- Applications open for Mars One, the first human space colony – From Critical Dragon1177.
- Malignantly dense prof lectures against “sexual” “assault” “awareness” – From Megan.
- Don’t be a creepy photographer – With good advice on how not to be creepy in general, too. From Kim.
- She works: Advice to your younger self? – “Because I was so often out in front, working harder than any of the men around me, and feeling competitive with any female who might have been after the same job, I didn’t reach a helping hand to other women until I was fairly well into my working life.” From Ginger.
Woah, what an honor to have my completely new and still somewhat amateurish blog linked from this place, which is a daily read of mine. And while I’m commenting, Y’all need a huge friggin thank you for the magnificent amount of work you do. Skepchick is an inspiration, and a source of much embarassing-privilige-I’d-never-thought-about I’ve discovered over the past years, so yeah, thank you for the link, and much more so, thank you for your work. And like it says at the bottom, please school me on where I’m missing stuff about not being a creepy photographer. This whole not being aware of my privilege and actively trying to not be an asshat thing seems to be a constant journey of discovery of just how crappy stuff is for me.
Thanks for writing a great post! We all really enjoyed it.
Your photos are really lovely! I think your advice about not being creepy can extend to all sorts of careers, not just photography.
Thank you so much, and yeah definitely. I just centered it around my own experiences, or those shared by friends that are in the same sort of… group of work, models, make up people, assistants, lighting people etc. And let me tell you, there are a LOT of fucking creepy photographers around. I mean, creeps are everywhere, and anyone working with others where they have a position of authority whether formalized or not should damn well be aware of it. Simply claiming good intentions doesn’t change the damage one has done, but I just have so much experience with it in my field, so it had to get out :P
The MSA Prof. is an ass-hat, but canceling his talk is the worst thing you can do. Do that and he becomes a martyr. Shout him down or pull the fire alarm and he becomes living proof that acquaintance rape is a myth invented by feminists who have to silence anybody who might expose them. The points he makes in his email are standard MRA talking points. He says feminists define seduction as coercion and therefore rape. That’s a classic straw-feminist argument. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that Rebecca accused elevator-guy of sexual assault. These arguments are meant to frighten young men into thinking they’re one drunken hook-up or even just one failed pick-up attempt away from falling into a Kafkaesque nightmare if the feminists get their way. Treat him like a creationist who’s arguing that Darwin admitted the eye could not have evolved. Use his talk as a teaching moment to show how he’s lying about the research and about what actual mainstream feminists believe. He can’t be allowed to make false statements from an academic platform without rebuttal, but to any attempt to stop or silence him helps him more than a standing ovation.
Philosophy departments I know we’ve had a rocky relationship. I keep trying to be open, looking for the good in you, but you have to meet me half way on this.
So any of you think you might be up to living on Mars?
They’ve raised ~$76,000. That’ll put about 75 pounds in orbit. Maybe a hundred if they can get costs down, so I’m not holding my breath.
Drken,
Neither am I.
It’s all very vague isn’t it? Sure, we may have the technology here on Earth, but the point is, exactly which particular bits of it are they planning to put on Mars?
I have a problem with the use of words like “permanent colony” and “settlement” which brings to mind visions of the colonisation of America or Australia.
For the foreseeable future, this will be an outpost only, and will remain totally dependent on supply from Earth. Everything they need has to come from a factory.
Think of Antarctica – after 100 years, there is still no “colony” or “settlement” as such, there are plenty of “bases” or “outposts”, but all still totally reliant on supply from home.
And that’s with plenty of oxygen and water, food available by hunting, ability to build on site simply with timber, etc.
So the whole enterprise depends on ongoing funding for resupply. Unfortunately the Lunar landing experience was that public interest was huge to begin with but dried up to virtually nothing after only a couple of years, so I think the idea of funding by pay per view internet is naive. Certainly I would not sign up for a lifetime contract on that basis, let alone a one way trip.
That’s what’s always bugged me about plans to put people on one-way trips to start a permanent Martian settlement. Buzz Aldrin has a plan he’s all excited about where we send 6 people because that’s the lowest theoretical number you need to start a population. He thinks we can get an independent colony working on Mars, but as you pointed out, we can’t even do that on Antarctica. Plus, while I’m sure you can find 6 people willing to breed with designated partners like they were lab rats, you can’t guarantee their kids are going to be too keen on the idea. Of course, they’re stuck there, so I’m sure that’ll resolve itself in a non-Jonestown like manner. The the whole “permanent colony” craze that’s going around is due the realization that the hardest part about a Mars trip would be getting back. So, people decide it’ll be easier to have a one way trip. Easier for us, just not for those making the trip.
I don’t want to be a Buzz killer! Seriously though, I doubt that we do have the technology to do space colonisation properly. Show me a rechargeable battery with a lifetime guarantee (ask Boeing about that). Then show me the Acme Lightweight Portable Space Battery Factory – does that have a lifetime guarantee too? What about the ALPS blast furnace, aluminium smelter, silicon plant, oxygen plant, etc? When that Mars rover busts an axle and you can’t weld it up, can you drop forge a new one from Mars smelted steel? You have max 20 years from landing to have all that infrastructure, and much much more, up and running.
No, not going to happen – it has to come from Earth. For that reason I think the idea of an outpost on the Moon makes more sense. Then we can test out all that ALPS gear properly, with much cheaper resupply only a couple of days away.
Also, what does experience tell us about what people like to watch on TV and the Internet? Yes, Sports and Porn! Whoever builds a stadium on the Moon for low gravity sports will make billions! The other, I leave to your imagination. A far better business model, IMHO!
Jack99,
Well, the way things are going now, I think a colony on Mars sometime this century, if not the earlier next century is looking more and more plausible every day. I won’t hold my breath, Maybe not in our life time, but it could happen, in the lifetime of anyone born today or in the last couple of years for all we know.
Criticaldragon, I will be delighted if that happens! But I think a real colony, as oppposed to an outpost, will need something like this
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/enginelist.php
Check out that website, it’s awesome!
Jack99
Thanks for the link
Re: creepy photographers. I would add to be aware of the model’s physical space, and his/her comfort level with the photographer getting in it. I had a really cheesy “glamor shot”-type photo shoot with some friends, and the photog was straddling my lap to re-arrange me. It was super-uncomfortable. I don’t like total strangers in my bubble.
Regarding the lecture on “”sexual” “assault” “awareness””, do consider this account:
http://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/suny-geneseo-colloquium-perhaps-not-what-it-seemed/