More signs of the end times...

[jay]

Pop star Lance Bass of NSYNC will serve as World Space Week 2003 Youth Spokesperson to promote science and math education. Um... what's the connection, again? Other than he has $25M available to buy a Soyuz ticket?

Comments

[nolly.livejournal.com]

It's possible.
On the other hand, I spent ninth grade listening to NKOTB[1] and deperately wanting to go to Space Camp. Sometimes, smart kids like boy bands anyway.

[1] New Kids on the Block, that is. Joey, Jon, Jordan, Danny, and Donny, and I didn't have to look that up. Though I would have to look up most of their last names.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... that surprises me. So their strategy makes some sense, after all.

[geekchick]

Out of curiosity, why would you make an assumption about anyone's other interests based on whether or not they happen to like a band or a particular band member? I suspect you probably would get a rude shock if you were to look through my CD collection. :) I might still have a NKotB tape somewhere, and I'm sure I've still got some Winger floating around.

Personally, I think he's a reasonable choice in that kids who weren't already interested might *get* interested after hearing him ("Hey, someone think is cool thinks this subject is cool, maybe it's worth looking into."). I don't think there's much point in getting a spokesman that a lot of kids can't relate to if the goal is to get more kids interested in the subject.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

True... it is possible that the Venn diagram of "smart kids" and "likes contrived boy-bands" may not be a null set. It may be a large set -- what do I know? It's all marketing, I guess :-|

What's a Winger?

[geekchick]

As a datapoint, I consider myself to have been a "smart kid", and I adored the Monkees. I have a few Backstreet Boys mp3s around her somewhere. I think Du Jour from "Josie and the Pussycats" is the funniest thing ever. (You should rent and watch the movie. Really.) It's not "a" Winger; Winger was a hair band from the late 80s/early 90s whose main attraction was that Kip Winger was really, really pretty.