Cosmic Log
Canada’s highest-ranking science geek, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, shared a stage with Bill Nye the Science Guy at the University of Ottawa today — and shared a teachable moment on the subject of oil pipelines.
The event was a forum focusing on the Canadian federal government’s plans for investments in innovation, conducted in front of an audience of students and VIPs.
Bill Nye the Science Guy is going to the State of the Union Address, but as a guest of President Donald Trump’s choice for NASA administrator. And therein lies the rub.
The NASA nominee is U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla., who became notorious as a climate policy opponent during the Obama administration. In 2013, for instance, Bridenstine called on President Barack Obama to apologize for spending so much money on climate research.
Bridenstine backtracked a bit last year during Senate hearings on his NASA nomination. He said he didn’t know whether climate change was being driven primarily by human activities, “but I do know that humans have absolutely contributed to global warming.”
Such statements may have helped smooth relations with Nye, who has spoken up long and loudly for climate science and measures to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. He explained why he accepted Bridenstine’s invitation to Capitol Hill on Monday in a Facebook posting.
Bill Nye the Science Guy, a veteran of tussles over climate change and evolution, has just sparked a legal battle over math – specifically, the millions of dollars he says Disney and its associated ventures owes him from airings of his TV show for kids.
If Nye succeeds with his lawsuit, which was filed on Aug. 24 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Seattle’s public television station, KCTS-TV, could benefit as well. KCTS is named as one of the participants in a partnership that was allegedly short-changed.
Nye says Disney’s Buena Vista Television and other subsidiaries provided incorrect accountings of how much was made from distributing his Emmy-winning show, titled “Bill Nye the Science Guy.” He also says Disney misapplied the formulas laid out in its contract to determine how big a share Nye, KCTS and other partners should have received.
The 28-page filing first came to light in a report by the Deadline website.
Lydia Villa-Komaroff and Mona Hanna-Attisha may not be as well-known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, but all three scientists strike the right chords after what has been a somewhat dissonant buildup for next month’s nationwide March for Science rallies.
Today organizers named Villa-Komaroff, Hanna-Attisha and Nye as the honorary national co-chairs for the March for Science, which is set for April 22. The main event will be in Washington, D.C., but more than 400 satellite marches are being planned in locales around the world, including Seattle.
To be a fashionable geek is usually a contradiction of terms, but Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin and Bill Nye (“the Science Guy”) pulled it off during New York Men’s Fashion Week.
The 86-year-old former astronaut teamed up with the bowtie-wearing educator and TV personality to show off space-shiny duds designed by Nick Graham.
Nye, who got his start on TV as a geeky experimenter on KING-TV’s “Almost Live” late-night show, doubled as the announcer for this week’s runway outing, titled “Life on Mars: Fall-Winter 2035.”
Nye wore a silver-and-charcoal suit featuring a Saturn print, while Aldrin showed off a shiny metallic bomber jacket, worn over a black and silver version of his trademark “Get Your Ass to Mars” T-shirt.