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Liu Yang Becomes China's First Female Astronaut
China launched Saturday a rocket bearing three astronauts and an experimental orbiting module intended to presage a full-fledged space station at the end of this decade. While that's big news in itself, the launch also marks the first trip for a female Chinese astronaut. The BBC has a brief video, including part of a pre-launch press conference introducing 33-year-old astronaut Liu Yang, as well as her crewmates.
An astronaut is american. A cosmonaut is russian. A spationaut is french. And a chineese person in the sky is a taïkonaute.
As of 2012, fifty-six women have flown in space, out of 525 total space travelers. By country of origin: 1 each from China, France, UK, South Korea; 2 each from Canada and Japan, 3 from Soviet Union/Russia, and 45 from the United States.
Congrats on joining the few members of the "50 mile high club", but I'll be a lot more impressed when the chinese get those people into a stable earth orbit and then return, not just breathe the thin air and then fall back... regardless of the sexual organs present in the cockpit. -_-
So is 10 days not a stable enough orbit for you :)
from the report:
The crew will stay in space for more than 10 days, during which time they will perform scientific experiments and the country’s first manual space docking — a complicated procedure that brings two vessels together in high-speed orbit.
One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure.
Was there something about being a woman that made it problematic being in space
you mean besides the monthly "make no sense, freak everyone out" day? no, i don't think there's any difference.
my sig pwns your sig
I think that's the point: there is no reason why there shouldn't have been women doing it all along. So it's notable when the status quo changes.
Lucky she wasn't forcibly aborted at seven months...
I am not sure why it matters that she's the first female astronaut.
It matters to those of us trying to raise daughters. They need as many role models as we can give them. I want my daughter to ask for a lunch box with a picture of Liu Yang or Sally Ride, and not the "Disney Princesses".
Long live the future of humanity.
per dolorem ad astra
Well the vagina to penis ratio is 56:500. There is a reason it is not close 1:1. Either women are not that motivated, or are not capable. Either way, any change to this trend is worth noting.
I know girls aren't that technically competent, and are only really good at finding sparkley pink stuff, but really, you're on Slashdot -- can't you at least Google "women in space" before going back to painting your nails and gabbing with your BFF about how cute the boys are?
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
I am not sure why it matters that she's the first female astronaut.
The point is that they want you to know that she's THEIR first female astronaut.
Who?
Proof: Mission to Mars (2000)
SO special!
Don't they realize that highlighting this as special is sexism?
In a non-sexist mind, this is just a normal thing, and in no way special.
And as long as we don't stop nonsense as this, sexism won't stop.
This June 16th is also the 49th anniversary of Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova's trip to space. She was the first woman in space. She piloted the Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963, to become both the first woman and the first civilian to fly in space.
ok, why is it worth noting? if gender is just anatomy and doesn't matter, then it's unremarkable either way whether women are/are not involved.
Does it really matter that much? I can say that I can't even remember what I would want to be when I was young, if it wasn't electrical engineer, and I am quite sure I was getting somewhat older by the time I knew that existed, before I wanted to become one.
Does it really at all matter to have all these examples? Even if you want her to become a smart girl and all of that, wouldn't it be good to give her useful knowledge like some basic math? I am sure you can combine that with some fun things. With "yeah, we shoot women into space", I don't know what intelligent stuff that a young child can understand well combine with that.
I want my daughter to ask for a lunch box with a picture of Liu Yang or Sally Ride,
Why? What's wrong with Disney princesses? Did little boys who wanted /Miami Vice/ lunch boxes really want to be undercover narcotics agents with stupid clothing and bad hair?
Anyway, what's so special about passengers where the main differentiator between them and all the other teachers, engineers, etc is that mission specialists don't barf in space?
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
The incredible focus on having a female on board makes me wonder why she was chosen.
The US regularly had/has females their crew, and the gender of an astronaut is pretty much a non-issue. These are obviously chosen for being good astronauts.
This Liu Yang is surely a good astronaut, but as the news about this launch is more than half about having a woman on boars, makes me wonder what the real reason is to chose her over one of the other candidates they have.
Gender shouldn't matter. I don't think there are jobs in space that require men over women or the other way around, nor that it is something men naturally can do better.
One of the core reasons I think there are more male than female space travellers is that men are generally more willing to take risks and to be at the forefront of exploration and in the limelight, while many women prefer to stay safely at home. And if there is any high-profile, high-risk job than it's being astronaut.
Seriously; working for a F500 defense contractor, I have very little interest in this.
Seriously; not working for any defense contractor at all, I have very little faith in the anonymous opinion of some unverifiable person who not-quite-directly claims to have an educated/informed opinion that could be construed as representing the industry.
China is working on a military base space station, but the big todo is that they launched a female soldier.
Amazing that we focus on such BS.
I think that SpaceX should launch a woman or two on the first launch just so that they can claim that they are willing to send women on the first launch, esp. of private space.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
A few day before Liu Yang became the first Chinese female Taikonaut, another Chinese lady was forced to abort her 7-month old fetus
What an irony !!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Very little has been reported about Liu Yang as an individual. China society tends to be more communal and rarely celebrates the achievements of one person at the expense of the common unit.
What about that guy who discovered gunpowder?
This Liu Yang is surely a good astronaut, but as the news about this launch is more than half about having a woman on boars, makes me wonder what the real reason is to chose her over one of the other candidates they have.
This is one of the burdens pioneering women have placed on them: people are always second-guessing them, wondering whether they got their position on the merits or if are being given special treatment because they are women. Minorities often get a similar response ("oh s/he only got the job because of affirmative action"). Hence the saying "you've got to be at least twice as good as anyone else to be accepted as equal".
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
you mean besides the monthly "make no sense, freak everyone out" day? no, i don't think there's any difference.
If you think men's behavior isn't influenced by hormones, you are wrong:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2012/06/13/why-male-hormones-may-drive-the-stock-market-and-override-investors-ability-to-think-rationally/
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
So, the X-37 was launched before the Tiangong 1 was put into orbit. And as soon as the first manned docking takes place, the X-37 is retrieved? Maybe part of the X-37's mission was to observe the Chinese space station in secret.
I bet there will soon be an African-Canadian Jewish Bisexual Amputee as well!
To be serious - this "The first WOMAN!!!" or "The first BLACK DUDE!!!" to do X really annoys me. Yeah, we get it, people of all genders and nationalities and heritages can do the same stuff. No big surprise - we're all human.
Does anyone else find these articles degrading and unnecessary?
No, she's the first Chinese female astronaut, which means that half an hour after she takes off, you have to launch another one.
You are welcome on my lawn.
The incredible focus on having a female on board makes me wonder why she was chosen.
The US regularly had/has females their crew, and the gender of an astronaut is pretty much a non-issue. These are obviously chosen for being good astronauts.
This Liu Yang is surely a good astronaut, but as the news about this launch is more than half about having a woman on boars, makes me wonder what the real reason is to chose her over one of the other candidates they have.
Gender shouldn't matter. I don't think there are jobs in space that require men over women or the other way around, nor that it is something men naturally can do better.
One of the core reasons I think there are more male than female space travellers is that men are generally more willing to take risks and to be at the forefront of exploration and in the limelight, while many women prefer to stay safely at home. And if there is any high-profile, high-risk job than it's being astronaut.
A great deal of cultural reasons cause many Chinese to favor sons over daughters, greatly skewing the male:female ratio in that country.
The "one child" policy means parents cannot easily choose to do both and must pick one.
As an anecdotal example, I know several kind-hearted people who adopted Chinese-born daughters. I have never heard of such a person who adopted a Chinese son. The reason for this is that daughters are something of a liability for them. It is a bit like having to pay a dowry in the old days.
I know girls aren't that technically competent, and are only really good at finding sparkley pink stuff, but really, you're on Slashdot -- can't you at least Google "women in space" before going back to painting your nails and gabbing with your BFF about how cute the boys are?
Girls aren't technically competent??? Serious troll material, but whatever...
I'm trying to get past what you wrote and focus on what I think the GP (girlintraining) was really saying. it's worth recognizing Liu Yang as the first Chinese female taikonaut. But let's not make too big a deal about women in space after it has been demonstrated conclusively that space is yet another area of human endeavour that has no gender qualification.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
This June 16th is also the 49th anniversary of Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova's trip to space.
It's also Bloomsday.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
The flight is to test a manual docking procedure and she's one of the experts in operating that system. She started her astronaut training 14 years ago, so she was chosen as a potential astronaut way back then.
Why assume that she was chosen for any other reason? The press is going to make a huge deal about it no matter what the reason because a female face in space sells advertising space - however they don't get to make the call, especially not in China.
I do not second-guess any women on the Shuttle missions.
I do second-guess this case because the news about this rocket launch is literally >50% "we got a woman in space" and There is no reason to me this woman would not be as good as their male counterparts. She used to be a fighter pilot, so has a proven track record in another high-demand job. It's just how the news overly focusses on having a woman in space that makes me suspect that the selection criteria for this mission included "must include a female".
It is almost like if you would report on the first Apollo moon missions as "we got a man in space, and outside of orbit! Oh yeah they also touched down on the moon. This man is fantastic, his family is great, he worked so hard to get in space and put evreything aside. His wife and kid followed the launch at home."
Now what is the important part: a man/woman in space, or the exploratory and scientific reach and objectives of the space mission?
Rank Country (or dependent territory) Prisoners per 100,000 population
1 United States 730 ICPS
2 St. Kitts and Nevis 649 ICPS
3 U.S. Virgin Islands (USA) 539 ICPS
4 Georgia 536 ICPS
5 Russia 522 ICPS
6 Seychelles 507 ICPS
7 Anguilla (UK) 480 ICPS
8 Rwanda 450 ICPS (c.)
9 British Virgin Islands (UK) 439 ICPS
10 Bermuda (UK) 428 ICPS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate
Role models? Why? So, you're teaching them to follow the model of someone instead of being themselves? And furthermore you're teaching them that somehow it's something significant that the model they're following is of the same gender as them? (Also, what Nutria said in his first line. There's nothing wrong with letting your childhood have some fantasy.)
The Michigan state house banned her from speaking, since it was such a horrible dirty word.
Exactly what Vagina means in Chinese, I don't know, but apparently it bothers those Republicans.
Especially if they're wearing trashy Frank Frazetta outfits.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
of course.. the chinese government doesn't have to imprison a citizen to get compliance.. it just threatens his life/family/job...
By launch program is also interesting:
Vostok: 1
Soyuz only: 7
Shenzhou: 1
Soutz && STS: 3
STS only : 44
Yes, of the eight women that went up on the Vostok/Soyuz, three of them were from Soviet Union/Russia...
IOW, this is the 49th anniversary of a scary looking woman sitting in a chair for 72 hours doing nothing but getting nauseous, taking a few pictures and keeping a short journal.
Oh My Fscking God!! How inspiring could one woman be?????
IKR?
I'm pretty sure my mom did that for nine months. She didn't even wear a space suit until the last month.
Inspired yet?
I know how you feel. My son won't stop asking for princess lunch boxes and back packs.
Learn to love Alaska
Jesus guy, you have a hell of a chip on your shoulder. You're so convinced that men are this oppressed minority (oppression of men by women is only found in very specific circumstances in industrialized democracies, and is in no way worldwide or widespread. Oppression of majority lower status males by minority of high status males however, is as old as agricultural civilization) that you'll even tear down a story where a woman has changed the status quo to be equal (yeah, equal not superior) to men!
I hope someday we isolate the male hormone that causes sexism.
This space available.
Good GOD, man, the Chinese space program is catching up! Quick, cut MORE of NASA's funding and divert it to propping up the reckless failures of our unregulated banking industry and the outdated business model of our movie studios! DON'T ASK UNPATRIOTIC QUESTIONS, JUST DO IT!!! We'll beat them yet!
Well, I do not think China is breaking any new ground compared to NASA or the Russian equivalent. The emphasis of the female crewmember is just because it's a better soundbite than "China launches yet another me-too space launch in their quest to eventually catch up with the rest of the space-faring countries".
There was the reveal a few months back that any candidate would need perfect teeth to be considered. The excuse was offered that imperfect teeth could pose a health problem in zero-gravity, which no-one buys - and sure enough, she looks like a Chinese hottie. I'm guessing that they probably had a pool of potential female candidates, all of them qualified for the job, and once the vital qualifications were met they picked the one who would look best on the propaganda posters. This is supposed to be a statement of the greatness of China - it wouldn't do if their poster-woman had a gap whenever she smiled.
Sexism is not caused by a male hormone, it's caused by a female pheromone that is perceived by male.
Generally if somebody goes off on a tangent about how evil women are and how much they ruin men's lives, they fall into these categories:
Butthurt divorced person.
Butthurt loser who couldn't keep his girlfriend because he was a dick.
Wife abuser.
Butthurt virgin who hates women because they don't like him because he acts bizarre in person.
All your points are valid. I'm a guy, and I know maybe 0.001% of guys like me get shit on by women. On the flip side I see women get shit on all the time, every day. You can't be a female and ride a bus without some nigger leering at you and making comments about your tits or ass out aloud. Shit sux, I couldn't live with that kind of barrage of crap 24/7.
The US regularly had/has females their crew, and the gender of an astronaut is pretty much a non-issue.
Well, at least starting 1983 they did. Of course, there's those pesky 22 years where there were no women, but that's another story...
According to legend, the issue was that all of engineers were male and none of them really knew how to create a system for handling women peeing. The more likely reason was that most astronauts were combat pilots and, at the time, women weren't allowed. Sally Ride was never in the military.
Oh My Fscking God!! How inspiring could one woman be?????
If you didn't grow up in Soviet Union, you'll never know for real. But, yes, she was very inspiring to millions of Soviet girls. Which was pretty much the point.
Austronaut
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
What's wrong with Disney princesses?
Unrealistic role models and a lot of pink crap. Plus I have been "tattooed" and stickied with said pink crap. There is a lot of suffering here.
the reckless failures of our unregulated banking industry
The reckless failures of the regulated banking industry is what has cost the $$$. That's why I don't worry about recent regulation that has been imposed or proposed. American ingenuity will find a way to screw it up every ten to twenty years.
If you think men's behavior isn't influenced by hormones, you are wrong
Not wrong, just could be, maybe wrong. The researchers noticed hormone changes and assumed that men wouldn't think rationally as a result. They might even be right. Although I can't help but think that any trader who's been active for a few years probably has figured out how to cope.
She had only 2 years of training compared to other astronauts who had 14 years of training. The male astronaut trained for 14 years. So any way you look at it she was chosen because of her sex.
Note: "female" is an adjective: a female astronaut, a female cat.
It is not a noun, so you shouldn't say "a female went into space". Use "woman" for that purpose.
Why? What's wrong with Disney princesses? Did little boys who wanted /Miami Vice/ lunch boxes really want to be undercover narcotics agents with stupid clothing and bad hair?
What's wrong is that if those little boys really did want to be undercover narcotics agents with stupid clothing and bad hair, they could have done that. No matter what you do and no matter how hard you work, you are never going to be a princess.
Who else first read it as Liu Kang?
Congrats to her and the Chinese space program for kicking some ass. May I say she is a beautiful ambassador for humanity in space also !
Note: "female" is an adjective: a female astronaut, a female cat.
It is not a noun, so you shouldn't say "a female went into space". Use "woman" for that purpose.
Both Merriam Webster and Dictionary.com disagree with your specious statement. Female is a word with both adjective *and* noun definitions.
GP's usage is correct; you are wrong.
Any change in trend is worth noting in my opinion. If it is just anatomy, as I noted in my post, there shouldnt be such a gender-gap. Is it just chance that it so much skewed towards penises?
This is one of the burdens pioneering women have placed on them...
That particular burden has only been placed on pioneering women since the advent of affirmative action.
Sure, because everyone (except those in the Soviet space program) thought that she actually *did something* besides sit there.
At least Our Guys had control sticks even though they were mainly for emergencies.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Start at the school. I live near a school, and the women who run it are raising the girls to be screaming little princesses.
Who cares, if the end result is that many more girls figured they could try their luck in fields they wouldn't have considered before because of cultural conditioning?
Wonderful point- come from a Chinese Student.
OK, tell your mom to get out of the basement and leave you alone. You're getting dangerously high on those female pheromones and about to start to act like a dick.
The history of women astronauts in NASA is a fascinating one. The US women astronaut candidates dealt with all of the tests as well as their male counterparts, they were lighter, smaller, as a result more suitable to the cramped conditions of the Mercury capsule and its launcher's very limited load capability where every kg counted. Then from the top it came, the astronauts can only be jet fighter pilots and guess, there were none of those in the "wrong" sex. It was the Shuttle era, 20 odd years later, when the first American woman managed to become an Astronaut. Russians, on the other hand, managed to get one up in the air pretty quickly (for propaganda reasons, obviously) and then the next woman Russian astronaut had to wait a while too.
The history of women in space can be summarised in one sentence: it sucks to be you.
Hopefully it will change and get better, there were women shuttle commanders.
So we don't care about actual fact; what's *really* important is inspiring little girls?
Got any children? Specifically, girls? Then you know that Things Change when they hit puberty. Maybe they'll revert to wanting to to do something manly (like mine wanted to be a Marine for a couple of years), but just as likely not.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
No matter what you do and no matter how hard you work, you are never going to be a princess.
Duh. Marry a prince. Harry's available.
Even Gagarin had no control and everything was automated.
Not all women are thus affected, and men in space have similar issues with feeling horny and frustrated on a much more regular basis. Part of the psychological evaluation all astronauts undergo is to evaluate their susceptibility to those issues and to see how suppressant medication works.
Come on guys, drag yourselves into the 21st century.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Because historically women have been disadvantaged and repressed in most societies, and we have not reached equilibrium yet.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I agree completely with the sentiment. The "disney princesses" suck. They just want to sit pretty and wait for 'prince charming' I find this disturbing. (Mulan is cool though)
On the other hand when i was growing up my biggest hero was "The incredible Hulk", some guy who's would get angry, totally loose it, and go on a violent rampage. Not a great role model if you think about it, but I dont think it did me any harm.
grrrraRARARAGHGHAHG!!!!!!
*ahem*
Personally I dont think creating 'artificial' role models makes sense. I think the problem is parents etc, for some reason most of them want to encourage girls to be 'girly' and boys to be 'boyish' in terms of their own preconceptions of what these roles should mean. My sister hosted a birthday party where she gave all the boys blue boxes with a car in it, and the girls pink boxes with a hairclip and a wand (which i was told is typical). Maybe boys and girls are naturally drawn to slightly different things, but many adults seem to want to actively enforce and artificially exagerate the difference.
The "other gender" is woman for humans, bitch for dogs, hen for birds and so on... but the gender that means any of these is "female". It's thus often easier to use the generic term for a member of that gender when you can't be bothered to use the specific term or think that the other person might not understand it. Compare "What's your parrot like?" and "6 years old gray cock" versus "6 years old gray male".
It's also age- and culture-neutral. At what point does one stop being a girl and start being a woman? At what point does one stop being a puppy and start being a bitch? Doesn't matter, they're females for all their life.
I want my daughter to ask for a lunch box with a picture of Liu Yang or Sally Ride,
Why? What's wrong with Disney princesses?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT2R3E7vDUc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8xCgC3w1zs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uuk-h2ZYNJU
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
I would think that a little girl (or boy, for that matter) at say, the age of 8, does not have much realization of "being myself" and "following a role model". Actually, I would say that you won't know anything about yourself until you reach the age of at least 20, but of course that varies dramatically. The Greeks philosophized quite a lot about it and to "know yourself" was considered a significant milestone or even target in one's life. So role models do help and Disney role models in particular need to take a hike. Gender in role models should not make a difference, but I guess it is easier for someone at a very young age to identify himself/herself with someone of the same gender, but this is not a necessity.
Having said that, I must state that having fantasy is something to be encouraged at all ages. So which one is better? To fantasize being Liu Yang that set a target, trained and achieved it, or Snow-white that did nothing but look beautiful and hide in the forest?
Good for her.
Sure, because everyone (except those in the Soviet space program) thought that she actually *did something* besides sit there.
At least Our Guys had control sticks even though they were mainly for emergencies.
Spacecraft orientation maintenance and orbital control was actually not entirely automated on the Vostok: Thereskova had to do that manually based on info from her onboard instruments and groundcontrol feedback. So you are just being petty here. The Soviet Union launched a woman into space within 2 years of their first manned flight. The US did so only 22 years after their first manned flight.
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem delendam esse
Becoming a princess is easier than becoming an astronaut. Most girls aren't born a princess, but they can marry a prince. There are more princes around than astronaut positions. The training is easier too.
That worries me a hell of a lot less than Miley Cyrus flashing her crotch on stage.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
So you are just being petty here.
No, if you're correct about what she had to do, then I'm ill-informed.
The Soviet Union launched a woman into space within 2 years of their first manned flight.
And they waited 19 years to send up another woman. Obviously it was just a publicity stunt:
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
I think you will find that Oestrogen is a female hormone.
which brings an interesting question... can astronauts really spend long times in space (months or maybe over a year) without any sexual thinking at all? i mean... at some point, if you do.. you have to unload... uhm.. are they allowed to?
my sig pwns your sig
That, I will grant you. In fact, the second Soviet female astronaut (Svetlana Savitskaya) was specifically launched to capture the distinction of being the first woman to do an EVA, just beating Kathryn Sullivan by a few months
I think Thereskova was mainly choosen because of her parachutist background (the early Russian kosmonauts parachuted out of the capsule just before landing). The other factors certainly played, but as an "additional".
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem delendam esse
BS. Affirmative action came into place because they were not being judged on their merits.
How come the people who question if a minority made it simply because of affirmative action never question if a white person made it simply because historically discrimination works in their favor?
If you were interested in the injustice, you would question both, if on the other hand all you want is to validate your prejudices you will only question the former and ignore the latter.
Just like how a grown ass woman who's been through enough periods and pregnancies figures out how to cope. In all seriousness, most women HAVE to have learnt how to cope with all that shit, or civilization would have been stuck at the hunter-gatherer phase. I know it's easy to mock those overgrown children on reality TV saying they're "hormonal" whenever they want to act like bitches, but surely most slashdotters know most women don't actually do this (much)?
CAPTCHA: females.
Russians, on the other hand, managed to get one up in the air pretty quickly (for propaganda reasons, obviously) and then the next woman Russian astronaut had to wait a while too.
Of course, if USSR does anything -- it is for propaganda reasons, if USA -- it is for the benefit of humanity.
Your statements are the perfect illustration of the fact that American propaganda is even more pervasive than Soviet one.
This is one of the burdens pioneering women have placed on them: people are always second-guessing them, wondering whether they got their position on the merits or if are being given special treatment because they are women. Minorities often get a similar response ("oh s/he only got the job because of affirmative action"). Hence the saying "you've got to be at least twice as good as anyone else to be accepted as equal".
In this case, it is worse. There was an article a couple of months ago that said they had a bunch of female candidates to choose from and they (a) delibertely picked a woman and (b) her looks were part of the criteria (no scars).
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Why? What's wrong with Disney princesses? Did little boys who wanted /Miami Vice/ lunch boxes really want to be undercover narcotics agents with stupid clothing and bad hair?
Well I'm 2 out of 3
Women are a minority?
OK, maybe in China there are slightly less women that men, but in other countries, that's the opposite.
The US government will probably make a profit on the loans made to banks during the bailout. The "shovel ready" projects were what cost trillions and didn't create any real jobs.
What cost consumers (who took out the bad loans) was the requirement that banks make a certain percentage of mortgage loans to unqualified borrowers. Those changes were forced through in the 90's and resulted in the housing bubble and inevitable collapse that followed.
If you are referring to the Radical Right talking point of the Community Reinvestment Act, which required mortgage lenders not to discriminate against qualified buyers, it was passed in 1977. That's a heck of a delayed reaction there as compared to, I dunno, the Gramm family's work in repealing Glass-Steagall in 1999.
sPh
Maybe people should stop with the affirmative action stuff then. It's bad for everyone. People should get jobs based on their ability to do the job, nothing more, nothing less. Affirmative action ruins that by potentially employing someone who is worse for the job just because of their gender, race, etc... and making everyone second guess that person's appointment.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
Actually, IIRC women are more at risk from developing cancer (of the ovaries and breasts) as a result of radiation, and in space you're much more exposed to radiation.
To be, or not to be: isn't that quite logical, Slashdot Beta?
The United States, of course, would never stoop to such tactics. (hint: next time you are at a big airshow stop by the US Air Force recruiting booth and evaluate the attractiveness of the pilots working there, both male and female. Do you really think every USAF pilot looks that good?)
sPh
The difference is that affermative action is endorsed and allowed. You are *not* allowed to be favourable to white male candidates (rightfully so). However, because some people believe that two wrongs make a right, you are allowed to do the whole affirmative action rubbish. We should be capable of better than having a knee-jerk reaction to do the exact opposite of what we were doing before.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
As I understand it, no scars and perfect teeth are also because you don't want your scars to open in zero-g (including C-section scars) and you can't have a root canal filling or exploding fillings (because of air pocket) in space. I read a while ago that the astronauts and cosmonauts for the ISS also get a dental check-up before they're allowed to launch.
To be, or not to be: isn't that quite logical, Slashdot Beta?
It's also a profit center for poor Chinese parents (and the government agents who get the payoffs). If your first kid(s) are girls, you sell them to silly Americans.
Not entirely disagreeing with you, but perhaps M1FCJ was referring to the fact that just as the US did the Soviet Union had a pool of qualified female aviators (including many with combat experience) but selected Valentina Tereshkova, who appeared to be only minimally qualified, instead. One suspects that there might have been a concern (as there was in the US) that if a qualified women was chosen she might just expect to be a full member of the team, selected for additional missions, etc).
sPh
caveqat, an old fashioned male, comments that there are a lot of sexist pigs, no matter the gender. Enough said. So this is how we get overseas science news in theUS, no big deal, one second blurbs. This just points out the difference of access to the news, and news control of the news flow in the US of A. Not pointing out that the designs of the capsuels is oh so simular, and look like the old and new style combined. Maybe even enhanced over our "upcoming" design. But look at the graphics of the mission control, Looked like 1950's scifi production. But congradulations China. Proving science still exists. Research, development, and a carry-over to educational development, are what you need for the future. Not the BS we are being given in this religous warring society.
O yeah, I read today that she then became a Hero of the Soviet Union, as well; interesting story really, bit of a role model: Valentina Tereshkova
N.B. that photo looks like you'd REALLY not want to pick a fight with her. Or accidentally eat her cosmonaut ration. Or look at her in a funny way.
To be, or not to be: isn't that quite logical, Slashdot Beta?
Did she have a choice?
All of this made possibly by the cheap shit you bought from China at WalMart that broke 6 months later. Enjoy your consumer culture, China will do the space exploration from here on out - thanks America!
and how much tech was stolen from the Russians, Americans etc etc.?
Just like the high speed train was stolen from the French, the chinese stealth fighter was stolen from the Americans.
if they are that good of an engineering talent pool, create their own technology.
That only China and Russia (two countries that aren't exactly friendly to the US) are the only ones capable of putting humans in earth orbit at the moment? I know that I would, considering that US satellites fix themselves up there.
I'm hoping that the next US president will feel the same way (whoever they are), and we can get a good old fashioned space race restarted. It would be nice to see US scientists and engineers working on something more important than developing an better iPhone for a change.
China is only slightly ahead of private spaceflight, which makes it hard for me to be impressed. Give it 3 or 4 years, and private companies will be able to do more impressive stuff than China. At that point, it will just be a matter of having enough money (it's not much more than that now, really).
That, and launching women into space isn't actually any more difficult than launching men (you have to design the spacesuits a little differently, but that's trivial). When the first women were launched into space, it was a triumph for equality, but sexism isn't really China's biggest problem (well, not after birth, any way).
"Just anatomy" wouldn't result in a gap? Physical structure is pretty fundamental. If you ran into problems during a space walk and were about to float off into infinity, would you want a man or a woman to come out to rescue you.
Hate to break it to you snowflake, but so was everyone, and they still are. Female astronaut in Socialist Dictatorship of China is not free!
This is one of the burdens pioneering women have placed on them: people are always second-guessing them, wondering whether they got their position on the merits or if are being given special treatment because they are women.
Doubting their capabilities because they are women is one thing, insofar as being a woman is not relevant to one's ability to perform a given job. Doubting the capabilities of someone who was awarded a job as the result of affirmative action is another thing, insofar as the criterion used for the award is likewise not relevant to performing the job, which fact potentially reduces the likelihood of awarding the job to the optimal candidate.
In addition, affirmative action increases the quality of the average candidate who receives a job despite being ineligible for affirmative action, because the number of spots available to these people is reduced.
how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
Scars are generally tougher than the surrounding tissue, and I wasn't aware exploding teeth were a major mountaineering hazard. Sounds like PR to me.
These countries could lower these numbers by executing more prisoners...
It would also save money on food costs, prison space, guard salaries, etc.
which brings an interesting question... can astronauts really spend long times in space (months or maybe over a year) without any sexual thinking at all? i mean... at some point, if you do.. you have to unload... uhm.. are they allowed to?
Maybe that's why she's there?
(before the mods slay me, you have to admit it's the elephant in the room)
I thought Your Guys had control sticks mainly to assuage their egos.
I suspect that Confucianism may have something to do with the comparatively low crime rate in China.
Ezekiel 23:20
Sure. Why recruit the best fighter pilots, when even a monkey can sit in a sealed-up tin can?
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Why? What's wrong with Disney princesses? Did little boys who wanted /Miami Vice/ lunch boxes really want to be undercover narcotics agents with stupid clothing and bad hair?
Well I'm 2 out of 3
Yeh, your hair is AWESOME...
Wins ! Flawless Victory
That was the problem, yes. The space program basically needed warm bodies in good health to sit in a sealed up tin can without freaking out excessively over the danger. The air force pilots they tapped for that had those qualities, but were primarily pilots. They were all essentially overqualified for the job. There is a (dramatized, obviously) scene from the movie _The Right Stuff_ where the pilots demand a window and manual controls. While the movie is just a movie, it is somewhat based on reality.
Elon Musk need to go into serious training.
We want the distinction of having the first douchebag in space.
Indeed, I thought that was obvious and find it odd that fritsd got modded to +5 for just repeating the party line.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
bone her. That is all.
I reckon she's a real sweety. So pretty.
Maybe that's why she's there?
Unlikely. It isn't possible to have an erection in space. Something to do with not enough blood going there, if I'm not mistaken.
I think we can now see they weren't actually qualified. You should vet your own talking point against reality next time.
It used to be that in China incarceration was the exception rather than the rule. It was considered expensive and a waste of resources (food, jails, etc) so corporal punishment was used often. Beating people with sticks, burning them with hot metal rods, dismemberment (Sun Tzu supposedly got both his feet chopped off as punishment), or they were even sentenced to death.
Never heard anything about 'exploding teeth' myself. What I did hear at one time was that in high-G situations where you had lead fillings (do they even use those anymore?) the lead could cause damage to the tooth or even blood poisoning.
The problem AFAIK isn't zero-gravity. The problem is high-g flight (e.g. during the rocket launch).
A lot of women pretend they can't do anything technical because they simply don't give a damn and can get some guy to do it instead. Seriously.
Although not as high as some Western countries, crime rate in China should be considered as "High"
But there is one big different between China and those so-called "Western countries"
Unlike in Western countries, where criminals are "protected" by the laws, crime victims in China often take the law in their own hand and punish the perpetrators - sometimes killing the criminals\
And that has nothing to do with Confucianism - "Confucianism" is but an obsolete piece of cultural artifact
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
That would be why Australian well regulated banks had no problems at all. It was poor regulation that allowed US banks to get in so much trouble in the first place, not being regulated at all.
Only the victims of hurricane Katrina qualify for assistance. Does that mean we are discriminating against every one else? Of course not. Redressing a previous wrong is not another wrong even if it applies differentially.
Again, that you could call a redressing program discrimination and that you would chose to concentrate on this as opposed to the still existent (though waning) racist and sexism says more about your prejudices than anything else.
That's not a good analogy. It's relatively easy to tell who is a victim of Katrina. Affirmative action is roughly equivalent to finding you have a problem with knife crime in gangs, so you give rival gangs guns to try and kill them off. If you want to right the wrong, right the wrong, don't apply another vague layer of wrong on top and hope it roughly balences out.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
Why should the news media's bias have anything to do with the selection criteria that happened months or years prior, in who was selected to go on a space mission. Was her backup also female? Even if so, there are some damn good scientific reasons for having a female on board. For example: to be able to directly observe the differing effects on the body in 0g between a female and a male.
I'm sure there's more. Just because the news/media is pushing this as the story, doesn't mean the Chinese space agency is.
Look at what happened in the US elections last time. Men compete: What's your policy on x?
Women compete: Why do you feel the 4" heel better represents the united states at dinner parties?
The news media is tremendously sexist and continues to provide inappropriate coverage of female public figures (I'm talking politics here, I expect the news coverage of Paris Hilton is more her engineering than inappropriate news.
Well... the plumbing arrangements are a bit more difficult. Not a showstopper by a long way but inconvenient and uncomfortable in the simplest solution. Apart from that, prejudice, simple prejudice. Women are supposed to stay where it's safe. There's this whole bunch of instinctual weirdness driving societal mores that we can't really get rid of completely. Best to try to though.
If Yuri Gagarin had been a woman, would the headline still have read, "Gagarin first Russian in space", or would it have been forced to mention that it was a woman, too?
exploding teeth is an issue in diving, so I see no difference in going into space
To summarise, the places most likely to lock up their citizens are small islands and shitholes.
The US government will probably make a profit on the loans made to banks during the bailout.
And I probably could lift the Hoover Dam, if I didn't vaporize it with atomic beams from my eyes first.
One never wins a shell game. And that's what the claims of "profit" are here. These banks aren't borrowing money one time and paying it back. They've borrowed money several times, they've profited from various publicly funded "stimulus" schemes globally, and the free money printed by the Fed. The US government and others have paid a lot of money and caused a lot of loss of wealth in order to realize this illusionary profit.
What cost consumers (who took out the bad loans) was the requirement that banks make a certain percentage of mortgage loans to unqualified borrowers. Those changes were forced through in the 90's and resulted in the housing bubble and inevitable collapse that followed.
Yes, this was dumb, but I think easy Fed credit and ridiculously high leverage was what actually did those banks in. There's plenty of little quirks and loopholes like the above. Once things fire up again, the big money will find the best loopholes and start this cycle all over again.
My view on this is that there's only one bit of regulation that matters - how much reserve a bank is forced to have and hence, how much leverage it can wield. That's why the Australian banks did so well. They missed out on the excitement both good and bad, and ended up being among the healthier of the survivors.
In fact, they are. It is permitted for an astronaut to masturbate with the condom on (to prevent bodily fluids flying around the cabin). But in zero gravity you don't care about sex that much as your genitalia don't get much blood anyway.
The pressures in diving are much greater than they are in space. Every ten meters of water is roughly another atmosphere. Having said that, it does appear to be a problem in military pilots. The issue appears to be rapid changes in pressure which is a risk in space.
What about the fact that she can be blinded with monomolecular wire?
If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
It's true that I'm no expert, so I aped what I read somewhere else. I'll look it up for you now.
Conclusion: forget what I said about the scars opening in space.
To be, or not to be: isn't that quite logical, Slashdot Beta?
My personal feelings for all things China is to wish the woman astronaut a safe and successful recovery of her dead body!
It occurred to me that it ought to be in the economic interests of any space agency to push for an astronaut core PRIMARILY made up of women.
They are (on average) smaller, lighter, and eat less, all advantages in an industry where every ounce of extra weight can cost hundreds of dollars.
In the early days of space flight, astronauts were converted test pilots who were all male due to military recruiting rules, which have now changed.
They are equal, if not better, to their male counterparts when it comes to mathematical and scientific ability, and we have finally reached a point where culture has stopped telling them otherwise.
And without a doubt, it would be a public relations coup for the first agency to send up an all-female crew into space.
This is absolutely true. Men are physically wired and HAVE to have it. Women are not this way and their ignorance concerning this has led many a married man to pursue unfaithful liaisons when a wife cuts them off.
Jeice
http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Jeice
America, when it was still a space nation, consistently made an effort to include minorities and other nationalities (who could not get into space themselves) to include them as astronauts.
Wonder when the Chinese will start offering the occasional ride to Americans.
It's relatively easy to tell who is a victim of Katrina.
You have a hard time identifying who is black or a woman?
Because they are uniformly and universally discriminated against. Not in every interaction, but certainly several times per month, even in supposedly enlightened liberal blue states like New York City.
By the time you are into the deep south it is up to several times a day. Do you know that establishments that "do not serve your kind" are still to be found throughout the southern USA? Do you know that blacks are still routinely stopped for no other reason than DWB?
Oh please, how corny you are. I bet the female astronauts looked at Disney Princesses when they were kids and it sure didn't stop them. Or are you saying your kids need extra help because they are somehow inferior.
Does anyone know what (if any) relationship there is between Liu Yang and Liu Wang?
Then deal with those breaches of the law. What about people like me who havn't discriminated against anyone? You don't raise a universal punishment (which is what affirmative action is, make no mistake - it punishes some people by rewarding others) for a crime some people commit, you deal with the people who break the law. If I run a company and I have to hire a sub-par candidate because of affirmative action, I've been punished. If I go for a job and don't get it because I'm a white male, I've been punished. That is not right. Yes, discrimination is wrong on every account, and it's disgusting it still exists (here in the UK I see and hear of a lot less of it than you appear to believe happens in America, which is something to be thankful for), but that's exactly why we shouldn't be encouraging discrimination in another form.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
We have a party line now on Slashdot? that's news to me :-).
It's true that I'm no expert, so I aped what I read somewhere else.
You almost certainly read it in the article I linked to, the article from China Daily, you know the one operated by the communist party.
Conclusion: forget what I said about the scars opening in space.
Forget what I said about teeth. Oh wait, I never said anything about teeth in the first place.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
It depends if you have to open the airlock to get rid of an Alien queen...
ad hominem..
none at all.. your statements are just as much suppositions as mine.. this is a discussion forum, not a doctoral thesis. Most of the stats you're probably referring to (since you haven't offered any), are likely from sources with ulterior motives. I'm not tearing any women down. I'm stating that her trip isn't special because she's female. That's not an attack.. I criticized left wing propaganda that makes events into achievements because of the very things (in this case gender) they say shouldn't used to judge accomplishment. Why? because it's disingenuous claptrap meant to encourage insecure people ('victims'/'survivors guilt'/stockholm syndrome) to keep certain politicians in power. feminist/left wing proponents demand censorship of people who say things like I do just like the religious right wants to silence views in conflict with their beliefs... usually with shaming language, just like you've done here, because they've got no sound reasoning backing their huge double standards.
so have men.. it's just not talked about. here's a few examples.
1. the disposable male: does the dangerous work, dies in the wars, sacrifices for family, live shorter lives yet retires earlier, gets shafted in family court, "my body my right" but he gets no choice yet is held solely accountable for her decision, gets cut out of line in competitive schools preaching 'diversity' as more important than GPA or other relevant attributes. this bias shows up in scholarship applicability. the fact that today's graduating classes are over 60% female is lost on feminist proponents.
2. in the media and in law, healthy masculinity is ridiculed while in femininity, borderline narcissism is celebrated. This isn't occasional. Whether it's VAWA, or nearly every show and every commercial featuring more than one person...
3. assertive boys in school are drugged so that they are more passive and submissive, just like the girls. in junior high, these boys are spoonfed misconstrued stats in health class to breed a strong sense of 'survivor guilt', so that by highschool, they believe the same shit you posted here. By college, this schooling creates a level of self loathing in men that would've been considered mental illness 20-30 years ago. Ask most men today who the 'problem' is in a relationship, and most of them will immediately say 'he' is. Meanwhile, the fact is that spousal and child abuse is about 50/50 across both genders. when it happens to women, it's a media frenzied outrage. when it happens to men, they're the laughing stock on morning talkshows (usually hosted by women). when abusers are finally sentenced, women receive lighter sentences.
4. yes, women were 'repressed' in the past.. but so were the men. Life was tough for everyone.