What is this???
Tethys baseball ball???
IS THIS JOKE???
IS THIS SUPOSETO BE FUNNY????



[SIZE=14]STUPID!!!!

What, scientists aren't allowed to have fun?

If a baseball theme is what it takes to get peoples attention, then so be it.

It's a bit 'tabloid' - but you have to go down that road to get the publics attention now-a-days.

It doesnt degrade data, it doesnt take scientist or engineers away from the project, it doesnt use Cassini's fuel - it's just a PR theme. No harm done.

Doug

I'm afraid this one got a chuckle out of me when I first saw it.

They should have colored Hyperion caramel orange and called it Crackerjack.

--Emily

WHY IS THERE KID'S SECTION OF THAT SITE???

They should represent Cassini spacecraft with fairy-like-wings,and adidas sport-shoes on the RTG's....

Let's get serious....again...

Alas. This is all the problem.

I'm glad to say that I know zip about baseball, cricket, golf, tennis, football or rugby, so these peculiar cultural references just pass me by! Quidditch, now there's a decent game for a boy!

To remind us of our own nearsightedness, space exploration is an exciting thing and something more people ought to partake of, but do any of us show every topic the precise correct amount of attention proportional to how much it deserves? When a poet wins a prize, do you pay attention? When a new archaeological dig takes place, do you pay attention? Is the tenth best jazz musician now playing in France better or worse than the tenth best jazz musician now playing in the US?

It's tempting to take one's (subcommunity's) interest as a virtue, and then take it to be a necessary virtue, and then as something of a shame that others don't share the interest, but we're all guilty of not being interested in countless worthy things. Maybe someone else needs to do shameless things to draw our attention to their beloved thing. Are we then the problem?

I bristle a bit at the slightest hint that those who don't share an interest are in some sense wrong. If that's wrong, we're all wrong.

So -- how is this any more stupid than having Daffy Duck and Marvin the Martian as the mascots of the MER Rovers?

I bet if they had turned Tethys into a soccer ball, our European cousins wouldn't have said a word.

Someone's bigotries are showing. And it's not a pretty sight.

-the other Doug

Lighten up, dude. The people working at NASA and JPL are regular people too. They put in very long serious hours. They are entitled to a bit of light-hearted fun. This has gone on through the history of the space program. Astronauts were constantly clowning around during the Apollo program. During Pathfinder they began naming rocks after cartoon characters for the fun of it (Yogi, Scooby doo, etc.).

Maybe it's just an American thing, but as one of the taxpayers paying for all of this, I don't mind it one bit, and in fact enjoy some fun, especially when it costs nothing and doesn't detract from the mission.

(and for those non-Americans who don't understand the reference, a "double header is when a pair of baseball teams play two consecutive baseball games in the same afternoon. It's often done to make up for a rained out game or other cancellation, without disrupting the established game schedule. Since Cassini will be making two significant fly-bys this weekend it is being referred to as a "double header" flyby, hence the baseball design superimposed on Tethys)

Toma B, this is just a little humor. In fact, I thought it was a neat way to put it. It is silly to think that things like this always should be handled in a super-serious way. I think everyone else's reaction makes it clear....this is not out of line.

But I like Duck Dodgers.....

No bucks..... etc. I say any PR is a Good Thing. (Unless it involves unnecessarily flying a senator in the shuttle for millions of dollars... but that's a different forum!)

There is also this description in the mission description pdf in the link below the baseball graphic --

"This encounter should offer spectacular views of Ithaca Chasma. The closest approach phase has been likened to Luke’s hair-raising flight through the trench of the Death Star, though our orbiter will be much farther away (and at no risk of being shot at)."

Go Gladiators!

Thanks for your interesting remarks.

My own remark "Alas. This is all the problem." was simply to regret that so many people need "public relation tips" to be interested in an important domain.


Space exploration and astronomy are important things, as they are about the universe in which we are living, our home planet. But archaeology is important too, because it is about our moving past and origins. And music is an important thing too, as it speaks directly to our heart. Helping the poors is a moral duty, acting for environment is a survival necessity... Everything is important, and choosing one of this domain for our actions is only a matter of personnal choice, so long as this choice does not close our mind to the other important domains.

Playing baseball, football, etc, is just game, entertainment. It is less important. But our human nature is made in such a way that we need some entertainment. So we cannot say it is "bad" an we can abandon them only if we are engaged into some very demanding activity or very involving spiritual path.

So we must admit that other's main interest and involvement can be another science than ours, and even that it is not a science at all. Not to admit this would lead to some "scientific bigotry".

But we can also very sincerely regret that, for so many people, cheap entertainment is the only horizon, unsignificant music the only feeling, tabloids scandals the only issues, and one day they die without never having a glance to the stary skies or moving prrehistorical painted caves. Look out! we are moving at 250km/s! We are going toward a future society which we can even not imagine today!

So I perfectly understand the anger of Toma B with this image of Thetys turned into a baseball ball, but I am also able to laugh at helvick's silly gladiators (are they really made by the MER's team, or did you made them yourself for the forum?) (silly bet: stick one on the next MER to depart)

And with Doug Elison, I agree that we must in a way be "boddhisattva scientists" who go were people are, and communicate how they can, in order to help them to awake to more significant things. (Perhaps I went a bit further than Doug, but...)

There are times when I get the distinct impression that Daffy is in charge of the space program. That, however, is also a subject for another forum.

There is a kid's section because few children, even the most science/space interested ones, are sufficiently patient or informed enough to read through pages of details on RTG thermoelectric junction degradation times and the like without lapsing into a coma after 3 seconds. I think it is absolutely fantastic that someone at JPL took the time to make a kid's section of the Cassini site so that younger kids can share in the exploration the solar system through missions like this too. I also think someone should take two of these and come back to the board in the morning...

I know a few people who will be getting this pic, thanks deglr6328

Bruce:

He certainly *used* to be - remember Destination Moon?

Though they *did* have the benefit of an ACME Atomic Rocket Engine!

Bob Shaw

That was Woody Woodpecker.

Screen shot here:

http://www.stomptokyo.com/badmoviereport/r...ation_moon.html

Aaargh! How could I be so wrong!

Lucky for them Wile E. Coyote wasn't the pilot.

To Richard Trigaux: Marvin the Martian and Daffy Duck certainly are mascots for the two MER rovers and helvick did show the official images there.
I made some comment about Marvin in some post conserning Spirit or Gusev some time back and that was one in-joke of mine referring to the mascot.

So Toma B I think both we and the scientists and engineers involved both need and should be permitted some lighthearted remarks or image manipulation at times.