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How Bill Nye Insulted NASCAR Fans About the Sport Being the "Anti-NASA" (examiner.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the more-honey-less-vinegar dept.

MarkWhittington writes: Bill Nye, the former science guy and current head of the Planetary Society, is very depressed about NASA and NASCAR, according to a story in Business Insider. He believes that the red-state yokels pay too much attention to NASCAR, which employs gas guzzling cars in races, and not enough to NASA, which employs cutting edge and environmentally correct technology, to explore the universe. However, it is a meme that the space agency itself once disagreed with. Indeed, NASA has suggested that the exploration of space is like NASCAR only with rocket ships instead of souped up, high powered cars

10 of 387 comments (clear)

  1. In other words... by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "People who don't like what I like are stupid." NASCAR is probably the most science/engineering oriented sport out there. Every variable is a factor from length, slope, temperature & curvature of track, weather conditions, in addition to the thousands of variables that go into the car itself. Pit stops including how much fuel & # of tires to change are all very accurately calculated to gain an advantage on their competitors. If anything NASCAR could be used to encourage scientific & engineering education.

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    1. Re:In other words... by markdavis · · Score: 5, Insightful

      >"NASCAR is probably the most science/engineering oriented sport out there."

      No, you are thinking of real racing, like Formula One :)

    2. Re: In other words... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 3, Insightful

      While true, the main reason for the slow march of technology in NASCAR is to maintain affordability of the sport. The France family doesn't want to be a bunch of pretentious snobs in a sport dominated by spoiled rich kids which, at least in popular perception, is what Formula 1 is.

      If your assessment was correct, NASCAR would still be racing cars based on production cars, not what they are using now.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    3. Re:In other words... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      F1's problem is that for decades the cars have been faster than a human being can safely handle, and every year one manufacturer tends to be extremely dominant and it comes down to a battle between their two drivers. Driver skill is much less important than which car they are driving.

      It's hard to see how this can really be fixed. Go back to 1980 spec cars perhaps, but then the rich teams would pull out because the garage teams would be competitive and they wouldn't be developing tech that can be used in road vehicles.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  2. Paraphrasing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    To paraphrase Mr. Nye, “You do not like what interests me, so you must be an idiot, a moron or a redneck."

  3. Re:Huh? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This. Nor is plutonium.

    Call me when we're putting things in orbit with hemp and sunshine.

  4. "environmentally correct technology" by Nutria · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Who in their right mind considers burning tons of dodecane (aka RP-1 kerosene) to produce tons of CO2 to be an "environmentally correct technology"?

    STOP THINKING WISHFULLY, Mr. Science Guy!!!

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
  5. Bill Nye PR Fail by Irate+Engineer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If Bill Nye actually visited pit row in a NASCAR race he'd see that there is a hell of a lot of applied science being employed to eek out a bit more performance and mileage out of these vehicles. It isn't a drag strip - stopping for gas in NASCAR costs time and position and the teams would love to run the whole race without pitting. There are a lot of brains behind NASCAR.

    A lot of performance improvement applied to commercial vehicles comes from NASCAR, believe it or not. You need to look past the BMC-drinking fans in the crowd that are there for the crashes and actually see what is happening in the pits.

    Bill, just a reminder, you don't get racing fans to embrace science by calling them illiterate, shit-beer-drinking rednecks. You do this by showing where science is applied in things that they already love, and let their interest take off from there. I am a proponent of science too, and you don't help the cause by being an elitist prick in a bowtie.

    --

    Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!

    Vote for Bernie in 2016!

  6. Re:yawn by tripleevenfall · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I agree. He's worn out his welcome by being such a snob all the time.

  7. Re:yawn by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So he's a snob for pointing out massive errors performed by snobbish Hollywood writers who are too important to open up a "physics for dumbasses" book?

    Hollywood these days is full of the most ridiculous plot elements, stupid science, illogical economics, implausible motivations, and it's gone way beyond the point where you can just ignore it all because of suspension of disbelief. Even the Walking Dead is more believable than your typical AAA movie release.