Modern Vespa

Today we lost a woman that beat the challenge of space travel. Katherine Johnson, a NASA mathematician, died at the age of 101. I had the privilege of meeting her many years ago. A meeting I'll never forget. Her intelligence was captivating. She will be missed, but her legacy will continue.

For you especially I'm sure it was an amazing experience meeting her. Meeting a legend in your field/passion is a special time.

101? Wow that's one hell of a run. Over say 90 I stop feeling bad for people but I can certainly say Rest In Peace and thank you for the contributions to mankind. The changes in technology over the decades boggles the mind and she was part of that.

"Hidden Figures" is a good movie covering her efforts at early NASA if you haven't seen it. It's also a book.

Just one more glaring example of how much the world may be missing when some people still have the opinion that women and minorities are not capable of doing technical or other such work.

I know much has changed since the 1940's but still today in 2020 there is still a ridiculous amount of stereotyping going on. And if you throw in the discrimination against people based on who they love it is even worse!

Katherine Johnson and Grace Hopper are just two of the many women every little girl should be learning about at an early age.

I was lucky enough to hear Commodore Hopper lecture on computers in the mid-1980s. She distributed "nanoseconds" to the attendees at the end.

I believe my older brother was lucky enough to meet her while working in some part of the Air Force, that will go un-named, back around that time also!

I always was a bit conflicted back in the 1960's to be hearing how "girls" cant do math when the majority of the high school math teachers I had were all women!???

And my first wife always bugged me when I was trying to add up a group of numbers like a price list of items for a project around the house. I would be using a digital calculator and she would 99.9% of the time have the answer before me and she was not even writing the numbers down on paper!

Yep. As a woman, I have seen it. Was told in middle school by a male teacher that going into the sciences was not for women. This was the mid 1990s. I was skipped a grade, put in advanced classes, and at the top of said classes. But since I was female, that meant nothing. I can write a book on the sexism I have encountered in male dominated fields since.

I also had a classmate told she was "too pretty" to be good in mathmatics. Because apparently "pretty" women are all morons and "smart" women are ugly.

Some people need a high five to the face with a brick - repeatedly.