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Esther Dyson To Train For Space Flight

Posted by timothy on from the dyson-vacuum-of-space dept.

DynaSoar writes "Esther Dyson, known to many as a founding and consistently guiding member of ICANN, and for working with the startups of Flickr, del.icio.us, Medscape and others, is now expanding her interests upwards. She recently announced that she will be heading to Moscow to train as backup astronaut for Charles Simonyi, who plans to fly aboard Soyuz TMA-14 next year. The US$3 million price tag won't be her first cash contribution towards personal space flight. She's already an investor in Space Adventures, the company that arranges the space tourist flights on Soyuz."

38 comments

  1. uh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The US$3 million price tag won't her first cash contribution towards personal space flight.

    Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

    1. Re:uh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hope she goes nuts and kidnaps another female astronaut in a jealous rage while wearing a piss-filled diaper.

      MMMM piss, diapers, woman-on-man-on-woman action in space.

    2. Re:uh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Two girls, one capsule!

    3. Re:uh... by Digitus1337 · · Score: 4, Funny

      In space, her urine would form Dyson Spheres.

    4. Re:uh... by thsths · · Score: 1

      And of course on board of Soyuz you are a cosmonaut, not an astronaut. Space may be the same for everyone, but marketing divides it up :-)

  2. Typical typo? by pur1ty · · Score: 1

    Should be del.icio.us I think.

    1. Re:Typical typo? by VisualD · · Score: 1

      price tag won't her first cash contribution

      Also missing: be

    2. Re:Typical typo? by Cylix · · Score: 2, Funny

      Nah, it's a typo domain, she's a famous squatter!

      --
      "You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
  3. de.icio.us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    typo? de.icio.us

    1. Re:de.icio.us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      del-icious: [delici]- delight, tasty
      De-icious: [deus] - God, heavenly

  4. Typical word missing by ServerIrv · · Score: 2, Informative

    Just thought I'd add fuel to the fire. Let's nitpick every singly grammatical inaccuracy contained in the article summary. Here is my contribution.

    "US$3 million price tag won't her first cash contribution"
    should be
    "US$3 million price tag won't BE her first cash contribution"

    1. Re:Typical word missing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      No audio preview for editors, apparently.

    2. Re:Typical word missing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      really clever asshole

    3. Re:Typical word missing by BizzyM · · Score: 1

      How about: "US$3 million price tag Don't BE her first cash contribution" -Word-

    4. Re:Typical word missing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about:
      "US$3 million price tag Don't BE her first cash contribution"

      -Word-

      I like this game.

      How about: "US$3 million price, Don't Pee her first cash contribution"

  5. nice editing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    did you guys even read the article before putting it through?

  6. including my own by ServerIrv · · Score: 3, Funny

    singly -> single
    I'd claim a fat-finger error, but I'd need fingers the size of the Hulk's to make that mistake.

    1. Re:including my own by ServerIrv · · Score: 1

      There...now I even know how to hit "Reply to This." I need more sleep.
      To comment on the actual article: I'm all for the general public getting these chances. Hopefully it will increase the awareness and need for space travel.

    2. Re:including my own by Ieatsyou · · Score: 1

      To comment on the actual article: I'm all for the general public getting these chances. Hopefully it will increase the awareness and need for space travel.

      General public? I don't know about you, but the general public usually doesn't have $3 million dollars to blow. Just more proof of how the rich will slowly control space just like they control the planet. heh

    3. Re:including my own by ServerIrv · · Score: 1

      Agreed. I don't have $3 million to blow, although, the option becomes more and more avaliable. You and I will probably never control space flight, but I'd love to see the day when there is commercial space flight, and this is more evidence that it will eventually be realized.

    4. Re:including my own by lysergic.acid · · Score: 1

      good point. and why is an economics major in charge of ICANN? shouldn't TLDs and IPs be managed by a more technical-minded organization? i'd be much more comfortable with an organization similar to the W3C managing these things. at least W3C serves as an open forum for how the web should be run, but ICANN seems run more like a commercial organization, with no transparency (generous use of NDAs & no public disclosure), and seemingly abuses its regulatory power to help commercial corporations like VeriSign to make a ton of money whilst disregarding public interest.

    5. Re:including my own by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >Why is an economics major in charge of ICANN?

      Good question! And the answer is that she's Jewish. If you haven't noticed, the Jews have their own backchannel networks by which they practice raging ethnic nepotism. They'll interview anyone regardless of race, creed or color - then pick the best Jew for the job. Or their niece or son-in-law or cousin. Sounds alot like discrimination, doesn't it? It explains alot, especially their topheaviness in media, academe and government. And they wonder why people hate them "for no reason."

  7. Dear Esther: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We don't care what you do. Sure, you've been a prominent investor and promoter, but you haven't done a goddamned thing yourself. Please go away now.

  8. Ester v.2.0 is babealicious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Munch, munch

  9. That fool! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

    Surely she should know better than most that she'll never make it past the sphere!

    1. Re:That fool! by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

      Brings a whole new meaning to Dyson's Spheres.

  10. advertising - dot com - space travel by heroine · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Any dot com superstar executives reinvest their winnings in their own product or do they all want to be astronauts instead?

  11. Cyberdyne + Dyson by Seth+Kriticos · · Score: 1

    So a few articles ago there was the news of Cyberdyne corporating developing HAL. And now news about Dyson. Coincidence?

    1. Re:Cyberdyne + Dyson by Ortega-Starfire · · Score: 1

      This is the smoking gun. No one try to deny it, it must be true!

      --
      ---- Liquid was a patriot ----
  12. Not funny by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 1

    > The US$3 million price tag won't her first cash contribution...

    The leaving-a-word-out meme/troll is really unfunny. It's even more unfunny when you use it in a story rather than a comment.

    --
    Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
    1. Re:Not funny by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, it annoys me too they do that.

  13. Next on the list... by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

    Next thing she's planning on doing after her trip into space is create a new linux distribution!
    It will start out with a unique program to freely distribute physical copies on Dysan floppy disks to anyone who requests one on her website.

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  14. Ugh. Esther Dyson. by Grendel+Drago · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I remember seeing her at a conference. (I don't remember which one.) She was going on about how the domain name system was innovative because it provided a flat address space for everyone on the planet. I'm not sure why phones, postal addresses or even email didn't make a better fit, but I suppose she doesn't run those.

    She talked about all the delightful services that whatever she was hawking would provide. When she took Q&A, I asked if it wasn't indicative of something that people had gone to great lengths to avoid all this "value" she wanted to add to the network, and that the true value of the internet was at its endpoints. Damn it, now I wish I remembered it better. Still, I can feel my hackles rise whenever she's mentioned. It makes me think of "The Guy I Almost Was" and Mondo 2K and all that other hucksterism.

    --
    Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
    1. Re:Ugh. Esther Dyson. by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Somebody out there has a funny story about her coming into a Silicon Valley company as a consultant, giving a board room speech filled with technobabble and a pitch for a current investment of hers and walking out with a $10K fee. I can't find it on Google at the moment, perhaps somebody here has it. The quirky thing about it is that I can't separate fact from fiction on this one in my memory, which may be telling.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  15. So she's attempting to expand... by Illbay · · Score: 1

    ...Dyson's SPHERE of influence! *NYUK*

    --
    Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
  16. Oh, and CHICKENS... by Illbay · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...raised on a high-calorie diet in microgravity would expand uniformly about the bird's center of gravity.

    So a large Arkansas-based poultry producer is looking into producing...

    TYSON'S SPHERES!!!

    --
    Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.