250 words

250 words total

Please answer questions completely in-depth answers

Uncertainty, The God Complex, and NASA's  Columbia Disaster

Required Reading:

· Holmes, Jaime,  Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing

· Prologue

· Chapter 1: The Resolving Mind: How Sense Making Works

· Chapter 2: The Hidden A's: The Secrets of Sense Making

· TED Talk - Tim Harford: "Trial, Error and the God Complex" 

· http://ted.com/talks/tim_harford_trial_error_and_the_god_complex

· Langewiesche, William. 2003.  "Columbia's Last Flight: The Inside Story of the Investigation and the Catastrophe it Laid Bare."   Atlantic Monthly, November 2003

1.  Arie Kruglanski viewed the need for closure as a “desire for a definite answer on some topic, any answer as opposed to confusion and ambiguity” (p11-12).  Holmes furthered observed, “When our need for closure is high, we tend to…jump to conclusions, and deny contradictions” (p13).  How did the need for closure influence NASA’s decision about what to do with the foam strike?

2.  Discuss Tim Harford’s points made in “The God Complex” with respect to the Columbia tragedy as discussed in “Columbia‘s Last Flight: The Inside Story of the Investigation and the Catastrophe it Laid Bare.”