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It's HANKO DE MAYO!!!!!

2012-05-05 · John · watch on YouTube · Science & nature · explainer learning

For Hanko de Mayo, John explains why the James Webb Space Telescope is a time machine, emails his congressman to fund NASA as a birthday present that Nerdfighters can join, and gives Hank a spare piece of the telescope from Northrop Grumman.

What is said

00:00:00 — Hanko de Mayo greeting; the James Webb Space Telescope, who builds and funds it, and how seeing far means seeing into the past (light travel time)

  • ★★ John says the James Webb Space Telescope is being built primarily by Northrop Grumman and funded by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, with about 17 countries involved. — 00:00:00 · NASA
  • ★★★ Citing Hank, John says Webb will be awesome because seeing objects very far away in the universe means seeing very far into the past. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ The description gives John's own email to his congressperson and senators to copy, amend or replace, as Nerdfighteria tells elected officials that increasing awesome through scientific exploration matters. — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Light travels about 186,000 miles per second and the Sun is about 93 million miles away, so sunlight takes about eight minutes to reach Earth: we see the Sun as it was eight minutes ago. — 00:00:44
  • ★★ Objects about 13 billion light years away are seen as they were 13 billion years ago, so Webb will see the earliest galaxies forming. — 00:00:44

00:01:13 — Webb sees the earliest galaxies ('an unmanned TARDIS'); Hank's 'our pyramids' and increase-awesome idea; John's birthday email to his congressman asking for NASA funding

  • ★ John calls Webb a time machine, basically an unmanned TARDIS. (playful) — 00:01:13
  • ★★★ John recalls Hank saying Webb is like our pyramids, a monument for everyone who comes after us, and that besides decreasing suck it is important to increase awesome. — 00:01:13 · world suck > «while it's hugely important to decrease suck in this world, it is also important to increase awesome.»
  • ★★★ For Hank's birthday John wrote an email to his congressman, Andre Carson, asking him to make sure NASA gets the funding it needs. — 00:01:13 · NASA

00:01:43 — Nerdfighters can join the email effort; second present: a spare piece of Webb's primary mirror backbone support structure sent by Northrop Grumman

  • ★★★ John invites Nerdfighters to join him in wishing Hank happy birthday by writing to their own elected officials; how-to information is in the description. — 00:01:43 · Nerdfighteria, doobly-doo
  • ★★★ John gives Hank a second present: part of Webb's primary mirror backbone support structure (PMBSS), a spare part Northrop Grumman sent for Hank. — 00:01:43
  • ★★ John says the PMBSS holds the whole telescope together and is made largely of a graphite composite tubing that is very strong but very light; the piece weighs about as much as a paperclip. (playful) — 00:01:43 · NASA

00:02:12 — The spare part is light, strong and rare; thanks to NASA and Northrop Grumman; John thanks Hank for increasing awesome through his many projects

00:02:41 — Birthday video responses open; 'contact your politicians'; sign-off

  • ★★ Video responses are open, with birthday wishes for Hank from all over Nerdfighteria. — 00:02:41 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John urges viewers to contact their politicians: it is easy, and they listen because they are scared of you. (playful) — 00:02:41

Threads in this video

Replies to

  • Can I be Space President? — «in a video a few months ago, you said that the James Webb Space Telescope was like our pyramids.»

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