4 ms·

Hundreds of thousands of people worked on Mercury and Apollo. How many can you name?

malcolmgreaves 7y ago
Wow, bold courageous move there. Making a throwaway just to challenge someone pointing out an effect of racism. Everyone thinks you're so incredible. /s
- throwaway39AZ 7y ago
  I'm so sorry. I'm just supposed to believe that "so many people, particularly women and people of color, have gone unrecognized for their accomplishments in their lifetime" when Katherine Johnson and Margaret Hamilton are the only NASA ground staff that I can name. Is there anything else you want me to believe?
  - danielg6 7y ago
    They didn’t specially mention NASA in their comment. You know of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, but have you heard of Lewis Latimer? Probably not.
    - throwaway39AZ 7y ago
      > You know of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, but have you heard of Lewis Latimer? His work was not as significant. Compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Howard_Latimer#Technical_work_and_inventions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Howard_Latimer#Technical... to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Edison_patents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Edison_patents and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nikola_Tesla_patents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nikola_Tesla_patents
      - danielg6 7y ago
        Ok. You know of Sally Ride but not Mae Jemison. Their work is equivalent. You know of Watson and Crick, but not Rosalind Franklin. By you, I mean the general you.
        throwaway39AZ 7y ago
        I do know of Mae Jemison and Rosalind Franklin. Mae Jemison and Sally Ride, and Rosalind Franklin, James Watson and Francis Crick have a similar number of page views on Wikipedia, so I think they are all generally known about as well as each other. Maurice Wilkins less so.
  - rtkwe 7y ago
    You're more likely to know their name because of the recent efforts to highlight their work an contributions BECAUSE they were ignored for so long.
    - throwaway39AZ 7y ago
      > the recent efforts to highlight their work an contributions Precisely! They have not gone unrecognized unlike the hundreds of thousands of other NASA ground staff. > they were ignored for so long. They never were ignored. They have recently been elevated above all the other NASA ground staff.
    - cc81 7y ago
      I think he has a point though and I don't disparage elevating people like her because she broke gender and racial barriers in addition to making great contributions. But it was a pretty huge team effort and you will never know of that boring white middle age man who did equally as important engineering or mathematical work. There is not necessarily wrong with it but it is pretty funny when I think about famous programmers my mind goes to Ada Lovelace, Margret Hamilton, Grace Hopper, Denis Ritchie and Linus Torvalds. All great programmers and I know others exists but those are the ones I think I hear the most about I think.
  - throwaway40AZ 7y ago
    In fact, it is you asking people here to believe in your odd and unfortunate worldview. You are obviously enormously invested in completely ignoring social conditions women and people of color overcame to do what they did. Of all things, in a thread on the occasion of her death - for a few, what we get is anger and indignation in reading about this woman's accomplishments. Think about that.

Wow, bold courageous move there. Making a throwaway just to challenge someone pointing out an effect of racism. Everyone thinks you're so incredible. /s

throwaway39AZ 7y ago
I'm so sorry. I'm just supposed to believe that "so many people, particularly women and people of color, have gone unrecognized for their accomplishments in their lifetime" when Katherine Johnson and Margaret Hamilton are the only NASA ground staff that I can name. Is there anything else you want me to believe?
- danielg6 7y ago
  They didn’t specially mention NASA in their comment. You know of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, but have you heard of Lewis Latimer? Probably not.
  - throwaway39AZ 7y ago
    > You know of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, but have you heard of Lewis Latimer? His work was not as significant. Compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Howard_Latimer#Technical_work_and_inventions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Howard_Latimer#Technical... to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Edison_patents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Edison_patents and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nikola_Tesla_patents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nikola_Tesla_patents
    - danielg6 7y ago
      Ok. You know of Sally Ride but not Mae Jemison. Their work is equivalent. You know of Watson and Crick, but not Rosalind Franklin. By you, I mean the general you.
      - throwaway39AZ 7y ago
        I do know of Mae Jemison and Rosalind Franklin. Mae Jemison and Sally Ride, and Rosalind Franklin, James Watson and Francis Crick have a similar number of page views on Wikipedia, so I think they are all generally known about as well as each other. Maurice Wilkins less so.
- rtkwe 7y ago
  You're more likely to know their name because of the recent efforts to highlight their work an contributions BECAUSE they were ignored for so long.
  - throwaway39AZ 7y ago
    > the recent efforts to highlight their work an contributions Precisely! They have not gone unrecognized unlike the hundreds of thousands of other NASA ground staff. > they were ignored for so long. They never were ignored. They have recently been elevated above all the other NASA ground staff.
  - cc81 7y ago
    I think he has a point though and I don't disparage elevating people like her because she broke gender and racial barriers in addition to making great contributions. But it was a pretty huge team effort and you will never know of that boring white middle age man who did equally as important engineering or mathematical work. There is not necessarily wrong with it but it is pretty funny when I think about famous programmers my mind goes to Ada Lovelace, Margret Hamilton, Grace Hopper, Denis Ritchie and Linus Torvalds. All great programmers and I know others exists but those are the ones I think I hear the most about I think.
- throwaway40AZ 7y ago
  In fact, it is you asking people here to believe in your odd and unfortunate worldview. You are obviously enormously invested in completely ignoring social conditions women and people of color overcame to do what they did. Of all things, in a thread on the occasion of her death - for a few, what we get is anger and indignation in reading about this woman's accomplishments. Think about that.