Former astronaut Jemison campaigning for Obama

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Posted in LBN on Sunday night:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014157344

Former astronaut Jemison to campaign for Obama on Monday
Source: Space Politics

The Florida campaign for President Barack Obama announced Sunday that former astronaut Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, will campaign for the president’s reelection on Florida’s Space Coast on Monday. Jemison, according to the media advisory, will tour Advanced Magnet Lab, a small business in Palm Bay, Florida, that “embodies the importance of President Obama’s space exploration policies for Florida,” in the words of the statement. After the tour, Jemison and Mark Santi, the president of Advanced Magnet Lab, will speak to the media “to discuss how President Obama’s policies ensure that Kennedy Space Center will continue to make history as America’s spaceport during the new chapter in space exploration that our nation is embarking upon.”

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Read more: http://www.spacepolitics.com/2012/07/01/former-astronaut-jemison-to-campaign-for-obama-on-monday/

Here's why it's relevant to E/E:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_Jemison

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Jemison resigned from NASA in March 1993. "I left NASA because I'm very interested in how social sciences interact with technologies," says Jemison. "People always think of technology as something having silicon in it. But a pencil is technology. Any language is technology. Technology is a tool we use to accomplish a particular task and when one talks about appropriate technology in developing countries, appropriate may mean anything from fire to solar electricity." Although Jemison's departure from NASA was amicable, NASA was not thrilled to see her leave.

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Jemison is a Professor-at-Large at Cornell University and was a professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College from 1995 to 2002.

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And from a recent interview:

http://www.theroot.com/views/black-female-astronauts-mission-earth

A Black Female Astronaut's Mission

The Root spoke to NASA trailblazer Mae C. Jemison about filling the pipeline with kids who get science.

By: Jenée Desmond-Harris | Posted: June 24, 2012 at 12:05 AM

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Jemison, who went to Stanford at age 16 and graduated with a degree in chemical engineering, eventually receiving her medical degree from Cornell, knows firsthand how curiosity nurtured in the classroom can inspire a science career. She recently partnered with Bayer and the United Nations Environment Programme's Regional Office for North America to lead an interactive "Green Living, Green Working" sustainability workshop in which Washington, D.C., high school students were challenged to come up with creative solutions to the regional "green" issues related to health, energy, recreation, education, economy and biodiversity.

The Root caught up with her to talk about why all young people should be comfortable with science, and what it will take to fill the pipeline to careers like hers with women and people of color.

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1. Jemison used the term "appropriate technology" - it's a key concept from Gandhi and EF Schumacher

From wikipedia:

- Appropriate technology is an ideological movement (and its manifestations) originally articulated as "intermediate technology" by the economist Dr. Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher in his influential work, Small is Beautiful.

- Indian ideological leader Mahatma Gandhi is often cited as the "father" of the appropriate technology movement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriate_technology

Appropriate technology is an ideological movement (and its manifestations) originally articulated as "intermediate technology" by the economist Dr. Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher in his influential work, Small is Beautiful. Though the nuances of appropriate technology vary between fields and applications, it is generally recognized as encompassing technological choice and application that is small-scale, labor-intensive, energy-efficient, environmentally sound, and locally controlled.[1] Both Schumacher and many modern-day proponents of appropriate technology also emphasize the technology as people-centered.[2]

Appropriate technology is most commonly discussed in its relationship to economic development and as an alternative to transfers of capital-intensive technology from industrialized nations to developing countries.[2][3] However, appropriate technology movements can be found in both developing and developed countries. In developed countries, the appropriate technology movement grew out of the energy crisis of the 1970s and focuses mainly on environmental and sustainability issues.[4]

Appropriate technology has been used to address issues in a wide range of fields. Well-known examples of appropriate technology applications include: bike- and hand-powered water pumps (and other self-powered equipment), the universal nut sheller, self-contained solar-powered light bulbs and streetlights, and passive solar building designs. Today appropriate technology is often developed using open source principles, which have led to open-source appropriate technology (OSAT) and thus many of the plans of the technology can be freely found on the Internet.[5] [6]

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History

Predecessors

Indian ideological leader Mahatma Gandhi is often cited as the "father" of the appropriate technology movement. Though the concept had not been given a name, Gandhi advocated for small, local and predominantly village-based technology to help India's villages become self reliant. He disagreed with the idea of technology that benefited a minority of people at the expense of the majority or that put people out of work to increase profit.[2] In 1925 Gandhi founded the All-India Spinners Association and in 1935 he retired from politics to form the All-India Village Industries Association. Both organizations focused on village-based technology similar to the future appropriate technology movement.[7]

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