------------------ Elim Garak: "Oh, it's just Garak. Plain, simple Garak. Now, good day to you, Doctor. I'm so glad to have made such an... interesting new friend today." (DS9: "Past Prologue")
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The great art of strapping three human beings onto a rather long pointy tube stuffed with explosives, hoping they will put out enough thrust to overcome gravity and displace themselves in the great vacuum only to end up in a circle around our sole satellite, from which a laughably shaped spindly vehicle is flung to the surface, after which two men descend from the vehicle to find out our moon is made entirely out of..
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Niel Amrstrong was on TV today. In the whole thiry years I've rarely heard anything about him, just once in a while. The guy has displayed more class then anyone else I've ever heard of. He could have made Millions or even billions.
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I'm not sure it's "class" so much as going into seclusion... :-)
------------------ "We both said 'I really love you.' The Shriners loaned us cars. We raced up and down the sidewalk twenty thousand million times." -They Might Be Giants, "She's an Angel"
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Another person on TV today was Colonel Eileen Collins who will be the first woman to command a space flight on Tuesday, July 20th, on the space shuttle Columbia. Yes!!!
------------------ "'I'm afraid there's nowhere for you to sit,' I said coldly; 'the verandah is full of goats.'" --Saki "The Guests"
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Dr. Mae Jemison is a former astronaut. I don't know if she went into space or not. She is the one who was in the TNG episode "Second Chances". She credits Nichelle Nichols as an inspiration.
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As I recall, a man named Guion Bluford was the first black astronaut. I forget which shuttle mission he went up on. But the book on his life has been at my library for some time.
We also have a current astronaut roster. One can see at a glance that women and minorities are very well represented. It's pretty cool. Blacks, whites, Asians, Indians, Native Americans, men, women, all working towards common goals.
Show me somewhere ELSE that happens.
------------------ "When we turn our back on our principles, we stop being human." -- Janeway, "Equinox"
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For the record: according to the head count on the poster I have at the Library:
Active Astronauts: 136 Women 29 Asian-American 7 Black 5 Hispanic 4 Indian 1
And there are others whose ethnicities I was unable to determine merely from looking at pictures and names. And I don't know what ethnicity Franklin Chang-Diaz is.. Biracial?
------------------ "When we turn our back on our principles, we stop being human." -- Janeway, "Equinox"
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And Mir still has the potential to become more of a disaster.
------------------ Elim Garak: "Oh, it's just Garak. Plain, simple Garak. Now, good day to you, Doctor. I'm so glad to have made such an... interesting new friend today." (DS9: "Past Prologue")