Who wants to watch Wally Funk go to space today with some other people?
A New Shepard engineer just used the phrase "professional astronauts" which is a fascinating new construction.
One of the things that bothers me is calling these passengers "astronauts." Spacefarers, yes. I've felt like astronaut ought to be an earned term.
To me, an astronaut is someone who is engaged in space exploration, and science, as part of public service. Are they paid? Yes. Do they have to be flown?
According to NASA, after completing three years of astronaut training, you're an astronaut.
@robert_zubrin I'm going to attempt to answer you in good faith, instead of with the rage your line of questioning inspires. It is a line usually used in support of white supremacy. I hope that is not your intent.
Publishing, along with most of the US, has long been discriminatory and...
1/?
@robert_zubrin ...optimized for white writers. Black writers are disproportionately underrepresented in publishing and many have been driven out.
In addition, pretending that the evils of racism or the damage of colonialization are limited to slavery is disingenuous. 2/?
@robert_zubrin ... Jim Crow acts, gerrymandering, wage gaps, redlining, voting rights, and police brutality are all ways that modern America still enforces white supremacy.
My parents are eligible for the COVID vaccine in Chattanooga and have gone three times to try to get it. This morning, they set their alarm at 6am because the place opened at 9am.
They were sent home around 8am, because there were more people in line than there were doses.
Look... we have taxpayer info. If we lived in a world with unified healthcare, then you could give people appointments and they could go in.
Would things get off schedule? Sure.
But my 82-year-old parents wouldn't be talking about camping out to get a vaccine.
And now I've learned that they were turned away because a road sign was "inaccurate" and they could have gotten the vaccine this morning.
More vaccines are available tomorrow, for the 2nd half of the alphabet. They did the 1st half of the alphabet today.
I know you think the #Bridgerton costumes are over the top.
The reality is so, so much...extra.
When young ladies were presented at court, they had to wear a court dress. Queen Charlotte still insisted on hoops.
But fashion had shifted to a high waist.
Imagine panniers, which were already awkward, but now tie them directly below your breasts.
These dresses were worn at court and literally nowhere else.
To be presented to the queen you had stand around and wait until you were called to her. Then you'd walk to her, do a deep curtsey until she told you you could stand.
AND THEN you had to BACK UP while wearing these ridiculous hoops and a train.
I have a fairly ferocious temper that I've spent most of my life learning to channel. Anger is an energy and I can let it consume me, or I can redirect it into change.
As a result, my frequent reaction now to things is "how can I fix it."
I am having a difficult time this go around because all of the steps that I can think of are things that we actually did.
The Nebula Awards team spent three hours teaching the Hugo team everything we had learned. They handed over all of the documentation.
The Nebs team shared the PowerPoint training presentations, the email templates, and the software solutions that we had used. They included the roles that needed to be hired vs. volunteers and contact information for each.