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What has NASA done to make your life awesome?

wtfnasa.com

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Re: What has NASA done to make your life awesome?

#21

Post by adestefan »

acoyfellow wrote: post #2

For some reason, using the entire word "fuck" was shocking in a odd way for me. It's sending mixed signals- it's sounding harsh not funny. I personally think it could be stronger with a nice headline not using it- this idea is really awesome. There is something off in the relationship between the whole written word and the "ideals" of NASA. I love this, but I think it's a little over-the-top with the whole word being…

It started with a website[1] that answered the question "What the fuck has Obama done so far?"

[1] http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/

Re: What has NASA done to make your life awesome?

#22

Post by acoyfellow »

onli wrote: post #3
acoyfellow wrote: post #2

For some reason, using the entire word "fuck" was shocking in a odd way for me. It's sending mixed signals- it's sounding harsh not funny. I personally think it could be stronger with a nice headline not using it- this idea is really awesome. There is something off in the relationship between the whole written word and the "ideals" of NASA. I love this, but I think it's a little over-the-top with the whole word being…

Don't be so fucking american. Swearwords are not not to be used. They serve its function, and here it is part of a well crafted site which is trying to make a point. edit: Though I agree with harrywincup that the wtf-approach at first seems like nasa did nothing good.

If my post made me seem stuck up, that is a shame. Go 'Merica!

Re: What has NASA done to make your life awesome?

#23

Post by sbmassey »

onli wrote: post #3
acoyfellow wrote: post #2

For some reason, using the entire word "fuck" was shocking in a odd way for me. It's sending mixed signals- it's sounding harsh not funny. I personally think it could be stronger with a nice headline not using it- this idea is really awesome. There is something off in the relationship between the whole written word and the "ideals" of NASA. I love this, but I think it's a little over-the-top with the whole word being…

Don't be so fucking american. Swearwords are not not to be used. They serve its function, and here it is part of a well crafted site which is trying to make a point. edit: Though I agree with harrywincup that the wtf-approach at first seems like nasa did nothing good.

The purpose of the swearword "fuck" is to signal that you are passionate and emotionally unrestrained about something, with a slight underlying threat of violence. Can someone explain why that is appropriate on this well crafted site?

Re: What has NASA done to make your life awesome?

#24

Post by wonderzombie »

wisty wrote: post #10

Meh. The Swiss Patent office did more. Some of NASA's innovations are the result of its focus on solving the kind of problems no-one has tried to solve before; others are simply the result of so many talented scientists and engineers spending their time there. The question shouldn't just be "Was NASA worth it", but "what kind of new problems should mankind be working on". Deep sea research in another interesting doma…

Meh. The Swiss Patent office did more.

Right, yes, excitement is zero sum.

The question shouldn't just be "Was NASA worth it", but "what kind of new problems should mankind be working on".

I agree with the sentiment, but "is/was NASA worth it" is the question in practice. It's a question with a simple answer: yes. But it helps to be able to explain why, especially with examples. Hence this website.

Re: What has NASA done to make your life awesome?

#25

Post by ballooney »

bao wrote: post #12
onli wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be so fucking american. Swearwords are not not to be used. They serve its function, and here it is part of a well crafted site which is trying to make a point. edit: Though I agree with harrywincup that the wtf-approach at first seems like nasa did nothing good.

A) Why did you think he is American? You can find cusswords distasteful and be from another country. B) Why do you think he doesn't like the F-word? It's possible to respect a word for its emotional power while thinking it gratuitous or counter-productive in some cases.

> A) Why did you think he is American? You can find cusswords distasteful and be from another country.

A squeamishness around swear words ('cussword' is not a word I've ever heard a non-american use) is I'm afriad one of the perceived traits of America by other english-speaking nations, so from a purely Bayesian point of view it's an assumption he could make with some confidence. Just like we (Englishman here) don't understand why one arab would get unspeakably offended by another arab hitting him with a shoe unless someone told us that it was the highest insult, culturally (it is not apparent that this is the most insulting thing you can do in and of itself, it's a conditioned, learned response). There is a quote, attributed to lots of people, but seemingly either George Bernard Shaw or Oscar Wilde, that Britain and America are 'two nations divided by a common language'. There is real incomprehension and bafflement in the UK, for example, that a swear word or nipple on US tv seems to cause comparable levels of outrage to a shooting spree.

So, I wouldn't jump down the GP's throat too much, even if his assertion was put forward rather abrasively.

Re: What has NASA done to make your life awesome?

#26

Post by jcbmllgn »

Hi HN, my name is Jacob, I'm the guy that made wtfnasa. Here's my tl;dr reaction to the virality that this project has seen:

wtfnasa was not made to go viral, it was made to be a simple intro to CodeIgniter & a reaction to people upset with NASA, I put ~zero thought into having 'fuck' in the title, it was built in about 10 hours (design, build, data entry, & launch) last Wednesday & Thursday, it had 9 unique visitors as of Friday at noon & right now it has just under 40k. I'm considering removing the 'f word' based on the loads of kickback I've gotten from it, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

Re: What has NASA done to make your life awesome?

#27

Post by Kerrick »

jcbmllgn wrote: post #26

Hi HN, my name is Jacob, I'm the guy that made wtfnasa. Here's my tl;dr reaction to the virality that this project has seen: wtfnasa was not made to go viral, it was made to be a simple intro to CodeIgniter & a reaction to people upset with NASA, I put ~zero thought into having 'fuck' in the title, it was built in about 10 hours (design, build, data entry, & launch) last Wednesday & Thursday, it had 9 unique visitors…

Don't remove the word "fuck." If you must, provide a censored alternative, but the "fuck" helps things like this grow popular.

See: http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/ versus the PG version: http://whattheheckhasobamadonesofar.com/

Re: What has NASA done to make your life awesome?

#28

Post by harrywincup »

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #6
harrywincup wrote: post #5

It seems to me that the realisation/delight of discovering all of these incredible benefits to society that come out of NASA carries more than enough weight without requiring the whole "wtf" twist to make this interesting. If anything, it comes across as sounding like NASA hasn't actually done awesome things ("what did they ever do for us?!"), instead of the intended emphasis on the many, many unknown awesome things…

I think it's meant in an ironic "what have the Romans ever done for us!?" kind of way.

I get that, and I do usually enjoy the heavily sarcastic approach sites like this take to make their point ... it just seems to me that "wtf [organisation]" is something more akin to how i'd emphasise how unbelievably ridiculous, say, oil companies are for yet another spill/cover-up/buyout etc

In this situation, the intention is really to celebrate the fact that NASA makes awesome stuff and the whole WTF comedy angle seems a bit awkward to me :)

[EDIT] I just realised out exactly why it seems awkward to me ... http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/ works because it's sarcastically about what he's done, whereas "wtf NASA" is aimed directly at NASA and comes across as angry. The URL needs to be something like "wtfhasnasaeverdonefortheworld.com" (like the page heading) for the joke to really work I think

Re: What has NASA done to make your life awesome?

#29

Post by jcbmllgn »

Kerrick wrote: post #27
jcbmllgn wrote: post #26

Hi HN, my name is Jacob, I'm the guy that made wtfnasa. Here's my tl;dr reaction to the virality that this project has seen: wtfnasa was not made to go viral, it was made to be a simple intro to CodeIgniter & a reaction to people upset with NASA, I put ~zero thought into having 'fuck' in the title, it was built in about 10 hours (design, build, data entry, & launch) last Wednesday & Thursday, it had 9 unique visitors…

Don't remove the word "fuck." If you must, provide a censored alternative, but the "fuck" helps things like this grow popular. See: http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/ versus the PG version: http://whattheheckhasobamadonesofar.com/

Nice! I haven't seen these before, but that's a great idea... 10 minutes later... take a look at What The NASA http://wtnasa.com/

Re: What has NASA done to make your life awesome?

#30

Post by jcbmllgn »

acoyfellow wrote: post #2

For some reason, using the entire word "fuck" was shocking in a odd way for me. It's sending mixed signals- it's sounding harsh not funny. I personally think it could be stronger with a nice headline not using it- this idea is really awesome. There is something off in the relationship between the whole written word and the "ideals" of NASA. I love this, but I think it's a little over-the-top with the whole word being…

I just put up an alternate to wtfnasa called wtnasa (what the NASA) - http://wtnasa.com/ I hope this is something you would send to your niece with a clean conscience :)
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