RE: https://mastodon.social/@jpshoer/116374668748767033

Yes! It's a great story, even with context, but the missing context does change it quite a bit. Most importantly, Dr. Rhea Seddon worked on the women's kit, and was at that time the only astronaut/physician/vagina-haver on planet Earth.

RE: https://masto.ai/@vagina_museum/116374175445745977

Fun thing I learned from @ZachWeinersmith's A City on Mars: this event was more about NASA's propensity to stack worst cases on top of worst cases. "Well, we'd *better* make sure you have enough, so what's the most number of tampons you've ever used per day? Times...what's the longest your period has ever lasted? And we'd better double that just to be sure."

Sounds ridiculous in this context, but it's typical space engineering process in most other areas.

Edit! A lot of people engaged with this and it's clear many are in the same/similar positions. I therefore thought it might be useful for me to share that Open University offer quite a few free online certified training courses - www.open.edu/openlearn/free-courses

There is also a wealth of (free) training material (for learners and teachers) available from MIT at ocw.mit.edu and (free) certified online courses at openlearning.mit.edu/courses-programs/mitx-courses

Everything from HR and management to neurodivergence, aerodynamics and astrophysics, Python, genetics, diversity and inclusion, infosec, STEM, law, Black-centric courses, research methods, languages and education, Scottish Parliament, etc. 😊

If, like me, you've been actively seeking a job recently, you will likely be aware of the impact Ai has had on the job market. Virtually every other day is a msm news story about qualified and/or experienced people making hundreds of applications without getting anywhere.

Personally, although I've had a few interviews that didn't quite land (one I didn't really have enough experience, the others were pulled or lost funding), I've now applied for over 300 jobs over the past year. At this stage I'm quite philosophical about it and recognise it's not a reflection of my value.

Along with all the other current crises, there is now a looming employment and skills crisis. This is being framed as a benefits culture led by overdiagnosis of neurodivergence. Which makes me so very very cross it's difficult to put into words. I know that's not true. You know that's not true. *They* know that's not true. It's just a convenient demographic to throw under the bus to detract from the catastrophic damage being wrought by this new gold rush.

Urgh.

I've started typing this out a few times recently and always deleted. It's not something I feel very comfortable talking about. But I am really struggling with this and I figure that if I am there might be others. And I believe in visibility and not suffering in silence - been there and it was awful.

I know things will change at some point. And I know I've spoken to some of you separately irl about this (and thank you so much for your support), but just wanted to fire a beam out across Fedi to anyone else in this shitty situation. You are not alone. Always happy to chat offline if this is kicking your ass as much as it is mine! X

#jobs
#employment

When I started in the nuclear safety field, my focus was on Generic Letter 88-20, the Individual Plant Examination (probabilistic risk assessment) program for building and analyzing detailed statistical/logical models of nuclear plants, looking for subtle vulnerabilities not caught by traditional methods. Generic Letters are "shadow" regulation - issues some people in the NRC think are important but nothing the Commission wants to go through the effort of explicitly regulating. So they issue "Generic Letters" which don't _technically_ require a response but act as a gently coercive wink-wink-nudge-nudge "it'd be cooler if you did..." ... suggestion. The same way "Nice powerplant - it'd be a terrible shame if anything happened to it..." isn't technically a threat.

Anyway, I was wandering down Memory Lane and looked at some of the othe GLs the NRC issued around that time.

May I present to you Generic Letter 88-19 "Use of Deadly Force by Licensee Guards to Prevent Theft of Special Nuclear Material" https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/gen-comm/gen-letters/1988/gl88019

I'd like you to compare the suggested response to people actively trying to steal plutonium, etc. (circa 1988) with how ICE treats children and bystanders during non-criminal immigration investigations.

You are literally safer trying to break into a nuclear plant to steal plutonium than you are standing within 500' of an armed member of ICE minding your own business.

37.7778 in Celsius is very bad for humans.

Or

100 in Fahrenheit is very bad for humans.

It's easy to see which one is better because one is Base10 for humans and the other is not.

Hope that helps.

(Fahrenheit should replace Celsius in the metric system)

Let's do this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQ9nt2ZeGM

Dan Froomkin, one of America's top press critics, dissects what looks like a short-lived internal rebellion by New York Times reporters and editors who -- all too briefly -- told the simple truth about the Trump regime's murder of an American citizen in Minneapolis.

https://criticalread.substack.com/p/moments-of-bravery-and-cowardice