Can someone explain this too me?

[Lord Safey]

http://www.space.com/news/nasa-chief-muslim-remarks-controversy-ft-100707.html

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: Lord Safey

http://www.space.com/news/nasa-chief-muslim-remarks-controversy-ft-100707.html

Meh, all it is is Charles Kranthenoogabooa taking a remark out of context to attack Obama- he does that all the time, and this example is really just him grasping at straws (hardly one of his finer examples of such). Move along, move along. These are not the opinions you care about.

[Alorael at Large]

On the other hand, that's a really strange mission for NASA to pursue, given that it's not aeronautical or spacial. Either Bolden somehow decided to pretend to be pushing an agenda or he's been appointed for very wrong reasons and NASA has been deprecated. Or Bolden shouldn't be head of NASA. But something, somewhere, went wrong.

 

—Alorael, who will put his hopes on the guy flubbing his lines and trying out some talking points at the wrong moment. The business of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is space. (And aeronautics.)

[Dintiradan]

Quote:

The White House and NASA on Tuesday defended comments that the nation's top space official made on the Arabic news network Al-Jazeera about one of his "foremost" tasks being to reach out to the Muslim world.

I don't see what the problem with the article is. NASA has obviously scrapped plans to return to the Moon and travel to Mars, and instead is planning a voyage to Muslim homeworld.

[Lilith]

NASA has been a political organisation ever since it was founded. It's just that it's not focused on beating the Russians any more.

[Alorael at Large]

Originally it was focused on beating the Russians to space. Now it's focused on beating the Muslims to recognizing their invention of algebra?

 

—Alorael, who supposes that if the president of the US is a Muslim and an illegal alien, he must have a homeworld somewhere.

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: Lilith

NASA has been a political organisation ever since it was founded. It's just that it's not focused on beating the Russians any more.

This may partially be due to the fact that their budget has been slowly and surely being leeched away as the public lost interest in beating the Russians. Taxpayers don't want to fork over billions for pretty pictures of Jupiter- they want to fork over billions for propaganda about how our space program is superior to that of the dirt, dirty commies' space program.

[Thaluikhain]

Over billions of dollars on totally unrelated things. Maybe if the Chinese get their space program going, then the US will want to compete, but otherwise there's always something more important to spend money on.

[waterplant]

Firstly, I think the term 'Muslim World' is an anachronism and quite ignorant in this context. A period existed when Syria and Egypt were the centres of science in the 'Known World', however this period predates Islam.

NASA, being the pointy end of science & mathematics in the 'New World', would do well to tip it's radiation proof hat to not only the wonderful tradition of the 'Old World' (the cream of which NASA inherited in the 1930s - 50s) but beyond, to the founders and keepers of these disciplines who were squaring the root and carrying the 1 long before Catholic 'universities' (tautology) were rationing knowledge to those who could be trusted with it.

'Feel good' is an unfortunate term for Bolden to use - maybe 'respect, acknowledge, recognise' would be not only more palatable but also more accurate.

[Thaluikhain]

Originally Posted By: waterplant

Firstly, I think the term 'Muslim World' is an anachronism and quite ignorant in this context. A period existed when Syria and Egypt were the centres of science in the 'Known World', however this period predates Islam.

Welllll...under Islamic rulers, much new knowledge was gained and old knowledge preserved. Alot of Greek philosophy caught on in the East, for example, which tends to be overlooked nowdays.

Originally Posted By: waterplant

'Feel good' is an unfortunate term for Bolden to use - maybe 'respect, acknowledge, recognise' would be not only more palatable but also more accurate.

Definitely.

[Alorael at Large]

Certainly there is scientific history from what is now the Muslim world before it was Muslim, but there's also a large body of scientific and mathematical work produced by Muslims in Muslim lands. If we can talk about Classical Greek philosophy and science, we can talk about Classical Muslim philosophy and science.

 

—Alorael, who feels indebted to the luminaries of Islam every time he misplaces his decimal point.

[Khoth]

There definitely was a period where the interesting stuff was going on in Muslim countries.