NASA Produces Rap Video On Astrobiology

An anonymous reader writes "You've seen the Large Hadron Rap by Kate 'Alpinekat' McAlpine. Now a NASA magazine has commissioned an astrobiology rap. Jonathan Chase, aka 'Oort Kuiper', produced a six-minute YouTube rap video on astrobiology, the scientific search for extraterrestrial life. The lyrics include: 'We've been on Earth for many years and we are still producing answers; as time passes, collective knowledge advances.' This epic rap battle sees Alpinekat/CERN on top with over three million views on YouTube compared with about ten thousand for Oort Kuiper/NASA."

Nerdcore rising!

http://www.nerdcorerisingthemovie.com/ [nerdcoreri...emovie.com]

Oort Kuiper?

Phobos Deimos would be a better rap name

It's a (w)rap!

Please, no more science raps. The LHC by Alpinekat is pretty unbeatable anyway. What next, a programming language? I can't wait for the C-rap!

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The QBasic Nerd [youtube.com] guy tells you to get of his lawn. And learn to sing.

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"Please, no more science raps. The LHC by Alpinekat is pretty unbeatable anyway. What next, a programming language? I can't wait for the C-rap!"

Dude, it's all C-RAP!

and alpinekat's work would have been much better if they had written the music instead of sampled and overplayed an already overplayed 90s song.

Re:It's a (w)rap!

well, check out this appendage:
don't be so object oriented.
The C programming language
doesn't need to be defended!

you believe in classes
but C is for the masses!

i f*ck you with my struct
on this 24th september
like it private and protected?
better stroke my public member!

now kneel down and dereference my pointer.

noice!

lol @ "studying peas"
This is definitely a better rap than the CERN one. Buddy knows how to flow, and manages to actually discuss the subject without falling into cutesy rhyming.
Q: Does this qualify as nerdcore?

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This guy is a rapper, not a scientist, and the whole project is professionally done, not a bunch of researchers goofing around. By that standard, it's pretty poor. And the LHC video is much more scientifically informative than the NASA one, although that's probably due at least in part to the much greater scientific soundness of the LHC in general, compared to exobiology.

If I had to choose where to work based on the two videos, no question I'd go for the people at CERN who obviously love their work and want

Refined Rap

He raps with a British accent - therefore he must be smart.

mc hawking still the best

to the tune of OPP

Trash Talk
Harm me with harmony.
Doomsday, drop a load on 'em.

Verse 1
Entropy, how can I explain it? I'll take it frame by frame it,
to have you all jumping, shouting saying it.
Let's just say that it's a measure of disorder,
in a system that is closed, like with a border.
It's sorta, like a, well a measurement of randomness,
proposed in 1850 by a German, but wait I digress.
"What the fuck is entropy?", I here the people still exclaiming,
it seems I gotta start the explaining.

You ever drop an egg and on the floor you see it break?
You go and get a mop so you can clean up your mistake.
But did you ever stop to ponder why we know it's true,
if you drop a broken egg you will not get an egg that's new.

That's entropy or E-N-T-R-O to the P to the Y,
the reason why the sun will one day all burn out and die.
Order from disorder is a scientific rarity,
allow me to explain it with a little bit more clarity.
Did I say rarity? I meant impossibility,
at least in a closed system there will always be more entropy.
That's entropy and I hope that you're all down with it,
if you are here's your membership.

Chorus
You down with entropy?
Yeah, you know me! (x3)
Who's down with entropy?
Every last homey!

Verse 2
Defining entropy as disorder's not complete,
'cause disorder as a definition doesn't cover heat.
So my first definition I would now like to withdraw,
and offer one that fits thermodynamics second law.
First we need to understand that entropy is energy,
energy that can't be used to state it more specifically.
In a closed system entropy always goes up,
that's the second law, now you know what's up.

You can't win, you can't break even, you can't leave the game,
'cause entropy will take it all 'though it seems a shame.
The second law, as we now know, is quite clear to state,
that entropy must increase and not dissipate.

Creationists always try to use the second law,
to disprove evolution, but their theory has a flaw.
The second law is quite precise about where it applies,
only in a closed system must the entropy count rise.
The earth's not a closed system' it's powered by the sun,
so fuck the damn creationists, Doomsday get my gun!
That, in a nutshell, is what entropy's about,
you're now down with a discount.

Chorus

Trash Talk
Hit it!
Doomsday, kick it in!

Baby got brains...

It really reminds me of a rap I wrote back in college, to the tune of "Baby got back."

I like SMART GIRLS and I can not lie...
You other nerds can't deny,
when a girl walks in with a Ph.D.
or some other advanced degree,

you get SPRUNG. Wanna pull out math problems
'cause you notice her brain was awesome

Even the books she's carrying...
I'm hooked and I can't stop staring.

Quantum Physics!...

It goes on and on. The 36-24-36 part is changed to 15-13-15, referencing her MCAT scores.

I don't know whether to be proud o

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Seriously...special place in hell...

I would expect

That it is "Rap" with a silent "C".

Are they insane?!?!

Don't they realize they're risking the start of an intergalactic rap war? Do we want to see Neil Tyson end up like Tupac?

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I knew this would get all the hep-cats to think we're keen!

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Sadly, this reminds me of 'don't copy that floppy'. And it is just as 'kool'... *sigh*

NASA Goes Rap?

Hmm...alas, the final nail in the coffin for NASA.

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There were no black helicopters.

Thanks,
unnamed government agency who is not the NSA, DIA, DSA, CIA or FBI

Re:

Ah-ha! That answers it. I always suspected the FDA... :)

Re:When you're too stupid....

...to learn to play an instrument and write your own music, just steal someone else's, talk all over it and call it "rap".

Rapping well actually has a lot of skills in common with 'real' singing - it's more technical that you'd think. For example you need at least as much timing, enunciation and breath control as singers do, and if you're rapping tunefully you've got to actually hit the note first time, you can't fudge it in vibrato if you're having an off day. Don't dis the rap stars.

Re:

Rapping well actually has a lot of skills in common with 'real' singing

I'll give you that. But they say that a professional working a chainsaw is also pretty skilful, and I don't listen to that for fun either.

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When Eric Clapton plays a mean blues guitar solo, he can do so minus the countless medallions, bling jewelry, fashion street clothing and any need to wave his hands at the camera.

But then there's Hendrix who burns his guitar on stage or one of the countless others who smashes theirs up at the end of the set. The posturing isn't the music.

Blues - yes, you've got a point, but it isn't necessarily everyone's thing. You could say the same about jazz or classical - it's out there, there's an incredible history of it, but they aren't pop culture today.

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When Eric Clapton plays a mean blues guitar solo, he can do so minus the countless medallions, bling jewelry, fashion street clothing and any need to wave his hands at the camera.

Maybe you need to be black to appreciate rap music but it never ceases to amaze me how the much deeper culture of black blues music, played equally well by both black and white musicians, is totally ignored by those who follow rap and modern black street culture.

Thats just ridiculous. Maybe they don't bling, but blues players have the fanciest guitars of any guitar players. Every genre has their thing.

Some rap does the bling thing. Thats part of Black youth culture. Look rich. White youth culture when I was young at least, was to look "poor." Of course they paid top dollar for those ripped up faded jeans and simple t-shirt. Music is part of culture and vice versa.

When you say "maybe you need to be black to appreciate rap music..." there is some truth to it.

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I don't claim to be an expert in such matters and even within the minimal attention I gave to religious lessons at school, I recall nowhere in Christ's teachings any mention of "hoes" or "booty".

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I guess now all first posts are marked offtopic? "This" was referring to... wait for it... the topic. It was definitely on the topic.

What exactly is the criteria for stuff on idle? Isn't idle just a soapbox for how stupid letters to the editor are?