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NASA Honors William Shatner With Distinguished Public Service Medal
Hugh Pickens DOT Com (2995471) writes "Red Orbit reports that after nearly 50 years of warping across galaxies and saving the universe from a variety of alien threats and celestial disasters, Star Trek's William Shatner was honored with NASA's Distinguished Public Service medal, the highest award bestowed by the agency to non-government personnel. 'William Shatner has been so generous with his time and energy in encouraging students to study science and math, and for inspiring generations of explorers, including many of the astronauts and engineers who are a part of NASA today,' said David Weaver, NASA's associate administrator for the Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington. 'He's most deserving of this prestigious award.' Past recipients of the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal include astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, former NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory director and Voyager project scientist Edward Stone, theoretical physicist and astronomer Lyman Spitzer, and science fiction writer Robert Heinlein. The award is presented to those who 'have personally made a contribution representing substantial progress to the NASA mission. The contribution must be so extraordinary that other forms of recognition would be inadequate.'"
Star Trek has inspired countless people to explore science.
He wasn't Gene, but Shatner has pretty much always embraced his role in Trek.
Meh. Kids nowadays think everything is solved by an inverting the deflector array and emitting a tachyon pulse. It did more harm that good.
NASA, doing what they do best - issuing press releases.
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNN!
Gorn chicks are hotter.
And scalier.
In my day, we had to reverse the polarity of the signaling array while jettisoning the warp core!
While walking uphill in holographic snow for zero net distance but 16 kilometers worth of grueling exercise!
Then the Vulcan chef gave us a pot with some kind of flesh-eating sunflower that we had to fight and kill ourselves for dinner, using nothing but a double-axis Andorian spork!
Gorn chicks are hotter.
That kinda depends on whether it's sunny or not.
War.
rewriting history since 2109
Not to take anything away from Shatner but it was James Doohan (Scotty, for the whippersnappers out there) who inspired a lot of people to become engineers. Shatner was more the alpha-male-chasing-the-girls type.
The reason why has to do with not what you said, but how you said it. Here, I'll help:
I've been. pretending, to have - SEX - with... green women! For Years!
...and that's why Shatner got one and you didn't.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
...I'm not a trekkie, but I can't forget when mr. Shatner told his fans to get a life http://www.myvideo.de/watch/12... ...yeah yeah...that's probably a humorous parody, but he really "killed" it for a lot of people back then. The no #1 rule of Hollywood is to always cherish your fans, never spit on them. He always told in interviews after that, that trekkies really don't have a life etc. You can find this here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W...
It was funny, because it is so true. The people he inspired are those that excelled in sciences and in school, not people who are so obsessed with belonging to the "community" that they have to go dress up and go to conventions. Bill inspired me to get my degree in Physics. And I also laugh at the so-called-fans who can quote lines from the show, but never understand or even care to understand the science underlying it.
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
But you know what? Kirk was the captain, so I guess he had to be first; hopefully they recognize Spock before he passes.
Because he's the one that inspired me. Kirk was kinda like dad; he was cool, and I respected him; but I'm never gonna be him.
Spock, I could be. (well if i tried really hard and put down the beer and weed and went back for those advanced math classes and wasn't so damned lazy...)
Seriously, as a kid, it was Spock all the way.
He said, "Never let them Klingon."
Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
Never has. There been a. Greater spokesperson for the. Exploration of fictional. Space than. Mr. William. Shatner.
SPOCK! duh!
I haven't heard of Shatner doing anything besides acting alpha male in TV and some Movies. The creator/writer of Trek deserves far far more credit.
Nimoy, has at least done voice overs for many TV shows that were real science shows over the decades. He also helped keep the movies going (not that the movies were inspirational... but they kept things alive before TNG got started up which may not have happened otherwise.)
Scotty also deserves more than Shatner, for getting people to be engineers. He even has a term named after him which any wise engineer uses ("The Scotty Principle.") But perhaps that keeps NASA away from him (plus he is dead.)
Although Nimoy's blessing on the disgraceful reboot... that shouldn't be overlooked; perhaps that cost him the honor? maybe it should?
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Pffft. Amateurs.
You do the following:
1. Climb into a Jefferies tube;
2. Run a level-two diagnostic;
3. Bypass the power-flow converters;
4. Realign the sensor array;
5. Do all of the above before the next commercial break, and then notify the Captain you're ready for Warp 9.
Now, the next time you walk into a meeting with a bunch of MBAs sitting at the table, staring at you and your STEM degree, hit them with the above.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.