[conspire] 747s

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Tony Godshall (togo at of.net):

> Bill Nye wants everybody to know that when he worked on 747s he was very
> well supervised

Just so long as he set 14 degrees flaps.  Flaps being set is important.
But not until just before takeoff (any time there's cold weather),
because of the risk of icing.

And, remember, a well-debugged checklist will save your life.

</deadpan>



Actually, seriously, Nye apparently was a mechanical engineer at Boeing
in 1980s/90s, and among other things was primiary inventer of the
hydraulic resonance suppressor 'Quinke' tube on the 747 horizontal
stabilizer drive system.  I assume he was pretty good at what he did,
and am as happy about entrusting my life to him as to most other people,
at least.

I gather he's in the news because he dared to suggest that CNN's 'New
Day' program screwed up putting crank climate-change deniers on an Earth
Day discussion panel, and, in reply, Caribou Barbie appeared at the
premiere of a 'Pay no attention to the back-to-back hurricanes; climate
change is a hoax' 'documentary' movie, and claimed dopily to be exactly
as much of a scientist as Nye is.  (Oh, shut up, Palin, and go stand on
the beach in Tampa.)

The implicit assumption of thise criticism of course is that scientific
questions get settled through gladiatorial wielding of credentials,
rather than, say, science.

But hey, that's how modern cargo cults work.

The deniers also have a pet meterologist at the Cato Institute name Ryan
Maue, whom they like to trot out.