skeptic42 - Tumblr blog

[skeptic42]

If you'd like to learn more, Open Library has curated some excellent resources on banned and challenged books.

And if you're ready to help out, this is the perfect week to take action and unite against book bans.

[skeptic42]

Charities for Homeless LGBT youth

https://www.dallashopecharities.org/programs/dallas-hope-center/ - Dallas Hope Center - Dallas, TX

https://www.thriveyouthcenter.org/ - Thrive Youth Center - San Antonio, TX

http://duneslgbtfoundation.org/ - Dune LGBT Foundation - Ft. Worth, TX

https://www.aliforneycenter.org/ - Ali Forney Center - New York City, NY

https://lalgbtcenter.org/social-service-and-housing/youth/homelessness - LA LGBT Center - Los Angeles, CA

https://www.ruthelliscenter.org/ - Ruth Ellis Center - Detroit, MI

https://larkinstreetyouth.org/ - Larkin Street Youth - San Francisco, CA

https://www.sfcenter.org/lgbt-san-francisco/homeless-lgbtq-youth/ - SF LGBT Center - San Francisco, CA

https://www.outyouth.org/ - Out Youth - Austin, TX

https://www.facebook.com/Thetransitionalcenter/ - The Transitional Support Center - El Paso, TX

https://truecolorsunited.org/ - True Colors United - National Advocacy organization

https://homelessgaykidshouston.org/ - Homeless Gay Kids Houston - Houston, TX

https://www.angelfire.com/folk/isis - ISIS from Youthcare - Seattle, WA

https://le-refuge.org/ - Le refuge - Major metropolitan areas throught France

[skeptic42]

I just realized that homeschooled evangelical christian kids aren't allowed to have a dinosaur phase and made myself sad

[skeptic42]

Boo! Did we get you? 🎃

This solar jack-o-lantern, captured by our Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in October 2014, gets its ghoulish grin from active regions on the Sun, which emit more light and energy than the surrounding dark areas. Active regions are markers of an intense and complex set of magnetic fields hovering in the sun’s atmosphere.

The SDO has kept an unblinking eye on the Sun since 2010, recording phenomena like solar flares and coronal loops. It measures the Sun’s interior, atmosphere, magnetic field, and energy output, helping us understand our nearest star.

Grab the high-resolution version here.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[skeptic42]

What’s It Like to Work in NASA’s Mission Control Center?

In the latest installment of our First Woman graphic novel series, we see Commander Callie Rodriguez embark on the next phase of her trailblazing journey, as she leaves the Moon to take the helm at Mission Control.

Flight directors work in Mission Control to oversee operations of the International Space Station and Artemis missions to the Moon. They have a unique, overarching perspective focused on integration between all the systems that make a mission a success – flight directors have to learn a little about a lot.

Diane Dailey and Chloe Mehring were selected as flight directors in 2021. They’ll be taking your questions about what it’s like to lead teams of flight controllers, engineers, and countless professionals, both agencywide and internationally, in an Answer Time session on Nov. 28, 2023, from noon to 1 p.m. EST (9-10 a.m. PST) here on our Tumblr!

Like Callie, how did their unique backgrounds and previous experience, prepare them for this role? What are they excited about as we return to the Moon?

🚨 Ask your questions now by visiting https://nasa.tumblr.com/ask.

Diane Dailey started her career at NASA in 2006 in the space station Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) group. As an ECLSS flight controller, she logged more than 1,700 hours of console time, supported 10 space shuttle missions, and led the ECLSS team. She transitioned to the Integration and System Engineering (ISE) group, where she was the lead flight controller for the 10th and 21st Commercial Resupply Services missions for SpaceX. In addition, she was the ISE lead for NASA’s SpaceX Demo-1 and Demo-2 crew spacecraft test flights. Dailey was also a capsule communicator (Capcom) controller and instructor.

She was selected as a flight director in 2021 and chose her call sign of “Horizon Flight” during her first shift in November of that year. She has since served as the Lead Flight director for the ISS Expedition 68, led the development of a contingency spacewalk, and led a spacewalk in June to install a new solar array on the space station. She is currently working on development of the upcoming Artemis II mission and the Human Lander Systems which will return humanity to the moon. Dailey was raised in Lubbock, Texas, and graduated from Texas A&M University in College Station with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering. She is married and a mother of two. She enjoys cooking, traveling, and spending time outdoors.

Chloe Mehring started her NASA career in 2008 in the Flight Operations’ propulsion systems group and supported 11 space shuttle missions. She served as propulsion support officer for Exploration Flight Test-1, the first test flight of the Orion spacecraft that will be used for Artemis missions to the Moon. Mehring was also a lead NASA propulsion officer for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and served as backup lead for the Boeing Starliner spacecraft. She was accepted into the 2021 Flight Director class and worked her first shift in February 2022, taking on the call sign “Lion Flight”. Since becoming certified, she has worked over 100 shifts, lead the NG-17 cargo resupply mission team, and executed two United States spacewalks within 10 days of each other. She became certified as a Boeing Starliner Flight Director, sat console for the unmanned test flight in May 2022 (OFT-2) and will be leading the undock team for the first crewed mission on Starliner in the spring of next year. She originally is from Mifflinville, Pennsylvania, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from The Pennsylvania State University in State College. She is a wife, a mom to one boy, and she enjoys fitness, cooking and gardening.

[skeptic42]

"Childbearing vessels on legs." Here I've been calling them walking incubators.

wapo really channeling the mcsweenys today

[skeptic42]

Zzzzz

[skeptic42]

I've noticed that people have started spreading the 1992 Good Omens script around. Please don't. If you've got it up, please take it down. There's a mess of serious and real legalities involved, and I don't want to have to start being a dick and asking for copyright takedowns and all of that, and I don't want to have to regret letting it out into the world. Just take it down, unshare, delete links. Thank you.

[skeptic42]

[skeptic42]

Fall is just around the corner 🍂 | _marcelsiebert

[skeptic42]

[skeptic42]

As a person who spent his teens ideating suicide and adulthood despising himself for every failure, for being worthless, for not being good enough for everyone else, for not being sporty, for not being quick-witted, for doing all the wrong things, I spent hours at the lowest, loneliest point in my life shredding my psyche with every malignant thought my self-destructive loathing could create.

Then I ended it all ... with one simple fact:

“None of that is true.”

Then I began to live.

Truly live instead of just existing.

I grasp reality with both hands and I held on tight. I make mistakes and I learn and I laugh. I build my self-worth in me, not what I think others think of me. Instead of right-and-wrong thinking, I think about how I can be and do better. I don’t lament the years lost to self-doubt and low self-esteem, I learn from them.

The solution is not all saccharine thoughts and quick fixes, it’s on-going thoughtful examination leading to active choices, learning from the good and the bad, and forgiving yourself the mistakes you have made and will make.

Time is not an issue. You’re always building yourself, the difference is in the material you use.

Your life is worth living. Carpe diem.

Recommended reading:

Unf*ckology 7 Habits of Highly Effective People The Courage to be Disliked The Skeptics Guide to the Universe

can you give me a good reason to keep living?

I can try. Because the moment you stop living you don't get a chance to fix anything any more, because the sun can never come out, because nobody can smile at you and you can't smile at them. Because deciding to stop living is a very permanent solution to what are sometimes, especially in retrospect, very temporary problems. Because, often, time heals and things get better.

[skeptic42]

I’m too tired to be clever enough to add anything.

But this does remind me of a skit (possibly by Dana Carvey in SNL) talking about how politicians give inspiring speeches without saying anything (paraphrasing):

“Now is the time for all citizens to stand up for our great nation against this atrocity ... We will not stand by while this is going on ...”

I’m having trouble finding it, but it was an amazing speech about nothing.

What is your opinion about

I like it but wish it hadn't entirely

[skeptic42]

Sex is the most natural and primal urge, yet the most maligned human activity.

...what is the "sex is just rock climbing" category

It was kind of a joke between me and a friend ("you wouldn't judge someone for having gone rock climbing with a bunch of different people") but honestly the more I thought about it the more I bought into it unironically because:

It is a physical activity done with one or more partners

You should only go rock climbing with people you trust to not let you fall

You should not go rock climbing with someone who is drunk or currently incapable of rational decision-making

Some people get super super super into rock climbing and do not shut up about all the places they have climbed and how many are left on their bucket list and these people are usually men between the ages of 20 and 35 and like it's fine dude I'm glad you're happy but I don't know what most of those mountains even are

While many consider it a fun activity, pressuring someone into climbing when they don't want to (or ignoring their feelings and just dangling them off a cliff,) could cause both psychological and physical trauma

There is no moral value to it whatsoever. Who you have gone rock climbing with (or whether you have rock climbed at all) has no bearing on who you are as a person. Imagine telling someone "it's not that heights make you nauseous, it's just that you haven't found the right person to belay you!" or "you need to save your first time rock climbing for someone special." That would be absurd.

historically I have not asked myself "will this aggravate my hip flexer injury" before participating when perhaps I should have 😔

[skeptic42]

Joe Thomas

[skeptic42]

Read banned books.

Tonight I gave Art Spiegelman the National Book Awards Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. And we're both being banned. Some of you may think this is a good thing because you don't like my books or you don't care for Maus. But I guarantee that there are books you love on the banned lists too. That's why libraries and librarians fight for their rights to have all the books on the shelves and for your rights to read them. And it's why I support them.