Space Nerd Celebrity PR Run Amuck
Keith’s note: The Planetary Society sent a press release out late yesterday – under embargo – to their media distribution list. This list used to include NASAWatch – but no longer does. Why? Who knows, maybe they are thin-skinned over NASAWatch criticism about their various semi-secret stealth space policy activities. The release is titled “Bill Nye and The Planetary Society Celebrate New Horizons Pluto Flyby – Nye Congratulates Project Team & Citizens Who Made Dwarf Planet Mission Possible “. Yes – its all about Bill Nye™ first – and the Planetary Society second, and Pluto third. This nerd celebrity thing is getting to be rather silly. No, I am not going to post their release ahead of the embargoed release date/time. That’s for The Bill Nye™ Society to release.
Keith’s update: Looks like Marc got a copy of this release late last night and found it in his spam folder this morning (I did not find one in my spam folder). The Planetary Society used to send me things directly. Not any more. Nor did they respond to email on the topic. My point about the Bill Nye™ science nerd celebrity thing still stands.
– Quick: Read The Planetary Society Mars Plan While It Is Free, earlier post
– Stealthy Humans Orbiting Mars Workshop Update, earlier post
– Making Space Policy In Secret (Again), earlier post
– Good News Everyone: Another Closed Door Humans to Mars Thing, earlier post
They sent an actual thing to space – a lightsail. Also, Amazon Smile gives 0.5% of all my Amazon purchases to PS, so i’m a passive contributor which makes me somewhat more content than i otherwise would be. That is much more than any other space advocacy organization is pulling off these days.
But yeah, the Nye horn tooting thing is lame.
If only the Planetary Society would focus on doing things like solar sail and stop being the Bull Nye fan club I think they’d generate more support for the stated purpose of the organization.
If I recall correctly, they fight for the boulder retrieval mission. Enuf said.
Experiments with light sails? That’s why I keep my membership. I’m not convinced they are best equipped for this type of experimentation but my sense is that pretty much anybody doing anything in space is worth supporting.
They are flying experiments and doing it with a string of bad luck as well.
As to the attitude of our host towards Dr. Nye: we should use every tool at our disposal to move the ball – the space ball? 🙂 – forward. Nye is well known. Why not use his fame to forward the agenda?
I have lots of issues with the Planetary Society and their hucksterism as well as their unabashed “Planetary is more important than any other space activity” party line — but they are an advocacy group, and have a right to their opinion. And frankly, Keith, using a very well-known and well-beloved figure from many people’s youth as a spokesperson is a p.r. coup. Touting him every chance they get is A Good Idea for getting their message across to people who might not otherwise listen, p.r.-wise. Sorry if you disagree.
I believe Dinah Shore once upon a time shilled for Chevrolet.
“”Planetary is more important than any other space activity”
Sounds a lot like Keith
Huh? I have never said that.
He is not a “well-beloved figure” from my youth. Indeed many people here in DC who did not watch his TV show find his antics to be distracting and counterproductive. It is quite clear from recent Planetary Society activities that his name is of equal – sometimes greater – importance than the organization he supposedly leads. I cannot recall any other Planetary Society leader with such elevated stature – indeed, any space advocacy group where the leader’s name and visibility is elevated to a level more important than their organization’s.
To be fair to Sunman, he did say “from many people’s youth”. Given that BNtSG ran from 1993-1998, I’m guessing that covers the tail end of the Gen Xers and the bulk of the Millennials. Given that together those two generations outnumber the generation preceding them, often referred to as Baby Boomers but sometimes less pleasant appellations, I don’t think his descriptive is off-base.
My conjecture is that PS was hoping to use BNtSG’s popularity with younger generations to spur membership growth in those demographics. Don’t know whether it worked or not, but the kids these days (the Millennials) have developed a strong distrust in established institutions. As a Gen Xer, I can’t say that I blame them. Pretty much every non-profit is struggling to develop a younger membership, not just the space advocacy groups. They’ll thumbs up, like, +1, re-tweet, or any other non-committal form of support, but getting them to actually join, let alone actually contribute to sharing the workload of the organization, is well nigh impossible.
From a personal perspective, I’ve never understood the Baby Boomers’ fascination with Cults of Personality. It never ends well, and the Personalities are inevitably shown to be deeply flawed. Luckily, the kids are learning the value of mockery. Speaking of which, I think I’ll head over and watch the Epic Rap Battle between Isaac Newton and Bill Nye: https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Must be the Beatles fault 🙂
That would be the only quasi-logical explanation.
I don’t feel like Bill Nye speaks well at all to adults. In fact when I’ve heard him speak on climate change or the creationism vs. evolution debate, I’ve wished that he wasn’t on science’s team.
Having never seen “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” I can’t understand why this guy gets so much attention and is held in such high regard.
I agree. I never thought Bill Nye was a good spokesperson. He is a celebrity because he is a celebrity.
I knew he would not be good going against creationists. He is both full of himself and is not well grounded in the subject. Creationists are easy to expose IF you know how. You can’t coast on celebrity.
I urge you to re-watch the evolution vs creationism debate. Bill Nye faced some criticism going into the debate, and while I was curious why he would even bother engaging Ken Ham in such a farce, once he stared speaking it was clear to me that Bill was using the platform to speak directly to the public. On multiple occasions he spoke directly to the audience, pleading with them to stop supporting people like Ham at the polls (i.e. support science and urge elected officials to do the same).
The only effective method (and I have a long history publicly debating creationists) is to reveal them to be the ignoramuses (regardless of their degrees) and liars that they truly are, hiding behind a microscopically thin veneer of sounding informed and respectable and rational, promoting “fairness” in schools.
You absolutely must do your homework and know the foul balls that they are going to hit at you and be ready to swat them right back in their face. Next, the science-supporting debater must actively switch the direction from defending evolution to forcing the creationists to expose and defend THEIR alternative world. They will do anything to avoid that. They run like roaches from Raid when the spotlight shines on their nonsense.
They cannot be seen as having any credibility.
I did watch it. I was not at all impressed by Nye.
As a Baby Boomer 1st Class, never forget that we own almost 60% of the nation’s wealth. And we’re taking it with us – bwah-hah-hah…
CLICK IMAGE TO EXPAND
http://www.valuewalk.com/wp…
All I can recall from his show as a youth is he played nose mucus. Oh well 🙂
OK, Keith, let me put it in terms that our generation would understand: What if Mr. Wizard (Don Herbert) were the shill? He was on TV much longer, but Bill Nye’s show went into syndication, is available on DVD, and (in part) on Netflix. Both guys are responsible for jump starting a curiosity about the world and some cases a lifelong interest in science among many people from the generations who viewed their shows – and learned to go out and try things for themselves as a result.
I still remember a sophomore physics course in 1969 when the (young) lecturer described something as “Mr. Wizard stuff,” to a broad scattering of chuckles from the class. He looked up and said, “I went into science because of Mr. Wizard. Did you, too?” And the 150 or so students burst into raucous applause. That was the Beatles/anti-war/too-cool-for-school/Woodstock generation, if you recall.
My own kids’ interest in science, in one case pursued as far as college, is due at least in part to Bill Nye. He’s widely known for his defense of scientific reasoning over creationism (as well, yeah, as his bow tie and ballroom dancing). He is, simply, a celebrity. Since we haven’t had any astronauts walking on the moon in 43 years, people of his degree of broad recognition will have to do as spokespeople for science and space. We could do a lot worse.
Once again, are you upset that the Planetary Society has broken the mold and is able to get a shill with wide name recognition? I honestly don’t see that as “elevated to a level more important than organization’s.” That would be LeBron James.
Exchanging “Mr. Wizard” with “Bill Nye” in all of the Planetary Society’s efforts would be equally wrong IMHO.
Ya plays the hand yer dealt.
Personally I watched Nye’s show years ago with my kids and enjoyed it. Although I may not agree with his particular plans, he is doing his best to build public support for both science and space. There aren’t many space enthusiasts. To achieve anything with Congress and the public, we need to avoid fighting among ourselves.
Found him rotating like a PLANET on twitter
Keith
Alan Sterns big moment.
He got speak with Bill!