You can set your watch by the outrage

[Cain]

http://www.nasawatch.com/archives/2010/07/charlie-bolden-2.html

When I became the NASA Administrator – before I became the NASA Administrator – he charged me with three things: One was that he wanted me to re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, that he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with predominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering."

Question: Are you in some sort of diplomatic role .. to win hearts and minds?

Bolden: NO NO, not at all. Its not a diplomatic anything. What it is – is that it is trying to expand our outreach so that we get more people who can contribute to the things that we do – the international Space Station is as great as it is because we have a conglomerate of about 15 plus nations who have contributed something to that partnership that has made it what it is today ..."

It it involves Muslims, science and historical facts, therefore it will cause much wailing and gnashing of teeth.  All it needs is something to do with Jeremiah Wright or Bill Ayers and the circle will be complete.

[AFK]

My money says Glenn Beck picks up this baton first and finds a way to, once again, link it to Hitler and the Nazis. 

[Elder Iptuous]

already set my watch.
went to the folks' house last night and my dad announced that Obama has changed the NASA mission statement to 'help the muslims get into space'.
i expressed my dubiousness just shy of pressing hot buttons that would lead to quarrel.  almost let myself go when he said that Islam is 'the religion of Satan' and that justifies any actions against them.

[Cain]

Wow, that was quick.  I was hoping I had beaten the actual outrage already.  Now I has a sad 

[LMNO]

Does anyone know if a wingnut has pounced on the fact that the Muslims invented algebra to prove that the intellectual elites are anti-christian?

Because that would be a really good bouncing ball of idiot paranoia to get started.

[Cain]

I don't know for sure she has said it, but Debbie Schlussel is always a good bet for general nuttiness (Pammy Atlas goes without saying).  Schlussel has whined before that because a Kuwait company bought Aston Martin, it was ROONT FOREVER and retroactively made James Bond unsexy.  I'm sure she'd denounce algebra if she knew how Islamic it was.

[AFK]

Wait until the Texas Board of Education gets wind of that little factoid.  Poor kids will get 3 years of Geometry. 

[Zyzyx]

Yes, the Muslim world pioneered mathematics, physics, astronomy medicine, navigation, they preserved the classics... 1300 years ago.This whole thing just sounds patronizing in the way some faux-PC soccer mom tries to cover for an embarrassing racial remark right in front of a member of the offended demographic. Instead of just, you know, trying to just get out of their way.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Does anyone know if a wingnut has pounced on the fact that the Muslims invented algebra to prove that the intellectual elites are anti-christian?

Because that would be a really good bouncing ball of idiot paranoia to get started.

Why stop there? They gave us our numerals too. All math is therefore evil and Islamic. We should go back to using good old Roman numerals and Greek geometry.

[Suu]

This can become an amazing troll!

[Nephew Twiddleton]

This can become an amazing troll!

A good side troll could be advocating to go back to using only units of measurement mentioned in the Bible.
Screw Metric. To Hell with Imperial. Go Biblical!

How many cubits per hour would the speed limit be?

[Jasper]

228,800 cubits per hour.

At least, the way I drive in 50 mph zones.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

228,800 cubits per hour.

At least, the way I drive in 50 mph zones.

That's a delightfully inconvenient number. I will have to formulate my troll....

[Jasper]

You could also say 3.8 kilocubits per second.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

You could also say 3.8 kilocubits per second.

TOO METRIC SOUNDING!

We can call them God-cubits. It's kinda like explaining how the world can be made in 6 days by saying that they're days as God percieves them.