10.13.2009
Who are these women? They're women who had hopes of being among the first US astronauts some 50 years ago. And we all know how that turned out.
It wasn't that they didn't have The Right Stuff. They passed all the psychological tests and took the same physical as the guys. And (are you surprised?) they often did better. But they were not among the Mercury astronauts, and in fact never really had a shot at being part of that illustrious team.
Henry Spencer, amateur space historian, wants you to know that what kept the women out of space was not the rampant sexism of the time. No, it was just that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had decided to recruit only military test pilots for the program. And it just happened that all military test pilots were men. Because in those years, the US military didn't accept women into pilot training programs.
So it definitely wasn't sexism.
In fact, it was really the women's fault. They had no sense of timing.
For an update on how the women did on the tests, see here. There are also links to a new paper describing the process in more detail.
The 1995 NASA photo above shows some of the women who might have been among the original astronauts if only the times--or their pesky X chromosomes--had been different. They had gathered to watch Eileen Collins' launch as the first female pilot of a space shuttle mission. It only took a quarter-century. From left to right: Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen, Wally Funk, Jerrie Cobb, Jerri Sloan Truhill, Sarah Gorelick Ratley, Myrtle ("Kay") Cagle, and Bernice ("B") Steadman.
Posted by Tam
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10. 9.2009
Comedian/pundit/talk show host Bill Maher has reportedly tweeted that folks who get vaccinated against the new H1N1 ("swine") flu are idiots. Medical wisdom in 140 characters? Or is Maher, the twit, the real idiot?
Before you get swept away in an anti-vaccine frenzy, you might want to consult what www.flu.gov has to say. That's the US government's official take on the imminent flu season, complete with characters from Sesame Street. There's plenty of stuff for grown-ups too: what to do if you get flu-like symptoms, what pregnant women should know, places to get vaccinated against both seasonal flu and H1N1, and lots more.
This is a two-flu year, with H1N1 piling on top of the regular old seasonal flu that kills plenty of people on its own. There are different vaccines against these different diseases. Each flu tends to attack different groups, as I explained a few weeks ago.
Posted by Tam
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10. 5.2009
What women need are more bras that offer not just support, but life support. A while back I wrote about a sports bra that monitors your heart rate. Now there's a bra with more immediate life-saving potential.
This bra turns into 2 gas masks. One for you, one for a friend.
Behind this at-first-glance-ridiculous invention is a seriously unpleasant event: the 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine, usually described as the worst-ever. Scientist Elena Bodnar, formerly of Ukraine, the new bra's inventor, says her design could have kept people from breathing in deadly Iodine-131. This radioisotope was a major contributor to the rise in cancer and other health effects among people in the vicinity. (Thanks to Elizabeth Anderson Moore, who blogs at cnet.)
Bodnar was one of the winners of this year's Ig Nobel prizes. The Ig Nobels are an annual comic-kaze and always one of the highlights of the year in science. The Ig Nobels honor scientific achievements "that first make people laugh, and then make them think."
The photo shows Bodnar demonstrating her bra to three real Nobel laureates. All are wearing her creation, which comes in pink and black. That's the high-profile economist and columnist Paul Krugman on the far right--not his usual position.
Another of this year's Ig Nobel winners is anthropologist Liza Shapiro, who developed a theory about why pregnant women don't tip over: Women's back curves are anatomically different from men's. It's an evolutionary adaptation to upright posture and the need to carry a fetus out in front instead of underneath.
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08.30.2009
The US Federal Trade Commission says there will be no more of those infuriating prerecorded telemarketing solicitations, known not so fondly as robocalls, unless you're so lonely you want them. Telemarketers, the government says, will now need written permission from the callee before setting the robots loose.
So, great, no more robocalls at dinnertime. Oh, wait. Except for the exceptions. Which include calls from charities, banks, politicians, insurers, phone companies, surveys--and, best of all, debt collection agencies.
Also permitted are telemarketing calls from actual humans--unless the phone number is on the National Do Not Call Registry. Find the Do Not Call registry here.
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08.29.2009
Will scientists have synthesized a living organism for the first time by the end of this year? That's the breathtaking prediction by Craig Venter--a top-rank molecular biologist whose breathtaking predictions have a way of coming true.
Among the practical reasons for doing such a thing would be creating organisms that can make biofuels or clean up toxic wastes. Might there be other reasons, some of them scary? Stay tuned. Meantime, take a look at the 80Beats analysis.
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08.17.2009
Imran Ali of GigaOM's WebWorker Daily has got me thinking in a new way about the future of work. "It's Data, Baby," he writes in the New York Times.
I'm trying to get my head around two ideas he presents that seem in irrevocable conflict. One is the counterintuitive notion that in 10 years the sexy job description will be "statistician." The other is the equally counterintuitive notion that, because we are drowning in data, the future of work lies not in the logical, data-oriented left brain but in the right brain--calling on intuition, imagination, story-telling, empathy, and an ability to synthesize disparate ideas.
And then a recent example of just that sort of analysis popped right into my right brain, and probably my left brain too.
Remember the excitement a few days ago when the US unemployment figures appeared to nudge down a hair? The headline on the Associated Press story was typical. It read "Surprisingly strong jobs data signal turning point." Hooray!
But keep reading and reading and reading. Not until paragraph 13 do we find out that employers are expected to continue cutting jobs, so the unemployment rate will probably go up again.
And then, finally, in paragraph 14(!), we get the real dope: "In fact, the main reason the unemployment rate declined last month was not an inspiring one: Hundreds of thousands of people, some discouraged by their failed job searches, left the labor force."
So the teeny apparent dip in the jobless rate is a total mirage. If it dipped at all, it was because the government simply stopped counting hundreds of thousands of unemployed folks who would love to get jobs but have come to believe it's hopeless. And we had to wait until paragraph 14 to find that out!
Continue reading "Want an imaginative, empathetic career as a story-teller? Become a statistician!"
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08.14.2009
The US birth rate appears to have gone down 2% in 2008, according to the government. That's more than 70,000 fewer babies than expected.
The figure is not quite firm, since lower immigration could also explain why the birth rate did not increase for the first time since the turn of the millennium.
The experts are saying that the poor economy is a possible explanation. Although as I do the math it's clear that would mean lots of women decided against pregnancy for financial reasons as early as the first half of 2007--a time when even few experts foresaw that we were headed over a cliff.
So I'm wondering, could decisions about childbearing be a leading indicator of an economic downturn? Monitoring the actual birth rate would come too late to help with forecasting because we are just getting the 2008 data now, when the worst already appears to be easing a bit.
But it might make sense to track behavior that figures into the initial decision not to get pregnant--number of contraceptive prescriptions, for example. Or Plan B purchases. Or possibly condom buying, although the increasing (I hope!) use of condoms for disease prevention would muddy that data.
Do you suppose tracking marriage rates might be useful, even though marriage and having babies are no longer inextricably linked? Sales of bridal gowns? Business ups and downs of wedding planners? Or, here's a thought, could sales of bridesmaid dresses and rates of shoe-dying turn out to be a leading economic indicator?
Thanx to Allison Bond over at 80Beats, who rounded up some news items about the birth rate data.
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06.26.2009
It wasn't exactly a wedding in space, which I told you last year will happen in 2011. But it was a weightless wedding, probably the first to be held in the 30-second periods of zero gravity possible when the G-Force One aircraft flies loop-de-loops. Cost: $7500 per person, not counting the photographer.
Thanks to Jennifer Ouellette at Twisted Physics, who provides technical details on the nuptials. For a more traditional account that covers how bride Erin Finnegan and groom Noah Fulmor were dressed, plus a photo gallery, see Australia's Daily Telegraph.
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06.18.2009
Soon those roadside billboards will be able to tell if they should be promoting those brand new radial tires or a relaxing trip just by looking at you. Thanks to A *Star, Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology, and Research, there will soon be a gender recognition program that will change the way advertising is done.
Using a complex batch of formulas and algorithms, the program can tell the difference between men and women and respond in kind, displaying the appropriate ad. The current version of the program can only scan faces that are facing the camera but the agency is hoping to release a more fleshed out version later in the year.
Via Crave CNet
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06.17.2009
If you're one of the many people who've decided to wait to buy the iPhone 3G S until they are eligible for the best upgrade price, you may be in luck. Due to complaints from early adopters who bought their iPhone 3G when it first arrived last July, AT&T has slightly revised their upgrade pricing. Now if you're one of the people who would qualify for the upgrade pricing later this June, or sometime in July, August, or September of 2009, you can get your iPhone 3G S at the highest discounted price of $199/$299 for 16 GB/32 GB now instead of waiting a couple of months or paying more and fuming about it.
If you've already pre-ordered your iPhone 3G S, you don't have to do anything. If you're picking up your phone at an AT&T store, the price will be adjusted there. If you're getting your phone delivered from AT&T, you'll be issued a credit. If you pre-ordered from Apple, it's not yet clear if the price will be slashed at the store at the time of pick-up, but if you're eligible, you will get the credit.
This is great news, and kind of a hahaha to all the people (probably eligible for the upgrade already themselves) who have said the complainers were whining unreasonably. My view is that Apple/AT&T breeds the early adoption longing, and for re-upping your contract, complete with hefty data and texting fees, you should get the partially subsidized price. After all, at some next year, you may be able to get an iPhone that's not tied to AT&T.
My complaint? I have a three iPhone family plan, bought the iPhone 3Gs (that's plural, not the new model) last July when they came out, have a HUGE bill that's well over $300 a month, have never been late on a payment and yet somehow I am not eligible for the early upgrade, and won't be eligible for the full upgrade price until December. Why? My cynical side says that my billing profile screams someone who will impatiently buy the iPhone 3G S anyway, without financial incentive. This seemingly arbitrary system of awarding upgrades at different times, with vague explanations of a "formula" is definitely incentive enough for me to consider going elsewhere with my iPhone, as soon as I can. Also, stupid AT&T- I and I would think most people who pay their bills on time, can't afford a $700 phone.
The online eligibility tool to determine your highly individualized, seemingly random date of obtaining your iPhone 3G S at the upgrade price will be updated at some point tomorrow to reflect the new, less harsh upgrade policy.
2 Days to go! And I will be reviewing the iPhone 3G S (harshly, haha), just not buying one on Friday.
Posted by Mia
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