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What's the stupidest space-related thing you've ever heard someone say?


SlabGizor117

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A thread about people being ignorant, often not because of their own fault but because of bad teaching? I find it depressing.

Also funny, but I feel guilty about that.

Yeah, I suppose. It's kinda hard to see past the stupidity to how they would feel being made fun of XD But some people stand by their ignorance, so not all of them come home dejected and depressed from being made fun of for saying the moon landing was a hoax :P

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I'm pretty sure most people have lost the ability to bend their necks backwards to look up. And this scares me. We could evolve into creatures that have completely lost the ability to look up. The neck itself may become fused into a downward position overtime.

So, umm, you're entering yourself as an answer? :P No offense, just silliness. I can tilt my head back... Nobody loses the ability to do something their body is made to do because they don't do it often. The only thing that would do that(to my limited knowledge of anatomy and having broken my arm) is stiff joints and scar tissue around muscles from the joint being still for a long time, but we move our necks all the time, although not always that far back.

Edited by SlabGizor117
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Yeah, I suppose. It's kinda hard to see past the stupidity to how they would feel being made fun of XD But some people stand by their ignorance, so not all of them come home dejected and depressed from being made fun of for saying the moon landing was a hoax :P

I only feel guilty when it's not the persons fault that he's ignorant. But some individuals are quite proud of that and actively fight against being better informed. I first commented here about my brother thinking you go from LEO to the Moon with RCS, because I find that quite funny knowing the correct answer; but I explained to him how it really works and he listened. Other people, in stark contrast, will mock you for knowing so much (how that is supposed to be insulting is a mystery to me) or will aggressively claim not to have an interest and shut their ears. That's bad, and mocking it is a good way of fighting it, in my opinion.

Other thing entirely is people actively combating science, as one hears so much of happening in the US with creationists and Moon Landing Deniers. That is plain evil.

UPDATE: I just saw the video ghpstage posted. "Is that what Google said?". The horror... the horror...

Edited by Musil
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I have had a guy ask me how much gas the space shuttle uses.

Well, it's kind of a reasonable question, aside from the assumption that the shuttle uses actual gasoline, just say... a LOT. :P

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I only feel guilty when it's not the persons fault that he's ignorant. But some individuals are quite proud of that and actively fight against being better informed. I first commented here about my brother thinking you go from LEO to the Moon with RCS, because I find that quite funny knowing the correct answer; but I explained to him how it really works and he listened. Other people, in stark contrast, will mock you for knowing so much (how that is supposed to be insulting is a mystery to me) or will aggressively claim not to have an interest and shut their ears. That's bad, and mocking it is a good way of fighting it, in my opinion.

Other thing entirely is people actively combating science, as one hears so much of happening in the US with creationists and Moon Landing Deniers. That is plain evil.

Why compare creationists with moon landing deniers?

Edited by SlabGizor117
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I'm pretty sure most people have lost the ability to bend their necks backwards to look up. And this scares me. We could evolve into creatures that have completely lost the ability to look up. The neck itself may become fused into a downward position overtime.

My friend and I have this joke about Snapchat and how we once saw two people "Snapchatting" each other while they were sitting right next to each other.

Thankfully I hang around fairly educated people, so nothing really stupid... But one thing I did hear, which is not exactly related to space (but still funny) is something along the lines of, "The sky is blue because light from the sun shines on the oceans and it reflects onto the sky."

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I say stupid stuff about space all the time :

"I'm fairly sure Jeb can make this 1000m fall without damage"

"Hey, I'm sure this aerobraking with 200m periapsis will save me a lot of fuel and can not go wrong"

"Jool can't be that far. How hard can it be ?"

"Screw this rendez-vous, I'll just ram into the space station until something explodes"

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Just remembered another one:

"Spaceflight is impossible because it is not possible to re-enter Earth atmosphere."

I saw that one on few documentaries about spaceflight that I watched on youtube. Few of statements in that argument were

  • Space Shuttle wings were useless because there is no atmosphere above 30km?!
  • Apollo missions were fake because it is not possible to come back at 20k + km/h and spend 5-10 minutes free-falling through atmosphere as you can't fall that long through 30-ish km of atmosphere traveling at 20k km/h
  • You can't survive re-entry

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There are still people believing the Earth is flat, by the way: http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/cms/

Now, I am still not sure if that place is satire or if they truly believe so (though there are people that seems extremely serious about it). Their forum seems pretty nice, with both Round Earth people and Flat Earth people around debating and stuff with moderately not flammable manner. Oh and there is an offtopic there talking about Kerbal Space Program. They seems to enjoy it.

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We've had the humour. We've had the taking the pee outa Star Trek. Now we are into the bitching. Nearly time for the lock or does someone have to mention Nazis? Oh wait, I mentioned Hitler! Yup time for a lock.

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Courtesy of a classmate in 8th grade (a long time ago):

"Is it possible to go to space without dying?"

The teacher walked out of the room, and came back a minute later, this was in science class, specifically earth science.

I will never forget this...

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We've had the humour. We've had the taking the pee outa Star Trek. Now we are into the bitching. Nearly time for the lock or does someone have to mention Nazis? Oh wait, I mentioned Hitler! Yup time for a lock.

What? This is probably the most tame thread I've ever seen on here. Everyone's handled the topic (which I'll admit is sort of "walking the line") in a fairly mature way.

I was taught, in early grade school (2nd grade?), that winter came when the earth was farthest from the sun during its orbit. Sounds reasonable until you later learn that the opposite hemisphere experiences summer at the same time...

Now that I think about it, I think I was taught the same thing.

There were a lot of things "taught" to me in grade school that were later "corrected" in high school. It was usually something along the lines of, "You probably learned X in the second grade, but it's actually Y."

Edited by Greenfire32
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Aside from the usual "Moon landings were fake", "Mars has no atmosphere", "No gravity in space" malarkey, I once heard someone wonder "How did Apollo 11 get through the asteroid belt without being crushed?"

Two things wrong with this:

The asteroid belt is nowhere near the Moon.

Even if Apollo 11 somehow did have to fly through the asteroid belt, they'd be astronomically (heh) unlikely to even see an asteroid.

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Uhmmm im going to dispute you Musil..... because all the creationists I meet (which are... a lot) tend to be wayyyyy more into science than other groups, incidentally the only ones I've met who typically know that there is gravity in space and okay biology etc...

And I do know there are crazy people saying they are creationists who make the news.... But there are also.... crazy people who believe in x who make the news...

/on-topic after rant about extremely american stereo types that do not exactly apply at all elsewhere in the world

I typically get people who believe there is no gravity in space... But they all see the logic when told... (I use if there's no gravity in space then how could the moon have gravity)...

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Do I smell a religious intolerance?

No. I don't want to turn this into something like a YouTube comment section, so I will try not to go into personal detail... Mi problem is with people distorting the scientific method to the point where it does not only cause confusion and ignorance, but also political problems. If someone wants to believe... eh... in Quetzalcoatle, I have no problem with it as long as he or she doesn't start sacrificing people to him. I don't mind God, I mind false claims very much. Subjective truth is all fine and well, as long as it is not claimed to be objective and universal: that's where problems start. As far as I know, the scientific method is the only reliable way of claiming objective truth with verifiable criteria for truth and falsehood, and therefore support it ideologically, as I think it produces great good in the world. So, in conclusion, I don't think I am intolerant of religion; I would describe myself as a defendant of the scientific method.

This ramble... I don't think it's the place for it, but what the hell...

EDIT: I am happy to have a discussion about this, but this really doesn't seem like the place for it. so I have to excuse myself from any further comments. If it seems worth it, PM me, but... it's not like we are going to settle things on the Internet, is it?

Edited by Musil
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https://lightsinthedark.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/freeflyer_nasa_3000.jpg

This photo is fake because the astronaut should fall on Earth...

Well of course! Haven't you ever heard of gravity?? -_- Idiots

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Uhmmm im going to dispute you Musil..... because all the creationists I meet (which are... a lot) tend to be wayyyyy more into science than other groups, incidentally the only ones I've met who typically know that there is gravity in space and okay biology etc...

And I do know there are crazy people saying they are creationists who make the news.... But there are also.... crazy people who believe in x who make the news...

/on-topic after rant about extremely american stereo types that do not exactly apply at all elsewhere in the world

I typically get people who believe there is no gravity in space... But they all see the logic when told... (I use if there's no gravity in space then how could the moon have gravity)...

That's true, most of the stereotypical creationist "Moon landing hoax, Obama is the devil" stuff, you only hear on the news because they're the few and far between creationists who still have a few screws loose from their former life on drugs ಠ_ಠ

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No. I don't want to turn this into something like a YouTube comment section, so I will try not to go into personal detail... Mi problem is with people distorting the scientific method to the point where it does not only cause confusion and ignorance, but also political problems. If someone wants to believe... eh... in Quetzalcoatle, I have no problem with it as long as he or she doesn't start sacrificing people to him. I don't mid God, I mid false claims very much. Subjective truth is all fine and well, as long as it is not claimed to be objective and universal: that's where problems start. As far as I know, the scientific method is the only reliable way of claiming objective truth with verifiable criteria for truth and falsehood, and therefore support it ideologically, as I think it produces great good in the world. So, in conclusion, I don't think I am intolerant of religion; I would describe myself as a defendant of the scientific method.

This ramble... I don't think it's the place for it, but what the hell...

No, I understand and I most definitely am not interested in turning this into the Youtube comments section. I appreciate your respect, too. I don't disagree with the scientific method being a good way to find objective truth, but there aren't as many people to "defend the scientific method" as you would think.

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Anyways, this is turning into religion and politics, not stupidity. Stop being civilized, we're supposed to be making fun of stupid people, not religion! :P

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Anyways, this is turning into religion and politics, not stupidity. Stop being civilized, we're supposed to be making fun of stupid people, not religion! :P

As fun as it can be to make fun of ignorant people, it hurts the cause of educating them. People have already started turning ignorance into an identity they are proud of, and it's partially our fault because we make fun of them.

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I remember when I was in 8th grade (a LOOOOOOOONG time ago) getting into an argument with my science teacher over a project. She INSISTED Mars had no atmosphere.

I got into an argument with my 6th grade "science" teacher when she claimed that compasses flip around and point south if you cross the equator.

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As fun as it can be to make fun of ignorant people, it hurts the cause of educating them. People have already started turning ignorance into an identity they are proud of, and it's partially our fault because we make fun of them.

I'll agree with this, but I'll also say that those who don't make an honest effort to learn, never will.

So I point. And I laugh. And they laugh too. Everyone laughs.

I'm terrible at parties.

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