no, that's the right response for wearing a shirt that was clearly unprofessional. he deserved that pat on the back, patronizing or not. this is progress. ignore the neanderthals - in the end, the genome will.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOggVg2Ekko

this was an interfaith prayer service with the purpose of building bridges across muslim and christian communities.

....and what the responses here demonstrate pretty clearly is that it's a hopeless aim. religion is inherently suspicious of the unknown; the xenophobia it preaches cannot be resolved without abolishing religious thinking altogether.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrDK8UWsRFg

deathtokoalas
the guy's at work. it's not appropriate. and that's not rocket science.

Alex
if i was responsible for landing on a comet, I'd wear whatever i wanted. Also why is it inappropriate?

deathtokoalas 
no. you don't get to behave differently as a result of your accomplishments. you remain required to uphold the same code of conduct as everybody else. you're not special. you're not above the law. you're not entitled to special treatment.

he understood what was wrong with the shirt, it doesn't matter if you do or not.

xX444Xx1
well you should consider that in many scientific workrooms there is no real dresscode. since they have no contact to 'customers' on a daily basis like in many modern occupations, they can nearly werar whatever they want as long as they are not naked :D

warioman91
I love the shirt, because IT IS TACKY and funny. Maybe it's something I get from my dad, but bad taste is timeless.  My dad has worked in the air force and now other government project stuff and he would wear bad taste pink dress shirts and other stuff occasionally. Whatever, I just love this guy's look. It says "cool" scientist/engineer!

So if you still think it's inappropriate, then that's your view but I love it because it's exactly what it is.

deathtokoalas
i come from a scientific background. while it's true that dress codes are not generally articulated, it's not with the idea that anything goes but because it's assumed that people will use the proper judgement without having to be micromanaged about it. i mean, nobody wants to tell somebody with a phd what to wear. the assumption is that somebody with a phd knows what to wear without having an hr manager on their ass about it.

the guy knew he was going to be on tv. it's the kind of bad judgement that it's just assumed is never going to be an issue.

tacky is one thing, but it's clear what the problem is and i'm not going to go over the 101 course notes on the topic. nobody would have said anything if the shirt had palm trees on it. but, things have changed over the last few generations and a shirt like that just isn't acceptable in a professional culture anymore.