Down there between our legs, it's like an entertainment complex in the middle of a sewage system. Who designed that?
Interpretation
The quote humorously critiques the human anatomy by comparing it to an absurdly designed structure.
Neil Degrasse Tyson uses humor to highlight the peculiarities of human anatomy, suggesting that the design of our reproductive system is both complex and flawed. By comparing it to an entertainment complex amidst a sewage system, he emphasizes the irony of a place meant for pleasure being juxtaposed with something unpleasant, prompting reflection on the mysteries of biological design.
In practice
Sharing this quote at a light-hearted gathering to spark laughter.
The problem is that many people operate on the assumption that NASA should go to Congress every year with hat in hand and justify it every year. Well, I see it as the greatest economic driver that there ever was. Economic drivers don't need justification.
The press still thinks [global warming] is controversial. So they find the 1% of the scientists and put them up as if they're 50% of the research results. You in the public would have no idea that this is basically a done deal and that we're on to other problems, because the journalists are trying to give it a 50/50 story. It's not a 50/50 story. It's not. Period.
As a scientist, I want to go to Mars and back to asteroids and the Moon because I'm a scientist. But I can tell you, I'm not so naive a scientist to think that the nation might not have geopolitical reasons for going into space.
In just one year, the expenditure of of the U.S.'s military budget is equivalent to the entire 50-year running budget of NASA combined.
One of my great laments is that education today seems to have... be less about passion and more about process, more about tactic or technique.
Lots of people think, well, we're humans; we're the most intelligent and accomplished species; we're in charge. Bacteria may have a different outlook: more bacteria live and work in one linear centimeter of your lower colon than all the humans who have ever lived. That's what's going on in your digestive tract right now. Are we in charge, or are we simply hosts for bacteria? It all depends on your outlook.
I was an ugly kid; when I was born, after the doctor cut the cord, he hung himself.
A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth.
Journalist: a person without any ideas but with an ability to express them; a writer whose skill is improved by a deadline: the more time he has, the worse he writes.
I'm not a man who constantly thinks up jokes. But I think it's very important to be able to see the funny side of life and its joyful dimension and not to take everything too tragically. I'd also say it's necessary for my ministry. A writer once said that angels can fly because they don't take themselves too seriously. Maybe we could also fly a bit if we didn't think we were so important.
Bad humor is an evasion of reality; good humor is an acceptance of it.
Humanity I love you because when you're hard up you pawn your intelligence to buy a drink.
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