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Sally Ride Takes Her Final Flight

Posted by Unknown on from the new-life-haunting-the-iss dept.

fructose writes "Sally Ride, America's first woman in space died today at age 61. She succumbed to pancreatic cancer according to her office in San Diego. Here's to wishing her a safe trip on her final journey."

6 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. RIP Sally by slasher999 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I still remember that historic launch. Her name was one everyone who was old enough to remember knew and never forgot from that day forward.

    1. Re:RIP Sally by Hatta · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What I didn't know until now is that she was a lesbian. Which is fair enough, if she was out back then she probably wouldn't have been considered a good role model. Good for her, she broke ground in more ways than one.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  2. Death is not a flight, it is the end of you. by itsybitsy · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Death is not a flight, it's not a trip, it's not a journey, it is the obliteration of you where you cease to exist the moment your brain cells have died.

    "What happens after you die? Nature is a harsh mistress indeed.

    What happens after death is very clear, your body rots as it’s being recycled by Nature and “you” are permanently and utterly obliterated you cease to be no magical heaven, no roasting hell, you just cease to be when your brain stops working that’s it nothing more.

    What happens when you take something apart, such as a car? As you begin to remove non-critical pieces it’s still a car, you can take the roof off and it’s still a car, you can take the hub caps off and it’s still a car, you can even take the doors off and it’s still a car; taking the wheels off and while it’s still a car it’s now a disabled car but at some point as you remove parts – critical parts – it’s no longer a car; and if as you take those parts off the car and destroy them so there is no chance of putting it back together either that’s what happens with humans and other living things at some point a critical component or critical components are removed or cease functioning that are critical for it to be alive and that’s it that is the moment you cease to be – when your brain stops functioning, just like a car ceases to be.

    Now to be sure, did the car go to “car heaven”? Nope, it simple ceased to be, it vanished it’s car-ness is no more it existed from the point that it’s critical parts made it a car and was a car while it was a car and then it ceased to be after it was disassembled at that critical moment when enough parts where removed that it ceased to be

    Enjoy being alive. It is all that matters. Everything else is meaningless.

    There is no mystery about death. Only people who don’t want to face it or those that don’t like it make it mysterious and invent alleged gods and being saved by jesus to a futile pitiful attempt to defy the objective reality of Nature in it’s harshness and cold fact of obliterating end of life.

    Science wins over mythology. If after reading the attached article/document you still believe in the resurrection of jesus you know that you’re highly delusional and denying the facts of life in the objective reality of Nature.

    BE. Even BE kind to others. For no other reason than the shocking horror of our own ceasing to be.

    Here is the science:"
    http://pathstoknowledge.net/2010/07/29/what-happens-after-you-die/

  3. Why did it take so long? by sageres · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The first woman in space was Valentina Tereshkova. She flew on June 16th, 1963. That was two years after the first man flew into the space.
    On the other hand, the first American woman (Sally Ride, RIP) flew in 1982.
    Question: Why did it take NASA almost two decades to send the woman in space?

    1. Re:Why did it take so long? by arth1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The first woman in space was Valentina Tereshkova. She flew on June 16th, 1963. That was two years after the first man flew into the space.
      On the other hand, the first American woman (Sally Ride, RIP) flew in 1982.
      Question: Why did it take NASA almost two decades to send the woman in space?

      While part of the answer undoubtedly is misogyny and discrimination against women in general, part of it is a cultural taboo - female plumbing. Female cosmonauts used diapers, and thought little of it. Female astronauts probably would have (not alluding to the one that did) if male-dominated NASA hadn't spent millions and countless years on designing a space toilet and non-intrusive "devices" to let women pee in space.

  4. Re:Safe trip? by fremsley471 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Several people I have known have appeared to me in my dreams as they died. One recent apparition was during the day, in an idle moment my thoughts were a tumble of old memories of an old acquaintance as they died of cancer (which I was unaware of). They don't haunt me, and only in one case has there been any interaction; someone I went to school with was stabbed, I was shaking him awake in my dreams, although I was 200 miles away at the time. I told his cousin on the Monday morning, after he asked "Did you hear what happened to Mark?" Mark died on the operating table, but was bought back. There have been several other incidences, but nothing supernatural happened when my father died when I was eight, or my mother in my arms a few weeks back.

    These are the most amazing events that have happened in my life. I know that were are more than a bunch cells. However, and it's a big however, I also understand that the most likely explanations are I'm a big, fat liar or it's all just coincidences. It's impossible to refute the first, it's all about that beautiful word, trust. I'm also a scientist and understand the concept of proof and how coincidences work. But we're 30 years on, and still haven't dreamed about Mark again.