Jenny Nilsson

Long time comics and spec fic fan, passionate about History of Science, Gardening, and great recipes. she/her

[TrekMovie.com @TrekMovie]

Happy birthday to writer Diane Duane, who has written #StarTrek novels, comics, short fiction, games, and co-wrote the #StarTrekTNG episode "Where No One Has Gone Before." (That's just for starters.)

[Jorts (and Jean) @JortsTheCat]

Why does this AP headline sound like I wrote it

[Historic Vids @historyinmemes]

Judith Love Cohen, who helped create the Abort-Guidance System which rescued the Apollo 13 astronauts, went to work on the day she was in labor. She took a printout of a problem she was working on to the hospital. She called her boss and said she finished the problem and gave birth to actor Jack Black.

Judith Love Cohen was, at various times in her fascinating life, an engineer who worked on the Pioneer, Apollo, and Hubble missions, an author & publisher of books about women in STEM and environmentalism in the 90s, a ballet dancer with the New York Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company, an advocate for better treatment of women in the workplace, and actor Jack Black's mother. From an obituary written by her son Neil Siegel after her death in 2016:

“My mother usually considered her work on the Apollo program to be the highlight of her career. When disaster struck the Apollo 13 mission, it was the Abort-Guidance System that brought the astronauts home safely. Judy was there when the Apollo 13 astronauts paid a ‘thank you’ [visit] to the TRW facility in Redondo Beach.”

She finished her engineering career running the systems engineering for the science ground facility of the Hubble Space Telescope.

During her engineering career, she was a vigorous and tireless advocate of better treatment for women in the workplace. Many things that today we consider routine - the posting of job openings inside of a company so that anyone could apply, formal job descriptions for every position, and so forth - were her creations. She had a profound impact on equality in the workforce.

[Historic Vids @historyinmemes]

In 1959, 9-year-old Ronald McNair went to a public library in Lake City, South Carolina because he was looking for more advanced books on science.

Ronald's older brother, Carl, describes what happened next:

“So, as he was walking in there, all these folks were staring at him - because they were white folk only and they were looking at him and saying, you know, 'Who is this Negro? So, he politely positioned himself in line to check out his books. Well, this old librarian, she says, 'This library is not for coloreds.' He said, 'Well, I would like to check out these books.' She says, 'Young man, if you don't leave this library right now, I'm gonna call the police.' So he just propped himself up on the counter, and sat there, and said, 'I'll wait.'”

Ronald McNair eventually went on to get a PhD in Physics from MIT and was one of the 7 astronauts onboard the space shuttle Challenger when it was destroyed in flight in 1986. He was only 35 years old.

Today, the library that refused to lend him books is now named after him.

[The Atlantic @TheAtlantic]

"Open brutality has again become celebrated in international conflicts, and a long time may pass before anything else replaces it," @anneapplebaum writes: https://t.co/0y4ppEOeMN

[David Zipper @DavidZipper]

Researchers found that autonomous vehicle software is unable to identify dark-skinned pedestrians as often as those who are light-skinned. The estimated a disparity of 7.5% -- and even worse at night. (h/t @reillybrennan)

That is very bad.

https://t.co/h5x6NKZxfR

[Ally Carter @OfficiallyAlly]

I asked my entertainment attorney, "If someone makes a movie/show about one of my books and then shelves it, can I ever get my rights back?" and the answer was NO.

Not only are they shelving these things, they're making it so that no one else can ever make them. Ever.

[Jorts (and Jean) @JortsTheCat]

Maybe you have internalized that you are “bad with money” and feel shame, when the reality is that you literally don’t get paid enough money for anyone to thrive. It’s not YOU who should be ashamed about that

[laurie allee (retired account) @laurieallee]

"Rates of suicide and suicide attempts among teenagers were at their lowest when schools were closed for the Covid-19 pandemic...pointing to an overall pattern that shows mental health in children and teenagers is at its worst while school is in session." https://t.co/c5hcSuxREH

[Hiroshi Yasuda (保田浩志) @Yash25571056]

"[The main symptoms of the new Omicron strain EG.5.1] are a sore throat, a runny nose, a blocked nose, sneezing, a cough without phlegm, a headache, a cough with phlegm, a hoarse voice, muscle aches and pains and an altered sense of smell..
However, shortness of breath, a loss of smell and a fever are no longer the main symptoms."

Fever is no longer the main symptom..

https://t.co/GDY712OpIi

[Rebecca Baumann @arkhamlibrarian]

What if I told you that the death of the mass market paperback can be traced back in part to a court case involving a company called Thor Power Tool? #bookhistory

[Kingfisher & Wombat @UrsulaV]

Been warned a couple times about this https://t.co/nw0ttxvk16 site that seems to be trying to analyze books with AI, and it has some of mine. So I took a look and…

Good Lord, what a *profoundly* useless application of technology.

[Diana Hussein @heyadiana]

union

[Writers Guild of America East @WGAEast]

The next generation of screenwriters made their voices heard at the WGAE Young Writers Picket. Seeing aspiring writers speak so passionately about the future of their careers is a great reminder of what we’re fighting for! #WGAstrike

Full vid: https://t.co/AB1RP2AGpM