Some stuff…
These first pictures from Saturn’s moon Titan are so cool!
Plus, a CNN retrospect on the 1st African-American woman astronaut, Dr. Mae Jemison. She notes:
Growing up in Chicago, Jemison looked at the “Star Trek” character Lt. Uhura and saw her future.
“What was really great about ‘Star Trek’ when I was growing up as a little girl is not only did they have Lt. Uhura played by Nichelle Nichols as a technical officer — she was African,” said Jemison, who was born in Decatur, Alabama.
“At the same time, they had this crew that was composed of people from all around the world and they were working together to learn more about the universe,” she said. “So that helped to fuel my whole idea that I could be involved in space exploration as well as in the sciences.”
And, you got to admire a scientist who got to make a little appearance in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (like Stephen Hawking); I mean, Dr. Jemison does cool stuff since her NASA days, and:
She has considered a future in politics, has been awarded honors and decorations and holds multiple honorary doctorates. But she is still tickled about appearing in an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
“It was called ‘Second Chances,'” she said. “It was all about the fact that our fantasies lead our realities and our realities lead our fantasies and it comes full circle again.”
“‘Star Trek’ was one of our best fantasies,” she said, then added with a laugh, “And besides, I got to meet Worf (Michael Dorn, who plays the Klingon head of security.)”
Slate.com’s Chris Suellentrop says we ought to hope that George W. Bush is like Ronald Reagan – conservative in the first term; a lot looser in the second term. Wishful thinking, but that’s always a nice thing.
NY Times profiles Carol Bellamy, first (I think only) woman elected as President of NYC Council, and currently dealing with her role as director of UNICEF. I liked how her backstory gets told – that she balanced her Wall Street lawyer career, investment banking with public service. She’s been inspiring to watch and read about.
Happy Weekend…