Check out the new blog Feminism 101. When someone attempts to derail your discussion with basic basic I-don't-get-it questions, you can kindly refer them to Feminism 101.
From the FAQ: "Educating you on the basics would derail the discussion about the actual topic the feminists are interested in, just for you. That’s an awful lot to ask of people who don’t even know you, isn’t it?"
Steinn has a nice summary of the strange-but-true story: the Air Force almost beat astronomers to the discovery of Pulsars in 1967.
Quick summary: An Air Force radar operator in Alaska in 1967 named Charles Schisler noticed a fluctuating radio source. As a former navigator, he recognized that, because it appeared 4 min earlier each day, it must be a celestial source. He noted its position as in Taurus, and took careful notes of source strength and position. His superiors told him not to pursue it. A year later, Bell & Hewish discovered it was pulsating like clockwork, Nobel Prize, yadda yadda.
Go read Steinn's summary + the more useful comments.
A sailboat is "A hole in the water into which you throw buckets of money." If that's true, that the International Space Station must be "A hole in space into which we throw billions of dollars. Until we drop it into the water. Possibly on a sailboat." As you can tell, I'm critical of NASA's manned program; the Shuttle is dangerously outdated, and endlessly circling in low-earth orbit isn't exploring.
That said, I held my breath watching Endeavor launch today, carrying Barbara Morgan, one of the most tenacious people on Earth. (Or off it, temporarily.) Remember that Barbara was the backup for Christa McAuliffe on Challenger. After the disaster, NASA put the Teacher-in-Space Program (and Barbara) in limbo. She went back to teaching school in Idaho, continuing to pester NASA to let her fly, and giving talks about the space program in her spare time.
I attended one of these public lectures in the early 1990s, as a wee lass, and met Barbara after the talk. What I remember is my amazement at her determination -- that she believed she could make NASA let her fly.
In 1998, NASA accepted Ms. Morgan into the astronaut corps. (12 yrs after Challenger.)
In 2007, Barbara Morgan blasted into space onboard Shuttle Endeavor. That's 22 years after she was selected as the backup Teacher-in-Space. Twenty-two years!
The Phoenix mission launched this weekend, and is now zooming towards Mars. It's headed for Mars' northern polar region, to dig into the soil and water ice. It's a big, heavy lander, not a light, air-bag cushioned rover.
It contains duplicate experiments from the crashed Mars Polar Lander and the canceled Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander -- thus the resurrected mission name.
In other space news, don't miss the Perseid meteor shower! It should peak the night of Sunday, Aug. 12, which is a new moon, and thus extra dark! But because the Perseid debris cloud is quite large, any night around the 12 should work -- just get out there after midnight and look up!
Go read Angry Black Bitch's thoughts on Obama vs Clinton: Nuclear edition.
What she said.
Salary, Gender, and the Social Cost of Haggling, from the Washington Post.
Check out Science Woman's post, I will not be a foregone conclusion. Great stuff, linked from Scientiae, which as usual, is good this month.
A fluffy photo for Friday, courtesy The Keet & Nini Show.
Keet, anytime you want to draw an astronomer, go right ahead!
The Orange County case shows how heterosexuals can be the collateral damage of the lesser legal status of domestic partnership. If spousal support does not end with domestic partnership, "heterosexual men are the ones whose ox is being gored more often than not," said San Francisco family law attorney Diana Richmond.
From this LATimes article.
Such news stories are of particular interest to those of us who are in one of these separate-but-unequal CA domestic partnerships, and are still trying to map out how it's unequal to marriage.
