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Odd to frame it as the "White House wants..." I know the White House is a metonym for the US government, but it usually refers to something at least slightly in
by SamBam 3y ago
Odd to frame it as the "White House wants..." I know the White House is a metonym for the US government, but it usually refers to something at least slightly in the political wheelhouse, like foreign policy or taxes. Why not just say NASA here?
- dragonwriter 3y agoIts literally a directive from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; White House is not being used in a figurative sense for “the US government broadly” (which , incidentally, I’ve never seen any major Western media do; Washington, sure, but not the White House) but in a literal, institutional sense. https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-updates/2024/04/02/white-house-office-of-science-and-technology-policy-releases-celestial-time-standardization-policy/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-updates/2024/04/02/whit...
- SamBam 3y agoAh, fair enough, that wasn't anywhere in the article.
- tekla 3y agoIts literally the first line
- SamBam 3y agoIt absolutely isn't the first line that it's a directive from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. It just says "The White House wants..." Again, "The White House" is often a metonym for the US government. [1] I'm not sure why it didn't bother mentioning the Office of Science and Technology Policy. If I had realized that's where it came from, instead of from NASA, I wouldn't have mentioned it. 1. "Metonymy is a figure of speech where the name for one object or concept is substituted for another, related one (as in the White House for the US Government)" https://www.dictionary.com/compare-words/metonymy-vs-synecdoche https://www.dictionary.com/compare-words/metonymy-vs-synecdo...
- tekla 3y agoOnly relevant if you simply ignore how the American Govt works. Yes the White House is used as a "metonymy" for the Govt as a while, but with SOME critical thinking, its obvious this is coming from the executive branch, since the legislative and judicial branches are irrelevant for the purposes of directives since they pass legislation/judicial judgements, not yell about directives
- atonse 3y agoBut isn't everything NASA does (by extension of being in the executive branch) what the "white house wants"? Unless this was triggered by an executive order, which is kind of exceptional to the normal process.
- unethical_ban 3y ago>Unless this was triggered by an executive order Not executive order I don't think, but yes, from the White House's offices directly. This didn't originate from NASA administration. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Celestial-Time-Standardization-Policy.pdf https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Celest...
- Dalewyn 3y agoNASA is an Independent Agency[1], which basically means they are a part of the Executive Branch but not part of the White House. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_agencies_of_the_United_States_government https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_agencies_of_the_Un...
- dragonwriter 3y ago> But isn't everything NASA does (by extension of being in the executive branch) what the "white house wants" In some abstract philosophical sense, perhaps, but that's different than a directive from an actual White House office, which this is. > Unless this was triggered by an executive order, which is kind of exceptional to the normal process. Policy directives from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy are also an exception to the normal NASA-internal decision-making process.
- samatman 3y ago"The White House" is used as a metonym for the Presidency, not the entire US government, or even for the executive branch: it would be incorrect to describe something from the various departments as originating from the White House. USG has something called the Executive Offices of the Presidency, that's included in "the White House". This is one of those councils, they're all hosted at whitehouse.gov