Bill Nye the Science Guy @ E-Week 2012

**ZachsterPoke** · 03-22-2012, 02:34 PM

https://www.facebook.com/isueweek

According to E-Week's Facebook page, they have Bill Nye coming to speak during next E-Week.

Anyone else as excited for this as me? I guess it helps I grew up on the guy.

**josh4isu** · 03-22-2012, 02:36 PM

Originally Posted by ZachsterPoke

https://www.facebook.com/isueweek

According to E-Week's Facebook page, they have Bill Nye coming to speak during next E-Week.

Anyone else as excited for this as me? I guess it helps I grew up on the guy.

Yes, much excite. Wasnt there a rumor that he died though?

**VikesFan28** · 03-22-2012, 02:50 PM

Bill Nye! I loved watching his videos in school. I'm no engineer but I might go just to see him.

**cyclonespiker33** · 03-22-2012, 02:55 PM

I'm surprised, I was on the exec committee two years ago and he was always WAY too expensive to book.

**ZachsterPoke** · 03-22-2012, 03:27 PM

Originally Posted by cyclonespiker33

I'm surprised, I was on the exec committee two years ago and he was always WAY too expensive to book.

In some ways, that surprises me, and in other ways, it doesn't.

But, looks like your name must be Mario, because you just got 1-Up'd.

**Goothrey** · 03-24-2012, 02:27 AM

I am so there.

**CyFan61** · 03-24-2012, 08:32 AM

Originally Posted by cyclonespiker33

I'm surprised, I was on the exec committee two years ago and he was always WAY too expensive to book.

I wonder if his popularity has dropped off some in recent years

**cyence** · 03-24-2012, 09:24 AM

I've met him before and he's a bit self absorbed. I will see him next week in Indianapolis see if he has time for us commoners.

**Stumbles** · 03-24-2012, 09:56 AM

Bill Nye is a celebrity "scientist". It frustrates me when the media goes to him for an opinion on something that he has no clue about. I used to like him as a kid, but lost a good deal of respect for him when the news outlets were parading him on screen getting his "expert" interpretation of what was happening at Fukishimia Daiichi last March.

**rebecacy** · 03-24-2012, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by Stumbles

Bill Nye is a celebrity "scientist". It frustrates me when the media goes to him for an opinion on something that he has no clue about. I used to like him as a kid, but lost a good deal of respect for him when the news outlets were parading him on screen getting his "expert" interpretation of what was happening at Fukishimia Daiichi last March.

He thinks like a scientist and does a good job of simplifying complex issues.

**Stumbles** · 03-24-2012, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by rebecacy

He thinks like a scientist and does a good job of simplifying complex issues.

Except when he simplifies them wrong. Sometimes you can't simplify (dumb down) complex issues and explain them correctly.

**longtimeclone** · 03-24-2012, 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by Stumbles

Except when he simplifies them wrong. Sometimes you can't simplify (dumb down) complex issues and explain them correctly.

Can you simplify this even more? I am still have a tough time grasping this.

**rebecacy** · 03-24-2012, 10:39 AM

Originally Posted by Stumbles

Except when he simplifies them wrong. Sometimes you can't simplify (dumb down) complex issues and explain them correctly.

i don't agree, simplifing science and making it understandable is important in this world. Every T does not need to be crossed and every i dotted for the public. Just don't grossly mislead and Bill does not do that. Leaving science as an incomprehensibly complex subject left to the scientific elite is a much bigger dis-service IMHO. Eample, ask a pure scientist if something is safe and you will never get a straight answer ...... just all the exclusions.

**Stumbles** · 03-24-2012, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by rebecacy

i don't agree, simplifing science and making it understandable is important in this world. Every T does not need to be crossed and every i dotted for the public. Just don't grossly mislead and Bill does not do that. Leaving science as an incomprehensibly complex subject left to the scientific elite is a much bigger dis-service IMHO. Eample, ask a pure scientist if something is safe and you will never get a straight answer ...... just all the exclusions.

Placing a cinder block on a cage of fencing over an open flame was a way of simplifying an explanation of how it was impossible for jet liner fully loaded with fuel can not bring down a high rise building. It makes perfect sense to the uninformed on the surface, but is horribly wrong without probing concepts of civil engineering and metallurgy. That's where you get this fire can not melt steel argument

Explaining basic concepts is one thing, but the propensity of the general public to believe overly simple and incorrect explanations of complex situations such as the above, especially when they come from the mouth of a celebrity, is another. There are some things that you can not just simplify to the point of the general public understanding. Bill Nye may have had the best intentions, but as an engineer, he should have known better than when to open his mouth on such a matter when he has no real expertise. Dave Lochbaum of the UCS is no friend of the nuclear industry, and in fact, holds a real grudge against us that we caused, but was far less frustrating to watch on TV when talking about it, because he actually has a clue.

Nye is an "expert" for hire or fame.

On matters of science, the general public is intellectually lazy.