Similarly…

WSJ Opinion page today:

The Case Against Space Tourism
by Kevin Cook

Professional astronauts have a full understanding of the risks. Civilians like Christa McAuliffe don’t.

Hey, you can make that same argument for just about anything. Government drivers for everyone?

I have a hard enough time getting more than a 3-month supply of my high blood pressure meds, which are very run-of-the-mill scripts.

I don't know what the fatal-accident statistics are in NYC, but last I heard, few residents there drive their own cars, since the subways go practically everywhere.

And I can think of plenty of not so distant places I'd like to visit, and can't, but the expenses of car ownership are not worth it to me. OR the hazards of being a driver - including other drivers' road rage. (Somehow, one doesn't hear often of car drivers shooting at bus drivers.)

Not that professional drivers - or bus companies - are ALWAYS to be trusted when it comes to safety laws, of course. Take the now-extinct, cheap, Fung Wah company. But, other cheap bus lines still exist, because their safety records are better, period.

And there's so much more one can do (legally) when one is not driving. (Not that drivers are ever going to stop texting, unfortunately.)

Professional astronauts have a full understanding of the risks. Civilians like Christa McAuliffe don’t. ~ Ben at July 23, 2021 6:10 AM

Not even astronauts have a full understanding of the risks. They know there are risks, but see the glory instead.

Professional football players know they're at greater risk for brain trauma, but the money, fame, and glory of being a professional football player counts for more when they're young. Show them a few older players who didn't make the Hall of Fame who can't bend down to pull up their own pants and, just maybe, they'll decide being a retired insurance salesman isn't so bad a life. Probably not.

Show potential astronauts the remains of Vladimir Komarov and, just maybe, the glory of being an astronaut may lose some of its attraction. Likely not even then.

Glory, while ultimately fleeting, is an irresistible lure.

> run-of-the-mill scripts

𝕋𝕖𝕒𝕞 𝕃𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕠𝕡𝕣𝕚𝕝,™ representin'.

Not to pick a fight with Ben — there's always tomorrow — but the cite from WSJ feels particularly wokey and youthful, i.e.:

'Once we know what everyone's feeling, we'll be fully equipped to adjudicate the decency of the outcomes.'

'And because we're wokies, the bright young generation which discovered sexuality and human emotion, we already know what everyone who ever lived has felt or could have felt without investigation or doubt.'

Who knows what McAuliffe thought?

Me? Poysonally? Uncle Cridmo says yeah, perfectly good schoolteachers shouldn't have their lives thrown away in tawdry, Reaganesque pageants of 'Merican derring-do… And her violent, miserable death was probably a surprise to her loved ones.

But I might be wrong, and wouldn't dare surmise the metaphysical calculation of a professional astronaut, someone who's given (sacrificed?) so much of life to prepare for that moment.

Second day in a row: Who knows if they were chasing "glory," or just an intimate instant of weightlessness?

There are things of Earth that are worth conquering and leaving behind. (Too many for some of us to count.)

It is a direct quote from the wsj page, essentially advertising it. You can read the piece if you want to.

https://www.wsj.com/news/opinion?mod=nav_top_section

I doubt Cook has any understanding of the various risks. For space flight or other common activities.

Hey, someone just leaked footage from the next Spider-man movie:

https://twitter.com/NewsForAllUK/status/1418558509285842944

> It is a direct quote from
> the wsj page, essentially
> advertising it.

Understood. It seems like a sentiment from someone who wants to take others by shoulders, shake them, and screech—

But you're taking a risk!!! Don't you understaaaaand???

• You could be KILLED!!!
  
  
• You could be MAIMMED!!!
  
  
• You could lose all your MONEY!!!
  
  
• You could be praying to a FALSE GOD!!!
  
  
• You could fall in love and get PREGNANT!!!
  
  
• You could make a fool of yourself at the party with that super-stylish new HAIRCUT!!!

• You could demonstrate some courage in your life which, whether it works out or whether it doesn't, allows you to see how challenges and clarity can lead you to a condition of happiness which I could never, ever know because I'm a fucking COWARD!!!

I'm glad there are people both richer and more enthusiastic than me who are out there trying weird shit.

Yeager died last December, and we miss him.

("Amelia," above, doesn't qualify.)

(Yeager spent much of his Twitter account extolling the excellence of the Oak Ridge Boys.)

Once again: Not real America, but still fun:

“[M]en and women experience things differently,” as a defence to a charge of groping, is effectively “chicks be crazy” under a fresh coat of feminist subjectivism.

Pink Napkins, because Friday

When the lovely couple airs their fetishes online:

https://twitter.com/LivingScribe/status/1418199742601908224

I mean, what's the worst that could happen?

https://twitter.com/paddingtonrocks/status/141809504456590541011

Recent gossip on Vasalgel - the comments hint at the fact that Big Pharma stands to lose money because unlike a female patient on the Pill, a man would need to get Vasalgel only once every 10 years:

https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/lswkm4/a_single_daily_dose_reversible_nonhormonal_male/gous7pv/

triplehelix_
5m
"there is a ton of evidence to show it is indeed effective, but the process needed to show safety to get to the point of a human clinical trial, and the cost of the clinical trial itself are massive barriers.

"i wish more people would make a small donation to the effort. the benefits for men and women are vast."

Griffin880
5m
"I think their point is that it won't actually need donations. Someone with a lot of money is going to invest in it so they can make even more money, that person just likely won't be someone who has already invested in an industry that stands to make less money because of this."

triplehelix_
5m
"i believe they are set up as a non-profit, and donations are tax deductible, so no investment opportunities.

"they want to bring it to market as an affordable and accessible option that doesn't get priced out of reach of those who need it, or get buried by a profit driven corp."

Griffin880
5m
"I see. That makes sense then. I was wondering why they wouldn't already have massive investments backing them considering how popular it would certainly be when it hit the market."
___________________________________________

Personally, I think most customers will be married men, since single men will still be under pressure to use condoms. (Chillingly, pre-pandemic at least, I heard that in casual heterosexual sex, condoms didn't get used 60% of the time. I doubt that the WOMEN didn't want to use condoms. If I'm right about that, the men who refused to use them are not going to jump at the chance to use anything more intrusive, with or without needles.)

In a completely different corner of Reddit, here's a short tale of revenge.

As a wee lad, Burger King seemed more regal than Bach.

That last one should've gone to the next blog post. Ah well.

"Not even astronauts have a full understanding of the risks."

Say that to Aldrin, and you'll get knuckles.

They know. Even as they were killed by bureaucrats in charge of the Shuttle fiasco.