BEES

The Dove Chronicles by Karen Bao

“Phaet Theta has lived her whole life in a colony on the Moon. She’s barely spoken since her father died in an accident nine years ago. She cultivates the plants in Greenhouse 22, lets her best friend speak for her, and stays off the government’s radar.

Then her mother is arrested.

The only way to save her younger siblings from the degrading Shelter is by enlisting in the Militia, the faceless army that polices the Lunar Bases and supposedly protects them from attacks by desperate Earth-dwellers. Training is brutal, but it allows Phaet to come out of her shell and make friends, including an uneasy alliance with the preternaturally accomplished Wes, a fellow outsider.

Rank high, save her siblings, free her mom: that’s the plan. Until Phaet’s logically ordered world begins to crumble…”

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A major gripe I have with aphobes on this site is they act like being a-spec is an opt-in type of identity, like a political alignment or hobby discriptor, and not a set of names that describe an intrinsic part of a person.  It ties into the whole “asexuality is not having sex”/”aromanticism is not liking to date”/”a-spec orientations are actually just actions” bs that they seem unwilling to let go of.

I can’t opt out of being asexual.  Me choosing to reject the label is called “putting myself in the closet” and “denying my sexuality”, not “unaligning myself with other evil a-specs”.

And “[Y]ou better be bending over backward to be fighting the shit I see in the ace/aro community if you want me to take you seriously” is just the most audacious shit I’ve ever read.  The fuck do you want me to do OP?  I can’t kick people out of being a-spec, and shitty people aren’t gonna change just cause some rando told them they’re not being very nice.

(But most importantly: how dare you say the only way my struggles as a minority group will only be taken seriously by you if I “bend over backwards” to follow your orders??  My struggles aren’t only valid when I perform to your specifications, who the fuck do you think you are?  Callouts are important but hinging your allyship on how much I do them is just so utterly fucked up.)

The comparison with straight people is pretty apt though: I’ve noticed that a lot of people tend to treat a-spec orientations as they would heterosexuality, and aphobia as they would “heterophobia”.  Hence the complete lack of shame when putting “OP is an aphobe” as their title like they aren’t literally announcing they’re prejudiced against a minority group.

I’ve been thinking about Elon Musk’s Tesla.

The guy shot a car into space. A freaking car. With a fake astronaut in the seat and the words “Don’t Panic.”

And people are seeing this as this bizarre conspicuous consumption or a weird Tesla publicity stunt. As a one percenter…

…but the more I think about it, the more I realize something quite simple.

This guy had to launch a test load. He had to put something on that rocket. Given the power of the rocket, whatever they launched as a test load had to be heavy enough to properly test the biggest rocket we’ve launched since the Apollo program.

It had to be well built and solid enough to survive the launch. Now, because of the size of the load, it had to be put into a stable orbit not, as happens with smaller test loads, set to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

So, assuming everything went well, whatever they put on that rocket? It’s going to be in space for a long time. Assuming it’s not hit by a bit of debris, or an asteroid, or whatever, it could be up there for millions of years. It’s in space, so it’s not going to rust or corrode. It will eventually develop pitting from micro meteor strikes, it’s not going to last forever.

So, what does the guy send up.

A freaking car with an astronaut in the seat and the words “Don’t Panic” printed on it.

It’s corny. It’s tacky. But what else is it?

It’s art.

It’s something that’s going to still be recognizable as art in a few thousand years. After we’re all dead. Heck, it may still be recognizable as art after our species is dead - extinct or evolved into something else.

Given the fact that he had to put some kind of object into a stable orbit in the solar system, Musk picked not just art, but ridiculous art. The kind of thing that hangs from diner ceilings, the kind of thing a kid would put together.

He put something out there that screams to the void “This is us. This is humanity. This is how utterly silly we are, how completely frivolous.”

And you know what, if the first..or the only…thing an alien civilization sees of us is Elon Musk’s stupid car, I’m quite happy with that.

They might not be able to decipher the message, but they’ll know somebody was here who, given the power to fly into space used it to play.

Like don’t get me wrong: I get that art is art, the money he spent on this project probably wouldn’t do much overall anyway, he’s allowed to use his own money to do silly things like this if he wants, etc but... let’s just say I wouldn’t be cringing so hard at this whole thing if such a frivolous act wasn’t in juxtaposition with great suffering on Earth.  With people being told that pretty much everything is some form of “luxury” that must be “earned” - even drinkable water and breathable air is not something everyone can afford.  Hell, even the ability to earn a living must be “earned” in the US.

In the same country that Elon Musk punted a car into space in, children are drinking leaded water for the 4th year since people found out there was an issue.  Elon Musk has the money to fix that, or at least make a damn good start at it, but he doesn’t.   And hey, he’s allowed not to, it’s his money - but like fuck am I gonna applaud him for choosing to do this shit instead.

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Artist : @takeluuu

1) don’t say mean things about people, behind their backs or to their face. it’s not cool to be inconsiderate of others’ feelings. ignore people who want you to participate in talking badly about others, even if you are not fond of that person.

2) speak gently with a full heart.

3) be perceptive of others’ trauma, daily struggles, disabilities, and insecurities.

4) treat animals with tender respect.

5) don’t act out irrationaly towards the people you love. before you lash out, think about the consequences towards their feelings that would follow.

THIS.

Two 2001 images from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor orbiter show the dramatic change in the planet’s appearance during that year’s global dust storm.