People Are Morons
'Nuff said.

It's been interesting watching the congressional hearings this morning. The number of times members of Congress have asked questions that I could answer easily, or that had ALREADY been answered that morning, was phenomenal. Pay attention, people!
It's also presented examples of an issue that I was already griping about yesterday. I came across an e-mail yesterday sent to a NASA site from a woman who said that back in the Mercury through Apollo eras, she knew about the astronauts and who they were, etc., but now she doesn't. Her argument is that this is NASA's fault, and that NASA should dedicate part of its Web site to information about astronauts.
Of course, Johnson Space Center has an entire section of its Web site listing every astronaut, past, present, future, living, dead, and "passengers." And, yet, her apathy is somehow NASA's fault.
Certainly, one could easily make the arguement that the agency does work to improve its publicity and public awareness efforts. But, to some extent, all we can do is make information available. I don't think it would be much appreciated if we started spamming people with astronaut biographies just in case they wanted them.
A similar question was raised during the hearings this morning, from a congressman who didn't know about what the benefits for spaceflight are, and didn't hear about them like he used to, and wanted to know what the spin-offs of NASA's efforts are, if any.
Again, the agency has TONS of info about this. Trust me, I know, because I've helped write some of it. It's just a couple of clicks away. Again, I don't see where the apathy that kept him from looking it up (or more likely, assign a staffer to look it up) is our fault. We can't beam the information straight into his head (as far as the general public knows, anyway).

:: :: 11:35 :: David :: [permalink] ::