I am not the first to embrace new technologies. I read how people think these web sites will revolutionize politics, society, education, the economy and I think of lonely people isolated from each other who would be better off joiing an industrial softball league. I read about new car gadgets and I think that perhaps Ian would be better off keeping his eyes on the road - and if you do keep your eyes on the road, what good is the screen?
But this Mars stuff is different. Other than the Beagle, no one loses an eye, there are jokes and everyone is glued to the screen. One of my favorite things about the Mars mission is how low tech it is. The signals were received back by UHF radio, PBS's Nova last night highlighted the parachute as the critical technology to mission and, best of all, its all run by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (jets!, that 1940's breakthrough) the same wing of NASA which 35 years ago entertained me with men on the moon. And it's such a small group of people. Watching Nova, I recognized a lot of the faces from Saturday's live web broadcast of the landing and saw that it is the same people at the lab in the white gowns and hairnets building the things that go into space as are the people sitting in the rows of TV screens at mission control. Not my pals, not my heros...something else though...I need a word for cool nerds.
Comments
portland - January 7, 2004 10:15 am
i nominate
kerds
nools
sexy geeks
dexters
itchy lobes
and nasanators
lets have a contest!
Alan - January 7, 2004 10:20 am
If you want Dexters, I want Flannigans. How about:
doyts
nasars
bitter dwarfs
portland - January 7, 2004 10:39 am
dexters was actually pretty weak. nools is ahead i think. how about wire fish, the rayletes, or love rims?
Alan - January 7, 2004 10:46 am
I don't think a diminutive such as raylete (however lovely a sound) is sustainable as there is nothing diminished about these NASA folk. Nools is too close to Tools which ought to be poistiive but in fact is a problem due to an number of resonances:<ul><li>Jimmy and Johnny Tool, identical twins in my class in junior high, tried to burn the school down - a very anti intellectual act, and</li><li>"tool" - as a verb - can mean driving around uselessly, something the JPL would never do.</li></ul>Neros? geekanauts?
Arthur - January 7, 2004 11:44 am
If people call me 'dude' because I did something surpassing the expectations, I think that's a compliment too.
Alan - January 7, 2004 11:59 am
Arthur, you are Dutch - there must be some root words <i>van het Nederlands</i> we could incorporate with NASA to express dude/cool/geek.
Arthur - January 7, 2004 12:59 pm
...van het Nederlands we could incorporate with NASA to express dude/cool/geek...
Hee. If I'm not wrong, Dutch people use English words to express something extraordinary. Actually, the only Dutch word I can think of right now is <b>'gaaf'</b>.
Alan - January 7, 2004 1:54 pm
You know, they all look pretty gaaf to me. Portland?
portland - January 7, 2004 11:16 pm
i think they're gaaf but they're not gaafs. how about an acroym of some kind - the other smart guys who thought about something other than lord of rings last year - tosgwtasotlotrlr; there you go, they're togslots as in "what are those togslots at nasa up to now?"
well, okay, this could use work but the idea is sound enough. i still wanna have a contest. howe about the gamma raylettes?
and has that robut on mars detected the sea monkeys yet?
Alan - January 8, 2004 8:01 am
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!