House of Eratosthenes

We landed on a comet!

Well, we, being the European Space Agency, landed a small probe on comet 67P/Churyumox-Gerasimenko, seen on the right.

Wednesday, Nov. 12, was a history-making day for humans in space, and the culmination of a 10-year project that has already taught us much about our solar system.

Ten years ago, the European Space Agency launched the Rosetta spacecraft to intercept a comet named 67P/Churyumox-Gerasimenko. For the last decade it has approached, orbited, smelled, and studied the comet, taking thousands of mind-blowing images along the way.

During all this time it’s been carrying some very precious cargo.

On Nov. 12, Rosetta deployed that cargo — the Philae lander — on humanity’s mission to make physical contact with a comet for the first time ever.

The lander was scheduled to touch down on the comet at 10:35 am EST on Wednesday, Nov. 12. The landing was successful.

While we couldn’t see Philae land from Earth, live broadcasts of the control room were provided by ESA, NASA, and Slooh.

It took Philae 7 hours to descend to the comet’s surface — one of the most difficult maneuvers we’ve ever tried in space. For the scientists at the ESA and NASA — it was 7 hours of terror.

Philae’s 7-hour descent started at 9:03 GMT (4:03 am EST) until the end, when Philae landed, at around 16:00 GMT. These events actually took place about 27 minutes before we heard about them on Earth because comet 67P/Churyumox-Gerasimenko is roughly 300 million miles from us. ESA and Slooh have live broadcasts at different points during the event.

Matt Taylor's Shirt And for those who want to chase after silly side-issues — those who can, do, those who can’t, preen — there is a #shirtstorm about scientist Matt Taylor’s shirt. Yes that is a real hashtag, #shirtstorm. I was going to hold off on mentioning it until I could figure out who these women were on the shirt. I’ve given up on that for now.

Where can I get one like it?

All of humanity made history today by landing a spacecraft on a comet.

Unfortunately, many of the women following that development — and a few men, too — were made to feel pretty unwelcome in the space exploration sphere when one of the people leading the mission decided to show up to talk about it wearing a shirt covered in dozens of half-naked women.

Let me rephrase previous tweet: Sent a probe to a comet, millions are watching. Only a douchbag would wear this shirt pic.twitter.com/ObYBqTopgY
— Henry Legg (@PhysicsHenry) November 12, 2014

After Rosetta Project Scientist Matt Taylor wore the shirt while talking to reporters during a global livestream of the comet landing, people watching took to Twitter in frustration…
:
Interestingly, Taylor recently participated in a live online chat with the Wall Street Journal in which he was asked how he gained acceptance in such a respected field while sporting sleeve-length tattoos.

He responded, “The people I work with don’t judge me by my looks but only by the work I have done and can do. Simple.”

If only women could hope to someday be judged that way too.

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of…if only Matt Taylor responded to the shirt-questions the way he responded to the tattoo question. It is, after all, a good response.

But when finally confronted on the #shirtstorm, he went exactly the other way. Even broke down crying. What a shame.

As Jon Gabriel puts it,

Mr. Taylor then made the bad situation worse. Instead of telling these progressive puritans to go pound silicon dioxide, he issued a sobbing public confession straight out of a Maoist show trial. This guy just dropped a dishwasher on an ice cube 300 million miles from home and he’s groveling to a coven of D-list bloggers?

Well, I’m not going to lower the beatdown on the guy for responding in a way that isn’t to my agenda-driven liking. That would be lowering myself to the level of the people beating up on him. Let them do that.

But at the same time: Getting in a good cry on television is about as bad a way to handle it as can possibly be imagined. The tattoo-answer was really the right one. People need to be asking, what can this guy do? He just landed a spacecraft on a freakin’ comet. That is where the attention should be directed, and if someone wants to direct it somewhere else then that says more about them than it does about the shirt.

In fact, an even better response would be something like: “Go land a spacecraft on a comet then come back to talk to me about my shirt.” That has the advantage of brevity. It has the disadvantage of providing some support for those who call the guy a douchebag…so…maybe not.

But it seems a lot of people are missing out on the point here. We have been culturally bludgeoned into thinking of this as: This guy just accomplished something amazing, but, he doesn’t have political correctness on his mind. The reality is: This guy just accomplished something amazing. He isn’t thinking about political correctness. That’s what it takes. Political correctness is for losers, that’s the lesson. It’s for people who find achievement just too boring, and want all the attention and adulation that comes with it without doing any of the work. It’s for people who just want to criticize, who see criticism as being on par with advancing mankind. It’s for people with deep issues. Who aren’t to be trusted with anything.

The best response of all, that really cuts to the heart of the matter, would not enjoy the advantage of brevity. It would explore the hypothetical of a female scientist wearing a shirt emblazoned with the images of half-naked men, and how controversial would we find that to be? Answer: Not at all. And why is there so much concern about wearing shirts that would welcome more women into STEM fields rather than driving them away? Because there’s a lot of history with men doing all the inventions and discoveries. Feminism has made it clear why we are supposed to think that is: Something to do with something unfair. Discrimination, old-boy’s-club, societal expectations, the burden of child rearing and housekeeping, etc.

Fitting In But you know — maybe it’s because when you’re a man, seeking to distinguish yourself in a positive way and prove your worth, you don’t have the option open to you to throw a big hissy fit over someone’s else’s messaging or iconography. Oh sure there are chestless males who call themselves “feminists” and are joining the chorus to try and make something out of this. But, that doesn’t disturb the pattern, it rather reinforces it. They’re seeking to fit in, which isn’t the same as distinguishing themselves, it’s more like an opposite. There may be a phobia against actually doing something significant and influential, that’s behind all this. So there is a difference there. The men have been discovering and accomplishing, for centuries upon centuries, as this has been the only way they could distinguish themselves. They’ve been burdened with great expectations, as women have not been; and they’ve been unacquainted with these distractions. A female co-worker has a calendar in her work cubicle full of firemen and construction workers — who the hell cares? You get back to work. The women have been, and still are, burdened with the distractions, rather than with the expectations.

So my point is, the intended beneficiaries are not being helped. Think about the real epicenter of this latest little tempest: What is the subject of the complaint? It is the unguarded behavior of some rare specimen lately, someone who actually accomplished something, something that’s historically significant. Turns out, in these unguarded moments he doesn’t think about political correctness. At all. Well now…I guess we’re supposed to wait for someone to come along who can do something similar to that, but is more appropriately obsessed with the new protocols? How long of a wait is that? Maybe such a person will never come along; maybe it isn’t possible. And now you know the real reason why there’s a #shirtstorm: The purveyors of political correctness can’t afford for the lesson to get out, that people who actually accomplish things don’t think about political correctness.

A man proves his worth as a man by getting some stuff done. That is not to say there aren’t women who follow the same route. But they’re not the ones bitching about shirts.

Like I said. Those who can, do, and those who can’t, preen. About other people not being as good as they are. But they’re not the ones who land spacecrafts on comets.

And I think they know that, and that’s the real reason why they’re all bent out of shape about nothing.

Don’t bring it up around them. Or they’ll scold you. They haven’t got anything else going for them.

Also: Answering the question in the title of this post, you can go here. That particular item is no longer available, but there are others to be had. Thanks to “Matt” for the tip, in an off-line.

My first thought was it seems like a throwback to college where the ‘sorority socialite’ is telling the ‘nerd’ that he’s a loser. And the nerd bought into it. The answer about his tattoos would have been the correct one, or something like “If you wish to judge me on my choice of shirts as opposed to my accomplishments, that’s your prerogative.”

One thing I’d really like to see is the entire cast of the ‘The Big Bang Theory’ start wearing these shirts on the show.
- Wamphyr | 11/15/2014 @ 09:01
“The purveyors of political correctness can’t afford for the lesson to get out, that people who actually accomplish things don’t think about political correctness.”

Uh oh…is Time Magazine DARING to cater to the “new” Political Science generation trend for even ASKING if the word “Feminism” should be erased from their “style book”?
I’m thinking The Washington Redskins won’t be renamed “The Disingenuous Thinskins” after all!
- CaptDMO | 11/15/2014 @ 10:16
Corrections:
Opps, take it back. Apparently the strong, independent, powerful, woman-in-chief at Time Magazine has gone on the apology tour for even suggesting the word feminism should be excluded from the lexicon due to the nature of what certain folks have reimagined it actually means.
I’m guessing the published running numbers in “the data” weren’t representing an approved meme “conclusion” for a vocal minority, and so, Time has reinforced the integrity attained since it’s “new” associations with AOL/Huff Po/et.al.
We regret the error.
- CaptDMO | 11/15/2014 @ 21:16

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Where Can I Get a Shirt Like Matt Taylor’s?Saturday, November 15th, 2014

Where Can I Get a Shirt Like Matt Taylor’s?
Saturday, November 15th, 2014