Monday, October 18, 2010

He Blindsided Them With 'Science'

I found this--a report in the Christian Science Monitor about Obama's visit planned guest spot on a TV science show--to be unintentionally funny in so many ways:
President Obama is scheduled to appear on the December 8 episode of “MythBusters,” a Discovery Channel reality show. What’s up with that? Is Mr. Obama just trying to match Sarah Palin, who is getting her own show on Discovery-affiliated TLC?
Well, maybe. But the stated point of Obama’s star turn with Jamie Hyneman, Adam Savage, and the rest of the “MythBuster” gang is to promote science and math education. Monday is science fair day at the White House – besides officially announcing his television appearance, Obama will play host to the winners of a range of science and math competitions, from the Intel Science and Engineering Fair to the Team America Rocketry Challenge.

“If you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House. Well, if you’re a young person and you produce the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement too,” said the president last November.

Appearing on “MythBusters” probably is a pretty good way to get the attention of all the 9-to-14-year-olds in America who are interested in creating explosions with common household items. Which is pretty much all of them, when you get down to it...
So Obama, whose mythical status as a deity has pretty much been busted, is set to appear on "Mythbusters," eh? How...appropriate. And he's going to promote science--this time to all young'uns and not, a la his revision of NASA's mission, just the ones he thinks may be lagging behind. Well, good for him. As for those young Americans who are interested in creating explosions with common household items--yeah, some of them may even be looking to use a common household compound (ammonium nitrate, a.k.a. the fertilizer of peace) to blast themselves into a posthumous brothel full of hot-to-trot virgins.

Update: Some "kids" interested in creating explosions whose science project went awry.

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