing one of the most primitive needs of mankind not near the top of the list?
Instead, we have to bank the whole of our space exploration on the guy who ships books and kindles to your doorstep, the guy behind Doom and Rage, and the guy behind PayPal. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but . . .
Apparently they couldn't afford a tripod to film this. That, or they were trying to go for a in-the-action style film to liven up a boring speech.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
There's no need for planetary science other than what we need to learn from our own planet.
The old goal of planetary science was the eventual finding and colonizing of other planets. Thanks to the new sustainable planet movement there's no need to find other planets to colonize. Our growth stops here (in fact, we'll soon be culling our on population to sustainable levels), the cancer doesn't spread out through the cosmos and, eventually, we finally die voluntarily ridding the universe of the scourge that is Man.
What a wonderful place it will be then.
With us spending more than what we bring in there are 1 of 2 options. Raise taxes which no one wants or make cuts in the budget which no one wants either. Reality is that we need to balance the budget its going to be a hard several years to get it all fixed. We didn't get here over night and we won't be able to fix it over night either. But we DO need to get there.
I can't keep borrowing with no chance of repaying and our govt shouldn't either.
Beakman and his rat got the science correct more times that Bill Nye the Science Guy but what would one expect with a character backed by Disney. Now he's turned into a shill for off beat science causes. Hopeless.
Like the other guy said, there's no need for planetary sciences other than the study of our planet and the only decision that anyone seems to be working on now is how small a population must we reach to become a sustainable life form on this planet.
Save the budget cuts! NASA is a dead corporation, so why are we wasting money on them? I am partially kidding.
You really expect him to speak of NASA in a job creation context after that?
Thanks to asteroid impacts, comet impacts, super volcanos, solar outbursts, major biological insults, ice ages and other rare, but dependable catastrophic events, there is every need to find other planets to colonize.
Thanks to huge resources that become almost freely available to us once we definitively get out of the earth's gravity well, the financial case is, if long term, still quite clear.
Thanks to the lack of atmosphere and the availability of incomprehensibly long baselines, astronomy alone will benefit hugely from an actual presence in space, once / if we can pull it off.
The first sign of a complete failure to understand the world we live in is any urge to cut back on our ability to get to, stay in, do science in, and work in, space.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
I'm very confused as to why it is desirable to restore cuts.
Or even possible.
If cuts exist, how can they be restored?
Perhaps he wants to increase cuts?
Or perhaps everyone at /. failed English as well as Logic.
I'm pretty sure that most of you want FUNDING restored, not CUTS.
...omphaloskepsis often...
Read below, he sits on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology BTW, the committee that overseas the NASA budget.
http://bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view/20121006congressman_calls_evolution_lie_from__pit_of_hell
"Georgia Rep. Paul Broun said in videotaped remarks that evolution, embryology and the Big Bang theory are "lies straight from the pit of hell" meant to convince people that they do not need a savior."
"The Republican lawmaker made those comments during a speech Sept. 27 at a sportsman’s banquet at Liberty Baptist Church in Hartwell. Broun, a medical doctor, is running for re-election in November unopposed by Democrats.
"God’s word is true," Broun said, according to a video posted on the church’s website. "I’ve come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell. And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior."
Broun also said that he believes the Earth is about 9,000 years old and that it was made in six days. Those beliefs are held by fundamentalist Christians who believe the creation accounts in the Bible to be literally true.
Because once we have unlimited energy, we can create as much rocket-fuel as we want and each launch won't bet be as expensive.
A worth cause, but it's getting to be that whenever Bill Nye passes gas it's a story.
More likely, its moderated to -1 because it isn't true. The Republicans would block NASA, even if you got rid of Hansen, because they measure the effects of global warming. So you'd also have to kill all those science programs too.
Then there's the members of the Congress committee (Republican naturally) like Paul Broun:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2213916/Paul-Broun-Member-House-Committee-Science-Space-Technology-calls-evolution-lies-pit-hell.html
He doesn't like NASA measuring the background radiation from the Big Bang (which he calls a 'lie from the pit of hell' as God created the earth in 6 days 9000 years ago.).
They're nutters and liars, giving them the head of Hansen won't fix that. They'll always obstruct science programs because stuff like global warming is bad for the oil business and the oil business funds them.
He's a doctor BTW, so he knows evolution isn't lies, he must be treating with modern anti-biotics and knows that bacteria have evolved immunity to the older ones. He's just lying for political gain since he thinks attacking science will get him the religious vote. He's not a faith healer, he's just a sleazy liar.
If you want NASA to be funded, why don't you whip out your check book and fund them? Why would you intead want the state to force other people (who may not wnat to or many not be able to afford to) to fund them instead?
It makes no sense to me. So much for the land of the free.
The word you were looking for likely was "revert". Perhaps the money from those cuts could be used for language education. It is certainly an area where Americans are not considered world leaders.
The last time we funded NASA, it resulted in three decades of Earth shattering scientific advances
Yes! The U.S. was able to develop ballpoint pens that would work in any orientation and zero gravity. The Russians were underfunded and had to use pencils. I mean, they worked, but seriously, pencils?
I have to quit, I start sounding like T-Rex.
I don't think that religion is unrelated to science if you bother looking.
Take a look at Elijah. He spends years locked up with a widow who has kept stores of grain during years of draught. Then there is a contest of power, where priests of Baal call upon their god to light an offering, without success.
The Elijah steps up, pours an abundance of clear liquid on the offering and around it, calls upon his God, and look and behold, the offering gets consumed in a large conflagration.
Now the source of the clear liquid is not described in detail, but in an extreme draught situation, there would not be a lake nearby. It obviously had to be specially fetched in containers.
Being stupid and helpless is not a virtue. Use your God-given talents.
Did Bill Nye forget that Obama set NASA's prime directive as "Muslim outreach" in July 2010?
Here is NASA's chief:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUNc9bWu_1I
Space is a vast desert like no desert on the face of the Earth. It is an unlimited sink for tax dollars and human effort best expended on the Earth. I applaud the Obama administration for opposing the mindless spending called for by "science-ism-ists". Just because it is science doesn't mean it deserves funding. When spending vital public dollars it is essential to hold the reasons to ones that are practical or promise short term payoffs for the investor, not pie-in-the-sky, sometime-in-the-distant-future-maybe payoffs that merely "provide jobs" for scienceismists. And don't use the argument that the spending is a small part of the budget. The hundred in my pocket is a small part of my expenditures, but that doesn't justify spending it on bubblegum.
E Proelio Veritas.
Do tell me the difference between considering the unprovable to be false and considering it to be null.
You might call that the difference between skepticism and empiricism. Religion violates the principle of parsimony, is untestable, and provides nothing in the way of explanatory power. You're arguing about whether or not science should treat religion as being wrong, or not even wrong.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
Produced the free market can do its thing I don't have to pay for it.
every penny taxed me so others can make money removes food from my kids mouth.
Bill Nye has the right idea about NASA's planetary program. The planetary series/movies that I see is the same old information from the planetary program and there is nothing new on the series/movies and there is nothing new from NASA's planetary program(s) [series/movies/you tube].
* What Bill Nye should promote is for the world [governments and universities] to participate in the NASA's planetary program(s).
* NASA is known for project over-runs costing $Billions of Dollars because of the Companies that NASA Contracted with.
* If NASA don't expand globally with the world governments and universities then those countries might create their own Space Programs.
* Each Country with their own Space Programs will want their own country's military presence in space compared to Foreign [Governments & Universities] participating with NASA's Programs and funding efforts.
* I behoove Congress to create Laws allowing NASA to expand to other countries for NASA's Programs. Not a joint project like the International Space Station with a couple of countries but to expand NASA's budget globally from other countries and expand NASA's Programs globally.
Restore budget cuts? That makes it sound like the budget cuts were cancelled and Bill Nye wants them to go ahead. "Restore cut budgets" makes more sense.
...to the redress of past crimes against and grievances by third world victims of U.S. imperialism. These funds will be transferred to the United Nations and what remains in NASA's budget will be used for Muslim outreach. If we need satellites launched, we can always do what the EU does and have the Russians launch them.
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."
-- Pablo Picasso
where are the facts? all I see are name calling. The fact still stands that even the Demoncratic senators are not supporting the President's budget proposals.
Leadership isn't presenting an idea, then washing your hands of the whole thing when nobody accepts your ideas. Leadership is when you bring people together to agree on a few things, maybe take some compromises on others, and get something done.
I can list ways in which President Obama is not an effective leader. Does anyone have an example to the contrary?
If you're so interested in throwing billions after billions into the exploration of space, you fund it. If we fund it the government will reap all the benefit of anything discovered, and will tax us to use it. It's what they've done with every other technological advancement we've paid for. It's time to just say no. Really. National defense only and then GTFO of everything else. No mediocre (but incredibly expensive) health care, no social insecurity, no institutionalized poverty better known as wellfare, no more packages drop kicked all the way to your door by the USPS (seriously, even when it's marked fragile they break stuff), no more separate retirement plans for congressmen, no more salary for politicians (if you're there to serve then serve - what is this extravagant paycheck business), etc. You want to know what's killing this country? It ain't republicans and big business. It's inefficient cradle to the grave care from your friendly national nanny.