President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
Of course it’s an unfair comparison, because he’s not a megalomaniacal leader with a nation groaning under the iron heel of a murderous personality cult. But I was reminded of those North Korean news releases that describe how Dear Leader invented a new smelting technique before lunch, then created a hybrid rose before coming up with a startling theory on cosmology. A Man of Science!
With the economy still sputtering, his approval ratings slipping and the mid-term elections looming, President Barack Obama certainly has enough on his plate. But he surprisingly found time to appear on the December 8 episode of Discovery Channel’s series Mythbusters.
In the episode, Archimedes Solar Ray, Obama challenges hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman to prove the ancient Greek myth that scientist and polymath Archimedes set fire to an invading Roman fleet using only mirrors and the reflected rays of the sun? I wonder if he is planning to use the knowledge against the GOP fleet that is threatening the Democratic majority in the upcoming November elections.
If he was appearing on a documentary about the last two years called Mythbusted, it might make more sense. Who knows: perhaps this question has nagged him for years.
“Yes, Michelle, I know, I promised not to bring it up at the dinner table again. But think about it. We know very little about their mirror technology, but the relics we’ve found suggest highly polished metal was used, not the modern form, which use silvered glass. Hell, metal-backed glass mirrors didn’t appear until the first century AD, three hundred years later. So he was using copper shields, all precisely focused? I can’t buy it. The historian in me loves the story, but the ruthless empiricist in me demands the truth. Some day when I have more power - whatever form that may take - I will use my influence to get to the bottom of this matter.”
Yes, dear. Pass the sprouts.
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Jun '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
Well, he is into solar power, after all. And Greek columns. And replicating the Greek economy ....
May '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
I'm sure the feasibility of the Archimedes Death Ray was preying on his mind ever since law school. Such insatiable curiosity.
Just seems like Obama's taking a big risk going on Mythbusters. What if they turn their eyes on him? Not quite as dangerous as going on Penn & Teller's show [title redacted by author], but close.
Aug '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
Minor point, but since ruthless empiricism was brought up: does anybody really know if North Korea "groans" in any sense under its ruler? Blogging being the stay-at-home pastime it is, but journalism being hardly any better, we aren't likely to learn what, if anything, North Koreans feel. Which is sort of an interesting philosophical point. We may never know what North Koreans feel or felt. People (not just Presidents) thousands of years from now may debate the North Korean myths passed down to them. Some anecdotal evidence may be adduced; but since North Koreans themselves seem little disposed to set the record straight, or indeed set down any record at all, it'll be all guesswork. The steely alienness of the place is remarkable, a weird and striking gift to posterity.
Aug '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
Are they hard up for material on Mythbusters? I think they've done the Archimedes Death Ray twice already. At least that's what I recall from re-runs.
Aug '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
I was recently pointed in the direction of an article from 2003 entitled "Why Smart People Believe Weird Things". It helps to illustrate why it is NOT irrational to be skeptical of "elites" and political power. There is a body of evidence that the correlation between intelligence and disbelief in superstition is pretty small, and that people of higher intelligence can be more susceptible to "weird" beliefs that are not superstitious in nature (like Keynesian economics, for example).
The reason for this is that people with higher intelligence tend to be more skilled and have more training at persuasion and critical reasoning skills, but instead of using these skills to separate fact from fiction that can end up using these skills to reinforce their own belief in incorrect ideas.
In other words, liberal arts education is very good at teaching people how to make a persuasive argument, but doesn't put nearly as much emphasis on coming to a correct conclusion. So schools churn out armies of students who are highly skilled at making persuasive arguments for incorrect ideas.
Here's a link to the article: http://skeptically.org/logicalthreads/id15.html
Aug '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
Funny, I had the same impression, too.
Well, maybe Obama is one of those pesky fans who wants the myth re-tested until the outcome is what he wished it to be.
Jun '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
That is a fascinating thought, John H. I've wondered about such things as well. Given a brutally closed society, severely subjugated to the state that controls so much of everything, is it possible that North Korea resembles a modern-day Dark Age, in which whatever knowledge the people possess is irretrievably lost - save whatever documentation exists at the government level? Some of the truth may be extractable from government propaganda of course. It may be generations before the veil falls, and even then, how difficult will it be to piece together the story apart from oral recollections passed down to describe life inside the darkness, from the perspective of the people underneath Dear Leader's thumb?
How much of what we know or hear about N. Korea is itself, myth? That said, it will be a wonderful day when that regime finally falls. If it falls.
Sep '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
President Obama, putting the Narc back in Narcissus.
Jul '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
Hopefully like Archimedes, he too, can be lost to history.
I don't know how well the President will fit in to the Mythbusters methodology. He certainly conducts himself in both camps: Theory and Result. Quibbling when he doesn't want to tie himself to an issue of unknown popularity, but doggedly certain when he feels that it will benefit his position ("if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor").
Then again, "Only a Sith deals in Absolutes!"
In the Parlance of the Mythbusters, there are only three outcomes:
I can't wait until he wades into a topic of national significance, like judging on America's Next Top Model.
May '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
They have done it twice before, and I was under the impression that they filmed this third attempt last fall. Obama was in the SF area last October, so perhaps he dropped by the set.
Jul '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
The man has an interest in mirrors? You don't say!
Aug '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
Then I should quit while I'm ahead! Thanks, Jim. But I feel I should add that dictatorships often rest easy on people: North Koreans may not be "subjugated" but satisfied. I was in Chile right after the 1988 plebiscite, and the graffiti was accurate: a lot of people had wanted Pinochet to stay. I met a black South African who proudly showed me his pass, and was suspicious of post-apartheid Mandela. A Ukrainian cabbie told me he was against perestroika: prices went up! On the other hand, in Santo Domingo I found what may have been the one surviving manhole cover with "Ciudad Trujillo" on it, so Dominicans, if not many other people in this world, troubled themselves to banish, on however humble a level, the monuments of authoritarianism.
Which gets me back to the real point here: Pres. Obama's core frivolity. I tell these travelogue stories partly because they please me, but also because Pres. Obama couldn't tell them. He can't grasp the personality of dictatorships. Of course he does not believe in American exceptionalism. He has never comprehended its opposite.
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
Obviously they needed him to play the sun whose reflected glory, suitably amplified, will destroy the forces of the Republic.
Because the Syracusans were fighting the Roman Republic, you see. Wheeeeze.
May '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
May '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
In the next episode, he will challenge the hosts to prove leeches can be employed to cure disease. If so, this whole Obamacare thing may actually work....
May '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
And then, a scientific examination of whether a president can affect sea levels, even a super-smart one who respects science and stuff.
May '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
All to be followed by a search for the 51st through 57th states.
Aug '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
I don't know if you'd call it curing a disease, but leeches do have a use in modern medicine: they encourage a fresh supply of blood to reattached body parts, like fingers and ears.
Turns out those little bloodsuckers are good for something, after all.
May '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
Obviously, this Mythbusters episode is not like the others. Unlike the Roman fleet, Obama could not be deterred.
May '10
Re: President turns his intellect on the matters of the day
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
I don't know if you'd call it curing a disease, but leeches do have a use in modern medicine: they encourage a fresh supply of blood to reattached body parts, like fingers and ears.
Turns out those little bloodsuckers are good for something, after all. · Oct 18 at 5:11pm
Thanks. Now I have something to ponder over breakfast in the morning. Looks like I'll be passing on the sausage and going for a grapefruit or something, though.