bored

you would have thought that working for nasa (the national aeronautics and space administration) would have been exciting and busy trying to get a man on the moon and all that sort of thing.

yet it seems that the boys (and girls) of nasa have nothing to do: they are fed up with planning that trip to mars and beyond; the search for extra terrestrial life has lost its appeal and playing tetris or solitaire is so last year.

don’t worry the brainiacs of nasa have come up with away to defeat the ennui: they have had a special meeting to discuss the best and the worst science fiction films to show which of them demonstrated good or bad science.

nasa and the science community are happy to provide hollywood with scientific and technical information and, in the case of nasa, product placement in order to aid the entertainment industry. sometimes they are not pleased with the results because the science portrayed on the screen is not accurate – who would have thought it?

movies such as 2012, the core, 6th day and armageddon are criticised because of the silly science employed in the movies. those pesky scientist who go to see movies at their local cinema and end up thinking that they are sitting in a classroom rather than are there to be entertained by mindless entertainment. they may as well go around with big kiljoy t-shirts on. there can’t be many people who saw the day the earth changed who thought – yeah that was realistic, or who were thrilled by armageddon and came out thinking that would be the plan i would go with.

perhaps the scientists at nasa are just working out their own wish fulfillment – they want their lives to be as exciting as their screen counterparts.

one of the good people of the science and entertainment exchange (yes it really does exist) has even suggested that science fiction films should carry the following advisory “no scientific idea were seriously hurt during the making of this film.” this proves that they either have a sense of humour or they are very po faced, hard to tell.

frankly if they think movies such as armageddon and the core are bad, while gattica is good just shows that they have no taste at all. the fact that the latest films they list as being good are gattica and contact – just means they have to get out more.

maybe if the bods at nasa stopped watching science fiction movies and started getting on with doing the science fact stuff we would all have our bloody jet packs and silver suits.

c’mon nasa pull your finger out and stop watching movies.