MetaFilter posts tagged with pioneer

DEAR COMRADE!

tellurian — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:38:16 -0800

Soviet Music "You are browsing a resource which is devoted first of all to the history and culture of the Soviet Union, the country which the West for a long time usually named as "The Empire of Evil", the country to which some people in the West perceive as "something big and snowy". I offer you to try to look outside the frames of usual stereotypes, to try to understand life of a unique country, with its interesting history, beautiful culture and miraculous relations between people. The music submitted on this site - is an evident sample of a totally new culture, which completely differs from all that, with what Hollywood and MTV supply us so much. This culture, being free from the cult of money, platitude, violence and sex, was urged to not indulge low bents of a human soul but to help the person to become culturally enriched and to grow above himself." I am liking for one "To be first in labour and in fight you should be a sportsman" [this link can break any second].

Obitfilter: Del Martin

gingerbeer — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:25:43 -0800

Del Martin, with her partner Phyllis Lyon, were pioneers in so many fields that it's hard to do justice to all of it in one post. In 1955, the two of them, with four friends, founded the Daughters of Bilitis, the first major lesbian rights organization in the country. They fought for lesbian inclusion and visibility in the National Organization of Women (NOW). Del founded battered women's shelters, LGBT political groups, and spoke out on many social justice issues. Most recently, Del and Phyllis were the first queer couple to get legally married in San Francisco, reprising their role from 2004. Among the many honors given them, perhaps the best was naming the local women's health clinic after them: the Lyon-Martin Health Center, where I got my health care in my first few uninsured years here in the city. She died earlier today, with her partner by her side. From her obituary: "Del Martin identified her own legacy in 1984 when she said that her most important contribution was "being able to help make changes in the way lesbians and gay men view themselves and how the larger society views lesbians and gay men." She had the courage to be true to herself when the world offered only condemnation for lesbians. Martin showed all of us how to have what she called “self-acceptance and a good sense of my own self-worth.” Del Martin never backed down from her insistence on full equality for all people and, even at 87 years old, she kept moving all of us closer to her ideal." She and Phyllis managed to be heroes and pioneers for every generation, from the 50's to today. The world is a little quieter without her.

The Pioneer Effect

blue shadows — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:26:30 -0800

NASA is baffled by unexplained discrepancies in the velocities of some of its spacecraft. Dubbed the Pioneer Effect, it has been observed before but has now been discovered in more probes. Many theories have been put forward, many disproved, and some are wondering if our understanding of gravity is correct. I don't know much about this at all but it sounds interesting.

"You just heard the drums. It seemed like he kept them going forever."

Len — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:38:16 -0800

Mixed With Love: The Musical World Of Walter Gibbons: "This tale begins with a skinny white DJ mixing between the breaks of obscure Motown records with the ambidextrous intensity of an octopus on speed. It closes with the same man, sick with Aids and all but blind, fumbling for gospel records as he spins up eternal hope in a fading dusk. In between, Walter Gibbons transformed the art of DJing and marked out the future co-ordinates of remixology." Like fellow disco oddball Arthur Russell (mentioned previously on MeFi), Walter Gibbons stood out on his own, his inventive genius – he was the first DJ to bring reel-to-reel mixing into the booth – and his dogged determination often going unsung. I thought about posting this in flapjax at midnite's (excellent) disco thread the other day, but Gibbons has gone long enough playing support to other artists, and Tim Lawrence's essay – orginallly written for the liner notes of this compilation – is a beautiful tribute. Walter Gibbons discography Walter Gibbons on Youtube: Luv You Madly Orchestra: Moon Maiden (1978) Strafe: Set It Off (1984)

Pretty much devolved by this point.

Item — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 23:43:25 -0800

It's 1984. Let's spend 32 curious minutes with Devo as they convince us to purchase a Pioneer Laserdisc system.

by sitting she stood up.

amberglow — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 19:05:51 -0800

Rosa Parks, RIP

Worlds Within Worlds

Len — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 15:32:19 -0800

Basil Kirchin, 1927-2005

Who he? Kirchin began, aged 14, as a drummer in his father Ivor's jazz band. By the mid-1950s, he and his father were co-leading the most acclaimed jazz band in Britain. They backed Ruby Murray (whose name lives on as cockney rhyming slang for curry), and the great Sarah Vaughan wouldn't tour the UK without them; neither would Billy Eckstine. After disbanding the Kirchin band at the height of their fame, Basil set off around the world, a trip which ended disastrously, when Kirchin's tapes of his band's best moments (obsessively recorded, thanks to the fact that the Kirchin band was one of the first to travel with their own PA system) were accidentally dropped into Sydney Harbour. [more inside]

Pioneer Anomaly

brownpau — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 12:00:34 -0800

The Pioneer Anomaly. Something's up in deep space: the Pioneer spacecraft, now out of contact, have shown an unexplained Doppler drift, indicating sunward acceleration, effectively decelerating the probes cumulatively. The effect may be be nongravitational, and could be explained by any number of factors: an undiscovered twist in Newtonian physics, localized cosmological contraction issues, or just venting gas. Other deep space probes may have experienced the anomaly as well, and a new mission could explore the puzzle; but for now, all we have is past Pioneer data, and that's stored on old 9 track tape which can only be read by antique readers. What's to be done? (Also see Pioneer Odyssey for a nostalgic romp through those early days of deep space exploration. And NASA, bring back the original Pioneer home page plz, kthx.)

legibility — Mon, 30 Apr 2001 08:08:58 -0800

No longer Lost in Space. But I wonder: how much longer before a Romulan warship collides with it?