Brief Comment On Gender Parity In TES Games

This small scrap of cloth tells a much larger story of suffrage history.

This week in 1917, the National Women’s Party started picketing outside the White House for the right to vote. For months they protested silently, until a crowd began taunting them, throwing eggs and tomatoes at them, and tearing up their banners.

So the women made more banners.

A scrap from one was seized by police but eventually made its way to Alice Paul, the founder of the NWP and leader of the pickets, and then into our National Museum of American History. 

Does anyone else just examine the marvel that is the human body (not in a sexual way). Like, I’m sitting here right now moving my fingers and watching my ligaments tense and loosen as they pull on the bones that compose the phalanges of my hand. Certain finger positions cause divots to form between the ligaments, while balling a fist causes them to be almost even with the flesh of my hand.

Sorry for the weird ramble. I just find how all the parts of the human body work and fit together to be absolutely fascinating.

The human body is an amazing machine.

Architecture's "Political Compass": A Taxonomy of Emerging Architecture in One Diagram

Observing the architectural landscape today it’s clear that the type of work which is currently ascendant, particularly among young practices, is...

Considering how much architecture can impact the way we interact with the world, it’s fascinating to look at some of the emerging schools of thought in the field

And the dancer notes the ballroom

$1,200,000/11 br

Weatherford, TX

The Ghetto of Venice

NASA and Star Trek

Star Trek debuted in September 1966 and in its various incarnations, the series has been an inspiration to many, even some of us at NASA. The series allowed its fans to explore “strange new worlds” and to dream of what could be right in their living rooms. To celebrate the show’s 50th anniversary, we’ve collected some Trek-themed photos featuring Star Trek cast members and NASA astronauts. 

Serious Business

The STS-54 crew of the space shuttle Endeavour in their official “gag” photo are costumed as the bridge crew of the Enterprise as depicted in the movie “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” The photo was taken on the Star Trek Adventure set of the Universal Studios California theme park in Los Angeles, California, while the crew was on a west coast training and public relations tour during the Summer of 1992. From left to right: 

Greg Harbaugh (Mission Specialist/Engineering Officer)

Mario "Spock” Runco Jr. (Mission Specialist/1st Officer/Science Officer) 

John Casper (Commander/Captain) 

Susan Helms (Mission Specialist/Communications Officer) 

Don McMonagle (Pilot/Navigation-Helm Officer) 

“I have been, and always shall be, your friend”

Astronaut John Creighton shows the on board Graphical Retrieval Information Display (GRID) computer, which displays a likeness of Mr. Spock aboard STS-051G, June 18, 1985.

“A Keyboard… How Quaint”

Actor James Doohan (who played engineering genius Montgomery Scott in Star Trek) sits in the commanders seat of the Full Fuselage Trainer while astronaut Mario Runco explains the control panel during a tour of Johnson Space Center on Jan. 18, 1991. 

“You Wanted Excitement, How’s Your Adrenaline?”

Actress Nichelle Nichols (Uhura in Star Trek) toured Johnson Space Center in Houston on March 4, 1977, while Apollo 12 lunar module pilot and Skylab II commander Alan Bean showed her what it felt like inside the Lower Body Negative Pressure Device and showed her how the Shuttle Procedures Simulator operated. 

Nichols paid us another visit in 2012 and 2015 with the Space Traveling Museum. 

Infinite Diversity, Infinite Combinations

European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti gave the Vulcan salute aboard the International Space Station shortly after the passing of Leonard Nimoy on Feb. 28, 2015. She commented on Tweeter: “ ‘Of all the souls I have encountered.. his was the most human.’ Thx @TheRealNimoy for bringing Spock to life for us”

Live Long And Prosper

While visiting Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, George Takei (Hikaru Sulu on the original series) had the chance to exchange Vulcan salutes with Robonaut on May 29, 2012. 

“Let’s See What’s Out There”

Scott Bakula, who played Captain Jonathan Archer on Star Trek: Enterprise, stands with astronauts Terry Virts and Mike Fincke on set. The two astronauts made guest appearances on the series finale episode “These Are The Voyages …” March 2005.

Boldly Going For Real

Above is the crew of STS-134, the next to last shuttle mission, in their version of the 2009 Star Trek movie poster. 

The crew of Expedition 21 aboard the International Space Station also made a Trek-themed poster in 2009, wearing uniforms from Star Trek: The Next Generation with the Enterprise NX-01 silhouette in the background.

Learn more about Star Trek and NASA.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com 

Watch subsequent decades have a mass exodus from the tropics towards the poles

Population density, 3000 BC to 2000 AD

Vote down ballot - the presidency isn't the only office of importance!

Time for another political essay. If you’re not an American citizen or able to vote in this upcoming election, my apologies.

I make no secret that I fucking despise Donald Trump. I actually like Hillary Clinton, which seems to be a weird rarity considering the amount of good work she’s done and the fact that all of the bad press about her is the result of the Republicans trying (and failing) to tear her and her husband down for thirty years.

Trump is now trailing far behind Clinton, which I consider a cause for celebration. But it is NOT a cause for complacency.

The biggest landslide election in US history was the election of Warren G. Harding in 1920, when Harding won with about 60% of the vote to his opponent’s 34.2%.

Some polls are reporting Trump with as little as 35% of the popular vote right now.

If turnout is large enough and loud enough, we can make Donald Trump the least supported major candidate in US history. Since the recording of him bragging about sexual assault came out, he has turned to dragging the whole election into the mud by striking back at Bill Clinton’s affairs; the usual goal of that kind of tactic is to drive down voter turnout. Trump’s band of Redcaps is pretty much guaranteed to vote, so they figure if they reduce turnout enough, they’ll win.

I want their plan to fail. I want their plan to fail so fucking spectacularly that NO ONE will dare to run for President on a platform of thinly-veiled fascism again.

The Republicans thought the House of Representatives was safe this year. In 2010, they gerrymandered the shit out of district lines to keep the House safe for them for at least ten years. But there’s a problem with gerrymandering: if the demographics shift unexpectedly between censuses, then suddenly a lot of districts wind up flipping against the party that the gerrymandering was meant to support. And Donald Trump is driving away the Republicans’ most secure core of voters, the evangelicals. And as I’ve said before: Congress is MORE important than the presidency.

If turnout is strong enough, and if people vote down ballot, the possibility exists for a massive upset. A Democratic presidency, a Democratic House, a Democratic Senate. They’re within our grasp. All you need to do, voters, is show up.

Motherfuckers don’t want you to vote. Young people, people of color, women, LGBTQ+ folks–they want you to be scared away, or to be convinced that voting doesn’t matter. They want your voice silenced. Don’t give the fuckers the satisfaction of letting it happen.

GO VOTE. VOTE DOWN-BALLOT. MAKE TRUMP THE BIGGEST LOSER IN US HISTORY.

IF YOU CAN’T BE BOTHERED TO VOTE OUT OF CONVICTION, THEN DO IT OUT OF SPITE.

I think it's Java? Just really, really bad Java

Methodology:

Characters were counted by hand based on UESP quest writeups. Characters were only counted if they were questgivers or involved in multiple quests. Only characters from the main quest or faction questlines were counted. Any expansions or DLCs have not been included.

Due to the incomplete documentation for ESO quests, that game probably has more margin of error than others, though it should be balanced out due to how many NPCs were counted overall. I realize that this is an imperfect process, especially considering the very different ways that each game handles quests. I think the overall patterns hold, though, even if the percentages might be off a few points were someone to repeat the process.

You’ll also notice that Morrowind, Oblivion, and ESO have two main quest graphs. The latter is for including characters who are also encountered in the other parts of the game. For Morrowind this is questlines where you must speak to all the house leaders to become Hortator, in Oblivion it is the Aid for Bruma questline where you must speak to the counts/countesses to gain their support, and in ESO this is the Weight of Three Crowns quest where the faction leaders convene on Stirk. Daggerfall, meanwhile, randomizes most of its quest, and the overall graph counts the main quest and nobles quests.

Sample sizes are as follows: Daggerfall (23 total, 10 main quest), Morrowind (82 total, 16 main quest, 34 with hortator), Oblivion (36 total, 9 main quest, 15 with Bruma allies), Skyrim (59, 11 main quest), ESO (278 total, 6 main quest, 10 with Stirk).

Conclusions and interpretations under the cut.

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