Subtle. I like it. And appropriate, given yesterday’s radio debate.
Hat tip to Secular Front.
-
About Bad Astronomy
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.
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December 13th, 2005 at 3:01 pm
Mmmmmm… potential….
You know what they put on their french fries in England?
Vinegar!
It’s true!, I’ve seen them drown them in that gollygook!
December 13th, 2005 at 3:01 pm
Actually, this reminds me of an article I saw recently on Slashdot about a British reality TV program wherein the participants think they’re in low Earth orbit but are in fact on the ground. I thought this group might find the concept interesting.
December 13th, 2005 at 3:58 pm
# Thomas Siefert Says:
December 13th, 2005 at 3:01 pm
Mmmmmm… potential….
You know what they put on their french fries in England?
Vinegar!
It’s true!, I’ve seen them drown them in that gollygook!
OY! They’re called ‘chips’ over here thankyouverymuch!
December 13th, 2005 at 5:03 pm
I’ve given myself this name because I liked the Mediocrity poster.
December 13th, 2005 at 5:14 pm
I still remember live television feeds from NASA’s operations center during the early days of the space program. Those celebration cigars were spewing out clouds of smoke just like the big rockets that were being launched. Now, on the web casts of some missions, they share nuts after a successful mission. These new health nuts got a long way to go before they can put a man on the moon and safely return him to earth.
December 13th, 2005 at 7:28 pm
I’m not sure cigars were a direct help in getting men to the Moon… but the next time a human lands there, I may very well light one up.
December 13th, 2005 at 8:28 pm
yes, many Canadians put vinegar on their chips too. Despite being Canadian, I think it’s a revolting habit.
Now, gravy and cheese curd on chips… mmmmmmm
December 13th, 2005 at 8:40 pm
Oddly enough, my history professor (who is also my advisor) told us about this website about two weeks ago. Love it.
Hey, I love salt-and-vinegar potato chips, is that kinda similar? (I know, chips and chips, but still.)
December 13th, 2005 at 10:29 pm
Not sure I ‘get’ the poster. Is it saying that people who aren’t astronauts can get work in burger joints? Duhh.. I feel slow. Must be all those battered mars bars.
December 13th, 2005 at 10:31 pm
It is basically saying most people don’t have the potential to do much with their lives and should recognize that fact.
December 13th, 2005 at 10:32 pm
Ah yes, demotivators. One of my favorite websites.
http://www.despair.com/wishes.html is another particularly applicable one for this site.
“When you wish upon a falling star, your dreams can come true. Unless it’s really a meteorite hurtling to the Earth which will destroy all life. Then you’re pretty much hosed no matter what you wish for. Unless it’s death by meteor. ‘
This one is also appropriate: http://www.despair.com/teamwork.html
“A few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction.”
However, my absolute favorite is: http://www.despair.com/achievement.html
It has a picture of the Great Pyramid of Giza and says:
“You can do anything you set your mind to when you have vision, determination, and an endless supply of expendable labor”
(be sure to also check out the “perfect for” for this one)
The “Perfect for” list each one has are generally really funny too, and I love how the last one is always is “Disaffected college students”. It is very true.
December 13th, 2005 at 10:33 pm
That’s kind of dispiriting. I guess we can’t all be male strippers though.
December 14th, 2005 at 4:34 am
They’r called chips in Aus and NZ too. We have Fries at MacDonalds and other chain and there’s no way we’d put vinegar on those.
Chips are larger and soak up the vinegar.
Chips and gravy are great too, chips and tomato sauce, but not chips and ketchup !
BTW I worked 23hours yesterday and I’m tired – I still don’t understand !
…. Unless it’s the Bachelor of Arts vocation ?!?
December 14th, 2005 at 7:41 am
I like the Ignorance one. Having rowed in a quadruple scull, there are times when you have no idea where you’re going (and then we stop and have an argument about where we should be going).
-Cindy
December 14th, 2005 at 10:33 am
Randall, there is a reality show running at the moment here in England called Space Cadets.
They picked a bunch of young people and and trained them in a “Russian” training camp for cosmonauts. In reality they have flown them to a decommissioned English airbase, picked three and sent them into low orbit in a simulator that they think is the real thing.
During the training they were fed 80% real information about space travel and 20% false information so that certain things about the simulation would be believable to them. At one point they were explained that the shuttle they would be sent up in, was equipped with gravity generators so they would not experience free fall during the trip.
Of course at this point any reader of the BA site would have stood up and shouted: BULLCHOVICH! and left the building.
It’s not that good a show, it’s almost like Big Brother in space (the 5 minutes I’ve watched of that show). I also find that it is a very cruel joke being played on these people, they will indeed be called Space Cadets for the rest of their life’s.
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/S/spacecadets/
December 14th, 2005 at 2:00 pm
I just saw the “Perfect for” for Potential – the Johnson Space Center Child Care Center cafeteria.
I was also amused by Limitations.
http://www.despair.com/limitations.html
December 14th, 2005 at 3:25 pm
Somehow… that didn’t cheer me up.
December 14th, 2005 at 10:14 pm
Limitations is definitely the cutest one. It is another one of my favorites as well.
December 19th, 2005 at 3:56 pm
In England (and Australia) we do not put vinegar on our French Fries!!….we put it on our CHIPS( much better). This is an Astronomy site?
December 19th, 2005 at 3:57 pm
p.s. Saw you in Australia Phil at the skeptics conference..great meeting!
December 19th, 2005 at 4:00 pm
Aerin…..THEY are called crisps, this is way off subject and I’m going to stop. I’ts the end of the school year here…that’s my excuse
December 19th, 2005 at 11:18 pm
Nope this is not an astronomy site, it’s the smoko van