Latest Posts by arthurwatney - Page 2

Wasps in Engineering

This morning I awoke early, stirred from my rest by the sound of "Travel" playing at the time specified the night before to my personal device assistant. I reviewed thermodynamics in my quarters before dressing hastily and heading off a bit behind schedule, while consuming nourishment from a pre-packaged tube (Go-gurt). It was a day in the typical martian life.

Upon arriving however, I discovered a hoard of people crammed outside the room, rather than seated and chatting with as usual. Their exclamations were soon made clear. Our particular room in the Hab, was overrun by wasps. Why they were there, no one could say, perhaps the inhospitable conditions outside drove them in? Then again, whose to say why any of us were there.

Our executive Starfleet officer instructed us to not disturb them as they circled, otherwise activities continued as usual, pardoning the occasional interruption of a flying creature.

It seemed, contrary to popular belief, the redshirts were more afraid of the wasps then the wasps were of them.

“This is Major Tom To Ground Control...”

Injustices on Mars: 200 years of Backwards Thinking

Several young women have expressed to me in the past week their frustrations with improper treatment and I would like to speak here regarding the attitudes that are unfortunately still present in the universe.

A student looking who dreams of designing hospitals and other places of healing that have a more positive affect on the mentalities of their inhabitants. 

A mechanical engineering student pursuing her education far from her family, looking to improve the world she lives in, whether that be her home country or America.

A freshman nursing student, who came looking to obtain a top tear education, that would ultimately provide a pathway to help those who need it most. 

Three intelligent young women who are both capable of and motivated to change the world for the better. All of them have overcome obstacles to ultimately leave their homes and families far behind to come study on Mars. These young women, are students deserving of our highest respects and yet I am anguished to hear of the unkindly and demeaning way in which they have been treated in this particular community. 

Our first student in seeing a freshman struggling, became somewhat of a mentor for this student. She shared with him advice she had learned on the subject he struggled with, and surviving school in general. He in turn treated her as something to be obtained, and saw it fit to text her with questions that... did not pertain to studies. 

Our second student, living in a whirlwind of learning about both engineering and other cultures and yet smiling through it all. I think we all have much to learn from her. This young woman came to me to discuss engineering. She wears a ring on her left hand, worn as a way to deter young men. She expressed that someone was speaking to her that “wanted to be more than friends” and was not deterred by her expressed lack of interest. So, having learned that a ring worn on the left ring finger is an American indication of being committed, she began wearing one. 

She is committed. Committed to her studies and herself. She is clever and I hope her promise ring keeps its promise of deterring those who don’t listen to her. That said, this is an approach I have seen used before in this community and elsewhere with mixed effectiveness. The unfortunate nature of this approach is that it only deters those who have enough sense not push unwanted attention on those who are committed to someone. The issue here is not that people are expressing romantic interest, but that they are not respectfully heading requests to discontinue certain behaviors. Another unfortunate drawback to this method is that it deters people whom one might actually be interested in getting to know.

Our third student, excited in the days approaching college, started talking via social media to another student. They talked almost every day and she was excited to have a friend at school who had been nothing but kind and respectful. Her ‘friend’ began to express interest in taking her to a school event. She hoped that her ‘friend’ would meet her in the library so they could talk. This is when he expressed that he didn’t have enough time to bother for a conversation and made implications that suggest he was only kind to her at first in hopes he would get to be with her for what many do after this particular school event. She has found other accompaniment for the school event. 

These young women have shown exceptional strength in not allowing idiots to affect their studies, but they shouldn’t have to. This kind of thing happens everywhere and time and time again these young women will have to show strength in the presence of the universe’s worst, but these attitudes are not consistent with the direction the world is headed. I have omitted from this writing things that were said that I feel more specific than needed in this context. I find this behavior particularly ridiculous as the organization approaches 200 years, pledging pretty words of honor, respect and dignity, while preserving ideas that should have died in the last 200 years. 

Additional Statement:

Other events have also elapsed in the past week that lead to me writing this particular piece. The female representing figure was removed from a gender neutral single stall restroom, leaving women to have to find an alternate restroom on the other side of said building and leaving few options for those who do not fit the binary genders. Meanwhile an individual originally dismissed for predatory behaviors was allowed to return.  

I would also like to point out that these occurrences do not only happen to women. In this sometimes stiflingly traditional culture, I have seen objectification and mistreatment of a great diversity of people in a diverse number of forms. I would like to suggest this is not the kind of diversity that we should encourage.

I would like to formally conclude with a request. Students, Mentors, Creators, Be Respectful to the best of your ability, and when the best of your ability isn’t good enough, Get Better. Most of all it is important to Try.

Please Don’t Be Ashholes. And don’t say things worthy of Vogon poetry. 

Technology's impact on those who pursue art or math. Good isn’t Good Enough.

First off, I would like to preface this piece of writing with a disclaimer. The ideas drafted here are just that, drafts. They are based purely on my views of the universe without external reasearch at this time.

All of that said...

Artists and Mathematicians, treated by the traditions academic structure as opposites far to often, are drawn together by some critical similarities. This piece will focus on just one of those similarities, how mathematical and artistic pursuits have changed with modern times. 

Proficiency in a set of mathematical or artistically based skills is incredibly useful and impressive to many who do not share those skills. Being able to balance a checkbook or represent something from life that someone else can recognize are both useful skills that many envy. These basic skills however, are mere tasks, that can in today’s age be completed by a computer. Many people have adopted the use of Microsoft’s Excel for keeping track of their financial transactions and generations worth of people now communicate via pictures taken on a smart phone. 

So what then, is the purpose of studying either mathematics or art, if in our day to day lives we will use some form of computer to preform many of the tasks that were once claimed as their uses by high school teachers everywhere. Years ago my teachers had already thought of that, the justification time after time being “You need to understand what the computer is doing”. I would not argue that that is an invalid explanation, especially for those who are not particularly interested in studying the subject. The real argument for either mathematics or art is advancement. 

Stardate 73155.1

Sol15

Earth date 9/9/2019

Today I try oat milk. Discovery: oat milk tastes very little like milk and very much like sad oatmeal.

Welcome to life on Mars